The Knights of the Fish (Spanish: "Los Caballeros del Pez") is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Fernán Caballero in Cuentos. Oraciones y Adivinas.Caballero, Fernán. Cuentos, oraciones, adivinas y refranes populares e infantiles. Leipzig: Brockhaus. 1878. pp. 11-19. Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book. A translation was published in Golden Rod Fairy Book.Singleton, E.; Falls, Charles Buckles; Singleton. Golden rod fairy book. New York: Dodd, M. & Company. 1903. pp. 269-281. Another version of the tale appears in A Book of Enchantments and Curses by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
It is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as type 303 ("The Twins or Blood Brothers").Amores, Monstserrat. Catalogo de cuentos folcloricos reelaborados por escritores del siglo XIX. Madrid: CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS, DEPARTAMENTO DE ANTROPOLOGÍA DE ESPAÑA Y AMÉRICA. 1997. pp. 69-71-120. .Lang, Andrew; Philip, Neil. A World of fairy tales. New York: Dial Books, 1994. p. 255. Most tales of the sort begin with the father catching a talking fish thrice and, in the third time, the animal asks to be sacrificed and fed to the fisherman's wife and horses, and for his remains to be buried underneath a tree. By doing so, twins are born to him and his wife, as well as two foals and two trees.Sherman, Josepha (2008). Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore. Sharpe Reference. p. 459. It is also classified as ATU 300 ("The Dragon-Slayer"),Boggs, Ralph Steele. Index of Spanish folktales, classified according to Antti Aarne's "Types of the folktale". Chicago: University of Chicago. 1930. pp. 40-41. a widespread tale.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. p. 27.
Synopsis An industrious but poor cobbler tried to fish until he was so hungry that he thought he would hang himself if he caught nothing. He caught a beautiful fish. It told him to cook it and then give two pieces to his wife, and bury two more in the garden. He did this. His wife gave birth to twin boys, and two plants sprang up, bearing shields, in the garden.
When the boys were grown, they decided to travel. At a crossroad, they parted ways. One found a city grieving, because every year a maiden had to be offered up to a dragon, and this year the lot had fallen on the princess. He went to see where the princess was, and then left her to fetch a mirror. He told her to cover it with her veil and hide behind it; when the dragon approached, she was to tear the veil off. She did, and the dragon stared at his rival, identical to him. He threatened it until he finally smashed it to pieces, but as every fragment reflected him, he thought he too had been smashed. While the dragon was still baffled, the knight killed it. The king married him to his daughter.
The princess then showed him all over the country. He saw a castle of black marble, and was warned that whoever went to it never returned. He set out the next day. When he blew his horn and struck the gate, a woman finally opened the door. Echoes warned him off. He lifted his helmet, and the woman, who was an evil witch, let him in because he was so handsome. She told him that she would marry him, but he refused. The witch showed him over the castle and suddenly killed him by dropping him through a trapdoor.
His brother came to the city, and was taken for him. He kept quiet, so he could help his brother, and told the princess that he had to go back to the castle. He demanded to know what happened to his brother, and the echoes told him the truth. With this knowledge, as soon as he met the witch, he stabbed her with his sword. The dying witch then beg him to save her life with magical plants from the garden. He found the bodies of his brother and the witch's previous victims, and restored them to life using the magic plants. He also found a cave full of maidens who had been killed by the dragon, reviving them too. After they all left, the witch died and her castle collapsed.
Motifs The motif of the demand for sacrifice of youngsters of either sex happens in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.Schmidt, Bernhard. Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder. Leipzig: Teubner, 1877. pp. 236-239. However, a specific variant, where the dragon or serpent demands the sacrifice of young maidens or princesses is shared by many tales or legends all over the world: Japanese tale of Susanoo-no-Mikoto and the eight-headed serpent Orochi;Lyle, Emily. Ten Gods: A New Approach To Defining The Mythological Structures Of The Indo Europeans. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2012. p. 109. Chinese folktale of Li Ji Slays the Great Serpent,Gan Bao. In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record, translated into English by Kenneth J. DeWoskin and James Irving Crump. Stanford University Press, 1996. pp. 230-231. Maeth Ch., Russell. “El Cuento De Li Ji.” Estudios De Asia y Africa, vol. 25, no. 3 (83), 1990, pp. 537–539. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40312235. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Fan Pen Li Chen. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 2017. p. 31. Idema, Wilt L. Personal Salvation and Filial Piety: Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her Acolytes. University of Hawai'i Press. 2008. p. 205. He, Saihanjula. "Critical Fantasies: Structure of Chinese Folk Tales" (2000). Masters Theses. 1609. attested in Soushen Ji, a 4th century compilation of stories, by Gan Bao.
The myth of Perseus and Andromeda is an archaic reflex of the princess and dragon theme:Jacobs, Joseph. Europa's Fairy Book. New York, London: G. P. Putnam's sons. 1916. pp. 228-230 (Notes on Tale nr. III). for disrespecting the Nereids, sea god Poseidon demands in sacrifice the life of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda to the sea monster Cetus. She is thus chained to a rock afloat in the sea, but is rescued by semi-divine hero Perseus. A similar event happens in the story of Trojan princess Hesione.
