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Norwegian Folktales
Title: White-Toes and Bushy-Bride (in Norwegian: Buskebrura)

A. Context
Country and language: Norway, Norwegian
Original collector: Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe
Title of collection, year: Norwegian Folktales (Norwegian: Norske folkeeventyr), 1866
Number of tales in that collection: 60
English translation: Gwyn Jones, 1956, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Volume: II

B. Summary
A widower, who had a son and a daughter whom he loved dearly, married a widow who also had a daughter. The stepmother mistreated the two siblings, until the brother left home to earn his own bread. He found a job at the king’s palace as a groomer. Even so, the stepdaughter, whose name was White-Toes, remained home and endured more hardships from the stepmother. One day she was sent to the well to fill up pails of water when three ugly heads popped out of the water and demanded that she brush, clean and kiss them. When she did what was asked they decided that she would be the most beautiful woman in the world, gold would drop from her hair when brushed and when she spoke. After she returned home, the stepmother was so jealous that she sent the girl to the pig sty and sent her own daughter to the well. The three heads reappeared yet again, and asked her to brush, clean and kiss them she refused so they bestowed her to be the ugliest girl in the world with a bush growing out of her forehead, a snout three feet long and every time she spoke a frog would jump out of her mouth.
Meanwhile at the castle, the brother would always take out his sister’s portrait and pray for her. The other groomers told the king, who insisted to see the portrait and upon seeing it declared that White-Toes was the most beautiful girl in the world and he would marry her. The brother went to fetch the sister and the stepmother and daughter tagged along in the journey. As they reached a pond they had to cross by boat, the stepmother persuaded White-Toes to throw her casket overboard, then her beloved dog, then herself. As they reached land the king was outraged by the ugly Bushy Bride but accepted to marry her, throwing the brother in a pit of adders.
Sometime during the night, a lovely woman came to the kitchen of the palace and whilst brushing her golden hair, sang of the wickedness of the Bushy Bride. She announced she would come two more times and then be gone forever. A kitchen maid told the king and he settled to wait for the mysterious girl, but the Bushy Bride sang him to sleep. The third night, the king set guards to keep him awake, but they were unable to do so as his bride sent him yet again to sleep. When the girl with the golden hair turned to leave the guards put a knife in the King’s hands and guided him to cut into the finger of the girl thus breaking the spell and waking up the king. The King freed the brother from the adder pit and threw the Bushy Bride and her mother in it. At last, he married White-Toes and they lived happily ever after.

C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index.
This fairytale belongs to the category of the Supernatural or enchanted relatives 400-459, the subcategory WIFE 400-424, The White and the Black Bride 403.

D. Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp.
The Seeker (in our case the victim): White-Toes and her Brother
The Villain: The Stepmother and Bushy Bride
The Prize: the King can be considered the prize in this fairytale
The Donor: The three ugly heads in the well (as they bestow White-Toes with beauty and gold)
The False Hero: Bushy Bride
The functions according to Vladimir Propp in this tale are the following:
Initial Situation: A man and his wife lived in a forest and had two lovely children.
A violation of the interdiction (villain enters the tale) The Stepmother marries the father of the children and moves in with them.
Villainy: The Stepmother mistreats the brother and sister.
Departure: The Brother leaves home in order to search for work.
Testing: The Three heads appear to White-toes and make their needs known to her.
Reaction: White-Toes agrees to help the Three Heads.
Acquisition: White-Toes receives beauty and gold from the Heads.
Guidance: The Brother, White-Toes and the Stepmother and Bushy Bride go to the palace of the King.
Trickery: the Stepmother tells White-Toes to throw herself, the dog and the casket overboard.
Complicity: White-Toes believes it is her brother wish so she complies to her Stepmother’s orders.
Claim: Bushy Bride claims to be the bride of the King.
Struggle: White-Toes tries to tell the King her misfortune.
Resolution: The King wakes up and recognizes White-Toes.
Punishment: Bushy Bride and her stepmother are thrown into the pit of adders.
Marriage: White-Toes marries the King at the end of the tale.


E. Similarities with other known tales:
Another closely related tale is The White Bride and the Black One a German fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm, and also Brother and Sister, a Greek fairytale collected by Georgios A. Megas in Folktales of Greece.

F. Sources
https://archive.org/details/scandinavia ... p/page/n47
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushy_Bride