written between 7 BC and AD 23
Rhodopis, in Strabo
An eagle snatches her sandal while she bathes and drops it in the king's lap at Memphis. He has the whole country searched and marries her. No stepmother, no magic helper: just luck.
Cinderella, from 9th-century China to 1893
The Cinderella you know is a rarity
The fairy godmother, the pumpkin, midnight. In 1893 the English folklorist Marian Roalfe Cox gathered 345 stories related to Cinderella, from Iceland to Vietnam. 134 of them she classed as Cinderella proper: an ill-treated girl, recognised by the shoe she lost. Tell us how you remember yours and see how many of them match it.
Who really helps Cinderella?
In Cox's collection, almost never a fairy godmother. Of the 134 stories she classed as Cinderella, a godmother appears in 4, and two of those are literary tales rather than stories collected from tellers: Perrault's Cendrillon and Madame d'Aulnoy's Finette Cendron, both from 1690s France (Cox has the second in an 1845 German translation).
Most often she is helped by her dead mother, through a tree growing on the grave, or an animal (a cow, a sheep, a fish, a dove), which is sometimes the mother herself, transformed. An animal or the mother helps in 82 of 134 versions (69 with an animal, 25 with the mother, 12 with both).
Where does she meet the prince?
At church more often than at a ball. Typically she comes three Sundays running, each time more finely dressed, and hurries away after the service. Sometimes the prince has the threshold smeared with pitch, so that her shoe sticks.
And the stepsisters?
In 65 versions, nearly half, one of the sisters (or sometimes another rival) mutilates her foot to squeeze into the shoe, and often a bird warns the prince that there is blood in it. A deadline to leave by appears in 2 versions. The commonest combination, an animal helper, a meeting at church and the cut foot, is found in 27. No form is "the real one". But the fairy godmother, the ball and midnight, all three together, turn up in a single version: Perrault's own.
The 4 versions with a godmother
- Zamarashka — A Dirty Person Russian Empire · 1860 · Cox 55
- Finette Aschenbrödel France · 1845 · Cox 56
- Cendrillon France · 1697 · Cox 91
- The young Countess and the Water-nymph. Germany · 1852 · Cox 309
The bones that work wonders
In 23 of Cox's versions, the bones of a slain helper give the girl what she needs. The stepmother slaughters the cow, sheep or goat that fed her in secret, or the sisters kill the mother herself. The girl gathers the bones and buries or hides them, and from them come her dresses, her horses and her shoes. You find them in Scotland, Serbia, Greece, Russia, Liguria, India and Vietnam.
Cox had no version from China. Yet the story that best fits this group had been written down some thousand years earlier, in Chinese.
女用其言，金璣衣食隨欲而具。
Ye Xian, daughter of a chieftain in the south, secretly raises a fish with red fins and golden eyes. Her stepmother puts on Ye Xian's clothes, calls the fish, kills it, eats it and hides the bones under the dung heap. A man descends from the sky and tells the girl to take the bones and pray to them. At the village festival she comes in a silk jacket blue as a kingfisher's feathers and in golden shoes, loses one, and the villagers sell it to the king of an island kingdom. It is too small for every woman in his land, "light as a feather, silent on stone". The king finds Ye Xian and marries her. The stepmother and her daughter are killed by flying stones.
Duan Chengshi, a Tang dynasty scholar who died in 863, says at the end who told him the story: Li Shiyuan, a former member of his household, "originally from the 'caves' of Yongzhou", as the Chinese called the settlements of the southern peoples, around today's Nanning. So the story most likely comes from the southern peoples; some scholars, such as Fay Beauchamp, link it to the Zhuang. Duan sets it "before the Qin and Han".
In the Vietnamese version in Cox's collection (No. 68, published 1886), the fish is a goby, and its bones are put into four pots buried at the corners of the bed. Out of them come clothes and a pair of shoes. A crow steals one and carries it to the palace.
