Europe France Emmanuel Cosquin collected a version with a tragic ending from
Lorraine titled
The White Wolf (), in which the youngest daughter asks her father to bring her a singing rose when he returns. The man cannot find a singing rose for his youngest daughter, and he refuses to return home until he finds one. When he finally finds singing roses, they are in the castle of the titular
white wolf, who initially wants to kill him for daring to steal his roses, but, upon hearing about his daughters, changes his mind and agrees to spare him his life under the condition he must give him the first living being that greets him when he returns home (note story of
Jephthah and
his daughter in
Judges 11). This turns out to be his youngest daughter. In the castle, the girl discovers that the white wolf is enchanted and can turn into a human at night, but she must not tell anyone about it. Unfortunately, the girl is later visited by her two elder sisters who pressure her to tell them what is happening. When she finally does, the castle crumbles and the wolf dies.
Henri Pourrat collected a version from
Auvergne in south-central France, titled
Belle Rose (sometimes translated in English as
Lovely Rose). In this version, the heroine and her sisters are the daughters of a poor peasant and are named after flowers, the protagonist being Rose and her sisters Marguerite (Daisy) and Julianne, respectively. The Beast is described as having a
mastiff jaw, a
lizard's back legs, and a
salamander's body. The ending is closer to Villeneuve's and Beaumont's versions with Rose rushing back to the castle and finding the Beast lying dying beside a fountain. When the Beast asks if she knows that he can't live without her, Rose answers yes, and the Beast turns into a human. He explains to Rose that he was a prince cursed for mocking a beggar and could only be disenchanted by a poor but kind-hearted maiden. Unlike in Beaumont's version, it is not mentioned that the protagonist's sisters are punished at the end.
Italy According to philologist and scholar Renato Aprile, the tale is popular in the Italian oral tradition. collected a variant from
Trentino titled
The Singing, Dancing and Music-making Leaf (; ) in which the Beast takes the form of a
snake. Instead of going to visit her family alone, the heroine can only go to her sister's wedding if she agrees to let the snake go with her. During the wedding, they dance together, and when the girl kicks the snake's tail, he turns into a beautiful youth, who is the son of a
count.
Sicilian folklorist
Giuseppe Pitrè collected a variant from
Palermo titled ''Rusina 'Mperatrici
(The Empress Rosina
). Domenico Comparetti included a variant from Montale titled Bellindia'', in which Bellindia is the heroine's name, while her two eldest sisters are called Carolina and Assunta. included a version titled
Zelinda and the Monster (
Zelinda e il Mostro), in which the heroine, called Zelinda, asks for a rose in January. Instead of going to visit her family, staying longer than she promised, and then returning to the Monster's castle to find him dying on the ground, here the Monster shows Zelinda her father dying on a magic mirror and says the only way she can save him is saying that she loves him. Zelinda does as asked, and the Monster turns into a human, who tells her he is the son of the King of the Oranges. Both Comparetti's and Imbriani's versions were included in
Sessanta novelle popolari montalesi by Gherardo Nerucci. British folklorist
Rachel Harriette Busk collected a version from Rome titled
The Enchanted Rose-Tree where the heroine does not have any sisters. Antonio De Nino collected a variant from
Abruzzo, in eastern Italy, that he also titled
Bellindia, in which instead of a rose, the heroine asks for a golden carnation. Instead of a seeing it on a magic mirror, or knowing about it because the Beast tells her, here Bellinda knows what happens in her father's house because in the garden there is a tree called the Tree of Weeping and Laughter, whose leaves turn upwards when there is joy in her family, and they drop when there is sorrow. Francesco Mango collected a
Sardinian version titled
The Bear and the Three Sisters (''S'urzu i is tres sorris''), in which the Beast has the form of a
bear.
Italo Calvino included a version on
Italian Folktales titled
Bellinda and the Monster, inspired mostly from Comparetti's version, but adding some elements from De Nino's, like the Tree of Weeping and Laughter.
