into French (Les Trois Fileuses). French author Edouard Laboulaye included a "Dalmatian" version named The Spinning Queen in his book Last Fairy Tales. In this variant, the three aunts are described as witches. Americas In a Puerto Rican variant, three Holy Souls in Purgatory replace the fairies, and a merchant takes the place of the king. The heroine in this version is an orphan abused by an aunt. Literary versions The story was given a literary treatment, with the name The three little Crones, each with Something big, where the lazy spinster is a princess, who her own mother traps in a tower for her to learn how to spin flax. Variants without magic In the Uzbek variant, called The Resourceful Spinner, the fairy spinners are absent. Instead, the wife attempts to both eat and spin at the same time, which is seen by a passing prince suffering from a bone stuck inside his throat. The sight makes him laugh so hard the bone dislodges, curing him. His father, the ruler, is so grateful that he promises to fulfill any wish of hers, and the woman asks him for enough weavers to spin the flax. Later, the wife bows to a passing beetle, and explains to the surprised husband it's actually her aunt, shriveled from the effort of weaving, to which his husband forbids her to ever weave again. A related Armenian tale has the wife lose the flax but find a gold nugget, which she claims to her husband was given to her for the quality work. Her mother later likewise claims a black beetle is her aunt, and the husband likewise forbids his wife to ever work again. See also The Lazy Spinner The Three Aunts Rumpelstiltskin Mother Hulda References Bibliography Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1-60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 109–115. Brueyre, Loys. Contes populaires de la Grande-Bretagne. Paris: Libraire Hachette et C. 1875. p. 162. Jones, W. Henry; Kropf, Lajos L.; Kriza, János. The folk-tales of the Magyars. London: Pub. for the Folk-lore society by E. Stock. 1889. pp. 330–334. von Sydow, C. W. Två spinnsagor: en studie i jämförande folksagoforskning'' (Monograph). Akademisk avhandling—Lund. Stockholm : P.A. Norstedt. 1909. [Analysis of Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale types 500 and 501] Further reading External links The Three Spinning Women and Hateful Flax Spinning German fairy tales Grimms'