Fairy Tale Friday--The Dirty Shepherdess-(France, 1892)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

Last week we looked at a version of Cinderella that had some qualities of  Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) 510a—persecuted heroine-- with some of the qualities you expect in a 510b classification story—the running away/being banished and having to disguise herself in rustic clothes and work as a scullery maid or other poor profession until she is spotted by the prince, but without the other hallmark of 510b tales which is a father who wants to marry her as the cause of her leaving.

This week we look at another tale that bears some of the 510b classifications as well as some of the classifications of ATU 923—love like salt. Last week’s version would also fall into the ATU 923 category since that is what drove her father to force her to leave. Not all versions of ATU 923 contain Cinderella elements as we will explore next week.

The Dirty Shepherdess is a French fairy tale collected by Paul Sébillot who was a folklorist, painter and writer. He wrote many books about his native province of Brittany as well as books like Le Folklore de France in 1906. I cannot find a record that says which of his many folklore books La Bergère Sale appeared, but Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book in 1892.

As in other versions, the other sister sucks up to the father and is rewarded while the younger sister is punished for her honesty. Interestingly, when she is banned from the kingdom, she fears she is too pretty to be taken into service. The story says. She was afraid that no housewife would want to engage a girl with such a pretty face, she determined to make herself as ugly as she could. I found that most interesting, a real telling feature of the time. I imagine a mistress of the house would be worried about a pretty servant attracting the master’s eye. I have read all too many cases (and seen enough historical dramas about life upstairs and downstairs) where a wicked master has his way with a pretty servant girl getting her in the family way and the mistress casting her out of the house in shame with no reference which means she and her bastard child end up in the workhouse. Here is where it really resembles other versions of ATU 510b where the protagonist goes into deep disguise, making herself dirty and unattractive. Here she wears beggar’s clothes, tangles her hair and smears her face and hands with mud. However, since she is an intelligent princess who planned ahead, she conveniently brought a bag with fine dresses and jewellery with her when she left. So when she is seen by a passing prince dressed in her finery out tending sheep, he falls in love with her as expected. Because no one else has seen her in her fancy clothes they think he must be mad to fancy the dirty shepherdess, but he insists she is lovely. He asks that the shepherdess bake him a loaf of bread. She makes everyone leave the kitchen, washes up and puts on her good clothes and jewellery and bakes the loaf. In Cap o’ Rushes, she puts the ring in the food on purpose, but here the ring falls into the dough by accident (surely there is a lesson here about don’t bake with bling unless you want to snag a prince.) One of the defining elements of a Cinderella tale is a lost object. Mostly this is a shoe, but in this case the prince finds the ring and has every maiden in the land try it on. Luckily her fingers are incredibly dainty. At the royal wedding, we get to see her teach her father a lesson and they are reunited bringing it back to ATU 923 again.

 

The Dirty Shepherdess source

Once upon a time there lived a King who had two daughters, and he loved them with all his heart. When they grew up, he was suddenly seized with a wish to know if they, on their part, truly loved him, and he made up his mind that he would give his kingdom to whichever best proved her devotion.

So he called the elder Princess and said to her, 'How much do you love me?'

'As the apple of my eye!' answered she.

'Ah!' exclaimed the King, kissing her tenderly as he spoke, 'you are indeed a good daughter.'

Then he sent for the younger and asked her how much she loved him.

'I look upon you, my father,' she answered, 'as I look upon salt in my food.'

But the King did not like her words, and ordered her to quit the court, and never again to appear before him. The poor Princess went sadly up to her room and began to cry, but when she was reminded of her father's commands, she dried her eyes, and made a bundle of her jewels and her best dresses and hurriedly left the castle where she was born.

She walked straight along the road in front of her, without knowing very well where she was going or what was to become of her, for she had never been shown how to work, and all she had learnt consisted of a few household rules, and receipts of dishes which her mother had taught her long ago. And as she was afraid that no housewife would want to engage a girl with such a pretty face, she determined to make herself as ugly as she could.

She therefore took off the dress that she was wearing and put on some horrible old rags belonging to a beggar, all torn and covered with mud. After that she smeared mud all over her hands and face and shook her hair into a great tangle. Having thus changed her appearance, she went about offering herself as a goose-girl or shepherdess. But the farmers' wives would have nothing to say to such a dirty maiden and sent her away with a morsel of bread for charity's sake.