Iberian Peninsula Spain Manuel Milá y Fontanals collected a version titled ''The King's Son, Disenchanted
(El hijo del rey, desencantado''). In this tale, when the father asks his three daughters what they want, the youngest asks for the hand of the king's son, and everybody thinks she is haughty for wanting such a thing. The father orders his servants to kill her, but they spare her and she hides in the woods. There, she meets a wolf that brings her to a castle and takes her in. The girl learns that in order to break his spell, she must kill the wolf and throw his body into the fire after opening it. From the body flies a pigeon, and from the pigeon an egg. When the girl breaks the egg, the king's son comes out.
Francisco Maspons y Labrós extended and translated the tale to
Catalan, and included it in the second volume of
Lo Rondallayre. Maspons y Labrós collected a variant from
Catalonia titled
Lo trist. In this version, instead of roses, the youngest daughter asks for a coral necklace. Whenever one of her family members is sick, the heroine is warned by the garden (a spring with muddy waters; a tree with withered leaves). When she visits her family, she is warned that she must return to the castle if she hears a bell ringing. After her third visit to her family, the heroine returns to the garden where she finds her favorite rosebush withered. When she plucks a rose, the beast appears and turns into a beautiful youth. A version from
Extremadura, titled
The Bear Prince (
El príncipe oso), was collected by Sergio Hernández de Soto and shows a similar introduction as in Beaumont's and Villeneuve's versions: the heroine's father loses his fortune after a shipwreck. When the merchant has the chance to recover his wealth, he asks his daughters what gift they want from his travels. The heroine asks for a lily. When the merchant finds a lily, a bear appears, saying that his youngest daughter must come to the garden because only she can repair the damage the merchant has caused. His youngest daughter seeks the bear and finds him lying on the ground, wounded. The only way to heal him is by restoring the lily the father took, and when the girl restores it, the bear turns into a prince. This tale was translated to English by
Elsie Spicer Eells and retitled
The Lily and the Bear.
Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr. collected a version from
Almenar de Soria titled
The Beast of the Rose Bush (
La fiera del rosal), in which the heroine is the daughter of a king instead of a merchant.
Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Jr. published a version from
Sepúlveda, Segovia titled
The Beast of the Garden (
La fiera del jardín). In this version, the heroine has a stepmother and two stepsisters and asks for an unspecified white flower.
Beauty and the Beast in the
Basque language is called
Ederra eta Piztia.
Portugal In a
Portuguese version collected by
Zófimo Consiglieri Pedroso, the heroine asks for "a slice of roach off a green meadow". The father finally finds a slice of roach off a green meadow in a castle that appears to be uninhabited, but he hears a voice saying he must bring his youngest daughter to the palace. While the heroine is at the palace, the same unseen voice informs her of the goings-on at her father's house using birds as messengers. When the heroine visits her family, the master of the castle sends a horse to let her know it is time to return. The heroine must go after hearing him three times. The third time she goes to visit her family, her father dies. After the funeral, she's tired and oversleeps, missing the horse's neigh repeat three times before it leaves. When she finally returns to the castle, she finds the beast dying. With his last breath, he curses her and her entire family. The heroine dies a few days after, and her sisters spend the rest of their lives in poverty. Another Portuguese version from Ourilhe, collected by:
Francisco Adolfo Coelho and titled
A Bella-menina, is closer to Beaumont's tale in its happy ending – the beast is revived and disenchanted.
Belgium and the Netherlands Beauty and the Beast in the
Standard Dutch language is
De Schone en het Beest (literally "The Beauty and the Beast"), but it is usually called
Belle en het Beest (literally "Belle and the Beast"). In a
Flemish version from
Veurne titled
Roosken zonder Doornen or
Rose without Thorns, the prince is disenchanted differently than in Beaumont's and Villeneuve's versions. The heroine and the monster attend each of the weddings of the heroine's elder sisters, and to break the spell, the heroine has to give a toast for the beast. In the first wedding, the heroine forgets, but in the second she remembers, and the beast becomes human. In a second Flemish variant collected by Amaat Joos, titled
Van het Schoon Kind, the heroine's father is a king instead of a merchant, and when he asks his three daughters what they want him to bring them when he returns from a long journey, the king's youngest daughter asks for a bush of trembling roses while her two eldest sisters asks for robes with golden flowers and a silver skirt. During her stay at the monster's castle the princess has a nightmare where she sees the monster drowning in a pond, and after she wakes up and finds out the monster is not in the corner where he sleeps, she goes to the garden where she finds the monster in the same situation she saw him in her dream. The monster turns into a prince after the princess saves him. Another Flemish version from
Wuustwezel, collected by Victor de Meyere, is closer to Beaumont's plot, the merchant's youngest daughter staying one day more at her family's home and soon returning to the Beast's palace. When she returns, she fears something bad has happened to him. This one is one of the few versions in which the merchant accompanies his daughter back to the Beast's castle. More similar Beaumont's plot is a Dutch version from
Driebergen titled
Rozina. In this version, it is Rozina's vow to marry the Beast that eventually breaks the spell.
