"The Love for the Three Oranges" or "The Three Citrons" (Neapolitan: Le Tre Cetre) is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone in the 17th century.Giambattista Basile, Pentamerone, "The Three Citrons" It is the concluding tale, and the one the heroine of the frame story uses to reveal that an imposter has taken her place.

The literary tale by Basile is considered to be the oldest attestation of tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. Variants are recorded from oral tradition among European Mediterranean countries, in the Middle East and Turkey, as well as across Iran and India.Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 348. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.063/html. Accessed 2023-05-19.

Summary A king, who only had one son, anxiously waited for him to marry. One day, the prince cut his finger; his blood fell on white cheese. The prince declared that he would only marry a woman as white as the cheese and as red as the blood, so he set out to find her. The prince wandered the lands until he came to the Island of Ogresses, where two little old women each told him that he could find what he sought here, if he went on, and the third gave him three citrons, with a warning not to cut them until he came to a fountain. A fairy would fly out of each, and he had to give her water at once.

He returned home, and by the fountain, he was not quick enough for the first two, but was for the third. The woman was red and white, and the prince wanted to fetch her home properly, with suitable clothing and servants. He had her hide in a tree. A black slave, coming to fetch water, saw her reflection in the water, and thought it was her own and that she was too pretty to fetch water. She refused, and her mistress beat her until she fled. The fairy laughed at her in the garden, and the slave noticed her. She asked her story and on hearing it, offered to arrange her hair for the prince. When the fairy agreed, she stuck a pin into her head, and the fairy only escaped by turning into a bird. When the prince returned, the slave claimed that wicked magic had transformed her.

The prince and his parents prepared for the wedding. The bird flew to the kitchen and asked after the cooking. The lady ordered it be cooked, and it was caught and cooked, but the cook threw the water it had been scalded in, into the garden, where a citron tree grew in three days. The prince saw the citrons, took them to his room, and dealt with them as the last three, getting back his bride. She told him what had happened. He brought her to a feast and demanded of everyone what should be done to anyone who would harm her. Various people said various things; the slave said she should be burned, and so the prince had the slave burned.

Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges", and is the oldest known variant of this tale.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. 135-137.Steven Swann Jones, The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination, Twayne Publishers, New York, 1995, , p. 38. Scholarship points out that the Italian version is the original appearance of the tale, with later variants appearing in French, such as the one by Le Chevalier de Mailly (Incarnat, blanc et noir (fr)).Barchilon, Jacques. "Souvenirs et réflexions sur le conte merveilleux". In: Littératures classiques, n°14, janvier 1991. Enfance et littérature au XVIIe siècle. pp. 243-244. ; www.persee.fr/doc/licla_0992-5279_1991_num_14_1_1282

In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, scholar Christine Shojaei Kawan separated the tale type into six sections, and stated that parts 3 to 5 represented the "core" of the story:Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online, edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 347. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.063/html. Accessed 2023-06-20.

A prince is cursed by an old woman to seek the fruit princess; The prince finds helpers that guide him to the princess's location; The prince finds the fruits (usually three), releases the maidens inside, but only the third survives; The prince leaves the princess up a tree near a spring or stream, and a slave or servant sees the princess's reflection in the water; The slave or servant replaces the princess (transformation sequence); The fruit princess and the prince reunite, and the false bride is punished.

Motifs The maiden's appearance According to the tale description in the international index, the maiden may appear out of the titular citrus fruits, like oranges and lemons. However, she may also come out of pomegranates or other species of fruits, and even eggs.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. p. 135.

In de Mailly's version, the fruits the girls are trapped in are apples."Carnation, White, and Black". In: Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas. Fairy tales far and near. London, Paris, Melbourne: Cassell and Company, Limited. 1895. pp. 62-74. "Red, White and Black". In: Montalba, Anthony Reubens. Fairy tales from all nations. London: Chapman and Hall, 186, Strand. 1849. pp. 243-246."Roth, weiss und schwarz" In: Kletke, Hermann. Märchensaal: Märchen aller völker für jung und alt. Erster Band. Berlin: C. Reimarus. 1845. pp. 181-183.

While analysing the imagery of the golden apples in Balkan fairy tales, researcher Milena Benovska-Sabkova took notice that the fairy maiden springs out of golden apples in these variants, fruits that are interpreted as having generative properties.Benovska-Sabkova, Milena. ""Тримата братя и златната ябълка" — анализ на митологическата семантика в сравнителен балкански план ["The three brothers and the golden apple": Analysis of the mythological semantic in comparative Balkan aspect]. In: "Българска етнология" [Bulgarian Ethnology] nr. 1 (1995): 100.

