The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird

The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird
The foster mother (doe) looks after the wonder-children. Artwork by John D. Batten for Jacobs's Europa's Fairy Book (1916).
Folk tale
Name	The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird
Data
Aarne–Thompson grouping	ATU 707 (The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird; The Bird of Truth; The Three Golden Children; The Three Golden Sons)
Region	Sicily, Eurasia, Worldwide
Related	Ancilotto, King of Provino; Princess Belle-Étoile and Prince Chéri; The Tale of Tsar Saltan; The Boys with the Golden Stars

The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird is a Sicilian fairy tale collected by Giuseppe Pitrè,^[1] and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane for his Italian Popular Tales.^[2] Joseph Jacobs included a reconstruction of the story in his European Folk and Fairy Tales.^[3] The original title is "Li Figghi di lu Cavuliciddaru", for which Crane gives a literal translation of "The Herb-gatherer's Daughters."^[4]

The story is the prototypical example of Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale-type 707, to which it gives its name.^[5] Alternate names for the tale type are The Three Golden Sons, The Three Golden Children, The Bird of Truth, Portuguese: Os meninos com uma estrelinha na testa, lit. 'The boys with little stars on their foreheads',^[6] Russian: Чудесные дети, romanized: Chudesnyye deti, lit. 'The Wonderful or Miraculous Children',^[7] or Hungarian: Az aranyhajú ikrek, lit. 'The Golden-Haired Twins'.^[8]

According to folklorist Stith Thompson, the tale is "one of the eight or ten best known plots in the world".^[9]

Synopsis[]

The following is a summary of the tale as it was collected by Giuseppe Pitrè and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane.

A king walking the streets heard three poor sisters talk. The oldest said that if she married the royal butler, she would give the entire court a drink out of one glass, with water left over. The second said that if she married the keeper of the royal wardrobe, she would dress the entire court in one piece of cloth, and have some left over. The youngest said that if she married the king, she would bear two sons with apples in their hands, and a daughter with a star on her forehead.

The next morning, the king ordered the older two sisters to do as they said, and then married them to the butler and the keeper of the royal wardrobe, and the youngest to himself. The queen became pregnant, and the king had to go to war, leaving behind news that he was to hear of the birth of his children. The queen gave birth to the children she had promised, but her sisters, jealous, put three puppies in their place, sent word to the king, and handed over the children to be abandoned. The king ordered that his wife be put in a treadwheel crane.

Three fairies saw the abandoned children and gave them a deer to nurse them, a purse full of money, and a ring that changed color when misfortune befell one of them. When they were grown, they left for the city and took a house.

Their aunts saw them and were terror-struck. They sent their nurse to visit the daughter and tell her that the house needed the Dancing Water to be perfect and her brothers should get it for her. The oldest son left and found three hermits in turn. The first two could not help him, but the third told him how to retrieve the Dancing Water, and he brought it back to the house. On seeing it, the aunts sent their nurse to tell the girl that the house needed the Singing Apple as well, but the brother got it, as he had the Dancing Water. The third time, they sent him after the Speaking Bird, but as one of the conditions was that he not respond to the bird, and it told him that his aunts were trying to kill him and his mother was in the treadmill, it shocked him into speech, and he was turned to stone. The ring changed colors. His brother came after him, but suffered the same fate. Their sister came after them both, said nothing, and transformed her brother and many other statues back to life.

They returned home, and the king saw them and thought that if he did not know his wife had given birth to three puppies, he would think these his children. They invited him to dinner, and the Speaking Bird told the king all that had happened. The king executed the aunts and their nurse and took his wife and children back to the palace.

Overview[]

The following summary was based on Joseph Jacobs's tale reconstruction in his Europa's Fairy Book, on the general analyses made by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion,^[10] and on the description of the tale-type in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index classification of folk and fairy tales.^[11] This type follows an almost fixed structure, with very similar characteristics, regardless of their geographic distribution:^[10]

The king passes by a house or other place where three sisters are gossiping or talking, and the youngest says, if the king married her, she would bear him "wondrous children"^[12] (their peculiar appearances tend to vary, but they are usually connected with astronomical motifs on some part of their bodies, such as the Sun, the moon or stars). The king overhears their talk and marries the youngest sister, to the envy of the older ones or to the chagrin of the grandmother. As such, the jealous relatives deprive the mother of her newborn children (in some tales, twins^[a] or triplets, or three consecutive births, but the boy is usually the firstborn, and the girl is the youngest),^[14] either by replacing the children with animals or accusing the mother of having devoured them. Their mother is banished from the kingdom or severely punished (imprisoned in the dungeon or in a cage; walled in; buried up to the torso). Meanwhile, the children are either hidden by a servant of the castle (gardener, cook, butcher) or cast into the water, but they are found and brought up at a distance from the father's home by a childless foster family (fisherman, miller, etc.).^[15]

Years later, after they reach a certain age, a magical helper (a fairy, or the Virgin Mary in more religious variants) gives them means to survive in the world. Soon enough, the children move next to the palace where the king lives, and either the aunts, or grandmother realize their nephews/grandchildren are alive and send the midwife (or a maid; a witch; a slave) or disguise themselves to tell the sister that her house needs some marvellous items, and incite the girl to convince her brother(s) to embark on the (perilous) quest. The items also tend to vary, but in many versions there are three treasures: (1) water, or some water source (e.g., spring, fountain, sea, stream) with fantastic properties (e.g., a golden fountain, or a rejuvenating liquid); (2) a magical tree (or branch, or bough, or flower, or a fruit – usually apples) with strange powers (e.g., makes music or sings); and (3) a wondrous bird that can tell the truth, knows many languages and/or turns people to stone.^{[b][full citation needed][c]}

The brother(s) set(s) off on his (their) journey, but give(s) a token to the sister so she knows the brother(s) is(are) alive. Eventually, the brothers meet a character (a sage, an ogre, etc.) that warns them not to listen to the bird, otherwise he will be petrified (or turned to salt, or to marble pillars). The first brother fails the quest, and so does the next one. The sister, seeing that the tokens changed colour, realizes her siblings are in danger and departs to finish the quest for the wonderful items and rescue her brother(s).

Afterwards, either the siblings invite the king or the king invites the brothers and their sister for a feast in the palace. As per the bird's instructions, the siblings display their etiquette during the meal (in some versions, they make a suggestion to invite the disgraced queen; in others, they give their poisoned meal to some dogs). Then, the bird reveals the whole truth, the children are reunited with their parents, and the jealous relatives are punished.

Variations[]

While the formula is almost followed to the letter, some variations occur in the second part of the story (the quest for the magical items), and even in the conclusion of the tale. Folklore scholar Christine Goldberg identifies three main forms of the tale type: a variation found "throughout Europe", with the quest for the items; "an East Slavic form", where mother and son are cast in a barrel and later the sons build a palace; and a third one, where the sons are buried and go through a transformation sequence, from trees to animals to humans again.^[17]

The Brother Quests for a Bride[]

In some tales, when the sister is lured by the antagonist's agent, she is told to look for the belongings (mirror, flower, handkerchief) of a woman of unearthly beauty or a fairy. Such variants occur in Albania, as in the tales collected by J. G. Von Hahn in his Griechische und Albanische Märchen (Leipzig, 1864), in the village of Zagori in Epirus,^[18] and by Auguste Dozon in Contes Albanais (Paris, 1881). These stories substitute the quest for the items for the search for a fairy named E Bukura e Dheut ("Beauty of the Land"), a woman of extraordinary beauty and magical powers.^[19][20] One such tale is present in Robert Elsie's collection of Albanian folktales (Albania's Folktales and Legends): The Youth and the Maiden with Stars on their Foreheads and Crescents on their Breasts.^[21][22]

Another version of the story is The Tale of Arab-Zandyq,^[23][24] in which the brother is the hero who gathers the wonderful objects (a magical flower and a mirror) and their owner (Arab-Zandyq), whom he later marries. Arab-Zandyq replaces the bird and, as such, tells the whole truth during her wedding banquet.^[25][26]

In a specific Armenian variant, called The Twins, the last quest for the brother is to find the daughter of an Indian king and bring her to his king's palace. In this version, it is a king who overhears the sisters' nightly conversation in his search for a wife for his son. At the end, the brother marries the foreign princess and his sister reveals the truth to the court.^[27]

This conclusion also happens in an Indian variant, called The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead, from Bengali. In this tale, the queen begets the wonder-children (fraternal twins, a girl and a boy); the antagonists are the other six queens, who, overcome with jealousy, trick the new queen with puppies and expose the children. When they both grow up, the jealous queens set the siblings on a quest for a kataki flower, with the brother rescuing Lady Pushpavati from Rakshasas. Lady Pushpavati marries the titular "boy with the moon on his forehead" and reveals to the King her mother-in-law's ordeal and the deceit of the King's co-wives.^[28]

In an extended version from a Breton source, called L'Oiseau de Vérité,^[29] the youngest triplet, a king's son, listens to the helper (an old woman), who reveals herself to be a princess enchanted by her godmother. In a surprise appearance by said godmother, she prophecises her goddaughter shall marry the hero of the tale (the youngest prince), after a war with another country.

Another motif that appears in these variants (specially in Middle East and Turkey) is suckling an ogress's breastmilk by the hero.^[30]

The Sister marries a Prince[]

In an Icelandic variant collected by Jón Árnason and translated in his book Icelandic Legends (1866), with the name Bóndadæturnar (The Story of the Farmer's Three Daughters, or its German translation, Die Bauerntöchter),^[31] the quest focus on the search for the bird and omits the other two items. The end is very much the same, with the nameless sister rescuing her brothers Vilhjámr and Sigurdr and a prince from the petrification spell and later marrying him.^[32]

Another variant where this happy ending occurs is Princesse Belle-Étoile et Prince Chéri, by Mme. D'Aulnoy, where the heroine rescues her cousin, Prince Chéri, and marries him. Another French variant, collected by (L'Arbre qui chante, l'Oiseau qui parle et l'Eau d'or, or "The tree that sings, the bird that speaks and the water of gold"), has the youngest daughter, the princess, marry an enchanted old man she meets in her journey and who gives her advice on how to obtain the items.^[33]

In a tale collected in Carinthia (Kärnten), Austria (Die schwarzen und die weißen Steine, or "The black and white stones"), the three siblings climb a mountain or slope, but the brothers listen to the sounds of the mountain and are petrified. Their sister arrives at a field of white and black stones and, after a bird gives her instructions, sprinkles magic water on the stones, restoring her brothers and many others – among them, a young man, whom she later marries.^[34]

In the Armenian variant Théodore, le Danseur, the brother ventures on a quest for the belongings of the eponymous character and, at the conclusion of the tale, this fabled male dancer marries the sister.^[35][36]

In The Three Little Birds, a folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm, in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM nr. 96), instructed by an old woman fishing, the sister strikes a black dog and it transforms into a prince, with whom she marries as the truth settles among the family.

A similar conclusion happens in the commedia dell'arte The Green Bird, where the brother undergoes the quest for the items, and the titular green bird is a cursed prince, who, after being released from its avian form, marries the sister.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan[]

Some versions of the tale have the mother being cast out with the babies into the sea in a box, after the king is tricked into thinking his wife did not deliver her promised wonder children. The box eventually washes ashore on the beaches of an island or another country. There, the child (or children) magically grows up in hours or days and builds an enchanted castle or house that attracts the attention of the common folk (or merchants, or travellers). Word reaches the ears of the despondent king, who hears about the mysterious owners of such fantastic abode, who just happen to look like the children he would have had.

French scholar Gédeon Huet considered this format as "the Slavic version" of Les soeurs jalouses and suggested that this format "penetrated into Siberia", brought by Russian migrants.^[37]

This "Slavic" narrative (mother and child or children cast into a chest) recalls the motif of "The Floating Chest", which appears in narratives of Greek mythology about the legendary birth of heroes and gods.^[38][39] The motif also appears in the Breton legend of saint Budoc and his mother Azénor: Azénor was still pregnant when cast into the sea in a box by her husband, but an angel led her to safety and she gave birth to future Breton saint Budoc.^[40]

Russian tale collections attest to the presence of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore, as the antagonist in many of the stories.^[41]

Russian scholar T. V. Zueva suggests that this format must have developed during the period of the Kievan Rus, a period where an intense fluvial trade network developed, since this "East Slavic format" emphasizes the presence of foreign merchants and traders. She also argues for the presence of the strange island full of marvels as another element.^[42]

Rescue of brothers from transformation[]

In some variants of this format, the castaway boy sets a trap to rescue his brothers and release them from a transformation curse. For example, in Nád Péter ("Schilf-Peter"), a Hungarian variant,^[43] when the hero of the tale sees a flock of eleven swans flying, he recognizes them as their brothers, who have been transformed into birds due to divine intervention by Christ and St. Peter.

In another format, the boy asks his mother to prepare a meal with her "breast milk" and prepares to invade his brothers' residence to confirm if they are indeed his siblings. This plot happens in a Finnish variant, from Ingermanland, collected in Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen (Bruder und Schwester und die goldlockigen Königssöhne, or "Brother and Sister, and the golden-haired sons of the King").^[44] The mother gives birth to six sons with special traits who are sold to a devil by the old midwife. Some time later, their youngest brother enters the devil's residence and succeeds in rescuing his siblings.

Russian scholar T. V. Zueva argues that the use of "mother's milk" or "breast milk" as the key to the reversal of the transformation can be explained by the ancient belief that it has curse-breaking properties.^[42] Likewise, scholarship points to an old belief connecting breastmilk and "natal blood", as observed in the works of Aristotle and Galen. Thus, the use of mother's milk serves to reinforce the hero's blood relation with his brothers.^[45] Professor Khemlet Tatiana Yurievna describes that this is the version of the tale type in East Slavic, Scandinavian and Baltic variants.^[46]

The Boys With The Golden Stars[]

The motif of a woman's babies, born with wonderful attributes after she claimed she could bear such children, but stolen from her, is a common fairy tale motif. In this plot-type, an evil stepmother (or grandmother, or gypsy, or slave, or maid) kills the babies, but the twins go through a resurrective reincarnation: from trees to animals and finally into humans babies again. This transformation chase where the stepmother is unable to prevent the children's reappearance is unusual, although it appears in "A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers" and in "The Count's Evil Mother", a Croatian tale from the Karlovac area.^[47]

Most versions of The Boys With Golden Stars^[48] begin with the birth of male twins, but very rarely there are fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. When they transform into human babies again, the siblings grow up at an impossibly fast rate and hide their supernatural trait under a hood or a cap. Soon after, they show up in their father's court or house to reveal the truth through a riddle or through a ballad.

This tale's format happens in many variants collected in the Balkan area, specially in Romenia,^[49][50] as it can be seen in The Boys with the Golden Stars (Romanian: Doi feți cu stea în frunte) collected in Rumänische Märchen,^[51] which Andrew Lang included in his The Violet Fairy Book.^[52]

The format of the story The Boys With The Golden Stars seems to concentrate around Eastern Europe: in Romania;^{[49][50][53][54][55][56][57]} a version in Belarus;^[58] in Serbia;^[59][60] in the Bukovina region;^[61] in Croatia;^[62][63] Bosnia,^[64] Moldavia,^[65] Bulgaria,^[66] Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia,^[67][68][69] and among the Transylvanian Saxons.^[70]

Hungarian scholar Ágnes Kovács stated that this was the "Eastern European subtype" of the tale Cei doi fraţi cu păr de aur ("The Twin Brothers With Golden Hair"), found "all across the Romanian language territories", as well in Hungarian speaking regions.^[71]

Writer and folklorist Cristea Sandu Timoc considered that these tales were typically Romanian, and belonged to tale type AaTh 707C*. He also reported that "more than 70 variants" of this subtype were "known" (as of 1988).^[72]

Russian scholar T. V. Zueva names this format "Reincarnation of the Luminous Twins" and considers this group of variants as "an ancient Slavic plot", since these tales have been collected from Slavic-speaking areas.^[73] Another argument she raises is that the tree transformation in most variants is the sycamore, a tree with mythical properties in East Slavic folklore.^[74] She also argues that this format is the "archaic version" of the tale type, since it shows the motif of the tree and animal transformation, and recalls ancient ideas of twin beings in folklore.^[75]

On the other hand, according to researcher Maxim Fomin, Irish folklorist Seán Ó Súilleabháin identified a second ecotype (oikotype) of type ATU 707 in Ireland, which corresponds to the birth of the miraculous twins, their death by burial, and the cycle of transformations from plant to animal to humans again.^[76]

Similarly, Lithuanian scholarship (namely, Bronislava Kerbelytė (lt) and Daiva Vaitkevičienė) lists at least 23 variants of this format in Lithuania. In these variants, the youngest sister promises to give birth to twins with the sun on the forehead, the moon on the neck and stars on the temples. A boy and a girl are born, but they are buried by a witch, and on their graves an apple tree and a pear tree sprout. They mostly follow the cycle of transformations (from human babies, to trees, to animals and finally to humans again), but some differ in that after they become lambs, they are killed and their ashes are eaten by a duck that hatches two eggs.^[77]

Alternate Source for the Truth to the King (Father)[]

In a Kaba'il version from Northern Algeria (Les enfants et la chauve-souris),^[78] the bird is replaced by a bat, who helps the abandoned children when their father takes them back and his second wife prepares them a poisoned meal. The bat recommends the siblings to give their meal to animals, in order to prove it's poisoned and to reveal the treachery of the second wife.^{[79][need quotation to verify]}

In a specific folktale from Egypt, El-Schater Mouhammed,^[80] the Brother is the hero of the story, but the last item of the quest (the bird) is replaced by "a baby or infant who can speak eloquently", as an impossible MacGuffin. The fairy (or mystical woman) he sought before gives both siblings instructions to summon the being in front of the king, during a banquet.

In many widespread variants, the bird is replaced by a fairy or magical woman the Brother seeks after as part of the impossible tasks set by his aunts, and whom he later marries (The Brother Quests for a Bride format).^[81]

Very rarely, it is one of the children themselves that reveal the aunts' treachery to their father, as seen in the Armenian variants The Twins and Theodore, le Danseur.^[35][36] In a specific Persian version, from Kamani, the Prince (King's son) investigates the mystery of the twins and questions the midwife who helped in the delivery of his children.^[82]

Motifs[]

According to Daniel Aranda, the tale type develops the narrative in two eras: the tale of the calumniated wife as the first; and the adventures of the children as the second, wherein the mother becomes the object of their quest.^[83]

The Persecuted Wife and Jealous Sisters[]

Ethnologist Verrier Elwin commented that the motif of jealous queens, instead of jealous sisters, is present in a polygamous context: the queens replace the youngest queen's child (children) with animals or objects and accuse the woman of infidelity. The queen is then banished and forced to work in a humiliating job.^[84]

In the same vein, French ethnologue Paul Ottino (fr), by analysing similar tales from Madagascar, concluded that the jealousy of the older co-wives of the polygamous marriage motivate their attempt on the children, and, after the children are restored, the co-wives are duly punished, paving the way for a monogamous family unit with the expelled queen.^[85]

The Wonder Children[]

The story of the birth of the wonderful children can be found in Medieval author Johannes de Alta Silva's Dolopathos sive de Rege et Septem Sapientibus (c. 1190), a Latin version of the Seven Sages of Rome.^[86] The tale was adapted into the French Li romans de Dolopathos by the poet Herbert.^[87] Dolopathos also comprises the Knight of the Swan cycle of stories. This version of the tale preserves the motif of the wonder-children, which are born "with golden chains around their necks", the substitution for animals and the degradation of the mother, but merges with the fairy tale The Six Swans, where brothers transformed into birds are rescued by the efforts of their sister,^[88] which is Aarne-Thompson 451, "The boys or brothers transformed into birds".

In a brief summary:^[86][89] a lord encounters a mysterious woman (clearly a swan maiden or fairy) in the act of bathing, while clutching a gold necklace, they marry and she gives birth to a septuplet, six boys and a girl, with golden chains about their necks. But her evil mother-in-law swaps the newborn with seven puppies. The servant with orders to kill the children in the forest just abandons them under a tree. The young lord is told by his wicked mother that his bride gave birth to a litter of pups, and he punishes her by burying her up to the neck for seven years. Some time later, the young lord while hunting encounters the children in the forest, and the wicked mother's lie starts to unravel. The servant is sent out to search them, and finds the boys bathing in the form of swans, with their sister guarding their gold chains. The servant steals the boys' chains, preventing them from changing back to human form, and the chains are taken to a goldsmith to be melted down to make a goblet. The swan-boys land in the young lord's pond, and their sister, who can still transform back and forth into human shape by the magic of her chain, goes to the castle to obtain bread to her brothers. Eventually the young lord asks her story so the truth comes out. The goldsmith was actually unable to melt down the chains, and had kept them for himself. These are now restored back to the six boys, and they regain their powers, except one, whose chain the smith had damaged in the attempt. So he alone is stuck in swan form. The work goes on to say obliquely hints that this is the swan in the Swan Knight tale, more precisely, that this was the swan "quod cathena aurea militem in navicula trahat armatum (that tugged by a gold chain an armed knight in a boat)."^[86]

The motif of the heroine persecuted by the queen, on false pretenses, also happens in Istoria della Regina Stella e Mattabruna,^[90] a rhyming story of the ATU 706 type (The Maiden Without Hands).^[91]

India-born author Maive Stokes suggested, in her notes to the Indian version she collected, that the motif of the children's "silver chains (sic)" of the Dolopathos tale was parallel to the astronomical motifs on the children's bodies.^[92]

Fate of the Wonder Children[]

When the jealous sisters or jealous co-wives replace the royal children for animals and objects, they either bury the children in the garden (the twins become trees) in some variants, or put the siblings in a box and cast it into the water (river, stream).^[84] French ethnologue Paul Ottino (fr) noted that the motif of casting the children in the water vaguely resembles the Biblical story of Moses, but, in these stories, the children are cast in a box in order to perish in the dangerous waters.^[93]

After the stepmother or queen's sisters abandon the babies in the forest, in several variants the twins or triplets are reared by a wild animal. This episode recalls similar mythological stories about half-human, half-divine sons abandoned in the woods and suckled by a female animal. Such stories have been dramatized in Ancient Greek plays of Euripides and Sophocles.^[94] This episode also happens in myths about the childhood of some gods (e.g, Zeus and fairy or she-goat Amalthea, Telephus, Dionysus). Professor Giulia Pedrucci suggests that the unusual breastfeeding by the female animal (i.e., by a cow, a hind, a deer, a she-wolf) sets the hero apart from the "normal" and "civilized" world and puts them on a road to achieve a great destiny, since many of these heroes and gods become founders of dynasties and/or kings.^[95]

Astronomical signs on bodies[]

The motif of the children born with astronomical signs on their bodies appears in Russian fairy tales and healing incantations,^[7] with the formula "a red star or sun in the front, a moon on the back of the neck and a body covered with stars". A similar imagery appears in Lithuanian fairy tales, with the queen giving birth to her children with solar/lunar/astral birthmarks.^{[96][97][98][d]} However, Western scholars interpret the motif as a sign of royalty.^[100]

India-born author Maive Stokes, as commented by Joseph Jacobs, noted that the motif of children born with stars, moon or a sun in some part of their bodies occurred to heroes and heroines of both Asian and European fairy tales,^[101] and are by no means restricted to the ATU 707 tale type.

