#donkeyskin

Joseph Jacobs (the author of the best-known versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Three Little Pigs) wrote in the footnotes to his version, The Cinder Maid, that while ancient proto-versions like Rhodopis do exist, the archetype of Cinderella most likely originated in Germany, because it's a German wedding tradition for the groom to place a shoe on the bride's foot. (More specifically, for the guests to jokingly "steal" and "auction off" one of the bride's shoes, only for the groom to make the "winning bid" and then return the shoe to her.)

More recently, the late Roberto De Simone (who wrote and directed the musical La Gatta Cenerentola and later directed a famous production of the opera La Cenerentola starring Cecilia Bartoli) said that he believed the archetype of Donkeyskin was the original Cinderella story: where the heroine's father tries to marry her, so she runs away and becomes a scullery maid in or near another kingdom's royal palace. He thought it was bowdlerization over time that replaced the incestuous father with a wicked stepmother as the villain.

But what about Ye Xian? It's much older than any known Cinderella from Germany! It's also much older any recorded Donkeyskin tale, yet it features a stepmother! And it obviously points to the Chinese standard of tiny feet as essential to female beauty, not to the German custom of "stealing" the bride's shoe, as the origin of the slipper-fitting search.

Donkey Skin

Aha! A third tale that I do not need Disney to go anywhere near, because Jim Henson's The Storyteller has already adapted it and therefore won my heart forever <3

To be fair this adaptation - Sapsorrow, althought I always call it Straggletag - is based on the German Allerleirauh (All-Kinds-of-Fur), rather than Perrault's Donkeyskin. But I already preferred Allerleirauh over Donkeyskin because it has the three royal balls and the way The Storyteller mixes in some Cinderella (two jealous sisters and a lost shoe) and extra character development for the prince (he agrees to marry the strange, furry Straggletag before he knows she is his mysterious princess) makes it even better. They also rewrite it so the King does not want to marry his daughter, but is forced to because she fits the Royal Ring, which makes the plot more tragic and less icky.

Also it's just as dreamy and nostalgic as all the other adaptations they did:

And they actually made the princess look like a creature!

The only thing I'd change is go back in time and give them a bigger budget for Sapsorrow's silver, golden, and starry dress. Because you can tell they struggled with the fabrics. But that's really the only thing. Honestly, who could possibly improve upon this ending narration:

Inktober 2025 no.15 - “Ragged” 🫏 

While this fairytale goes by many different names and retellings: Donkeyskin, Doralice, All Kinds of Fur, The She-Bear etc; they all follow a similar, harrowing story…

Once upon a time, there lived a king, his queen, and their princess. One day, the queen grew ill, and on her deathbed, has her husband promise to only marry a woman as beautiful as she was. After much searching, the king concluded there was only one girl whose beauty measured-up to his late queen… The princess - his own daughter. The princess had a large, ragged cloak made from the skin of her father’s prized, enchanted donkey. Using it to disguise herself and escape her father’s kingdom. Eventually, she met and fell in love with a handsome young prince who could see her true beauty underneath the Donkeyskin cloak. They were wed and lived happily ever after.