The Enchanted Pig

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The Enchanted Pig
The Red Fairy Book-107.jpg
The giant pig appears in the court to marry the princess. Illustration by Henry Justice Ford for Andrew Lang's The Red Fairy Book (1890).
Folk tale
NameThe Enchanted Pig
Also known asPorcul cel fermecat
The Enchanted Hog
Data
Aarne–Thompson grouping
  • ATU 441 (In Enchanted Skin)
  • ATU 425A (The Search for the Lost Husband)
RegionRomania
Published in
  • Legende sau basmele românilor by Petre Ispirescu
  • Rumänische Märchen by Mite Kremnitz (1882)
  • The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1890)
Related

The Enchanted Pig (Porcul cel fermecat) is a Romanian fairy tale, collected in Rumanische Märchen[1] and also by Petre Ispirescu in Legende sau basmele românilor. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.[2]

Synopsis[]

A king goes to war and tells his daughters they may go anywhere in the castle except one room. One day, they disobey and find a book open in it. It says that the oldest shall marry a prince from the east, the second a prince from the west, and the youngest a pig from the north. The youngest is horror-struck, but her sisters manage to convince her that it is impossible.

The king returns and discovers, from the youngest's unhappiness, what they had done. He resolves to face it as best they can. A prince from the east marries the oldest, and a prince from the west the second, and the youngest becomes distressed. A pig comes to woo her, and when the king would have refused his consent, the city fills with pigs. The king tells his daughter that he is certain there is something strange about this pig, and that he believes magic has been at work. If she were to marry the pig, it might be broken.

Petre Ispirescu -Fairy-tales 6.jpg

She marries the pig and goes off with him. At his home, he becomes a man every night, and is so kind that he wins her heart. She asks a witch what happened to her husband. The witch tells her to tie a thread to his foot to free him. When the young wife does so, her husband wakes and tells her that the spell would have fallen from him in three days, but now he must remain in this shape, and she will not find him without wearing out three pairs of iron shoes and blunting a steel staff.

She sets out as soon as she gets herself three pairs of iron shoes and a steel staff. She wanders far, until she comes to the house of the Moon. The Moon's mother lets her in, and while she is there, she gives birth to a son. The Moon's mother tells her that the Moon could not tell her where to find her husband, but she can go on, to the Sun. She also gives her a chicken and tells her to keep every one of the bones. The princess thanks her, throws away one pair of shoes, which was worn out, and puts on another.

She finally wends her way to the Sun's house, and the Sun's mother lets her in. She hides her, because the Sun is always ill-tempered when he returns. He is, but his mother soothes him, and asked about her husband. He cannot tell her, so his mother sends her on, to the Wind. Also, she gives her a chicken and tells her to keep care of the bones. Here, she throws out the second pair of shoes.

At the Wind's house, his mother discovers that her husband lives in a wood no axe could cut through. She sends her to it, with a chicken and instructions to keep every bone. The princess goes on, although her third pair of shoes wears through, on the Milky Way. She finds the castle where her husband lives, and the bones stick together to form her a ladder to let her in. She is one bone short, and cuts off her little finger to complete the ladder. Her husband returns, and the spell on him is broken.

He reveals that he is a prince, who had killed a dragon, and the dragon's mother, a witch, had turned him to that shape and then advised her to tie the string to keep him in it. They set out to his father's kingdom, and then return to her father's kingdom.

Translations[]

The tale was also translated and published in the compilation The Foundling Prince & Other Tales (1917).[3] The tale was also translated as The Enchanted Hog by Robert Nisbet Bain and published as a part of a supplement in his translation of Ignáz Kunós's book of Turkish fairy tales.[4]

Analysis[]

The first part of the tale corresponds to Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 441, "In an Enchanted Skin". Others of this type include The Pig King.[5][6] This tale type is characterized by a childless couple (royal or peasant) wishing for a child, "even if it was a hedghehog" (or pig, or boar).[7][8]

The second part of the tale follows Aarne-Thompson tale type 425A, "The Search for the Lost Husband": the maiden breaks a taboo or burns the husband's animal skin and, to atone, she must wear down a numbered pair of metal shoes.[9] On her way to her husband, she asks for the help of the Sun, the Moon and the Wind.[10][11] According to Hans-Jörg Uther, the main feature of tale type ATU 425A is "bribing the false bride for three nights with the husband".[12][13][a] Others of this type include The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway, The Daughter of the Skies, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The King of Love, The Tale of the Hoodie, Master Semolina, The Sprig of Rosemary, The Enchanted Snake, and White-Bear-King-Valemon.[15] In Balkanic variants of the tale type, the husband curses his wife not to give birth to their child until she has sought him out.[16]

