Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were all written in France by Charles Perrault in the 18th century.
The Grimm Brothers from Germany took many common tales only known in oral tradition and published them in 1812 in their book Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Cinderella was one of these stories, but known in the German language as Ashenputtel.
In this version, Ashenputtel plants a Hazel twig and it grows with the water of her tears. A white bird roosts in the tree, which she believes is her deceased mother. The bird then is the bearer of the white gown and silk shoes to go to the ball. She eludes the prince as he chases here home but drops one of her golden slippers.
The Prince searches the kingdom for the owner, but her stepsisters try on the shoe first. Each sister cuts off a part of their foot to fit into the slipper. After all Princesses do not need to walk anywhere after they marry? The shoe still does not fit and the Prince notices the blood pouring from the shoe. Once the Prince places the shoe on Cinderella, he recognizes her and he takes her away from her evil stepmother and her limping stepsisters.
Scholars who study folklore have isolated at least 345 variants of Cinderella in Europe. Most of the tales have a wicked female relative who persecutes her. Most of the stories also have a ball, a ball gown that appears with magic and a built in curfew when the magic wears off. In some stories there are magic birds who provide and others have a fairy godmother that is kindness personified that enables her to attend the party.
Once she gets tired she runs away but leaves an article of her clothing behind. In some stories it is jewelry that she loses and in another story she loses a squirrel slipper as found in the Russian version. Hundreds of books, films, plays, ballets and television shows have been based upon this tale. From the Muppets portrayal with Miss Piggy as Cinderella and Sesame Street’s Cinderelmo there is a vast contrast to the Russian National ballet performing the Sergei Radchenko version of the fairy tale.
Credit : Abilene
Picture Credit : Google