Lithuanian scholarship (e.g., Norbertas Vėlius) suggests that the character of the maiden with astronomical motifs on her head (sun, moon and/or star) may be reflective of the Baltic Morning Star character Aušrinė.^{[102][103][104]}

In the same vein, Russian professor Khemlet Tat'yana Yur'evna suggests that the presence of the astronomical motifs on the children's bodies possibly refer to their connection to a celestial or heavenly realm. She also argues that similar motifs (golden chains, body parts shining like gold and/or silver, golden hair and silver hair) are a reminiscence or vestige of the solar/lunar/astral motif (which corresponds to the oldest layer). Finally, tales of later tradition that lack either one of these motifs replace them with special attributes or names to the children, like the Brother being a mighty hero and the Sister being a skilled weaver.^[105] In a later study, Khemlet argues that variants of later tradition gradually lose the fantasy elements and a more realistic narrative emerges, with the fantastical becoming unreal and with more develoment of the characters' psychological state.^[106]

The Dancing Water[]

Folklorist Christine Goldberg, in the entry of the tale type in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, concluded that historical and geographical evidence led her to believe that the quest for the treasures was a later development of the narrative, inserted into the tale type.^[107]

Scholars have proposed that the quest for the Dancing Water in these tales are part of a macrocosm of similar tales about the quest for a Water of Life or Fountain of Immortality.^[108] Czech scholar Jaromir Jech (cs) remarked that, in this tale type, after the heroine quests for the speaking bird, the singing tree and the water of life, she uses the water as remedy to restore her brothers after they are petrified for failing the quest.^[109]

In regards to Lithuanian variants where the object of the quest is the "yellow water" or "golden water", Lithuanian scholarship suggests that the color of the water evokes a sun or dawn motif.^[110]

The reincarnation motif in The Boys with The Golden Stars format[]

Daiva Vaitkevičienė suggested that the transformation sequence in the tale format (from human babies, to trees, to lambs/goats and finally to humans again) may be underlying a theme of reincarnation, metempsychosis or related to a life-death-rebirth cycle.^[111] This motif is shared by other tale types, and does not belong exclusively to the ATU 707.

A similar occurrence of the tree reincarnation is attested in the Bengal folktale The Seven Brothers who were turned into Champa Trees^[112] (Sat Bhai Chompa, first published in 1907)^[113] and in the tale The Real Mother, collected in Simla.^[114]

India-born author Maive Stokes noted the resurrective motif of the murdered children, and found parallels among European tales published during that time.^[115] Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn also remarked on a similar transformation sequence present in a Greek tale from Asia Minor, Die Zederzitrone, a variant of The Love for Three Oranges (ATU 408).^[116]

Distribution[]

According to Joseph Jacobs's Europa's Fairy Book, the tale format is widespread^[117][79] throughout Europe^[118] and Asia (Middle East and India).^[119] Portuguese writer, playwright and literary critic Teófilo Braga, in his Contos Tradicionaes do Povo Portuguez, confirms the wide area of presence of the tale, specially in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and in Russian and Slavic sources.^[120]

The tale can also be found across Brazil, Syria, "White Russia, The Caucasus, Egypt, Arabia".^[121]

Russian comparative mythologist Yuri Berezkin pointed out that the tale type can be found "from Ireland and Maghreb, to India and Mongolia", in Africa and Siberia.^[122]

Possible point of origin[]

At first glance, scholarship admits some antiquity to the tale type, due to certain "primitive" elements, such as "the alleged birth of an animal or monster to a woman".^[123]

Mythologist Thomas Keightley, in his 1834 book Tales and Popular Fictions, suggested the transmission of the tale from a genuine Persian source, based on his own comparison between Straparola's literary version and the one from The Arabian Nights ("The Sisters envious of their Cadette").^[124][e] This idea seems to have been corroborated by Jiri Cejpek, who, according to Ulrich Marzolph, claimed that the tale of The Jealous Sisters was "definitely Iranian", but acknowledged that it must have not belonged to the original Persian compilation.^[126]

The Brothers Grimm, commenting on the German version they collected, De drei Vugelkens, suggested that the tale developed independently in Köterberg, due to Germanic localisms present in the text.^[127]

Another theory is that the Middle East is the possible point of origin or dispersal,^[128] due to the great popularity of the tale in the Arab world.^[129]

On the other hand, Joseph Jacobs, in his notes on Europa's Fairy Book, proposed a European provenance, based on the oldest extant version registered in literature (Ancilotto, King of Provino).^[130]

Another position is sustained by scholar Ulrich Marzolph, who defends the existence of "an as yet unknown tradition" that originated Straparola's and Diyab's variants.^[131]

has suggested that this tale has an even earlier point of origin, with a possible source in Hellenistic times.^[132]

It has been suggested by Russian scholars that the first part of the tale (the promises of the three sisters and the substitution of babies for animals/objects) may find parallels in stories of the indigenous populations of the Americas.^[133]

Scholar Linda Dégh put forth a theory of a common origin for tale types ATU 403 ("The Black and the White Bride"), ATU 408 ("The Three Oranges"), ATU 425 ("The Search for the Lost Husband"), ATU 706 ("The Maiden Without Hands") and ATU 707 ("The Three Golden Sons"), since "their variants cross each other constantly and because their blendings are more common than their keeping to their separate type outlines" and even influence each other.^[134]

An Asian source?[]

Professor Jack Zipes, in turn, proposed that, although the tale has many ancient literary sources, it "may have originated in the Orient", but no definitive source has been indicated.^[135]

W. A. Clouston claimed that the ultimate origin of the tale was a Buddhist tale of Nepal, written in Sanskrit, about King Brahmadatta and peasant Padmavatí (Padumavati) who gives birth to twins. However, the king's other wives cast the twins in the river.^[136][137] Padmavati's birth is also a curious tale: on a hot summer day, seer Mandavya puts away a pot with urine and semen and a doe drinks it, thinking it to be water. The doe, which lives in the armitage, gives birth to a human baby. The girl is found by Mandavya and becomes a beautiful young maiden. One day, king Brahmadatta, from Kampilla, on a hunt, sees the beautiful maiden and decides to make her his wife.^[138] This tale is contained in the Mahāvastu.^[139]

Norwu-preng'va[]

French scholar Gédeon Huet supplied the summary of another Asian story: a Mongolian translation by European missionary Isaac Jacob Schmidt of a Tibetan work titled Norwou-prengva.^[140][141] The Norwu-preng'wa was erroneously given as the title of the Mongolian source. However, the work is correctly named Erdeni-yin Tobci, compiled by Sagand Secen in 1662.^[142][143]

In this tale, titled Die Verkörperung des Arja Palo (Avalokitas'wara oder Chongschim Bodhissatwa) als Königssöhn Erdeni Charalik, princess Ssamantabhadri, daughter of king Tegous Tsoktou, goes to bathe with her two female slaves in the river. The slaves, envious of her, suggest a test: the slaves will put their copper basins in the water, knowing it will float, and the princess should put her gold basin, unaware it will sink. It so happens and the princess, distraught at the loss of the basin, sends a slave to her father to explain the story. The slave arrives at the court of the king, who explains it will not reprimand his daughter. This slave returns and spins a lie that the king shall banish her to another kingdom with her two slaves. Resigning to her fate, she and the slaves wander to another kingdom, where they meet King Amugholangtu Yabouktchi (Jabuktschi). The monarch inquires about their skills: one slave answers she can weave clothes for one hundred men with a few pieces of fabric; the second, that she can prepare a meal worthy of one hundred men with just a handful of rice; the princess, at last, says she is a simple girl with no skills, but, due to her virtuous and pious devotion, the Three Jewels will bless her with a son "with the chest of gold, the kidneys of mother-of-pearl, the legs the color of the ougyou jewel". The "Great and Merciful Arya Palo" descends from "Mount Potaia" and enters the body of the princess. The child is born and the slaves bury him under the steps of the palace. The child gives hints of his survival and the slaves, now queens, try to hide the boy under many places of the palace, including the royal stables, which cause the horses not to approach it. The two slaves now bury the boy in the garden and a "magical plant of three colours" sprouts from the ground. The king wants to see it, but the plant has been eaten by sheep. A wonderful sheep is born some time later and, to the shepherd's surprise, it can talk. The baby sheep then transforms into a beggar youth, goes to the door of the palace and explains the whole story to the king. The youth summons a palace near the royal castle, invites the king, his mother and introduces himself as Erdeni Kharalik, their son. With his powers, he kills the envious slaves. Erdeni's story continues as a Buddhistic tale.^[141]

Tripitaka[]

Folklorist Christine Goldberg, in the entry of the tale type in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, stated the tale of slander and vindication of the calumniated spouse appears in a story from the Tripitaka.^[144]

French sinologist Édouard Chavannes translated the Tripitaka, wherein three similar stories of calumniated wives and multiple pregnancies are attested. The first one, given the title La fille de l'ascète et de la biche ("The daughter of the ascetic and the doe"), a deer licks the urine of an ascetic and becomes pregnant. It gives birth to a human child who is adopted by a brahman. She tends the fire at home. One day, the fire is put out because she played with the deer, and the brahmane sends her to fetch another flint for the fire. She comes to a house in the village, and, with every step she takes, a lotus flower sprouts. The owner of the house agrees to lend her a torch, after she circles the house three times to create a garden of lotus flowers. Her deeds reach the king's ears, who consults a diviner to see if marrying the maiden bodes well for his future. The diviner confirms it and the king marries the maiden. She becomes his queen and gives birth to one hundred eggs. The king's other wives of the harem take the eggs and throw them in the water. They are carried down by the river to another kingdom and are rescued by another sovereign. The eggs hatch and out come one hundred youths, described by the narrative as possessing great beauty, strength, and intelligence. They wage war on the neighbouring kingdoms, onw of which their biological father's. Their mother climbs up a tower and shoot her breastmilk, which falls "like darts or arrows" in the mouths of the 100 hundred warriors. They recognize their familial bond and cease the aggressions. The narrator says that the mother of the 100 sons is Chö-miao, mother of Çakyamuni. ^[145][146]

In a second tale from the Tripitaka, titled Les cinq cents fils d'Udayana ("The Five Hundred Sons of Udayana"), an ascetic named T'i-po-yen (Dvaipayana) urinates on a rock. A deer licks it and becomes pregnant with a human child. It gives birth to a daughter who grows up strong and beautiful, and with the ability to spring lotus flowers with every step. She tends the fire at home and, when it is put out, she goes to a neighbour to borrow some of their bonfire. The neighbour agrees to lend it to her, but first she must circle his house seven times to create a ring of lotus flowers. King Wou-t'i yan (Udayana) sees the lotus flowers and takes the girl as his second wife. SHe gives birth to 500 eggs, which are replaced for 500 bags of flour by the king's first wife. The first wife throws the eggs in a box in the Ganges, which are saved by another king, named Sa-tan-p'ou. The eggs hatch and 500 hundred boys are born and grow up as strong warriors. King Sa-tan-p'ou refuses to pay his tributes to king Wou-t'i-yen and attacks him with the 500 boys. Wou-t'i-yen asks for the help of the second wife: she puts her on a white elephant and she shoots 250 jets of milk from each breast. Each jet falls in each warrior's mouth. The war is ended, mother and sons recognize each other, and the 500 sons become the "Pratyeka Buddhas".^[147][148]

In a third tale, Les mille fils d'Uddiyâna ("The Thousand Sons of Uddiyâna"), the daughter of the ascetic and the deer marries the king of Fan-yu (Brahmavali) and gives birth to one thousand lotus leaves. The king's first wife replaces them for a mass of equine meat and throws them in the Ganges. The leaves are saved by the king of Wou-k'i-yen (Uddiyâna) and from every leave comes out a boy. The thousand children grow up and become great warriors, soon doing battle with the realm of Fan-yu. Their mother climbs up a tower and shoots her breastmilk into their mouths.^[149][150]

Earliest literary sources[]

The first attestation of the tale is possibly Ancilotto, King of Provino, an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550–1555).^[151][152] A fellow Italian scholar, bishop (anagrammatised into nom de plume Marsillo Reppone), wrote down his own version of the story, in Posilecheata (1684), preserving the Neapolitan accent in the books' pages: La 'ngannatora 'ngannata, or L'ingannatora ingannata ("The deceiver deceived").^{[153][154][155]}

Spanish scholars suggest that the tale can be found in Iberia's literary tradition of the late 15th and early 16th centuries: Lope de Vega's commedia La corona de Hungría y la injusta venganza contains similarities with the structure of the tale, suggesting that the Spanish playwright may have been inspired by the story,^[156] since the tale is present in Spanish oral tradition. In the same vein, Menéndez Y Pelayo writes in his literary treatise Orígenes de la Novela that an early version exists in Contos e Histórias de Proveito & Exemplo, published in Lisbon in 1575,^[157] but this version lacks the fantastical motifs.^[158][159]

Two ancient French literary versions exist: Princesse Belle-Étoile et Prince Chéri, by Mme. D'Aulnoy (of Contes de Fées fame), in 1698,^[160] and L'Oiseau de Vérité ("The Bird of Truth"), penned by French author Eustache Le Noble, in his collection La Gage touché (1700).^[161][162]

Europe[]

Italy[]

Italy seems to concentrate a great number of variants, from Sicily to the Alps.^[121] Henry Charles Coote proposed an Eastern origin for the tale, which later migrated to Italy and was integrated into the Italian oral tradition.^[163]

The "Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi" ("Central Institute of Sound and Audiovisual Heritage") promoted research and registration throughout the Italian territory between the years 1968–1969 and 1972. In 1975 the Institute published a catalog edited by Alberto Maria Cirese and Liliana Serafini including 55 variants of the ATU 707 type.^[164]

Regional tales[]

Italian folklorist of Sicilian origin, Giuseppe Pitrè collected at least five variants in his book Fiabe Novelle e Racconti Popolari Siciliani, Vol. 1 (1875).^[165] Pitrè also commented on the presence of the tale in Italian scholarly literature of his time. His work continued in the supplement publication of Curiosità popolari tradizionali, which recorded a variant from Lazio (Gli tre figli);^[166] and a variant from Sardinia (Is tres sorris; English: "The three sisters").^[167]

An Italian variant named El canto e 'l sono della Sara Sybilla ("The Sing-Song of Sybilla Sara"), replaces the magical items for an indescribable MacGuffin, obtained from a supernatural old woman. The strange object also reveals the whole plot at the end of the tale.^[168] Vittorio Imbriani, who collected the previous version, also gathers three more in the same book La Novellaja Fiorentina: L'Uccellino, che parla; L'Uccel Bel-Verde and I figlioli della campagnola.^[169] , a fellow Italian scholar, has recorded El canto e 'l sono della Sara Sybilla and I figlioli della campagnola, in his Sessanta novelle popolari montalesi: circondario di Pistoia^[170] The story of "Sara Sybilla" has been translated to English as The Sound and Song of the Lovely Sibyl, with a source in Tuscany, but differing from the original in that it reinserts the bird as the truth-teller to the King.^[171]

Vittorio Imbriani also compiles a Milanese version (La regina in del desert), which he acknowledges as a sister story to that of Sarnelli's and Straparola's.^[172]

Fellow folklorist Laura Gonzenbach, from Switzerland, translated a Sicilian variant into the German language: Die verstossene Königin und ihre beiden ausgesetzten Kinder (The banished queen and her two children).^[173]

Domenico Comparetti collected a variant named Le tre sorelle ("The Three Sisters"), from Monferrato^[174] and L'Uccellino che parla ("The speaking bird"), a version from Pisa^[175] – both in Novelline popolari italiane.

collected a version from Abruzzo, in Italy, named Lu fatte de le tré ssurèlle, with references to Gonzenbach, Pitrè, Comparetti and Imbriani.^[176]

In a fable from Mantua (La fanciulla coraggiosa, or "The brave girl"), the story of the siblings's mother and aunts and the climax at the banquet are skipped altogether. The tale is restricted to a quest for the water-tree-bird to embellish their garden.^[177]

Angelo de Gubernatis lists two variants from Santo Stefano di Calcinaia: I cagnolini and Il Re di Napoli,^[178] and an unpublished, nameless version collected in Tuscany, near the source of the Tiber river.^[179][180]

Carolina Coronedi-Berti collected a variant from Bologna called La fola del trèi surèl ("The tale of the three sisters"), with annotations to similar tales in other compilations of that time.^[181] Ms. Coronedi-Berti mentioned two Pemontese versions, written down by Antonio Arietti: I tre fradej alla steila d'ör and Storia dël merlo bianc, dla funtana d'argent e dël erbolin che souna.^[182] Coronedi-Berti also referenced two Venetian variants collected by Domenico Giuseppe Bernoni: El pesse can,^[183] where the peasant woman promises twins born with special traits, and Sipro, Candia e Morea,^[184] where the three siblings (one male, two female) are exposed by the evil maestra of the witch princess.

Christian Schneller collected a variant from Wälschtirol (Trentino), named Die drei Schönheiten der Welt (Italian: "La tre belleze del mondo"; English: "The three beauties of the world"),^[185] and another variant in his notes to the tale.^[186]

collected a version from Livorno, titled Le tre ragazze (English: "The three girls"), and compared it to other variants from Italy: L'albero dell'uccello que parla, L'acqua brillante e l'uccello Belverde, L'acqua que suona, l'acqua que balla e l'uccello Belverde que canta and L'Uccello Belverde from Spoleto; Le tre sorelle, from Polino; and L'albero que canta, l'acqua d'oro e l'uccello que parla, from Norcia.^[187]

British lawyer Henry Charles Coote translated a version collected in Basilicata, titled The Three Sisters. The third sister only wishes to be the king's wife, she gives birth to "beautiful" children (the third a girl "beautiful as ray of sun"), the magical objects are "the yellow water, the singing bird and the tree that makes sounds like music", and the bird transforms into a fairy who reveals the truth to the king.^[188] This tale was translated by German writer Paul Heyse with the name Die drei Schwestern.^[189]

A singular tale, attributed to Italian provenance, but showing heavy Eastern inspiration (locations such as the Yellow River or the Ganges), shows the quest for "the dancing water, the singing stone and the talking bird".^[190]

France[]

In French sources, there have been attested 35 versions of the tale (as of the late 20th century).^[191] 19th century scholar Francis Hindes Groome noted that the tale could be found in Brittany and Lorraine.^[121] A similar assessment, by researcher Gael Milin, asserted that the tale type was bien attesté ("well attested") in the Breton folklore of the 19th century.^[192]

Regional tales[]

François-Marie Luzel collected from Brittany Les trois filles du boulanger, or L'eau qui danse, le pomme qui chante et l'oiseau de la verité^[193] ("The Baker's Three Daughters, the Dancing Water, The Singing Apple, and the Bird of Truth")^[194] - from Plouaret -,^[195] and Les Deux Fréres et la Soeur ("The Two Brothers and their Sister"), a tale heavily influenced by Christian tradition.^[196] He also provided a summary of a variant from Lorient: the king goes to war while his wife gives birth to two boys and a girl. The queen mother exchanges her son's letter and orders the children to be cast in the water and the wife to be mured. The children are saved by a miller and his wife, who raise the children and live comfortably well due to a coin purse that appears under the brothers' pillow every night. Years later, they go in search of their birth parents and come to a castle, where are located the "pomme qui chante, l'eau qui danse et l'oiseau qui parle". They must cross a graveyard before they reach the castle, where a fairy kill those who are impolite to her. The brothers fail, but the sister acts politely and receives from the fairy a cane to revive everyone at the graveyard. They find their father, the king, but arrive too late to save their mother.^[197]

Jean-François Bladé recorded a variant from Gascony with the title La mer qui chante, la pomme qui danse et l'oisillon qui dit tout ("The Singing Sea, The Dancing Apple and The Little Bird that tells everything").^[198][199] This tale preserves the motif of the wonder-children born with chains of gold "between the skin and muscle of their arms",^[200] from Dolopathos and the cycle of The Knight of Swan.

Other French variants are: La branche qui chante, l'oiseau de vérité et l'eau qui rend verdeur de vie ("The singing branch, the bird of truth and the water of youth"), by Henri Pourrat; L'oiseau qui dit tout, a tale from Troyes collected by Louis Morin;^[201] a tale from the Ariège region, titled L'Eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau de toutes les vérités ("The dancing water, the singing apple and the bird of all truths");^[202] a variant from Poitou, titled Les trois lingêres, by ;^[203] a version from Limousin (La Belle-Étoile), by ;^[204] and a version from Sospel, near the Franco-Italian border (L'oiseau qui parle), by James Bruyn Andrews.^[205]

Emmanuel Cosquin collected a variant from Lorraine titled L'oiseau de vérité ("The Bird of Truth"),^[206] which is the name used by French academia to refer to the tale.^[207]

A tale from Haute-Bretagne, collected by Paul Sébillot (Belle-Étoile), is curious in that if differs from the usual plot: the children are still living with their mother, when they, on their own, are spurred on their quest for the marvelous items.^[208] Sébillot continued to collect variants from across Bretagne: Les Trois Merveilles ("The Three Wonders"), from Dinan.^[209]

A variant from Provence, in France, collected by (L'Arbre qui chante, l'Oiseau qui parle et l'Eau d'or, or "The tree that sings, the bird that speaks and the water of gold"), has the youngest daughter, the princess, marry an enchanted old man she meets in her journey and who gives her advice on how to obtain the items.^[210]

An extended version, almost novella-length, has been collected from a Breton source and translated into French, by Gabriel Milin and Amable-Emmanuel Troude, called L'Oiseau de Vérité (Breton: Labous ar wirionez).^[211] The tale is curious in that, being divided in three parts, the story takes its time to develop the characters of the king's son and the peasant wife, in the first third. In the second part, the wonder-children are male triplets, each with a symbol on his shoulder: a bow, a spearhead and a sword. The character who helps the youngest prince is an enchanted princess, who, according to a prophecy by her godmother, will marry the youngest son (the hero of the tale).

