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Overview
A dismissed apprentice vows to marry the first female he meets. A large spider emerges beneath a square stone, and he calls her his wife, carrying her onward inside a loaf. In an old house she climbs to the ceiling and weaves. He earns money making shoes and hires a maid; the spider speaks to this servant, directing her to food and household supplies, and throws down embroidered furnishings from above.
After a prosperous year the man takes the maid to visit his mother, asking her to pose as his wife. The spider enters the remaining cock in the fowl-house and follows them. At the original stone the cock’s crow announces a king and queen; the stone opens into a palace and the spider becomes a princess. She marries the youth, while the servant remains their attendant. The tale does not explain who imposed the spider form.
Origins & earliest records
Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese Folk-Tales, translated from the original manuscript by Henriqueta Monteiro, London: Elliot Stock for the Folk-Lore Society, 1882; tale XXVII, pp. 111–113. The selected account does not identify an individual narrator or collecting locality.
Records & interpretation
The located 1882 English translation presents this figure within a complete collected narrative. Pedroso’s introductory pp. 1–2 describe the thirty published selections from his larger collection.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
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Portuguese Folk-Tales, tale XXVII, pp. 111–113
Located complete narrative in the original London edition; Ralston’s comparative introduction is separate commentary.
Family, evolution & connections
The unnamed shoemaker youth
The spider becomes a princess and marries the youth at the end. The servant briefly impersonates his wife during a visit; she remains a lady-in-waiting, not a second spouse.
Little Tick bride
Both neighbouring tales end with an invertebrate-form companion becoming a princess and marrying a human youth. The Spider uses a false wife during the home visit; The Little Tick uses repeated sibling tests. This is a textual comparison, not proof of common descent or borrowing.
The unnamed shoemaker who becomes king
The youth initially calls the spider his wife; the ending explicitly transforms her into a princess and marries them. The servant’s temporary impersonation as his wife does not become another marriage: she remains a lady-in-waiting. No children or spider-princess parents are supplied.
Little Tick Bride in Pedroso’s Tale
Both adjacent tales reveal a small creature as a princess and end in marriage. Their household tests differ: the spider supplies food and embroidered furnishings, while the tick prepares spun flax and a portable dog. This compares the collected narratives without claiming historical borrowing or kinship between their heroines.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textPortuguese Folk-Tales, original 1882 edition scan and transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.