ABSTRACT
The number of permutations emphasise the flexibility of the scheme, but the overall mechanism is clear enough. It will immediately be seen that certain configurations of the plot must be predetermined by a narrator’s individual choices: the heroine cannot convincingly pose as a man in versions where she is or becomes pregnant, and it tends to be the former motif which is most
consistently prominent. Here are several examples of the variation to which the modern tale lends itself:
The modern oral tradition of these and very similar story patterns is widespread in Europe and the Near East, and there are several quite distinctive forms: the girl is sometimes entrusted to a priest who assaults her, tries to frame her, and is entrusted with the task of killing her; there may be a single marriage abroad, or again an intrigue with a jealous rival, sexual threats, and sometimes even the murder of the child(ren); but most conspicuously the plot tends to culminate in a final showdown scene in which the girl collects all those who have wronged her in the one room, and forbids anyone to leave even under pressure of urgent calls of nature; she then exposes all her malefactors in turn and appropriate punishments are meted out, before she identifies herself to her (generally only one true) husband.1
