The Sharp Grey Sheep The Sharp Grey Sheep The Sharp Grey Sheep or The Sharp-Horned Grey Sheep is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in "Popular Tales of the West Highlands", listing his informant as John Dewar, labourer, from Glendaruail, Cowal. It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A. See also "Rushen Coatie", a nearly identical Scottish version of the "Cinderella" tale. A king and queen had a daughter, but the queen died and the king married another. The stepmother was cruel to the princess and sent her to watch the sheep while not sending her enough food to survive. A sharp (horned) grey
Fairy tale tales appeared in works intended for adults, but in the 19th and 20th centuries the fairy tale became associated with children's literature. The "précieuses", including Madame d'Aulnoy, intended their works for adults, but regarded their source as the tales that servants, or other women of lower class, would tell to children. Indeed, a novel of that time, depicting a countess's suitor offering to tell such a tale, has the countess exclaim that she loves fairy tales as if she were still a child. Among the late "précieuses", Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont redacted a version of "Beauty and the Beast"