Robin Redbreast

Robin Redbreast
Birds can represent the fluttering, darting thoughts of intuition. This is why little birds helped Cinderella help herself.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Cinderella #269 Kragerunpels (Crow-skin Gown)


Cinderella #269 Kragerunpels (Crow-skin Gown)
If Cinderella had worn
this style of shoe, the prince
would not so easily have
grabbed one! 
Once upon a time, "the King of England's son wooed the beautiful daughter of the King of Denmark, but he is not allowed to wed her." So this beautiful princess "goes to her mother's grave" and asks advice at the lonely grave. The mother's spirit communicates to her that the girl muse demand that her father give her "a gown of gold brocade, one of silver brocade, and a crow-skin gown." Then, when she has these three gowns in hand, she should call for her carriage. She must chant"Light before me, dark behind me! None shall see whither I speed!" This is how she travels to England, without anyone knowing where she has gone. When she has crossed the border, she "leaves the carriage in the town, and, dressed in the crow-skin gown," looks for work there. She finds a position in the scullery of the castle. Soon it is Sunday, and she asks permission to go to church. It is granted, and she secretly changes into her gown of gold brocade. The next Sunday, she goes again, dressed in silver. In fact, "thrice she goes to church" and each time, the prince of England chances to sit next to her. On the second Sunday, he manages to snatch "half her finger ring" before she flees. On the third, it is one of her shoes that he snatches. Some time passes, in which the prince of England searches for the princess of Denmark. At last, something happens. Still dressed as a scullery maid, the princess finds an errand that takes her to the prince's table. Carrying the remaining bit of finger ring, one half of which the prince now possesses,"the other half she throws anon into his cup, and makes her self known to him." They rejoice at finding one another, and are married at once. 
From: Cox, M.R. (1893/2011) p. 238
Notes: This is yet another Marian Roalfe Cox story; once more it is a boiled down tale: the mother's grave, the strangely made cloak, the menial labor, and the lost shoe. Yet here are also a broken ring, silver and gold, and a church, rather than a ball, setting. Is the father "unnatural"? as Cox would say? We don't know.