The Three Sisters (fairy tale)

"The Three Sisters"[1] or Green Meadow[2] (Verde Prato)[3] is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

Illustration by Alexander Zick

Synopsis

A woman had three daughters; the two older were very unlucky but the youngest, Nella, was very fortunate. A prince married her and hid her from his wicked mother, visiting her in secret. She could throw a powder in a fire, and he would come to her on a crystal road. Her sisters discovered this and broke the road, so that the prince was injured when he was coming to her.

He was dying. His father proclaimed that whoever cured him would marry him, if female, or have half the kingdom, if male.

Nella heard of it and set out. Hiding in a tree, she overheard an ogre tell his wife about the illness, and how only the fat from their bodies could cure the prince. She climbed down and presented herself at their door as a beggar. The ogre, greedy of her flesh, persuaded his wife to let her stay. When they slept, Nella killed them and took their fat. She brought it to the king and cured the prince. He said he could not marry her because he was married already; Nella asked if he wanted to be married to the person responsible, and the prince blamed her sisters. Nella revealed herself as his wife. Her sisters were thrown in an oven.

Analysis

Scholars Jack Zipes and D. L. Ashliman list the tale as a literary predecessor of tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird".[4][5]

See also

References
  1. Basile, Giambattista; Strange, E. F. (Ed.); Taylor, John Edward (translator). Stories from the Pentamerone. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited. 1911. pp. 88-95.
  2. Canepa, Nancy. Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007. pp. 152-156. muse.jhu.edu/book/14344.
  3. Basile, Giambattista; Croce, Benedetto. Lo cunto de li cunti (Il Pentamerone): Testo conforme alla prima stampa del MDCXXXIV - VI. Volume Primo. Bari: Gius, Laterza e Figli. 1925. pp. 184-192.
  4. Zipes, Jack. Beautiful Angiola: The Lost Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Laura Gonzenbach. Routledge, 2004. p. 342. ISBN 9781135511685.
  5. Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. pp. 91-92. ISBN 0-313-25961-5.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.