For the last two weeks we have looked at tales that
possess qualities of both Aarne-Thompson-Uther 510a—persecuted heroine—and ATU
510b where a heroine runs away and disguises herself and works in a lowly place
until spotted by the prince as well as an overlap into ATU 923—love like salt.
As I said last week, not all ATU 923 tales are
Cinderella tales. If the story is just about a banished daughter, and a reunion
where the father learns the lesson without any disguises, meeting a prince,
lost objects and a wedding then it is not an ATU 510 Cinderella story.
SUR LA LUNE has this to say about it:
When
a magic helper as well as an identifying object appear in the tale, it is
classified as ATU 510B. A lack of those elements usually makes it a
straightforward ATU 923 tale.
I found a wealth of ATU 923 tales and considered for a
moment diverting into a study of them, but keeping the above guidelines in
mind, many were just love like salt
variations with no overlap into persecuted
heroine. I found only one more that fit both categories and we will look at
it below. But if you are interested in love like salt versions, please go {HERE} and have a look.
Our story today entitled Come ‘L Bon Sale (Like Good Salt) was collected by Domenico Giuseppe Bernoni and was printed in Fiabe Popolari Veneziane (Venetian Popular Tales) and was featured
in The Cornhill Magazine in July of 1875. According to Pitt.edu:
This
collection has been made con amore by a native Venetian gentleman
named Bernoni, who took them down verbatim, as they were told by the comari (old
wives, gossips) of Castello or Canaregio.
This is unusual version as it features elements of
Snow White. In other ATU 923 versions her father banishes her for likening her
love to salt, but in this one he orders her to be taken out and killed and her
eyes and heart brought back. The faithful servant is hesitant to perform such a
loathsome task but sees a small dog in the meadow and kills it instead, sparing
the girl’s life.
As in other ATU 510 persecuted heroine stories, there
is a magical helper. In this case a fairy gives the girl a magic wand that when
she puts in her bosom turns her into an old lady. As in last week’s tale, an
ugly woman is more likely to find work than a young pretty one. She is given
the job of hen wife looking after the poultry and is forced to sleep in an
outhouse. I am not sure if this is just an outbuilding or an actual toilet, but
either way the prince overhears her crying and drills a hole in the outhouse to
see why she’s upset (that’s not creepy…) and realised that she is not an ugly,
old lady but a beautiful young girl. He begs to marry her since he has seen
through her loathsome disguise.
It then circles back round to ATU 923 with the
father attending the wedding, eating the unsalted food and wishing he had in his
daughter back. In other versions where she was merely banished this is a
glorious reunion, but he is regretting having MURDERED her. If it were me, I would
be far less forgiving, but our heroine is kinder and more gracious than I as
she says, "You must do nothing of
the sort. Let bygones be bygones; you will always be my own daddy, and now let
us think of nothing but making merry.” I was a child who felt injustices
deeply. I can guarantee that if I had read this when I was younger, I would
have been spitting nails. “He tried to KILL you! How can you forgive him so
easily?”
Nonetheless, it is an interesting addition to our
Cinderella stories.
Like Good Salt
Once
upon a time there was a king, and this king had three daughters. One fine day
he took it into his head to call these three daughters, and to ask them, one
after another, if they loved him.
He
calls the eldest, and he says, "Hark ye, do you love me?"
Says
she, "Yes, daddy, I do."
"
And
how much?"
"As
much as good bread."
The
king thinks and thinks, and then he says, "Yes; when you're hungry bread
is a good thing."
Then
he calls the middle daughter, and he says to her, "Hark ye, do you love
me?"
"Yes,
daddy, I do."
"And
how much?"
"As
much as good wine."
Well,
the king thinks and thinks, and then he says, "Yes, yes; wine puts life
into a man, therefore it is a good thing."
Then
he calls the youngest daughter, and he says, "Hark ye, and do you love me
too?"
"Yes,
daddy, I do."
"And
how much?"
"As
much as good salt."
And
the king said, "As much as good salt!" And he began to think and
think, and, because salt by itself tastes bad, this answer of the youngest
daughter did not please him."
The
king, having satisfied himself by reflection that to be loved as much as good
salt is equivalent to not being loved at all, calls his most faithful servant,
and orders him to conduct the youngest princess into some desert place, there
to kill her, and to bring back her eyes and her heart in proof of the
accomplishment of the deed. The faithful servant receives this remarkable order
with the utmost calmness, merely replying, "It shall all be done."
The
princess is conducted into a great meadow, and there informed that her father's
commands are that she shall be killed, and her eyes and heart carried back to
the palace. Whilst she is begging for her life, she perceives a little dog, and
exclaims that heaven has sent it to assist her escape. She persuades the
faithful servant to kill the dog and carry back its eyes and heart instead of
her own.
