Week 10 Story: A Mixed Fairytale

A Mixed Fairytale

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Cinderella. Her mother had passed away when she was younger, and her dad remarried a much younger woman, too. Her dad later passed away, too. Thus, she grew up in a family, where her step-mother would always bully her and make her do all the chores around the house. She was more of a servant than a step-daughter or step-sister to their family.

One day, her step-mother told her to go outside, in the middle of the winter, and get her berries. She knows that her step-daughter could no way do this. She just loved making this girl miserable, especially since her darn father left her nothing behind, giving that good-for-nothing girl all his assets. She will, of course, not let that happen.

Back to Cinderella now, she trekked outside, knowing that this was a dead-end quest. However, she stumbled upon a small house out in the middle of the woods. This house belonged to the seven dwarves. She gently knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" the dwarves cried.

"My name is Cinderella. I am here looking for berries" said Cinderella innocently.

The dwarves let her in. They were just so confused as to why a girl would be looking for berries in the middle of the winter. After she explained to them the story about her step-mother, they agreed to help her. These dwarves were magical dwarves; they could make anything happen. Thus, they made strawberries appear at the roof of the house under all the snow. They told Cinderella to go look for it up there. As she dug away at the snow, there it was. Red, luscious strawberries.

(Strawberries: Wikimedia Commons)

These dwarves felt bad for the girl, so they transformed her into a new girl with new clothes, new shoes, new hair, new everything. However, this was not good enough for them. Every time she sneezed, out came gold.

Cinderella scurried back home as it was getting late. When she stepped in, her persona was just radiating due to all the new clothes and the happiness on her face. Her step-mother was shocked as to where this new-found joyfulness and new clothes had come from. Cinderella had even brought home berries in the middle of winter! Suddenly, Cinderella sneezed and out came gold. Over the course of the next few months, rumors start spreading of the girl who sneezed gold, and suitors from all around came to see her, but not the step-sister. Thus, the step-mother was jealous and told her daughter to also do what Cinderella did and go to the dwarves' house.

The step-daughter did that, but being raised spoiled, she was very rude and inconsiderate to the dwarves. They made it so that every time she sneezed, it will smell like toenails. Thus, no suitor ever came to court her, and she and her mother lived happily ever after.

Author's Note: This story is similar to the original. The step-daughter goes out in the snow to find berries and comes across a house with men. They are relatives of hers. Everything else is the same, but instead of sneezing, the original story had written about spitting. I took that out because that is kind of gross to me because who just spits a lot. I also added more details on why the step-mother was so hasty in sending her daughter to get berries too. I thought it was funny to end the story with the statement that says how the step-daughter and mother live happily ever after instead of a prince. Lastly, this story just reminds me a combination between Cinderella and Snow White, hence the references in the story.

Source: The True Bride from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).