"The Three Sisters"Basile, Giambattista; Strange, E. F. (Ed.); Taylor, John Edward (translator). Stories from the Pentamerone. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited. 1911. pp. 88–95. or Green Meadow (Italian: Verde Prato)Basile, Giambattista; Croce, Benedetto. Lo cunto de li cunti (Il Pentamerone): Testo conforme alla prima stampa del MDCXXXIV - VI. Volume Primo. Bari: Gius, Laterza e Figli. 1925. pp. 184–192. is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. It tells the story of a maiden having secret encounters with a prince with the use of magic, him almost losing his life and her having to search for a cure for him.
It is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird": despite lacking the prince in bird form, the narrative adheres to the type's description. Another Italian variant is The Canary Prince.
Synopsis
A woman has three daughters; the two older are very unlucky but the youngest, Nella, is very fortunate. A prince marries her and hides her from his wicked mother, visiting her in secret. If she throws a powder in a fire, he can come to her on a crystal road. Her sisters discover this and break the road, and the prince is injured when he is coming to her.
He is dying. His father proclaims that whoever can cure him will marry him, if female, or have half the kingdom, if male.
Nella hears of this and sets out. Hiding in a tree, she overhears an ogre tell his wife about the illness, and how only the fat from their bodies can cure the prince. She climbs down and presents herself at their door as a beggar. The ogre, greedy for her flesh, persuades his wife to let her stay. When they sleep, Nella kills them and takes their fat. She brings it to the king and cures the prince. He says he cannot marry her because he is married already; Nella asks if he wants to be married to the person responsible, and the prince blames her sisters. Nella reveals herself as his wife. Her sisters are thrown in an oven.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird":Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 146-147. the heroine asks her father to bring a strangely-named object that leads her to the enchanted prince, whom she meets in secret; her sisters find out about the clandestine meetings and place blades or glass to hurt the prince, causing him to disappear; the heroine dons a disguise and goes after him; she overhears the conversation between two birds about the cure, which she uses on the prince.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 146-147.
Scholars Jack Zipes and D. L. Ashliman list the tale as a literary predecessor of the tale type.Zipes, Jack. Beautiful Angiola: The Lost Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Laura Gonzenbach. Routledge, 2004. p. 342. .Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. pp. 91-92. .
Philologist classified the tale as Italian type 432, The Bird Lover.D'Aronco, Gianfranco "Le fiabe di magia in Italia: memoria". In: Atti dell'Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Udine, serie 6, v. 14 (1954/1957). p. 98. Also, according to D'Aronco, all the Italian variants he listed (among which, Verde Prato) showed the tale type's "essential structure": the bird lover, the lover wounded and the lover healed.D'Aronco, Gianfranco "Le fiabe di magia in Italia: memoria". In: Atti dell'Accademia di scienze lettere e arti di Udine, serie 6, v. 14 (1954/1957). pp. 98, 99.
Variants Italy Author Rachel Harriette Busk collected a tale from Rome with the title Il Vaso di Persa or The Pot of Marjoram: a rich merchant has three daughters. One day, he is ready to go to the market and asks his daughters what they want when he returns. The elder asks for shawls woven with golden threads, the middle one for coverlets of bird plumage, and the youngest asks for a simple pot of marjoram. The merchant travels abroad and finds his elders' gifts, but cannot find the flower pot. During his journey home, a strange-looking man accosts the merchant and offers him the flower pot, for a hefty price of three hundred thousand scudi. The merchant buys it. When he returns home, he gives his daughters the presents, and the youngest takes the flower pot to her room, shutting herself for quite some time. The elder sisters learn of the cost of the present to their cadette, and, spurred by jealousy, decide to destroy the pot. They convince their father to have their sister join him for walk, so she can leave the room. It happens thus and, while the girl is away, the sisters take the pot of marjoram and throw it out of the window, the pot shattering in pieces. When the girl returns, she discovers her sisters' deed and decides to leave home. She wanders off until she meets a "fairy" (Busk's translation for the original "fata"), who gives her male clothing and provisions for the road. She continues her travels and finds herself in a dense forest, and climbs a tree to rest. Some time later, a couple of bears stop by the same tree and begins to talk. The girl overhears their conversation (thanks to the fairy's powers): the bears discuss how the king of Persia fell out of the window of a high tower, broke his bones and has glass shards embedded on him, and how the only cure is fat from their bodies, that is to be melted with honey and wax, and to remove the glass he needs to be bathed in warm water. The girl kills the bears and takes their fat, melts them with honey and wax (also given by the fairy) and goes to Persia to cure the king. She cures the king by following the bears' instructions and spends some time in the king's palace. The king takes her as his queen.Busk, Rachel Harriette. Roman Legends: A Collection of the Fables and Folk-lore of Rome. Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1877. pp. 46-56.