The many-headed serpent enemy shares similarities with Greek mythic creature Hydra, defeated by Heracles as part of his Twelve Labors. An episode of a battle with the dragon also occurs in several fairy tales: The Three Dogs, The Two Brothers, The Merchant (fairy tale), The Bold Knight, the Apples of Youth, and the Water of Life, The Three Princes and their Beasts, The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin, Georgic and Merlin, the epic feats of Dobrynya Nikitich, the Polish legend of the Wawel Dragon.
The motif of the birth of twin boys by eating a magical fish shares similarities with a practice involving flower petals, as seen in the ATU 711, "The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin" (Tatterhood).
Variants Origins Greek folklorist listed several conflicting theories that different scholars have proposed for the origins of the tale type (ATU 303): some see a possible connection with the Ancient Egyptian story Tale of Two Brothers; suggested a origin in the Byzantine period (300-1500 CE); Wolfgang Hierse indicated the Eastern Mediterranean, during the Hellenistic period.Georgios, Megas. "II. Kleine Beiträge: Zur "Begegnung der Völker im Märchen"". In: Fabula 15 (1974): 237-238.
According to scholar Christine Goldberg, studies on both tale types ATU 300 and ATU 303 using the historic-geographic method concluded that type 300 has "old elements", but the "modern form" originated in medieval times, while type 303 is more recent because it included type 300 within its narrative.Goldberg, Christine. "The Historic-Geographic Method: Past and Future". In: Journal of Folklore Research 21, no. 1 (1984): 13. Accessed September 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814340. Kurt Ranke, for example, supposed that type 303 originated in Western Europe, in France, during medieval times.Christiansen, Reidar Thorwalf. Folktales of Norway. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1964. p. 176.
In Kurt Ranke's 1934 analysis, he noted that type 300 is "often" inserted into the narrative of type 303, "The Twin Brothers". In addition, he noticed that, despite the variability in the structure of tale type 300, its "essential components" were the three magic attacking dogs, the fight with the monster and the false hero that claims the credit for the deed and is punished.
Distribution German scholar Kurt Ranke, who authored one of the definitive studies on the tale type ATU 303, analysed some 770 variants. As researcher Richard M. Dorson put it, the tale type "is well distributed throughout Europe and densely reported from Finland, Ireland, Germany, France, and Hungary.".Dorson, Richard M. Folktales told around the world. Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press. 1978. p. 10. .
Variants are also found in Africa,Abrahams, Roger D. Afro-American folktales: stories from Black traditions in the New World. New York: Pantheon Books. 1985. p. 309. such as The Twin Brothers from French Congo;Dennett, Richard Edward. Notes on the folklore of the Fjort (French Congo). London: Pub. for the Folk-lore Society by D. Nutt. 1898. pp. 60-64. Rombao, from Quelimane;Macdonald, Duff. Africana: Or, The Heart of Heathen Africa. Vol. 2. Simpkin, Marshall & Company, 1882. pp. 341-344. The Twins, from the Yoruba people; The Queen of the Fish, from Réunion, in the Indic Ocean,Haring, Lee. Indian ocean folktales: Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles. Chennai: National Folklore Support Centre, India, 2002. pp. 109-111 (text), 142 (source and classification). Los hermanos gemelos, la serpiente y el antílope maldito, from the Djerma-Songay, and Grand-Kibaraka et Petit-Kibaraka (Malagasy: Kibarakabe noho Kibarakakely), from the Vezo people. Similar tales are also reported among indigenous peoples of the Americas,Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 31. . such as The Eight-Headed Windigo, from a Chippewan teller.Barnouw, Victor. Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977. pp. 196-202.
On a more global scale, Daniel J. Crowley, comparing tale indexes of Indonesia, Africa, Madagascar, British Islands, France, Spain and the Muslim Near East, concluded that the tale type appears "among the most popular and widespread tales on earth".Crowley, Daniel J. "Haring's Herring: Theoretical Implications of the "Malagasy Tale Index"." Journal of Folklore Research 23, no. 1 (1986): 46-47, 49. Accessed May 11, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814480.
The birth of the twins (triplets) According to Kurt Ranke, in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, the "constitutive" element of tale type ATU 303 is the twins' birth either by their mother drinking magic water or eating a wonderful fish or apple.
Ingestion of fish or aquatic animal The usual tale involves the birth of twins from the ingestion of the flesh of the fish - a motif that opens the tale type and, according to scholar Patrice Lajoye, with considerable antiquity.Lajoye, Patrice. "La conception du héros par ingestion. Un essai de typologie des versions eurasiatiques". In: Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée. numéro 5, 2019-2020. p. 10. French historian François Delpech (fr) noted that the twins or triplets born of the fish show celestial birthmarks on the head - a similar appearance shared by the foals and hounds that are also born through the fish. From the remains of the fish a pair of swords and a bush sprout (which serve as their token of life).Delpech, François (1945-). "Les marques de naissance: physiognomonie, signature magique et charisme souverain". In: Augustín Redondo (éditeur). Le corps dans la société espagnole des XVIe et XVIIe siècles: colloque international, Sorbonne, 5-8 octobre 1988. Centre de recherche sur l'Espagne des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Travaux du Centre de recherche sur l'Espagne des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. [Paris]: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1990. p. 48. . The opening appears in French, Hispanic and Portuguese texts.