The King of Love

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For the hymn, see The King of Love My Shepherd Is.

The King of Love (Sicilian: Lu Re d'Amuri)[1] is an Italian fairy tale from Sicily collected by Giuseppe Pitre[2] and translated into English by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.[3][4]

It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom". 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 Enchanted Pig, The Tale of the Hoodie, Master Semolina, The Enchanted Snake, The Sprig of Rosemary, and White-Bear-King-Valemon.[5]

Synopsis[]

One day he took his youngest daughter, Rosella, with him, and she pulled up a radish. A Turk appeared and said she must come to his master and be punished. He brought them underground, where a green bird appeared, washed in milk, and became a man. The Turk told what had happened. The father said that there was no sign that the radish had belonged to him. The man married Rosella and gave her father a sack of gold. One day, while the man was away, her sisters visited her. She told them that her husband had forbidden her to ask who he was, but they persuaded her to ask his name. He told her that he was the King of Love and vanished.

She wandered in search of him, calling for him, and an ogress appeared, demanding to know why Rosella called on her nephew. The ogress took pity on her and let her stay the night, telling her that she was one of seven sister ogresses, and the worst was her mother-in-law. Each day, Rosella met another; on the seventh day, a sister of the King of Love told Rosella to climb her hair into the house while their mother was out. Then she and her sisters told Rosella to seize their mother and pinch her until the ogress cried out to be left alone in her son's name.

Rosella did this, and the ogress wanted to eat her, but the ogress's daughters stopped her. Then she insisted that Rosella carry a letter for her. In the wilderness, Rosella called on the King of Love again. He warned her to flatter things along the way: to drink from and praise two rivers, to eat and praise fruit from an orchard, to eat bread from an oven and praise it, to feed two dogs, to sweep a hall, and to polish a knife, razor and scissors. Then she was to deliver the letter, seize a box from the table, and run. When she did this, the ogress called after her for things to destroy her, but they refused because of her kindness. Curious, she opened the box; musical instruments escaped, and she had to call on her husband again to get them back.

The ogress wanted to eat Rosella again but her daughters stopped her again. She ordered her to fill a mattress with feathers from all the birds in the air. The King of Love got the King of Birds to have the birds fill the mattress. Then the ogress married her son to the daughter of the King of Portugal, and had Rosella hold the torches for the bridal chamber; but the king got his bride to switch places with Rosella, and the ground opened up and swallowed the bride.

The ogress declared that Rosella's child would not be born until she unclasped her hands. The King of Love had his body laid out as if he were dead, and his sisters lamented him. The ogress unclasped her hands, demanding to know how he had died. Rosella's son was born. This so enraged the ogress that she died.

Commentary[]

Folktale collector Thomas Frederick Crane described thus the format that would later be classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom":[6]

The most wide-spread and interesting class of Fairy Tales is the one in which a wife endeavors to behold the face of her husband, who comes to her only at night. She succeeds, but her husband disappears, and she is not reunited to him until she has expiated her indiscretion by weary journeys and the performance of difficult tasks. This class (...) is evidently the popular form of the classic myth of Cupid and Psyche (...) Another important trait is the following: When after a long search the wife discovers her husband, it is only to find him in the power of a second wife, who, however, by various bribes, is induced to permit the first wife to spend a night in her husband's chamber. She is unable to awaken her husband, who has been drugged by the second wife. The third night she succeeds, makes herself known to him, and they escape

However, some tales also involve the heroine performing difficult tasks for her husband's family (more specifically, her mother-in-law), a type classified as ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch" or "The Witch's Tasks".[7]

This form of startling the mother-in-law into allowing the baby's birth is found in Italian fairy tales; usually it is done by announcing the birth.[8] In English and Scandinavian ballads, such as Willie's Lady, the mother-in-law must be startled so that she will accidentally reveal the charms she is using against the birth.[9]

Variants[]

