The Two Caskets is a Scandinavian

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 ...

included by

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Old English language, Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated hi ...

in his ''Yule-Tide Stories: A Collection of Scandinavian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions''.

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

included it in '' The Orange Fairy Book''. It is Aarne-Thompson type 480, the kind and the unkind girls. Others of this type include ''

Shita-kiri Suzume , translated literally into "Tongue-Cut Sparrow", is a traditional Japanese fable telling of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow. The story explores the effects of greed, friendship and jealousy on the characters. Andrew La ...

'', ''

Diamonds and Toads Diamonds and Toads or Toads and Diamonds is a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, and titled by him "Les Fées" or "The Fairies". Andrew Lang included it in '' The Blue Fairy Book''. It was illustrated by Laura Valentine in ''Aunt Louisa's nur ...

'', ''

Mother Hulda "Frau Holle" (; ; also known as "Mother Holle", "Mother Hulda" or "Old Mother Frost") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in '' Children's and Household Tales'' in 1812 (KHM 24). It is of Aarne-Thompson type 480. Frau Holle ...

'', '' Father Frost'', ''

The Three Little Men in the Wood "The Three Little Men in the Wood" or "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" () is a German fairy tale collected in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in ''Grimms' Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 13). Andrew Lang included it in ''The Red Fairy Bo ...

'', '' The Enchanted Wreath'', ''

The Old Witch The Old Witch is an English fairy tale published by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book, ''More English Fairy Tales''. It is also included within ''A Book of Witches'' by Ruth Manning-Sanders and ''A Book of British Fairy Tales'' by Alan Garner. Neil Wa ...

'', and ''

The Three Heads in the Well The Three Heads in the Well is a fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in ''English Fairy Tales''. It is Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale type ATU 480, The Spinning-Woman by the Spring, The Kind and Unkind Girls. Others of ...

''. Literary variants include '' The Three Fairies'' and '' Aurore and Aimée''.Jack Zipes, ''The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm'', p 543,

Synopsis

A woman had a daughter and stepdaughter. One day, she set them to spin while sitting on the edge of a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

, giving her daughter good flax and her stepdaughter coarse, unusable flax, and declared that whoever's thread broke first would be thrown in. When her stepdaughter's thread broke, she threw her in. The girl fell to a wonderful land. She walked on and came to a tumble-down

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or net (textile), netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its ...

that is overgrown with

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s. It pleaded with her not to hurt it because it did not have long to live and she carefully jumped over it where the vines were less. She found an

oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool that is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been use ...

full of

bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

loaves and it told her she could eat what she liked, but begged her not to hurt it. She ate a loaf, thanked it for such fine bread, and shut its door. She came to a

cow Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called co ...

with a bucket on its horns. It said she could milk it and drink, but asked her not to hurt it or spill its milk. She agreed. When a drop of milk was left, the cow told her to throw it over its hooves and hang the bucket back up. She came to a house. An old woman asked her to comb her hair. When she did, the old woman showed her a farm where she could take service. She took good care of the cows, gave milk to the

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s, sieved some corn, and gave some sieved corn to the

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s. One day, the old woman summoned her and told her to fill a sieve full of water and bring it back. The birds told her to use ashes to stop up the holes. Another day, she had to wash some black yarn until it became white and white yarn until it became black. The birds told her to face east to turn the black white and west to turn the white black. Then the old woman had her weave them into a robe as smooth as a king's by sunset, but the skeins tangled and broke every moment. The cats wove it on her behalf. She wanted to leave and go home. The old woman sent her to an attic and told her to take whatever casket she liked. She considered many beautiful ones. The cats directed her to a black one, so she took it and went home. Her stepmother took her wages, but the box was filled with marvelous treasures. Her stepmother put her own daughter on the edge of the well to spin with coarse stuff and threw her down the well when it broke. The daughter proceeded as her sister had, but was rude to the fence, the oven, and the cow and worked very poorly at the farm including the three tasks her stepsister had done. At the end of the year, she went on her way with a large red casket. When she opened it at home, fire burst out and burned her and her mother to death.

References

External links

''The Two Caskets''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Two Caskets European fairy tales Scandinavian folklore ATU 460-499 ATU 480 The Kind and the Unkind Girls Fairy tales about sisters Fairy tales about talking animals Fairy tales about stepmothers

Synopsis

See also

References

External links