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| Angiola and the Prince (Source) |
The first story is called “Zelinda and the Monster” and is
the retelling of “Beauty and the Beast.” It follows the exact same storyline, although
set in Italy, apparently, there is no evil man that is also competing for the
beautiful young woman’s attention.
The next is titled “The Fair Angiola.” We may be more familiar with it as the story
of Rapunzel, for it follows the exact same storyline, essentially. Angiola seems to be a very good girl though,
while her mother and her sisters all bring about the problems on their own, simply
because they wanted jujube fruit. I researched
them, and they do not sound good, so I don’t know what their problem was. Luckily, everyone lived happily ever after.
The next story was a delightful tale of the devil, who decides
that it is high time he should marry a young woman. He builds a wonderful house on top of a
portal to Hell, and through his trickery, convinces two of three sisters to
fall down into it. He then marries the
third sister as well, but she is even cleverer than he is. She ends up freeing her two sisters and
escapes herself, while the devil is tricked and humiliated. Interestingly, the protagonist is a woman,
who through her independence and cleverness wins the day.
Another story was a confusing tale about another set of
three sisters, again, the youngest is the cleverest and wins the best
husband. Surprise.
The last story had to do with water and salt. Once again, there were a set of three
sisters, who all loved the king very dearly.
Once, he asked how much they loved him, and the first two all cried out
that they loved him with all their hearts.
The third girl, trying to be clever and facetious, said that she loved
him as much as water and salt. The king,
enraged by her dumb answer, decided that an annoying daughter like that would
not be worth having, and ordered her to die.
Kind of harsh. Long story short,
she escaped death and eventually showed the king that water and salt are really
important and she really did love him.
Story Source: Italian Popular Tales, by Thomas Crane
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