The Snow-child

This article is about the European folktale. For the novel by Eowyn Ivey, see The Snow Child. For the short story by Angela Carter, see The Bloody Chamber § The Snow Child.

The Snow-child is a widespread European folktale,^[1] found in many medieval tellings.^[2]

It is Aarne–Thompson type 1362.^[1]

Synopsis

A merchant returns home after an absence of two years to find his wife with a newborn son. She explains one snowy day she swallowed a snowflake while thinking about her husband which caused her to conceive. Pretending to believe, he raises the boy with her until he takes the boy on a trip and sells him into slavery. On his return, he explains to his wife that the boy melted in the heat.^[3]

Variants

The tale first appears in the 11th-century Cambridge Songs.^[2][4] It also appears in Medieval fabliaux,^[3] and was used in school exercises of rhetoric.^[2] A Medieval play about the Virgin Mary has characters disbelieving her story of her pregnancy citing the tale.^[2]

It contrasts to Aarne-Thompson type 703*, Snow Maiden, where a child really has a magical snow-related origin.^[5]