La Fada Morgana (Catalan folk tale)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

La Fada Morgana (Fairy Morgana) is a Catalan fairy tale or rondalla, first collected by Majorcan priest and author Antoni Maria Alcover.[1]

Summary[]

A powerful and wise queen named Fairy Morgana wants to marry her son Beuteusell to an equally wise maiden. In order to prove herself, the bride-to-be must pass a series of tests designed by the Queen.

Prince Beuteusell meets a peasant maiden named Joana and asks her father's approval for their marriage. Her father boasts that Joana is even wiser than the queen Fairy Morgana, and a maidservant overhears it. She tells the queen of the boast and she summons father and daughter to her court. The queen dismisses the father, but orders Joana to stay, for she intends to set a difficult task for the girl.

The task is to visit Fairy Morgana's mother and ask the old woman for two boxes containing songs inside: the capsa del Bon Jorn and the capsa del congrás. Beuteusell talks to Joana in secret and gives her information on how to approach his grandmother.

Joana passes through a field and compliments a tree stump, and helps a man that was cleaning a stove.[2] At last, she reaches the seven-gated castle of Fairy Morgana's mother. She announces herself and enters the royal chamber. The old queen asks her some riddles, which Joana answers correctly, and gets the boxes.

As a last hindrance for the couple, Fairy Morgana asks Joana on the wedding day which rooster is crowing, to which Joana answers: "el Ros" - as it was instructed by Beuteusell. Joana and Beuteusell are finally married.

Analysis[]

Tale type[]

The tale is connected to the cycle of Cupid and Psyche, and, more especifically to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch" (Catalan: El desencantament del princep: les tasques de la bruixa).[3]

Catalan scholarship classifies the tale as type ATU 428, "The Wolf",[4] a type that Jan-Öjvind Swahn considered to be only a fragmentary version of his type 425A.[5][a] Accordingly, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther revised the international classification system and subsumed previous type 428 under the new type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch".[8]

Motifs[]

Catalan scholarship locates the motif of the box of musical instruments in Greek, Turkish and South Italian variants.[9]

The antagonist, Fairy Morgana, has also been compared to her possible namesake, the Arthurian fairy and sorceress Morgan Le Fay.[10][11] Morgana also appears as the name of the female antagonist in other Catalan folktales of type 425B.[12][13]

Variants[]

Spain[]

In a Valencian variant collected by author Enric Valor i Vives with the title El castell d'entorn i no entorn, poor girl Teresa gives water to a hermit and receives a magic book in return. She opens the book; a ghostly figure of a prince answers from within the book and tells her to go the castle of "Serra dels Plans". There, she seeks employment with Queen Tomanina, mother of Prince Bernat. One day, the queen's elderly housekeeper lies to the queen that the girl boasted that she could accomplish great things. Then, Teresa is tasked with unstitching and cleaning the mattresses of the entire palace. She does with a little help from Prince Bernat. Lastly, the girl is asked to go to the queen's sister, Argelagaina, and to get two boxes from her.[14]

In a variant from Cádiz, collected from teller Carmen Pérez Galván, from Chiclana de la Frontera with the title Rosa, a young woman named Rosa lives with her travelling father. Their neighbour, a widow with two daughters, tells Rosa to convince her father to marry her. She does, and, as time passes, their neighbour, now her stepmother, mistreats the girl and favours her two biological daughters. The last straw is when the stepmother tells Rosa to seek employment somewhere else, since Rosa draws any suitor's attention from the step-sisters. Rosa leaves home and meets an old lady on the way, who directs her to a castle, to work for the lady of the castle, the queen, as her hairdresser. Eventually, the castle's servants, jealous of Rosa's talents and kindness, lie to the queen that she boasted she could do impossile things. The queen summons Rosa to her presence, and comments about the false boasts: that she can find the queen's missing son, and that she can clean all the palace overnight. Rosa goes to her bedroom and cries about the task, when a knight knocks on the door and tells her not to worry, for everything will be done the next morning. The next day, the whole palace is clean, from top to bottom. The other servants spread another rumour: that Rosa can wash all the clothes of the palace's inhabitants and iron them. The same knight knocks on the door and tells her not to worry. The next morning, the clothes are washed clean and ironed. Lastly, the queen reminds Rosa about the boast that she can locate her son, who has been missing for 20 years. The knight instructs Rosa to escape by a castle backdoor into an alleyway, carrying a sack of straw, a bag of bones, a comb, a piece of bread and a satchel of tobacco. The girl must go on until she finds two bulls (to which she must give the straw), two dogs (to which she must give the bones) and a long-bearded old man cleaning an oven with his long fingernails (to whom she must give the comb, the bread and the tobacco). At the end of the journey, she must ring a doorbell, and a witch will let her in. Inside, she will find a box surrounded by four candles. The girl is to put out the candles, take the box, and return to the castle by the backdoor. The girl follows the knight's instructions to the letter, and brings the box to the queen. The queen opens the box and her son comes out of it. The prince and Rosa marry.[15] The tale was also classified as type 425B.[16]