Variants[]

In a Romani tale from Püspökladány, Az elátkozott királyfi, aki sündisznó volt ("The Enchanted Prince Who was a Hedgehog"[17]), a queen, who did not know how she became pregnant, gives birth to a hedgehog named Rudolf. The hedgehog boy works as his father's shepherd, "better than ten shepherds". One day, he pleads his father to ask for the hand of the daughter of a foreign king. He marries the eldest daughter and, inside the carriage, jumps into his wife's lap, prickling her skin. She is hurt and feels insulted. This incident also occurs with the middle daughter. He marries the third one, Ludinca, who does not seem to be bothered by his action. Later on, she tells his mother, the queen, she is pregnant, and his mother suspects infidelity. However, the princess reveals her husband is a handsome prince. His mother suggests she burns the skin in the stove, which she does. The prince smells the skin burning and laments that they could not wait three more nights. He also curses his wife not to give birth until he has embraced her three times, and vanishes. Ludinca, still pregnant, goes searching for him. She reaches the hut of an old lady, who summons her sons, the Star, the Moon and the Sun, to help the maiden. The Sun tells her of a castle just across the Danube where the Tündér (fairy) princess lives. The old lady gives her a golden duck for her to use to bribe the fairy princess for three nights with her husband.[18]

Italy[]

In a Sicilian variant collected by Laura Gonzenbach, Vom Re Porco ("About King Pig"), a queen wishes for a son, even if it is a pig, and thus one is born. Years later, the pig son wants to marry. He marries three times: the first two times, after the marriage, he plays in the mud and tries to climb onto the bride's lap, but she rejects him. On the wedding night, the pig prince takes off his skin, becomes a handsome human prince and kills his wife. With the third bride, she accepts the dirty bridegroom and her life is spared on her wedding night. She also learns her husband is an enchanted prince and must not reveal the truth to anyone. However, she tells the queen and her pig husband disappears. The princess, then, is forced to seek him out in a distant kingdom from a foreign queen.[19]

In a Venetian variant, Der Prinz mit der Schweinshaut ("The Prince with the Pigskin"), an evil sorceress curses a neighbouring king so that his wife gives birth to "a prince wearing a pigskin". He marries two princess who insult him when he dries off his body with their bridal dress and he kills them for it. He marries the third princess, who does not seen to mind his drying off his body with her dress. This pleases the pig prince, who lets her see his true form, in exchange for her keeping the secret. When they attend a tournament the next day, the Queen Mother notices the handsome man by her daughter-in-law's side and thinks it is not her son. Soon, the queen confronts the princess, who is forced to reveal the truth to her mother-in-law. The queen burns the pigskin and the prince disappears. The princess goes on a quest to rescue him, by meeting the Stella d'Oro ("Abendstern"), the Sun and the Wind.[20]

Romania[]

In a tale collected by folklorist Josef Haltrich (de) from the Transylvanian Saxons, with the title Das Borstenkind (A serteruhás gyermek[21] or "The Child in the Pighair Clothes"[22]), a three-year-old prince is eating some of the apples his mother, the queen, has been peeling. Angered, she curses her son to become a wild boar. He transforms into one and escapes with other swines to the pigpen. Some time later, he reaches the cottage of a poor swineherd and his wife, who wished for child, even if it was a pig. As answer to their prayers, the porcine prince appears. They live like a family for 17 years. One day, another king decrees that her daughter should marry after her suitor accomplishes three tasks. The wild boar boy does so and marries her, much to her disgust. One night, the princess awakes and sees a beautiful prince, the boarskin at his side. He tells her his story and wants her to keep quiet about, lest he does not break the enchantment. She reveals the prince's condition to her mother, the second queen, who suggests her daughter takes the boarskin and burns it in the stove. Seeing he was betrayed by his wife - having been so close to breaking the curse - , he says to the princess he will vanish from her eyes and that he will be at the end of the world, from where no soul can save him. The distraught princess, then, decides to travel to the end of the world to save her husband: with the help of the Wind's winged steed, reaches the Sun and the Morning Star, who point her to the end of the world, where her husband is to be married to the princess of that place.[23]

Romanian folkorist Ion Pop-Reteganul (ro) collected a variant very similar to Borstenkind. In his version, titled Ion porc-împărat, the prince becomes a pig and is adopted by a poor human couple. The pig convinces his father to ask for the hand of the king's daughter in marriage. To dissuade the poor couple, the king sets three difficult tasks to be performed, which the pig suitor does with ease. After he marries the princess, he takes off his skin at night to become human. The princess, pregnant at this point, burns the skin and her husband curses her that she will not give birth to their son until he embraces her once again. Saying this, he vanishes, and the princess departs after him.[24]

