Buttercup or Butterball (, literally "Butter-buck") is a Norwegian

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

collected by

Asbjørnsen and Moe Asbjørnsen is a Norwegian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Kristin Asbjørnsen (born 1971), Norwegian jazz singer *Øyvind Asbjørnsen (born 1963), Norwegian film producer *Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812–1855), Norwegian wr ...

. It is Aarne-Thompson type 327 C, the

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

(

witch Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

) carries the

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

home in a sack. Buttercup is so named because he is "plump and fat, and fond of good things".

Synopsis

While Buttercup's mother was baking, the dog began to bark and Buttercup saw an evil witch coming. His mother had him hide under the kneading trough, but the witch said she had a silver knife to give him and this lured him out. The witch told him that he had to climb into her sack to get it and, as soon as he was in, she carried him off. On the way, the witch asked "How far is it to Snoring?" and Buttercup said half a mile, so she rested and, using the knife, he escaped, putting a big fir root in the sack. The next day, the witch lured him out again with the offer of a silver spoon, but he escaped in the same way, placing a stone in the sack. The

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

day, she offered him a silver fork and went straight home without resting. She gave him to her daughter to kill. The witch's daughter did not know how to do it. Buttercup told her to lay her head on the chopping block, and he would show her. He cut her head off with an axe, put it in her bed, and stewed her body. Then he climbed up the chimney with the root and stone. The witch and her husband, thinking their daughter asleep, ate the soup. Buttercup spoke to them of "daughter broth" from the chimney. They went outside to see what caused the noise, and Buttercup killed them by dropping the stone and root on their heads. He took all their gold and silver and went home.

References

Notes

External links

*{{cite web, url=http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/buttercup.html, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140405002907/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/buttercup.html , archivedate=2014-04-05, first= Heidi Anne, last=Heiner, date=2008-04-16, title=Buttercup, website= SurLaLune Fairy Tales: The Fairy Tales of Asbjørnsen and Moe Fiction about cannibalism Norwegian fairy tales Scandinavian folklore Witchcraft in fairy tales ATU 300-399 Asbjørnsen and Moe

Synopsis

See also

References

External links