ATU 510A: Cinderella

**ATU 510A: Cinderella** is a wonder tale sub-type in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.

## History

*Cinderella* is considered one of the tale types whose first variants were collected the earliest. Greek historian Strabo included in the seventeenth book of his *Geographica* told the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave living in Egypt who, one day while she was bathing an eagle stole one of her sandals, that later fell in the king's lap. Impressed with the sandal's beautiful shape the king sent his men to search for its owner, and when they found Rhodopis the king married her. Despite having the shoe test that become an essential part of the *Cinderella* story, the story of Rhodopis misses many of the other most iconic parts of the *Cinderella* story, like the heroine's step-family as the villains and the magic helper who provides clothing so the heroine could go to an event where the king or prince sees the heroine for the first time and fall in love with her.

Many of this parts appeared for the first time in *Ye Xian*, a story included in the 21st chapter of the book *Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang* by Duan Chengshi, wrote in China during the Tang Dinasty. It told the story of Ye Xian, an orphan girl treated like a servant by her cruel stepmother and stepsister whose only consolation is the fish she befriended. Unfortunately the stepdaughter's only sourcess of comfort is discovered, killed and eaten by her enemies. Following an old man's advise Ye Xian buried the fish bones, who later granted her clothing and shoes to go to the New Year's Festival her stepfamily forbid her to go. There she lost one of the shoes, who after being traded several times fall in the hands of the emperor, who decides to marry its owner. This tale is not only one of the first *Cinderella* variants ever collected, but also one of the first folktales ever collected because Chengshi attributed the story an oral source, his servant Li Shuyan, who came from southeastern China, which explains the similarities between this version and future versions from southeastern Asia that were collected later.

One of the first European versions published appeared on the first volume of the collection *Pentamerone* by Neapolitan writer Giambattista Basile, published posthumously in 1634. Titled *The Cat Cinderella*, it told the story of Zezolla, a prince's daughter who following her governess' aid murder her stepmother so the governess can marry his father. Quickly Zezolla realised she committed a mistake, becoming the servant of her new stepmother's six daughters. Luckily for her she gets magic help from a date tree she planted sent by the Dove Fairy. Basile's version heavily influenced many of the variants that were published after it.

The most famous version of it wasn't published untill 1697, when the collection *Histoires ou contes du temps passé* by French author Charles Perrault was published. The collection included the fairy tale *Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper*, that like in previous versions tells the story of an orphan girl treated like a servant by her stepfamily that will magic help was to a royal ball in which the prince falls in love with her. When she has to leave she looses a shoe on the run, and the shoe is tried in every single maiden in the kingdom in order to find its owner, with who the prince wants to marry. Finally Cinderella tries the shoe, and because she's the only one in the whole kingdom whose foot fits the shoe the prince marries her. Although influenced by Basile, Perrault deleted many of the most shocking elements from Basile's version, like the heroine killing at the beginning. The iconography from hi version became iconic, with images like the glass slipper that Cinderella looses, the pumpkin turned into a carriage and the mice turned into horses by the heroine's fairy godmother, and everything turning back to its original form once the clock strikes midnight. It's from Perrault's version that most adaptations and retellings take inspiration.

In 1812 the first volume of the collection *Children and Household's Tales*' first edition, by German authors Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, is published. The volume includes an oral retelling of *Cinderella*, with an anonymous female patient from the Elisabeth-Hospital in Marburg credited as its source, that presents some new elements, specially concerning the role of Cinderella's mother in the story. Unlike in previous versions, where Cinderella's mother was little more than a plot device was neccesary to bring Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters into the picture, here the story starts with the last moments of her life, when she aids her only daughter before passing away. Following her last instructions the heroine plants a hazel tree on her mother's grave, watering it with her tears, being that tree the magical provider for her, which gives to the reader the sensation the mother is helping her daughter after her death. The tale was kept in subsequent editions, but subjected to several changes. Some of them consisted on deleting details that make the tale too close to Perrault's version, like Cinderella having to return from the ball before midnight. Others helped Cinderella became a more proactive heroine, that instead of crying because she has too pick up the lentils from the ashes waiting for the birds to come and help her she calls them and commands them, or not needing to be reminded she has a magic hazel tree that could provide her the clothes she needs to go to the ball. This version is mostly known today for its more shocking moments concerning the stepsisters, that instead of being forgiven at the end like in Perrault's, the same birds that helped Cinderella tore their eyes out as punishment after their scheme to trick the prince into marrying them pretending the slipper, here made of gold instead of glass, fits them cutting their heels and toes fails.

