The Tale of Beauty and the Beast, one of the most common examples of the animal bride/groom type in European folklore and one of the most famous tales of all time, was published as a novel by the French writer Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740 under the name "La Belle et la Bête".

 

The summary variation, published by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont in a children's magazine in 1756, is more famous than the original and was translated into English in 1757. Modern writers discuss Villeneuve's marriage of a beautiful girl to an animal or an ugly man, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy's "Le Mouton" (Aries, 1698) and Charles Perrault's "Riquet a la Houppe" (1697). He claimed that he was inspired by the field stories.

The most beautiful and youngest of the daughters of a wealthy merchant, who lived with her three daughters in a big house, 20-year-old Belle was also easily distinguished from her evil and selfish sisters with her pure heart. When the merchant one day lost the merchant ships on which his entire fortune depended in a storm on the open sea, the family had to live in a small village house and the girls had to work on the farm. Years later, when she heard that the merchant ships were returning, she happily set out for the port and asked her daughters what they wanted as a gift, while Belle asked for a rose while her sisters wanted jewelry.

When the merchant went to the port, he was devastated when he learned that his ships were confiscated in return for his debts, and he could not buy his daughters the gifts they wanted because he had no money. On the way back, the man who got lost in the forest took shelter in a hut where there was no one, and when he saw a table full of food and drinks, he could not stand it and sat at the table and spent the night in that house. In the morning, just as he was leaving the door, he saw a garden where the roses his daughter Belle wanted grew, and at the moment he plucked the most beautiful one, he encountered an ugly creature who owned the house and the garden. The creature, who initially intended to kill the merchant, apologized and told him that he had plucked the rose for his daughter, and was sent home with the jewels and rose he plucked, only on the condition that he return.

Seeing the situation of her father returning home, the girl learned the merchant's secret and went to the monster's mansion and became the woman of the house, but she refused the offer of the landlord, who proposed to her every night. The girl who accepted the situation to save her father lived in luxury but dreaming that one day a handsome prince would save her. When the girl who missed her home in time begged the monster to see her family, the man gave her a magic ring and mirror and gave her a week off. The girl had the opportunity to see the inside of the monster's castle in the magic mirror whenever she wanted and to return by turning the magic ring around her finger 3 times.

Jealous of Belle's flamboyant life in the monster's palace, her older sisters delayed the return of the girl with various tricks and hoped that the monster, angry at her failure to keep her promise, would eat Belle alive. However, Belle, looking into the magic mirror, saw that the monster was about to die in the rose garden, turned her ring back, and began to cry at the deathbed creature's head. The monster, on whom the tears of the girl fell, suddenly turned into the handsome prince in Belle's dreams, and the healed young man proposed to the girl again after explaining the curse on him, this time it was not rejected.

ANIMAL BRIDE, ANIMAL Groom Tales

It is the general name of the stories and legends about animals disguising themselves as humans and marrying people with their secret identity, and is found in various unconnected cultures. The story of Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) by French woman writer Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711-1780) is the most famous work of this genre. In Slavic tales, the story of the frog, who promised to help the beautiful princess in return for her marriage, spread all over the world. Animal brides and grooms are attributed to different animals in different cultures.

 

Source: Ozhan Ozturk. World Mythology