Graciosa and Percinet
[1] Although the tale has a literary origin, being penned by d'Aulnoy, scholars recognize in the narrative motifs and elements from the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche and, by extension, of the Animal as Bridegroom cycle of stories.
Even when Percinet showed her how the queen had claimed her dead and buried a log of wood in her place, Graciosa still insisted.
The queen imprisoned Graciosa, and with the aid of a wicked fairy, set her to disentangle a skein, on pain of her life.
This literary tale can be classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband".
The next day, Firosette's mother orders her to take a letter to her sister, who lives in Effincourt.
Lastly, Firosette's fairy mother marries him to another bride, and forces Julie to hold ten candles between her toes, while in the couple's bedroom.
[13][14] Cosquin and German scholar Ernst Tegethoff [de] noted the partial resemblance of this tale to the second part of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, especially Venus's tasks.
That same night, after the wedding, the Morgan king forces Mona to hold a candle in her hands until it melts away completely, after which she is to die.
After some time, the Morgan prince asks his bride to replace the human girl holding the candle.
The next morning, the Morgan prince tells his father he has sadly become a widowed man overnight, and asks for his permission to marry the human girl, the "daughter of the land".
[20] In a variant from Ariège with the title Courbasset, le Petit Corbeau ("The Little Crow"), a blind old man lives with his three daughters.
When the elder daughter goes to the well to draw a bucket of water, a little crow appears to her with a proposal: it can cure her father if she marries him.
Before he departs, he teaches his wife a helpful command and advises her to prepare seven small and seven large brooms, seven loaves of bread, seven needles and seven jugs of oil.
She chants the command her husband taught her and a murder of crows appear to fulfill the task for her.
On the road, she gives seven loaves of bread to seven dogs, seven needles to seven tailors, the seven large brooms to seven women, enters the house and cleans seven stairs, oils the hinges of seven doors, creeps into the grandmother's room and steals the diamond.
The grandmother awakes and commands the stair, the doors, the women, the tailors and the dogs to stop the girl, but she escapes.
At every leg of the journey, the old women give her the promised objects, until the trio reach the fairies' home.
The girl begins to cry, when a youth named Ghjuvanninu della verità ("Petit-Jean de la Vérité") appears and offers his help, in exchange for a kiss.
Più bella chè fata cries, but Ghjuvanninu della verità appears to her and advises her on how to proceed: place the correct fodder for the animals (hay for the donkey, bones for the dog), compliment and bless a fountain, stop a door from slamming, enter Zia Luca's house, place some fuses on the steps and shout for her to come down the stairs.
Lastly, the fairies prepare a trap for the duo: they hang a large mace over the rata, which will squash the pair as they pass the baskets of chestnuts.
Anticipating their plot, Ghjuvanninu della verità lets loose the large mace on the fairies, who die.
[23] The tale was one of many from d'Aulnoy's pen to be adapted to the stage by James Planché, as part of his Fairy Extravaganza.
