The Snow-child

The Snow-child is a widespread European folktale,[1] found in many medieval tellings.[2]

This article is about the European folktale. For the novel by Eowyn Ivey, see The Snow Child. For the short story by Angela Carter, see The Bloody Chamber § The Snow Child.

It is Aarne–Thompson type 1362.[1]

Synopsis

A merchant returns home after an absence of two years to find his wife with a newborn son. She explains one snowy day she swallowed a snowflake while thinking about her husband which caused her to conceive. Pretending to believe, he raises the boy with her until he takes the boy on a trip and sells him into slavery. On his return, he explains to his wife that the boy melted in the heat.[3]

Variants

The tale first appears in the 11th-century Cambridge Songs.[2][4] It also appears in Medieval fabliaux,[3] and was used in school exercises of rhetoric.[2] A Medieval play about the Virgin Mary has characters disbelieving her story of her pregnancy citing the tale.[2]

It contrasts to Aarne-Thompson type 703*, Snow Maiden, where a child really has a magical snow-related origin.[5]

References
  1. D. L. Ashliman, The Snow Child: folktales of type 1362
  2. Jan M. Ziolkowski Fairy Tales from Before Fairy Tales: The Medieval Latin Past of Wonderful Lies p 42 ISBN 9780472033799
  3. Nicolas Balachov, (1984). "Le developpement des structures narratives du fabliau a la nouvelle". in Gabriel Bianciotto, Michel Salvat. Épopée animale, fable, fabliau. Publication Univ Rouen Havre. pp. 30-32.. ISBN 978-2-13-038255-3.
  4. Jan M. Ziolkowski, (ed. and trans.), The Cambridge Songs (‘Carmina Cantabrigensia’), The Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series A, 66 (Garland: New York, 1994), no. 14.
  5. D. L. Ashliman, The Snow Maiden: foltales of type 703*
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