Prince Wolf

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Not to be confused with Prince of Wolf.

Prince Wolf (Danish: Ulv Kongesøn) is a Danish fairy tale collected by Svend Grundtvig in his book Danske Folkeaeventyr.[1]

Summary[]

A princess finds a louse on her hair. She shows it to her father and decides to feed it until it grows large enough. The louse dies and the king orders its leather to be cut off and extended. He decides to use it as part of a riddle to give the princess's hand in marriage to anyone who can correctly guess the type of skin.

A wolf comes to the court and guesses it right, demanding the princess as wife, as promised by the king. The king consents in giving his daughter and the wolf comes to fetch her. Wolf and princess walk about a bit, then she climbs onto the wolf's back and they run until they reach a splendid castle. The wolf confirms it is their castle, but warns that no light should be used inside at night. The princess notices that the wolf is only such during the day, but someone human comes at night.

After two years, the princess gives birth to a boy, but he is taken from them and given to the husband's sisters. One day, she wants to visit her family. Her wolf husband consents, but insists that, when she returns, she must not bring anything from home with her. They visit his wife's parents for three days, and her mother advises her daughter to use a knife to confirm that her husband is a human, and not a troll.

She brings the knife from home and puts it on his bedstand at night. He hurts his leg, and moans, confirming he is human, after all. The prince complains to his wife, but she tells him she won't repeat it.

Some time passes, she gives birth to a daughter after four years, and the girl is also taken from her. They visit the princess's parents again. Her mother, this time, convinces the princess to use some light source to see his true face, when he comes at night to the bridal bed. So she gives her a tinder-box and some taper. The princess returns to her husband's palace and lies that she did not bring anything with her. Later that night, she illuminates the bedroom and glimpses at her husband, in human form.

He despairs at his wife's betrayal and reveals he is a human prince who was cursed by a witch for refusing to marry her troll daughter. He turns into a wolf again and vanishes into the night. The princess now has to seek him out. On her way, she visits her sisters-in-law, and recognizes her children, but does not linger and resumes her quest. She finally reaches a glass mountain where the witch resided, but it is so slippery. The princess is advised by an old man to find the nearest ironsmith to shod her shoes.

After she finally climbs the glass mountain, she employs herself as a kitchen maid in the witch's castle, and is ordered to perform difficult tasks. The witch orders the princess to beat a piece of white flannel until it turns black. She takes it to the stream and the old man offers his help in exchange for her affections. She refuses and remains loyal to the wolf prince. Despite the refusal, the old man uses his stick to beat the white shirt into a black color. Seeing the impossible feat, the troll witch orders her to beat it back into a white color, which she does with the old man's help.

Next, the princess is tasked with going to Hebbenfeld to fetch a jewel box from the witch's sister and bring it to her daughter's wedding. On the way, she cries that she does not know the way to Hebbenfeld, and a young man offers his help in exchange for her affections. She thanks his offer, but says she is still loyal to her husband. The young man points her to Hebbenfeld, and instructs her to only ask for the box, and refuse any offer of food from the witch.

She does as told and gets the box. The princess is offered a calf's foot by the witch's sister, but hides it in her bosom. She leaves the house and, on her way back, wants to take a peek inside the box. She opens it and a little bird flies away. She laments that there were no jewels inside, but the young man appears and uses his magic to enchant the calf's foot to return to the witch's house and get the jewels.

Finally, the princess is forced to carry torches during Prince Wolf's wedding to the troll's daughter, after being enchanted to stay still as the torches slowly melt on her hands. After the Prince and the troll daughter pass through the door, the princess cries out for her beloved to help her. Prince Wolf seizes the torches from his true wife's hands and puts them into the hands of the troll witch and her daughter. The torches melt away in their hands and they, as well as the entire castle, are consumed in the fire.

Once she and her husband escape from the witch, they take their children on the journey back home and live happily.