Central Europe Beauty and the Beast (
Albanian:
E Bukura dhe Bisha,
Bulgarian: Краса́вицата и Звя́ра,
Krasávitsata i Zvyára,
Macedonian: Убавицата и Ѕверот,
Ubavitsata i Dzverot,
Serbo-Croatian: Лепо̀тица и Звȇр,
Lepòtica [
Lepòtitsa]
i Zvȇr,
Slovenian:
Lepotíca [
Lepotítsa]
in Zvȇr,
Czech:
Kráska a zvíře,
Slovak:
Kráska a zviera,
Hungarian:
A Szépség és a Szörnyeteg,
Polish:
Piękna i Bestia,
Romanian:
Frumoasa și Bestia,
German:
Die Schöne und das Biest) is known in several different variants in Central Europe. The
Brothers Grimm originally collected a variant of the story, titled
The Summer and Winter Garden (
Von dem Sommer- und Wintergarten). Here, the youngest daughter asks for a rose in the winter, so the father only finds one in a garden that is half-eternal winter and half-eternal summer. After making a deal with the beast, the father does not tell his daughters anything. Eight days later, the beast appears in the merchant's house and takes his youngest daughter away. When the heroine returns home, her father is ill. She cannot save him, and he dies. The heroine stays longer for her father's funeral, and when she finally returns, she finds the beast lying beneath a heap of cabbages. After the daughter revives the beast by pouring water over him, he turns into a handsome prince. The tale appeared in Brothers Grimm's collection's first edition, in 1812, but because the tale was too similar to its French counterpart, they omitted it in the next editions. Despite the other folklorists collecting variants from German-speaking territories,
Ludwig Bechstein published two versions of the story. In the first,
Little Broomstick (
Besenstielchen), the heroine, Nettchen, has a best friend called Little Broomstick because her father is a broommaker. Like in
The Summer and Winter Garden, Nettchen asks for roses in the dead of winter, which her father only finds in the Beast's garden. When a carriage comes to bring Nettchen to the Beast's castle, Nettchen's father sends Little Broomstick, who pretends to be Nettchen. The Beast discovers the scheme, sends Little Broomstick back home, and Nettchen is sent to the Beast's castle. The prince is disenchanted before Nettchen's visit to her family to cure her father using the sap of a plant from the prince's garden. Jealous of her fortune, Nettchen's sisters drown her in the bath, but Nettchen is revived by the same sorceress who cursed the prince. Nettchen's eldest sisters are too dangerous, but Nettchen doesn't want them dead, so the sorceress turns them into stone statues. In
Bechstein's second version,
The Little Nut Twig (
Das Nußzweiglein), the heroine asks for the titular twig. When the father finally finds it, he has to make a deal with a bear, promising him the first creature that he meets when he arrives at home. This turns out to be his youngest daughter. Like in
Little Broomstick, the merchant tries to deceive the bear by sending another girl, but the bear discovers his scheme and the merchant's daughter is sent to the bear. After she and the bear cross twelve rooms of disgusting creatures, the bear turns into a prince. Carl and Theodor Colshorn collected two versions from
Hannover. In the first one,
The Clinking Clanking Lowesleaf (
Vom klinkesklanken Löwesblatt), the heroine is the daughter of a king. She asks for the titular leaf, which the king only gets after making a deal with a black
poodle, promising to give him the first person that greets the king when he arrives home. This turns out to be his youngest daughter. The merchant tries to trick the poodle, giving him other girls pretending to be the princess, but the poodle sees through this. Finally, the princess is sent to the poodle, who brings her to a cabin in the middle of the woods, where the princess feels so alone. She wishes for company, even if it is an old beggar woman. In an instant, an old beggar woman appears, and she tells the princess how to break the spell in exchange for inviting her to the princess' wedding. The princess keeps her promise, and her mother and sisters, who expressed disgust at the sight of the old beggar woman, become crooked and lame. In Carl and Theodor Colshorn's second version,
The Cursed Frog (
Der verwunschene Frosch), the heroine is a merchant's daughter. The enchanted prince is a
frog, and the daughter asks for a three-colored rose.