In another Breton variant, published in Le Fureteur breton (fr), the third seamstress sister wants to marry the prince, and, on her wedding day, reveals she will give birth to twins, a boy with a fleur-de-lis mark on the shoulder, and a girl.^[192]

Iberian Peninsula[]

There are also variants in Romance languages: a Spanish version called Los siete infantes, where there are seven children with stars on their foreheads,^[212] and a Portuguese one, As cunhadas do rei (The King's sisters-in-law).^[213] Both replace the fantastical elements with Christian imagery: the devil and the Virgin Mary.^[214]

A variant in verse format has been collected from the Madeira Archipelago.^[215] Another version has been collected in the Azores Islands.^[216]

Portugal[]

Brazilian folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo suggested that the tale type migrated to Portugal brought by the Arabs.^[217]

Spain[]

American fairy tale and Hispanist Ralph Steele Boggs (de) published in 1930 a structural analysis of the tale type in Spanish sources.^[218] According to him, a cursory glance at the material indicated that the tale type was "very popular in Spanish".^[219]

Modern sources, from the 20th century and early 21st century, confirm the wide area of distribution of tale across Spain:^[220] in Catalonia,^[121] Asturias, Andalusia, Extremadura, New Castilla;^[221] and in Province of Ciudad Real.^[222] Scholar has published a catalogue of the variants of ATU 707 that can be found in Spanish sources (1997).^[223]

Researcher James M. Taggart commented that the tale type was one of "the most popular stories about brothers and sisters" told by tellers in Cáceres, Spain (apart from types AT 327, 450 and 451). Interpreting this data under a sociological lens, he remarked that the heroine's role in rescuing her brother reflects the expected feminine task of "maintaining family unity".^[224]

Regional tales[]

In compilations from the 19th century, collector D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros writes four Catalan variants: Los Fills del Rey ("The King's Children"), L'aygua de la vida ("The Water of Life"),^[225] Lo castell de irás y no hi veurás and Lo taronjer;^[226] collected a variant from Extremadura, named El papagayo blanco ("The white parrot");^[227] Juan Menéndez Pidal a version from the Asturias (El pájaro que habla, el árbol que canta y el agua amarilla);^[228] Antonio Machado y Alvarez wrote down a tale from Andalusia (El agua amarilla);^[229] writer Fernán Caballero collected El pájaro de la verdad ("The Bird of Truth");^[230] Wentworth Webster translated into English a variant in Basque language (The singing tree, the bird which tells the truth, and the water that makes young)^[231]

Some versions have been collected in Mallorca, by Antoni Maria Alcover: S'aygo ballant i es canariet parlant ("The dancing water and the talking canary");^[232] Sa flor de jerical i s'aucellet d'or;^[233] La Reina Catalineta ("Queen Catalineta"); La bona reina i la mala cunyada ("The good queen and the evil sister-in-law"); S'aucellet de ses set llengos; S'abre de música, sa font d'or i s'aucell qui parla ("Tree of Music, the Fountains of Gold and the Bird that Talks").^[234]

A variant in the Algherese dialect of the Catalan language, titled Lo pardal verd ("The Green Sparrow"), was collected in the 20th century.^[235]

The tale El Papagayo Blanco was translated as The White Parrot by writer Elsie Spicer Eells in her book Tales of Enchantment from Spain: a sister and a brother live together, but the sister, spurred by an old lady, sends her brother to meet her whimsical demands (the fountain, the tree and the bird). At the end of the tale, after saving her brother, the sister regrets sending him on that dangerous quest.^[236]

United Kingdom and Ireland[]

According to Daniel J. Crowley, British sources point to 92 variants of the tale type. However, he specified that most variants were found in the Irish Folklore Archives, plus some "scattered Scottish and English references".^[237]

Scottish folklorist John Francis Campbell mentioned the existence of "a Gaelic version" of the French tale Princesse Belle-Étoile, itself a literary variant of type ATU 707. He also remarked that "[the] French story agree[d] with Gaelic stories", since they shared common elements: the wonder children, the three treasures, etc.^[238]

Ireland[]

Scholarship points to the existence of many variants in Irish folklore. In fact, the tale type shows "wide distribution" in Ireland. However, according to researcher Maxim Fomin, this diffusion is perhaps attributed to a printed edition of The Arabian Nights.^[239]

One version was published in journal Béaloideas with the title An Triúr Páiste Agus A Dtrí Réalta: a king wants to marry a girl who can jump the highest; the youngest of three sisters fulfills the task and becomes queen. When she gives birth to three royal children, their aunts replace them with animals (a young pig, a cat and a crow). The queen is cast into a river, but survives, and the king marries one of her sisters. The children are found and reared by a sow. When the foster mother is threatened to be killed on orders of the second queen, she gives the royal children three stars, a towel that grants unlimited food and a magical book that reveals the truth of their origin.^[240]

Another variant has been recorded by Irish folklorist Sean O'Suilleabhain in Folktales of Ireland, under the name The Speckled Bull. In this variant, a prince marries the youngest of two sisters. Her elder sisters replaces the prince's children (two boys), lies that the princess gave birth to animals and casts the boys in a box into the sea, one year after the other. The second child is saved by a fisherman and grows strong. The queen's sister learns of the boy's survival and tries to convince his foster father's wife that the child is a changeling. She kills the boy and buries his body in the garden, from where a tree sprouts. Some time later, the prince's cattle grazed near the tree and a cow eats its fruit. The cow gives birth to a speckled calf that becomes a mighty bull. The queen's sister suspects the bull is the boy and feigns illness to have it killed. The bull escapes by flying to a distant kingdom in the east. The princess of this realm, under a geasa to always wear a veil outdoors lest she marries the first man she sets eyes on, sees the bull and notices it is a king's son. They marry, and the speckled bull, under a geas, chooses to be a bull by day and man by night. The bull regains human form and rescues his mother.^[241]

In Types of the Irish Folktale (1963), by the same author, he listed a variant titled Uisce an Óir, Crann an Cheoil agus Éan na Scéalaíochta.^[242]

Scotland[]

As a parallel to the Irish tale An Triúr Páiste Agus A Dtrí Réalta, published in Béaloideas, J. G McKay commented that the motif of the replacement of the newborns for animals occurs "in innumerable Scottish tales.".^[243]

Wales[]

In a Welsh-Romani variant, Ī Tārnī Čikalī ("The Little Slut"), the protagonist is a Cinderella-like character who is humiliated by her sisters, but triumphs in the end. However, in the second part of the story, she gives birth to three children (a girl first, and two boys later) "girt with golden belts". They children are replaced for animals and taken to the forest. Their mother is accused of imaginary crimes and sentenced to be killed, but the old woman helper (who gave her the slippers) turns her into a sow, and tells her she may be killed and her liver taken by the hunters, by she will prevail in the end. The sow meets the children in the forest. The sow is killed, but, as the old woman prophecizes, her liver gained magical powers and her children use it to suit their needs. A neighbouring king wants the golden belts, but once they are taken from the boys, they become swans in the river. Their sister goes to the liver and wishes for their return to human form, as well as to get her mother back. The magical powers of the liver grant her wishes.^[244][245]

Greece and Mediterranean Area[]

Greek scholar Marianthi Kaplanoglou states that the tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", is an "example" of "widely known stories (...) in the repertoires of Greek refugees from Asia Minor".^[246] Professor Michael Meraklis commented that some Greek and Turkish variants have the quest for an exotic woman named "Dunja Giuzel", "Dünya Güzeli" or "Pentamorphé".^[247]

In a tale from male storyteller Katinko, a Greek refugee in Asia Minor born in 1894, the king marries three sisters, the youngest promising to give birth to a boy named Sun and a girl named Moon. After they are cast in the water, they are saved and grow up near the palace. Soon enough, a magician spurs Moon, the sister, to send her brother, the Sun, on a quest for "the magic apples, the birds which sing all day and Dünya-Güzeli, the Fair One of the World". The character of Dünya-Güzeli serves as the Speaking Bird and reveals the whole truth.^[248]

Greece[]

Fairy tale scholars point that at least 265 Greek versions have been collected and analysed by Angéloupoulou and Brouskou.^[249][250] Professor Michael Meraklis, on the other hand, mentioned a higher count: 276 Greek variants.^[247]

According to researcher Marianthi Kaplanoglou, a local Greek oikotype of Cinderella ("found in diverse geographical areas but mainly in southern Greece") continues as tale type ATU 707 (or as type ATU 403, "The Black and White Bride").^[251] In the same vein, professor Michael Meraklis argued that the contamination of the "Cinderella" tale type with "The Three Golden Children" is due to the motif of the jealousy of the heroine's sisters.^[247]

Scholar and writer Teófilo Braga points that a Greek literary version ("Τ' αθάνατο νερό"; English: "The immortal water") has been written by Greek expatriate (K. Ewlampios), in his book Ὁ Ἀμάραντος (German: Amarant, oder die Rosen des wiedergebornen Hellas; English: "Amaranth, or the roses of a reborn Greece") (1843).^[252]

A variant was collected in the village of Zagori in Epirus, by J. G. Von Hahn in his Griechische und Albanische Märchen (Leipzig, 1864),^[253] and analysed by Arthur Bernard Cook in his work Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion.^[254] In Hahn's version, the third sister promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl "as beautiful as the morning star and the evening star".

Some versions have been analysed by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion (five variants),^[255] and by W. A. Clouston in his Variants and analogues of the tales in Vol. III of Sir R. F. Burton's Supplemental Arabian Nights (1887) (two variants), as an appendix to Sir Richard Burton's translation of The One Thousand and One Nights.^[256]

Two Greek variants alternate between twin children (boy and girl)^[257][258] and triplets (two boys and one girl).^{[259][260][261][262]} Nonetheless, the tale's formula is followed to the letter: the wish for the wonder-children, the jealous relatives, the substitution for animals, exposing the children, the quest for the magical items and liberation of the mother.

In keeping with the variations in the tale type, a tale from Athens shows an abridged form of the story: it keeps the promises of the three sisters, the birth of the children with special traits (golden hair, golden ankle and a star on forehead), and the grandmother's pettiness, but it skips the quest for the items altogether and jumps directly from a casual encounter with the king during a hunt to the unveiling of truth during the king's banquet.^[263][264] A similar tale, The Three Heavenly Children, attests the consecutive births of three brothers (sun, moon and firmament) and the king overhearing his own sons narrating each other the story in their foster father's hut.^[265][266]

Albania[]

Albanian variants can be found in the works of many folklorists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Auguste Dozon collected another version in his Contes Albanais with the title Les Soeurs Jaleuses (or "The Envious Sisters").^[267][268] In this version, after their father, the previous king, dies, three sisters talk at night - an event eavesdropped by the newly-crowned king. The third sister promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl with "with a star on the brow and a moon on the breast". Dozon noted that it was a variant of the story published by von Hahn.^[269]

Dozon's tale was also translated into German by linguist August Leskien in his book of Balkan folktales, with the title Die neidischen Schwestern.^[270] In his commentaries, Leskien noted that the tale was classified as type 707, according to the then recent Antti Aarne's index (published in 1910).^[271]

Robert Elsie, German scholar of Albanian studies, translated the same version in his book Albanian Folktales and Legends. In his translation, titled The youth and the maiden with stars on their foreheads and crescents on their breasts, the third sister, daughter of the recently deceased previous king, promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl "with stars on their foreheads and crescents on their breast".^[272] The original name of the tale, in Albanian, as provided by Elsie, was "Djali dhe vajza me yll në ball dhe hënëz në kraharuar".^[273]

Slavicist André Mazon (fr), in his study on Balkan folklore, published an Albanian language variant he titled Les Trois Soeurs. In this variant, the third sister promises to give birth to a boy with a moon on his breast and a girl with a star on the front. Despite lacking the quest for the items, Mazon recognized its correspondence to other tales, such as Russian "Tsar Saltan" and MMe. d'Aulnoy's "Belle-Étoile".^[274]

Folklorist Anton Berisha published another Albanian language tale, titled "Djali dhe vajza me yll në ballë".^[275]

Malta[]

A Maltese variant has been collected by Hans Stumme, under the name Sonne und Mond, in Maltesische Märchen (1904).^[276] This tale begins with the ATU 707 (twins born with astronomical motifs/aspects), but the story continues under the ATU 706 tale-type (The Maiden without hands): mother has her hands chopped off and abandoned with her children in the forest.

A second Maltese variant was collected by researcher Bertha Ilg-Kössler (es), titled Sonne und Mond, das tanzende Wasser und der singende Vogel. In this version, the third sister gives birth to a girl named Sun, and a boy named Moon.^[277]

Cyprus[]

At least one variant from Cyprus has been published, from the "Folklore Archive of the Cyprus Research Centre".^[278]

Western and Central Europe[]

In a variant collected in Austria, by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle (Der Vogel Phönix, das Wasser des Lebens und die Wunderblume, or "The Phoenix Bird, the Water of Life and the Most beautiful Flower"),^[279] the tale acquires complex features, mixing with motifs of ATU "the Fox as helper" and "The Grateful Dead": The twins take refuge in their (unbeknownst to them) father's house, it's their aunt herself who asks for the items, and the fox who helps the hero is his mother.^[280] The fox animal is present in stories of the Puss in Boots type, or in the quest for The Golden Bird/Firebird (ATU 550 – Bird, Horse and Princess) or The Water of Life (ATU 551 – The Water of Life), where the fox replaces a wolf who helps the hero/prince.^[281]

A variant from Buchelsdorf, when it was still part of Austrian Silesia (Der klingende Baum), has the twins raised as the gardener's sons and the quest for the water-tree-bird happens to improve the king's garden.^[282]

In a Lovari Romani variant, the king meets the third sister during a dance at the village, who promised to give birth to a golden boy. They marry. Whenever a child is born to her (two golden boys and a golden girl, in three consecutive births), they are replaced for an animal and cast into the water. The king banishes his wife and orders her to be walled up, her eyes to be put on her forehead and to be spat on by passersby. An elderly fisherman and his wife rescue the children and name them Ējfēlke (Midnight), Hajnalka (Dawn) - for the time of day when the boys were saved - and Julishka for the girl. They discover they are adopted and their foster parents suggest they climb a "cut-glass mountain" for a bird that knows many things, and may reveal the origin of the parentage. At the end of their quest, young Julishka fetches the bird, of a "rusty old" appearance, and brings it home. With the bird's feathers, she and her brothers restore their mother to perfect health and disenchant the bird to human form. Julishka marries the now human bird.^[283]

Germany[]

Portuguese folklorist Teófilo Braga, in his annotations, commented that the tale can be found in many Germanic sources,^[284] mostly in the works of contemporary folklorists and tale collectors: The Three Little Birds (De drei Vügelkens), by the Brothers Grimm in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (number 96);^[285][286] Springendes Wasser, sprechender Vogel, singender Baum ("Leaping Water, Speaking Bird and Singing Tree"), written down by Heinrich Pröhle in Kinder- und Völksmärchen,^[287][288] Die Drei Königskinder, by Johann Wilhelm Wolf (1845); Der Prinz mit den 7 Sternen ("The Prince with 7 stars"), collected in Waldeck by Louis Curtze,^[289] Drei Königskinder ("Three King's Children"), a variant from Hanover collected by Wilhelm Busch;^[290] and Der wahrredende Vogel ("The truth-speaking bird"), an even earlier written source, by Justus Heinrich Saal, in 1767.^[135] A peculiar tale from Germany, Die grüne Junfer ("The Green Virgin"), by , mixes the ATU 710 tale type ("Mary's Child"), with the motif of the wonder children: three sons, one born with golden hair, other with a golden star on his chest and the third born with a golden stag on his chest.^[291]

A variant where it is the middle child the hero who obtains the magical objects is The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Sparkling Stream (Der redende Vogel, der singende Baum und die goldgelbe Quelle), published in the newly discovered collection of Bavarian folk and fairy tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth.^[292] In a second variant of the same collection (The Mark of the Dog, Pig and Cat), each children is born with a mark in the shape of the animal that was put in their place, at the moment of their birth.^[293]

In a Sorbian/Wendish (Lausitz) variant, Der Sternprinz ("The Star Prince"), three discharged soldier brothers gather at a tavern to talk about their dreams. The first two dreamt of extraordinary objects: a large magical chain and a inexhaustible purse. The third soldier says he dreamt that if he marries the princess, they will have a son with a golden star on the forehead ("słoćanu gwězdu na cole"). The three men go to the king and the third marries the princess, who gives birth to the promised boy. However, the child is replaced by a dog and thrown in the water, but he is saved by a fisherman. Years later, on a hunt, the Star Prince tries to shoot a white hind, but it says it is the enchanted Queen of Rosenthal. She alerts that his father and uncles are in the dungeon and his mother is to marry another person. She also warns that he must promise not reveal her name. He stops the wedding and releases his uncles. They celebrate their family reunion, during which the Star Prince reveals the Queen's name. She departs and he must go on a quest after her (tale type ATU 400, "The Quest for the Lost Wife").^[294][295]

Belgium[]

Professor Maurits de Meyere listed three variants under the banner "L'oiseau qui parle, l'arbre qui chante et l'eau merveilleuse", attested in Flanders fairy tale collections, in Belgium, all with contamination from other tale types (two with ATU 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers", and one with tale type ATU 304, "The Dangerous Night-Watch").^[296]

A variant titled La fille du marchand was collected by Emile Dantinne from the Huy region ("Vallée du Hoyoux"), in Wallonia.^[297]

Switzerland[]

In a version collected from Graubünden with the title Igl utschi, che di la verdat or Vom Vöglein, das die Wahrheit erzählt ("The little bird that told the truth"), the tale begins in media res, with the box with the children being found by the miller and his wife. When the siblings grow up, they seek the bird of truth to learn their origins, and discover their uncle had tried to get rid of them.^{[298][299][300]}

Another variant from Oberwallis (canton of Valais) (Die Sternkinder) has been collected by Johannes Jegerlehner, in his Walliser sagen.^[301]

In a variant from Surselva, Ils treis lufts or Die drei Köhler ("The Three Charcoal-Burners"), three men meet in a pub to talk about their dreams. The first dreamt that he found seven gold coins under his pillow, and it came true. The second, that he found a golden chain, which also came true. The third, that he had a son with a golden star on the forehead. The king learns of their dreams and is gifted the golden chain. He marries his daughter to the third charcoal burner and she gives birth to the boy with a golden star. However, the queen replaces her grandson with a puppy and throws the child in the river.^[302][303]

Hungary[]

Hungarian scholarship classify the ATU 707 tale under the banner of "The Golden-Haired Twins" (Hungarian: Az aranyhajú ikrek).^[304] In the 19th century, Elisabet Róna-Sklárek also published comparative commentaries on Hungarian folktales in regards to similar versions in international compilations of the time.^[305] Professor Ágnes Kovács commented that the tale type is frequent and widespread in Hungarian-language areas.^[306] In the same vein, professor Linda Dégh stated that the national Hungarian Catalogue of Folktales (MNK) listed 28 variants of the tale type and 7 deviations.^[307]

Fieldwork conducted in 1999 by researcher Zoltán Vasvári amongst the Palóc population found 3 variants of the tale type.^[308]

Regional tales[]

According to scholarship, the oldest variant of the tale type in Hungary was registered in 1822.^[309] This tale was published by Gyorgy von Gaal in his book Mährchen der Magyaren with the title Die Drillinge mit den Goldhaar ("The Triplets with Golden Hair"): the baker's three daughters, Gretchen, Martchen and Suschen each profess their innermost desire: the youngest wants to marry the king, for she will bear him two princes and one princess, all with golden hair and a golden star shining on the forehead.^[310]

A variant translated by the Jeremiah Curtin (Hungarian: A sündisznó;^[311] English: "The Hedgehog, the Merchant, the King and the Poor Man") begins with a merchant promising a hedgehog one of his daughters, after the animal helped him escape a dense forest. Only the eldest agrees to be the hedgehog's wife, which prompts him to reveal his true form as a golden-haired, golden-mouthed and golden-toothed prince. They marry and she gives birth to twins, Yanoshka and Marishka. Her middle sister, seething with envy, dumps the royal babies in the forest, but they are reared by a Forest Maiden. When they reach adulthood, their aunt sets them on a quest for "the world-sounding tree", "the world-sweetly speaking bird" and "the silver lake [with] the golden fish".^[312] Elek Benedek collected the second part of the story as an independent tale named Az Aranytollú Madár ("The Golden-Feathered Bird"), where the children are reared by a white deer, a golden-feathered bird guides the twins to their house, and they seek "the world-sounding tree", "the world-sweetly speaking bird" and "the silver lake [with] the golden fish".^[313]

In a third variant, A Szárdiniai király fia ("The Son of the King of Sardinia"), the youngest sister promises golden-haired twins: a boy with the sun on his forehead, and a girl with a star on the front.^[314]

In the tale A mostoha királyfiakat gyilkoltat, the step-parent asks for the organs of the twin children to eat. They are killed, their bodies are buried in the garden and from their grave two apple trees sprout.^[315]

In another Hungarian tale, A tizenkét aranyhajú gyermek ("The Twelve Golden-Haired Children"), the youngest of three sisters promises the king to give birth to twelve golden-haired boys. This variant is unique in that another woman also gives birth to twelve golden-haired children, all girls, who later marry the twelve princes.^[316]

In the tale A tengeri kisasszony ("The Maiden of the Sea"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to an only child with golden hair, a star on his forehead and a moon on his chest. The promised child is born, but cast into the water by the cook. The miller finds the boy and raises him. Years later, the king, on a walk, takes notice of the boy and adopts him, which was consented by the miller. When the prince comes to court, the cook convinces the boy to search for "the bird that drinks from the golden and silver water, and whose singing can be heard from miles", the mirror that can see the whole world and the Maiden of the Sea.^[317]

Another version, Az aranyhajú gyermekek ("The Golden-Haired Children"), skips the introduction about the three sisters: the queen gives birth to a boy with a golden star on the forehead and a girl with a small flower on her arm. They end up adopted by a neighbouring king and an old woman threatens the girl with a cruel punishment if the twins do not retrieve the bird from a cursed castle.^[318]

In the tale A boldogtalan királyné ("The Unhappy Queen"), the youngest daughter of a carpenter becomes a queen and bears three golden-haired children, each with a star on their foreheads. They are adopted by a fisherman; the boys become fine hunters and venture into the woods to find a willow tree, a talking bird on a branch and to collect water from a well that lies near the tree.^[319]

In Tündér Ilona és az aranyhajú fiú;^[320] or Fee Ilona und der goldhaarige Jüngling^[321] ("Fairy Ilona and the golden-haired Youth"), of the Brother quests for a Bride format, the Sister is told by an old lady about the wonderful belongings of the fabled Fairy Ilona (Ilona Tünder) and passes this information to her brother as if she saw them in a dream.