The 23 versions with bones
- Catarina Italy · 1892 · Cox 3
- Ashpitel Britain and Ireland · 1889 · Cox 4
- Sa Bitella de sos corros d'oro — The Calf with Golden Horns Sardinia · Cox 5
- Σταχτοπούτα (Stachtopouta) Balkans · 1832 · Cox 17
- untitled India · 1870 · Cox 25
- The Sharp(horned) Grey Sheep Britain and Ireland · Cox 26
- Papalluga, or the Golden Slipper Balkans · 1874 · Cox 31
- Aschenputtel Balkans · 1864 · Cox 50
- Aschenbrödel Cyprus · 1870 · Cox 53
- Aschenzuttel Balkans · 1854 · Cox 54
- Histoire de Con Tâm et de Con Câm Vietnam (Annam) · 1886 · Cox 68
- Kajong and Halœk Vietnam (Annam) · 1887 · Cox 69
- La Pecorella — The Ewe Sicily · Cox 92
- Rashin Coatie Britain and Ireland · Cox 93
- The Wonderful Birch Russian Empire · 1871 · Cox 95
- Le Taureau Bleu France · 1880 · Cox 99
- untitled Russian Empire · Cox 102
- Kraake Lange Scandinavia · Cox 110
- La Cuzza tzenere Austria-Hungary · Cox 124
- Cinderella Balkans · 1880 · Cox 127
- Kroshechka-Khavroshichka Russian Empire · 1861 · Cox 227
- The Golden Pear-tree France · Cox 232
- The Golden Bells France · Cox 233
Which was the first Cinderella?
That depends on what you count as Cinderella. Tick what a story must have before you'd call it that.
written after 845, before 863
Ye Xian, in Duan Chengshi
Her stepmother kills her fish. The fish's bones give her clothes and golden shoes. She loses one at the village festival, and the king of an island kingdom tries it on every woman until he finds her.
printed in Naples, 1634
Cenerentola, in Giambattista Basile
Zezolla is ill-treated by her stepmother and stepsisters. A magic date tree dresses her, and the king finds her by the tall patten she loses.
printed in Paris, 1697
Cendrillon, in Charles Perrault
The fairy godmother, the pumpkin turned coach, the mice turned horses, midnight, the glass slippers. The version almost everyone knows.
printed in Berlin, 1812
Aschenputtel, in the Brothers Grimm
A little tree she planted on her mother's grave gives her the dresses, and doves help her and tell her to be back from the ball before midnight. The stepsisters cut off a toe and a heel to fit the shoe. The doves only peck out their eyes in the 1819 edition.
The sandal story is far older than Ye Xian, but it lacks the rest: no cruel home, no helper. Among the written accounts compared here, Ye Xian is the earliest known to have all three. Cox's own book slips here: in the introduction, Andrew Lang puts Rhodopis's shoe "in Herodotus". Herodotus writes about Rhodopis but mentions no sandal; the story is in Strabo and Aelian.
Cinderella in Romania: Pipelcuța and the rooster
Cox had almost nothing Romanian. She filed three stories under "Roumania": two collected in the Banat, Romania's south-western corner, and published in German by Arthur Schott in 1845, in which the girl is recognised by a ring, not a shoe, and one from an 1881 London book whose tale (about a cowherd boy) matches, almost word for word, a French literary tale by Charles Deulin of 1874.
The Romanian versions were listed and compared by the Romanian philologist Lazăr Șăineanu in Basmele române (Romanian Fairy Tales, 1895), under "the Cinderella type". There the girl is called Pipelcuța, "that is, Cinderella", Șăineanu explains, linking the name to the Slavic pepel, ash. A raven helps her, at the third feast "a golden slipper fell from her foot", and the emperor finds her "in a bed of ashes". In "The Fairy of the Mountains", a tale published by the Bucharest printer and tale-collector Petre Ispirescu, the prince has pitch spread on the road so that her slipper sticks, and the slipper "was cast to the foot" of the hen-girl.
In the version from Bukovina, Romania's northern corner, published by the folklorist Simion Florea Marian, the stepmother has the girl's helpful calf slaughtered. The girl hides its bones in a hollow tree, and there she later finds the clothes she wears to church: the same magic of the bones as in Ye Xian. When the village boyar's son comes with the slipper, the stepmother hides her under a trough. The rooster gives her away:
Cucurigu gagu!
Minciuni spune baba!