Ernst Meier collected a version from
Swabia, in southwestern Germany, in which the heroine has only one sister instead of two. Ignaz and Josef Zingerle collected an Austrian variant from
Tannheim titled
The Bear (
Der Bär) in which the heroine is the eldest of the merchant's three daughters. Like in
The Summer and Winter Garden and
Little Broomstick, the protagonist asks for a rose in the middle of winter. Like in Zingerle's version, the Beast is a bear. In the
Swiss variant,
The Bear Prince (
Der Bärenprinz), collected by
Otto Sutermeister, the youngest daughter asks for grapes. In another Polish version from
Kraków, the heroine is called Basia and has a stepmother and two stepsisters. An apple also plays a relevant role when the heroine goes to visit her family in a
Polish version from
Mazovia, in this case to warn the heroine that she is staying longer than she promised. In a
Czech variant, the heroine's mother plucks the flower and makes the deal with the Beast, who is a basilisk, who the heroine later will behead to break the spell. In a
Moravian version, the youngest daughter asks for three white roses, and the Beast is a dog; In another
Moravian version, the heroine asks for a single red rose and the Beast is a bear. In a
Slovenian version from
Livek titled
The Enchanted Bear and the Castle (
Začaran grad in medved), the heroine breaks the spell reading about the fate of the enchanted castle in an old dusty book. In a
Hungarian version titled
The Speaking Grapes, the Smiling Apple and the Tinkling Apricot (
Szóló szőlő, mosolygó alma, csengő barack), the princess asks her father for the titular fruits, and the Beast is a pig. The king agrees to give him his youngest daughter's hand in marriage if the pig is capable of moving the king's carriage, which is stuck in the mud.
Scandinavia Beauty and the Beast (
Danish:
Skønheden og udyret,
Norwegian:
Skjønnheten og udyret (
Bokmål) or
Skjønnheita og udyret (
Nynorsk),
Swedish:
Skönheten och odjuret,
Icelandic:
Fríða og Dýrið, or
Yndisfríð og Ófreskjan,
Faroese:
Vakurleikin og Ódjórið,
Finnish:
Kaunotar ja Hirviö) is well-known in the
Nordic countries, especially since the
adaptation by
Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1991.
Evald Tang Kristensen collected a
Danish version that follows Beaumont's version almost exactly. The most significant difference is that the enchanted prince is a
horse. In a version from the
Faroe Islands, the youngest daughter asks for an apple instead of a rose.
Kvitebjørn kong Valemon and
Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne are some Norwegian variants of the fairy-tale.
Eastern Europe translation from 1787, published in the old
Slavonic-Serbian literary language, translated by
Avram Mrazović.
Beauty and the Beast (
Russian: Краса́вица и Чудо́вище,
Krasávitsa i Tchudóvishtche,
Ukrainian: Красу́ня і Чудо́висько,
Krasúnya i Tchudóvysʹko,
Belarusian: Прыгажу́ня і Пачва́ра,
Pryhazhúnya i Patchvára) is known in some different versions in Eastern Europe.
Alexander Afanasyev collected a Russian version,
The Enchanted Tsarevich (Закля́тый царе́вич,
Zaklyátyĭ tsarévitch), in which the youngest daughter draws the flower she wants her father to bring her. The beast is a three-headed winged snake. There is a more famous version,
The Scarlet Flower, written by
Sergey Aksakov and published in 1858. In a
Ukrainian version, both the heroine's parents are dead. The Beast, who has the form of a snake, gives her the ability to revive people.
