[2] The story was revised by the Grimm brothers over the years, and the final version was published in the 7th edition of Children's and Household Tales in 1857.

[4] The Mutilated Heroine: A strange man approaches a miller and offers him riches in exchange for whatever he found standing behind the mill.

The girl, however, continues to weep onto the stumps replacing her hands, so they remain clean and the devil still cannot take her.

Marriage to the King: The girl, despite her father's newfound wealth, decides to escape, leave her family, and take off into the world.

The king responds that they will care for the child nonetheless and sends the messenger back to deliver his response.

The Brothers Grimm altered the tale they had collected, incorporating a motif found in other fairy tales of a child unwittingly promised (a motif found in "Nix Nought Nothing", "The Nixie of the Mill-Pond", "The Grateful Prince", and "King Kojata"), but not in the original version of this one.

[8] Other variants of this tale include "The One-Handed Girl", "The Armless Maiden", and "Biancabella and the Snake," all of which are Aarne-Thompson type 706.

"Allerleirauh", "The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter", and others of Aarne-Thompson type 510B are found more frequently.

[10] Other romances that use the plotline of this fairy tale include "Emaré", "Mai and Beaflor", and "La Belle Helene de Constantinople".

[11] The mother falsely accused of giving birth to strange children is in common between tales of this type and that of Aarne-Thompson 707, where the woman has married the king because she has said she would give birth to marvelous children, as in "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird", "Princess Belle-Etoile", "Ancilotto, King of Provino", "The Wicked Sisters", and "The Three Little Birds".

[12] A related theme appears in Aarne-Thompson type 710, where the heroine's children are stolen from her at birth, leading to the slander that she killed them, as in "Mary's Child" or "The Lassie and Her Godmother".

[14] This motif, where the (male) villain stems from an earlier grudge, also appears in the French literary tale "Bearskin".

Various attempts have been made to explain why her hands are the target of her father's -- or sometimes her brother's -- rage at being thwarted, but the motif, though widespread, is without a clear purpose, and when motives are supplied, they vary greatly.

[15] In the chivalric romance "La Manekine", the princess does it herself because by law the king can not marry any woman missing any part of her body.

It has been adapted countless times in various different mediums over the years, but never on as large a scale as other Grimms' stories that grew to be popular.

[21] The series stars Elena Kampouris as Minnow Bly and the plot includes similar themes to the original Grimm story.