Aschenputtel

***Cinderella***, sometimes translated as *Ashputtel* so it won't be mistaken with the fairy tale by Charles Perrault, is a German folktale collected by the brothers Grimm, crediting an unnamed female patient in the Elisabeth-Hospital in Marburg as their source, first published in 1812 in the first volume of *Children and Household Tales* first edition.

## Origin

Many have considered the story of Rhodopis, a greek slave who married the King of Egypt, the earliest variant of the Cinderella story. The oldest recording of this story was done by Greek geographer Strabo in his book *Geographica*. According to Strabo an eagle stole away one of Rhodopis’ sandals while she was bathing and the sandal fell on the pharaoh's lap. Impressed by the sandal’s beautiful shape he proclaimed he would marry the sandal’s owner, and when they finally found Rhodopis the pharaoh married her. As we can see the story of Rhodopis has a royalty member marrying a commoner because a shoe belongs to her, like in *Cinderella*, but unlike in Cinderella in this story there’s no ball the heroine goes despite being forbidden to, there’s no magical helper, and there’s no clear antagonists. Roman orator Aelian also included Rhodopis’ story in his book *Varia Historia*, adding a detail that wasn’t on Strabo’s version, the name of the pharaoh who married Rhodopis. According to Aelian, his name was Psammetichus.

Much closer to the Cinderella’s story everyone knows today is *Ye Xian*, a Chinese folktale collected by Duan Chengshi and included in the twenty first chapter of his book *Miscellaneous Stories from Youyang*, written during the Tang Dynasty. According to Duan he collected the tale from his servant Li Shuyan, who was from Guangxi, in southeastern China. The story already presents many of the elements that will become commonplace in Cinderella variants, like the heroine being an orphan mistreated by her evil stepmother and stepsister, who thanks to magic fishbones gets clothes to go to a festival her stepmother forbids her to go. There she loses a slipper who ends up in a king’s hands, who decides to marry whoever the shoe fits. Ye Xian’s stepsister tries to pretend it fits her cutting her toes, but her scheme is discovered, and finally Ye Xian is recognized as the shoe’s owner and the king marries her. Meanwhile in Europe in 1557 the book *Les Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis* was published. Attributed to the deceased French writer Bonaventure des Péries the book included *Of a Girl Nicknamed Donkey Skin and How She Got Married With the Help of Little Ants*, the story about a girl named Pernette who’s mistreated by her own family, who because feel jealous of her beauty they force her to wear in a way that they hope it will turn off potential suitors. Like in Grimm’s Cinderella, Pernette is assigned the tasks of gathering seeds that she accomplishes with the help of animals, in this case ants instead of birds. Despite that the story misses many of the elements that could make it a Cinderella story, like the lost shoe.

The first story to be considered the first modern European Cinderella variant wasn’t published until 1634, the year the first volume of Neapolitan writer Giambattista Basile’s *Pentamerone* was posthumously published. It included *The Cinderella Cat*, a tale pretty close the plot of Grimm’s variant, included the heroine called Zezolla, being a girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, here six instead of the usual two, who goes to a festival that lasts three days with the help of a magic tree she planted with a twig his father brought her from a trip to Sardinia. In the festival a king falls in love with her, and after several unsuccessful attempts to follow her to discover where she lives one of the king’s servants manages to get one of her shoes. The king decides he’d only marry the maiden the shoe fits, who turns out to be Zezolla. But the best well-known variant published before Grimm’s is undoubtedly *Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper* by French author Charles Perrault, published in 1697. Several elements from Perrault’s story that were present in Grimm’s first published version of their variant, like Cinderella having to return from the ball before midnight, were probably omitted in subsequent editions because the brothers Grimm wanted their version to resemble less of Perrault’s.

## Synopsis

### 1812 version

A rich gentleman has a wife and a daughter, but one day his wife falls ill. When she’s on her deathbed the gentleman’s wife calls her daughter and tells her to plant a tree on her grave, and whatever she wants she just has to shake the tree and she’ll get it. After saying this the woman dies, and the girl does as her mother told her, not needing to bring water for the tree because the tears she cries are enough. Winter passes, the tree grows and the girl’s father remarries a woman who already has two daughters from a previous marriage. The woman kicks the girl out of her room and makes her sleep in the kitchen and do all of the house chores, while the stepsisters take away all of her nice dresses, leaving her only an old gray skirt to wear. Because she’s always so dirty with ashes and dust as a result of sleeping next to the hearth, they start to call her Cinderella.

