The Dirty Shepherdess 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...

 collected by Paul Sébillot

Paul Sébillot

Paul Sébillot was a French folklorist, painter, and writer. Many of his works are about his native province, Brittany.-Early life and art:...

. 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

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 out of the kingdom. She went, with her dresses and jewels. She made herself ugly, so that a farmwife would not be reluctant to hire her, and wore a beggar's clothing. Eventually, she was hired as a shepherdess. One day, she dressed herself in her fine gowns just to remember. The prince, hunting, saw her, and asked who the beautiful woman was who tended the sheep, garnering much ridicule. The prince fell ill with longing, and said that only a loaf of bread baked by the shepherdess would cure him. She made it, and her ring fell into the dough. When he ate it, he found the ring and declared he would marry only the woman whose finger it fitted. When every other woman had tried it, he insisted on the shepherdess as well, and the ring fit her. She dressed herself in her fine gowns, and the king agreed to the wedding.

She insisted that they ask her father's permission and invite him to the wedding. She had his food cooked without salt, and he realized that he had misinterpreted her words.

See also

• Water and Salt
  Water and Salt
  Water and Salt is an Italian fairy tale, it can be found in the collection Italian Popular Tales, collected by Thomas Frederick Crane.In the Aarne-Thompson classification system, Water and Salt is Type 923.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• 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"...
  
  
• The Goose-Girl at the Well
  The Goose-Girl at the Well
  The Goose-Girl at the Well is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 179.It is Aarne-Thompson type 923, love like salt.-Synopsis:...
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• 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:...
  
  

External links

• The Dirty Shepherdess