C-a moșului fată
Șede sub covată,
În tindă după ușă,
În colb și cenușă!Cock-a-doodle-doo! The old woman lies! The old man's girl sits under the trough, in the hall behind the door, in dust and ash!
The doves in Grimm and the birds in dozens of Cox's versions play the same part. And in some Romanian versions, according to the Romanian folklorist Silvia Ciubotaru, the dead mother comes back as a hazel or walnut tree on the grave, as a black cow, in the cow's horn and bones.
How the rest of the world heard of Ye Xian
When Cox published her 345 versions in 1893, Ye Xian was not among them. The first person known to have written about her as a Cinderella was the Japanese naturalist Minakata Kumagusu, in March 1911, in the journal of the Tokyo Anthropological Society. In China, Zhou Zuoren set her beside Cinderella in an essay of 1914, according to the folklore historian Liu Xicheng. The American R. D. Jameson discussed her in English in lectures published in Beijing in 1932, and Arthur Waley's study in the journal Folklore in 1947 brought her to a wide English-speaking audience.
Three things we get wrong
The glass slipper
It is often said that Perrault wrote "vair" (squirrel fur) and a printer turned it into "verre" (glass). The 1697 edition reads pantoufles de verre. The fur idea appears in Balzac in 1841, who credits it to an unnamed poet, and then in Littré's dictionary. In 2023 the Académie française also rejected the "vair" explanation.
The pecked-out eyes
In the Grimms' first edition (1812), the sisters cut off a toe and a heel, but keep their eyes. The doves that peck them out arrive in the 1819 edition.
The tiny foot and foot-binding
Ye Xian's shoe is often said to reflect the Chinese custom of binding girls' feet. The story is older than the earliest accounts of the custom, which place it in the 10th century. Nor does it praise a small foot: it says only, in the usual reading, that the shoe was a cun (about three centimetres) too short even for the women with the smallest feet.
Tonight, tell the oldest one
It takes two minutes, read aloud.
Long ago, before the first emperors, a chieftain in the south had two wives. One died and left him a daughter, Ye Xian, clever and skilful. Then the father died too, and the stepmother sent the girl to cut wood on the cliffs and draw water from deep wells.
One day Ye Xian caught a fish a little over two inches long, with red fins and golden eyes. She kept it in a bowl, then in a bigger bowl, then in the pond. The fish came up only for her, and rested its head on the bank.
The stepmother found out. She gave the girl a new jacket, sent her far away for water, put on her rags and called the fish. She killed it, cooked it and hid the bones under the dung heap.
Ye Xian wept in the fields until a man with loose hair came down from the sky: "Take the bones, hide them in your room, and ask them for whatever you need." She did, and she never wanted for anything again.
At the village festival she came in a jacket blue as a kingfisher and in golden shoes. Her stepsister said, "She looks like Ye Xian." The girl ran, and lost a shoe.
The shoe reached the king of an island kingdom. It was light as a feather and made no sound on stone, and it fitted no woman at all. The king searched house by house until he found Ye Xian. She put on the shoe and the blue jacket, and stood there as lovely as a goddess.
The king married her and took the bones with them. And the stepmother and her daughter were killed by flying stones.
A short retelling of Duan Chengshi's text. It leaves out the ending: the king asks the bones for treasure, and after a year they stop answering.
How we counted
Marian Roalfe Cox, Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants (London, Folk-Lore Society, 1893), sums up each story as a chain of episodes with fixed names ("Ill-treated heroine — Help at grave — Lost shoe — Shoe marriage test…"). There are 341 numbered summaries; three Finnish tales and one Gaelic tale added at the back of the book make 345. We grouped them as she did: 134 Cinderellas (an ill-treated girl recognised by her shoe), 78 "Catskin" stories (the girl flees a father who wants to marry her), 26 "Cap o' Rushes" stories (the girl is cast out by her father), 80 indeterminate, and 23 with a hero instead of a heroine.
