The She-bear

Last updated

"The She-bear" is an Italian literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone . [1]

Contents

Ruth Manning-Sanders included it in A Book of Princes and Princesses .

It is Aarne-Thompson classification system folktale type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include Cap O' Rushes , Catskin , Allerleirauh , The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter , Donkeyskin , Little Cat Skin , Mossycoat , The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress , and The Bear . [2]

Henriette-Julie de Murat used a similar transformation in Bearskin , for the heroine to escape not her father but an ogre husband. [3]

Synopsis

Top right: The bear maid serves food for the prince. Illustration by George Cruikshank for The Story of Stories (1850). Pentamerone - Seven Doves, She-Bear, Golden Root.jpg
Top right: The bear maid serves food for the prince. Illustration by George Cruikshank for The Story of Stories (1850).

A dying queen required her husband to promise to remarry only if the new bride was as beautiful as she was. Because he had only a daughter, soon after her death, he decided to remarry. He holds a contest and summons women from different countries but he does not want to choose any of them as his wife. [4] After long inspection of many women, he realized that his daughter Preziosa was in fact as beautiful as her mother, and no other woman was. Preziosa took to her chambers in despair. An old woman gave her a chip of wood, which, when she put in her mouth, would change her into a bear. When her father summoned her to ask his councilors whether he could marry her, she used it.

When in the woods, she met with a prince and came up to him. Her gentleness astounded him, and he took her home. One day, wishing to comb her hair, she pulled out the wood. The prince saw her and fell sick from love. In his raving, he spoke of the bear, and his mother thought she had hurt him, so she ordered her killed. The servants, taken with her gentleness, brought her to the woods instead.

Discovering this, the prince got up long enough to catch the bear again, but when his pleas to her did not make her become human again, he took ill again. His mother asked what he needed, and he had the bear brought to his room to act as his servant. She did all that was needed, which only made the prince more in love with her and sicker. He begged for a kiss, and she kissed him; at this, the wood came out of her mouth, and he caught her. She begged him not to hurt her honor. He married her with his mother giving them her blessing.

Variants

Ruth Manning-Sanders altered the tale so that, as in Catskin , the heroine fled a threatened marriage to another suitor—unwanted and far too old for her, but not her father.

See also

Related Research Articles

"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 BCE and CE 23, 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">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.

"Cap-o'-Rushes" is an English fairy tale published by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.

Catskin is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales. Marian Roalfe Cox, in her pioneering study of Cinderella, identified as one of the basic types, the Unnatural Father, contrasting with Cinderella itself and Cap O' Rushes.

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

"Allerleirauh" is a fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Since the second edition published in 1819, it has been recorded as Tale no. 65. Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book.

"Tattercoats" is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his More English Fairy Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petrosinella</span>

"Petrosinella" is a Neapolitan literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his collection of fairy tales in 1634, Lo cunto de li cunti, or Pentamerone.

<i>Donkeyskin</i> Literary work

Donkeyskin is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault. It was first published in 1695 in a small volume and republished in 1697 in Perrault's Histoires ou contes du temps passé. Andrew Lang included it, somewhat euphemized, in The Grey Fairy Book. It is classed among folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 510B, unnatural love.

Cannetella is a Neapolitan literary fairy tale told by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book, as collected by Hermann Kletke.

The Goat-faced Girl is an Italian fairy tale. Giambattista Basile included a version in his Pentamerone (1634-1636). Andrew Lang included a version, collected by Hermann Kletke, in The Grey Fairy Book (1900).

The Bear is a fairy tale collected by Andrew Lang in The Grey Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson classification system type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include Cap O' Rushes, Catskin, Little Cat Skin, Allerleirauh, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, The She-Bear, Tattercoats, Mossycoat, The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress, and Donkeyskin, or the legend of Saint Dymphna.

Pintosmalto or Pinto Smauto is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

The Enchanted Snake or The Snake is an Italian fairy tale. Giambattista Basile wrote a variant in the Pentamerone. Andrew Lang drew upon this variant, for inclusion in The Green Fairy Book.

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

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

Little Catskin is an American fairy tale from Kentucky, collected by Marie Campbell in Tales from the Cloud Walking Country, listing her informant as Big Nelt.

"The Princess That Wore a Rabbit-skin Dress" is an American fairy tale from Kentucky, collected by Marie Campbell in Tales from the Cloud Walking Country, listing her informant as Uncle Tom Dixon.

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

References

  1. ↑ Giambattista Basile, The Pentamerone, "The She-Bear"
  2. ↑ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Donkeyskin"
  3. ↑ Catherine Orenstein, Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale, p 176, ISBN   0-465-04125-6
  4. ↑ Warner, Marina (1988). "The Wronged Daughter: Aspects of Cinderella". Grand Street. 7 (3): 143–163. doi:10.2307/25007112. ISSN   0734-5496. JSTOR   25007112.
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.