Doll i' the Grass
Encyclopedia
Doll i' the Grass is a Norwegian fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore...

 and Jørgen Moe
Jørgen Moe
right|thumb|Norske Folkeeventyr Asbjørnsen and Moe Jørgen Engebretsen Moe was a Norwegian bishop and author...

 in their Norske Folkeeventyr
Norske Folkeeventyr
Norwegian Folktales is a collection of Norwegian folktales and legends by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. It is also known as Asbjørnsen and Moe, after the collectors.-Asbjørnsen and Moe:...

.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 402, Animal Brides. Another tale of this type is The Frog Princess
The Frog Princess
The Frog Princess is a fairy tale that exists in many versions from several countries.Russian variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog and also Vasilisa the Wise ; Alexander Afanasyev collected variants in his Narodnye russkie skazki...

.

Synopsis

A king sent his twelve sons out to find brides, laying on them the condition that their brides could spin, weave, and sew a shirt in a day, and giving them each a mail coat and a horse. When they had gone a distance, they refused to let the youngest
Youngest son
The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters....

 go with them, because he was useless. A little girl asked him to come see Doll i' the Grass, and he went. Doll i' the Grass asked him his troubles, and he told her but said she was so lovely, though small, he would be happy if she consented to be his wife.

She made him a shirt in a day, but it was tiny. They set out, he on his horse, she in a silver spoon drawn by two white mice, leaving him afraid he would trample her. They came to a body of water, his horse shied, and Doll i' the Grass was thrown in. He was horror-struck, but a merman
Merman
Mermen are mythical male equivalents of mermaids – legendary creatures who have the form of a human from the waist up and are fish-like from the waist down.-Mythology:...

brought her out again, and now she was of normal size.

His brothers had brought home ugly wives who had fought all the way home, and they wore hats with tar and soot, so that the rain had stained their faces with it, making them uglier. The king drove them and their brides away, and celebrated the wedding of his youngest son.
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