In another Romanian variant, Povestea cu Poarca, collected by writer and folklorist Cristea Sandu Timoc from Preda Petre, the first part of the tale opens with the discovery of a talking pig in a litter of pigs by the farmer. The pig is adopted by the human couple and, when he comes of age, marries a human princess. After their marriage, the pig husband takes off his porcine skin and becomes a human prince. The second part of the tale continues as the princess burns his pig skin and is forced to look for him (ATU 425).[25][26]

Lithuania[]

In an Lithuanian variant, The Hedgehog and his Bride, a hedgehog is adopted by a poor old couple. The animal insists he will marry the king's daughter, but first he must perform some tasks for him. He is successful and marries the princess. At night, the woman sees her husband is a handsome man, after he takes off his animal skin. One day, a servant unknowingly burns the hedgehog's enchanted skin and the prince tells his wife she must go on a quest for him, since he was so close to breaking the curse, had the servant not burnt the animal skin. The princess then goes on a quest to save him. Near the end of the tale, both she and her husband agree to be turned into frogs by some witches in order to prove their loyalty towards each other. At last, they are transformed back into humans.[27]

Americas[]

In a French-Missourian variant, Prince Cochon Blanc ("Prince White Pig"), a prince is cursed by a fairy into a swine form by day and human shape by night. He returns to his father, explains the whole story, and his father builds him a stone enclosure. The pig wants to get married, so his father arranges for him marriage with a lady. The pig groom wants to kiss his bride, but she rebuffs him. Enraged, he devours her. This repeats with the second bride, but the third bride is kind and allows it. For her kindness, he shows her his true form at night, as a demonstration of trust. However, she betrays his trust at her mother's insistence, and she is forced to seek him out. One day, she arrives at a kingdom where her Prince White Pig is to be married to another princess, and bribes her with a silk handkerchief, a golden ball and a ring to spend a few nights with him.[28]

Literary variants[]

Romanian author and raconteur Ion Creangă developed a literary treatment of the story with his tale Povestea porcului ("The Story of the Pig"),[29] also classified as ATU 425A, "Search for the Lost Husband".[30] In his story, a very elderly couple adopts a pig as their son. When the king announces that he will marry his daughter to whomever performs some tasks, the pig suitor does and marries the princess. After the marriage, he takes off his pig skin at night. His wife burns the pig skin in the oven and he curses her not to give birth to their child until she finds him, Făt-Frumos, in a place called Mănăstirea-de-Tămâie. With the help of incarnations of Holy Wednesday, Holy Friday and Holy Sunday, she reaches her remote destination.[31]

Opera[]

An opera partly based on the tale, The Enchanted Pig, by the composer Jonathan Dove, was premiered in 2006.

See also[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ A similar assessment was made by scholar Andreas John: "The episode of 'buying three nights' in order to recover a spouse is more commonly developed in tales about female heroines who search for their husbands (AT 425, 430, and 432) ..."[14]

References[]