One day the king of the land announces a ball that will last for three days in which his son will choose a wife. Cinderella’s stepsisters are invited to the ball, and after Cinderella helps them to get ready for the ball, they ask her if she wants to come with them too. Cinderella replies that yes, and the eldest stepsister tells her that they would be ashamed of being seen in public with her, and before they go she gives her a basil of lentils and orders her to sort the good ones for the bad ones before they return. Cinderella watches her stepsisters go to the ball until she loses sight of them and goes to the kitchen, where she starts to sort the lentils. Two pigeons fly in through the window and ask her if she wants them to help her. She replies that yes, and in a quarter of an hour all the lentils are sorted. After they finish the pigeons tell Cinderella that to see the ball she just needs to climb to the top of the pigeon roost. From there Cinderella sees everything. The next morning the stepsisters try to get Cinderella jealous by telling her about the ball last night, but she says to them that they don’t need to tell her anything because she saw everything from the top of the pigeon roost. As a result the eldest stepsister orders the pigeon roost to be torn down.

The second day after the stepsisters get ready for the ball the youngest one suggests Cinderella to came to the palace when it gets dark and look through the windows to see the ball, but the eldest still refuses to let her go and gives her a sackful of seeds, that like the lentils last night she must sort the good ones and the bad ones. The two pigeons help Cinderella sort the seeds, and after they finish they ask her if she wants to go to the ball. Cinderella replies saying that she doesn’t have any good clothes to go, and the pigeons remind her of the tree planted on her mother’s grave. Cinderella goes, shakes the tree and a silver dress and slippers fall down. She puts them on, and in front of her house she finds a carriage drawn by six black horses, and pages dressed in blue and silver. They carry her to the prince’s palace, where none recognizes her, and the prince dances with her believing she’s a foreign princess. When Cinderella sees it’s almost midnight she leaves, returns to her mother’s grave, where she gives back the silver dress and slippers, and puts her old gray skirt back. The next morning Cinderella asks her stepsisters if they enjoyed the ball last night and they tell her that not, they didn’t because the prince spent the whole night dancing with a foreign princess. Cinderella asks them about the princess’ carriage with so much exact detail that the stepsisters ask her how she knows so much, and she replies she saw everything when she was standing in the front door.

The third night after she helps her stepsisters get ready Cinderella is given a basil of lentils that she must sort while her stepsisters are at the ball. The pigeons help her again and after they finish they remind Cinderella once again about the magical tree planted on her mother’s grave. Cinderella shakes the tree and this time a golden dress and golden slippers fall down. In front of her house a carriage drawn by six white horses, and pages dressed in red and gold, have appeared, and they bring her to the ball. When she arrives at the palace she finds the prince waiting for her in the stairway, and she spends all night dancing with him until she hears the clock striking twelve, and realises she has to go. While she’s running down stairs she realises that the prince ordered the stairs to be covered in pitch, so she wouldn’t run away. Despite that Cinderella managed to escape, although one of her golden slippers was left stuck in the pitch. The prince picks it up and asks the people he ordered to keep a watch if they saw the princess, but none saw anything. Soon after Cinderella arrives at home her stepsisters return, and Cinderella hears them talk about the mysterious princess.

The prince proclaims that he would marry whoever the golden slipper fits, and goes door to door trying on every single maiden who lives in the kingdom, but the slipper doesn’t fit anyone. Finally he arrives at Cinderella’s house, and before the eldest stepsister goes to her bedroom to try the slipper her mother gives her a knife and tells her to cut a part of her foot if the slipper doesn’t fit her. Because her heel is too large to fit the slipper the stepsister cuts it off, and pretends that the slipper perfectly fits her. The prince initially believes her and takes her to the palace with him on his carriage, but when they arrive at the gate the same pigeons that helped Cinderella sort the lentils, the peas and the ashes warn him about the stepsister’s scheme. When the prince sees the blood on the slipper he realises he has been deceived and returns to Cinderella’s house. Before the youngest stepsister goes to her bedroom to try the slipper her mother also gives her a knife and tells her the same advice she told to her sister. The stepsister cuts her toes off. The prince initially believes he has finally found the mysterious maiden, but once again when they arrive at the gate the pigeons warn him once again. The prince returns and asks the stepmother if there’s another girl in the house. The stepmother mentions Cinderella, but says the slipper will never fit her. But when Cinderella tries it the slipper fits her perfectly, and the prince recognizes her. When the prince’s carriage rides through the gate this time the pigeons sing a song announcing that the prince has finally found his true bride.

