her, he was able to catch her. She turned into various animals, a hare, a fish, a bird, and a snake, but he cut off the snake's head, and the bride became a human again. The stepmother returned with an ointment that would work only if the true bride had really been drowned; she put it on her daughter's tongue and found it did not work. The prince found them and said they deserved to die, but the stepdaughter had persuaded him to merely abandon them on a desert island. Commentary This tale contains two sequences, which are often found together – "The Three Little Men in the Wood", "The White Bride and the Black One", "Maiden Bright-eye", and "Bushy Bride" – but which can also be two separate stories. First, there is the "kind and unkind girls" tale, where variants include "Mother Hulda", "Diamonds and Toads", "The Three Heads in the Well", "The Two Caskets", and "Father Frost". Literary variants include "The Three Fairies" and "Aurore and Aimée". Second, the theme of the stepmother (or another woman) managing to usurp the true bride's place after the marriage, is often found in other fairy tales, where the obstacles to the marriage differ, if they were part of the tale: "The Wonderful Birch", "Brother and Sister", "The Witch in the Stone Boat", or "The White Duck". References Enchanted Wreath Enchanted Wreath ATU 400-459 ATU 460-499