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Overview
A merchant’s wife requests a doll as tall as herself that can move, sew and dress. The handsome purchased figure works beside her at the balcony, attracting a prince who mistakes it for a daughter. The merchant explicitly says it is not human, but the royal household rejects his explanation. Fairy Orlanda takes the doll for two hours and returns a conversational daughter who nevertheless cannot speak to the prince. The marriage goes ahead, and her continued silence leads him to live separately and court other women.
The princess sends him remarkable dishes made by cutting off her own hands, arms and legs and putting them into an oven. The text expressly describes the arms as having grown again. Three rival women imitate the operations and die, marking a lethal difference between the doll-princess’s magical body and ordinary human bodies. These grotesque events are actions within the tale, rather than instructions or claims about bodily repair. Finally the prince overhears her night-time exchanges with the enchanted lamp and oil-cruet. His spoken blessing of Orlanda breaks their silence, and the couple embrace. The account does not explain her materials, soul or biological descent.
Origins & earliest records
Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), XXX: The Fairy Orlanda, pp. 114–118; source listed as Imbriani, Novellaja fiorentina, p. 333, ’A Fata Orlanna.
Records & interpretation
The complete selected English tale supplies the actions, objects and stated ending. Attached notes identify parallel versions, which are not merged into this account.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Italian Popular Tales: XXX: The Fairy Orlanda, pp. 114–118
Complete selected English tale and attached comparative note; no original Italian collation asserted.
Family, evolution & connections
The merchant and his wife
The purchased doll is expressly nonhuman before Orlanda’s intervention. She subsequently addresses the merchant and his wife as parents, but the account supplies no biological birth or material ancestry.
Unnamed prince of The Fairy Orlanda
The prince marries the transformed doll-princess despite her silence toward him. Their later reconciliation does not constitute a newly narrated marriage, and the three rival women are not identified as his wives.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCrane 1885: XXX: The Fairy Orlanda, pp. 114–118Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.