  1. ^ Kremnitz, Mite. Rumänische Märchen. Leipzig: Wilhelm Friedrich, 1882. pp. 48-66.
  2. ^ Andrew Lang, The Red Fairy Book, "The Enchanted Pig"
  3. ^ Julia Collier Harris, Rea Ipcar. The Foundling Prince & Other Tales: Translated from the Roumanian of Petre Ispirescu. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1917. pp. 27-52.
  4. ^ Bain, Robert Nisbet. Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales Collected by Dr. Ignácz Kúnos. Lawrence and Bullen. 1896. pp. 222-243.
  5. ^ D. L. Ashliman, "Hog Bridegrooms: tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 441 in which a beautiful maiden is forced to marry a hog or a hedgehog"
  6. ^ Ursache, Otilia. "Chipul tăinuit în basmele populare europene". In: Philologica Jassyensia, XI (1). 2015. pp. 271-273. ISSN 2247-8353.
  7. ^ Hiiemäe, Reet. "Destiny, Miracle Healers and Magical Intervention: Vernacular Beliefs on Involuntary Childlessness in Estonia". In: Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 11, 2 (2017): 45. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/jef-2017-0012
  8. ^ Ziolkowski, Jan M. (2010). “Straparola and the Fairy Tale: Between Literary and Oral Traditions”. In: Journal of American Folklore 123 (490): 383. doi:10.1353/jaf.2010.0002.
  9. ^ Beza, Marcu. "The Sacred Marriage in Roumanian Folk-Lore". In: The Slavonic Review 5, no. 15 (1927): 649-650. Accessed September 3, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202115.
  10. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 97-98. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  11. ^ Ursache, Otilia. "Chipul tăinuit în basmele populare europene". In: Philologica Jassyensia, XI (1). 2015. pp. 269, 271-273. ISSN 2247-8353
  12. ^ Hurbánková, Šárka. (2018). "G. B. Basile and Apuleius: First literary tales. morphological analysis of three fairytales". In: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 23: 81 (footnote nr. 37). 10.5817/GLB2018-2-6.
  13. ^ Nasta, M. "ENFANTS DU DESIR, NAISSANCE D'ANDROGYNE: Les Relais Du Mythe Dans Trois Récits Folkloriques Roumains". In: Civilisations 37, no. 2 (1987): 153-155. Accessed May 21, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41229345.
  14. ^ Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang. 2010 [2004]. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8204-6769-6
  15. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to East of the Sun & West of the Moon"
  16. ^ Wright, James R. G. “Folk-Tale and Literary Technique in Cupid and Psyche”. In: The Classical Quarterly' 21, no. 1 (1971): 276. http://www.jstor.org/stable/637841.
  17. ^ Bálint Péter. Átok, titok és ígéret a népméseben [The Curse, the Secret and the Promise in the Folktale]. Fabula Aeterna V. Edited by Péter Bálint. Debrecen: Didakt Kft. 2018. p. 231 (footnote nr. 61). ISBN 978-615-5212-65-9
  18. ^ KEDVENC NÉPMESÉIM: MY FAVOURITE FOLK TALES (A hangok sokfélesége / The Multiplicity of Voices). Meseszöveg-gyűjtemény és tanulmányok [a collection of tales and studies]. A meséket válogatta, szerkesztette, jegyzetekkel ellátta és a tanulmányokat írta [tales selected, edited, and studies written by] BÁLINT PÉTER. Hajdúböszörmény. 2010. pp. 128-134. ISBN 978-963-89167-0-9
  19. ^ Gonzenbach, Laura. Sicilianische Märchen. Leipzig: Engelmann. 1870. pp. 285-293.
  20. ^ Widter, Georg; Wolf, Adam. "Volksmärchen aus Venetien". In: Jahrbuch für Romanische und Englische Literatur 8. Leipzig: 1866. 3ff. pp. 154-155.
  21. ^ Vajda Zsuzsa. "Kritikai Szemle: A csodálatos fa. Erdélyi szász népmese, Europa Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1979". In: HÍD: IRODALOM - MŰVÉSZET - TÁRSADALOMTUDOMÁNY. XLIV. évfolyam, 2. szám. 1980. február. p. 263.
  22. ^ Bálint Péter. Átok, titok és ígéret a népméseben [The Curse, the Secret and the Promise in the Folktale]. Fabula Aeterna V. Edited by Péter Bálint. Debrecen: Didakt Kft. 2018. p. 229 (footnote nr. 54). ISBN 978-615-5212-65-9.
  23. ^ Haltrich, Josef. Deutsche Volksmärchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Siebenbürgen. Wien: Verlag von Carl Graeser. 1882. pp. 43-44.
  24. ^ Ion porc-împărat
  25. ^ Sandu Timoc, Cristea. Poveşti populare româneşti. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1988. pp. 72-73, 407.
  26. ^ Ursache, Otilia. "Chipul tăinuit în basmele populare europene". In: Philologica Jassyensia, XI (1). 2015. p. 272. ISSN 2247-8353.
  27. ^ Zheleznova, Irina. Tales from the Amber Sea. Moscow: Progress Publishers. 1987 [1974]. pp. 130-135.
  28. ^ Carrière, Joseph Médard. Tales From the French Folk-lore of Missouri. Evanston: Northwestern university, 1937. pp. 120-130.
  29. ^ Beza, Marcu. "The Sacred Marriage in Roumanian Folk-Lore". In: The Slavonic Review 5, no. 15 (1927): 652. Accessed September 3, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4202115.
  30. ^ Stein, Helga. "VII. Besprechungen. Birlea, Ovidiu, Povestile Ion Creangä (Creangas Geschichten). Studu de folclor (Volkskundliche Studien), Literaturverlag (Bukarest) 1967. 318S". In: Fabula 10, no. Jahresband (1969): 225-226. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1969.10.1.221
  31. ^ Creanga, Ion. Povestea porcului.

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