The Golden Slipper

The Golden Slipper () is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in ''Narodnye russkie skazki''.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A, the persecuted heroine.

Synopsis

An old man brought back two fish from the market for his daughters. The older one ate hers, but the younger asked her fish what to do with it. It told her to put it in water, and it might repay her; she puts it in the well.

The old woman, their mother, loved her older daughter and hated her younger. She dressed up the older to take to Mass, and ordered the younger to husk two bushels of rye while they were gone. She wept beside the well. The fish gave her fine clothing and sent her off, husking the rye while she was gone. The mother came back talking of the beauty they had seen at Mass. She took the older daughter again, leaving the younger to husk three measures of barley and the younger went to Mass again with the fish's aid. A king's son saw her and caught her slipper with some pitch. He found the younger daughter and tried the shoe on her; when it fit, they married.

The Golden Slipper story has similarities to the story we know as “Cinderella”. The old woman in the story treating her oldest daughter good and leaving the youngest behind. The youngest being able to talk to the fish she was served at dinner, taking it to the well to live because the fish ask her to let it live. The old woman was taking the eldest daughter to mass to pray and also find a husband. The old woman would make her youngest hither to stay home and husk some rye for the family. Hither who is upset by being left behind, goes out to the well and is greeted by the fish she saved. The Fish asked her why she was sad? Hither then told the fish what the old woman has been doing, he decided to help her with the rye, and she could go to mass. Hither was delighted and put on her best outfit and headed to mass, where she catches the attention of a handsome prince who is also attending mass. Needing the get home quickly before the old woman finds out she's been at mass the entire time. Leaving behind her shoe/slipper, the prince vows to find out who foot fits inside this slipper. He tracks the old woman down and asks her daughters to try the slipper on, the old woman insisted on just the eldest daughter, but the prince was stubborn and waited to see if Hither's foot was the one. Sure, enough it was, and they lived happily and prospered.

See also

* Bawang Putih Bawang Merah
*Cinderella
* Fair, Brown and Trembling
* Katie Woodencloak
* Rushen Coatie
* The Story of Tam and Cam
* The Wonderful Birch

References

*Alexander Afanasyev, ''Narodnye russkie skazki''
*Heidi Anne Heiner,
Tales Similar to Cinderella

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golden Slipper, The
Golden Slipper
Russian fairy tales
Fairy tales about sisters
ATU 500-559