In the tale Jankalovics, the youngest sister, a herb-gatherer, promises the king twin children with golden hair. When the twins are cast out in the water, they are rescued by a miller. In their youth, they find out they are adopted and leave the miller's home to seek out their origins. During their travels, they give alms to three beggars and they reward the twins by summoning a creature named Jankalovics to act as the twins' helper.^[322]

In the tale Az aranyhajú hármasok ("The Triplets with Golden-Hair"), the baker's youngest daughter gives birth to triplets with golden hair and a star on the forehead. The usual story follows, but the older male twins meet the king during a hunt, who invites the youths three times for a feast. In the third time, the truth is revealed in front of the whole court.^[323]

In the tale A mosolygó alma ("The Smiling Apple"), a king sends his page to pluck some fragant scented apples in a distant garden. When the page arrives at the garden, a dishevelled old man appears and takes him into his house, where the old man's three young daughters live. The daughters comment among themselves their marriage wishes: the third wishes to marry the king and give him two golden-haired children, one with a "comet star" on the forehead and another with a sun. The rest of the story follows The Boys with the Golden Star format.^[324]

Bishop János Kriza (hu) collected another version, Aranyhajú Kálmán ("Golden-Haired Kálman"), wherein the youngest sister promises the king an only son with golden hair. Years later, the boy, Kalman, quests for a magical tree branch, a mirror that can see the whole world and Világlátó, the world-famed beauty.^[325]

In the tale Az aranyhajú királyfiak ("The King's Sons with Golden Hair"), collected by Elek Benedek, the youngest sister promises the king two golden-haired boys. They are born and a witch from the king's court casts them in the water. They are saved and grow up as fine youths. The king sees them one day and invites them for a dinner at the castle. The witch, then, sends both of the brothers in a series of quests: to bathe in the water of the Sun, to dry themselves with the cloth/towel of the Sun and to see themselves in the Sun's mirror. The brothers are helped by incarnations of Friday, Holy Saturday and the Holy Sunday.^[326] The tale was translated into French by Michel Klimo with the title Les Deux Princes aux Cheveux d'Or, albeit with some differences: the twins are already born by the time the king goes to war and has to leave his wife.^[327]

In a tale collected by Gyula Ortutay from storyteller Mihály Fedics and published in 1940, the sister wants her brother to search for "three lilac leaves that produce music".^[328]

Other Magyar variants are Die zwei goldhaarigen Kinder (Hungarian: "A két aranyhajú gyermek";^[329] English: "The Two Children with Golden Hair"), of The Boys With Golden Stars format;^[330] and Nád Péter^[331] ("Schilf-Peter"), a variant of The Tale of Tsar Saltán format.^[332]

Scandinavia[]

One version collected in Iceland can be found in Ján Árnuson's Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri, published in 1864 (Bóndadæturnar), translated as "The Story of The Farmer's Three Daughters", in Icelandic Legends (1866); in Isländische Märchen (1884), with the title Die Bauerntöchter,^[333] or in Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen (1902), by Adeline Rittershaus (Die neidischen Schwestern).^[334] The Icelandic variant was given a literary treatment and titled The Three Peasant Maidens in Icelandic Fairy Tales, by Angus W. Hall.^[335]

Other versions have been recorded from Danish and Swedish sources:^[118] a Swedish version, named Historie om Talande fogeln, spelande trädet och rinnande wattukällan (or vatukällan);^[336] another Scandinavian variant, Om i éin kung in England;^[337] Danish variant Det springende Vand og det spillende Trae og den talende Fugl ("The leaping water and the playing tree and the talking bird"), collected by Evald Tang Kristensen.^[338]

Finland[]

A Finnish variant, called Tynnyrissä kaswanut Poika (The boy who grew in a barrel), follows the Tale of Tsar Saltan format: peasant woman promises the King three sets of triplets in each pregnancy, but her envious older sisters substitute the boys for animals. She manages to save her youngest child but both are cast into the sea in a barrel.^[339] A second variant veers close to the Tale of Tsar Saltán format (Naisen yhdeksän poikaa, or "The woman's nine children"),^[340] but the reunion with the kingly father does not end the tale; the two youngest brothers journey to rescue their siblings from an avian transformation curse.

Other Finnish variants can be found in 's Suomen kansan satuja ja tarinoita.^[341] A version was translated into English with the name Mielikki and her nine sons.^[342]

Another Finnish variant, from Ingermanland, has been collected in Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen (Bruder und Schwester und die goldlockigen Königssöhne, or "Brother and Sister, and the golden-haired sons of the King").^[343]

Karelia[]

In a Karelian tale, "Девять золотых сыновей" ("Nine Golden Sons"), the third sister promises to give birth to "three times three" chidren, their arms of gold up to the elbow, the legs of silver up to the knees, a moon on the temples, a sun on the front and stars in their hair. The king overhears their conversation and takes the woman as his wife. On their way, they meet a woman named Syöjätär, who insists to be the future queen's midwife. She gives birth to triplets in three consecutive pregnancies, but Syöjätär replaces them for rats, crows and puppies. The queen saves one of her children and is cast into a sea in a barrel. The remaining son asks his mother to bake bread with her breastmilk to rescue his brothers.^[344][46]

Baltic Region[]

Latvia[]

The work of Latvian folklorist Peteris Šmidts, beginning with Latviešu pasakas un teikas ("Latvian folktales and fables") (1925–1937), records 33 variants of the tale type. Its name in Latvian sources is Trīs brīnuma dēli or Brīnuma dēli.

Estonia[]

The tale type is known in Estonia as Imelised lapsed ("The Miraculous Children"). Estonian folklorists identified two opening episodes: either the king's son finds the three sisters, or the three sisters are abandoned in the woods and cry so much their tears create a river that flows to the king's palace. The third sister promises to bear the wonder children with astronomical motifs on their bodies. The story segues into the Tale of Tsar Saltan format: mother and the only child she rescued are thrown in the sea; son grows up and seeks the wonders the evil aunts tell his father about: "a golden pig, a wonderous cat, miraculous children".^[345]

Folklorist William Forsell Kirby translated an Estonian version first collected by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald,^[346] with the name The Prince who rescued his brothers: a king with silver-coated legs and golden-coated arms marries a general's daughter with the same attributes. When she gives birth to her sons, her elder sister sells eleven of her nephews to "Old Boy" (a devil-like character) while the queen is banished with her twelfth son and cast adrift into the sea in a barrel. At the end of the tale, the youngest prince releases his brothers from Old Boy and they transform into doves to reach their mother.^[347]

Lithuania[]

The tale type is known in Lithuanian compilations as Trys nepaprasti kūdikiai,^[348] Nepaprasti vaikai^[349] or Trys auksiniai sûnûs.

Lithuanian folklorist Jonas Balys (lt) published in 1936 an analysis of Lithuanian folktales, citing 65 variants available until then. In his tabulation, he noted that the third sister promised children with astronomical birthmarks, and, years later, her children seek a talking bird, a singing tree and the water of life.^[350]

According to Professor Bronislava Kerbelytė, the tale type is reported to register 244 (two hundred and forty-four) Lithuanian variants, under the banner Three Extraordinary Babies, with and without contamination from other tale types.^[351]

Jonas Basanavicius collected a few variants in Lithuanian compilations, including the formats The Boys with the Golden Stars and Tale of Tsar Saltan.

German professor Karl Plenzat (de) tabulated and classified two Lithuanian variants, originally collected in German: Goldhärchen und Goldsternchen ("Little Golden-Hair and Little Golden Star"). In both stories, the queen replaces her twin grandchildren (a boy and a girl) for animals. When she learns they survived, she sends them after magical items from a garden of wonders: little bells, a little fish and the bird of truth.^[352]

Russia and Eastern Europe[]

Slavicist published an article with an overall analysis of the ATU 707 type in Slavic sources.^[353] Further scholarship established subtypes of the AT 707 tale type in the Slavic-speaking world: AT 707A*, AT 707B* and AT 707C*.^[354]

Russia[]

Scholar Jack Haney stated that the tale type registers 78 Russian variants.^[355]

The earliest version in Russian was recorded in "Старая погудка на новый лад" (1794–1795), with the name "Сказка о Катерине Сатериме" (Skazka o Katyerinye Satyerimye; "The Tale of Katarina Saterima").^[356][357] The same work collected a second variant: Сказка о Труде-королевне ("The Tale of Princess Trude"), where the king and queen consult with a seer and learn of the prophecy that their daughter will give birth to the wonder-children, which catches the interest of a neighboring king.^[358]

Another compilation in the Russian language that precedes both The Tale of Tsar Saltan and Afanasyev's tale collection was "Сказки моего дедушки" (1820), which recorded a variant titled "Сказка о говорящей птице, поющем дереве и золо[то]-желтой воде" (Skazka o govoryashchyey ptitse, poyushchyem dyeryevye i zolo[to]-zhyeltoy vodye).^[357]

The fairy tale in verse The Tale of Tsar Saltan, written by renowned Russian author Alexander Pushkin and published in 1831, is another variant of the tale, and the default form by which the ATU 707 is known in Russian and Eastern European academia.^[359] It tells the tale of three sisters, the youngest of which is chosen by the eponymous Tsar Saltan as his wife, to the blind jealousy of her two elder sisters. While the royal husband is away at war, she gives birth to Prince Gvidon Saltanovitch, but her sisters conspire to cast mother and child to the sea in a barrel. Both she and the baby wash ashore in the island of Buyan, where Prince Gvidon grows up to an adult male. After a series of adventures – and with the help of a magical princess in the form of a swan (Princess Swan), Prince Gvidon and his mother reunite with Tsar Saltan, as Princess Swan and Prince Gvidon marry.

Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev collected seven variants, divided in two types: The Children with Calves of Gold and Forearms of Silver (in a more direct translation: Up to the Knee in Gold, Up to the Elbow in Silver),^[360][361] and The Singing Tree and The Speaking Bird.^[362][363] Two of his tales have been translated into English: The Singing-Tree and the Speaking-Bird^[364] and The Wicked Sisters.^[365] In the later, the children are male triplets with astral motifs on their bodies, but there is no quest for the wondrous items.

Another Russian variant follows the format of The Brother Quest for a Bride. In this story, collected by Russian folklorist Ivan Khudyakov (ru) with the name "Иванъ Царевичъ и Марья Жолтый Цвѣтъ" or Ivan Tsarevich and Maria the Yellow Flower, the tsaritsa is expelled from the imperial palace, after being accused of giving birth to puppies. In reality, her twin children (a boy and a girl) were cast in the sea in a barrel and found by a hermit. When they reach adulthood, their aunts send the brother on a quest for the lady Maria, the Yellow Flower, who acts as the speaking bird and reveals the truth during a banquet with the tsar.^[366][367]

One variant of the tale type has been collected in "Priangarya" (Irkutsk Oblast), in East Siberia.^[368]

In a tale collected in Western Dvina (Daugava), "Каровушка-Бялонюшка", the stepdaughter promises to give birth to "three times three children", all with arms of gold, legs of silver and stars on their heads. Later in the story, her stepmother dimisses her stepdaughter's claims to the tsar, by telling him of strange and wondrous things in a distant kingdom.^[369] This tale was also connected to Pushkin's Tsar Saltan, along with other variants from Northwestern Russia.^[370]

Russian ethnographer Grigory Potanin gave the summary of variant collected by Romanov about a "Сын Хоробор" ("Son Horobor"): a king has three daughters, the other has an only son, who wants to marry the youngest sister. The other two try to impress him by flauting their abilities in weaving (sewing 30 shirts with only one "kuzhalinka", a fiber) and cooking (making 30 pies with only a bit of wheat), but he insists on marrying the third one, who promises to bear him 30 sons and a son named "Horobor", all with a star on the front, the moon on the back, with golden up to the waist and silver up to knees. The sisters replace the 30 sons for animals, exchange the prince's letters and write a false order for the queen and Horobor to be cast into the sea in a barrel. Horobor (or Khyrobor) prays to god for the barrel to reach safe land. He and his mother build a palace on the island, which is visited by merchants. Horobor gives the merchants a cat that serves as his spy on the sisters' extraordinary claims.^[371]

Another version given by Potanin was collected in Biysk by Adrianov: a king listens to the conversations of three sisters, and marries the youngest, who promises to give birth to three golden-handed boys. However, a woman named Yagishna replaces the boys for a cat, a dog and a "korosta". The queen and the three animals are thrown in the sea in a barrel. The cat, the dog and the korosta spy on Yagishna telling about the three golden-handed boys hidden in a well and rescue them.^[372]

In a South Russian variant collected by Rudchenko, "Богатырь з бочки" ("The Bogatyr in a barrel"), after the titular bogatyr is thrown in the sea with his mother, he spies on the false queen to search the objects she describes: a cat that walks on a chain, a golden bridge near a magical church and a stone-grinding windmill that produces milk and eight falcon-brothers with golden arms up to the elbow, silver legs up to the knees, golden crown, a moon on the front and stars on the temples.^[373]

In a Siberian tale collected by A. A. Makarenko in Kazachinskaya Volost, "О царевне и её трех сыновьях" ("The Tsarevna and her three children"), two girls, a peasant's daughter and Baba Yaga's daughter, talk about what they would do to marry the king. The girl promises to give birth to three sons: one with legs of silver, the second with legs of gold, and the third with a red sun on the front, a bright moon on the neck and stars braided in his hair. The king marries her. Near the sons' delivery (in three consecutive pregnancies), Baba Yaga is brought to be the queen's midwife. After each boy's birth, she replaces them for a puppy, a kitten and a block of wood. The queen is cast into the sea in a barrel with the animals and the object until they reach shore. The puppy and the kitten act as the queen's helper and rescue the three biological sons, who were sitting on a oak tree.^[374]

Another tale was collected from a 70-year-old teller named Elizaveta Ivanovna Sidorova, in Tersky District, Murmansk Oblast, in 1957, by Dimitri M. Balashov. In her tale, "Девять богатырей — по колен ноги в золоте, по локоть руки в серебре" ("Nine bogatyrs - up to the knees in gold, up to the elbows in silver"), a girl promises to give birth to 9 sons with arms of silves and legs of gold, and the sun, moon, stars and a "dawn" adorning their heads and hair. A witch named yaga-baba replace the boys for animals and things to trick the king. he queen is thrown in the sea with the animals, which act as her helpers. When yaga-baba, in the third visit, tells the king of a place where there are nine boys just as the queen described, the animals decide to rescue them.^[375]

Eastern Europe[]

In an Eastern European variant, The Golden Fish, The Wonder-working Tree and the Golden Bird, the siblings are twins and their grandmother, the old queen, is the villain. Their father, Prince Yarboi, met their mother and her sisters when they were cutting grass on a hot summer day. The sisters commented that their fates were foretold, and the youngest revealed she was destined to marry the prince and bear the wonder twins. This variant was first collected by Josef Košín z Radostova, in Národní Pohádky, Volume III, in 1856, with the title O princovi se zlatým sluncem a o princezně se zlatým měsícem na prsou ("The prince with the golden sun and the princess with the golden moon on her breast").^[376][377] However, the tale was translated by Jeremiah Curtin and published in Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe, as a Hungarian story.^[378]

In another Eastern European variant, Princ se zlatým křížem na čele ("The Prince with a golden cross on the forehead"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to children with a golden cross on the forehead. The usual story of abandonment occurs, but the truth is revealed by one of the brothers, who plays a riddle with nuts in front of the king.^[379]

In the South Slavic tale Die böse Schwiegermutter, also collected by Friedrich Salomon Krauss, the mother gives birth to triplets: male twins with golden hands and a girl with a golden star on her forehead. Years later, they search for the green water, the speaking bird and the singing tree.^[380]

Slovakia[]

According to professor Viera Gaspariková, professor Frank Wollman (cs)'s fieldwork in Slovakia collected 9 variants of tale type Děti nevinné upodozrievanej matky^[381] or The Children of an Innocently Suspected Mother.^[382]

In a Slovak variant, Zlatovlasé dvojčatá ("The Golden-Haired Twins"), the prince marries the youngest sister, who promises to give birth to twins with golden hair and a star on their breast. When the time comes, a woman named Striga steals the newly-born infants and casts them out in the water. The boy and girl are soon found and given the name Janík and Ludmilka. Years later, the Striga sets the boy on the quest for the golden pear and the woman named Drndrlienka as a companion for his sister.^[383] Scholar Jiří Polívka listed another version of this story, both grouped under his own classification "Deti nevinne vyhnatej matky" ("Sons of an Innocent Exiled Maiden").^[384]

Polívka mentioned the existence of a Slovak variant titled Stromčok, Voďička, Ptáčik ("Tree, Water, Bird"), reported to be part of a Slovak collection named Codexy Revúcke ("Codices of Revúca").^[385] He found two other tales, O stromčoku, čo všetko krási, ptáčiku, čo všetko oživuje, a o vodičke, čo všetko zná and Zlatý vták a zlatá voda ("Golden Bird and Golden Water").^[386]

Polivka identified a tale of the Boys With the Golden Stars format, which he then named Pani s chlapci zakopaná do hnojiska. Slncová matka im pomáha ("Maiden and sons buried in manure; the Sun's Mother helps them"). In this tale, O jednom zlatom orechu ("About a golden nut"), a wife gives birth to twins while her husband is at war. A witch sews the boys in a oxen hide and buries it in a pit of manure. Out of the pit springs a nut tree. The witch orders the trees to be made into beds and for the beds to be burnt to cinders. Sparks fly out of the pyre and reach a rose bush, eaten by a goat who gives birth to two kids. The animals are killed and they regain human form. The Sun, on his daily journey, sees the twins and, impressed by their beauty, tells his mother. The Sun's mother comes to them with clothes and a golden apple.^[387]

Poland[]

A version from Poland has been collected by , titled O królewiczu z księżycem na czole, z gwiazdami po głowie^[388] and translated into German with the name Vom Prinzen mit dem Mond auf der Stirn und Sternen auf dem Kopf (English: "The Princes with the Moon on the Forehead and Stars on the Head").^[389]

Polish ethnographer Stanisław Ciszewski (pl) collected two variants, one from Maszków, titled O grającem drzewie, złotej wodzie i gadającym ptaku ("The Music-Playing Tree, the Golden Water and the Speaking Bird"),^[390] and another from Skała, named O śpiewającem drzewie, złotej wodzie i gadającym ptaku ("The Singing Tree, the Golden Water and the Speaking Bird").^[391]

Another Polish tale was collected around Zamość and Krasnystaw and published in scholar publication Wisła. In this tale, titled Synek ze złotą główką ("A Son with a Golden Head"), three sisters comment among themselves what they would do if each one married the king, and the youngest says she will give birth to a son with a golden head. She marries the king and her envious sisters kill the boy and bury him in the garden. An apple tree with golden leaves appears, the sisters notice it is they boy and order it to be burnt down. An ewe passes by the pyre, licks the ashes and becomes pregnant with a golden-fleeced sheep. The sisters order the sheep to be killed for the feast at the ball and its innards to be eaten by the forsaken queen, in her house. The innards tell the mother they are her son and she should wait until they regain his former human shape. It happens so and the boy, now six-year-old, goes to court to tell his story while counting nuts.^[392]

Czech Republic[]

A Czech variant was collected by author Božena Němcová, under the name O mluvícím ptáku, živé vodě a třech zlatých jabloních ("The speaking bird, the water of life and the three golden apples"): three poor sisters, Marketka, Terezka and Johanka discuss among themselves their future husbands. The king overhears their conversation and summons them to his presence, and fulfills Johanka's wishes. Each time a child is born (three in total), the envious sisters cast the babies in the water, but they are carried by the stream to another kingdom. The second king adopts the babies and names them Jaromír, Jaroslav and Růženka.^[393][394]

Bulgaria[]

A version from Bulgaria was recorded by Václav Florec in 1970, with the name Tři sestry ("Three sisters").^[395] An older Bulgarian variant was also given in abridged form in Archive für Slavische Philologie.^[396]

In another Bulgarian variant, "Дети воеводы" ("The Voivode's Children"), three sisters of marriageable age, while spinning under the moonlight near the mill, comment among themselves what they can do if they marry the voivode's son. The youngest answers she will bear him twin boys with golden hair and silver teeth. The voivode's son marries the youngest and becomes voivode. When the times comes, the queen's sisters insist they be brought to the palace to help in labor. The eldest sister, envious of her fortune and marriage, takes both boy as soon as they are born, kills them, buries them in the garden, while putting two puppies in their place to further humiliate the queen. The voivode banishes her to a hut near a lake and marries her elder sister. Two trees with silver leaves and golden flowers sprout on the children's graves. When taking a stroll in the garden, both trees lean forward to caress the father with their leaves and to hit his new wife with their branches. The voivode's new wife cuts down the trees and burns them. Their ashes are gathered by the former wife and spread through the garden, where two cornflowers with golden stamens and silver petals grow and are eaten by a sheep. The sheep gives birth to two lambs with golden horns and silver wool. They are put in a basket and washed downstream to their mother's hut. She suckles both lambs and they regain human form. After a while, the voivode and his new wife visit the former queen in her hut and see the twin boys. The voivode returns to the palace, questions the cat, which reveals the whole truth. He punishes the new wife and restores his first wife.^[66]

Slovenia[]

A recent publication (2007) of Slovenian folk tales, collected by in the 19th century, has a Slovenian variant of the ATU 707, under the name Vod trejh predic.^[397][398]

In another Slovenian variant, Zlatolasi trojčki (sl) ("The Triplets with Golden-Hair"), the three wonder children with golden hair seek the golden apple, the speaking bird and the dancing water.

