Tattercoats
Tattercoats is an English fairy tale about a great lord and his granddaughter. After his daughter dies giving birth, the grandfather refuses to look at the girl, so she grows up neglected and in ragged clothes. She is called Tattercoats and spends her days in the fields with only a gooseherd for a friend.
One day the grandfather is invited to a royal ball. He even shaves his hair to free himself from his chair and go, but he refuses to take Tattercoats. The gooseherd suggests they come along to watch. He plays his pipe as they dance their way to the ball.
A richly dressed young man asks for directions to the city and then to the ball. He tells Tattercoats to come to the king’s ball at midnight if she wants to marry him, just as she is. She goes with the gooseherd and the geese.
At the ball, everyone stares, but the prince recognizes her and announces that he wants to marry her. The gooseherd plays his pipe, and Tattercoats’s ragged clothes turn into shining robes while the geese turn into pages carrying her train. Everyone approves, and she marries the prince. The gooseherd disappears and is never seen again.
The grandfather, who had vowed never to look on her, returns to his castle and continues to mourn.
This tale is a variant of the persecuted-heroine type. The gooseherd acts as the donor figure who helps transform the heroine.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:54 (CET).