No matter where you go, no matter how far you try to run,
there’s no escaping it. The world just
loves “Cinderella” stories.
It’s been said that there are more than 500 variants of “Cinderella”
the world over.
The most famous of
which, of course, is “Cendrillon” published by Charles Perrault in
Tales of Mother Goose in 1697.
It’s this version of the story that was made
into a
classic romantic ballet and a much-cherished
Disney animated movie.
Now Disney is in the process of making a new
live-action Cinderella movie.
If you
want to read a little bit more about Cinderella in general and the Disney movie
in particular, Kristin at Tales of Faerie has recently posted
an insightful piece on it.
Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of “Cinderella”. The characters in the story always felt a
little too passive for me. I tend to
prefer my fairy tales with a little bit more adventure in them. However, with hundreds of variants worldwide,
I figured I had to give this story type another look. Now, I’ve purposely left Perrault’s
“Cendrillon” off this list. Nonetheless,
I present you with My Top Seven
Cinderella Stories.
You may not recognize the name “Aschenputtel”, but you
probably have heard of this tale.
It’s
the Grimm version of “Cinderella”.
Yes,
the one with the foot mutilations by the step-sisters
and the birds pecking out eyes and all that.
However, it also has the rather interesting
bit about the heroine getting her dress and shoes from a hazel tree planted
over her mother’s grave.
It also
features a pair of step-sisters that are called “beautiful, with fair faces,
but evil and dark hearts”, thus breaking from the “ugly stepsister” stereotype
that people think is so prevalent (I kind of imagine them being like the mean
cheerleaders in pretty much every high school movie).
This was the one that first let me know that
all Cinderellas were not created equal.
Yet, it’s still only number seven.
This is by far the oldest Cinderella story on the list. The story of “Rhodopis” comes from ancient Egypt. The story revolves around a Greek slave girl
named Rhodopis who suffered at the hands of other servants in her adopted home
of Egypt. One day, her master admires her dancing so
much that he orders her a special pair of red shoes. One day while doing her chores, her slippers
get wet and she puts them aside to dry.
Just then, the god Horus in the form of a falcon swoops down and picks
one up and ends up dropping it in the lap of the pharaoh. The pharaoh then begins a search for
whosoever should fit the dainty little slipper.
You can probably guess what happens.
It’s a pretty good ending for a Greek slave in ancient Egypt. There’s nothing like a Cinderella that breaks
down racial boundaries. It’s a very
important story, but it’s not one of my favorites, so it’s only number six. Still, it had to make the cut.
5) Cinderella (Armenia)-
I wish I had a better title for this one, but a lot of
Cinderella stories are just called “Cinderella”. This one makes the list just based on pure
creepy insanity. It starts with three
sisters living alone with their old
mother. They’re very poor and have no
money for food. The eldest sister
suggests they go out and find a way to make money no matter how. The mother then says “No, don’t do that. I would prefer you kill me and eat me rather
than bring dishonor to this home.” The
youngest sister, of course, protests.
But the older sisters go ahead and
do it anyway. That’s right, these
older sisters are cannibals! And people
think the Grimm version is dark! Truth
be told, from the various versions of Cinderella I’ve read, this isn’t
uncommon. The difference is that the
mother is usually turned into an animal like a cow or goat before getting
killed and eaten. It’s also a consistent
part of the story, mentioned every time Cinderella is asked to attend the
king’s feast. Anyway, the youngest
sister abstains from this ghastly feast and gathers her mother’s bones and
buries them. In many stories, this leads
to a hazel tree situation like the one from Grimm. Instead, whenever the Armenian Cinderella needs
something, she goes to her mother’s grave and asks, then the objects come up
through the ground. She then has to bury
them again when she’s done. In this
version, a wedding feast takes the place of the ball and instead of trying a
shoe on people, the king just has the heroine tailed. I can’t give you a link for this one because
it’s not online, but it can be found in 100
Armenian Tales and their folkloristic relevance collected and edited by
Susie Hoogasian-Villa.