Greece and Cyprus Beauty and the Beast in
Modern Greek is called "Η Πεντάμορφη και το Τέρας" (
I Pentámorfi kai to Téras) or "Η Ωραία και το Τέρας" (
I Oraía kai to Téras), and
Belle's name in Modern Greek is
Μπελ (
Bel, lit.
translit.
Mpel, pronounced as
Bell). In a version from the island of
Zákynthos in
Western Greece, the prince is turned into a snake by a
nereid whom he rejected. The prince is also turned into a snake in a version from
Cyprus in which he is cursed by an orphan who was his lover. In the end, the heroine's elder sisters are turned into stone pillars.
Asia Beauty and the Beast (
Hebrew:
הַיָפָה וְהַחַיָּה,
Ha-Yafáh ve-Ha-Chayyáh,
Arabic:
الجميلة والوحش,
Al-Jamīla wa-Al-Waḥsh,
Persian:
دیو و دلبر,
Delbar o Div,
Kurdish:
Bedew û Cinawir or
Ciwanê û Cinawir,
Turkish:
Güzel ve Çirkin,
Chinese: 美女 與 野獸 (
traditional) or 美女 与 野兽 (
simplified),
Měinǚ yǔ Yěshòu,
Japanese: 美女 ト 野獣 (
Katakana),
Bíjò to̞ Yàjū, or
びじょ と やじゅう (
Hiragana),
Bídyò to̞ Yàdyū,
Korean:
미녀 와 야수,
Minyeo wa Yasu,
Indonesian:
Si Cantik dan Si Buruk Rupa,
Tagalog:
Si Maganda at ang Halimaw) is known in some different variants in Asia.
Eastern Asia North American missionary
Adele M. Fielde collected a tale from
Swatow, China, titled
The Fairy Serpent. In this tale, the heroine's family is visited by wasps until she follows the beast, who is a serpent. One day, the well she usually fetches water from is dry, so she walks to a spring. When the heroine returns, she finds the snake dying and revives him plunging him in the water. This turns him into a human. In a second Chinese variant,
Pearl of the Sea, the youngest daughter of rich merchant Pekoe asks for a chip of
The Great Wall of China because of a dream that she had. Her father steals a chip and is threatened by an army of Tatars who work for their master. In reality, the Tatar master is her uncle Chang, who has been enchanted prior to the story, and could only be released from his curse until a woman consented to live with him in the Great Wall.
Southeast Asia North America United States William Wells Newell published an
Irish American variant simply titled
Rose in the
Journal of American Folklore. In this version, the Beast takes the form of a
lion. Marie Campbell collected a version from the
Appalachian Mountains, titled
A Bunch of Laurela Blooms for a Present, in which the prince was turned into a frog.
Joseph Médard Carrière collected a version in which the Beast is described having a lion's head, a horse's back legs, a
bull's body, and a snake's tail. Like the end of Beaumont's version, Beauty's sisters are turned into stone statues. In a variant from
Schoharie, New York, collected by Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner with the title
The Rosy Story, the heroine is named Ellen. The character that demands the youngest daughter is a headless man, but the Beast-like figure is a large toad. Folklorist
Fanny Dickerson Bergen published a fragmentary variant from Ohio, with the title
The Golden Bird, which is the object the youngest daughter asks for.
Mexico Mexican linguist Pablo González Casanova collected a version from the
Nahuatl titled
Cizuanton huan yolcatl (
Spanish:
La doncella y la fiera), in which after returning to her family's home, the heroine finds the beast dead on the ground. The girl falls asleep by his side, and she dreams of the beast, who tells her to cut a specific flower and spray its water on his face. The heroine does so, and the beast turns into a beautiful young man.
South America Lindolfo Gomes collected a Brazilian version titled
A Bela e a Fera in which the deal consists of the father promising to give the Beast the first living creature that greets him at home. The heroine later visits her family because her eldest sister is getting married. == Broader themes ==