Beschrijving
Love Like Salt. A king (rich man) asks his three daughters, how much they love him. The two elder ones compare their love with precious (sweet) things (gold, precious stones, sugar, honey, precious clothes), but the youngest says that she loves him like salt [H592.1]. The father is offended by his youngest daughter’s answer and casts her out (orders her death), whereas he rewards the elder daughters in proportion to the value of their flatteries [M21].
The youngest daughter then works as a maidservant in a foreign country, whose king she later marries. She invites her father to the wedding meal and serves him dishes without any salt. Thus the father becomes aware of the indispensability of salt. The daughter discloses her identity. Cf. Type 510B.
The youngest daughter then works as a maidservant in a foreign country, whose king she later marries. She invites her father to the wedding meal and serves him dishes without any salt. Thus the father becomes aware of the indispensability of salt. The daughter discloses her identity. Cf. Type 510B.
Motief
H592.1
M21
Commentaar
Documented in the Middle Ages, e.g. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae (ch. 31). For popular treatment, see Shakespeare, King Lear (I,1).
Combinaties
510B, 875, 923A, and 923B.
Oorspronkelijk Verhaaltype
923
Subgenre
sprookje