Translations[]

The tale was translated into English by Jane Mulley as Prince Wolf, and published in the Journal of American Folk-Lore and as part of Fairy Tales From Afar;[2][3] into German as Wolf Königssohn by Willibald Leo;[4] and into Italian as Il Principe Lupo.[5]

Analysis[]

Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm von Sydow noted that the tale begins with the episode of (former) tale type AaTh 621,[6] "The Louse-Skin", also used in Italian fairy tale The Flea, from the Pentamerone. Folklore scholar Stith Thompson remarked that this tale type often served as introduction to other types, including AaTh 425B.[7]

The tale has also been compared to the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche[8] and other stories about animal husbands that appear as an animal during the day, but assume human form at night, like Norwegian East of the Sun and West of the Moon. The human wife is advised by her parents to break the husband's prohibition and to see his true face at night. She disobeys the husband's wishes and he disappears.[9][10] The heroine journeys to another kingdom where a witch lives (sometimes identified as her mother-in-law), where she works as her servant. One of the tasks forced upon the heroine is to go to the house of another witch, located in Hell itself, to get fiddlers, musicians, girl carders, ballads, or some bridal ornament (as in some variants from Denmark).[11][12]

Researcher Annamaria Zesi suggests that the episode of the louse skin appears in tales found around the Baltic Sea, and the motif of the heroine losing her children as soon as they are born (and taken to her husband's relatives) "originates from Scandinavia or from the Celtic-Scandinavian area".[13]

Variants[]

Europe[]

Norway[]

In a tale collected from teller Olav Eivindsson Austad in Setesdal with the title The Tale about the Wolf, a couple has a beautiful daughter. While they are at church, she leaves the house to fetch more firewood and is taken by a wolf to be his wife. Three years they live as husband and wife, and she bears him three children taken from her by the wolf. One day, the wolf consents to let her visit her parents, but to listen to her father, not her mother. The girl tells that by night he was a man, and her mother suggests the girl light a candle to better see him. That night, she lights the bedroom and see his true face: a handsome man, and a drop of tallow drops on his body. Feeling betrayed, he tells her he was under a curse and that he must leave. The wolf agrees to take the girl on his back as he departs on his journey. They pass by three big farms belonging to his three sisters (three old women), who are also taking care of their children. In each, the girl is warned by the wolf not to take anything their children may give her, but the sister-in-law insists she takes it: a cloth, a purse and self-cutting scissors. The girl gives the cloth and the purse to two people in need, who direct her to a mountain, where the wolf has gone to. Climbing the mountain, she meets a family of trolls and her husband (now in human form), and offers her services to wash black wool into white and back if she could sleep by the wolf's side for two nights.[14]

Sweden[]

Swedish folktale collectors George Stephens and Gunnar Olof Hyltén-Cavallius collected a very similar variant from Södermanland, titled Ulf-Prinsen ("Wolf Prince"). They grouped it under the banner Jungfrun, som såg på sin Käraste vid Ljus ("The Maiden who looked at her husband with a [source of] light").[15] The Swedish tale begins with the riddle of the louse skin and the appearance of the wolf in court. However, the tale differs in that the king tries to trick the wolf with daughters of other people, but he notices and returns. On the third time, the king relents and gives the wolf his daughter, as promised. On her way to her husband, she receives gifts from helpful beings that glisten like the sun and she uses to bribe the troll princess (the false bride) for a night with her husband - a narrative sequence that appears in the closely related tale type ATU 425A, "Animal as Bridegroom".[16]