The questions above use only the 134 Cinderellas. For each one, we read Cox's summary for who helps, where the meeting happens, whether the sisters cut their feet, and whether there is a deadline to leave by. Five of these 134 summaries say only "as No. X"; for these we used the story Cox points to. Cox records episodes carefully: what a summary doesn't mention counts as absent, and for the helper and the meeting place as "not said". Ye Xian, Rhodopis and Șăineanu's Romanian versions are not in Cox's collection, so they are not in these numbers.
All 134 Cinderellas in Cox's collection
- Dom tri flikkona som sku ti Kungsgaln o tjena — The three Girls who went as Servants to the King's Palace Russian Empire · 1887 · Cox 1
- Flickorna, som foro till Kungens Gård — The Girls who went to the King's Palace Russian Empire · 1887 · Cox 2
- Catarina Italy · 1892 · Cox 3
- Ashpitel Britain and Ireland · 1889 · Cox 4
- Sa Bitella de sos corros d'oro — The Calf with Golden Horns Sardinia · Cox 5
- Sa Contanscia de Chiginera — The Story of Cinderella Sardinia · Cox 6
- La Cenerentola Italy · Cox 7
- The Brother Ram Armenia · 1887 · Cox 8
- Step-Mother Story Iceland · 1862 · Cox 9
- The Story of Mjadveig, Daughter of Mani Iceland · 1866 · Cox 10
- Kari Træstak Scandinavia · 1837 · Cox 11
- Kari Træstak Scandinavia · 1852 · Cox 12
- Kari Træstak Scandinavia · 1852 · Cox 13
- Kari Træstak Scandinavia · 1852 · Cox 14
- Lindedronningen — The Lime-tree Queen Scandinavia · 1852 · Cox 15
- Chernushka — Little Cinderella Russian Empire · Cox 16
- Σταχτοπούτα (Stachtopouta) Balkans · 1832 · Cox 17
- La Gatta Cenerentola Italy · 1846 · Cox 18
- Aschenbrödel Germany · 1846 · Cox 19
- La Conza-Senare Italy · 1873 · Cox 20
- María la Cenicienta Chile · Cox 21
- Askungen — Cinder-brat Scandinavia · 1882 · Cox 22
- La Cenorientola Italy · 1874 · Cox 23
- Vaccarella Italy · 1874 · Cox 24
- untitled India · 1870 · Cox 25
- The Sharp(horned) Grey Sheep Britain and Ireland · Cox 26
- The Snow-white Maiden, and the Fair Maid, and the Swarthy Maid, and Frizzle or Bald-Pate their Mother Britain and Ireland · Cox 27
- La Cenerentola Italy · 1875 · Cox 28
- Fair, Brown, and Trembling Britain and Ireland · 1890 · Cox 29
- Katie Woodencloak Scandinavia · 1888 · Cox 30
- Papalluga, or the Golden Slipper Balkans · 1874 · Cox 31
- Popelusa Austria-Hungary · 1880 · Cox 32
- Manndottere i Grisehusi — The Man's Daughter in the Pig-sty Scandinavia · 1870 · Cox 33
- La Brutta Cenerelle Italy · 1882 · Cox 34
- The Red Calf Britain and Ireland · Cox 35
- untitled Russian Empire · 1862 · Cox 36
- Aschenputtel Germany · Cox 37
- Stifdatteren — The Step-daughter Scandinavia · 1884 · Cox 38
- Ludse Lurvehætte — Lucy Ragged-hood Scandinavia · Cox 39
- Den hvide Hund, el. Put i Gryde — The White Dog, or Put-into-Pot Scandinavia · Cox 40
- Den lille Handske — The Little Glove Scandinavia · Cox 41
- Askepot — Pot of Ashes Scandinavia · Cox 42
- Guldskoen — The Golden Shoe Scandinavia · Cox 43
- Mette Træhætte — Wooden-hood Scandinavia · Cox 44
- Den lille røde Kalv — The Little Red Calf Scandinavia · Cox 45
- Hasselbroder — Hazel-brother Scandinavia · Cox 46
- Mette Skindkjole — Mette Skin-gown Scandinavia · Cox 47
