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Overview
Angiola’s mother promises her unborn child to a witch after stealing jujubes. The witch claims the girl at about seven, using a bitten finger to make her mother acknowledge the bargain. In a doorless tower, Angiola’s long hair becomes the means by which the guardian climbs to her room. A prince imitates the call and persuades Angiola to escape. Before leaving, she feeds the living furniture, but overlooks a broom that later tells the witch where she has gone.
Three stolen balls of yarn create successive obstacles: a soap mountain, a nail-covered mountain and a swelling torrent. The witch crosses the first two but must abandon the third. Her curse immediately changes Angiola’s face into a dog’s face; the rest of the girl’s body is not said to become canine. The prince keeps her in a small house because he fears his parents’ refusal. A loyal speaking dog obtains restorative water from the witch, allowing Angiola to regain her face and marry. The dog is a separate companion, not Angiola’s transformed body.
Origins & earliest records
Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), V: The Fair Angiola, printed pp. 26–30. The story list identifies Laura Gonzenbach, Sicilian collection No.53, Von der schönen Angiola. The full selected English tale has been used; no individual oral narrator is named in that presentation.
Records & interpretation
The selected tale provides this figure’s stated form, speech or supernatural action and its narrative outcome. Crane’s preface acknowledges changes of tense and omitted repetitions; this English presentation is distinguished from independently inspecting its underlying regional collection.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Italian Popular Tales, V: The Fair Angiola, pp. 26–30
Complete selected tale, including its final resolution; nearby editorial comparisons remain separate.
Family, evolution & connections
Angiola’s unnamed birth mother
The woman captured stealing jujubes later gives birth to Angiola and names her. The witch obtains the child through an earlier coerced promise; she is not the birth mother.
Jujube-garden Witch of Fair Angiola
The witch claims to be Angiola’s aunt and later raises her with affection described as for her own child. The opening supplies no sibling relationship between witch and mother, so biological auntship is not established.
Unnamed king’s son in Fair Angiola
The prince first proposes flight and marriage, but the dog-faced curse delays the wedding. After Angiola’s face is restored, the king and queen welcome her and a wedding is explicitly celebrated.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCrane1885: V: The Fair Angiola, story list and prefaceResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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