Serbia[]

Variants from Serbia have been collected by Serbian philologist Vuk Karadžić, like the tale Зла свекрва ("The evil mother-in-law"),^[399] also translated into German language and published in Archiv für Slavische Philologie with the title Die böse Schwiegermutter ("The evil mother-in-law"). In this variant, the youngest sister promises to give birth to two boys with golden hands and a girl with a golden star on the forehead. They quest for the green water, the singing tree and the speaking bird.^[400] In another tale from Vuk Karadzic's collection, Опет зла свекрва^[401] or Abermals die böse Schwiegermutter ("Once again, about the evil mother-in-law"), the twins, a girl and a boy, are born with golden stars and helped by an angel.^[402]

Other tales from Serbian sources were also published in the collection: Bruder und Schwester, beide goldhaarig und silberzähnig ("Brother and Sister, golden-haired and silver-toothed"), where the Brother brings the maiden Djuzelgina as a friend for his Sister;^[403] and Zwei goldene Kinder, of the Boys With the Golden Stars format, given in abridged form.^[404]

Croatia[]

A Croatian tale, collected by Plohl-Herdvigov and translated as Die Königin und ihre drei Töchter ("The Queen and her three daughters") was given in abridged form in Archiv Für Slavische Philologie.^[404]

In another Croatian tale, by Fran Milkulic, Žena kraljeva rodila tri sini zlatnemi vlasi ("The Queen who gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), a woman marries the king, after promising him three golden-haired sons. When each of the babies are born, the queen mother throws her grandchildren in the water. They are saved by a peasant couple, who raises the boys. Years later, the king sets a challenge: anyone should count how many nuts there are in a recipient. One of his golden-haired sons begins counting and interweaving the story of their family.^[405] This tale was sourced as South Slavic and translated as Die Frau eines Königs gebar drei goldhaarige Söhne ("A King's wife gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), given in abridged form in Archiv für Slavische Philologie.^[406]

Belarus[]

Scholar Jack Haney stated that the tale type registers thirty Byelorusian tales.^[355]

In a Belarussian tale, "ЧУДЕСНЫЕ МАЛЬЧИКИ" (Chudetsnye Malchiki; English: "Wonderful/Miraculous Boys"), first collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Grodno, in 1857,^[407] the youngest sister states she will give birth to "two boys, each with a moon on his head and a star on the nape of his neck". When they are buried, on their grave two maples sprout (or, in another translation, "two plane-trees"), a golden stem and a silver one (or "one with golden, the other with silver branches"). The tale was also published by A. H. Wratislaw with the name "The Wonderful Boys", or "The Wondrous Lads",^[58] and by Czech folklorist Karel Jaromír Erben with the name Podivní chlapci ("The Wonderful Boys").^[408][409]

In another Belarussian tale, "Блізняткі" (The Twins), an evil witch kills two boys - the sons of the prince. On their grave two sycamores grow. The witch realizes it is the boys and orders the gardener to fell them down. A sheep licks the ashes and soon enough gives birth to two sheep - the very same princes. Later, they regain their human form and tell the king the whole story.^[410]

Gregory Potanin cited a Belarussian tale published in 1887. In this story, there lived three sisters. One day, heavy rain starts to pour and they take refuge under a tree. A local river floods and the king sends a servant to find the problem to its source. The servant finds the three sisters and overhears their conversation: the youngest promises to give birth to the king's son with the moon on the forehead and a star on the back. The sisters falsify a letter to trick the king and cast the queen and child in the sea. Later, the prince returns to the palace to reveal the truth while counting nuts before the king.^[411]

In a Belarussian tale collected by Evdokim Romanov (ru) with the name "Дуб Дорохвей" or "Дуб Дарахвей" ("The Dorokhveï Oak") (fr), a widowed old man marries another woman, who detests his three daughters and orders her husband to dispose of them. The old man takes them to the swamp and abandons the girls there. They notice, take refuge under a pine tree and begin to cry over their situation, their tears producing a river. The tsar, seeing the river, orders their servants to find its source. They find the three maidens and take them to the king, who inquires about their origin: they say they were expelled from home. The tsar asks each maiden what they can do, and the youngest says she will give birth to 12 sons, their legs of gold, their waist of silver, the moon on the forehead and a small star on the back of the neck. The sisters falsify a letter with a lie that she gave birth to animals and she should be thrown in the sea in a barrel. The other eleven sons were put in a leather bag and thrown in the sea, but they wash ashore in a island where the Dorokhveï Oak lies. The oak is hollowed, so they make their residence there. Meanwhile, mother and son leave the barrel and the son tells her he will rescue his eleven brothers with his mother's breastmilk. After the siblings are reunited, the son turns into an insect to spy on his aunt and eavesdrop on the conversation about the kingdom of wonders, one of them, a cat that walks and tells stories and tales.^[412]

Ukraine[]

Professor Andrejev noted that the tale type 707, "The Marvelous Children", varied between 11 and 15 variants in Ukraine.^[413] A later analysis by scholar Jack Haney stated that the tale type registers 23 Ukrainian versions.^[355]

In a Ukrainian tale, "Песинський, жабинський, сухинський і золотокудрії сини цариці" ("Pesinsky, Zhabinsky, Sukhinsky^[f] and the golden-haired sons of the queen"), three sisters are washing clothes in the river, when they see in the distance a man rowing a boat. The oldest says it might be God, and if it is, may He take her, because she can feed many with a piece of bread. The second says it might be a prince, so she says she wants him to take her, because she will be able to weave clothes for a whole army with just a yarn. The third recognizes him as the tsar, and promises that, after they marry, she will give birth to twelve sons with golden curls. When the girl, now queen, gives birth, the old midwife takes the children, tosses them in a well and replaces them with animals. After the third birth, the tsar consults his ministers and they advise him to cast the queen and her animal chidlren in the sea in a barrel. The barrel washes ashore an island and the three animals build a castle and a glass bridge to mainland. When some sailors visit the island, they visit the tsar to report on the strange sights on the island. The old midwife, however, interrupts their narration by revelaing somewhere else there is something even more fantastical. Pesinsky, Zhabinsky and Sukhinsky spy on their audience and run away to fetch these things and bring them to their island. At last, the midwife reveals that there is a well with three golden-curled sons inside, and Pesinsky, Zhabinsky and Sukhinsky rescue them. The same sailors visit the strange island (this time the true sons of the tsar are there) and report their findings to the tsar, who discovers the truth and orders the midwife to be punished.^[414] According to scholarship, professor Lev Grigorevich Barag noted that this sequence (dog helping the calumniated mother in finding the requested objects) appears as a variation of the tale type 707 only in Ukraine, Russia, Bashkir and Tuvan.^[415]

Moldavia[]

In a variant from Moldavia that follows The Boys with the Golden Stars format, the youngest maiden promises to give birth to twin children with golden hair. A witch takes the newborn royals and tries to kill them by putting them under the hooves of animals to be trampled. She fails, so she resorts to burying both under the threshold. The boys become walnut trees, then lambs, then ducks, then regain human form.^[65]

Bosnia[]

In a Bosnian version, Die Goldkindern ("The Gold-Children"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to a daughter with golden hair, golden hands and teeth of pearl, and a son with one golden hand, prophecizing her son will become the greatest hero that ever was. Years later, the emperor's first wife tries to get rid of the brother by telling him to kill some Moors that were threatening the realm; by sending him to tame a wild horse, Avgar, which lives in the mountains; to fetch an enchanted flowery wreath from the Jordan River; and to find an all-knowing young maiden whom "hundreds of princes have courted".^[416]

In a Bosnian-Romani tale, E Hangjuzela, Jal e Devlehki Manušni ("Hangjuzela, or the Heavenly Woman"), collected by professor Rade Uhlik from an 80-year-old woman named Seferovic Celebija, two sisters are washing their clothes in the river. The younger one says she wants to marry the king and bear a golden-toothed son and a golden-haired girl. She marries him and gives birth to the twins, replaces for puppies. They are rescued by a fisherman. They grow up and sent on a quest for self-playing instruments (mandolins) from the giants and for Hangjuzela, the Heavenly Woman.^[417]

North Macedonia[]

In a tale collected by Bulgarian folklorist Kuzman Shapkarev from Ohrid, modern day North Macedonia, "Три сестри прельки, най-малата - царица или "праината и невинността секога надвиват, а злобата опропастяват", the youngest of three sisters promises that, if she marries the tsar's son, she will give birth to a boy with a star on his forehead and a girl with a moon on her neck. The tsar's son marries her and she gives birth to the boy and to the girl the next year, but her sisters replace the children for a puppy and a kitten. They put the siblings in a casket and throw them in the river. The box washes up at a mill and the miller rescues and raises both. Their foster father advises him to cover his astral birthmark, and thus the boy becomes known as "Kelesh". After a fracas between the boy and some children, the king takes notice of the star mark and begins investigating into the matter.^[418]

Bashkir people[]

In a Bashkir tale, Санай-батыр ("Sanai Batyr"), Ulmes-Bey Batyr, an old hunter, falls ill during a hunt. His son, Kusun-batyr, journey through the whole "white world" for a cure for his father. He comes near a tree where a nest of vipers is attacking a wolf den. For three nights, Kusun Batyr kills the serpents with his sword and the wolf, as a token of gratitude, leads the youth to three birch trees, where three maidens are weaving with birch leaves and with a bird claw. From these claws three remedies will spring: kumis, spider silk and honey. The wolf explains that a mixture of these three substances will heal his ailing father. The youth also learns that the three maidens wish to marry Kusun Batyr: the first, daughter of Toygonbeya-batyr, promises to make him the most delicious kumis; the second, daughter of Targynbea-batyr, promises to weave very light outfits of a white colour, and the third, daughter of a wise aksaqal (a village elder), promises to give birth to a son stronger that his father (Sanai Batyr). Kusun Batyr gets the remedies, saves his father and marries all three, designing tasks for them: the first wife shall cook, the second shall weave and the third shall bear him the fabled son. The first two wives, jealous of the third, conspire with a wtich midwife to replace the boy with a dog and abandon him in the woods. The boy, Sanai Batyr, is rescued by the wolf who helped his father and grandfather and grows to be a fine youth. He goes to the mountains, sees a duck become a maiden and captures her, making her his wife. Despondent, Sanai Batyr wishes to travel and see the whole world, and the wolf gives him the ability to become a wasp. In wasp form, he travels to his father's lands to listen to a caravan of travellers narrate the wondrous sights they have seen. Inspired by the fantastical stories, Sanai Batyr decides to have them in his own yurt.^[419][420]

In another Bashkir tale, "Черный щенок" ("The Little Black Dog"), a man named Bai has four wives. He tells them he will go on a long journey and asks them what they will give him when he returns. The first says she will hunt 40 partridges to feed his 100 servants; the second - she will weave boots made of sand; the third will sew gloves made of louse skin, and the fourth says she will give birth to two sons with golden heads, teeth of pearls and silver hair. All four wives fulfill their promises, but the first three wives at first try to kill the children by placing them under cow and horse hooves to be trampled, but they are left unscathed. They decide to cast them into the water and replace them with a little black dog. When Bai returns, he banishes the fourth wife with the little dog to a windowless hut in the woods. In exile, the little dog acquires human speech and helps his "mother", by fetching the wonderful things a traveller tells Bai. At the end of the tale, the little black dog rescues the human children by using four cookies baked with their mother's milk.^[421]

Gagauz people[]

In a variant collected from the Gagauz people, "Три сестры: дѣвушка обѣщавшая царевичу, если онъ возметъ ее замужъ принести сына съ солнцемъ во лбу, а дочь съ мѣсяцемь" ("Three Sisters: the youngest said that, if she were to marry the prince, she would give birth to a son with the sun on the forehead, and a girl with a moon"), the youngest sister gives birth to her promised wonder children, but an evil old witch casts them in the river. The son of the king orders her to be interred to the chest and for everyone who passes by to spit on her. The children, raised by a miller, pass by their mother, who recognizes them.^[422][423]

Romania[]

Professor Moses Gaster collected and published a Romani tale from Romania, titled Ăl Rakle Summakune ("The Golden Children"). In this tale, the prince is looking for a wife, and sees three sisters on his father's courtyard. The youngest promises to give birth to "two golden children, with silver teeth and golden hair, and two apples in their hands all golden". The sisters beg the midwife to substitute the twins, a boy and a girl, for puppies and throw them in the water. Years later, the midwife sends them for the "Snake's crown", the fairy maiden Ileana Simziana, the Talking Bird and the Singing Tree. The collector noted that the fairy maiden Ileana was the one to rescue the Brother, instead of the Sister.^[424]

In another Romanian variant, A két aranyhajú gyermek ("The Two Childen With Golden Hair"), the youngest sister promises the king to give birth to a boy and a girl of unparalleled beauty. Her sisters, seething with envy, conspire with the king's gypsy servant, take the children and bury them in the garden. After the twins are reborn as trees, they twist their branches to make shade for the king when he passes, and to hit their aunts when they pass. After they go through the rebirth cycle, the Sun, stunned at their beauty, clothes them and gives the boy a flute.^[425]

Caucasus Mountains[]

A variant in Avar language is attested in Awarische Texte, by Anton Schiefner. In this tale, Die schöne Jesensulchar ("The Beautiful Jesensulchar"), three sisters talk what they would do if the king chose one of them as his queen, the third promising to give birth to a boy with pearly teeth and a girl with golden locks. They are replaced by a puppy and a kitten and throw in the water. Years later, they are set on a quest for an apple tree that talks with itself and dances when applauded, and a maiden named Jesensulchar as a friend for the Sister.^[426]

Armenia[]

At least two Armenian versions exist in folktale compilations: The Twins^[27] and Cheveux d'argent et Boucles d'or^[427] ("Silver Hair and Golden Curls").^[428]

A variant collected from tellers of Armenian descent in the Delray section of Detroit shows: the king listens to his daughters – the youngest promising the wonder children when she marries; the twins are the king's grandsons; the Brother quests for the bird Hazaran Bulbul and a female interpreter for the bird. When the interpreter is delivered to the Sister, the former requests the Brother to go back to the bird's owner, Tanzara Kanum, and bring the second woman who lives there, so that they may keep company and protect the Sister.^[429]

A fourth Armenian variant (Théodore le Danseur) places a giant named Barogh Assadour ("Dancing Theodore")^[430] in the role of the mystical woman the brother seeks, and this fabled character ends up marrying the sister.^[431]

In a rather lengthy variant, The Tale of the Lad with Golden Locks, a widowed king sees three sisters fetching water in jugs by the fountain and commenting with themselves about the king, the youngest telling them she would bear sons and daughters with golden hair if she were to marry the king. The king marries her and she gives birth to a boy with golden hair. The new queen's sisters bribe the king's Arab (or Black) stablemaster to drown the child and replace him with a puppy. He does as intended, but spares the boy's life and his him in a cave in a distant region. The king is furious with his wife and orders his stablemaster to drown the queen, but he brings her to her son and reveals the truth. Ten years pass and king decides to go on a deer hunt. His golden-haired son shoots the deer and the king decided to follow him. He meets the queen and the stablemaster and learns the truth. He takes them all back to the palace and the Golden-Haired brings with him his own bird of truth. When they arrive, the bird senses the treacherous sisters and escapes, which prompts a new quest for him (tale type ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess"). The tale continues with further adventures of the Golden-Haired Son and his half-brothers Poghos and Petros.^[432]

Georgia[]

Two Georgian variants exist in international folktale publications.^[433] In The Three Sisters and their Stepmother, after an introductory part with the sisters, the king finds them breaking into the stable and inquires each of them about their skills: the youngest says she will bear two golden-haired boys. The truth is told by one of the brothers during a banquet with the king.^[434]

In another tale, Die Kinder mit dem Goldschopf ("The children with golden heads"), after an introduction with the three sister being expelled from home, they are found by the king. The third sister promises to give birth to twin children, a boy and a girl with golden heads.^[435]

Asia[]

Turkey[]

Folklorists and tale collectors Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, who wrote a thorough study on Turkish tales,^[436] listed 41 variants in a preliminary analysis of Turkish sources, grouped under the banner Die Schöne or "The Beautiful". As such, the tale was one of "the most frequent folktales" in Turkish sources.^[437] A further study lists at least 55 versions of the story.^[123] Part of the Turkish variants show two heroes^[437] and follow the Brother Quests for a Bride format: the aunts' helper (witch, maid, midwife, slave) suggests her brother brings home a woman of renowned beauty, who becomes his wife at the end of the story and, due to her supernatural powers, acquits her mother-in-law of any perceived wrongdoing in the king's eyes.^[438] In some variants, the maiden (named Gülükan or Dilaremcengi) accompanies the Brother; in others, a male character joins the twins and reveals the whole truth.^[439]

Regional tales[]

A Turkish variant, translated into German, has twins with golden hair: the male with the symbol of a half-moon, and the female with a bright star, and follow the Brother quests for a Bride format, with the prince/hero seeking Die Feekönigin (The Fairy Queen). This character knows the secrets of the family and instructs the siblings on how to convince the King.^[440][441]

In another variant, collected in the 19th century from the city of Mardin, the third sister promises to give birth to a boy with locks of gold and silver. When he is saved by a fisherman and his wife, whenever he is bathed, the bathwater turns to gold.^[442][443]

In the tale Cengidilaver, the tale begins with the sultan's queen giving birth to twin children, a boy and a girl, who are replaced for puppies and cast into the water by another woman that lived in the sultan's palace. The sultana is condemned by her husband to be buried in the ground up to the neck, and her children are saved by a poor miller. Sixteen years pass, and after the miller dies, the twin children, now homeless, wander around, until the sister finds some stones on the ground and picks them up. They meet a jeweler and ask for shelter. The jeweler adopts them and they live together with money from the stones. One day, the sultan's second wife sends the brother on a quest for the rosebush and the nightingale of a man being Cengidilaver, and finally for the man himself. The third time the brother visits Cengidilaver, he disenchants the creature. In return, Cengidilaver, now a normal man, thanks the brother and gives him the former sultana's golden ring, advising him to invite the king for dinner with the twins.^[444]

Israel[]

According to an early analysis by Israeli folklorist Dov Noy (de), the Israel Folktale Archive (IFA) contained at first two variants of the tale type, one from a Yemeni source, and another from a Turkish source.^[445] A later study by scholar Heda Jason showed 7 variants in the Jewish Oriental tale corpus.^[446]

Middle East[]

The tale appears in fairy tale collections of Middle Eastern and Arab folklore.^[447] Scholar Hasan El-Shamy lists 72 variants of the tale type across Middle Eastern and North African sources.^[448] He also stated that variants were collected "in the Eastern part of the Arab culture area", namely in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.^[449]

One version appears in the collection of The Arabian Nights, by Antoine Galland, named Histoire des deux sœurs jalouses de leur cadette (English: The Story of the older sisters envious of their Cadette^[g] or The Story of the Three Sisters^[450]). The tale contains a mythical bird called Bülbül-Hazar,^[h] thus giving the tale an alternate name: Perizade & L'Oiseau Bülbül-Hazar. The heroine, Perizade ou Farizade, also names the tale Farizade au sourire de rose ("Farizade of the rose's smile").^[454][455] English translations of the tale either focus on the name of the princess, such as Story of the Princess Periezade and the Speaking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Golden Water,^[456] Perizade and the Speaking Bird^[457] or on the speaking bird itself.^[458][459] 19th century theologue Johann Andreas Christian Löhr wrote a German translation of the Arabian Nights tale with the name Geschwisterliebe, oder die drei Königskinder.^[460] In one version of the story, the heroine and her brothers are named Bahman, Parviz and Parizade; in another, their names are given as Farid, Farouz and Farizadeh.^[461]

A second variant connected to the Arabian Nights compilation is Abú Niyyan and Abú Niyyatayn, part of the frame story The Tale of the Sultan of Yemen and his three sons (The Tale of the King of al-Yaman and his three sons). The tale is divided into two parts: the tale of the father's generation falls under the ATU 613 tale type (Truth and Falsehood), and the sons' generation follows the ATU 707.^[462] A third version present in The Arabian Nights is "The Tale of the Sultan and his sons and the Enchanting Bird", a fragmentary version that focuses on the quest for the bird with petrifying powers.^[463]

Lebanon[]

In a Lebanese variant, Die Prinz and seine drei Frauen ("The Prince and his three Wives"), a farmer's three daughters wish to marry the prince, the youngest promising to give birth to a girl wih golden hair and a boy with silver hair. The prince marries all three, and the elder sisters replace the children for a cat and a dog. They are saved by a fisherman and his wife, who sell the children's metal-coated hair in the market. They become rich, their parents die and they move out to a palace in the prince's city. Their aunts send them on a quest for a tree with drums and music and a bride for his brother. The bride, with her omniscient knowledge, narrates the twins' story to the king during a dinner.^[447]

Syria[]

In a Syrian variant from Tur Abdin, collected by Eugen Prym and Albert Socin, Ssa'îd, the king of grasshoppers, has three wives, but no children yet. The third wife, also the youngest, gives birth to a boy and a girl, who are replaced for cats and thrown in the water. They are rescued by a fisherman and his wife, and whenever they are bathed, gold and silver appear in the bathwater. One day, when the brother is insulted for not knowing his true parentage, he leaves his adoptive parents with his sister. They then move to a hut near the king's residence, which they demolish and build a palace. The brother is the one to reveal the whole truth to his father, the king.^{[464][465][466]}

Palestine[]

In a Palestinian Arab variant, "Little Nightingale the Crier" (blebl is-sayyah), the youngest sister promises to give birth to three children, 'Aladdin, Bahaddin and Šamsizzha, who, if she smiles, the sun will shine when it is raining, and if she cries, it will rain when it is sunny.^[467]

In a Palestinian version from Birzeit, Die ausgesetzten Zwillingskinder ("The abandoned twin children"), the third ans youngest sister promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl with silver and golden hair, but the girl shall have three teeth: one to quench the thirsty, the second to satiate the hungry and the third to feed the tired. The twins are still set on a quest for a bird that flaps its wings and sings.^[468]

Iraq[]

An Iraqi folktale, collected by E. S. Drower, The King and the Three Maidens, or the Doll of Patience, focuses on the mother's plight: the youngest sister promises children born with hair of gold on one side and silver on the other, but, as soon as they are born, the children are cast into the water by the envious older sisters. She is told she must never reveal the truth to her husband, the king, so she buys a doll to confide in (akin to The Young Slave and ATU 894, "The Stone of Pity").^[469][449]

Kurdish people[]

In a Kurdish tale, Мирза-Мамуд и Хезаран-Больболь ("Mirza-Mamud and Khezaran-Bolbol"), the padishah marries three sisters, the yougest promising to give birth to golden-haired twins, a boy and a girl. Her envious sisters replace the children for animals and cast them in the sea in a box. The box is rescued by a miller, who saves the twins and names them Mirza-Mamud (the boy) and Golizar (the girl). Years later, they move to a new house and the boy meets his father, the Padishah, in a deer hunt. The queen's sisters despair and send an old woman to convince Golizar and Mirza-Mamud to go on a dangerous quest for a maiden named Зардухубар (Zardukhubar). Mirza-Mamud rescues Zardukhubar and they escape from an ogress (tale type ATU 313H*, connected to The Magical Flight or The Devil's Daughter). Zardukhubar becomes Golizar's companions. Later, the old woman tells the siblings about a magical bird named Khezaran-Bolbol. Mirza-Mamud fails the quest and is petrified. Noticing his long absence, Golizar and Zardukhubar seek him out. They meet an old hermit on the way who tells them how to safely capture the bird. Both women rescue the youth and a whole garden of petrified people. On their way back, the hermit asks them for a prayer, which the trio do and disenchant him into a handsome young man. The quartet is invited to a feast with the king, but the bird warns them their food is poisoned. As instructed by the bird, the siblings invite their father, the padishah, to their house, where the whole truth is revealed.^[470]

Iran[]

Professor Ulrich Marzolph, in his catalogue of Persian folktales, listed 10 variants of the tale type across Persian sources, which he classified as Die gerechtfertigte verleumdete Frau ("The Calumniated Wife, Vindicated").^[471] These stories vary between the quest for the usual treasures and the Fairy Maiden.