- Hanen og Hønen der gik til Things — The Cock and Hen who went to the Judge Scandinavia · Cox 48
- The Three Sisters Germany · 1825 · Cox 49
- Aschenputtel Balkans · 1864 · Cox 50
- La Cenerentola Italy · 1877 · Cox 51
- El pumo de uoro e la Conçaçenara — The Golden Apple and the Cinder-girl Austria-Hungary · 1888 · Cox 52
- Aschenbrödel Cyprus · 1870 · Cox 53
- Aschenzuttel Balkans · 1854 · Cox 54
- Zamarashka — A Dirty Person Russian Empire · 1860 · Cox 55
- Finette Aschenbrödel France · 1845 · Cox 56
- The Mysterious Lady of the Fir-tree Russian Empire · 1885 · Cox 57
- The Princess with the Pigskin Cloak Russian Empire · 1887 · Cox 58
- Den lille Guldsko — The Little Golden Shoe Scandinavia · 1888 · Cox 59
- Guldskoen — The Golden Shoe Scandinavia · 1890 · Cox 60
- Den lille Guldsko — The Little Gold Shoe Scandinavia · Cox 61
- Askenbasken, der blev Dronning — Askenbasken, who became Queen Scandinavia · 1881 · Cox 62
- Pisk-i-Aske Scandinavia · Cox 63
- Pisk-i-Aske — Whip in the Ashes Scandinavia · Cox 64
- Guldskoen — The Golden Shoe Scandinavia · Cox 65
- Fedte-Mette — Greasy Matty Scandinavia · Cox 66
- Tahier-Tahaer Scandinavia · Cox 67
- Histoire de Con Tâm et de Con Câm Vietnam (Annam) · 1886 · Cox 68
- Kajong and Halœk Vietnam (Annam) · 1887 · Cox 69
- Von dem Mädchen das eine Hexe zur Stiefmutter hatte Austria-Hungary · 1882 · Cox 70
- Le Chat Noir France · 1887 · Cox 71
- La Ventafochs — The Fire-blower Spain and Portugal · 1871 · Cox 72
- untitled Iceland · 1860 · Cox 73
- Aschengrittel Germany · Cox 74
- Eschenfidle Germany · Cox 75
- La Cenicienta Spain and Portugal · Cox 76
- Fjøs-Lubba — Stable-Slut Scandinavia · Cox 77
- Kælldottera — The Old Man's Daughter Scandinavia · Cox 78
- Manddottera Scandinavia · Cox 79
- Aaskepot Scandinavia · Cox 80
- Kaddedotteri — The Man's Daughter Scandinavia · Cox 81
- Lita Kjersti — Little Christina Scandinavia · Cox 82
- Kari Trestakk (1) Scandinavia · Cox 83
- Kari Trestakk (2) Scandinavia · Cox 84
- Kari Trestakk (3) Scandinavia · Cox 85
- Kari Trestakk (4) Scandinavia · Cox 86
- Sjukdottera — The Step-Daughter (dialect) Scandinavia · Cox 87
- O Popelušce Austria-Hungary · 1857 · Cox 88
- The Hearth Cat Spain and Portugal · Cox 89
- The Maiden and the Fish Spain and Portugal · Cox 90
- Cendrillon France · 1697 · Cox 91
- La Pecorella — The Ewe Sicily · Cox 92
- Rashin Coatie Britain and Ireland · Cox 93
- The Story of an Orphan Austria-Hungary · Cox 94
- The Wonderful Birch Russian Empire · 1871 · Cox 95
- The Marvellous Oak Russian Empire · 1871 · Cox 96
- The Three Sisters Russian Empire · 1871 · Cox 97
- Cinderella Scandinavia · 1887 · Cox 98
- Le Taureau Bleu France · 1880 · Cox 99
- Den lille Sko — The Little Shoe Scandinavia · Cox 100
- untitled Russian Empire · Cox 101
- untitled Russian Empire · Cox 102
- The Beggar's Daughter Housed Free Russian Empire · Cox 103
- The Two Young Ladies and Cinderella Russian Empire · Cox 104
- The Servants' Places Russian Empire · Cox 105
- Cinderella Russian Empire · Cox 106
- Finette, The Swineherd Russian Empire · Cox 107
- The Swineherd Russian Empire · Cox 108
- Sikeri-Sokeri, Cowskin Russian Empire · Cox 109
- Kraake Lange Scandinavia · Cox 110
