Sorting out Donkey Skin (ATU 510B): Toward an Integrative Literal-Symbolic Analysis of Fairy Tales

ATU 510B, "Peau d'Asne" (also "Donkey Skin" and previously "The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and of Stars [Cap o' Rushes]"), exists within a rich, international oral tradition and has attracted literary rewriters, from Charles Perrault and the Grimm brothers, to modern American novelists and short story writers. The tale has been problematic for publishers as well as scholars, however, due to its overt references to incest. As Kay Stone observes, ATU 510B rarely appears in collections "since the heroine is forced to leave home to avoid her father's threats of an incestuous marriage" (1975, 46). Scholars of this tale type must decide how to interpret the tale's elements, ranging from those that appear in real life--family relationships, rings, and dresses--to those that are clearly fantastic, like the garments that shine as brightly as celestial bodies. Interpretations of this tale tend to focus either on its manifest or latent content; however, exclusive attention to surface details instead of deeper symbols, or vice versa, restricts the potential meanings of the tale and its possibilities to address a wide range of experiences. The purpose of this inquiry is to illuminate this full range of meaning in ATU 510B and, in doing so, to outline a flexible interpretive methodology that can better account for these multiple interpretive levels. Classificatory scholarship on ATU 510B tends to focus on its divergences from the related tale type ATU 510A, "Cinderella." Hans-Jorg Uther's updated The Types of International Folktales describes ATU 510B's plot generally: a king promises his dying wife that he will marry someone as beautiful as her (or who fulfills another condition), who turns out to be their daughter. The daughter delays the wedding by asking her father for magical garments, often three beautiful dresses and a coat or covering of rough fur or wood. The daughter escapes to another kingdom, works in the castle, and enchants the resident prince in her dresses. She taunts him with her secret identity, retaliation for his rude treatment of her servant persona. Finally, she slips him a token or he uncovers her, and they marry. The versions that Uther lists span the British Isles, Baltic states, Scandinavian countries, Germanic-speaking countries, Romance-language countries, Mediterranean countries, East European states, Slavic states, Middle East, some parts of Asia, and European-colonized locations in North and South America. (2) Christine Goldberg's monograph on ATU 510B gives an outline of the tale's plot that positions the "Unnatural Father" and the "Love Like Salt" episodes as equivalent, for either one can provide the motivation for the daughter to flee and pose as a servant. Goldberg asserts that, because "the Unnatural Father (motif T411) is a character in AT 706, The Maiden without Hands," the incestuous father's presence cannot be used to distinguish ATU 510B from other types (1997, 31). Instead, she argues, "The essence of the Donkey Skin tale--its identifying qualities--are the heroine's disguise and her position as a servant" (1997, 31). Yet the same could be said of ATU 510A, or ATU 923 ("Love Like Salt"). (3) Thus the reason for the heroine's flight must inform any consideration of this tale type as distinct from related tales. As the threat of incest links many variants found under these tale types that chronicle the rise of an innocent persecuted heroine in disguise, an analysis of one should be informed by the others. (4) D. L. Ashliman's analysis and collection of Indo-European incest tales relies on intertextuality to discuss the tales in light of one another. His summary of ATU 510B on his webpage "The Father Who Wanted to Marry His Daughter" is useful, as it does not rely solely on motifs to define the tale, but instead breaks the tale down into plot elements rather like Holbek's moves. (5) Ashliman's comprehensive analysis includes ATU 510B in addition to ATU 706, brother-sister incest tales, and other tales that are not as easily classified, reminding us that the boundaries between tale types are fluid. …