Just saw Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride over the weekend, and found myself wondering – is this based on any known story, whether fairy tale, folk tale, or myth? It seems like it had to be, but nothing came to mind.
Thanks.
It’s an old Russian folktale. You can read a version of it here.
That seems pretty authoritative. It’s interesting to see how much the story deviates from the actual movie. Only the central situation – the inadvertent marriage of the young man to the corpse bride – is maintained.