The Story of Pretty Goldilocks

The Story of Pretty Goldilocks or The Beauty with Golden Hair is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy.[1] Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book.[2]

Not to be confused with Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
The Story of Pretty Goldilocks
The ambassador presents Goldilocks with the giant's head as proof of his deed.
Folk tale
NameThe Story of Pretty Goldilocks
Also known asLa Belle aux cheveux d'or
Data
Aarne-Thompson groupingATU 531 (The Clever Horse)
RegionFrance
Published inLes Contes des Fées (1697), by Madame d'Aulnoy
Related

It is Aarne–Thompson type 531. This type is generally called "The Clever Horse," but is known in French as La Belle aux cheveux d'or, after this tale.[3] Other tales of this type include Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful, The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa, Corvetto, King Fortunatus's Golden Wig, and The Mermaid and the Boy.[4]

Synopsis

A princess was so beautiful and had such golden hair that she was known as Pretty Goldilocks. A neighboring king fell in love with her from her description, but much to the king's disappointment, she rejected his ambassador, saying she had no wish to be married. A young courtier and royal favorite, called Charming, told his friends that if he had gone, she would have accepted, and the king threw him in prison. He lamented his fate, and the king, hearing, told him what he had said was the cause of it. Charming said that he would have drawn such a picture of the king as to make him irresistible to her, and the king decided to send him. On the way, he helped a carp that was out of water, a raven being chased by an eagle, and an owl caught in a net; each one promised to help him.

When he attempted to bring his master's suit before the princess, she told him that she had lost a ring in the river and was so vexed that she would not listen to any suit unless the ambassador brought back her ring. His dog, Frisk, advised him to try, and the carp brought him the ring. When he brought it to Goldilocks, she told him that a giant who was a prince had tried to marry her and was troubling her subjects. She could not listen unless he killed the giant. He went to fight it, and with the raven's aid in pecking the giant's eyes during the fight, he succeeded. Goldilocks refused unless he brought her some water from the Fountain of Health and Beauty, and the owl fetched the water for him.

The princess agreed then and made preparations to go and marry the king, although she at times wished they could stay, and she would marry Charming. Charming refused to be disloyal to his king.

Goldilocks married the king but remained fond of Charming, and Charming's enemies told the king that she praised him so highly, he should be jealous. The king had Charming thrown in a tower. When Goldilocks begged for his freedom, the king refused, but decided to rub his face with the water from the Fountain of Health and Beauty to please her. A maid had broken that bottle, though, and replaced it with another, not knowing the other bottle was actually a potent poison used for executing nobles by rubbing their faces with it.

Frisk came to the queen and asked her not to forget Charming, and the queen immediately released him and married him.

Analysis

The heroine's lack of agency has been noticed and called into question: despite being part of Madame d'Aulnoy's cast of heroines and princesses with agency in her literary fairy tales,[5] Princess Goldilocks still needs the intervention of a third party (the loyal ambassador) in order to ensure her happy ending at the end of the tale.[6]

An alternate translation to the name of the tale is The Fair with Golden Hair[7][8] or The Fair Maid with Golden Locks.[9] Fair is an English word associated with beauty,[10][11] and it keeps the connection between light-colored hair and good qualities, like kindness and beauty.

Variants

Despite its origins as a literary tale penned by Madame d'Aulnoy, the story shares many recognizable themes and motifs with many tales collected from oral tradition and folklore, such as those by the Brothers Grimm. For example, Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful.[12] The tale type has many variants across Europe and Asia.[13] In French sources, d'Aulnoy's tale has been reported to have influenced at least 5 of the 51 versions collected.[14]

The episode where the king tries to get rid of his rival by bathing in a vat of a special mixture or using the ointment/holy water the hero collected also happens in Romanian fairy tale The Girl Who Pretended to be a Boy, published in 1901 in Andrew Lang’s The Violet Fairy Book. A similar event happens in Russian fairy tale The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa and in French/Breton fairy tale King Fortunatus's Golden Wig (Barvouskenn ar roue Fortunatus).[15] When the emperor or king uses the ointment or magical water, a mix-up happens: the maid or a lady-in-waiting accidentally breaks the flask and, in a hurry, unknowingly substitutes the broken vial for poison. This theme is also widespread in French literary and oral tradition, under the theme of La Jeune Fille aux cheveux d'or et l'Eau de la mort et de la vie:[16] a king, emperor or sultan becomes enamored with a princess or lady of royal birth, famed for her golden hair, and sends an emissary (a knight, a page, an ambassador) to win her over in his stead. When the dame is brought before her would-be suitor, she seizes the opportunity to dispose of him, by performing an elaborate ritual involving the holy water, or bath. After the deed is done, her kingly suitor is (accidentally or deliberately) killed,[17] and she is free to marry the emissary.[18]

A predecessor to the tale, as written by Madame d'Aulnoy, is Livoretto, an Italian literary fairy tale by Giovanni Straparola, in his The Facetious Nights.[19][20][21]

The character of the lovely maiden with golden hair also appears in Slavic fairy tales, with the name Dieva Zlato Vláska or simply Zlatovláska, meaning Goldenhair.[22] As such, the fairy tale was adapted into the Czech film Zlatovláska (Goldilocks, Czechoslovakia, 1973).[23]

A variant in Spanish has been collected by writer Fernán Caballero, titled Bella-Flor.[24] The tale has been translated into English and published in Andrew Lang's The Orange Fairy Book, with the name The Princess Bella-Flor.[25]

Legacy

The tale was one of many from d'Aulnoy's pen to be adapted to the stage by James Planché, as part of his Fairy Extravaganza.[26][27][28] He translated the tale as The Fair One with Golden Locks for the stage.[29][30]