I don’t know how many of my fellow fairy tale geeks know
this (probably a few), but when immigrants from the British Isles came to the
US and settled in the Appalachian region of the American South, they brought a
number of Old World folk tales and legends with them.
Isolated in the mountains, these tales took
on a distinctly regional flavor.
What I
love about these tales is that while they’ve been localized, they haven’t been
localized completely.
So, they turn the
Appalachian region into a magical place where rural American farm boys rub
elbows with kings and princesses.
In
this version, an old witch-woman takes the place of the fairy godmother and
Sunday church takes the place of the ball.
I haven’t been able to find a full version online anywhere.
However, I think the best place to find it is
in
Grandfather Tales by Richard Chase.
Honestly, I could have put all sorts of European Cinderella
stories on this list.
This one just
struck me because of all the little differences, though.
For one, the wicked stepmother was our
heroine Hearth-Cat’s schoolmistress and she actually wanted her father to marry
her before he found out how awful she was.
This one also includes the cow as fairy godmother (no mention of the cow
really being Hearth-Cat’s mother) and also incorporates the “kind and unkind
girls” archetype.
I think one of the
things that struck me though was what takes place of the ball.
Usually, it’s either a ball or a festival or
church.
However, in this variant, our
heroine is off to the races.
I’m
assuming they’re horse races, but it doesn’t say.
As someone who lives about a half hour from
Saratoga, I’ve often heard about how rich folks would get themselves dressed up
and head out to enjoy themselves at the track.
So, this little detail really caught my attention.
In all “The Hearth-Cat” is a European
Cinderella story that has enough little differences to build up into something
notable.
This is another one where I wish I had a better title.
Every version I see calls it “Indian
Cinderella” though.
I believe there may
have been a picture book adaptation titled
Sootface,
though (I just can’t find it).
I picked
this one to show how different some of these stories can be while still keeping
some of the same themes across cultures.
It doesn’t hurt that this is one that seems to predate encounters with
the Europeans.
This one has the usual
set-up at the beginning.
There’s a girl
who’s treated like a slave by her sisters.
The work her to death, beat her and even burn her face with coals from
the fire.
Naturally, there has to be
some way for our heroine to escape this predicament, but it’s not the usual
way.
There’s no fairy godmother.
There’s no ball.
There’s no leaving a shoe behind.
Instead, there’s a warrior named Strong Wind
who is looking for just the right bride.
You see, Strong Wind can turn invisible and only wants a woman who can
see him in that state.
To this effect,
he asks all prospective suitors three questions.
I won’t give any more away.
The link is in the title.
Okay, so maybe with the popularity of this tale among fairy
tale fans, it shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Also, it’s probably becoming clear that I have a bit of a weakness for
tales from
East Asia (I think it could be the
next great untapped source of popular fairy tales).
There’s just something special about this
tale, though.
In this version, the fairy
godmother is the bones of a fish with lots of spirit power.
The ball is a festival.
Also, this is one of the older Cinderella
stories (I sometimes wonder if that’s what prompted Marissa Meyer to set her
book
Cinder in a future version of
China).
These things aren’t what catapult this story
to number one, though.
Mainly it’s just
that the setting of pre-industrial China makes a lot of the pieces of a Cinderella
story fit together in much more interesting ways.
In this version, the mother and step-mother
were once co-wives (there was some degree of polygyny allowed for kings and
lords in old, old
China).
So, her hatred for her step-daughter is like
an old rivalry being carried on from mother to daughter.
Also, the thing about the slipper makes a
different kind of sense when you remember how important it once was in
China for women
to have tiny, dainty feet.
The cultural
context adds a whole new element to the story.
So, there you have it: my top seven Cinderella stories.
This is just the tip of the iceberg,
though.
The world is just filled with
Cinderella stories.
If you have a
favorite I didn’t mention, let me know in the comments.
Before I go, I should thank the Folktexts site by D.L. Ashliman for providing me with a lot of my source material. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for a
ball.