Snow-White-Fire-Red (''Bianca-comu-nivi-russa-comu-focu'') is a Sicilian

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 Giuseppe Pitre and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane in ''Italian Popular Tales''.

Synopsis

A king and queen made a vow that, if they had a child, they would make one fountain run with oil and another with wine. The queen gave birth to a son, and they set up the fountains so that everyone could take oil and wine. At the end of the seven years, the fountains were running dry, and an

ogre An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...

ss came to take the last with a sponge and pitcher. Once she had labored to collect it all, the prince threw a ball, breaking the pitcher. She cursed him to be unable to marry until he found Snow-White-Fire-Red. When he grew up, he remembered this and set out. One night he slept in a great plain where there was a large house. In the morning, he saw an ogress come and call to Snow-White-Fire-Red to let down her hair. When the ogress left, he called to her, and she, thinking it was her mother (as she called the ogress), let down her hair. He climbed it and told her his tale. She told him the ogress would eat him, and so she hid him and asked the ogress how she could escape, if she wanted to. The ogress told her that she would have to enchant all the furniture to answer in her own voice, but that ogress would climb and find out in time, and so she would have to take seven balls of yarn and throw them down as the ogress caught up. Snow-White-Fire-Red enchanted all the furniture, took the yarn, and fled with the prince. The ogress called to the furniture, and it answered until finally she climbed and discovered that the girl was gone. She chased after, calling to Snow-White-Fire-Red to turn around, which would have let her enchant her. Snow-White-Fire-Red threw down the yarn, and each ball impeded and injured her until she cursed the prince to forget Snow-White-Fire-Red as soon as his mother kissed him, and the ogress died. The lovers went on, and the prince told Snow-White-Fire-Red that he would get her suitable clothing to appear at court. He forbade his mother to kiss him, but she came into his bedroom at night and kissed him while he slept, and he forgot Snow-White-Fire-Red. An old woman took pity on Snow-White-Fire-Red and took her home. Snow-White-Fire-Red made marvelous things, and the old woman sold them. One day she told the old woman to get her scraps of cloth from the palace, and she dressed two doves that the old woman owned. The two birds flew to the palace, where everyone admired them, and the doves told the story of how the prince had won Snow-White-Fire-Red. He remembered and ordered the birds to be followed, and soon he and Snow-White-Fire-Red were married.

Translations

The tale was also translated as ''Snow White, Flaming Red'' and as ''Snow White, Blazing Red'' by

Jack Zipes Jack David Zipes (born June 7, 1937) is a literary scholar and author. He is a professor emeritus in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic and Dutch at the University of Minnesota. Zipes is known for his work on fairy tales, folklore, crit ...

and Joseph Russo.

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 310, "The Maiden in the Tower". Folklorist Thomas Frederick Crane noted that the tale also involved the motif of the magical escape from the maiden's ogre mother, a narrative sequence that appears in tale type ATU 313, "The Magic Flight". He also remarked that this Sicilian tale had the motif of "The Forgotten Fiancé": after the hero and his bride return to his home, he kisses someone and forgets about her and his adventures.

Motifs

Scholars Christine Goldberg and

Max Lüthi Max Lüthi (1909 in Bern – 1991 in Zürich) was a Swiss literary theorist. He is considered the founder of formalist research on folk tales. His first book is the field's foundational text, "a classic, a definitive statement about the natu ...

indicated that

Southern Europe Southern Europe is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, C ...

an variants of type ATU 310, "The Maiden in the Tower", show the episode of the ''Forgotten Fiancé'', for example, in Greek variants. According to Walter Puchner, in ''The Forgotten Fiancée'' subtype, it is "particularly common" in

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

variants for the heroine to release doves to the prince's palace to remind him. This motif also occurs in combination with tale type ATU 310 in Mediterranean tales.Puchner, Walter. "Magische Flucht (AaTh 313 sqq.)" agic Flight (ATU 313 ff.) In: ''Enzyklopädie des Märchens'' Band 9: Magica-Literatur – Neẓāmi. Edited by Rudolf Wilhelm Brednich; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Helge Gerndt; Lutz Röhrich; Klaus Roth. De Gruyter, 2016

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Media Books * 999 (anthology), ''99 ...

p. 16. . https://www.degruyter.com/database/EMO/entry/emo.9.003/html

References

External links

SurLaLune Fairy Tale site ''Snow-White-Fire-Red''
{{Snow White Female characters in fairy tales Italian fairy tales Snow White ATU 300-399 ATU 700-749 Thomas Frederick Crane Fairy tales about ogres Fairy tales about princes