Diamonds and Toads or Toads and Diamonds is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault, and titled by him "Les Fees" or "The Fairies." A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ... Charles Perrault, 1665 Charles Perrault (January 12, 1628 – May 16, 1703) was a French author who laid foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, and whose best known tales include Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), La Belle au bois dormant (Sleeping Beauty), Le Chat bott...

In his source, as in Mother Hulda, the kind girl was the stepdaughter, not the other daughter. The change was apparently to decrease the similiarity to Cinderella. Mother Hulda is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of Childrens and Household Tales. ... Gustave Dorés illustration for Cendrillon For other uses, see Cinderella (disambiguation). ...

It is Aarne-Thompson tale 480, the kind and the unkind girls. Antti Amatus Aarne (1867 - 1925) was a Finnish folklorist, who developed the initial version of what became the Aarne-Thompson classification system of classifying folktales, first published in 1910. ...

Synposis

A widow favored her older daughter, who was disagreeable and proud but looked like her, over her younger, who was sweet, courteous, and beautiful, but resembled her father.

One day while drawing water, the younger daughter was asked for a drink by an old woman. After giving it, she found that the woman was a fairy, who blessed her with having either a jewel or a flower fall from her mouth whenever she spoke.

The widow sent her older daughter with instruction to act likewise toward an old beggar woman, but the fairy appeared as a fine lady, and the girl spoke rudely. The fairy decreed that either a toad or a snake would fall from her mouth whenever she spoke.

The widow, in a fury, drove her younger daughter out of the house. In the woods, she met a king's son, who fell in love with her and married her.

In time, even the widow was sickened by her older daughter, and drove her out, and she died in the woods.

See also

• Mother Hulda
• The Three Heads in the Well

Mother Hulda is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of Childrens and Household Tales. ...

External Links

• Sur La Lune Fairy Tale site, "Diamonds and Toads" with annotations
• SurLaLune Fairy Tale site, variant