See also

References
  1. Marie Catherine Baronne D'Aulnoy, The Fairy Tales of Madame D'Aulnoy. Miss Annie Macdonell and Miss Lee, translators. Clinton Peters, illustrator. London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1892."Fair Goldilocks"
  2. Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book, "The Story of Pretty Goldilocks"
  3. Delarue, Paul (1956). The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 363.
  4. Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Firebird"
  5. Guillán, Raquel. (2018). "Los personajes femeninos en los cuentos de hadas de Madame d'Aulnoy: un análisis de "Finita Cenicienta" y "Enano Amarillo"." In: DIGILEC: Revista Internacional de Lenguas y Culturas. 4. 37. 10.17979/digilec.2017.4.0.3075.
  6. Reddan, Bronwyn. “Thinking Through Things: Magical Objects, Power, and Agency in French Fairy Tales.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 30, no. 2, 2016, pp. 191–209. JSTOR. [www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/marvelstales.30.2.0191.] Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
  7. Planché, James Robinson. Fairy Tales by The Countess d'Aulnoy, translated by J. R. Planché. London: G. Routledge & Co. 1865. pp. 22-34.
  8. Buczkowski, Paul. “The First Precise English Translation of Madame D'Aulnoy's Fairy Tales.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 23, no. 1, 2009, pp. 59–78. JSTOR. [www.jstor.org/stable/41388901]. Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
  9. "Miranda, or, The Royal Ram" In: Baring-Gould, Sabine. A book of fairy tales. London: Methuen. 1895. pp. 169-184.
  10. Warner, Marina. From The Beast To The Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. London: Vintage. 1995. p. 363. ISBN 9780099479512
  11. Conrad, JoAnn. The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 112, no. 446, 1999, pp. 559–561. JSTOR. [www.jstor.org/stable/541496]. Accessed 10 Apr. 2020.
  12. Barchilon, J. (2009). Adaptations of Folktales and Motifs in Madame d'Aulnoy's "Contes": A Brief Survey of Influence and Diffusion. Marvels & Tales, 23(2), 353-364. Retrieved April 10, 2020, from [www.jstor.org/stable/41388930]
  13. Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Dritter Band (NR. 121-225). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1918. pp. 18-37.
  14. Marais, Jean-Luc. "Littérature et culture «populaires» aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles". In: Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest. Tome 87, numéro 1, 1980. p. 100. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/abpo.1980.3011] www.persee.fr/doc/abpo_0399-0826_1980_num_87_1_3011
  15. Milin, Gab; Troude, Amable-Emmanuel. Labous ar Wirionez ha Marvailhoù all. Lefournier - Brest. 1870. pp. 35-68.
  16. Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome I. Deuxiéme Tirage. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 44-49.
  17. Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 62-63. ISBN 0-520-03537-2
  18. Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome II. Deuxiéme Tirage. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 289-303.
  19. Le Marchand, Bérénice V. Review of Contes en réseaux: l’émergence du conte sur la scène littéraire européenne, by Patricia Eichel-Lojkine. Marvels & Tales, vol. 30 no. 2, 2016, p. 371-373. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/655162.
  20. Raynard, Sophie. (2014). Contes en réseaux: l'émergence du conte sur la scène littéraire européenne by Patricia Eichel-Lojkine (review). French Studies: A Quarterly Review. 68. 279-280.
  21. Donato, P.. (2008). The literary fairy tale of Giovan Francesco Straparola. In: The Romanic Review. Volume 99, Numbers 3–4, The Trustees of Columbia University. pp. 281-296.
  22. Chodzko, Aleksander Borejko. Contes des paysans et des pâtres slaves. Paris: L. Hachette et cie.. 1864. pp. 77-94.
  23. Zlatovláska on IMDB
  24. Caballero, Fernán. Cuentos, oraciones, adivinas y refranes populares e infantiles. Leipzig: Brockhaus. 1878. pp. 23-28.
  25. Lang, Andrew. The Orange Fairy Book. New York: Longmans, Green. 1906. pp. 280-291.
  26. Feipel, Louis N. "Dramatizations of Popular Tales." The English Journal 7, no. 7 (1918): p. 444. Accessed June 25, 2020. doi:10.2307/801356.
  27. Buczkowski, Paul. "J. R. Planché, Frederick Robson, and the Fairy Extravaganza." Marvels & Tales 15, no. 1 (2001): 42-65. Accessed June 25, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/41388579.
  28. MacMillan, Dougald. "Planché's Fairy Extravaganzas." Studies in Philology 28, no. 4 (1931): 790-98. Accessed June 25, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/4172137.
  29. Adams, W. H. Davenport. The Book of Burlesque. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Outlook Verlag GmbH. 2019. p. 74. ISBN 978-3-73408-011-1
  30. Planché, James (1879). Croker, Thomas F.D.; Tucker, Stephen I. (eds.). The extravaganzas of J. R. Planché, esq., (Somerset herald) 1825-1871. 2. London: S. French. pp. Vol 2, pp. 229-266.

Further reading
  • Delarue, Paul et Ténèze, Marie-Louise. Le Conte populaire français. Catalogue raisonné des versions de France et des pays de langue française d'outre-mer Nouvelle édition en un seul volume, Maisonneuve & Larose. 1997 ISBN 2-7068-1277-X
  • Marais, Jean-Luc. Littérature et culture « populaires » aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. In: Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest. Tome 87, numéro 1, 1980. pp. 65-105. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/abpo.1980.3011]; [www.persee.fr/doc/abpo_0399-0826_1980_num_87_1_3011]
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