In a variant titled The Story of the Jealous Sisters, collected by Emily Lorimer and David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer, from Kermani, a father abandons his three daughters in the woods. A prince finds them and marries the youngest sister. After she becomes his wife, she gives birth to twins: "a son with a tuft of golden hair and a daughter with a face as beautiful as the moon". Her jealous sisters throw them in the stream. The prince condemns his wife to be trapped in a lime pillar and for stones to be thrown at her. Years later, when the brother passes by her, the youth throws a rose leaf at her, which prompts the king to summon his sisters-in-law.^[472]

India[]

According to Stith Thompson' and Jonas Balys's index of Indian tales, the tale type shows 44 variants across Indian sources.^[237] Stuart Blackburn also studied Tamilian variants of the tale type, which he claimed was "one of the most frequently told Tamil tales".^[473]

Regional tales[]

An Indian tale, collected by Joseph Jacobs in his Indian Fairy Tales (1892), The Boy who had a Moon on his Forehead and a Star on his Chin, omits the quest for the items and changes the jealous aunts into jealous co-wives of the king, but keeps the wonder-child character (this time, an only child) and the release of his mother.^[474][475] Jacobs's source was Maive Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales (1880), with her homonymous tale.^[476]

The character of the Boy with the Moon on his forehead reappears in an eponymous tale collected from Bengal (The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead) by Lal Behari Dey in his Folk-Tales of Bengal: the seventh queen begets a boy and a girl (the girl "divinely fair"; the boy with "the moon on his forehead and stars on the palms of his hands"), and the jealous co-wives of the king try to eliminate both siblings.^[28] Francis Hindes Groome already saw a parallel between this tale with the Romani tale he collected, and Grimm's The Three Little Birds.^[477]

A third variant can be found in The Enchanted Bird, Music and Stream, recorded by , in Simla Village Tales, or Folk Tales from the Himalayas. In this variant, the young queen gives birth to three siblings (two boys and a girl) and the sisters' agent only mentions the quest items without any significant description.^[478]

In true family saga fashion, an Indian tale of certain complexity and extension (Truth's Triumph, or Der Sieg der Wahrheit) tells a story of a Ranee of humble origins, the jealousy of the twelve co-wives, the miraculous birth of her 101 children and their abandonment in the wilderness. In the second part of the tale, the youngest child, a girl, witnesses her brothers' transformation into crows, but she is eventually found and marries a Rajah of a neighboring region. Her child, the prince, learns of his family history and ventures on a quest to reverse his uncles's transformation. At the climax of the story, the boy invites his grandfather and his co-wives and reveals the whole plot, as the family reunites.^[479]

James Hinton Knowles collected three variants from Kashmir, grouped under the title "The Wicked Queens", in which the number of siblings vary between 4 (three boys, one girl; third son as the hero), 2 (two sons; no quest for the water-tree-bird) and 1 (only male child; quest for tree and its covering; no water, nor bird).^[480]

Ethnologist Verrier Elwin collected a Baiga story from the Mandla district, titled The Brave Children: the fourth queen gives birth to a boy and a girl, but the three jealous co-wives of the king cast them in the water. They are found by a Sadhu, who gives them two sticks with a magical command. Years later, the jealous queens send the boy on a quest for a lotus flower and Pathari Kaniya (The Stone Maiden) as his wife.^[481]

In a variant from Salsette Island, Bapkhadî, the Salsette Cinderella, in the second part of the tale, after Bapkhadî marries the prince, she announces that a miraculous event shall happen when she gives birth: if to a boy, "a shower of gold" [golden water] shall appear; if to a girl, "a shower of silver" [silver water]. Everytime she gives birth (to two boys and a girl), the events happen and the king, on a trip, returns home to see his newborn children, but the queen's sisters have taken the children and replace them with animals. The siblings are rescued by "the hand of the Almighty God" and grow up. They survive by begging and chanting their story, introducing themselves as Brothers Saya from under the saya tree, Brother Ansa from under the ansa tree and Sister Denku from the Church.^[482]

Variants of the tale type have also been found in Himalayan tradition.^[483]

Indian scholar A. K. Ramanujan demonstrated the existence of two markedly different modes of storytelling regarding a South Indian variant ot the tale type. One way of narration (which he called "domestic") skips the preamble and is more basic and to the point; the second mode ("bardic") is accompanied by instruments and offers a more elaborate tale: the story about king Chadurangaraja who, despite being married to five queens, never had a son, so he goes on a journey in search of a new queen, and finds a maiden named Kadasiddamma in a temple.^[484][485]

French ethnologue Paul Ottino provided the summary of a North Indian variant about the legend of Goriya: a king meets a woman in the forest (possibly the goddess Kali herself). They marry and the king's previous seven wives replace the boy for a wooden object. The boy is found by fishermen and given the name Goriya. When he is young, he has a chance encounter with his father, the king, when the boy puts his wooden horse to drink water. The king notices the absurdity of the situation and discovers the truth.^[486] Similar tales are found in Karnataka, Gujarat, and in Mysore.^[487]

In a tale collected from the Santal people, Raj ar eae go̯ṭẹn rạni reaṅ ("A King and his Seven Wives"), a king marries seven wives, wanting to have a child, but no such luck. Then, "Father Isor of Heaven", under the guise of a "Gosse", instructs him to go to his own mango grove and find a tree with seven mangoes and give them to his wives, with the promise that the king give him, the Gosse, his firstborn. The first six wives eat their mangoes and the fruit reserved to the youngest wife. However, she gets the mango rind and eats, becoming pregnant before the other wives. The king arranges the preparations for the birth of his child: the queen shall ring a deep-sounding bell for a boy, and a tiny-soundind bell for a girl. The queen gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl (both bells were sounded), but the other jealous co-wives, out of envy, replace the children for two worn-out brooms. The twins are found and raised by a potter and his wife. The truth is revealed when the Gosse goes to the palace to cash in his promise and tells the king none of the children of the other six queens are his firstborn. The tale later continues with the adventures of the seven half-brothers.^[488]

In a variant from Rajasthan, The Pomegranate Princess, a childless king marries a seventh wife, a woman named Usha, to the jealousy of the other six queens. Now queen, Usha gives birth to a boy, a girl and another boy (as three consecutive births), but the jealous queens bribe the midwife to put rocks in their cribs and throw the children in the ocean. However, they are saved each time by a sadhu, who names them, respectively, Gokul, Kalama and Kalyan. Some time later, the sadhu dies, but leaves the children "the ashes of the fire", which are imbued with magic. The three decide to move from the sadhu's hut to the city, and Kamala, using the magic ashes, creates a fine mansion for them. The barber and the king's minister see Kamala and find a matchmaker. She takes a job as the sibling's housekeeper and tells the girl the house will be even more beautiful if one of her brothers finds a pomegranate that "shines like a bright star in a far away tree". Her brother Gokul uses the ashes on his horse, rides it to the tree and takes the pomegranate home. That night, the fruit cracks open and a princess comes out of it. The next time, the matchmaker convinces the sister to send her brothers for the golden bird. As usual, the brothers fail and are turned into stone, but their sister gets the bird and rescues them. Now back home, the golden bird convinces the siblings to invite the king, the queens and everyone for a banquet. The bird reveals the intrigue to the king, who orders for the former queen to be brought to his presence.^[489]

In a Tamil tale, the raja's newest wife gives birth to seven children, the eldest a girl, but his cowives replace them with insects and cockroaches. The children are raised by a series of foster mothers (Kali, Nagamma and Ganesa). At the climax of the tale, the eldest sister presents her case as a story in front of the panchayat.^[490]

Bengali folklorist Saratchandra Mitra published a tale from the Ho people, "of the wicked queens type": a raja is married to 7 ranis, but has not yet fathered a son. A bramahna tells him to take a stick and beat a tree for 7 mangoes and to give the fruits to his 7 wives. They eat the fruit, but the seventh eats a parly eaten fruit an gives birth to a "beautiful boy with the face of a mongoose". The other queens replace the boy for a stone and a broom, and later in the story his six half-brother kill and bury him. A bamboo and a shrub with a beautiful flower sprout. The raja plucks the flower and cuts down the bamboo, and his son reappears.^[491]

Indian scholarship also suggests that the Southeast Asian folktale of Champa Si Ton ("Four Champa Trees") was inspired by Hindu literature. In this tale, the King of Panchala marries a second wife, Padma, who gives birth to four princes. The royal children are taken by the envious first queen, Angī. They are buried and become champa trees, but are saved by a sage named Agni Chaksu and given the names Sita Kumāra, Pita Kumāra, Suvarna Kumāra and Vajra Nanda Kumāra.^[492]

Lapcha people[]

In a tale collected from the Lapcha people in Sikhim, The Golden Knife and the Silver Knife, King Lyang-bar-ung-bar-pono goes on a hunt with his two dogs. The dogs follow two stags. The animals turn into she-devils and kill the dogs. The king discovers their corpses and follow a trail into a second realm, Lung-da. He goes to the king's palace and meets two fairies: Se-lamen and Tung-lamen. Se-lamen spends a night with the king and promises to feed the entire palace with a grain of rice. Tung-lamen spends the next night with him and promises that she can clothe the king down to the poorest person with only one roll of cloth. The king Lyang-bar meets Ramit-pandi, the daughter of the king of Lung-da, who promises to give birth to a golden knife and a silver knife. They marry and Ramit-pandi gives birth to twins, who are replaced for puppies by the fairies. The evil fairies put the twins in an earthen pot and bury it deep in the ground at a crossroads. The twins' mother is killed, but her corpse floats upstream. The boys are found by a poor old couple. Years later, king Lyang-bar summons the twins to his presence to inquire them about their origins, and the evil fairies convince the king to send them after the golden and silver flutes of the demon Chenchhyo-byung-pono. The twins steal the flute and a pair of tusks and make peace with the demon, returning soon after to their father's kingdom to reveal the whole truth and to resuscitate their mother.^[493]

In another tale, The King of Lyang-bar and the two witch nurses, the queen of the king of Lyang-bar has two nurses who are witches in disguise. While bathing in the sea Jam-chi-chume-der, they fill their wooden bowls with flowers, while the queen plays with her golden plate. It was all a ruse to make the queen flee her home once she sets the golden plate on the water and loses it. The trio journeys to another realm, the Sachak-lat land, whose king dreamt his future wife was coming to him. He finds the three women and tests their abilities, by asking them to wash his head and brush his hair. The two witches act in a forceful manner, but the queen does it gently. They marry and she is expecting three sons. The children are born and put in a box in the water. The three children, a girl and two boys, are saved by an old fisherman and his wife. One day, they carve a wooden horse and ride it to the fountain where the queen and the witches were bathing, and taunt them that a wooden horse drinking water is the same absurd notion that a human woman gave birth to animals. Enraged, the witches feign illness and try to convince the king to kill the children and take their livers as remedy. The assassination plot is averted by the children, who each go their separate ways. Then, the elder brother tries to find their siblings, but only finds their remains. He builds a pyre to burn it, but falls in the flames, perishing also. After three days, a fir-tree springs out of the ashes with the reborn three siblings. The king's syce finds the fir-tree and reports to the king, who goes to the tree with the queen to convince the children to climb down the tree. The children agree, after their parents promise to punish the two witches.^[494]

Tibet[]

Two other Asian versions were recorded by M. Potanine (Grigory Potanin): one from Amdo, in northeast Tibet, from an old "Tangoute" that hailed from Lan-tcheou (in Kan-sou); and a second one that he heard in Ourga (ancient French language name for the city of Ulaanbaatar).^[495] The Amdo/Tangut story begins largely the same: two princesses, Ngulyggun ("silver queen") and Kserlyg gun ("golden queen") play the basin game with the king's maid, Yog-tamu-nzo. The princesses lose a silver and a golden basin, the maid returns to the king to inform him, and goes back to the princess with the false story about them being expelled from the kingdom. The maid forces the princesses to exchange places on their way to another realm. They meet a prince; he shoots three arrows to choose his cook and they fall on Kserlyg. On their way to the prince's palace, the maiden Yog-tamu pushes Kserlyg into a lake to drown, forces Ngulyggun into menial service and becomes queen. Ngulyggun, while taking the sheep to graze, receives the visit of her sister's spirit, who gives her bread and food. Yog-tamu discovers this situation and kills Kserlyg's spirit. Ngulyggun gives birth to a half-silver, half-golden child, and Yog-tamu orders the baby to be trampled by sheep, but they scatter. She orders to be trampled by cows and horses, but the baby is spared. Then she orders the baby to be buried in a hole and for it to be filled with manure. A flower sprouts. A sheep eats it and gives birth to a piebald sheep, who talks to its human mother, Ngulyggun. The false queen orders the sheep to be slaughtered and its bones gathered by Ngulyggun. The maiden takes the bones to a cave and, for three times, the bones become a lama. The lama asks his mother to summon the false queen to the cave, where the whole truth is revealed.^[496][497]

Buryat people[]

At least two tales collected from Buryat sources attest the birth of the wonder child. In the first tale, the maiden is helped by a talking horse and competes in a male-only tournament (a ploy by the khan to unmask his prophecised daughter-in-law) - a tale type not yet classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. As the tale continues, the virago maiden gives birth to a boy with golden breast and silver backside. In the second tale, a khan with two wives decides to marry a third time. One day, before going to war, he asks what his wives will present him upon his return; the third promises to give birth to a boy with golden breast and silver backside. Both tales show the banishment of the heroine; the second ends with the golden-silver son returning to his father's court and telling his mother's story.^[498]

Kalmyk people[]

Russian scholarship noted that in tales from the Kalmyk people, tale type 707 appears as continuation of tale type 313H, "The Magic Flight" (subtype with siblings). In one example, "Ьурвн кууктэ эмгн евгн хойр" ("An old man and old woman who had three daughters"), the elderly couple abandon their three daughters in the woods. The sisters meet a malevolent person in the woods and escape through the use of magical objects. The khan finds them and marries the sister who promises to bear the wondrous children with golden breast and golden braids,^{[499] [500]} events that also happen in another Kalmyk variant, "Эгч-дY hурвн" ("Three Sisters").^[500]

In other tales, the wonder children are born with golden breast and silver backside.^[501]

Central Asia[]

Folklorist Erika Taube stated that the tale type was "widespread" in Turkic-Mongolian traditions. The tales may vary in the number of the khan's wives (none, at first, or 1, 2, 3, 12 and even 108); the number of children (a son, two sons, a son and daughter pair or three sons), all born with special attributes (golden chest, silver backside, or legs of gold or silver).^[502]

Following professor Marat Nurmukhamedov's (ru) study on Pushkin's verse fairy tale,^[503] professor Karl Reichl argues that the dastan (a type of Central Asian oral epic poetry) titled Šaryar, from the Turkic Karakalpaks, is "closely related" to the tale type of the Calumniated Wife, and more specifically to The Tale of Tsar Saltan.^[504][505]

Similarities have also been noted between the tale type and the Uzbek tale of Хасан и Зухра (Hasan and Zuhra).^[506] In this tale, despite being married to 40 wives, the shah still hasn't fathered a son. In his wanderings, he finds three sisters, daughters of a shepherd, talking among themselves: Nasiba, Gulbahor and Sulfiya. The youngest, Sulfiya, promises to give birth to twins, a boy named Hasan and a girl named Zuhra. The midwife replaces them with two goats, puts the twins in a bag and abandons it on the road. Thankfully, they are saved by a coming caravan.^{[503][507][508]}

In a Kyrgyz tale, A kán fia ("The children of the khan"), a khan has 40 other wives, but marries a maiden he meets in his travel who promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl with golden chest and silver back. They are born, replaced by puppies and adopted by a man named Akmat. The brother searches for a white apple tree that always bears fruit, a talking parrot and a woman of great beauty named Kulanda.^[509]

Tajikistan[]

In a Tajik tale, A beszélö pagagáj ("The Talking Parrot"), the padishah marries the youngest sister, who promised to give birth to a boy and a girl with hair bright like fire, faces bright as the sun and with a beauty mark on their brow. The padishah's other three wives bribe an old nurse to dispose of the children. The old nurse, however, takes them to a shepherd to raise. Years later, they are sent on a quest for a magical mirror that can see the whole world and a talking parrot.^[510]

Russian scholar I. M. Oranksij collected an variant in the Parya language from kolhoznik Ašur Kamolov in 1961, in Hissar district. In his tale, a padishah with two wives goes in search of a third one. He meets three women talking: the daughter of the vizir, the daughter of the bey and the daughter of the shepherd. The daughter of the shepherd says that she will bear a boy and a girl "as have never existed in the (whole) world". They marry. After the birth of the twins, they are replaced by the other co-wives by puppies and abandoned in the steppes, but a gazelle nurses the babies. Years later, they are sent for a talking nightingale.^[511]

Tuva[]

Russian ethnologist Grigory Potanin recorded a variant from Uryankhay Krai, modern day Tuva, with the title "Мынг хонгор атту Тюмендей и его сынъ Ерь Сару". In the first part of the tale, a being named Tyumendey, under the guise of a Dzhelbag, forces an old man to surrender his three daughters in exchange for his freedom. The old man and his wife convince the girls to fetch fruits in the woods. They return to the yurt and see Dzhelbag. The girls escape by using objects to create magical obstacles to their pursuer. They meet a beaver near a river that carries them across the water. The beaver tells the girl to toss some stones in the river; Dzhelbag drowns. The animal advises them to climb up three fir trees and wait there. In the second part of the story, as the three sisters are sitting on treetops and playing musical instruments, three hunters pass by the trees when water pours down on them. Thinking it rain, they look up and see the maidens. The three sisters marry the three hunters. One day, the third hunter goes away with his brothers-in-law, and asks his wife what she will do for him when he gets back: she will bear a boy with silver neck and golden head. Her sisters become envious, replace the boy for an animal and throw him in the lake. The hunter returns and, seeing the animal, maims, blinds and abandons his wife. The woman regains her limbs and sight by use of a magical herb. She then prepares to rescue her son from the lake. She tries three times, and is successful on the third occasion. She feeds the boy her milk and rubs her tears on his eyes. He recognizes him as his mother and calls himself Er-Saru (Ер-сару).^[512][513]

Folklorist Erika Taube collected another Tuvan tale from a 69-year-old in 1969. In this tale, titled "Он ийи гадынныг хаан" or "Хан с двенадцатью женами" (The Khan with Twelve Wives), a khan has 12 wives, but laments that none has given birth to any son. He goes on a journey and finds at first a woman, which he thinks is ugly. He returns to his travels and finds three sisters talking inside a hut, the youngest wishing for a husband that has looked for her, travelled all over the world and suffered all travails. He marries the third sister and she gives birth to twin boys. The other co-wives replace the boys for animals and cast them in the water. The khan returns and, seeing the animals, banishes the thirteenth wife to an island. The boys are found by a childless couple. Years later, the khan sends his eagle to the skies and, when it does not return, he rides on his horse to the island and meets a deep-wrinkled old lady. The old lady says she is a "lady or ruler of fate" and sets the khan on a quest to redeem himself and restore his family.^[514] Taube argued that the old lady character as the ruler of fate was "an ancient element" present in this tale, and compared it to similar motifs and figures of Central Asian faiths.^[515]

East Asia[]

Other tales about Prince Golden Calf are attested in historical literature of Taiwan, Manchuria and Mongolia. They contain very similar plot structures: birth of hero by third wive or concubine, the attempts on the young prince by the other wives, his rebirth as a golden-horned and silver-hooved calf (with some difference between versions), his escape to another kingdom, his marriage to a human princess; his transformation to human and eventual return to his homeland.^[516][517]

Japan[]

Folklorist D. L. Ashliman, in his 1987 study of folktales,^[455] lists The Golden Eggplant (黄金の茄子 <<Kin no nasu>>) as a Japanese variant of the tale.^[518] Other variants of this tale were listed by Japanese scholar Kunio Yanagita.^[519]

Scholar Seki Keigo remarked that the Japanese story "show[ed] much similarity" to the tale type, albeit lacking the usual reason for the wife's banishment. He also reported 8 variants, found "chiefly in the southern part of Japan", and cited a local Okinawan legend with similar events.^[520] In the Okinawan tale, the lord's wife is cast with her child in a boat because she was accused of breaking wind in public.^[521]

Hiroko Ikeda, in his own index of Japanese tales, classified the story as type 707, with the name "The Gold Bearing Plant" (Japanese: Kin no Nasu, Kane no Naru Ki) and listed 25 variants of the story.^[522]

Russian scholar Khemlet Tat'yana argues that The Golden Eggplant is an example of the phenomenon where the more fantastical variants of the tale type give way to more realistic stories that treat the extraordinary elements as unreal or a factual impossibility: in the story, the lord's son returns to his father's court with seeds of a gold- and silver-producing tree, which can only be watered by a woman who has never broken wind.^[523]

China[]

Chinese folklorist and scholar Ting Nai-tung (zh) established a second typological classification of Chinese folktales (the first was by Wolfram Eberhard in the 1930s). In his new system, tale type 707, "The Three Golden Sons", shows the rivalry between the king's other wives; the number of children vary between stories, and the animal that replaces the children "is often a dead cat". One of the variants of his selected bibliography shows the quest for a magical tree and a girl, and in another for a bird of happiness.^[524]

A famous Chinese story that follows the replacement of the child for a cat is Limao huan taizi (English: "Cat in Exchange for a Prince";^[525] "Exchanging a Leopard Cat for a Prince"), attested in the literary work The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. In this story, a consort, jealous of the other, replaces the latter's son for a cat and gives the child for a eunuch to drown. Out of pity, he smuggles the child to the palace to another prince and the child is raised by the prince, unaware of his true origins.^[526]

Another scholarship points that in a compilation of Buddhist teachings, titled Shijia rulai shidi xiuxing ji, there exists a story about a king whose third wive gives birth to a boy, and his jealous co-wives replace the baby with a skinned cat and even try to kill him, to no avail. Finally, they give the baby to a cow that eats it, and lie to their husband the third wive gave birth to a monster. The cow gives birth to a calf (a golden calf in many versions), to which the king takes a liking to, to the horror of the two co-wives. They feign some illness and persuade the king to kill it as cure for them, but the royal butcher spares its life, killing another animal in its place. The calf escapes to another kingdom (Korea), grows up and marries a princess. The calf regains human shape and rescues his mother.^[527] This tale can also be known as The Golden Calf, The Calf with the Golden Horns and Silver Hooves or The Marriage of the Calf.^[528] Another Chinese variant, The Pretty Little Calf, collected and published by Wolfram Eberhard, follows this narrative very closely.

