The fairy tale image of a handless girl/maiden/wife, which appears in various forms and cultures, is
one of the most questionable in the international fairy tales index as ATU, appearing as type 510.
Variants are associated with Cinderella, The Dress of Gold, Silver and of Stars, Donkey Skin, All-Fur,
The Princess in the Chest and so on. This image is discussed in depth by M. L. von Franz in The
Feminine in Fairy Tales (1993), C. Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with Wolves: Myths and Stories of
the Wild Woman Archetype (1997), Jack Zipes in The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and
Basile to the Brothers Grimm (2001) etc.
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