The Three Aunts is a Norwegian fairy tale

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...

 collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...

 and Jørgen Moe

Jørgen Moe

right|thumb|Norske Folkeeventyr Asbjørnsen and Moe Jørgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norwegian bishop and author...

 in Norske Folkeeventyr

Norske Folkeeventyr

Norwegian Folktales is a collection of Norwegian folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It is also known as Asbjørnsen and Moe, after the collectors.-Asbjørnsen and Moe:...

.

Synopsis

A poor man made his living by shooting. He had lost his wife, and one day, his pretty daughter decided to go seek her fortune. She got a place with the queen, and worked so hard that she became a favorite. The other women, jealous, told the queen that she had claimed to be able to spin a pound of flax in twenty-four hours. The queen set her to do it. She begged a room for herself but never having spinned, could not do it. An old woman came to her, got the story from her, and on the promise that the girl would call her "Aunt" on her wedding day, did the spinning for her.

The queen was pleased with it, making the other women more jealous. They said the girl had said she could weave it all in twenty-four hours, and the queen set her to the task again. Another old woman wove it for it, for the same price. Then the women claimed she could sew it all into shirts in twenty-four hours, and a third old woman sewed them for the same price.

The queen decided to marry her to the prince, because such a worker would never need to hire working women. The women came. The first was a hag with a nose three ells long, the second had a humped back, the third eyes like saucers, but the bride greeted them as "Aunt" and the prince had to seat them at the high table. He asked why they were so hideous. The first blamed her nose on her spinning, and the second her back on her weaving, and the third her eyes on her sewing. The prince said that his bride would no longer spin, weave, or sew.

See also

• The Three Spinners
  The Three Spinners
  The Three Spinners is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. It is tale no 14 and Aarne-Thompson type 501. It is widespread throughout Europe.It has obvious parallels to Rumpelstiltskin, and obvious differences, so that they are often compared....
  
  

• The Little Girl Sold with the Pears
  The Little Girl Sold with the Pears
  "The Little Girl Sold with the Pears" is an Italian fairy tale collected by Italo Calvino in Italian Folktales, from Piedmont. Ruth Manning-Sanders included a variant, as "The Girl in the Basket", in A Book of Ogres and Trolls.-Plot summary:...
  
  
• Thirteenth
  Thirteenth (fairy tale)
  Thirteenth is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales. It is Aarne-Thompson type 328, the boy steals the giant's treasures.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• Boots and the Troll
  Boots and the Troll
  Boots and the Troll is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norwegian Folktales.-Synopsis:An old man died. His three sons set out to seek their fortune. The two older would have nothing to do with the youngest son, whom they said was fit for nothing but...
  
  
• Dapplegrim
  Dapplegrim
  Dapplegrim is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.-Synopsis:The youngest of twelve sons goes off to serve the king for a year...