In a tale originally collected by Waldemar Liungman and translated into Hungarian as A zacskóból kiszabadult és visszaparancsolt nóták ("The Songs that escaped from a bag and were returned to it"), a poor girl lives with a lame dog as her only companion. The lame dog takes off his skin and becomes a man at night, and asks the girl to never look at him at night. However, she lights a lamp that night and sees that the man is a handsome youth. He wakes up and admonishes her that his curse would have been over soon, had she not betrayed his trust, and now she has to work for the witch who cast the curse on him. She goes to the witch, who forces her to do impossible tasks: to turn a pile of white yarn into black, and a pile of black yarn into white; and to clean the witch's stables. She despairs at her situation at first, but a handsome stranger offers his help in exchange for her becoming the man's beloved. The girl accepts the help, but turns down his proposal, opting to stay true to the lame dog. The third task is to go to the witch's aunt and bring songs for a wedding that is to take place. The handsome stranger appears and advises her on how to procceed: drink milk from a cow and hang the cheese on its horns; shear a goat's horns; take some loaves of bread off of an oven; cross a bridge barefoot; throw the loaves of bread to three dogs; help two woman grind in the courtyard; accept the aunt's food (a calf's foot), but do not eat it; take the bag of wedding songs and escape. She does all that and takes the bag of wedding songs with her. The songs begin to sound even louder, which entices the girl's curiosity; she opens the bag and snakes, frogs and toads leap out of it and crawl into the grass. The stranger summons them back to the bag. The wedding happens: the stranger who helped her is the bridegroom. Later, after the wedding, the stranger assumes his true form, tells the girl he is the lame dog and bids her take with them a few pine cones, some grains of sand and some drops of water, for they will escape that night. The pair chooses two horses from the stable and rides away from the witch, who learns the youth and girl have escaped and follows them with her army. The pair throws the objects to delay them, and the last object (the drops of water) become so vast a lake the witch and her cohorts try to drink it and burst. The youth is disenchanted and marries the girl.[17]

Denmark[]

Danish folklorist Evald Tang Kristensen published another similar Danish variant with the title Ulv Kongesøn. The tale also begins with the motif of finding the louse, fattening it and using its skin as part of a riddle. The wolf prince appears, deciphers the riddle and gains the princess as his wife. Later, the wolf husband disappears and she follows his trail to the Troll Queen's castle, where he is to be married to her daughter. The princess is sent to fetch a box of musicians from another witch and to bring it to the Queen's castle. At the conclusion of the tale, the pair escapes from the Queen in a sequence akin to "The Magic Flight" tale type.[18]

In another Danish tale collected by Svend Grundtvig, Den lille hvide hund ("The Little White Dog"), a merchant looks for red ribbons as a present for his daughter, but finds none anywhere, until a little white dog offers some to him, in exchange for the first thing that greets the man upon his return. To his shock, it is his own daughter, who must now live with the little white dog, on the condition that she must never light any source of light in their castle. She gives birth to three sons. She knows a man comes at night to the bridal bed and, disobeying his orders, lights a candle to see him. Three drops of wax fall on his shirt and he awakes. The husband says they must separate and she can only look at their children, not play with them. She finds her sons and plays with them, once again disobeying her husband. He appears and tells her to seek employment with the old witch. After some time, the witch tells her she is making preparations for her wedding, and orders her to get some fiddlers in a box, by going to hell. The woman takes the box from Hell and opens it, the fiddlers escaping, but the dog prince helps her get everyone back inside it. Seeing that the woman fulfilled all her tasks, the witch explodes and the dog prince appears with their children.[19][20] The tale was republished in 1970 with its classification: AT 425B.[21]

Iceland[]

German philologist Adeline Rittershaus summarized an Icelandic tale found in a manuscript in Landesbibliothek. In this tale, titled Der schwarze Hund ("The Black Dog"), a king with three daughters has to go to war, but before he departs, he asks what his daughters want as a comeback gift. The two elders want a golden chair and a golden dress, while the youngest, Ingebjörg, wants a golden apple. He loses his way into a thick forest and arrives at a garden where the golden apples are. He spends some time in the nearby castle and, when it is time for him to leave, he takes the apple and a big black dog stops his exit. The dog demands the king's youngest daughter in return. Ingebjörg marries the black dog and lives in his enchanted castle, where he becomes a man during the night. She gives birth three times, but an old midwife takes the children. The black dog asks his wife if she wants to see their children, and she says yes. The black dog accepts, but warns that she must not overstay her visit. She visits her two older children in two other castles, but on the third child she stays a bit longer, and the black dog disappears. Ingebjörg runs through the forest and reaches a giantess's house. The giantess agrees to take her in, but the princess must first wash a black sheep into white and a white one into black. A mysterious man helps her. The next task is to go to giantess's sister and take a bag full of living birds. At the end of the tale, the princess finds the black dog and takes him to the giantess. The dog attacks the monster and changes at last back into human form.[22]