### 1819 version

A rich man’s wife falls ill, and before she dies she calls her only daughter and reminds her to be always good and pious. The girl goes to cry at her mother’s grave everyday, and after winter passes her father remarries to a woman who has two daughters, who are both pretty but haughty and cruel, who kicked the man’s daughter out of her room, forcing her to sleep in the kitchen, do all of the house chores and take away all of her clothes, leaving her only a grey smock and wooden shoes to wear. They also mock her, and because she’s always dirty and dusty for sleeping in the hearth they call her Cinderella. One day before going to a fair the father asks Cinderella and her stepsisters what they want him to bring him, and while Cinderella’s stepsisters ask for dresses and jewelry, Cinderella only asks for the first twig that brushes against her father’s hat when he’s on his way back home. The father fulfills his daughter’s odd request and brings her a hazel twig, that Cinderella plants on her mother’s grave and water with her tears until it grows and becomes a beautiful hazel tree.

The king of that land proclaimed a festival that will last three nights in which his son will choose a bride. The moment Cinderella’s stepsisters know they’re invited they order her to help them get ready for the ball. Cinderella asks her stepmother to let her go to the ball too, but her stepmother refuses, saying she doesn’t have anything to wear. Despite that Cinderella keeps asking until her stepmother, hoping that it will discourage her, scatters a whole bowl of lentils in the ashes and orders her to have all the lentils picked up in two hours, promising to let her go to the ball if she accomplishes that. The moment she’s left alone Cinderella calls for the birds to help her pick up the lentils from the ashes, and they finish in only one hour. The stepmother then orders Cinderella to pick two bowls of lentils from the ashes in only one hour, hoping this time she will discourage Cinderella, but she manages to do it with the birds’ help in only less time, half an hour. But the stepmother still refuses to let Cinderella go to the festival with them, and they leave without her. Cinderella goes to her mother’s grave and asks the white bird that lives on the hazel tree for a dress and slippers to go to the ball. The bird gives her what she requested, Cinderella puts them on and goes to the king’s festival, where none recognizes her, not even her stepsisters and stepmother, and the prince dances with her and none else. When Cinderella expresses the desire of going back home the prince offers himself to escort her, but she eludes him and hides inside a pigeon coop. The prince waits beside the pigeon coop until Cinderella’s father comes in, and when he hears what happened he suspects the mysterious girl could be his own daughter, so he tears down the coop hoping to find Cinderella inside, but he finds none, because Cinderella already escape through the back and went back home, when they found her lying on the ashes wearing the same smock she always wears.

The next day after her family has already left Cinderella goes again to her mother’s grave and asks the white bird for clothes and shoes to go to the festival. The bird gives her even more beautiful clothes, and at the festival the prince once again refuses to dance with anybody else who isn’t Cinderella. When Cinderella wants to leave he offers himself to escort her back home because he wants to know where she lives, but Cinderella manages to elude the prince again and climb to the top of a pear tree. The prince waits beneath the tree until Cinderella’s father comes and the prince explains to him what happened. The father suspects again that the mysterious girl can be Cinderella and cuts down the tree, but they don’t find anyone, because Cinderella already climbed it down and went back home. The third and last day the bird gives Cinderella a dress even more beautiful than the previous ones and slippers made of gold. At the festival the prince only dances with her, but when Cinderella tries to leave she discovers the prince ordered the stairway to be covered in pitch, so she can’t go away. Despite that she manages to run away, although leaving one of her golden slippers stuck on the stairs that the prince picks up.

The next day the prince proclaims he will marry the maiden whose foot fits the slipper, and when he arrives at Cinderella’s house the eldest stepsister goes to her bedroom to try it. But because her toes are too big, her mother gives her a knife and tells her to cut her toes so it would seem like the slipper actually fits her. The stepsister does as her mother told her and the prince initially believes the slipper fits her, but while he’s riding back to his palace on his horse taking the stepsister with him they pass by the grave of Cinderella’s mother and two pigeons sing a song warning the prince that he has been deceived. When he notices the blood in the slipper he realises the pigeons are right and he returns to Cinderella’s house. The youngest stepsister goes to her bedroom to try the slipper, but her heel is too large to fit it. Her mother gives her a knife and the same advice she gave to the eldest sister. The stepsister does as her mother tells her and like her sister it seems initially like she has managed to deceive the prince, but when they ride past the grave of Cinderella’s mother the two pigeons once again warn the prince and he notices the blood on the slipper. The prince returns to Cinderella’s house and asks if there’s any girl left in the house. Cinderella’s father mentions his biological daughter, but the stepmother tries to convince the prince that she’s too dirty to let him see her. But the prince insists, and when Cinderella tries the slipper it fits her perfectly. The prince recognizes her as the mysterious girl and brings her to his palace. When they ride past the grave of Cinderella’s mother the two pigeons sing a song proclaiming that the prince has finally found his true bride before each one of them perch on Cinderella’s shoulders. At Cinderella and the prince’s wedding the stepsisters go hoping they could gain Cinderella’s trust, but the principess is very angry and orders her pigeons to peck their eyes out, one when they walk in the church and each one’s remaining eye when they come out.