Asia Iraq In an Iraqi folktale, collected by E. S. Drower with the title The Crystal Ship, a merchant has to travel and asks his daughters what presents he can buy them. The youngest, as per her mother's suggestion, asks for "clusters-of-pearl". Travelling abroad, the merchant finds out that "clusters-of-pearl" is the name of "the son of the Sultan of the Jānn". He meets the prince, who gives the merchant a box with three hairs, to be given to his third daughter. The merchant returns home and gives the box to his youngest daughter, and builds a room to allow her encounters with the prince. She uses the three hairs to summon the prince and over the threshold, a lake appears, on it a ship of crystal with the prince. The prince advises her that, if anything should happen to him, for her to seek him out in iron shoes and with an iron staff. One day, the girl's sisters goad her into taking a bath with them and, while she is distracted, the eldest sister goes to her room. She finds the box and rubs the three hairs: the prince comes on the crystal ship and she, scared by the sight, screams. The ship breaks apart into splinters and some of them injure the prince. The ship and the lake disappear. Later on the same night, the girl tries to summon the prince by rubbing the hairs, but he does not appear and she suspects something afoul. She follows his instructions, and begins a quest wearing iron shoes and walking with an iron staff. She stops by a tree and overhear two doves (cucūkhtiain) talking about the prince's illness and the only cure for him: the doves' own blood and feathers, and some of the leaves of the very tree they are perched on. The girl kills the doves and prepares the cure, then goes to the city of Jânns to cure the prince.
Turkey In the Turkish tale Yeşil İnci (The Green Pearl), originally collected by and translated by German folklorist with the title Die Grüne Perle,Spies, Otto. Die Silberpappel mit den goldenen Früchten, und andere türkische Volksmärchen. Wiesbaden: B. Heyman Verlga, 1976. p. 133.Kent, Margery. Fairy Tales from Turkey. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960. pp. 166-169. a merchant prepares to go on a business trip, and asks his three daughters what he can bring them. The eldest daughter asks for a diamond earring; the middle one for a diamond pin, and the youngest for "Green Pearl", cursing her father not to return until he finds it. The merchant goes on his trip and finds his elder daughters' requests, but cannot finds the youngest's. When he embarks on his ship, it cannot move, and the merchant goes back to the market to ask again for "Green Pearl". A Jewish man answers that "Green Pearl" is the name of the son of the padishah of Yemen. The merchant goes to Green Pearl's court and explains the situation to him. The prince answers he cannot accompany the merchant back to his homeland, but gives him three boxes. One day, the third daughter takes the boxes to an empty square and opens the first two: from the first a palace appears, and from the second 40 servants that guide the girl to the palace. The next day, she opens the third box; a crystal bridge appears to her, with a rider coming to her. It is Green Pearl. The servants welcome him to the palace and he spends time with the girl. At one time, he warns her never to close the box while he is on the crystal bridge, lest he dies. Some time later, the girl's sisters decide to visit her. While the girl is taking a bath, one of her sisters enters her room and sees the three boxes, one closed and two opened. She opens the closed one and closes the open ones. The girl exits the bath and discovers that someone touched the boxes. She tries to summon Green Pearl again, but only the bridge appears, with no one on it. She lets the boxes open and finds a tree at the end of a trail, where two birds are talking. They converse about how to cure prince Green Pearl: the fat from the neck (oil from the hair, in Margery Kent's translation) of a Dew that sits under the tree. The girl overhears their conversation, kills the Dew and goes to Green Pearl's kingdom as a Jewish seller. Once there, she announces she has a cure for the prince, which she uses on him, and asks for her payment his ring and prayer beads. After curing him, she goes back to the square and opens the boxes to summon him. Green Pearl appears on a horse, sword in hand and poised to strike her, but she shows him the ring and the prayer beads, and he understands she was the one that cured him.Die Silberpappel mit den goldenen Früchten und andere türkische Volksmärchen erstmals übersetzt von Otto Spies. Textbearbeitung von Manfred Hesse. Wiesbaden: B. Heymann Verlag, 1976. pp. 44-46.
Iran