What Other Tale is it Similar to? Quiz

Answer: Sun, Moon, and Talia

Charles Perrault wrote "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", or perhaps more correctly, "The Beauty in the Sleeping Wood". It was originally published in French as "La Belle au bois dormant" in 1697. The sweet fairytale as we know it today is actually a combination of Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty" and the Brothers Grimm's "Little Briar-Rose", which was published in German after Perrault's, in 1812. The idea that the prince wakes the princess up with a kiss, for instance, comes from "Little Briar-Rose", not from Perrault or any earlier variation. In Perrault's tale, it seems like the princess woke up by herself. However, she immediately recognized the prince as the literal man of her dreams!

The earliest known written variation is found in the French "Perceforest", by an anonymous author and published in 1528. In "Perceforest", Princess Zellandine and a knight, Troylus, were in love, but she fell into a magical sleep while he was away. Princess Zellandine was awakened not by her lover directly, but by their baby sucking on her finger, therefore removing the spindle.

Perrault based his story primarily on Basile's "Sun, Moon, and Talia", an Italian tale published in 1634, which in turn was based on earlier elements, such as those in "Perceforest". Like the princess in "Perceforest", Talia was awakened when her babies, Sun and Moon, sucked the distaff's flax out of her finger. Basile's variation includes very dark subject matter. Perrault took out the adultery, rape, pregnancy outside of marriage, and cannibalism. Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty", therefore, is more moralistic and suitable for children.

Answer: Snow-White

"Snow-White", technically "Little Snow-White", was originally published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. The villain was initially her biological mother, but in the 1857 version, it was changed to her stepmother.

To summarize "The Young Slave", a young woman named Cilia became magically pregnant by eating a rose leaf. She gave birth to a daughter and named her Lisa. When Lisa was seven years old, Cilia and her brother thought she was dead, so they put her in a crystal chest and locked her away in a special area of the castle. After some time, Cilia became sick and died, and her brother decided to get married. He told his wife that she couldn't open the forbidden chamber, but he stupidly told her where the key was. Long story short, his wife found the crystal chest. Lisa came back to life, but Lisa's aunt was overcome by envy and she forced her to be her slave. She also beat her.

There are many differences between "Snow-White" and "The Young Slave", but there are two main similarities: both girls died and came back to life and both were hated by women who were envious of their beauty.

Answer: A tailor

"The Glass Coffin" is about a poor tailor who found a beautiful maiden in a glass coffin. She was in a death-like sleep, which was the result of a magician's curse. The magician probably put her in the glass coffin. When the damsel saw the tailor, she proclaimed him to be her deliverer, but she took the initiative to kiss him.

The tale is somewhat similar to "Sleeping Beauty" due to the maiden supposedly being asleep in a forest. It is also like "Snow-White" because she was placed in a glass coffin. The main character of "Little Snow-White" was also placed in a glass coffin, whereas Sleeping Beauty was placed on a bed. This is why I said that the maiden was in a death-like sleep.

Answer: The Ugly Duckling

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling" is about a swan egg that somehow ended up in a duck's nest, so that when all of the babies hatched, the mother duck thought that the cygnet was one of her own, even though he looked different than the ducklings. Everybody teased and even bullied him for being "the ugly duckling", but in the end, he found himself as a beautiful swan (more beautiful than the ducks, in my humble opinion. Ducks are cute, but swans are gorgeous).

Both "The Swan Maiden" (of Swedish origin) and "The Three Swans" (German) include women transforming into swans and/or vice-versa. "The White Duck" (Russian) is about a witch who cursed a princess to be a duck, so it is similar in the sense that a woman was turned into a bird. In fact, some scholars actually believe "The White Duck" was one of the stories that inspired "Swan Lake".

Answer: The Wild Swans

"The Seven Doves" (Italian, 1634) is by Giambattista Basile. The other two, "The Seven Ravens" and "The Twelve Brothers" (German, 1800s) are by the Brothers Grimm. There are even additional ones, such as the Irish one, "The Twelve Wild Geese". As you can see, depending on the variation, there tends to be either seven or twelve brothers. The type of bird varies, but all of these deal with brothers being bewitched to turn into birds, so their sister must go on a mission to help them.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote "The Wild Swans" (published in 1838). Its plot isn't exactly like the other ones, but it does include a sister and her brothers, who got turned into swans.

