Prunella (fairy tale)

Prunella is an Italian fairy tale, originally known as Prezzemolina. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.^[1] It is Aarne-Thompson type 310, the Maiden in the Tower.

Italo Calvino noted that variants were found over all of Italy.^[2] The captor who demands his captive perform impossible tasks, and the person, usually the captor's child, who helps with them, is a very common fairy tale theme—Nix Nought Nothing, The Battle of the Birds, The Grateful Prince, or The Master Maid—but this tale unusually makes the captive a girl and the person the captor's son.