The Sprig of Rosemary (Catalan: Lo romaní) is a Catalan fairy tale from Spain collected by Dr. D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros in Cuentos Populars Catalans.Maspons i Labrós, Francesc. Cuentos populars catalans. Á. Verdaguer, 1885. pp. 32-37. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book.
It is related to the international cycle of Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human maiden marries a man under an animal curse, loses him and has to search for him, and is classified as subtype ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom".
Synopsis
The fairy tale is about a man who makes his only daughter work very hard. One day after work, he sends her to collect firewood and so she does. While searching for the wood, she picks herself a sprig of rosemary as well. Then a handsome young man appears and asks why she has come to steal his firewood. She replies that her father sent her. The young man leads her to a castle and tells her that he is a great lord and wants to marry her. She agrees, so they marry.
While living there, she meets an old woman who looks after the castle and the woman gives her the keys but warns her that if she uses one, the castle will fall to pieces. After a time, curiosity overcomes her, and she opens a door and finds a snakeskin. Her husband, a magician, uses it to change shape. Because she used the keys, the castle then falls to pieces. The girl cries, breaking off a sprig of rosemary, and goes to search for him.
She finds a house of straw where the people, living there, take her in service. However, she grows sadder by the day. When her mistress asks why, the daughter tells her story, and her mistress sends her to the Sun, the Moon, and the Wind, to ask for help. The Sun can not help her, but gives her a nut and sends her on to the Moon; the Moon can not help her but gives her an almond and sends her on to the Wind; the Wind does not know where her husband is, but says he will look. He learns her husband was hidden in the palace of the king and is to marry the king's daughter the next day.
The daughter implores him to put it off if he can, and after giving her a walnut, the Wind blows on the tailors sewing for the wedding and destroys their work. The daughter arrives and cracks the nut, finding a fine mantle. She sells it to the princess for a great sum of gold. The almond holds petticoats, which she also sells. The walnut holds a gown, and for this she demands to see the bridegroom. The princess finally agrees, and when she goes in, she touches him with the rosemary which brings his memory back, and they go back to her home.
Analysis Tale type Catalan scholars and classified the tale in the index of Catalan rondallas ('fairy tales'), with the typing 425A, Amor i Psique. In the Catalan typing, the heroine pulls a thyme bush ('farigola') and meets the enchanted prince; she breaks a prohibition and loses him; she is then forced to search for him and finds him just as he is about to marry another woman; she uses the thyme to make him remember.Oriol i Carazo, Carme; Pujol, Josep M. Índex tipològic de la rondalla catalana. Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura, 2003. p. 121. .Oriol, Carme; Josep M. Pujol (2008). Index of Catalan Folktales. Folklore Fellows’ Communications 294. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. pp. 93-94 (entry "Lo romaní"). However, the tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom". In this tale type, the heroine is a human maiden who marries a prince who is cursed to become an animal of some sort. She betrays his trust and he disappears, prompting a quest for him.
According to Hans-Jörg Uther, the main feature of tale type ATU 425A is "bribing the false bride for three nights with the husband". In fact, when he developed his revision of Aarne-Thompson's system, Uther remarked that an "essential" trait of the tale type ATU 425A was the "wife's quest and gifts" and "nights bought".
Motifs In Spanish variants the heroine typically reaches the house of the Sol ('Sun'), Luna ('Moon') and Aire ('Air' or 'Wind').Ibáñez, Emilia Cortés. "Eros y Psique en la tradición oral de España e Hispanoamérica". In: Actas del XIV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas: New York, 16-21 de Julio de 2001. Coord. por Isaías Lerner, Roberto Nival, Alejandro Alonso, Vol. 1, 2004 (Literatura medieval, lingüística, historia, teoría literaria, estudios culturales). p. 351. .
The animal husband According to scholarship, the form of the animal husband may vary between Spanish and Hispano-American tradition, but the lizard as his enchanted form is "common" to both continents.Ibáñez, Emilia Cortés. "Eros y Psique en la tradición oral de España e Hispanoamérica". In: Actas del XIV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas: New York, 16-21 de Julio de 2001. Coord. por Isaías Lerner, Roberto Nival, Alejandro Alonso, Vol. 1, 2004 (Literatura medieval, lingüística, historia, teoría literaria, estudios culturales). p. 349. . Similarly, the animal husband appears in Catalan tales as a "repulsive animal", such as lizard, dragon, or serpent, or as an animal that is symbolic of sexual potency, such as bear or donkey.Valriu, Caterina. "La rondalla". In: Soler i Amigó, Joan (edd.). Tradicionari. Enciclopèdia de la Cultura Popular Catalana. Barcelona: Enciclopédia Cataluna, 2007. p. 186.