Answer: Red

"The Twelve Wild Geese" is about a king and queen who had twelve sons, but the mother wanted a daughter. The queen saw a raven and wished that she could have a daughter with skin as white as snow, cheeks red as blood, and hair as black as a raven. The queen had her daughter, but the sons turned into geese as soon as she was born.

The princess is not only named Snow-White-and-Rose-Red, but she shares similarities with the other Snow-White. Both are princesses with snow-white skin and black hair. The one has blood-red lips, while the other has red cheeks.

Meanwhile, "Snow-White and Rose-Red" is about two sisters with those names who met a bear. Unlike the other Snow-Whites, this one has blonde hair and was not born a princess.

Answer: He told the priest that the mermaid was extremely rich.

I personally enjoy the conversation between Dick and the priest so much that I decided to quote part of it.

"If she was the daughter of fifty kings," said Father Fitzgibbon, "I tell you, you can't marry her, she being a fish."

"Please your Reverence," said Dick again, in an undertone, "she is as mild and as beautiful as the moon."

"If she was as mild and as beautiful as the sun, moon, and stars, all put together, I tell you, Dick Fitzgerald," said the priest, stamping his right foot, "you can't marry her, she being a fish!"

"But she has all the gold that's down in the sea only for the asking, and I'm a made man if I marry her; and," said Dick, looking up slyly, "I can make it worth any one's while to do the job."

"Oh! That alters the case entirely," replied the priest. "Why there's some reason now in what you say. Why didn't you tell me this before? Marry her by all means, if she was ten times a fish. Money, you know, is not to be refused in these bad times, and I may as well have the hansel of it as another, that maybe would not take half the pains in counseling you as I have done."

True, it might be hypocritical that the priest gave up his convictions because of money, but I find it hilarious nonetheless. "The Lady of Gollerlus" was published in "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland" (1828) by Thomas Crofton Crocker.

Andersen's little mermaid indeed fell in love with a human--but she, unlike this merrow, couldn't marry him as a mermaid. She had to become human herself, and then the jerk of a prince still didn't marry her. (I'm referring to the original here, not the Disney film.) Poor thing.

Answer: W.B. Yeats

Of the choices, W.B. Yeats is actually the only one who was Irish. T.S. Eliot was born in the United States and moved to England. William Blake was English. Joseph Jacobs was Australian and Jewish.

"The Merrow" was originally published in "Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry" in 1888. Irish mermaids are specifically called merrows. In this tale, Yeats mentions how female merrows don't find male merrows to be attractive at all, so they fall in love with handsome men, particularly fishermen. Yeats goes on to say that merrows can come out of the sea and appear as cows, of all creatures--go figure.

Answer: Pepperchina

In short, the Brothers Grimm's "Rapunzel" tells the story of a pregnant woman who saw beautiful flowers in a witch's garden. She desired the flowers so badly that her husband stole some of them. The livid witch said that she wouldn't hurt them, and even let the woman have more of her rapunzel plant, as long as they gave the witch their daughter after she was born. The man agreed, and when the sorceress got hold of the girl, she locked her in a tower for much of her life.

Rampion bellflowers are evidently called "rapunzel" flowers. In Giambattista Basile's version, "Petrosinella", the plant is parsley. There is a French version, "Parsillette", in which the desired object is fruit, but the fruit is unnamed (kind of like in Genesis)! Finally, another Italian variation is "Prunella", in which, yes, the girl was named after the plums her mother wanted from the witch's garden.

As far as I know, I just made "Pepperchina" up.

Answer: Cinderella

The "Cinderella" theme is ancient and there are countless variations of it worldwide, but the most popular version comes from Charles Perrault. He was the one who basically invented the concepts of the glass slipper, pumpkin, and fairy godmother (in regards to "Cinderella"). I should note that some people actually think Perrault meant "fur slippers", but it was mistranslated as "glass slippers" in the English translations. There is a controversy about that.

"Donkey Skin" is another story by Perrault, but it is similar to "Cinderella" because it is about a young woman who went to a ball, hoping for a better life. "Catskin", which apparently was initially collected by Joseph Jacobs, is essentially the same story; the main difference being the girl disguised herself as a cat instead of a donkey.