Friday Shoe History Corner: Fairy-Tale Edition
posted by: shoesense in Shoe History Corner on March 28th, 2008
This week’s Friday Shoe History Corner comes via a wonderful little book called The Book of General Ignorance: Everything you think you know is wrong. According to the authors, Cinderella’s slippers were NOT made of glass.
Oh, no. They were made of squirrel fur.
“Charles Perrault, who wrote the familiar version of the story in the seventeenth century, misheard the word vair (squirrel fur) in the medieval tale he borrowed and updated for the similar-sounding verre (glass).
Cinderella is an ancient and universal story. The Chinese version dates back to the ninth century and there are more than 340 other version before Perrault’s. None of the early versions mentions glass slippers. In the original Chinese story “Yeh-Shen,” they’re made of gold thread with solid gold soles. In the Scottish version “Rashie-Coat” they’re made of rushes. In the medieval French tale, adapted by Perrault, her shoes are described as pantoufles de vair–slippers of squirrel’s fur.
One sources says the vair/verre error occurred before Perrault and he merely repeated it. Others think glass slippers were Perrault’s own idea and that he intended them all along.
[...]
As well as polishing up “Cinderella”–adding the mice, the pumpkin, and the fairy godmother–Perrault reduced their peasant bloodthirstiness. In the medieval original, the ugly sisters cut off their toes and bunions to try on the slipper, and after the Prince marries Cinders, the King takes revenge on them and the wicked stepmother by forcing them to dance themselves to death wearing red-hot iron boots. Much of this bloodthirstiness was later reinstated by the Brothers Grimm.
In Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, Freud claimed slippers were a symbol for the female genitals.”
- From The Book of General Ignorance, pp. 233-4.
P.S.: Aren’t you glad Disney didn’t get their hands on the peasant version?
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October 25, 2011 at 1:39 am, Rocket dog said:
Freud strikes again, how can glass slippers be anything to do with genitals?
April 20, 2010 at 4:12 pm, Kids boots said:
It is really cool.Since i was a child i always like fairy tale characters like Cinderella who left her shoes at the palace ball.The prince found him through her glass shoes.They live happily ever after.
December 08, 2009 at 10:01 pm, dave said:
Funny that the book is titled "The Book of General Ignorance: Everything you think you know is wrong" because if this post is any indication, everything in it is wrong.
The myth about the fur boots is a fallacy. They were indeed glass slippers. There was no translation error on Perrault's part, and one such source backing this can be found here: http://www.snopes.com/language/misxlate/slippers….
Additionally, no one in Cinderella dances themselves to death in hot iron boots. This was the fate of the wicked queen in Snow White. Not anyone in Cinderella.
In certain tellings, such as the Brothers Grimm version, birds peck the eyes out of the stepsisters and cause them to go blind.
And Freud is mostly an idiot.
April 03, 2008 at 10:42 am, Nony Mouse said:
There was fairy about it, if I remember, and magical creatures to warn the prince the stepsisters were cheating him (from dim elementary school memory, so maybe not exact):
Pray thee, look back
Pray thee, look back
There's blood on the track!
Thy true bride's in her hall;
still awaiting thy call.
April 03, 2008 at 6:04 am, Girls footwear said:
Wooh..Quoting Manolo’s –According to the authors, Cinderella’s slippers were NOT made of glass.
But this really looks trendy..
April 01, 2008 at 2:03 am, jalilifer said:
Ginge,
The blinding of the sisters comes from the Brothers Grimm version (Ashenputtel ). When the bridal party arrives at the castle, birds peck out the step-sisters' eyes. I don't recall if they hit the step-mother or not.
March 31, 2008 at 11:46 am, Manolo’s Monday Miscellany » Manolo's Shoe Blog said:
[...] According to the authors, Cinderella’s slippers were NOT made of glass. [...]
March 29, 2008 at 12:02 pm, Ginge said:
Yep, and in Stephen Sondhiem’s musical play Into the Woods he has the stepmother cut of the toe of one of her daughters and the heel of the other (or something like that). The stepmother and stepsisters also become blind after Cinderella marries the prince, but I’m not sure where he got that one.
I seem to remember that the wicked queen in Snow White is also made to dance herself to death in red-hot shoes, but I suppose I could be remembering that incorrectly.
Freud’s theory is interesting; I certainly haven’t heard that one before.