In a variant collected by Domenico Comparetti from Basilicata with the title Filo d'Oro, a poor shoemaker has an only daughter. Her mother sends her to the garden to find cabbages for their soup, but she pushes a bush and leaves a golden coin to compensate for the lost herb. Suddenly, a handsome youth appears out of the ground and asks the girl to accompany him to an underground place. The youth says he was cursed by his mother to be seen by only one woman, for his mother, an ogress, was told of the fairy's prophecy about his future betrothed: the shoemaker's daughter. The girl returns home, tells her family everything and her mother wants to see this youth. The next day, when the girl pushes the herb and leaves the coin, the mother hides behind a tree to see Filo d'Oro. Nothing happens, so the mother throws a nut and the man appears. He scolds his beloved and disappears. The girl goes on a journey to seek him, and rests by a tree. She overhears two birds talking that Filo d'Oro is dead, but if one can kill the birds, burn their ashes and mingle with Filo d'Oro's, can resurrect him. She meets the fairies who prophesized Filo d'Oro's future and give her a fig to use on his ogress mother. The girl finds the ogress mother and makes her swear on her son's soul. The ogress learns she is her daughter-in-law, takes the birds's ashes and resurrects her son. She locks him up and forces the girl to do some tasks: to fulfill mattresses with bird feather and to get a box with instruments from the ogress's sister. Unbeknownst to the girl, her beloved Filo d'Oro helps her on both occasions. She learns Filo d'Oro is safe and sound, but that she is to hold some candles on the wedding his mother set for him. When midnight strikes, the false bride is swallowed by the earth and the lovers escape, thinking it is their victory, but the ogress curses her daughter-in-law to die in childbirth - revertible only if the ogress puts both hands on her head. As a last trick on her mother-in-law, the girl fakes that she is in mourning, returns to the ogress's house and tells her her son is dead again. The ogress mother puts both hands on her head, thus breaking the curse.[10] Author Italo Calvino adapted the tale as Filo d'Oro and Filomena and remarked that it was related to "Amor and Psyche" cycle of stories.[11]

In another tale collected by Pitrè, Spiccatamunnu, the heroine, Rusidda, marries a mysterious man. Incited by her sisters, Rusidda makes the only mistake she should not have made: she asks her husband's name. As soon as he answers "Spiccatamunnu", their splendid palace disappears and she is now alone. Rusidda arrives at an ogress's house, her mother-in-law. She sends her to get a casket from her sister. The girl gets the casket and, on the way, opens it to satisfy her curiosity: an army of little dolls jump out of the box and begin to dance. Rusidda tries to contain them and put them back in the box, to no avail. Suddenly, her husband Spiccatamunnu throws her a cane and instructs her to beat it on the ground, and the little doll will return to the box. It just so happens. After she gives the casket to her mother-in-law, the ogress announces that her son is to be married to another person, and orders Rusidda to hold a torch by their bridal bed, in a kneeling position. Spiccatamunnu's new fiancée, seeing Rusidda's suffering, takes pity on the girl and takes her place holding the torch. Outside, the ogress mother commands the ground to open up and swallow whoever is holding up the torch.[12][13]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Storie di Amore e Psiche. A cura di Annamria Zesi. Roma: L'Asino d'Oro Edizioni. 2010. pp. 112-121. ISBN 978-88-6443-052-2
  2. ^ "Lu Re d'Amuri". Fiabe Novelle e Racconti Popolari Siciliani (in Italian). 1. 1875. pp. 163–173.
  3. ^ Pitrè, Giuseppe. "17. The King of Love (Lu re d’amuri)". In: Catarina the Wise and Other Wondrous Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. pp. 117-127. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226462820-019
  4. ^ "The King of Love". In: Crane, Thomas Frederick. Italian Popular Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company. 1885. pp. 1-6.
  5. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to East of the Sun & West of the Moon"
  6. ^ Crane, Thomas Frederick. Italian Popular Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company. 1885. pp. 1, 322.
  7. ^ The Collected Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitrè. Edited and translated by Jack Zipes and Joseph Russo. Illustrated by Carmelo Lettere. New York: Rouledge: 2009. p. 823.
  8. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 85, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  9. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 83-4, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  10. ^ Comparetti, Domenico. Novelline popolari italiane. Italia, Torino: Ermano Loescher. 1875. pp. 133-139.
  11. ^ Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales. Houghton Mifflin Harcour. 1980 [1956]. pp. 474ff (tale), 743 (note). ISBN 9780544283220.
  12. ^ Cosquin, Emmanuel. "Contes populaires lorrains recueillis dans un village du barrois (suite)". In: Romania, tome 10 n°37-38, 1881. p. 135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/roma.1881.6138; www.persee.fr/doc/roma_0035-8029_1881_num_10_37_6138
  13. ^ PitrÈ, Giuseppe. "[https://books.google.com.br/books?id=56_bGGYkwN8C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA151&dq=%22spiccatamunnu%22&hl=pt-BR&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22spiccatamunnu%22&f=false Nuovo Saggio di Fiabe e Novelle Popolaru Siciliane". In: Rivista di filologia romanza. Volume 1. Imola, 1873. pp. 149-151.
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