Korea[]

According to scholarship, the Buddhist tale of the birth of the Golden Calf "became wide-spread in Korea".^[529] The tale is also known as Kŭmu t’aejajŏn (金牛太子傳; "The Life of Prince Golden Calf"); Kŭmsongajijŏn (금송아지전; "Story of the Golden Calf"),^{[530][531][532][533]} 환생한 송아지 신랑 ("The Reincarnated Calf as a Groom") and 금우태자전 ("Crown Prince Geumwoo").^[534]

Mongolia[]

According to scholarship, in the Mongolian version of Prince Golden Calf, the third queen gives birth to a boy with golden chest and silver backside. When the two jealous queens give the boy for the cow to eat it, the cow gives birth to a similarly coloured calf. The calf regains human form, returns to his father's palace and denounces the queens' deceit.^[535]

Professor Charles R. Bawden provided the summary of other two Mongolian variants. In the first one, In the King's Absence, a king with three queens goes on a journey. Each of the three queens promise a grand feat when he returns: the first to create a seamless pair of boots, the second to sew a shirt with a louse skin, and the third to give birth to a son "with breast of gold and buttocks of silver". Each of them accomplishes what they promised, but the boy's birth wakens feeling of envy in the other two. Tricking the third queen, the two envious ones give the baby for a cow to eat. The king returns and, seeing that no son was born, blinds the third queen, cuts off her hand, breaks a leg and exiles her with the cow. The cow gives birth to the boy. The two queens feign illness and want the liver of a boy with golden breast and silver buttocks. At the end of the tale, the boy and the queen tell the whole story to the king.^[536][537]

In a second tale, recorded in Inner Mongolia, the three queens promise similar things. When the third one gives birth to the boy with golden breast and silver buttocks, they bury the boy under the threshold of the tent and replace him for kittens. After the king returns and demotes the third queen to a simple maid, the two queens dig up the boy and throw him in the well. When horsemen complain about the well, the two women draw the boy up, cook him up and give the broth for the cow to eat. The cow later gives birth to a calf, which becomes the king's pet. The two queens want its liver as remedy for their false illness. When the calf is ready to be killed, the axe breaks the transformation and disenchants him to normal human form.^[538] This tale was also published in longer form with the title Jagar Büritü-yin Khagan, which Bawden understood to mean "Khan of All in India".^[539]

Professor B. Rintchen collected an epic titled Khan Tschingis from a local Mongol bard named Onoltu. Rintchen published this epic in his book of Khalka Mongol texts. He noticed in his analysis that its "central theme" was The Calumniated Wife: in the story, the queen promises to give birth to a boy "with breast of gold and buttocks of silver" (altan čegejǐtei mōnggün bōgsetei).^[540]

Southeast Asia[]

Indonesia[]

French scholar Gédeon Huet noted the tale "entered into Indonesia". One example is the story Die Schwester der neun und neuzig Brüder ("The Sister of the Ninety-Nine Brothers"), from the Celebes Islands. In this tale, the youngest daughter promises to give birth to 99 boys and a girl, which draws the attention of the prince. When the children are born, the sisters replace the children for inanimate and "worthless" objects. The 100 siblings are rescued by "benevolent spirits", who also give the girl a wooden horse.^[541][542]

Thailand[]

In a Thai tale, Champa Si Ton or The Four Princes (Thai: สี่ยอดกุมาร), king Phaya Chulanee, ruler of the City of Panja, is already married to a woman named Queen Akkee. He travels abroad and reaches the deserted ruins of a kingdom (City of Chakkheen). He saves a princess named Pathumma from inside a drum she was hiding in when some terrifying creatures attacked her kingdom, leaving her as the sole survivor. They return to Panja and marry. Queen Pathumma is pregnant with four sons, to the envy of the first wife. She replaces the sons for dogs to humiliate the second queen, and throws the babies in the river.^[543] A version of the tale is also preserved in palm-leaf manuscript form. The tale continues as the four princes are rescued from the water and buried in the garden, only to become champa trees and later regaining their human shapes.^[544]

Laos[]

The tale Champa Si Ton, or The Four Champa Trees, also appears as a folktale in "the oral tradition of the Lao people".^[545][546]

In one version of the story, King Maha Suvi is married to two queens, Mahesi and Mahesi Noi. Queen Mahesi gives birth to the four princes, who are taken to the water in a basket. When they are young, they are poisoned by the second queen and buried in the village, four champa trees sprouting on their graves. The second queen learns of their survival and orders the trees to be felled down and thrown in the river. A monk sees their branches with flowers and takes them off the river.^[547]

In another version, provided by Payungporn Nonthavisarut and Pathom Hongsuwan, the Champa Si Ton is preceded by a narrative about Chao Pho Pak Hueng (or Thao Khatanam), who visits Panjanakhorn and rescues princess Khamkong from the drum.^[548]

Philippines[]

Author Dean Fansler collected a story titled The Wicked Woman's Reward, from one Gregorio Frondoso, a Bicol from Camarines. This tale shows the rivalry between two concubines of the king: one substitutes the other's son for a cat.^[549][525]

Professor Damiana Eugenio listed Thai tale The Four Champa Trees and Chinese tale Cat in Exchange for a Prince as "foreign analogues" to Filipino versions of the story of the king's wife banished from the palace due to the concubine's intrigue and accusations of giving birth to animals.^[550]

In a Tagalog version of Cinderella (ATU 510A), after the princess marries the king and is pregnant with seven boys, her step-family replace the boys for puppies and throw the septuplets in the sea in a box. The boys are saved by a hunter and word of the good deed reaches the ears of the princess' step-family. The women bring the boys poisoned maruya, they eat and die. The hunter places the bodies inside a cave, but an oracle's voice tells him to seek the mother of the Sun, who lives in a distant place, for a remedy. He passes by three places where people ask him the solution for their problems, and the hunter promises them he will bring the answers after visiting the house of the sun (akin to tale type ATU 461, "Three Hairs of the Devil"). He resurrects the princes, now young men, and the youngest of them fetches a tree branch of silver and gold, with which a helping enchanter makes clothes and equipment for them.^[551]

In another Filipino variant of Cinderella, collected in 1903 from a sixty-year-old woman in Pola, Mindoro, as the continuation of the story, after the marriage, the Cinderella-like character, named Maria, gives birth to seven princes, who are replaced by seven puppies and exposed in the mountains. However, they are saved by a "mother of the day" or "mother of the sun" (ina nang arao) and become seven young men. One day, they pass by their mother, suffering the king's punishment.^[552]

Dean Fansler, in another article, summarized a metrical romance published in the archipelago, The Story of the Life of Maria in the Kingdom of Hungary, and showed that it was a combination of Cinderella and Constance. However, the tale contains the punishment of the mother, now disgraced, and the lives of her sons, abandoned in the mountains and saved by a shepherd.^[553] He also published another (lesser-known) metrical romance, and a folktale, Amelia ("current in the province of Laguna"), which largely follow the same plot structure: marriage, birth of child or children, replacement by animals, severe punishment of the mother, rescue of children, meeting with parents later in life.^[554]

Africa[]

Researcher Daniel Crowley pointed that a preliminary study by researcher May Augusta Klipple, in 1938, indicated the existence of 10 variants from Africa, without specifying their region.^[237] However, analysing Klipple's study, Hasan El-Shamy identified that she pointed to 11 variants in the following ethnic groups: 9 among Venda, Larusa, Kamba and Masai (East Africa); one from the Sotho (southern Africa), and one from the Hausa (west Africa).^[555]

El-Shamy also noted that variants from Subsaharan Africa focus on the rivalry between co-wives and the bond between male twins.^[449]

North Africa[]

Some versions of the tale have been collected from local storytellers in many regions: two versions have been found in Morocco,^[556] one on the Northern area; some have been collected in Algeria,^[78] and one of them in the Tell Atlas area.^[557]

In a Tunisian version (En busca del pájaro esmeralda, or "The quest for the emerald bird"), the older brother is the hero of the story and the singing branch is conflated with the titular emerald bird, which reveals the story at a feast with the Sultan.^[558] Another Tunisian version has been collected from oral sources under the name M'hammed, le fils du sultan ("M'hammed, the son of the Sultan").^[559]

Algeria[]

In a tale from Kabylie, La fille du forgeron ("The Blacksmith's Daughter"), a sultan has two barren co-wives. One day, he visits a village. There, three girls are talking among themselves: the first, the daughter of the woodsman, says she can make a whole plate of couscous with only a grain of wheat; the second, the daughter of the carpenter, says she can make a beautiful burnous with only a tuft of wool; the third, the titular daughter of the blacksmith, says if she marries the sultan, she will give birth to a son with a temple of gold and the other of silver; another son with teeth of pearls and diamonds and a girl more beautiful than the sun. This tale was collected by writer Rabam Belamri from his aunt in Bougaa, near Kabylie.^[560]

Two versions have been recorded by German ethnographer Leo Frobenius in his Atlantis book collection. In the first tale, Die ausgesetzten Geschwister ("The abandoned sisters"), seven sisters go to fetch wood. The youngest feels a bit tired and rests beneath a tree with two other sisters. While they are resting, one young "Agelith" passes by and the sisters announce their promises: the elder that she will feed many people with a handful of wheat; the second that she can feed an entire city with a sheepskin; the third that she will bear him a son with a silver stars and silver moon in his hair, and a girl with a golden sun on the front. They are found by a fisherman and live in their hut. Years pass, and the aunts' accomplice, an old witch, convinces them to search for the Tär Lemeghani ("The Singing Bird") and water from the fountain located where the rocks collide. The brother also rescues several petrified people in the area.^[561] In the second, Die goldhaarigen Kinder ("The Golden-Haired Children"), which was identified by Frobenius as a variant of the former, the youngest sister promises to give birth to twin boys with golden hair on the front (taunsa-ne-d'hav).^[562] Both variants were later identified as Kabylian.^[563]

Egypt[]

El-Shamy mentioned that 14 variants exist in the Egyptian archives (as of the 1980s),^[449][564] some already collected in the late 19th century.^[565]

In a variant collected by Guillaume Spitta-Bey as Histoire d'Arab-Zandyq, or its translated version, The story of the Princess Arab-Zandīq, by E. A. Wallis Budge, the third sister says the girl will have golden hair and the son "hyacinthine locks"; their laughter will make the sun and the moon appear, and when they weep the skies shall thunder and rain.^[566] However, in another translation by a professor Bernard Lewis, both twins have hair of gold and hyacinth.^[567]

In the tale The Nightingale that Shrieked, the youngest sister promises twins: "a boy with locks of gold and silver" and a girl who can make the sun shine with her smile and rain fall with her weeping. Years later, they are sent on a quest for the Tree with Apples that dance and Apricots that sing and the Bulbul Assiah, the Nightingale that Shrieks, both tasks completed only by the brother.^[568][569]

In another folktale from Egypt (The Promises of the Three Sisters), the male twin is named Clever Muhammed, while the female twin is called Sitt el-Husn, or "Mistress of Beauty", both with golden and silver hair. Both quest for the "dancing bamboo, singing water and talking lark".^[570]

In another tale, El-Schater Mouhammed, the Brother is the hero of the story, but the last item of the quest (the bird) is replaced by "a baby or infant who can speak eloquently", as an impossible MacGuffin.^[80]

Morocco[]

In a variant titled ṭ-ṭăyʁ l-mḥăddəθ ("The Talking Bird"), collected in Chefchaouen, Morocco, by researcher Aicha Ramouni from teller Lālla Ḥusniyya l-ʕAlami, the third sister promises to give birth to twins, a boy and a girl who can make the sun appear with their smiles and rain fall with their tears, and leave one brick of gold and other of silver whenever they walk. Their adoptive father is the one to give them the first items the old woman asks for; but the last item, the talking bird, is sought by the brother, who fails, and obtained by the sister.^[571]

Central Africa[]

A version of the tale was found amongst Batanga (fr) sources, with the name The Toucan and the Three Golden-Girdled Children, collected by Robert Hamill Nassau and published in the Journal of American Folklore, in 1915. In this tale, the wife promises to give birth to three children, Manga ("Sea"), Joba ("Sun") and Ngânde ("Moon").^[572]

West Africa[]

In a West African tale, local chief Nyame marries other four women, who later move to his house. There, they need to follow the rules of the head-wife, who asks the women what each would give to their husband. The youngest one answers she would bear him a "child of gold" (or "gold-child"), but eventually gives birth to a twin of silver and a twin of gold. The boys are replaced by two frogs, but the whole truth is discovered with a little help from Anansi, the Spider.^[573]

A variant of The child born with a moon on his breast is mentioned by Édouard Jacouttet as hailing from "Gold Coast", an old name for a region on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa: a king named Miga has many wives, who had not born any children. A witch doctor gives a remedy for the wives: all of them give birth to animals, except one, who mothers a son "with a peculiar sign on his forehead", just like his father.^[574] This tale was first recorded in 1902 by G. Härtter, from the Ewe people in Togo.^[575]

In a Senegalese tale, The child with a star on the forehead, originally collected in French by Lilyan Kesteloot and Bassirou Dieng with the title L'enfant qui avait une étoile sur le front,^[576] the jealous co-wives replace the chief's son for a bottle, but the boy is rescued by a helpful old woman. She raises him and directs him to meet his father.^[577]

In a Southern Nigerian tale, The Woman with two Skins, king Eyamba I of Calabar has 200 wives, but no son. He is persuaded to marry one of the spider's daughters, but she is so ugly. In fact, this woman, named Adiaha, takes off the ugly skin at night and becomes a beautiful young woman. The king's head wife discovers this and buys a potion form the "Ju Ju man" in order to make the king forget about Adiaha. She succeeds, and the spider's daughter returns home. Adiaha's father contacts another Ju Ju man to prepare an antidote for his daughter to use on her husband. Adiaha returns to king Eyamba, still with her ugly skin disguise, and gives birth to a son, to the jealousy of the head wife. She prepares another potion to make the king fall ill and forget his son. Due to his poor health, he is convinced by the head wife to cast his son in the water, but the boy is saved by a Water Ju Ju. Once again, Adiaha counters the head wife's plot, returns to her husband Eyamba and mothers a daughter. The girl suffers the same fate as her older brother, but is saved by the same Water Ju Ju. Now a young man, the Water Ju Ju advises the king's son to hold a wrestling match to draw the attention of the king. The youth wins every match and is invited to a dinner with the king. The Water Ju Ju advises the youth to summon the people and present his case in front of the king. There, the whole truth is revealed about the head wife's deception. Soon, the king's children and Adiaha are reinstated to their proper place.^[578] Folklorist Andrew Lang, on his notes, recalled similar tales of "European folk-lore" wherein the king is deceived and throws his children in the water because he thought his wife gave birth to puppies.^[579]

In a tale from the Ndowe people of Equatorial Guinea, El cerco de los leones, two sisters confide in each other that they will bear handsome children. The younger, however, confesses that she will bear a boy with a star on the forehead and another on the chest. After the boy's birth, the elder sister replaces her nephew for a piece of wood and throws him into a den of lions.^[580]

In a tale from the Dahomey people, collected by Melville J. Herskovits with the title Slandering co-wife: Why there are several attendants at childbirth, a girl named Agenu (or Tohwesi), daughter of King Abiliba Numayago, becomes the another wife to a king Beu. She becomes heaby with child and when it is time to give birth, she is blindfolded by her husband's other wife. Agenu gives birth to a boy, but the second wife hides the boy in a calabash and replace him for a stone. An old woman who was nearby gets the calabash to raise the boy, while his mother locked in a hut to be insulted by the other wives. Years later, the old woman requests an audience with the king, the prime minister and the second minister. The king gather the people and the boy is asked to appoint his mother. The old woman reveals the treachery to the king.^[581]

Hausa language[]

A variant was collected in a Hausa dialect of Kano, which was titled Story of a Poor Girl and the Rival Wives. The tale contains barren co-wives, a poor girl giving birth to twins, the replacement for animals, and the children meeting the father.^[582]

Another tale from the "Haoussa" (Hausa) was collected by François-Victor Équilbecq from Fatimata Oazi, in Bogandé, in 1911. In this tale, titled Les trois femmes du sartyi ("The sartyi's three wives"), three women, near a marigot (fr), comment among themselves their wishes. The first on says she will give birth to twins with navels of pure gold if she marries the sartyi (a ruler, a king). The other two also promise extraordinary things. The sartyi marries all three. The sartyi's favorite wife takes the twin boys as soon as they are born, throws them "en dehors du tata" and replaces them for margouillats (lizards). An old woman that was looking for herbs finds the boys and takes them. When they grow up, the twins often provoke the other co-wives when they are taking a bath in the marigot. A griot tells the sartyi of this incident, noting that both boys resembled the king. The sartyi orders that all of his wives shall prepare a meal for the twins, so that they may identify their true mother.^[583] Équilbecq noted its similar motifs with European fairy tales and the story from the Arabian Nights: the intrigue of the co-wives and the extraordinary promises of the women.^[584]

Cape Verde[]

Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons collected some variants from Cape Verde Islands, grouped under the banner of The Envious Sisters.^[585][586] The wonder children appear in four of them. In one, collected in San Anton (sic), the third sister promises three children with gold stars on the forehead; in the second from the same island, a servant of the king gives birth to triplets with gold stars on the forehead.^[587] In the main text, provided by Antonio da Graça of San Nicolao (sic), the third sister gives birth to two boys and a girl with a gold star on the forehead, in three consecutive births.^[588] In the fourth, collected from Fogo, the boy has a gold star on the forehead, and the girl a golden apple on her hand.^[589]

In a second set of Cape Verdean variants, the children are replaced for animals and saved by the Old-Woman-of-the-Sea. These tales also lack the quest for the items.^[590]

East Africa[]

Scholars have attested the presence of the tale type in African sources.^[447]

In one tale from the Maasai people, titled The story of the two wives and the twins ("'L-omon loo-'ngoroyok are oo '1-mao"), a man is married to two women. The first hasn't born any sons, but the second gives birth to twin boys. The co-wife cuts the boys' fingers and smears their mother's mouth to accuse her of cannibalism. She puts the twins into a drum and casts it in the water. The drum is washed ashore in another country.^[591][592] This version was translated by Carl Meinhof into German.^[593]

Southern Africa[]

Africanist Sigrid Schmidt asserted that the tale type was particularly widespread in Southeast Africa.^[594] In fact, according to her studies, the tale type 707, as well as types 706, Maiden Without Hands, and 510, Cinderella, "found a home in Southern Africa for many generations".^[595]

In a tale from the Venda people, The Chief with the Half-Moon on his Chest, the youngest wife gives birth to a boy just like his father, and is helped by a little rat. The story was compared to the Sotho tale and noted by anthropologue Samuel Shaw Dornan (de) to be similar to the male character of Lal Behari Day's Bengali tale of The Boy with a moon on his forehead.^[596]

