ATU 425C: The Girl as the Bear's Wife

**ATU 425C: The Girl as the Bear's Wife** is a wonder tale type in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.

## General Description

Before going on a trip a father asks his three daughters what they want him to bring them. The two eldest asks for expensive clothes and jewelry, while the youngest only asks for a flower, usually a rose. The father searches the flower everywhere, but he can't find it because it's midwinter, it has an unusual color or it can sing. He finally finds it when he gets lost in the forest on his way back home and finds a castle where he can't see anybody. In the garden he takes the flower, and in that same moment a beast (lion, wolf, snake, bear, dragon, or some combination of them) appears and claims he's gonna punish the man for stealing his flowers, but when the beast learns that the man has daughters he spares him, but only if one of the daughters agrees to go to the castle and live there with him, or the man agrees to give him the first living creature that greets him when he arrives home, that turns out it's his youngest daughter. The girl goes to the beast's castle, or the beast takes her away when he sees the father is not gonna bring her anytime soon. In the castle the girl grows accostumed to the beast's company, but she misses her family. She learns through a magic mirror, or because some plant is the garden is withering, or because the Beast tells her, that one of her elder sisters is gonna get married, or that his father is very sick and might die. The Beast gives the girl a limited period of time to go an visit her family, but she forgets to return once the limit is over because her jealous sisters persuaded her to stay longer, or because her father died and she stayed for the funeral. Once she finally realised she's late she returns to the castle, where she finds the beast lying in the garden's ground. Fearing the beast might die the girl finally admits her love for the beast, who instantly becomes a handsome prince, that thanks the girl for breaking the spell he was under. The girl and the prince marry, and the elder sisters are punished in case they tried to make her youngest sister stay longer out of jealousy.

## Examples

**Germany:** Grimm nº 68a *The Summer and Winter Garden* Bechstein *DMB* p. 228 nº 69a *Little Broomstick* Colshorn nº 42 *The Enchanted Frog* Meier nº 57 *Three Roses on One Stem* **Austria:** Zingerle *KHMSD* p. 391 nº 72 *The Bear* **Denmark:** Kristensen vol. II p. 335 nº 51 *Beauty and the Horse* **Belgium:** Wolf p. 61 nº 3 *Rose without Thorns* Meyere vol. II p. 139 nº 111 *The Merchant and His Three Daughters* **France:** Cosquin vol. II p. 215 nº 63 *The White Wolf* Pourrat vol. I p. 229 nº 33 *Lovely Rose* **Italy:** Andrews p. 283 nº 59 *Beauty and the Beast* Visentini nº 24 *The Rose* Comparetti nº 64 = Nerucci nº 16 *Bellindia* Imbriani nº 26 = Nerucci nº 1 *Zelinda and the Monster* De Nino p. 161 nº 39 *Bellindia* Pitrè p. 35 nº 30 *Empress Rosina* Mango nº 9 *The Bear and the Three Sisters* **Spain:** Maspons i Labrós vol. I p. 103 nº 24 *The Gloomy Lad* Hernández de Soto *BTPE* vol. X p. 118 nº 8 *The Bear Prince* Espinosa p. 299 nº 131 *The Beast of the Rosebush* Espinosa jr. nº 111 *The Beast of the Garden* **Portugal:** Coelho nº 29 A Bella-menina Consiglieri Pedroso nº 10 *The Maiden and the Beast* **Cyprus:** Sakellarious nº 7 *The Prince Who Was Changed Into a Snake* **Czech Republic:** Mikšíček p. 214 nº 32 *The Red Rose* Kulda vol. I p. 148 nº 33 *Three White Roses* **Slovakia:** Dobšinský vol. V p. 12 nº 49 *The Three Roses* **Poland:** Kolberg vol. VII p. 47 nº 19 *The Dragon and the Maiden*