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The Master Thief | The Lang Fairy Tales: The Red Fairy Book (1890)
For today's Lang Fairy Tales episode we have a tale with its very own ATU number - The Master Thief!
First recorded, to our knowledge, by Herodotus in the 5th century B.C. the story became popular in Europe due to a single writer in the Italian Renaissance who popularised the "Rise Tale" - the story of someone from a more modest background outwitting the rich to become rich themselves.
In this case, with the Langs taking their version from Asbjørnsen and Moe, we have a youngest son who is a trickster, cross-dresser, huntsman, passable fake corpse, and torturer of priests.
Is he a hero?…
The skinny
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