egscomics
patreon
Cinderella - 37 - HD
🕑 Added 2025-05-01 03:00:05 +0000 UTCFrench linguistics lesson
With apologies in advance to the very concept of language. Not that I think I got anything wrong. I'm basically apologizing on reflex.
Commentary
Given a Cinderella story in which Cinderella is represented by Tedd Verres, I couldn't NOT comment on this.
Nonetheless, I am sorry.
TO CLARIFY! In French, as the comic says, Verre and Vair sound the same. The version of Cinderella this is most inspired by was originally French, the title being Cendrillon ou la Petite Pantoufle de verre. The author, Charles Perrault, introduced several elements to Cinderella that are well known today, but as previously commented on, he did not invent the whole story.
It's therefore possible that the elements he's credited as introducing were already part of renditions of Cinderella he'd heard told by other people, including the "verre" part.
It is my understanding that, long ago, someone made the claim that "verre" was SUPPOSED to be "vair", and verre, glass, was used in error.
My understanding is ALSO that there's no solid evidence to confirm this claim, but that it has its own sort of popularity nonetheless, and that some people will claim Cinderella was actually supposed to be wearing vair slippers.
For what it's worth, I believe Perrault intended verre, and they are supposed to be glass slippers in his version of the story. As many versions of the story exist, however, with tons of people borrowing from tons of other people and changing whatever they like, there definitely could have been versions of the story being told with vair slippers.
Personally, I prefer the version that doesn't use squirrel fur.
--
More comics at egscomics in partnership with Hiveworks
Comments
Some Ed
The whole thing about the slipper only fitting Cinderella only makes sense if the slipper is made out of an unforgiving material, such as glass or steel. if it's made out of squirrel fur, then it would stretch more, providing a lot more variation in who could wear it. Yes, Cinderella having unfathomably tiny feet could make the squirrel slipper version work, but it feels to me it works so much better with the slippers being made out of something that will not conform in any way to the would be wearer's foot. Let's just hope Tedd doesn't have sore feet afterwards, and thus have swelling that makes them not fit...
Raphaël
French person here... Loved the little linguistic joke. To give a bit of context if people care: - "vair" was a fairly noble/expensive material back then that only royalty and such would afford. - the "verre" vs "vair" debate has been debunked (*): many non-French European versions of the same folklore story either actually use their "glass" translated word (without possible confusion) or nothing at all. Besides "glass" in a fairy tale often had some extra meaning and was not unique to this story (e.g. "house of glass", etc). - ironically, the verre/vair controversy totally eclipsed the fact the story is about a "chausson" (slipper), which at the time was solely for in-house and would never have been used to go to a ball. I really liked how Tedd very correctly points out that seems like it's going to be quite uncomfortable to have "glass slippers", which is probably the point -- from a narrator perspective, making the macguffin as noticeable as possible. [*]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controverse_sur_la_composition_des_pantoufles_de_Cendrillon
