ATU 480 The Kind and the Unkind Girls (previously The Spinning-Women by the Spring. The Kind and the Unkind Girls)

Tales of Magic › Supernatural Tasks (ATU 460–499)

The tale in brief

A kind girl and an unkind one go in turn, down a well or after a rolling cake, into the service of a witch; the kind girl milks the cow and shakes the apple tree on her way and comes home with gold, the unkind one is rewarded with fire, or the cow and the tree kill her on the way back.

Summary written for RunoVerse from Antti Aarne’s list of tale types of 1910 and the Finnic texts linked on this page.

Runosong types

The SKVR or ERAB type index cites this tale type in its description of these song types:

Vieri, kieri kakkarani Roll, roll, my little flatcake · SKVR · 1 poem

Finnic and Finland-Swedish sources cited in the catalogue

The entries of the catalogue’s list of literature and variants that concern Finnic tradition.

Finnish Rausmaa 1973c, 122ff., Rausmaa 1982ff. I, Nos. 59, 60

Finnish-Swedish Hackman 1917f. I, Nos. 79, 81(3,6,19), 87(3)

Estonian Aarne 1918

Livonian, Wepsian, Wotian, Lydian, Karelian, Syrjanian Kecskeméti/Paunonen 1974

Full references:

Rausmaa 1982ff.: Rausmaa, Pirkko-Liisa (ed.): Suomalaiset kansansadut 1–6. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1982–2000.
Hackman 1917f.: Hackman, Oskar (ed.): Finlands svenska folkdiktning I A: Sagor. Referatsamling 1–2. Helsingfors: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, 1917–1920. Read online ↗ (National Library of Finland)
Aarne 1918: Aarne, Antti: Estnische Märchen- und Sagenvarianten. Verzeichnis der zu den Hurt'schen Handschriftensammlungen gehörenden Aufzeichnungen. FF Communications 25. Hamina: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1918.
Kecskeméti/Paunonen 1974: Kecskeméti, István; Paunonen, Heikki: Die Märchentypen in den Publikationen der Finnisch-ugrischen Gesellschaft. Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 73 (1974), 205–265.

Motifs and related tale types

Motifs: Grateful Animals B350·Forbidden Chamber C611·Treasure Falls from Mouth D1454.2·Grateful Objects D1658·Apple-Tree Grateful for Being Shaken D1658.1.5·Magic Beautification D1860·Girl in Service of Witch G204·Lousing as Task Set by Ogre G466·Task: Carrying Water in a Sieve H1023.2·Task: Washing Black Wool (Cloth, Cattle) White H1023.6·Task: Combing Hair of Fairies H1192·Pursuit of Rolling Cake Leads to Quest H1226·Tasks Assigned by Stepmother H934.3·Witch Assigns Tasks H935·Modest Choice: Three Caskets Type L211·Curse: Toads from Mouth M431.2·Dropped Ball (Basket) Leads to Adventures When Recovery Is Attempted N777·Bucket Dropped into Well Leads to Adventures N777.2·Spindle Dropped into Well Leads to Adventures N777.4·Adventures from Pursuing Object Carried Off by River N791·Kind and Unkind Q2·Politeness Rewarded Q41·Reward for Cleansing Loathsome Person Q41.2·Cruel Stepmother S31

Combines with: ATU 313 The Magic Flight·ATU 403 The Black and the White Bride·ATU 408 The Three Oranges·ATU 428·ATU 431 The House in the Forest·ATU 432 The Prince as Bird·ATU 450 Little Brother and Little Sister·ATU 510 Cinderella and Peau d''ne·ATU 510A Cinderella·ATU 511 One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes·ATU 511A·ATU 564 The Magic Providing Purse (previously The Magic Providing Purse and 'Out, Boy, out of the Sack!')·ATU 709 Snow White·ATU 974 The Homecoming Husband

Example tales

English example tales of this type in the Trilogy folktale corpus; their texts can be read in the ATU tale-type index.

Conkiajgharuna, the Little Rag-Girl · Georgia · Source (Internet Archive): Marjory Wardrop, Georgian Folk Tales (London: David Nutt, 1894), pp. 63-67.
Frau Holle · Germany · Kinder- und Haus-Märchen: Gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm, 1st ed. (Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812), v. 1, no. 24, pp. 106-110. Source (books.google.com): Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 'Frau Holle,' Kinder und Hausmärchen: Gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm, vol. 1, 7th edition (Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1857), no. 24, pp. 133-36. Source (Internet Archive): Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 'Frau Holle,' Kinder und Hausmärchen: Gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm, vol. 1, 7th edition (Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, 1857), no. 24, pp. 133-36.
Frau Holle and the Distaff · Germany · Source (books.google.com): August Ey, 'Die Frau Holle und die Flachsdiesse,' Harzmärchenbuch; oder, Sagen und Märchen aus dem Oberharze (Stade: vberlag von Fr. Steudel, 1862), pp. 193-94. Source (Internet Archive): August Ey, 'Die Frau Holle und die Flachsdiesse,' Harzmärchenbuch; oder, Sagen und Märchen aus dem Oberharze (Stade: vberlag von Fr. Steudel, 1862), pp. 193-94.

Sources

Tale-type number, title, classification, related types and the Finnic sources: Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales (FF Communications 284–286, Helsinki 2004). · Uther 2004, part I (FF Communications 284), free online ↗

Runosong types cited in the type indexes: the song-type indexes of SKVR and ERAB.

Motifs and combinations with other tale types: the Trilogy dataset, from Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature and the ATU catalogue.

Example tales: the Trilogy folktale corpus; each tale’s own source is named beside it.

The plot summary, the notes and the arrangement of this page are RunoVerse’s own.