Tattercoats is an English Fairy Tale collected by Joseph Jacobs and published in More English Fairy Tales.
Once upon a time there was an old lord who had no living relatives other than a granddaughter whose face he had never seen. When his daughter died in childbirth, the man blamed the baby and swore he would never look on her face. From that day on, he spent his days sitting by his room's window and weeping for his daughter, while his granddaughter was raised by an old nurse. However, the nurse could barely steal scraps from the kitchen to feed the girl, and a torn petticoat to clothe her. The remainder servants, who despised and mistreated the little girl, started calling her "Tattercoats" in mockery.
As growing up, Tattercoats spent most of the time in the fields surrounding her grandfather's castle, where she befriended a gooseherd. Every time she was upset, the gooseherd would play his pipe until she forgot all her troubles and danced on the field.
One day, word arrived that the King was going to give a great ball in the nearby town, where the prince would choose his wife. The old lord was forced to interrupt his mourning and make himself presentable, but he absolutely refused to let his granddaughter go with him, no matter how many times the old nurse pleaded.
Tattercoats ran away to meet up with her friend the gooseherd. Since his friend was severely upset because she couldn't go to the ball, the gooseherd proposed to go into the town together to see the King's arrival. Both friends were dancing down the road when they ran into a wealthy, handsome young man. Since he was also going to the castle, he decided to walk beside them along the road. On the way, the man fell in love with Tattercoats and begged her to marry him. Though, Tattercoats turned him down several times, believing he was mocking her. To prove his sincerity, the man asked her to come that night at the ball, wearing her current rags and accompanied by the herdboy and his geese, and he would introduce her to them all as his betrothed.
So, when night came, Tattercoats, her friend and the flock of geese walked into the ballroom and up to the throne, ignoring the dozens of amazed stares they were getting. Tattercoats's lover, who was sitting beside the king, because he was the prince, approached her, kissed her, and declared he had chosen her as his bride.
As the prince was speaking, the gooseherd played an odd tune, and Tattercoats' rags turned into a beautiful ballgown, and the flock of geese transformed into a retinue of pages. As the king greeted his new daughter-in-law, the people watching the scene cheered up because the prince had chosen the loveliest girl in all the land.
Nonetheless, the gooseherd slipped out during the ball and was never seen again. As for Tattercoats's grandfather, he went back to his palace, since staying at court would entail looking at his granddaughter's face. And there he still sits by his window, looking out over the sea and weeping bitterly.
This fairy tale can be read in the SurLaLune site
and here.
Tattercoats is an Aarne–Thompson type 510B, "The Persecuted Heroine". Compare with "Catskin", "Cap o' Rushes" or some of the many "Cinderella" and "Donkeyskin" variants (found here and here). It is not related to "Tatterhood" despite the similar names.
Tropes:
- Barefoot Poverty: Tattercoats walks barefoot because she cannot afford shoes.
- Blue Blood: Tattercoats is an old aristocrat's granddaughter.
- Character Title: The story is named after the princess protagonist.
- Dances and Balls: The King holds a ball so that his son will meet eligible women. However, the Prince happens upon Tattercoats on his way to the ball and asks her to come to the ball to prove he intends to marry her.
- Death Glare: Several times the old nurse begs her lord to let Tattercoats go with him to the ball, but she has only "black looks and fierce words" in return.
- Disappeared Dad: The story never mentions what happened to Tattercoats' father.
- Excessive Mourning: The old nobleman spends years gazing out of a window and weeping for his daughter's death.So he turned his back, and sat by his window looking out over the sea, and weeping great tears for his lost daughter, till his white hair and beard grew down over his shoulders and twined round his chair and crept into the chinks of the floor, and his tears, dropping on to the window-ledge, wore a channel through the stone, and ran away in a little river to the great sea. And, meanwhile, his granddaughter grew up with no one to care for her or clothe her.
- Gruesome Grandparent: Tattercoats' grandfather refers to his granddaughter as "it", hates her for something that is not her fault, refuses to take care of her and has sworn never to look at her face.
- I Gave My Word: Since he swore that he would never look on his granddaughter's face, Tattercoats' grandfather never goes back to the King's court after Tattercoats marries the prince.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: When the old nurse brings him the baby, the old lord states that "it might live or die like it liked, but he would never look on its face as long as it lived."
- Karma Houdini: The old lord's servants get no comeuppance for spending years abusing a poor helpless girl.
- Love at First Sight: The prince decides to get married to Tattercoats when he sees her dancing down the road.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Tattercoats' grandfather hates her because her mother died in childbirth.He hated her bitterly because at her birth his favourite daughter died; and when the old nurse brought him the baby, he swore, that it might live or die as it liked, but he would never look on its face as long as it lived.
- Meaningful Name: The main character wears nothing but rags.
- Missing Mom: Tattercoats' mother died after giving birth.
- Old Retainer: Tattercoats is ignored by her grandfather and abused by all the servants, except for one faithful nurse, who looks after her as she is growing up.
- Parental Substitute: The old nurse was the only person who made the effort to raise Tattercoats to the best of her ability.
- Person with the Clothing: Tattercoats is named after the rags she is forced to wear.
- Prince Charming: The prince wants to marry Tattercoats even though she seems a poor, rag-wearing goose girl.
- The Promise: Tattercoats' grandfather swore an oath never to look on his granddaughter's face.
- Rags to Royalty: Tattercoats grows up living off scraps of food and wearing ragged clothes until the prince falls for her.
- Rule of Three: Three times the old nurse begs the old lord to let his granddaughter go with him to the king's ball.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Tattercoats walks into the ball wearing nothing but her ragged petticoat, but then the gooseherd turns her rags into a shining, bejeweled ball gown, prompting people to declare the prince has chosen "the loveliest girl in all the land".
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- The nurse is dropped from the story after the scene where she fails to persuade the old aristocrat to take Tattercoats to the ball.
- The gooseherd vanishes after transforming Tattercoat's rags, and nobody ever finds out what happened to him. Given that he is able to transform not only Tattercoats’s rags but also his geese, he might be a good faerie, a good wizard, or some other magical being sent by her dead mother to help the girl.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Tattercoats arrives at the ball at midnight, "just as the clock struck twelve".
