Allerleirauh
Encyclopedia
Allerleirauh is a fairy tale
recorded by the Brothers Grimm
. Since the second edition published in 1819, it has been recorded as Tale no. 65. Andrew Lang
included it in The Green Fairy Book.
It is Aarne-Thompson folktale type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include Cap O' Rushes
, Donkeyskin
, Catskin
, Little Cat Skin
, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter
, The She-Bear
, Mossycoat
, Tattercoats
, The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress
, and The Bear
. Indeed, some English translators of Allerleirauh titled that story Catskin despite the differences between the German and English tales.
The daughter tried to make the wedding impossible by asking for three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silver as moon, and one as bright as the stars, and a mantle made from the fur of every kind of animal in the kingdom. When her father provided them, she took them, with a gold ring, a gold spindle, and a gold reel, and ran.
She slept in a forest where another king hunted, and his dogs found her. She asked them to have pity on her and received a place in the kitchen, where she worked, and was called "All-Kinds-of-Fur."
When the king held a ball, she went to it in her golden dress, and the king fell in love with her. The next morning, the cook set her to make soup for the king, and she put her golden ring in it. The king found it and questioned the cook and then All-Kinds-of-Fur, but she revealed nothing.
The next ball, she went dressed in her silver dress and put the golden spindle in the soup, and the king again could discover nothing.
The third ball, she went in the star dress, and the king slipped a golden ring on her finger without her noticing it and ordered that the last dance go longer than usual. She was not able to get away in time to change; she was able only to throw her fur mantle over her clothing before she had to cook the soup. When the king questioned her, he caught her hand, seeing the ring, and when she tried to pull it away, her mantle slipped, revealing the star dress. The king pulled off the mantle, revealing her, and they married.
They lived happily ever after.
fled because her father, who wanted a son, was marrying her off to the first prospect. Cap O' Rushes was thrown out because her father interpreted her words to mean she did not love him. The Child who came from an Egg
fled because her (apparent) father had been conquered by another army. The Bear
flees because her father is too fond of her and keeps her prisoner to keep her safe.
The motif of a father who tries to marry his own daughter is found in fairy tales overwhelmingly in tales of this variety, ending with the three balls, but it also appears in variants of The Girl Without Hands
. The oldest known variant is the medieval Vitae Duorum Offarum
; it appears in chivalric romance in Nicholas Trivet
's Chronique Anglo-Normane, the source of both Chaucer's The Man of Law's Tale and John Gower
's variant in Confessio Amantis
, and in Emaré
. It also became attached to Henry the Fowler.
When the motive is the enforced marriage, many modern tales soften it, by representing the daughter as adopted (as in Andrew Lang
's version of Donkeyskin for The Grey Fairy Book), the marriage as put forth and urged by the king's councillors rather than the king himself, or the entire notion being a fit of madness from which he recovers in time to attend the wedding. Alternately, the undesired marriage may be to an ogre or monster.
Variants of Cinderella
, in which the heroine is persecuted by her stepmother, include Katie Woodencloak
, where the heroine is driven off by the persecutions and must, like Allerleirauh, seek service in a kitchen.
The heroine does not always have to flee persecution; Tattercoats is denied permission to go to the ball because her grandfather had sworn never to look at her, but he has not driven her off.
adapted this in her novel, Deerskin
, in which the princess is raped by the king before she can escape.
Jane Yolen
wrote a modern variant, also titled "Allerleirauh." The variant involves the king marrying his daughter, who has been emotionally neglected by her father and misunderstands the king's intentions toward her. The daughter dies in childbirth like her mother did and the story ends suggesting that the daughter's daughter will suffer the same fate when she comes of age.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
recorded by the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. Since the second edition published in 1819, it has been recorded as Tale no. 65. Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
included it in The Green Fairy Book.
It is Aarne-Thompson folktale type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include Cap O' Rushes
Cap O' Rushes
"Cap-o'-Rushes" is an English fairy tale published by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.Jacobs gives his source as "Contributed by Mrs. Walter-Thomas to "Suffolk Notes and Queries" of the Ipswich Journal, published by Mr. Lang in Longman's Magazine, vol. xiii., also in Folk-Lore September, 1890"...
, Donkeyskin
Donkeyskin
Donkeyskin is a French fairy tale told by Charles Perrault.Andrew Lang included it, somewhat euphemized, in The Grey Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson folktale type 510B, unnatural love...
, Catskin
Catskin
Catskin is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales. Marian Roalfe Cox, in her pioneering study of Cinderella, identified as one of the basic types, the Unnatural Father, contrasting with Cinderella itself and Cap O' Rushes.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B,...
, Little Cat Skin
Little Cat Skin
Little Catskin is an American fairy tale from Kentucky, collected by Marie Campbell in Tales from the Cloud Walking Country, listing her informant as Big Nelt....
, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter
The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter
"The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as Ann Darroch from Islay.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B, unnatural love...
, The She-Bear
The She-Bear
"The She-bear" is an Italian literary fairy tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.Ruth Manning-Sanders included it in A Book of Princes and Princesses....
, Mossycoat
Mossycoat
Mossycoat is a fairy tale collected by Katherine M. Briggs and Ruth I. Tongue in Folktales of England.Also included within A Book of British Fairy Tales by Alan Garner....
, Tattercoats
Tattercoats
Tattercoats is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his More English Fairy Tales.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B, the persecuted heroine...
, The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress
The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress
"The Princess That Wore a Rabbit-skin Dress" is an American fairy tale from Kentucky, collected by Marie Campbell in Tales from the Cloud Walking Country, listing her informant as Uncle Tom Dixon.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B...
, and The Bear
The Bear (fairy tale)
The Bear is a fairy tale collected by Andrew Lang in The Grey Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson classification system type 510B, unnatural love...
