Reading Notes: Marriage Tales, Part B

The True Bride by Stith Thompson (1929)

• The stepmother told the daughter to go pick berries even though it was snowing outside. 
• She saw a cabin with four men, who were apparently her relatives, and gave her food.
• Why were they separated from her?  
• The girl explained to them about the stepmother's wickedness. The men helped her by telling her to go to the roof and dig off all the snow until she saw strawberries. The men also helped her by transforming her clothes and shoes into beautiful clothing. One of the brothers made it so every time she spit, out came a nugget of gold. 
• Did these men have secret powers? 
• When she got home, the stepmother saw the berries along with all the new clothes and became angry. She told her own daughter to try and do the same thing. 
• However, the daughter was very vain and rude and so the four men became angry. They made it so that every time she spat, it would turn into a toe-nail unlike a nugget of a gold seen with the older sister. 
• Why a toenail? 
• When she came home to her mother, her mother was very disappointed that nothing good came out of the visit. 
• She needs to go down!!! 

(Gold nuggets: Flickr)