Other motifs The unwitting theft is a common motif, but in fairy tales, the usual offender is the father, as in The Singing, Springing Lark or Beauty and the Beast; the motif is found in other folktales, such as the ballads Tam Lin and Hind Etin.
Finding the husband can change shape is a common thread in stories of this type, but the discovery that the husband can become a beast is rare; usually, as in East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway, The Enchanted Snake, and The Enchanted Pig, the bride finds her animal bridegroom is also a man. Furthermore, the usual disaster stems not merely from the discovery but the attempt to break the spell on him—although it is not unique for the violation of the taboo to bring disaster, as in The Tale of the Hoodie.
The quest is common to all fairy tales of this type, and the specific motifs of the Sun, the Moon, and the Wind are found in others, such as The Enchanted Pig and The Singing, Springing Lark.
In most variants, all the magical treasures are used to bribe the heroine's way to the hero, but the false heroine manages to trick the hero to nullify it, instead of this tale's technique where she actually sells the first two things.
According to Maria de la Pau Janer, stories of the cycle of the enchanted husband/wife mostly reference their transformation in the title, with six texts being named after a plant that plays a large role in story. Among the plants, the romaní appears in two of them.
Variants Spain According to Catalan scholarship, tale type AaTh 425A registers 15 variants in Catalonia, 1 in North Catalonia, 6 texts in Mallorca and 1 in Menorca.
Folklorist Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr. collected a Spanish tale titled El Castillo de Oropé ("The Castle of Oropé"). In this tale, a poor broom-maker has three daughters. One day, he is gathering brooms when a hardacho ('lizard') appears to him and makes an offer: the man's youngest daughter for the opportunity to gather all the brooms he can. They strike a deal, but the man sends his two elder daughters in an attempt to circumvent the deal. The lizard notices the deception and the man's youngest daughter goes to him and they marry. At night, the hardacho takes off the lizard skin and becomes a handsome prince, but in the morning puts on the lizard skin again. The lizard husband tells the girl she cannot tell anyone about it, nor lose sight of the skin. Unable to reveal the truth, she is endlessly mocked by her elder sisters, until she says her husband is human, and not a lizard. Her sisters then advise her to burn the lizard skin.
While her husband is asleep in human form, the girl takes his animal skin and burns it. The man wakes up and says he is disenchanted, but gives a pilgrimess dress and iron shoes for his wife and tells her she will only find him after wearing the iron shoes and reaching the Castle of Oropé, then departs. The girl wanders off until she finds a convent of nuns, where she gains an acorn, and a convent of friars, where she is given a nut.
Next, she reaches the house of the moon, the house of the Sun and the house of the Air, and asks for directions. The Air says he can take her to the Castle of Oropé, which he does. The girl finally enters the castle and takes out a splendid spinning wheel to trade with the princess of Oropé for a night with the (now human) lizard prince. She fails on the first night, because he remains fast asleep. On the second night, the girl cracks open the acorn given by the nuns and finds another spinning wheel she trades for a second night. Lastly, she cracks open the nut given by the friars, and finds a third spinning wheel which she trades with the princess for a third night with the prince.
The girl manages to ask her husband if he remembers about when her father met him, and how he gave her the pilgrimess dress and iron shoes. The human lizard says yes to her questions, but the princess forces her out of the room. At the end of the tale, during his marriage to the princess, the human lizard asks the guests about a key he once had for a golden box, and a second he had made, but managed to find the first one. The guests answer he should keep the first key - which is his first wife.Espinosa, Aurélio M. Cuentos Populares Españoles. Tomo II. Stanford University Press, 1924. pp. 260-264.
In a Spanish tale translated to Russian with the title "Околдованный принц" ("The Enchanted Prince"), a poor sweeper has three daughters, and goes to fetch some broomshrubs to make new brooms. One day, he goes to cut off a branch, and a voice complains the man is pulling his hair. The voice belongs to a dragon that demands the man delivers him the first thing he sees at home, and he shall become rich. The man returns home and his youngest daughter greets him. The man tries to trick the dragon by sending his elder daughters to the tree to pull up the branch, but the dragon asks for the youngest. The third daughter comes and pulls the branch, and finds herself in a grand palace. She walks around a lush garden and goes to sleep.
At night, the dragon comes to her, explaining he is a dragon by day, but will become human at night, and asks the girl to look after the dragonskin and not to tell anyone about him. They live together like this, until one day she wishes to visit her family, and the dragon allows for a three days and three nights visit. The girl returns home, and her sisters mock her marriage, but the girl reveals about the prince, and takes her sisters with her to the dragon's castle. The sisters burn the dragonskin and the girl lights up a candle for them to better see her beloved, but a drops of wax falls on his body, waking him up. The prince wakes up and admonishes her for not obeying him, for the curse was almost at an end, and she will have to find him at the Golden Castle by wearing out seven pairs of iron shoes.