The Three Spinners
Encyclopedia
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.
Older than the Grimms' variant, Giambattista Basile
wrote an Italian literary fairy tale, The Seven Little Pork Rinds in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone
.
Italo Calvino
's Italian Folktales
included a variant, And Seven!.
The first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales contained a much shorter variant, Hateful Flax Spinning, but it is the later version that became well-known.
Once at the castle, the queen showed her a room filled with flax. If she spun it all in three days, she could marry the queen's oldest son. Two days later she returned and was astounded to find it all untouched. The girl pled that homesickness kept her from spinning, but knew that excuse would not serve twice.
Three
women appeared in the night. One had a grotesquely swollen foot; another, a thumb; the third, a lip. They offered to spin it if she would invite them to the wedding, say they were her aunts, and sit them at the high table. She agrees, and they do.
In the morning, the queen arranges for the wedding to their son, the prince, and the girl asks to invite her "aunts". When they appear, the king asks how they came to have such swollen body parts, and they explain that it comes from their endless spinning. The king forbade his beautiful daughter-in-law from spinning again.
When the merchant went on a journey, leaving spinning for his wife, she eventually tried to spin, and flicked passers-by with water; this hit some fairies, who were so amused that they do the spinning for her. They do not help her with her husband's expectations; she feigns that the spinning has made her ill, convincing him that her mother was right about her overworking.
In addition, the women instruct her to invite them by calling their names. She forgets the names and puts off the wedding, and puts it off, trying to remember the names. The merchant sees the three women cavorting in the forest, like Rumpelstiltskin
, and calling their names; he tells this to his bride in hopes of amusing her and getting her to agree to the wedding. She is therefore able to invite them and precipitate the ending as in the Grimms' tale.
A Puerto Rican version even exists, with three Holy Souls in Purgatory
replacing the fairies, a merchant for the king, and the heroine is an orphan abused by an aunt.
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
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Children's and Household Tales is a collection of German origin fairy tales first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimms' Fairy Tales .-Composition:...
by the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. It is tale no 14 and Aarne-Thompson type 501. It is widespread throughout Europe.
It has obvious parallels to Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin is the eponymous character and protagonist of a fairy tale which originated in Germany . The tale was collected by the Brothers Grimm, who first published it in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales...
, and obvious differences, so that they are often compared.
Older than the Grimms' variant, Giambattista Basile
Giambattista Basile
Giambattista Basile was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector.- Biography :Born to a Neapolitan middle-class family, Basile was, during his career, a courtier and soldier to various Italian princes, including the doge of Venice. According to Benedetto Croce he was born in 1575, while...
wrote an Italian literary fairy tale, The Seven Little Pork Rinds in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone
Pentamerone
The Pentamerone is a seventeenth-century fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile.-Background:...
.
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...
's Italian Folktales
Italian Folktales
Italian Folktales is a collection of 200 Italian folktales published in 1956 by Italo Calvino. Calvino began to undertake the project that will lead to the Italian Folktales in 1954, influenced by Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale; his intention was to emulate the Brothers Grimm in...
included a variant, And Seven!.
The first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales contained a much shorter variant, Hateful Flax Spinning, but it is the later version that became well-known.
Synopsis
A lazy girl would not spin and her mother was berating her for it when the Queen overheard her and asked what she was scolding. Ashamed to admit that her daughter was lazy, the woman claimed that the girl spun so much that she could not buy enough flax. The Queen offered to take her with her.Once at the castle, the queen showed her a room filled with flax. If she spun it all in three days, she could marry the queen's oldest son. Two days later she returned and was astounded to find it all untouched. The girl pled that homesickness kept her from spinning, but knew that excuse would not serve twice.
Three
Rule of three (writing)
The "rule of three" is a principle in writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The reader/audience of this form of text is also more likely to consume information if it is written in groups of...
women appeared in the night. One had a grotesquely swollen foot; another, a thumb; the third, a lip. They offered to spin it if she would invite them to the wedding, say they were her aunts, and sit them at the high table. She agrees, and they do.
In the morning, the queen arranges for the wedding to their son, the prince, and the girl asks to invite her "aunts". When they appear, the king asks how they came to have such swollen body parts, and they explain that it comes from their endless spinning. The king forbade his beautiful daughter-in-law from spinning again.
Hateful Flax Spinning
A king orders his queen and daughters to spin all the time. One day, he gives them a great box of flax to spin, to his daughters' distress. The queen invites three hideous old maids to come to the castle and spin. The king sees them and asks the cause of their deformities. They answer, from spinning. The king forbids his wife and daughters to spin again.The Seven Little Pork Rinds
The girl in this story ate seven pieces of bacon before the meal, so that none was left for her mother; when the mother beat her for her gluttony, a merchant rather than a king asked, and the woman claimed her daughter was ruining her health by working too hard.When the merchant went on a journey, leaving spinning for his wife, she eventually tried to spin, and flicked passers-by with water; this hit some fairies, who were so amused that they do the spinning for her. They do not help her with her husband's expectations; she feigns that the spinning has made her ill, convincing him that her mother was right about her overworking.
And Seven!
In this version also, the part of the king is taken by a merchant; similarly, the mother berates her daughter for "seven" -- which are seven bowls of soup, but the mother claims they are spindles of hemp.In addition, the women instruct her to invite them by calling their names. She forgets the names and puts off the wedding, and puts it off, trying to remember the names. The merchant sees the three women cavorting in the forest, like Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin is the eponymous character and protagonist of a fairy tale which originated in Germany . The tale was collected by the Brothers Grimm, who first published it in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales...
, and calling their names; he tells this to his bride in hopes of amusing her and getting her to agree to the wedding. She is therefore able to invite them and precipitate the ending as in the Grimms' tale.
A Puerto Rican version even exists, with three Holy Souls in Purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
replacing the fairies, a merchant for the king, and the heroine is an orphan abused by an aunt.