Tale Type 310. (Magic Tales)
I. Promise of Child. To appease a witch
whom he has offended, a man promises her his child when it is
born.
II. The Hair Ladder. (a) The girl is
imprisoned in a windowless tower which the witch enters by climbing
on her hair as a ladder. (b) The king's son watches and does
likewise.
III. Abandonment and Blinding. (a) When the
witch discovers the deceit, she cuts off the girl's hair and abandons
her in a desert. (b) When the prince comes, he saves himself by
jumping from the tower, and is blinded.
IV. Blindness Cured. Finally his wife's tears
falling on his eyes heal them.
Motifs present:
I.
S222 Man promises (sells) daughter to save himself from danger or
death.
G204 Girl in service of witch.
II.
R41.2 Captivity in tower T381 Imprisoned virgin to prevent
knowledge of men (marriage, impregnation)
F848.1 Girls long hair as ladder into tower
L162 Lowly heroine marries prince (king)
III.
S144 Abandonment in desert
S165 Mutilation: putting out eyes
IV.
F952.1 Blindness cured by tears
According to Antti Aarne, the classification system
employed above to the "Rapunzel" tale can be used to link common tale
variants through the presence of common motifs. Below is a listing of
variants of the "Rapunzel" tale, as denoted by Stith Thompson in his
translated and enlarged version of Aarne's motif-based classification
system.
According to the Aarne-Thompson classification system, the
following stories can be classified as variants of the classic
Rapunzel, or Maiden in the Tower tale, and as such carry the Tale
Type 310 distinction.
Anthousa the Fair with Golden Hair. Megas, Folktales of Greece, no. 22.
Beautiful Catharinella. Grimm, Other Tales, p.20.
The Canary Prince. Calvino, Italian Folktales, no. 18.
The Fair Angiola. Crane, Italian Popular Tales, no. 5.
The Fated Marriage. Dawkins, More Greek Fairy Tales, no. 18.
The Garden Witch. Calvino, Italian Folktales, no. 181.
The Girl on the Island (Indian). O'Flaherty, Tales of Sex and Violence, p. 95.
The Godchild of the Fairy in the Tower. Delarue, French Folktales, p. 103.
The Golden Hair/ The Little Frog. Massignon, Folktales of France, no. 29.
King of Denmark's Son. Calvino, Italian Folktales, no. 36.
Louliyya, Daughter of Morgan. El-SHamy, Folktales of Egypt, no. 8.
The Maiden in the Tower. Thompson, 100 Folktales, no. 7.
Petrosinella. Basile, Pentamerone, Day 2, Tale 1.
Prezzemolina. Calvino, Italian Folktales, no. 86.
The Princess/The Fair One of the World. Dawkins, Modern Greek Folktales, no. 6.
Prunella, Lang, Grey Fairy Book, p.382.
Rapunzel. Grimm, Tales, no. 12.
Repensil. Roberts, South from Hell, no. 5.
from the Introduction of A Guide to FolkTales in the English
Language by D.L. Ashliman based on the Aarne-Thompson
Classification System.
"The Aarne-Thompson system catalouges some 2500 basic plots from which, for countless generations, European and Near Eastern storytellers have built their tales. As Europeans and Near-Easterners travelled to the New World, the Far East, Africa, and other distant places, their tales migrated as well, often flourishing in their new environments. Hence, the Aarne-Thompson system encompasses tales found around the world..."
- p. ix
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