Petrosinella

Last updated
Petrosinella
Arthur Rackham Rapunzel.jpg
An illustration of "Rapunzel", a tale inspired by "Petrosinella", by Arthur Rackham (1909)
Folk tale
NamePetrosinella
Aarne–Thompson grouping310
CountryItaly
RegionNaples
Published in Pentamerone
Related Rapunzel

"Petrosinella" is a Neapolitan literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his collection of fairy tales in 1634, Lo cunto de li cunti (The Tale of Tales), or Pentamerone . [1]

Contents

It is Aarne–Thompson type 310 "the Maiden in the Tower", of which the best known variant is "Rapunzel", and it is the earliest recorded variant of this tale known to exist. [2]

Plot

A pregnant woman steals parsley from the garden of an ogress (orca) and agrees to give up her child when she is caught. The baby is born and named Petrosinella, after the southern Italian word for parsley (petrosino or petrusino; the modern standard Italian word is prezzemolo). [3] The ogress watches the girl grow in her mother's care and reminds her often of her mother's promise. Petrosinella, unaware what the promise is, tells her mother of the ogress's comment. Petrosinella's irritated mother tells the girl to say to the ogress that she can act on the promise.

The ogress takes Petrosinella by her hair and locks her in a tower deep in the woods with only a single window; the ogress relies on Petrosinella's extremely long hair to enter the tower. Within the tower, Petrosinella is taught "magic arts" by the ogress. One day, a prince sees her hair in the wind. Petrosinella noticing his passionate declarations of love blows him a kiss. Eventually, the prince makes his way to the tower and climbs up Petrosinella's hair after he imitates the ogress's voice. The couple continues to see each other every night, but the ogress is informed by a neighbour of the romance.

Petrosinella overhears that her secret has been revealed and plans to escape with the prince to the city. Stealing three magic gallnuts or acorns before climbing out of the tower with a rope ladder, Petrosinella uses the gallnuts as a distraction by throwing them behind her as the ogress chases the couple. The first bean turns into a dog that the ogress feeds a loaf of bread. The second becomes a lion that the ogress feeds a donkey from a nearby field, and she takes the donkey's skin as a coat. The third bean turns into a wolf that swallows the ogress whole, as she is wearing the donkey skin.

With the ogress defeated and the couple free, Petrosinella and the prince get married with the permission of his father.

Differences with "Rapunzel"

"Petrosinella" has many differences from both the 1812 and 1857 versions of "Rapunzel" recorded by the Grimm brothers. [4] Notably, the Grimms' version does not mention the maiden's learning "magic arts", nor does it include an escape scene where she uses these powers to save both her and the prince from a pursuing villain. [3] In the Grimms' version, it is the husband of a pregnant woman who steals the plant. The maiden goes to the villain immediately at birth, and the villain cuts her hair to trick the prince into the tower leading to his blinding. [3] Furthermore, Basile does not include the maiden's out of wedlock pregnancy nor the birth of twins, which former is only mentioned explicitly in the 1812 iteration. [5]

These differences can be accounted for by the Grimms' using translations of a French variation of the tale, "Persinette", by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force. [3] There is no evidence of a Germanic oral version of the story, despite the Grimm brothers' believing they were recording a German fairy tale. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinderella</span> European folk tale

"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world. The protagonist is a young girl living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune, with her ascension to the throne via marriage. The story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between 7 BC and 23 AD, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleeping Beauty</span> European fairy tale

"Sleeping Beauty", also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awakened by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to awaken when the princess does.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rapunzel</span> German fairy tale

"Rapunzel" is a German fairy tale most notably recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of Children's and Household Tales. The Brothers Grimm's story was developed from the French literary fairy tale of Persinette by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force (1698), which itself is an alternative version of the Italian fairy tale Petrosinella by Giambattista Basile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giambattista Basile</span> Italian fairy tale collector (1566–1632)

Giambattista Basile was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. His collections include the oldest recorded forms of many well-known European fairy tales. He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan fairy tales known as Il Pentamerone.

<i>Pentamerone</i> Italian fairy tale collection by Giambattista Basile

The Pentamerone, subtitled Lo cunto de li cunti, is a seventeenth-century Neapolitan fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Six Swans</span> German fairy tale

"The Six Swans" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812. It is of Aarne–Thompson type 451, commonly found throughout Europe. Other tales of this type include The Seven Ravens, The Twelve Wild Ducks, Udea and her Seven Brothers, The Wild Swans, and The Twelve Brothers. Andrew Lang included a variant of the tale in The Yellow Fairy Book.

Snow-White-Fire-Red (Bianca-comu-nivi-russa-comu-focu) is a Sicilian fairy tale collected by Giuseppe Pitre and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.

Prunella is an Italian fairy tale, originally known as Prezzemolina. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 310, the Maiden in the Tower.

"The She-bear" is an Italian literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

The Flea is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. It combines Aarne-Thompson-Uther types 857, "The Louse-Skin" and ATU 653, "The Four Skillful Brothers".

Anthousa, Xanthousa, Chrisomalousa or Anthousa the Fair with Golden Hair is a Greek fairy tale collected by Greek folklorist Georgios A. Megas in Folktales of Greece. Other variants were collected by Michalis Meraklis and Anna Angelopoulou.

<i>Rapunzel</i> (book) Book by Paul O. Zelinsky retelling the Grimm brothers "Rapunzel" story

Rapunzel is a children's book written and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky and a retelling of the fairy tale of the same name by the Brothers Grimm. Released by Dutton Press, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1998.

The Dove is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

"Corvetto" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the "Pentamerone".

The Three Crowns is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

"The Three Fairies" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

The Dragon is an Italian literary fairy tale, included in Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone, first published 1635. In the English language, the tale was a selection in Thomas Keightley's Fairy Mythology (1828), and later appeared in John Edward Taylor 's translation of the entire work, The Pentamerone, or, The Story of Stories, Fun for the Little Ones (1848). The tale has been classed as a version of Aarne–Thompson type 462 "the outcast queens and the ogress queen", rather than as "the dragon-slayer". It exhibits folklore motif K873, "fatal deception by giving narcotic."

<i>Tangled</i> (franchise) Disney franchise starting with a 2010 animated film

Tangled is a media franchise owned by The Walt Disney Company that began with the 2010 American animated film of the same name, directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman. Produced by Roy Conli, the film featured songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, while Glen Keane, John Lasseter, and Aimee Scribner served as its executive producers. The film was loosely based on the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" from the 1812 collection Grimms' Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persinette</span> French fairy tale written by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force

"Persinette" is a French literary fairy tale, written by Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force, published in the 1698 book Les Contes des Contes. It is Aarne–Thompson type 310, The Maiden in the Tower, and a significant influence on the German fairy tale of "Rapunzel".

The Golden Root or The Golden Trunk is a literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone, as the fourth story of the fifth day. It is considered to be one of two rewritings of the Graeco-Roman myth of "Cupid and Psyche" by Basile, the other being "Lo Catenaccio".

References

  1. ↑ Giambattista Basile, Pentamerone, "Parsley"
  2. ↑ Steven Swann Jones, The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination, Twayne Publishers, New York, 1995, ISBN   0-8057-0950-9, p38
  3. 1 2 3 4 Warner, Marina (2010). "After "Rapunzel"". Marvels & Tales. 24 (2): 329–335. JSTOR   41388959.
  4. ↑ Forsyth, Kate (2016). The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower. FableCroft Publishing. ISBN   9780992553494.
  5. 1 2 Getty, Laura J (1997). "Maidens and their guardians: Reinterpreting the Rapunzel tale". Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. 30: 37–52 – via JSTOR.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.