The story
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1785–1863 · 1786–1859)
From Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales), first published in 1812. Retold here in our own words.
Once there was a rich man whose wife fell ill, and when she felt her end was near, she called her only daughter to her bedside. "Dear child," she said, "stay good and kind, and heaven will always watch over you." Then she closed her eyes and died, and the girl went every day to her mother's grave and wept, and she stayed good and kind.
The man married again, a widow with two daughters of her own. The daughters were beautiful to look at, but their hearts were dark and proud. They took the girl's fine clothes away, gave her an old grey dress and wooden shoes, and laughed: "Look at the proud princess in the kitchen now!" From morning to night she worked: she fetched water, lit the fire, cooked and washed. In the evening, too tired for a bed, she lay down in the ashes by the hearth. So they called her Cinderella.
One day the father was going to market, and he asked his daughters what he should bring them. The stepsisters asked for fine dresses, pearls and jewels. Cinderella asked only for the first twig that brushed against his hat on the way home. On his return a hazel twig caught his hat, and he brought it to her. She planted it on her mother's grave, watered it with her tears, and it grew into a fine tree. A little white dove came to live in its branches, and whenever Cinderella wished for something, the dove threw it down to her.
Now the king of that land gave a great festival, three days of dancing, so that his son might choose a bride. The stepsisters were wild with excitement. Cinderella begged to go, but her stepmother only laughed and poured a dish of lentils into the ashes: "Pick them out in two hours, then you may go." Cinderella called to the doves and all the birds of the sky, and they picked every lentil from the ashes. But the stepmother only poured down twice as many and said no again, and hurried away with her daughters.
Cinderella went to the hazel tree and cried: "Little tree, shake yourself, throw gold and silver over me." The dove threw down a dress of gold and silver and silk slippers. She went to the festival, and no one knew her, she was so beautiful. The prince danced with no one but her, and when evening came she slipped away. So it went for three nights, and on the third night her dress was the finest of all, and her slippers were of pure gold.
But that night the prince had covered the palace stairs with pitch, and as she ran, her left slipper stuck fast. The prince picked it up: it was tiny and golden. "The bride I choose," he declared, "is the maiden whose foot fits this shoe."
He came to Cinderella's house. The eldest stepsister tried the shoe in her room, but her big toe was too long, so her mother gave her a knife: "Cut it off. When you are queen you will not need to walk." She cut off her toe and squeezed in her foot, and the prince rode away with her. But as they passed the hazel tree, the doves cried: "Rook di goo, rook di goo! There's blood in the shoe! The shoe is too small, the true bride waits at home!" The prince looked down, saw the blood, and brought the false bride back.
Then the second sister tried. Her heel was too large, so she cut off a piece of her heel and squeezed in her foot. Again the doves cried out as they passed the tree, again the prince saw the blood, and again he returned her.
"Have you no other daughter?" he asked the father. "Only my poor Cinderella," said the man, "she cannot be the bride." But the prince insisted, and Cinderella washed her face and hands and came forward. She sat on a stool, slid her foot into the golden shoe, and it fit as if made for her. The prince looked into her face and knew her at once: the beautiful maiden from the festival. He lifted her onto his horse and rode away.
As they passed the hazel tree, the doves cried: "Rook di goo, rook di goo! No blood in the shoe! The shoe is not too small, the true bride rides with you!"
At the wedding the stepsisters came, hoping for favor, but the doves pecked out first one eye and then the other, so they were blind for the rest of their days: a punishment for their wickedness and deceit.
Moral and themes
Kindness outlasts cruelty, and truth cannot be hidden forever. Cinderella stays good even when no one rewards her, and the story's justice is exact: the stepsisters' lies are exposed by the smallest detail, a spot of blood, and their punishment fits their deceit. The tale also honors grief honestly: Cinderella's power comes from the tree on her mother's grave, from love that death does not end.
Reading note
This is the Grimms' Cinderella, not the later French version, and the differences matter. There is no fairy godmother: help comes from the hazel tree the heroine plants herself, watered with her own tears, which makes her rescue something she earns. The stepsisters' self-mutilation and blinding are harsh, but the Grimms meant them as moral bookkeeping: in their world, wickedness is punished in kind. Read it as a story about patience rather than passivity: Cinderella endures, but she also acts, planting, wishing, and finally stepping forward to try the shoe.