The Twelve Months (fairy tale)

The Twelve Months is a Greek fairy tale collected by Georgios A. Megas in "Folktales of Greece". [Georgias A. Megas, "Folktales of Greece", p 123, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1970]

It is Aarne-Thompson type 480, the kind and the unkind girls. [Georgias A. Megas, "Folktales of Greece", p 232, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1970] Others of this type include "Diamonds and Toads", "The Enchanted Wreath", "Mother Hulda", "Maiden Bright-eye", "The Old Witch", "The Three Heads in the Well", "The Months", and "The Two Caskets". [Heidi Anne Heiner, [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/diamondstoads/other.html "Tales Similar to Diamonds and Toads"] ]

ynopsis

A poor woman baked bread for a gentlewoman; the gentlewoman would not give her a corner of a loaf, but she washed her hands of the dough when she got home and made gruel to feed her children. Her children thrived, but the gentlewoman's were thin, and her friends told her that poor woman was stealing her children's luck. The gentlewoman therefore made her wash her hands before she went home. The woman and her children wept, and the woman went out to beg bread. She found only a corner of bread, gave it to her children, and left during the night to avoid seeing them starve. She met up with twelve young men. They asked her about the months, and she praised March, April, and May for bringing everything to life; June, July, and August for ripening everything and letting the poor not need heavy clothing; September, October, and November for the grape harvest and reminding them that winter is coming; December, January, and February for giving people rest. They gave her a jar. When she got home, she found it full of gold.

The gentlewoman went out to seek the same luck, but when she found the twelve young men, she abused the weather of every month. They gave her a jar. When she got home, it held snakes that killed her.

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