- Die Drei Königstöchter Austria-Hungary · 1850 · Cox 111
- The Little Gold Shoe Scandinavia · Cox 112
- untitled Scandinavia · Cox 113
- Krak-Pels Scandinavia · Cox 114
- Aske-Pjeske Scandinavia · Cox 115
- untitled Scandinavia · Cox 116
- Fröken Skinn-pels ror i Askan — Miss Skin-cloak rakes in the Ashes Scandinavia · Cox 117
- Kråknäbba Pelsen — Crow's-nib Cloak Scandinavia · Cox 118
- Kråkskinns-Maja Scandinavia · Cox 119
- Cendrillon West Indies (Martinique) · Cox 120
- untitled Scandinavia · 1873 · Cox 121
- La Cenerentola Italy · 1879 · Cox 122
- Van den Koning en van Jenne zijn zoet Liefken — The Story of the King and of Jenny his true Love Belgium · Cox 123
- La Cuzza tzenere Austria-Hungary · Cox 124
- The Three Sisters Austria-Hungary · 1860 · Cox 125
- The Oak-tree and the Sheepskin Russian Empire · 1850 · Cox 126
- Cinderella Balkans · 1880 · Cox 127
- The Three Sisters Austria-Hungary · 1852 · Cox 128
- The Orphan and the Fairy Russian Empire · Cox 129
- untitled Austria-Hungary · Cox 130
- Bapkhadi India · 1891 · Cox 307
- La Maestra e la Figliastra Sardinia · 1890 · Cox 308
- The young Countess and the Water-nymph. Germany · 1852 · Cox 309
- La Cendrouse France · 1891 · Cox 310
Sources
- Marian Roalfe Cox, Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap o' Rushes, Folk-Lore Society, London, 1893, with an introduction by Andrew Lang. archive.org (University of Toronto copy; two missing pages supplied from the Cornell copy).
- Duan Chengshi, Youyang zazu (酉陽雜俎), sequel (續集), book I, "Zhi Nuogao I". Wikisource, Siku quanshu text. Year of death, 863: China Biographical Database. The same book records an event of 845, so it was written after that year.
- Fay Beauchamp, "Asian Origins of Cinderella: The Zhuang Storyteller of Guangxi", Oral Tradition 25/2 (2010), pp. 447–496. PDF.
- Minakata Kumagusu, 「西暦九世紀の支那書に載たる「シンダレラ」物語」, Tōkyō Jinruigakkai zasshi 26/300 (March 1911), pp. 215–228. doi:10.1537/ase1887.26.215.
- Liu Xicheng on Zhou Zuoren's essay "Gu tonghua shiyi" (1914): 周作人的故事研究. Arthur Waley, "The Chinese Cinderella Story", Folklore 58/1 (1947), pp. 226–238, doi.
- Strabo, Geography 17.1.33, trans. H. L. Jones (Loeb, 1932): LacusCurtius; dating in Jones's introduction. Aelian, Varia Historia 13.33. Herodotus 2.134–135.
- Giambattista Basile, "La gatta cennerentola", Lo cunto de li cunti I.6 (1634); Charles Perrault, "Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre", Histoires ou contes du temps passé (1697), Wikisource; the Brothers Grimm, "Aschenputtel", 1812 and 1819 editions.
- A. Landes, Contes et légendes annamites, Saigon, 1886, No. XXII (Cox No. 68). archive.org.
- Lazăr Șăineanu, Basmele române în comparațiune cu legendele antice clasice, Bucharest, 1895, "The stepmother cycle", pp. 723 ff. archive.org. Petre Ispirescu, "Zâna munților", Wikisource. Arthur and Albert Schott, Walachische Mährchen, Stuttgart, 1845, Nos. 3 and 4 (Cox Nos. 195 and 298).
- On the glass slipper: Académie française, "Dire, ne pas dire", 5 January 2023, "Vair" ou "verre"?; Littré, "vair". On foot-binding: Zhang Bangji, Mozhuang manlu, book 8; Dorothy Ko, Cinderella's Sisters (University of California Press, 2005).