After walking for a great many days without being able to find any work, she came to a large farm where they were in want of a shepherdess and engaged her gladly.

One day when she was keeping her sheep in a lonely tract of land, she suddenly felt a wish to dress herself in her robes of splendour. She washed herself carefully in the stream, and as she always carried her bundle with her, it was easy to shake off her rags, and transform herself in a few moments into a great lady.

The King's son, who had lost his way out hunting, perceived this lovely damsel a long way off, and wished to look at her closer. But as soon as the girl saw what he was at, she fled into the wood as swiftly as a bird. The Prince ran after her, but as he was running, he caught his foot in the root of a tree and fell, and when he got up again, she was nowhere to be seen.

When she was quite safe, she put on her rags again, and smeared over her face and hands. However the young Prince, who was both hot and thirsty, found his way to the farm, to ask for a drink of cider, and he inquired the name of the beautiful lady that kept the sheep. At this everyone began to laugh, for they said that the shepherdess was one of the ugliest and dirtiest creatures under the sun.

The Prince thought some witchcraft must be at work, and he hastened away before the return of the shepherdess, who became that evening the butt of everybody's jests.

But the King's son thought often of the lovely maiden whom he had only seen for a moment, though she seemed to him much more fascinating than any lady of the Court. At last he dreamed of nothing else and grew thinner day by day till his parents inquired what was the matter, promising to do all they could to make him as happy as he once was. He dared not tell them the truth, lest they should laugh at him, so he only said that he should like some bread baked by the kitchen girl in the distant farm.

Although the wish appeared rather odd, they hastened to fulfil it, and the farmer was told the request of the King's son. The maiden showed no surprise at receiving such an order, but merely asked for some flour, salt, and water, and also that she might be left alone in a little room adjoining the oven, where the kneading-trough stood. Before beginning her work, she washed herself carefully, and even put on her rings; but, while she was baking, one of her rings slid into the dough. When she had finished, she dirtied herself again, and let the lumps of the dough stick to her fingers, so that she became as ugly as before.

The loaf, which was a very little one, was brought to the King's son, who ate it with pleasure. But in cutting it he found the ring of the Princess and declared to his parents that he would marry the girl whom that ring fitted.

So the King made a proclamation through his whole kingdom and ladies came from afar to lay claim to the honour. But the ring was so tiny that even those who had the smallest hands could only get it on their little fingers. In a short time all the maidens of the kingdom, including the peasant girls, had tried on the ring, and the King was just about to announce that their efforts had been in vain, when the Prince observed that he had not yet seen the shepherdess.

They sent to fetch her, and she arrived covered with rags, but with her hands cleaner than usual, so that she could easily slip on the ring. The King's son declared that he would fulfil his promise, and when his parents mildly remarked that the girl was only a keeper of sheep, and a very ugly one too, the maiden boldly said that she was born a princess, and that, if they would only give her some water and leave her alone in a room for a few minutes, she would show that she could look as well as anyone in fine clothes.

They did what she asked, and when she entered in a magnificent dress, she looked so beautiful that all saw she must be a princess in disguise. The King's son recognised the charming damsel of whom he had once caught a glimpse, and, flinging himself at her feet, asked if she would marry him. The Princess then told her story and said that it would be necessary to send an ambassador to her father to ask his consent and to invite him to the wedding.

The Princess's father, who had never ceased to repent his harshness towards his daughter, had sought her through the land, but as no one could tell him anything of her, he supposed her dead. Therefore it was with great joy he heard that she was living and that a king's son asked her in marriage, and he quitted his kingdom with his elder daughter so as to be present at the ceremony.

By the orders of the bride, they only served her father at the wedding breakfast bread without salt, and meat without seasoning. Seeing him make faces, and eat very little, his daughter, who sat beside him, inquired if his dinner was not to his taste.

'No,' he replied, 'the dishes are carefully cooked and sent up, but they are all so dreadfully tasteless.'

'Did not I tell you, my father, that salt was the best thing in life? And yet, when I compared you to salt, to show how much I loved you, you thought slightingly of me and you chased me from your presence.'

The King embraced his daughter and allowed that he had been wrong to misinterpret her words. Then, for the rest of the wedding feast they gave him bread made with salt, and dishes with seasoning, and he said they were the very best he had ever eaten.

Stay tuned next week for our last Cinderella/Love like salt version.