. Indeed, some English translators of Allerleirauh titled that story Catskin despite the differences between the German and English tales.
Synopsis
A king promised his dying wife that he would not marry unless to a woman as beautiful as she was, and when he looked for a new wife, he realized that the only woman that would not break the promise was his own daughter.The daughter tried to make the wedding impossible by asking for three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silver as moon, and one as bright as the stars, and a mantle made from the fur of every kind of animal in the kingdom. When her father provided them, she took them, with a gold ring, a gold spindle, and a gold reel, and ran.
She slept in a forest where another king hunted, and his dogs found her. She asked them to have pity on her and received a place in the kitchen, where she worked, and was called "All-Kinds-of-Fur."
When the king held a ball, she went to it in her golden dress, and the king fell in love with her. The next morning, the cook set her to make soup for the king, and she put her golden ring in it. The king found it and questioned the cook and then All-Kinds-of-Fur, but she revealed nothing.
The next ball, she went dressed in her silver dress and put the golden spindle in the soup, and the king again could discover nothing.
The third ball, she went in the star dress, and the king slipped a golden ring on her finger without her noticing it and ordered that the last dance go longer than usual. She was not able to get away in time to change; she was able only to throw her fur mantle over her clothing before she had to cook the soup. When the king questioned her, he caught her hand, seeing the ring, and when she tried to pull it away, her mantle slipped, revealing the star dress. The king pulled off the mantle, revealing her, and they married.
They lived happily ever after.
Commentary
Among variants of this tale, the threat of enforced marriage to her own father, as here, is the usual motive for the heroine's flight, as in The She-Bear, Donkeyskin and The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, or the legend of Saint Dymphna, but others are possible. CatskinCatskin
Catskin is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales. Marian Roalfe Cox, in her pioneering study of Cinderella, identified as one of the basic types, the Unnatural Father, contrasting with Cinderella itself and Cap O' Rushes.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B,...
fled because her father, who wanted a son, was marrying her off to the first prospect. Cap O' Rushes was thrown out because her father interpreted her words to mean she did not love him. The Child who came from an Egg
The Child who came from an Egg
The Child who came from an Egg or The Egg-Born Princess is an Estonian fairy tale, collected by Dr. Friedrich Kreutzwald in Eestirahwa Ennemuistesed jutud. W. F...
fled because her (apparent) father had been conquered by another army. The Bear
The Bear (fairy tale)
The Bear is a fairy tale collected by Andrew Lang in The Grey Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson classification system type 510B, unnatural love...
flees because her father is too fond of her and keeps her prisoner to keep her safe.
The motif of a father who tries to marry his own daughter is found in fairy tales overwhelmingly in tales of this variety, ending with the three balls, but it also appears in variants of The Girl Without Hands
The Girl Without Hands
The Girl Without Hands or The Handless Maiden or The Girl With Silver Hands or The Armless Maiden is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 31. It is Aarne-Thompson type 706.-Synopsis:...
. The oldest known variant is the medieval Vitae Duorum Offarum
Vitae duorum Offarum
The Vitae duorum Offarum "The lives of the two Offas" is a literary history written in the mid-thirteenth century, apparently by the St Albans monk Matthew Paris.-Account:...
; it appears in chivalric romance in Nicholas Trivet
Nicholas Trivet
Nicholas Trivet was an English Anglo-Norman chronicler.Trivet was born in Somerset and was the son of Sir Thomas Trevet , a judge who came of a Norfolk or Somerset family...
's Chronique Anglo-Normane, the source of both Chaucer's The Man of Law's Tale and John Gower
John Gower
John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...
's variant in Confessio Amantis
Confessio Amantis
Confessio Amantis is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. According to its prologue, it was composed at the request of Richard II...
, and in Emaré
Emaré
Emaré is a middle English Breton lai, a form of Mediaeval Romance poem, told in 1035 lines. The author of Emaré is unknown and exists in only one manuscript, the Cotton Caligula A. ii, which contains ten metrical narratives. Emaré seems to date from the late fourteenth century, possibly written in...
. It also became attached to Henry the Fowler.
When the motive is the enforced marriage, many modern tales soften it, by representing the daughter as adopted (as in Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...
's version of Donkeyskin for The Grey Fairy Book), the marriage as put forth and urged by the king's councillors rather than the king himself, or the entire notion being a fit of madness from which he recovers in time to attend the wedding. Alternately, the undesired marriage may be to an ogre or monster.
Variants of Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
, in which the heroine is persecuted by her stepmother, include Katie Woodencloak
Katie Woodencloak
Katie Woodencloak or Kari Woodengown is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book....
, where the heroine is driven off by the persecutions and must, like Allerleirauh, seek service in a kitchen.
The heroine does not always have to flee persecution; Tattercoats is denied permission to go to the ball because her grandfather had sworn never to look at her, but he has not driven her off.
Adaptations
Robin McKinleyRobin McKinley
Robin McKinley is a distinguished author of fantasy and children's books who has written sixteen books to date. Her latest book Pegasus was published in 2010...
adapted this in her novel, Deerskin
Deerskin (novel)
Deerskin is a dark fantasy novel by Robin McKinley, first published in 1993. It is based on an old French fairy tale by Charles Perrault called Peau d'âne . It was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature....
, in which the princess is raped by the king before she can escape.
Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolen is an American author and editor of almost 300 books. These include folklore, fantasy, science fiction, and children's books...
wrote a modern variant, also titled "Allerleirauh." The variant involves the king marrying his daughter, who has been emotionally neglected by her father and misunderstands the king's intentions toward her. The daughter dies in childbirth like her mother did and the story ends suggesting that the daughter's daughter will suffer the same fate when she comes of age.