Icelandic scholar Einar Ólafur Sveinsson located an Icelandic tale published by author Jon Árnáson, which he related to Cupid and Psyche, but supposed it was a combination of fragments of different stories. In this tale, a girl named Helga loses her favorite cow Bukolla, and looks for her in the mountains. She does not find it, but meets a troll witch, for whom she is forced to perform difficult tasks. The girl is helped by an ugly person called Dordingull, and the last task is for her to go to the Queen of the Dales (a character that Sveinsson considered to be a local and demythified Persephone).[23] The vile ogress sends Helga to the Queen of the Dales (Dale-queen) to get a brooch she left there and a game of chess. Dordingull advises her to sit at the Dale-queen's table, make the sign of the cross to bless the tableware and eat not of the food the Queen offers, but to hide some portions in her clothes.[24]

In a tale collected from teller Herdís Jónasdóttir in Húsafell with the title The Tale of the Dog Móri, a human princess marries a dog (Prince Sigurdur). They live three years together and have three children (two girls and a boy), who are taken by a vulture as soon as they are born. After the kidnapping, the dog husband returns, congratulates her obedience and gives her a gift (a gold chess set, a gold ring and a mirror). When the princess's third sister is marrying, she visits her family and her mother gives her a pebble to use on her husband. The prince feels betrayed and reveals to his wife he is a prince cursed by his stepmother, and must return to his palace. The princess goes after him, passes by three little houses and finds her children under the care of a person. They direct her to a mountain. She climbs up the mountain, finds her husband and bribes the false bride with the objects her husband gave her.[25]

Estonia[]

In Estonian variants, the heroine's father promises her to an animal husband (a dog, a wolf, a bear), or she is destined by fate to be his bride. Either way, the heroine marries the animal, who discards his animal disguise at night. She breaks the taboo on him and he vanishes. The heroine follows her husband into hell, where she is made to perform tasks to the devil, including going to the devil's sister. Estonian scholarship, however, indexes this narrative sequence under type ATU 425A, Koer peigmeheks ("The Dog as Bridegroom").[26]

Africa[]

In a variant in the Nga'ka language published by professor Emmi Meyer with the title Vom Mädchen, das einen Leoparden heiratete ("The Girl who married a Leopard"), the king finds a termite and fattens it to use its skin in an engagement riddle for his daughter. A man comes, guesses it is a termite skin and wins the princess. He walks with her and makes her promise not to take any blade with her. He becomes a leopard and takes her to their house. She gives birth to two children, who are taken from her by unknown forces. When she returns to her father, she takes a knife with her to prove if her husband is truly a man. She hurts him and lights a fire in their bedchambers and he disappears. She goes on a quest for him and finds him soon to be married to another bride.[27] Scholar Jan-Öjvin Swahn, who authored one of the definitive studies on the Cupid and Psyche cycle of stories, noted that this African tale contained a motif found in Scandinavian and Island Celtic variants: the heroine gives birth to her children and the babies are taken from her by strange powers.[28]

See also[]

For the motif of taking the heroine's children, see:

References[]

