Mossycoat

Mossycoat
Folk tale
Name	Mossycoat
Data
Aarne-Thompson grouping	510B
Country	England
Related	Donkeyskin Catskin Allerleirauh The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter The She-Bear Tattercoats Cap O' Rushes The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress The Bear

"Mossycoat" is a fairy tale collected by Katherine M. Briggs and Ruth I. Tongue in Folktales of England. It appears in A Book of British Fairy Tales by Alan Garner. The story known by folklorists was told was Taimi Boswell, a gypsy, at Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, January 9, 1915.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B, unnatural love. Others of this type include Donkeyskin, Catskin, Allerleirauh, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, The She-Bear, Tattercoats, Cap O' Rushes, The Princess That Wore A Rabbit-Skin Dress, and The Bear.

A hawker wanted to marry a widow's young daughter, but she did not want to marry him. The widow, who was spinning a coat for her, told her to ask for a white satin dress with gold sprigs, which must fit her exactly. The girl did so, and three days later, the hawker brought it. The girl asked her mother, and at her instruction, asked the hawker for a dress the colour of all the birds of the air, which must fit her exactly. When he brought that, she asked for silver slippers, which must fit her exactly. Then her mother told him to come the next day, at ten, to get his answer. That morning, the mother gave her the coat, which she had made of moss and gold thread, and which would let her move somewhere else by wishing and also to change herself into any form by wishing. Then she sent her to the great hall to work.

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