## Variants

The *Cinderella* subtype is one of the most extended in world-wide folklore.

## Criticism and Studies

By 1893 there was already so many variants of this tale subtype that English scholar Marian Roalfe Cox published *Cinderella: 345 Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and Cap O' Rushes*, an inventory of not only alomost every *Cinderella* variant published untill then, but also of ATU 510B, 511 and 923. The first volume of *Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm*, written by German scholar Johannes Bolte in collaboration with Slovak scholar Jiří Polívka, first published in 1913, a compartive study of every Grimm's fairy tale with all the variants published untill then, included a chapter dedicated to *Cinderella*, that included all the versions registered by Cox, along some new ones published between those years. A new register of every *Cinderella* variant published untill then, titled *The Cinderella Cycle*, was published in 1951, this time done by Swedish scholar Anna Birgitta Rooth, reaching a total of more than seven hundred variants.

## Adaptations and Retellings

### Opera

The popularity of Perrault's *Cinderella* showed pretty early thanks to its opera adaptations. The first known premiered in 1749, with music composed by Jean-Louis Laruette. At the beginning of the 19th Century new opera adaptations appeared, like the three-act opera *Cendrillon* composed by Maltese-born composer Nicholas Isouard and libretti by Charles Guillaume Étienne. It premiered in Paris on February 22nd 1810. The opera became a huge success, being a humoristic retelling of the story in which the stepmother's and fairy godmother's gender are reversed and the prince, wanting to know his suitors's true nature, posses as his valet, while his valet posses as him. But unfortunately for Isouard his opera was quickly eclipsed when Italian composer Gioachino Rossini composed his own version of Étienne's libretti. His version, *La Cenerentola*, premiered in Rome on January 25th 1817 and quickly became a bigger success than Isouard's.

In the late 19th Century new opera adaptations of the tale premiered, the most well known being French composer Jules Massenet's *Cendrillon*, whose libretti written by Henri Caïn followed closely Perrault's version than Isouard's and Rossini's operas did. It premiered in Paris on May 24th 1899.

### Ballet

Ballet adaptations of Perrault's *Cinderella* became pretty common at the beginning of the 20th Century. *Aschenbrödel* was Austrian composer Johann Strauss II's last work, that he died before being able to finished it, having to be completed by Strauss' fellow countryman Josef Bayer. The ballet, that premiered in Berlin on May 2nd 1901, translates the action to a deparment store called The Four Seasons in modern times in which Cinderella, called Grete, is involved in a love triangle between Gustav, the owner of the store, and his younger brother Franz.

Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed a ballet version closer to Perrault's. Titled *Zolushka*, the ballet premiered on November 21st 1945 on Moscow.

### Live-Action Films

Like other media most film adaptations adapt Perrault's version. The first known film adaptation dates as far as 1899, directed by cinema pioneer George Méliès. Another worth-mentioning silent film era versions were *Cinderella or the Marvelous Slipper* by Albert Capellani released in 1907 and *Cinderella* by James Kirkwood Sr, one of Hollywood's first adaptations of the classic fairy tales, released in 1914 and starring Mary Pickford as the lead.

After the end of the silent film era new adaptations of Perrault's story were released. In the URSS only two years after the end of World War II and the premiere of Prokofiev's ballet the film *Cinderella* by female filmmaker Nadezhda Koserova was released. In the United States the fim *The Glass Slipper*, directed by Charles Walters and starring Leslie Caron, was released in 1955. In 1960 a modern retelling of the story titled *Cinderfella* was released, with the lead's gender reversed, being played by Jerry Lewis. In the United Kingdom a musical film adaptation *The Slipper and the Rose* by Bryan Forbes was released in 1976.

During the Cold War the Czechoslovak film industry also released several *Cinderella* film adaptations, but those weren't inspired by Perrault's neither Grimm's, but by Němcová's. One of the first ones was the made-for-TV black and white musical *Cinderella*, directed by Vlasta Janečková and released in 1969, but the most famous one is undoubtely *Three Wishes for Cinderella*, released in 1973 and directed by Václav Vorlíček. The film was a huge success in Czechoslovakia launching the career of its lead, Libuše Šafránková.