  1. ^ Grundtvig, Sven. Danske Folkeaeventyr: Efter Utrykte Kilder. Kjøbenhaven: C. A. Reitzel. 1876. pp. 192-209.
  2. ^ Grundtvig, Svend, and Jane Mulley. "Prince Wolf". In: The Folk-Lore Record 3, no. 2 (1880): 225-36. Accessed September 8, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1252395.
  3. ^ Grundtvig, Svend, and Jane Mulley. Fairy Tales From Afar. London: Hutchinson & co., 1900. pp. 224-243.
  4. ^ Grundtvig, Svend. Dänische Volksmärchen. Vol. 1. Leipzig: Joh. Barth, 1878, pp. 252-276.
  5. ^ Storie di Amore e Psiche. A cura di Annamria Zesi. Roma: L'Asino d'Oro Edizioni. 2010. pp. 166-179. ISBN 978-88-6443-052-2.
  6. ^ Sydow, Carl Wilhelm. Våra folksagor: vad de berätta om forntida tro och sed. Natur och kultur, 1941. p. 170.
  7. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 155. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  8. ^ Garner, Emelyn Elizabeth. Folklore From the Schoharie Hills, New York. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan press, 1937. pp. 114, 116-117.
  9. ^ MacCulloch, John Arnott (1868-1950). The Childhood of Fiction: a Study of Folk Tales And Primitive Thought. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1905. p. 327.
  10. ^ Clouston, William Alexander. Popular Tales And Fictions: Their Migrations And Transformations. Edinburgh, etc.: W. Blackwood and sons, 1887. p. 211 (footnote nr. 1).
  11. ^ Fitzgerald, Robert P. “‘The Wife’s Lament’ and ‘The Search for the Lost Husband’.”. In: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 62, no. 4 (1963): 774. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27727179.
  12. ^ Boberg, I.M. "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Classica et Medievalia 1 (1938): 188.
  13. ^ Storie di Amore e Psiche. A cura di Annamaria Zesi. Roma: L'Asino d'Oro Edizioni. 2010. pp. 220-221. ISBN 978-88-6443-052-2.
  14. ^ All the World's Reward: Folktales Told by Five Scandinavian Storytellers. Edited by Reimund Kvideland, Henning K Sehmsdorf. University of Washington Press, 1999. pp. 38-44. ISBN 9780295977546.
  15. ^ Friedländer, Ludwig. Roman life and manners under the early Empire. Vol. IV. London: Routledge. 1913. p. 115 (entry nr. 2).
  16. ^ Hyltén-Cavallius, Gunnar Olof och Stephens, George. Svenska Folk-Sagor och Äfventyr. Förste Delen. Stockholm: pa A. Bohlins Förlag. 1849. pp. 325-350.
  17. ^ Ortutay Gyula; Beke Margit; Korompay Bertalan. A Szoria-Moria palota: FINN, NORVÉG, SVÉD, LAPP, DÁN MESÉK. Budapest: Móra Ferenc Ifjúsági Könyvkiadó, 1963. pp. 222-229, 398.
  18. ^ Kristensen, Evald Tang. Jyske folkeminder, isser fra Hammerumharred. Trettende Samling. [Gyldendal], 1897. pp. 358-363.
  19. ^ Grundtvig, Svend. Gamle danske minder i folkemunde: folkeæventyr, folkeviser. Kjøbenhavn, C. G. Iversen. 1854. pp. 100–105.
  20. ^ Dollerup, Cay; Holbek, Bengt; Reventlow, Iven and Rosenberg Hansen, Carsten. "The Ontological Status, the Formative Elements, the “Filters” and Existences of Folktales". In: Fabula 25, no. 3-4 (1984): 244-246. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1984.25.3-4.241
  21. ^ Grundtvig, Svend. Gamle Danske Minder I Folkemunde. Ny samling, 1ste og 1det hefte. Akademisk Forlag, 1970 [Kjøbenhavn: C. G. Iversen, 1856]. Annex.
  22. ^ Rittershaus, Adeline. Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1902. pp. 24-27.
  23. ^ Sveinsson, Einar Ólafur. The Folk-Stories of Iceland. Revised by Einar G. Pétursson. Translated by Benedikt Benedikz. Viking Sociery for Northern Research; University College London, 2003. pp. 242-243. ISBN 0 903521 53 9.
  24. ^ Árnason, Jón, ed. (1866). "Bukolla". Icelandic Legends. Translated by Powell, George E. J.; Magnússon, Eirikur (Second series ed.). London: Longmans, Green and Co. pp. 511–519.
  25. ^ All the World's Reward: Folktales Told by Five Scandinavian Storytellers. Edited by Reimund Kvideland, Henning K Sehmsdorf. University of Washington Press, 1999. pp. 282-286. ISBN 9780295977546.
  26. ^ Järv, Risto; Kaasik, Mairi; Toomeos-Orglaan, Kärri. Monumenta Estoniae antiquae V. Eesti muinasjutud. I: 1. Imemuinasjutud. Tekstid redigeerinud: Paul Hagu, Kanni Labi. Tartu Ülikooli eesti ja võrdleva rahvaluule osakond, Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Rahvaluule Arhiiv, 2009. pp. 564-565, 607-608. ISBN 978-9949-446-47-6.
  27. ^ Meyer, Emmi (1942). "Märchen in der Balisprache aus dem Grasland von Kamerun”. In: Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen 32 (2, 3): 149-154.
  28. ^ Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 491.
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