Spanish academic Ángel Hernandez Hernandez abstracted the common traits from a tale from Jumilla and another from Cartagena (both located in the Region of Murcia), and developed a tale type from the region with the same typing, ATU 425B. In his system of Murcian folktales, type 425B, El pájaro ayudante ("The helpful bird"), the heroine leaves home to escape mistreatment from her step-family and finds employment in a castle. There, the queen, based on false claims by the other servants, forces the heroine on difficult tasks, which she accomplishes with the help of a bird (that may be changed into a prince at the end of the story).[17]

Other Spanish variants of the tale type were located in Mallorca, Catalunya and Eivissa.[18][19]

Latin America[]

Chilean folklorist  [es] collected a variant from a teller from Santiago, titled La tortilla o El Canarito Encantado ("The Tortilla, or the Little Enchanted Canary"): a princess is visited by a little bird that steals from her a slik scarf, a golden thimble and a pair of golden scissors. The princess falls ill. Elsewhere, Juanito's mother prepares three tortillas that he is to take to the princess to cure her. On his way, the tortillas roll out of the basket and he follows them to a cave. Juanito climbs down the cave and sees three birds coming and becoming princes - the third one the same bird that stole the princess's belongings. Juanito leaves the cave and goes to the palace to inform the princess. The princess begs Juanito to guide her to the cave. He does; down there, the princess finds the bird and tells him she will endure anything thrown her way. The prince directs her to an old witch that lives underground. The princess finds service with the witch, who orders her to perform some tasks: to get the tears of a thousand colibris, and to take a gem-encrusted casket to the witch's friend. The bird instructs the princess on how to get the tears, and reveals that the casket is a trap: if one opens it, a magical army jumps out of it to kill anyone they see. The bird suggests they deceive the witch and let her open the casket; it happens so and the army strikes the witch to an inch of her life. Barely hanging on, the witch begs the princess to bring her a flask of reviving water, but the bird directs her to another flask, containing a deadly poison. The witch drinks it and dies; the bird becomes a prince and the cave becomes a castle.[20] Laval compared the witch's tasks in this tale to the ones in the Cupid and Psyche myth.[21] Folklorist Terrence Hansen, in his catalogue of Latin American folktales, classified the tale as a new subtype he created, type **428A, related to AaTh 428, "The Wolf" (see above).[22]

