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Help! Can anyone identify this fairytale?

16 replies

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 27/01/2021 22:02

DS was doing some homework about the seasons and it reminded me about it. I can't remember if I read it or if I was told it when I was young but googling either offers me aprons to buy or the frog Prince fairy story. There was a vaguely similar ones about gold or toads falling from lips but it didn't have the four seasons in it.

It's a bit more flowery than this but this is the summary...

A young woman is out collecting berries and stumbles upon 4 sisters in a cave on a mountain. They ask her for a drink of water and she gives it to them. They talk about the seasons and ask her which one she likes best. She says she loves spring and describes why and (this is the only bit I can definitely remember word for word) one sister sat back satisfied. Then she goes though the other seasons and each sister sits back satisfied. Then they ask her to hold up her apron and fill it with coals and wish her luck. She thanks them, goes home and empties her apron only to have gold coins fall out instead of coals.

^Another woman hears of this and is jealous so asks the first woman how she got them and goes up to the mountain cave to get coins herself. However, when she finds the sisters and they discuss the seasons, she can only come up with reasons why she dislikes each. Like the first woman, she gets an apron filled with coals but when she empties it, it's filled with toads because she was unpleasant about the four seasons.

DS loved it and has been asking me to retell it so I'd like to see if it actually exists somewhere in print so if I can if I've remembered it right!

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Clawdy · 27/01/2021 22:29

Not the same story , but it's a bit like the old fairytale where one sister falls into a river and ends up working for old Mother Holle. She works hard and gets her reward by walking under an archway and is covered with gold. The bad sister tries to copy her by jumping into the river and going to work for Mother Holle. But she does nothing, and when she gets her "reward" under the archway she is covered in mud which never washes off!

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 27/01/2021 22:37

That is is very similar! I found one with an old woman beside a well who asks for a drink and causes coins to fall from the lips of the good sister when she gives her water and beetles and bugs from the stepsister who refuses. I think I'd prefer unwashable mud tbh!

It's really annoying me. I can almost remember the sound of someone reading it but that could just be my imagination!

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Lotsachocolateplease · 27/01/2021 22:40

Look up Aesop’s fables. Sounds more like one of those than a fairy tale

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 27/01/2021 22:55

I just googled and apparently there's 725 fables lotsa. That'll keep me entertained for a while anyway, thanks!

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FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 27/01/2021 23:08

Ah no, I've just had a read and searched for keywords on the copy of the fables held on project Gutenberg. I recognise a fair few of them and they're a different sort of storytelling.

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FenEel · 27/01/2021 23:15

It is quite similar to the story of the girl who is sent out to do impossible tasks by her horrible stepmother/ sisters - find violets and strawberries out of season - and comes upon the personified months of the year hanging out in the forest, and they help her by making strawberries grow in the snow etc. I had this in a reading book at infant school and have always wanted to find it again, the book was one of the bronze, silver or gold books in the lovely Through The Rainbow reading scheme, but there are loads of them ( called things like Moonlight and Elflight, Firelight and Candlelight etc) and second hand book stores never list the stories in each one!

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 27/01/2021 23:25

Oh that sounds nice Fen, I had Janet and John books in P1-P3 and than when we went up to the next school we could pick books from the library.

I did manage to track down a book about twins I remembered fondly from the school library and was completely aghast at the racist stuff I didn't remember at all. It had probably been in the library for decades and never read by adults, but still!

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Deedeedocket · 28/01/2021 00:14

Not sure of your age. I’m mid 40s and was always given lots of ‘books for 8 year olds’ type books. I think it was a series of them. It sounds very much like a short story from one of them. I’ll see if I can find a pic of kind of book I’m talking about.

Deedeedocket · 28/01/2021 00:18

Kind of like this!

Help! Can anyone identify this fairytale?
Jasmin82 · 28/01/2021 02:58

It could be one of the Grimm collection of fairytales. There are a few that have a similar narrative. Unfortunately, there are quite a few of them.

lovethisjourneyforme · 28/01/2021 04:37

Sounds like it's based on Diamonds & Toads, there are quite a few variations though.

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 28/01/2021 10:12

Aah, I think you've got it Deedeedocket! I did get those kinds of books and I've still got one of the Christmas ones I was reading to DS. From what I remember it's exactly the same kind of cadence as their stories.

Thank you! I'm off to browse for second hand copies Grin

Help! Can anyone identify this fairytale?
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Deedeedocket · 28/01/2021 17:41

On this subject though can we talk about how this dress was the most beautiful dress in the whole wide world ever in the 80s.

Help! Can anyone identify this fairytale?
FenEel · 28/01/2021 18:55

Oh, I preferred the blue one!

RubaiyatOfAnyone · 28/01/2021 19:52

I changed my mind everytime i read it, but yes definitely the three most beautiful dresses ever.

OP, i hope you find it. I was thinking one of those story collections (which i loved) like A Necklace of Raindrops or one of the Ruth Manning Sanders ones? I have that Round the Christmas Tree book saved for dd to ignore treasure too.

FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack · 28/01/2021 20:24

I still have a necklace of raindrops too Smile it's falling apart now so I haven't read it to DS but I should definitely check my copy!

They just don't do illustrations like that now and so much of the charm is lost. They were so beautiful.

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