Conkiajgharuna, The Little Rage Girl: The Story Of Cinderella

As the formula for the tale of Cinderella goes, the story’s exposition establishes that the mother of Cinderella will remain absent for the whole of the story. Death or other mysterious reasons causes this absence and, as a result, Cinderella, the name often given to the main character of this story, experiences mistreatment following the removal of her mother. The introduction of a new mother serves as the cause of the misfortune, with the children of this new mother aiding in cause of misery. Cinderella hears about the royal ball hosted by the king for the purpose of finding a princess for the king’s son. This event acts as the means of escape from her wretched circumstances. However, Cinderella can’t find success or confidence to go without the aid of a guardian or helper. The mother’s spirit takes the form of several helpers, in particular a cow or bull. The cow and the bull guardians can have different means as a result of the change in gender and serve different purposes.

The tales of “Pepelyouga” and “Conkiajgharuna, the Little Rage Girl”, the Serbian and Georgian renditions of Cinderella, show the helper as a cow that assists with the preparations for the royal ball. The cow in these stories symbolizes, from the perspective of those who wrote this story, a consistent food source or financial security. This animal

provides milk, a resource that a person can consumed or sell. With the resource of milk, a person can live by some means. The difference between good fortune and misfortune as well as life and death were implied with the mother’s spiritual helper.
In “Katie Woodencloak”, the Norwegian version of Cinderella, a bull serves as the guardian for Cinderella.

The bull, in contrast, can serve no monetary purpose to a person. Rather, the bull serves as a form of protection or authority. The bull, quick to anger when threatened and strong in physique, embodies the protective spirt of the mother. The bull serves as protector of its offspring and family. The mother’s spirit must assist Cinderella as the father does not appear concerned with the well-being of his daughter. Instead, the mother must help her daughter, taking the role of power and masculinity to make up for the fathers lacking

authority.
Both the cow and the bull serve Cinderella, replacing a resource that Cinderella herself could not have provided. They both represent different meanings based on the gender of the animal. In “Pepelyouga” and “Conkiajgharuna”, the cow represents a means of survival in an uncertain world. Similarly, in “Katie Woodencloak”, the bull represents a defender to Cinderella. Either way, the animal provides power to Cinderella so that she may find the king’s son. This leads to her to prospering for the rest of her days, in other words, “Happily Ever After”. Without the aid of the mother’s spirit, Cinderella would likely have never made to a higher status in society, the mother giving a better future for her daughter in the mother’s absence.