See also[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ For clarification, Swahn, in his system, classified type 425A as the "oldest".[6] In Stith Thompson's system, Swahn's typing is indexed as type AaTh 425B.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Alcover, Antoni Maria. Aplec de rondaies mallorquines. Volume 11. S. Galatayut, 1930. pp. 14-21.
  2. ^ Gelabert i Miró, M. Magdalena. "Les dones i les coves a les rondalles d'Antoni M. Alcover". In: Nom de la monografia: Paisatge i conflicte social: coves, refugis i trinxeres. A cura de Bàrbara Duran Bordoy, M. Magdalena Gelabert i Miró, Caterina Valriu Llinàs. La Vall d’Uixó, 2019. p. 83. ISBN 978-84-9965-490-4.
  3. ^ Oriol, Carme; Josep M. Pujol (2003). Índex tipològic de la rondalla catalana. Barcelona: Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Centre de Promoció de la Cultura Popular i Tradicional Catalana. p. 124 (tale on page 125). ISBN 9788439362142.
  4. ^ Gelabert i Miró, M. Magdalena. 2018. “El Tractament De La Dona Com a Pensadora En l’Aplec De Rondaies Mallorquines d’Antoni M. Alcover”. In: Estudis De Literatura Oral Popular / Studies in Oral Folk Literature, no. 6 (February): 16. https://doi.org/10.17345/elop201711-26.
  5. ^ Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 379.
  6. ^ Roberts, W. E. (1956). [Review of The Tale of Cupid and Psyche (Aarne-Thompson 425 and 428), by J.-Ö. Swahn]. In: Midwest Folklore, 6(3), 183, 184–185. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4317592
  7. ^ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Third Printing. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 [1961]. p. 142 (footnote nr. 1).
  8. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Volume 1: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 250. ISBN 9789514109560.
  9. ^ Poveda, Jaume Albero. "Rondalla «El castell d'entorn i no entorn» d'Enric Valor. Anàlisi hermenèutic i folklòrica". In: Miscel·lània Joan Veny. Volume 7. Estudis de llengua i literatura catalanes/LI. L'Abadia de Montserrat, 2005. p. 229. ISBN 9788484157373.
  10. ^ Gelabert i Miró, M. Magdalena. 2018. “El Tractament De La Dona Com a Pensadora En l’Aplec De Rondaies Mallorquines d’Antoni M. Alcover”. In: Estudis De Literatura Oral Popular / Studies in Oral Folk Literature, no. 6 (February): 16-17. https://doi.org/10.17345/elop201711-26.
  11. ^ Robles, Lourdes Soriano. "The "matière de Bretagne" in the Corona de Aragón". In: The Arthur of the Iberians: the arthurian legend in the Spanish and Portuguese worlds. Edited by David Hook. University of Wales Press, 2015. p. 174. ISBN 978-1-78316-241-3.
  12. ^ Poveda, Jaume Albero. "Rondalla «El castell d'entorn i no entorn» d'Enric Valor. Anàlisi hermenèutic i folklòrica". In: Miscel·lània Joan Veny. Volume 7. Estudis de llengua i literatura catalanes/LI. L'Abadia de Montserrat, 2005. p. 228. ISBN 9788484157373.
  13. ^ Manila, Gabriel Janer. Paraula: introducció a la història de la literatura catalana. Edicions Cort, 1984. p. 171. ISBN 9788475350462.
  14. ^ Poveda, Jaume Albero. "Rondalla «El castell d'entorn i no entorn» d'Enric Valor. Anàlisi hermenèutic i folklòrica". In: Miscel·lània Joan Veny. Volume 7. Estudis de llengua i literatura catalanes/LI. L'Abadia de Montserrat, 2005. pp. 225-227. ISBN 9788484157373.
  15. ^ Serrallés, Carmen Garcia. Era Posivé: Cuentos Gaditanos. Cádiz: 1992. pp. 131-136, 310.
  16. ^ Serrallés, Carmen Garcia. Era Posivé: Cuentos Gaditanos. Cádiz: 1992. p. 131.
  17. ^ Hernández Fernández, Ángel. Catálogo tipológico del cuento folclórico en Murcia. Colección El Jardín de la Voz: Biblioteca de Literatura Oral y Cultura Popular, Vol. 13. Alcalá de Henares: Área de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada de la Universidad de Alcalá: Centro de Estudios Cervantinos; Ciudad de México: Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas de la UNAM, 2013. pp. 101-102. ISBN 84-616-3267-2.
  18. ^ Oriol, Carme. "Les primeres rondalles d'Enric Valor i la seva catalogació tipològica inèdita". In: Miscel·lània Albert Hauf, Volume 4. L'Abadia de Montserrat, 2012. p. 206. ISBN 9788498833898.
  19. ^ Llavador, Rafael Beltrán. Rondalles populars valencianes: Antologia, catàleg i estudi dins la tradició del folklore universal. Universitat de València, 2011. p. 599. ISBN 9788437087511.
  20. ^ Laval, Ramón A. Cuentos populares en Chile. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes. 1923. pp. 32–42.
  21. ^ Laval, Ramón A. Cuentos populares en Chile. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes. 1923. p. 278.
  22. ^ Hansen, Terrence Leslie. The Types of the Folktale In Cuba, Puerto Rico: the Dominican Republic, And Spanish South America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. p. 54.

Further reading[]

  • Alcover, Jaume Vidal. "La fada Morgana en la tradició oral mallorquina". In: Randa Nº. 11, 1981 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Homenatge a Francesc de B. Moll, III), pp. 179-182. ISSN 0210-5993.
Retrieved from ""