Another African variant was collected from a Xhosa storyteller named Nongenile Masithathu Zenani, recorded from a performance on September 13, 1967, in her home located in Nkanga, Gatyana District, Transkei. In this variant, titled The Child with the Star on His Forehead, a man marries his wife's sister as another spouse to father a son. The sister gives birth to a boy "with a star on his forehead [and] the crescent of a moon on his chest, just like his father", but is replaced by a cat. The boy is saved and reared by a crab, which takes the boy back to his father's homestead to reveal the truth.^[597][i] Scholar Sigrid Schmidt recognized its classification as tale type AaTh 707.^[599]

In a Khoekhoe tale collected by Leonhard Schultze-Jena, Ariba gye iiguibahe kχoësa or Die Frau, der ein Hund untergeschoben wird, a woman's son is replaced for a dog by jealous women, but he is saved by an aigamuxa.^[600][601] This tale was listed by Elsie Clews Parsons as a parallel to the Cape Verdean tales she collected.^[602]

Sotho people[]

A tale of the Sotho people (Basotho) with the motif of the wonderful child with a moon on his breast was recorded by Édouard Jacouttet in his book The treasury of Ba-suto lore (1908). The name of the tale, Khoédi-Séfoubeng,^[603] Ngoana ea Khoeli-Sefubeng,^[604] or Ngwana ya Kgwedi Sefubeng, translates to "The child with a moon on his breast".^[605] In this tale, local chief Boulané is known for his peculiar birthmark: a full moon on his chest, and wishes to have a son with that exact shape on their skin.^[606] This tale was also translated as The Moon-Child by Ethel McPherson^[607] or as The Moonprince by Jan Knappert, in his collection of tales from Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland.^[608]

In another tale from Basutoland, Morena-y-a-Letsatsi, or The Sun Chief, a strong chief, with signs of the sun, the moon and eleven stars on his breast, is approached by two sisters: Siloane ("the tear-drop") and Mokete. Mokete says she can cook and grind, and thus becomes her sister's servant, while Siloane marries the chief. On the wedding feast, she "sings a song of [his] praise" and promises to bear him a son "in his image". When she is ready to give birth, Mokete replaces the boy for a deformed child with the face of a baboon. The real son is put with the pigs to be devoured, but "the spirits protect him". Mokete, the new wife, sees the boy survived and asks her husband to kill the pigs and burn down the kraal. She also tries to kill him in other attempts, but fails. The boy survives every time due to intervention of the spirits, becomes the leader of another village, and is given the name Tsepitso. One day, when pasing through a village, he stops by the well and sees a woman named Ma Thabo ("mother of joy"), who gives him some water to drink.^[609]

Madagascar[]

According to Hering's Malagasy Tale Index, the tale type is one of 78 international types found in both Madagascar and elsewhere.^[610] Eight variants have been collected, and its collectors noted that the tale type adapted and integrated into traditions of the country, becoming "a clan legend, an explanation for uxorilocal marriage, and a cautionary tale against polygamy".^[611]

In a Merina tale described in the book Tantara ny Andriana eto Madagasikara ("History of the Nobles in Madagascar"),^[612][613] Andriambavirano came down from heaven, goddess Andriambavirano ("Princess of the Water") descends to earth in leaf form near a lake in the Angavo mountain.^[614] Andriamanjavona, "royal prince of double affiliation" and son of sovereign Andriandravindravina, is destined to take it, which he does by singing a magical charm. He captures the leaf and takes it home. The leaf becomes a woman named Andriambavirano and they marry. The "vadibe", the first wife, casts away Andriambavirano's three children (two boys and a girl), but they are saved by a foster father.^{[615][616][617]} Further sources state the three children (the elder boy named Rabingoanony, the younger boy Andrianjatovorovola and the girl Ratandratandravola) are saved by a creature called Konantitra and later become heroes and heroines.^[618][619] Professor Lee Haring noted the connection to the international tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".^[617]

In another variant, "Андриамбахуака Равухимена и волшебные зерна" ("Andrianbahuaca Ravuhimena and the Magic Grains"), collected in Belu (West Coast of Madagascar), local nobleman Ravuhimena listens to three sisters; the youngest promising to give birth to five sons by him after she eats five grains. Ravuhimena marries all three sisters. When the youngest, Refaran, gives birth to five children, her sisters cast them in the forest, but they are saved by "The Man of the Forest".^[620]

French ethnologue Paul Ottino (fr) also analysed two similar Malagasy variants with the substitution of the children for objects and the jealous queens casting the children in the water,^[85] one of them titled Ifaranomby, published in 1955 by researcher Jeanne de Longchamps.^[621]

In a tale collected in Fianarantsoa, from the Betsileo, Le mari et ses trois femmes ("The man and his three wives"), a man's third wife gives birth to a boy named Razafinjato and a girl called Ramitriavola. The other co-wives replace them for objects and cast them in the sea in a box. An old woman who lived in a garden saves the box and raises the twins. Years later, she sends both to their father. The other co-wives send them to fetch some jewels by the margin of the river where alligators roamed, and to cut the tail of a dangerous bull. The brother performs these tasks and leaves unscathed.^[622]

Réunion[]

In the island of Réunion, a variant was collected from local female storyteller Germain Elizabeth, born in 1895, with the title Kat fler d-roz ("Four Rose Blossoms"). In this variant, for instance, the son's foster mother, a fairy, guides the hero to obtain the treasures.^[623]

Americas[]

North America[]

At least 25 variants are reported to have been collected from francophone North America.^[624]

United States[]

Professor and folktale collector Genevieve Massignon collected the tale titled Les Trois Sœurs abandonnées, part of a collection of 77 stories obtained from fieldwork from Madawaska, Maine.^[625]

A few versions have been collected from Mexican-American populations living in U.S. states, such as California and New Mexico,^[626] and in the Southwest.^[627]

In a variant collected around Los Angeles area, there are two sons, one golden-haired and the other silver-haired, and a girl with a star on her forehead,^[628] while a second variant mixes type ATU 425A ("Search for The Lost Husband") with type ATU 707.^[629]

A variant was collected from a Spanish-descent fifteen-year-old named Philomene Gonzalez, from Delacroix Island, Louisiana, in 1941. In this variant, titled Golden Star, a maiden wishes to marry the prince and to have a boy with white and golden hair and with a star on the forehead. She gives birth to this boy and a girl with the same traits the following year. An old woman replaces the children for puppies and throws them in the river, but God rescues them. This version lacks the quest for the items, and concludes when God sends them to a feast with the king.^[630]

Native Americans[]

In a Chippewa tale collected in 1942 from Delia Oshogay, in Court Oreilles, Oshkikwe's Children, Oshkikwe is the youngest sister who marries the king because she promised to give birth to three children: two boys, and the last a girl with golden hair and a star on her forehead. Her two sisters, the elder named Matchikwewis, become jealous and enraged that they married lowly men and devise a plan: cast the children into the river and replace them for animals, causing the queen to be imprisoned by her husband. The children are rescued and raised by an old couple, then go on a quest for the "golden bird that talked".^[631]

Anthropologist James Teit collected a tale from the Upper Thompson River Indians titled Spiṓla.^[j] A white woman is exiled from home, but meets a lodge where her four brothers lived. She helps them and is blessed with the ability to produce gold with her mouth. A chief's son marries her and she is pregnant. When the husband is called away to a meeting, her step-mother and step-sister help in the delivery. However, they make a hole in the floor, let the her sons fall through it and put a cat and a snake in their place. Seeing the animals, the chief's son condemns her to be drowned in the river, but her brothers rescue her. Meanwhile, the boys have been rescued by the woman's favourite dog named Spiṓla. The dog protects and feeds the children. One day, the woman's step-mother gives some poisoned food to the boys and they die. The dog Spiṓla decides to go to the house of the Sun to seek help, and on his way is questioned by three people to find answers to their problems (a la "Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard"). When the dog resurrects the boys, one boy has a shining sun on the forehead, and the other a bright moon. Lastly, Spiṓla decides to find the wise Bird, who "talked all languages, knew the future, and never told a lie".^[633] Stith Thompson related this tale to the cycle of "The Bird of Truth".^[634]

New Mexico[]

A variant from Northern New Mexico was collected by José Manuel Espinosa in the 1930s from a twelve-year-old María del Carmen González, who lived in San Ildefonso. The tale was republished by Joe Hayes in 1998 with the title El pájaro que contaba verdades ("The Bird that spoke the Truth"). In this tale, a couple have three children: two boys with golden hair and a girl with a star on the forehead. They are kidnapped by an evil witch and left in the canyon to die. The objects they seek are a bird with green feathers, a bottle of holy water and a whistle.^[635]

A second version from New Mexico was collected by Professor R. D. Jameson,^[636] titled The Talking Bird, The Singing Tree, and the Water of Life, first heard by the raconteur in his childhood.^[637] In a second version by R. D. Jameson, the princess promises to give birth to twin boys: one golden-haired and one silver-haired.^[638]

In another variant, first collected in 1930 by Arthur L. Campa in his thesis (El Pájaro Verde; English: "The Green Bird"), the quest is prompted by the siblings's foster mother, in order to ensure a life-long happiness for them.^[639]

In another variant, titled The Three Treasures, the youngest sister wants to marry the prince and promises to give birth to golden-haired children. She gets her wish and gives birth first to a girl, then to two boys in the following years. Her sisters cast the siblings in the water, but they are saved by the gardener.^[640]

Canada[]

Scholarship points that the French oral repertoire of fairy tales was "well implanted" in North America and Canada, with many regions producing several variants of the tale type.^{[641][642][643]} A similar conclusion was reached by Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke, who stated that the type was "quite popular among French Canadians", with "more than 30 versions" recorded in Laval University.^[644]

A version from French Canada (Québec) was collected by professor Marius Barbeau and published in the Journal of American Folklore, with the title Les Soeurs Jalouses ("The envious sisters").^[645]

Professor Vivian Labrie collected and published two other French-Canadian variants: La Barriere verte ("The Green Barrier") and Les trois enfants perdus ("The Three Lost Children"). In the first tale, three brothers marry three sisters, and the third couple is already expecting a child, to the envy of the other two. The children are cast into the other and, when adults, must seek "L'eau qui bouille, l'arbre qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit tout" ("the water that boils, the tree that sings and the bird that teils everything"). In the second tale, the youngest sister promises to give birth to triplets: a boy with the moon on the forehead, another with a star, and a girl from whose hair falls money. They are cast into the water, are rescued by a peasant couple and seek "the rose tree with all kinds of roses", from "the Garden of the End of the World", "water that boils in all colors and a blackbird that tells all truth".^[646]

In a variant from Newfoundland, collected from a Mrs. Kerfont and titled The Bluebird, the twins, a boy and a girl, are raised by a white bear and sent on a quest for "a blue bird in a golden cage".^[647]

Canadian folklorist Carmen Roy (fr) collected two variants from Gaspésie: Le vieux fermier and Le Prince et la Princesse de Marinca.^[648]

Mexico[]

A variant was collected from Tepecano people in the state of Jalisco (Mexico) by J. Alden Mason (Spanish: Los niños coronados; English: "The crowned children") and also published in the Journal of American Folklore.^[649] A version from Mitla, Oaxaca, in Mexico (The Envious Sisters), was collected by Elsie Clews Parsons and published in the Journal of American Folklore: the siblings quest for "the crystalline water, the tree that sings, and the bird that talks".^[650]

In a Yucatec Maya variant, Ooxtuul kiktsilo'ob or El Rey y Las Tres Hermanas ("The King and the Three Sisters"), the king marries the youngest sister and the elder ones replace the children for dead animals.^[651][652]

Central America[]

Four variants have been collected by Manuel José Andrade, obtained from sources in the Dominican Republic.^[653] The tales contain male children as the heroes who perform the quest to learn the truth of their birth. A later study by Hansen listed 12 Dominican variants.^[654]

The tale type is also present in the folklore of Puerto Rico (amounting to 9 local versions),^[655][656] and of Panama.^[657]

Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons recorded a tale from Martinica (L'arbre qui chante, l'oiseau qui parle, l'eau qui dort; English: "The singing tree, the talking bird, the sleeping water"),^[658] Guadalupe (De l'eau qui dort, l'oiseau dite la vérité; English: "About the water that sleeps, the bird that tells the truth")^[659] and Haiti (Poupée caca la: Trois sé [soeurs] la).^[660] The version from Guadalupe begins like Snow White (ATU 709), a mother's envy of her daughter's beauty, and continues as ATU 707.^[661]

A version from Jamaica was collected by Pamela Colman Smith, titled De Golden Water, De Singin' Tree and De Talkin' Bird.^[662]

South America[]

Brazil[]

Brazilian folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo stated that the tale type was brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonization.^[217] He also collected a variant from a woman named Benvenuta de Araújo, from Rio Grande do Norte. In this variant, titled A Rainha e as Irmãs ("The Queen and her Sisters"), the youngest marries the king and gives birth to two boys and a girl, all with a golden star. Her sisters replace them with frogs and a servant abandons them under a tree in the forest, but they are saved by a hunter. The siblings quest for the Água-da-Vida ("The Water of Life"). During a supper with the hunter, they invite a poor woman to join them, and she reveals she is the servant. The siblings forgive her and later reconcile with their father.^[663]

Another Brazilian version was collected by Brazilian literary critic, lawyer and philosopher Silvio Romero, from his native state of Sergipe and published as Os três coroados ("The three crowned ones") in his Contos Populares do Brazil (1894). In this version, the siblings are born each with a little crown on their heads, and their adoptive mother is the heroine.^[664][665]

Author Elsie Spicer Eells recorded a very similar Brazilian variant titled The Stone Twins: the queen gives birth to twins, but the queen's jealous sisters cast them in the river. They are saved by a poor fishing couple. Years later, the sisters meet the boys again and give them flowers and fruits that petrify them. The boys' foster mother is advised to seek the abode of the Sun, because he knows many things. The story continues as tale type ATU 461, Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard, wherein the hero or heroine gets asked three questions and the Devil (or the Sun, or Father Know-All in Slavic variants) is wise enough to know the answers.^[666]

Argentina[]

Folklorist and researcher collected eight variants all over Argentina, throughout the years, and published them as part of an extensive compilation of Argentinian folk-tales.^[667] Another variant (La Luna y el Sol) has been collected by .^[668]

Scholar Bertha Koessler-Ilg collected and published from the Mapuche of Argentina an etiological tale she titled Dónde y cómo tuvieron origen los colibries (English: "How and why the colibris were created"),^[669] with several similarities with the tale-type.^[670] In this story, the inca (lord) marries Painemilla ("Oro azul" or "blue gold"), who gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, both with golden hair. However, her envious sister, Painefilu ("Vibora azul" or "blue viper") replaces the children for puppies.

Chile[]

A preliminary report by Terrence Hansen on the Chilean variants listed 14 tales.^[654]

Some of the versions, collected by folklorist Rodolfo Lenz,^[671] have been grouped under the banner Las dos hermanas envidiosas de la menor ("The two sisters envious of their youngest"): La Luna i el Sol ("Moon and Sun") and La niña con la estrella de oro en la frente ("The girl with the golden star on her forehead").^[672] This last tale is unique in that the queen gives birth to female twins: the eponymous girl and her golden-haired sister, and its second part has similarities with Biancabella and the Snake.

Chilean folklorist Ramón Laval (es) collected another variant from a twenty-year-old youth from Rancagua, titled El Loro Adivino ("The Divining Parrot"). In this story, three sisters, Flor Rosa, Flor Hortensia y Flor María, comment among themselves their potential marriages. The youngest, Flor María, says if she were to marry the king, she would give birth to three children with "el Sol, el Lucero y la Luna" on the front. She marries the king, her envious sisters replace the babies for animals, put them in a box and cast them in a stream. The box is found by a "hortelano" (herb-gatherer) and his wife, who raise the children. When they are twelve, the fosters parents die and Sol, the oldest, decides to seek their real parents. He meets an old lady on the road who tells him to seek "el Arbol que canta, el Agua de la vida y el Loro adivino" (the singing tree, the water of life and divining bird). As usual, only the youngest sister is successful in the quest and rescues her brothers, as well as restores a prince to his human shape and heals a blind king.^[673]

Colombia[]

In a Colombian version, The Three Sisters, after the children are cast in the water and reared by the royal gardener, the queen, their mother, comments with the gardener that the royal gardens need "a bird that speaks, an orange tree that dances, and water that jumps and leaps". The sister's brothers, Bamán and Párvis, offer to obtain the treasures, but it is their sister who finishes the quest and rescues her brothers.^[674]

Ecuador[]

In an Ecuadorian variant, Del Irás y Nunca Volverás ("[The Place] of Going and Not Returning"), three sisters express their wishes to marry the baker, the royal cook and the king himself. The third sister marries the king and gives birth (in consecutive pregnancies) to two boys and a girl with a star on the front. Her sisters replace them for animals and cast them in the water. They are saved by a childess old couple. Years later, the king visits their house and a servant tells them of three wonders to embellish their garden: the singing tree, the golden water and the speaking bird.^[675] This tale was also classified as type 707.^[676]

Adaptations[]

Opera[]

The tale seems to have inspired Carlo Gozzi's commedia dell'arte work L'Augellino Belverde ("The Green Bird").^[677][678] In it, the eponymous green bird keeps company to the imprisoned queen, and tells her he can talk, and he is actually a cursed prince. The fantastic children's grandmother sets them on their quest for the fabulous items: the singing apple and the dancing waters.^[679]

The tale has also inspired Canadian composer Gilles Tremblay to compose his Opéra Féerie L'eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit la vérité (2009).^[680]

Literature[]

Lithuanian professor Asta Gustaitienė (lt) acknowledges that French-Lithuanian poet Oscar Milosz adapted a traditional Lithuanian variant titled Auksaplaukis ir Auksažvaigždė ("Golden-Hair and Golden Star"), by delving more into the relationships between the characters.^[681]

Croatian folklorist Maja Bošković-Stulli argued for the presence of motifs of the tale type in the South Slavic epic ballad of Lov lovio Teftedar Alaga: Alaga's brother is tasked with killing Alaga's barren wife, but all of a sudden she gives birth to a boy with golden hands and legs and silver hair.^[682] In the same vein, Bulgarian folklorist Lyubomira Parpulova observed "similar notions" between the tale type 707, "The children with the wonderful features", and the Bulgarian/South Slavic folk song about a "walled-up wife".^[683]

Bulgarian author Ran Bosilek adapted a variant of the tale type as the tale "Слънце и Месец" ("Sun and Moon"). In his adaptation, the youngest sister gives birth to two children, "one beautiful as the sun and the other beautiful as the moon", but her sisters abandon the children in the forest. They are saved and raised by a woman who lives in a distant palace. When they are of age, their foster mother reveals the truth and sends them back to their father's kingdom. On their way, they see their mother buried up to the torso in a trash heap. Instead of spitting at her, he kisses and washes her face. This surprises the guards and the king.^[684]

British author Alan Garner penned a children's fantasy book titled The Well of the Wind. In his story, twins, a boy and a girl, are found by a fisherman from a box drifting at sea. When they are of age, they are sent on a quest for "the springs of silver, the acorns of gold and the Well of the Wind", a location that houses the "white bird of perfect feather".^[685][686]

Comic books[]

The Bengali folktale The Boy with the Moon on the Forehead was adapted into a graphic novel by Indian publisher Amar Chitra Katha, in 1979, with the name Chandralalat, the Prince with a moon on his forehead.^[687]

Television[]

Some German variants were condensed and adapted into the Märchenfilm Die drei Königskinder (de) as an episode of film series Sechs auf eine Streich.^[688]

Other interpretations[]

It has been suggested that the tale type ATU 707 shows some approximation to the Breton legend of the Seven Saints (Septs Saints), in a variation from Ploubezre.^[689]

French scholar and medievalist Philippe Walter (fr), in his work Gauvain, le chevalier solaire, about Arthurian character Sir Gawain, compared tales of Gawain's childhood with tale type ATU 707.^[690] He claimed that the resemblance between the description ("schéma") of the tale type and Gauvain's childhood is nette ("clear, evident").^[691]

Arthur Dickson, in his book about French romance Valentine and Orson, suggested that an early mediaeval version of the tale (named Valentine und Namelos) was based on the story of "The Jealous Sisters".^[692] However, his results were questioned by folklorist Archer Taylor.^[693]

Mythological approaches[]

French linguist Hubert Pernot interpreted the astral motifs of the royal children, in light of the Griselidis story, as pertaining to an astral myth. However, this position was criticized by Richard MacGillivray Dawkins^[694] and by French folklorist Paul Delarue.^[695]

British scholar Arthur Bernard Cook, in his book Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion (1925), posited that some versions of the story, collected from Greek and Italian sources, contained some remnants of Helen and her brothers, Castor and Pollux (the Dioskouroi or Divine twins of Greek mythology), in the characters of the wonder-children (triplets or two male/one female siblings) with astronomical motifs on their bodies.^[696] He also concluded on a stellar nature of the children, based on their names and astral birthmarks.^[697]

French historian François Delpech (fr) noted that strange birthmarks in folktales indicated a supernatural or royal origin of the characters, and mentioned the tale type in that regard. In addition, since the birthmarks are transmitted by the mother (who even knows beforehand their appearance), Delpech suggests it is a "reinterpretation" of a "well-documented" Indo-European mytheme of a female entity or goddess of sovereignty.^[698]

See also[]

• Ancilotto, King of Provino
• Princess Belle-Etoile
• The Three Little Birds
• The Bird of Truth
• The Wicked Sisters
• The Tale of Tsar Saltan
• The Water of Life
• The Pretty Little Calf
• The Green Bird, an Italian commedia dell'arte by Carlo Gozzi (1765)

For a selection of tales that mix the wonder-children motif with the transformation chase of the twins, please refer to:

• The Boys with the Golden Stars
• A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers

Footnotes[]

References[]

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Further reading[]

• Nakin, Rosalia Moroesi (2017). "A deconstructionist analysis of the sesotho folktale, Ngwana ya Kgwedi Sefubeng". In: Southern African Journal for Folklore Studies Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 30–41. ISSN 1016-8427. https://doi.org/10.25159/1016-8427/2503

External links[]

• The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird on SurLaLune Fairy Tales at the Wayback Machine (archived November 30, 2019)