An intriguing note that is not attached to the relevant folktale.
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An intriguing note that is not attached to the relevant folktale.
"Instead of a rat, mouse, or the like, it is a cat that, each night, is transformed into a princess."
Moltke Moe, 1879.
In fact, I have not yet read a folktale of that type (at least three variants implied in the note).
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An intriguing note that is not attached to the relevant folktale.
"Instead of a rat, mouse, or the like, it is a cat that, each night, is transformed into a princess."
Moltke Moe, 1879.
In fact, I have not yet read a folktale of that type (at least three variants implied in the note).
Searching "princess transformed into a cat" gave me a Google AI summary that claimed that "The Cat King’s Daughter" (by the Grimms, apparently) fits the description nicely.
I don't usually pay attention to the AI summary, but this one irked me: there is no such folktale published by the Grimms.
As evidence for the existence this folktale, Google's AI linked to a Facebook post (by someone I thought I was familiar with) that makes the same claim, throwing in an Arthur Rackham illustration as further evidence, as well as the title of the book the tale purportedly appears in: The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, from 1909.
I downloaded the book, only to find that the tale is not in there. (That would be because it does not exist in the Grimm collection, duh!)
This is the brave new world that AI has brought us!
In fact, "The Cat King’s Daughter" is a fairy tale written and published by Fiona Waters in 1984. I have not read it. (Available here: https://www.biblio.com/9780416467901)
When searching for the phrase "The Cat King's Daughter" Google's AI places the above-mentioned Facebook post above Waters' book.
Surely Fiona Waters deserves better than to have her title robbed and erroneously ascribed to the Grimms!
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
