The Golden Slipper

The Golden Slipper (Russian: Золотой башмачок) is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A, the persecuted heroine.

Synopsis

An old man brought back two fish from the market for his daughters. The older one ate hers, but the younger asked her fish what to do with it. It told her to put it in water, and it might repay her; she puts it in the well.

The old woman, their mother, loved her older daughter and hated her younger. She dressed up the older to take to Mass, and ordered the younger to husk two bushels of rye while they were gone. She wept beside the well. The fish gave her fine clothing and sent her off, husking the rye while she was gone. The mother came back talking of the beauty they had seen at Mass. She took the older daughter again, leaving the younger to husk three measures of barley and the younger went to Mass again with the fish's aid. A king's son saw her and caught her slipper with some pitch. He found the younger daughter and tried the shoe on her; when it fit, they married.

The Golden Slipper story has similarities to the story we know as “Cinderella”. The old woman in the story treating her oldest daughter good and leaving the youngest behind. The youngest being able to talk to the fish she was served at dinner, taking it to the well to live because the fish ask her to let it live. The old woman was taking the eldest daughter to mass to pray and also find a husband. The old woman would make her youngest hither to stay home and husk some rye for the family. Hither who is upset by being left behind, goes out to the well and is greeted by the fish she saved. The Fish asked her why she was sad? Hither then told the fish what the old woman has been doing, he decided to help her with the rye, and she could go to mass. Hither was delighted and put on her best outfit and headed to mass, where she catches the attention of a handsome prince who is also attending mass. Needing the get home quickly before the old woman finds out she's been at mass the entire time. Leaving behind her shoe/slipper, the prince vows to find out who foot fits inside this slipper. He tracks the old woman down and asks her daughters to try the slipper on, the old woman insisted on just the eldest daughter, but the prince was stubborn and waited to see if Hither's foot was the one. Sure, enough it was, and they lived happily and prospered.^[1]

References

^ Afanasʹev, A. N.; Guterman, Norbert; Alexeieff, Alexandre; Jakobson, Roman (2006). Russian fairy tales. Pantheon fairy tale & folklore library. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-73090-5.

Alexander Afanasyev, Narodnye russkie skazki
Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Cinderella"

[1] Afanasʹev, A. N.; Guterman, Norbert; Alexeieff, Alexandre; Jakobson, Roman (2006). Russian fairy tales. Pantheon fairy tale & folklore library. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-394-73090-5.

[1]

v t e Russian fairy tales
Key articles	Skazka Bylina Folklore of Russia Alexander Afanasyev Alexander Pushkin
Tales in Narodnye russkie skazki collected by Afanasyev	"Koschei the Immortal" "Vasilisa the Beautiful" "Vasilisa the Priest's Daughter" "Father Frost" "Sister Alenushka and Brother Ivanushka" "The Frog Princess" "Vasilii the Unlucky" "The White Duck" "The Princess Who Never Smiled" "The Wicked Sisters" "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" "The Magic Swan Geese" "The Feather of Finist the Falcon" "Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf" "The Bold Knight, the Apples of Youth, and the Water of Life" "Go I Know Not Whither and Fetch I Know Not What" "The Golden Slipper" "The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa" "The Wise Little Girl" "The Armless Maiden" "The Gigantic Turnip" "Storm-Bogatyr, Ivan the Cow's Son" "Emelya the Simpleton/At the Pike's Behest" "The Fiend" "The Lute Player" "The Language of the Birds" "The Maiden Tsar" "The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise" "The Norka" "Dawn, Midnight and Twilight" "Verlioka" "Sivko-Burko" "Donotknow"
Tales by Pushkin	"Ruslan and Ludmila" "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel"
Other	"The Little Humpbacked Horse" "The Scarlet Flower" "The Snow Maiden" "The Hairy Man" "King Kojata" "The Tale About Baba-Yaga" "The Wonderful Birch" "The Girl as Soldier" "Green-Vanka"

Synopsis

See also

References