Donkeyskin is a French 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...

 told by Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...

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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, somewhat euphemized, in The Grey Fairy Book.

It is Aarne-Thompson

Aarne-Thompson classification system

The Aarne–Thompson classification system is a system for classifying folktales. First developed by Antti Aarne and published in 1910, it was translated and enlarged by Stith Thompson...

 folktale type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include 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 Catskin, 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"...

, Allerleirauh

Allerleirauh

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....

, 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...

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Synopsis

A king had a beautiful wife and a rich castle, including a marvelous donkey whose droppings were gold. One day his wife died, after making him promise not to marry except to a woman whose beauty and attributes equaled hers. The king grieved, but was, in time, persuaded to seek another wife. It became clear that the only woman who would fit the promise was his own daughter.

She went to her fairy godmother

Fairy godmother

In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies...

 who advised her to make impossible demands as a condition of her consent: a dress the color of the sky, a dress the color of the moon, a dress as bright as the sun, and finally, the hide of his marvelous donkey. Such was the king's desire to marry her that he granted all of them. The fairy godmother gave her a marvelous chest to contain all she owned and told her that the donkeyskin would make an excellent disguise.

The princess fled and eventually found a royal farm where they let her work in the kitchen, despite her ugliness in the donkeyskin. On feast days, she would dress herself in the fine gowns her father had given her, and one such day, the prince came by her room and peeped through the keyhole. He fell in love at once, fell ill with his longing, and declared that nothing would cure him but a cake baked by Donkeyskin, and nothing they could say of what a dirty creature she was dissuaded him.

When Donkeyskin baked the cake, a ring of hers fell in it. The prince found it and declared that he would marry only the woman whose finger it fit. Every other woman having failed, he insisted that Donkeyskin try, and it fit. When she had dressed herself in her fine gowns, his parents were reconciled with the match. Donkey-skin later found that her father had remarried to a beautiful widow and everyone lived happily ever after.

Modern variants

• 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....
  
  , a novel by Robin McKinley
  Robin 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...
  
  
• "Donkeyskin," a story by Terri Windling
• "Donkeyskin," a poem by Midori Snyder (available online here)
• Pelzmantel: A Medieval Tale, a novel by K. A. Laity
  K. A. Laity
  K.A. Laity, Ph.D. is a Finnish-American medievalist and award-winning author, noted for the novel , as well as numerous short stories, plays, popular journalism and scholarly essays.-Career overview:...
  
  , Spilled Candy Books, 2003
• Peau d'âne
  Peau d'Âne
  Peau d'Âne is a 1970 French musical film directed by Jacques Demy. It is also known by the English titles Once Upon a Time and The Magic Donkey. The film was adapted by Demy from Donkeyskin, a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a king who wishes to marry his daughter...
  
  (1970), a film directed by Jacques Demy
  Jacques Demy
  Jacques Demy was one of the most approachable filmmakers to appear in the wake of the French New Wave. Uninterested in the formal experimentation of Alain Resnais, or the political agitation of Jean-Luc Godard, Demy instead created a self-contained fantasy world closer to that of François...
  
   and starring Jean Marais
  Jean Marais
  -Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....
  
   and Catherine Deneuve
  Catherine Deneuve
  Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
  
  .
• Retelling in Jim Henson
  Jim Henson
  James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
  
  's The Storyteller
  The Storyteller
  The StoryTeller is a live-action/puppet television series. It was an American/British co-production which originally aired in 1988 and was created and produced by Jim Henson....
  
  as "Sapsorrow".

See also

• The Goat Girl
  The Goat Girl
  The Goat Girl is a Greek fairy tale known in many variants, collected by Anna Angelopoulou, Johann Gottfried von Hahn, and Georgios Ioannou. It bears many similarities to the French Donkeyskin.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• The Dirty Shepherdess
  The Dirty Shepherdess
  The Dirty Shepherdess is a French fairy tale collected by Paul Sébillot. Andrew Lang included it in The Green Fairy Book-Plot summary:A king asked his two daughters how much they loved him. His older said as the apple of her eye. The younger said as much as the salt on her food. He ordered her...
  
  
• The Tale of the Hoodie
  The Tale of the Hoodie
  The Tale of the Hoodie is a Scottish fairy tale, collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Andrew Lang included it, as The Hoodie-Crow, in The Lilac Fairy Book....
  
  
• The Three Daughters of King O'Hara
  The Three Daughters of King O'Hara
  The Three Daughters of King O'Hara is an Irish fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland.-Synopsis:A king had three daughters. One day, when he was away, his oldest daughter wished to marry. She got his cloak of darkness, and wished for the handsomest man in the...