KidLit Forum

A. Context
How the Devil Married Three Sisters is an Italian fairy tale collected and translated in English by Thomas Frederick Crane, an American folklorist, and included in his collection- Italian Popular Tales, published in 1885 in London, including 109 tales.
However, the tale was initially published in German by Widter and Wolf in 1866 under the title Der Teufel Heirathet Drei Schwestern

B. Summary
As it is already announced from the title, this fairy tale is a story about how the devil "once upon a time" married three sisters in succession. The two older sisters had the same fate- after the wedding, the devil took them to his house and forbade them, without explanation, to open a certain door. Even so, their curiosity was too ardent to resist the temptation and they opened the door, which resulted to hide the abyss, full of fire, which left a sign on the flowers offered by the devil to test their obedience. The sisters failed the test and therefore they were "pushed" into hell.

However, they were later saved by their younger sister who proved to be more intelligent. After marrying the devil, she also went through the same test, but, unlike her sister, she gained the devil's trust, not because she did not open the door, but for misleading him by putting the flowers into water before opening the door, so they would remain green. After gaining his confidence, little Margerita saved her sisters through hiding each of them into a chest and asking the devil to carry these chests to her parents without putting them down, assuring him that she could see him.

Finally, Margerita hid herself in the third chest and arrived safely at her parents' house. When the devil found out that his wife disappeared he went to his mother-in-law' s house but he turned out frightened at seeing all three sisters together. Therefore, he run away and "since that time he has lost his taste for marrying".

C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index
This fairy tale belongs to the category of the Tales of Magic (300-749) and the subcategory 311: Rescue by the Sister as young Margerita rescued her older sisters from the devil's hands.


D. Characters and Functions according to Vladimir Propp
The Hero: Margerita
The Villain: the Devil
The False Heroes: the two older sisters
The Helper: the maid at the devil's house

Episode Actions:
Absentation:the sisters left their home in order to get married
Interdiction: the devil forbade the sisters to open a certain door in his house
The interdiction is violated: all three sisters opened the door
The villain causes harm to a member of a family: the devil locked the two older sisters in abyss
The hero leaves home: Margerita left her home and married the devil
The hero is tested: the devil tested her obedience with the aid of flowers
The hero reacts: Margerita saved her sisters from hell
The villain is defeated: Margerita succeeded to save her sisters and punish the devil
The hero returns: Margerita returned home with her sisters
The villain is punished: the Devil had to carry every chest to his mother-in-law's house without putting them down and then he had to confront the three wives.

E. Similarities
This fairy tale is similar to Blubeard, a famous French folktale, as both stories include a similar interdiction: to not open a certain door in the house, which was violated by the hero, also illustrating how a woman tries to avoid the fate of their predecessors.

Despite this, other similar fairy tales are: The White Dove, Mr. Fox, and Fitcher's Bird.

Italian variants:
Il naso d'argento
Il diavolo dal naso d'argento
La fola del diavel
Il contadino che aveva tre figliuoli

Sources
http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.ph ... ite_note-7

https://archive.org/stream/italianpopul ... 4/mode/2up

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the ... ee_Sisters