The Cinderella story warns little girls that it is dangerous to be left alone with a widowed father, for a widowed father must remarry, and the daughter's fate depends upon his choice of a wife. In some variants of the tale, the daughter suffers because the father replaces her mother with a cruel stepmother. In others, the daughter suffers because the father wishes to marry her himself. Thus in the tale of Many-Furs, a widowed king sends his messengers to search the kingdom for a woman who exactly resembles his lost wife. No one meets the test but his beautiful daughter. The king then resolves to marry her. To discourage him, the daughter asks for gifts of ever finer dresses. Each time, the father meets her request. Finally, when she can put him off no longer, the daughter flees, disguised in a coat made of many furs. In a foreign land she works as a scullery maid while awaiting rescue by her prince. Like Cinderella, she is discovered when she attends a dance, wearing one of the fine dresses given to her by her father. This same folk tale has been preserved in Christian martyrology as the legend of Saint Dympna. The secular tale ends happily, with the daughter's successful escape and marriage; the Christian tale ends tragically, with her murder. According to popular belief, Dympna was the daughter of an Irish heathen king and a Christian princess, who died while Dympna was still a child. After her death, the bereaved king was inconsolable, until he noticed Dympna's extraordinary resemblance to her mother. He thereupon resolved to marry her. Unable to dissuade him, Dympna, like Many-Furs, fled across the ocean in disguise. She was accompanied by her priest and confessor, Gereberus. The two settled in a forest at Gheel, near Antwerp, and for a short time lived a simple and peaceful life. But the king, infuriated by his daughter's escape, pursued her relentlessly until he found her. When she once again refused to submit to him, he ordered his men to kill her and her companion. The king's men struck off Gereberus' head without hesitation, but no one dared to touch Dympna. Thereupon the king drew his own sword and beheaded his daughter, leaving her body for the animals to devour. She was said to be fifteen years old.
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