Donor (fairy tale)

[2]: 39–43  Then, the donor may directly give the hero a magical agent, advise him on how to find one, or offer to act on his behalf.

[3]: 259 In Grimm's Fairy Tales, the hero often meets the vital helper in the woods, in liminal areas between other realms.

A common motif, as in Farmer Weathersky, is that one can consult all the beasts, then next all the fish, then third all the birds, and only then can the hero discover what is needed.

Fairy godmothers were added to Sleeping Beauty by Perrault; no such figures appeared in his source, Sole, Luna, e Talia by Giambattista Basile.

In Vasilissa the Beautiful, the heroine is aided by a wooden doll that her dying mother had given her; in Rushen Coatie, by a red calf sent to her by her dead mother, a calf that can continue to aid her after its death; in Katie Woodencloak by a mysterious dun bull; in Tattercoats, by a gooseherd who is her friend for a long time before his mysterious powers are revealed.

[7] In The Golden Bird, the hero is aided by a fox whose advice he takes; in The Red Ettin, by a fairy not his godmother; in Puddocky, by an enchanted frog that takes pity on him; in Prince Ring, by an enchanted dog; in Fair Brow and The Bird 'Grip', by a dead man whom he had aided; in The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder, in an unusual reversal, by his stepmother.

In American fiction, there has long been a tradition for the white protagonist to be aided by a Magical Negro who often possesses special insight or mystical powers.