He
consents; and she is left alone in the great meadow, very much at a loss what
to do, and crying bitterly. In the midst of her grief and perplexity she meets
with an old woman -- a fairy of course -- who gives her a little wand. When she
puts the wand into her bosom her form will change to that of an old woman. She
is then to proceed in a certain direction until she finds a palace. In this
palace, as the fairy happens to know, they are in want of a woman to look after
the poultry. The princess is told to ring the bell of the palace and offer
herself for the place in her assumed form of an old woman.
All
which falls out according to the fairy's directions, and the princess is
received as hen-woman into the king's service. There not being room for her to
sleep in the palace, she is put to lodge in an outhouse hard by.
One
evening, the queen's son, happening to pass that way, hears the old hen-woman
in her chamber sobbing and lamenting in a very piteous manner. He waits until
she comes out and asks her the cause of her grief. Is she discontented with her
master and mistress?
No;
on the contrary, the hen-woman is most thankful to them, but she is crying over
some private misfortunes of her own. But the next evening the young king goes
near the outhouse again and hears the same lamentations. His curiosity is
excited. He makes a hole in the wall with a gimlet, and, peeping through it, he
beholds no old hen-woman, but a beautiful young lady; for the princess resumes
her proper form in her own chamber every night by the simple process of putting
down the fairy's little wand which she carries in her bosom all day.
The
young king went directly to his mother, and said to her, "Mother, mother,
it's no old woman that minds our hens, but the most beautiful girl that eyes
ever saw. Come quickly and look, for I have made a hole in the wall, and you
can peep through."
With
that the queen up and went, and looked through the hole, and saw a beautiful
girl, crying bitterly.
Said
the queen, "Well, you're right; she is a most beautiful young woman."
The
son said, "Mother, I'll have her for my wife."
"Very
well, we'll go and ask her."
They
waited until the hen-woman came out, and then the queen said to her, "Why
are you always crying so, goody? But, indeed, you're not goody, but a beautiful
young girl, and I won't have you stay there any longer."
"And
if you're content," said the king, "I'll have you for my wife."
"Oh,
your majesty," said she; "that's not for the like of me!"
"No
matter for that," said the queen. "Come along with us now, and in a
fortnight's time you shall be my son's wife."
This
arrangement is acceded to by the disguised princess. But she requests as a favour
that on the day of her wedding the bridegroom shall invite all the other kings
to a banquet; and that, moreover, all the dishes set before one special king,
whom she will indicate, shall be dressed entirely without salt, and that the
said king shall be seated next to her.
The
wedding day came. All the kings who had been invited were there, and among them
the king whose dinner was to be served without salt, and he sat next the bride.
When the dinner was served, this king began to sup his broth, and found that
there was no salt in it, and he gave a great sigh. He looked at the bride who
sat beside him, and he kept looking and looking, because she was so exactly
like his daughter.
Said
she to him, "What's the matter, your royal majesty, that you sigh, and
don't eat?"
He
gave another sigh, and looked at her, but said nothing. They brought one dish
after another, but he only just tasted them, and then left them, because they
were all without salt.
The
bride began again saying to him, "But whatever is the matter that you keep
on sighing so, and eat nothing?"
"I
sigh because of something that comes into my head."
"Oh,
but eat now, and don't think of anything else!"
Then
the king could not hold his peace any longer. The remorse he felt -- the dinner
without salt -- the bride who was so like his daughter -- all made his heart so
full, that it was ready to burst, and he was obliged to speak.
"If
you only knew," said he, "what I have done! One fine morning I took
it into my head to call all my daughters and ask them if they loved me. The
youngest one said, yes, she did as much as good salt. At the moment it seemed
to me that salt was not a good thing; but now I know how good it is, and that
we cannot do without it. But at the moment, in a fit of rage, I called my
servant, and ordered him to take away my daughter into some desert place, and
to kill her, and to bring back her eyes and her heart. And he did it. He took
her away, and killed her, and brought me back her eyes and her heart. And when
I look at you, I seem to see my daughter, you are so like her."
"Have
you that servant still?" said she.
"Yes;
I have him still. But it was none of his fault, you know. He only did what I
bade him."
"And
if I were to say to you that I am your daughter, would you believe me? And that
the servant, instead of killing me, killed a little dog, and that, instead of
taking out my eyes and my heart, he took out the little dog's, and that he left
me to my fate?"
Then
the king, when he heard all this, was ready to faint. He was just going to fall
down on his knees, and ask his daughter's pardon; but she said, "You must
do nothing of the sort. Let bygones be bygones; you will always be my own
daddy, and now let us think of nothing but making merry. Only I should like
that everything belonging to me at home should be given to that servant,
because it was he who saved my life."
The
king was so delighted at finding his daughter again, whom he thought was dead,
and at being present at her wedding, that he ordered eight days' more feasting
at his own expense, and invited all the kings of his acquaintance, and the
faithful servant too, and they had a great merry-making, and lived happy ever
after.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a
tale from Norway and a wooden cloak.
Nice!
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