According to Walter Anderson's unpublished manuscript, variants with eggs instead of fruits appear in Southeastern Europe.Ranke, Kurt. Folktales of Germany. Routledge & K. Paul. 1966. p. 209. .

The water motif In an article discussing the Maltese variants of the tale type, Maltese linguist George Mifsud Chircop drew attention to the water motif and its symbolism: the parents of the prince build a fountain for the people; when the maiden is released from the fruit she asks for food and water; the false bride mistakes the fruit maiden's visage for her own reflection in the water; the maiden is thrown in the water (well) and becomes a fish.Mifsud Chircop, Gorg. "Il-hrafa Maltija : 'is-seba' trongiet mewwija' (AT 408)". In: Symposia Melitensia. 2004, Vol. 1. pp. 49-50. . Folklorist Christine Goldberg also noted the water motif present in the tale type: the fountain built at the beginning of the story; the release of the fruit maiden near a body of water, and the prince leaving the maiden on a tree near a water source (well or stream). She also remarked that the fountain motif is "echoed" by the well.Goldberg, Christine. "The Forgotten Bride (AaTh 313 C)". In: Fabula 33, no. 1-2 (1992): 45. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1992.33.1-2.39

The transformations and the false bride The tale type is characterized by the substitution of the fairy wife for a false bride. The usual occurrence is when the false bride (a witch or a slave) sticks a magical pin into the maiden's head or hair and she becomes a dove. In some tales, the fruit maiden regains her human form and must bribe the false bride for three nights with her beloved.Gulyás Judit (2010). "Henszlmann Imre bírálata Arany János Rózsa és Ibolya című művéről". In: Balogh Balázs (főszerk). Ethno-Lore XXVII. Az MTA Neprajzi Kutatóintezetenek évkönyve. Budapest, MTA Neprajzi Kutatóintezete (Sajtó aatt). pp. 250-253.

In other variants, the maiden goes through a series of transformations after her liberation from the fruit and regains a physical body. In that regard, according to Christine Shojaei-Kawan's article, Christine Goldberg divided the tale type into two forms. In the first subtype, indexed as AaTh 408A, the fruit maiden suffers the cycle of metamorphosis (fish-tree-human) - a motif Goldberg locates "from the Middle East to Italy and France"Goldberg, Christine. "Imagery and Cohesion in the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)". In: Folk-Narrative and World View. Vortage des 10. Kongresses der Internationalen Gesellschaft fur Volkserzahlungsforschung (ISFNR) - Innsbruck 1992. I. Schneider and P. Streng (ed.). Vol. I, 1996. p. 211. (especifically, it appears in Greece and Eastern Europe). In the second subtype, AaTh 408B, the girl is transformed into a dove by the needle.Shojaei-Kawan, Christine (2004). "Reflections on International Narrative Research on the Example of the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)". In: Folklore (Electronic Journal of Folklore), XXVII, p. 35.

Separated from her husband, she goes to the palace (alone or with other maidens) to tell tales to the king. She shares her story with the audience and is recognized by him.Angelopoulos, Anna and Kaplanoglou, Marianthi. "Greek Magic Tales: aspects of research in Folklore Studies and Anthropology". In: FF Network. 2013; Vol. 43. p. 15.

Parallels The series of transformations attested in these variants (from animal to tree to tree splinter or back into the fruit whence she came originally) has been compared to a similar motif in the Ancient Egyptian story of The Tale of Two Brothers.Vikentiev, V. “Le conte égyptien des deux frères et quelques histoires apparentées: La Fille-Citron — La Fille du Marchand — Gilgamesh — Combabus — Localisation du domaine de Bata à Afka — Yamouneh — Les Cèdres”. In: Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Fouad I University, Cairo, 11.2 (December 1949). pp. 67–111."The series of transformations that the fairy undergoes [in tale type ATU 408] is amazingly similar to an episode in the Egyptian tale of The Two Brothers, said to date from 1200 B. C.". Goldberg, Christine. "Imagery and Cohesion in the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)". In: Folk-Narrative and World View. Vortage des 10. Kongresses der Internationalen Gesellschaft fur Volkserzahlungsforschung (ISFNR) - Innsbruck 1992. I. Schneider and P. Streng (ed.). Vol. I, 1996. p. 215.

This cycle of transformations also appears in Iranian tales, specially "The Girl of Naranj and Toranj". Based on the Iranian tales, Iranian scholarship suggests that these traits seem to recall an Iranian deity of vegetation.نعمت طاووسی, مریم. (1400/2021). 'پریان ایرانی به روایت افسانه‌های جادویی', مجله مطالعات ایرانی, 20(39), pp. 337-340. doi: 10.22103/jis.2021.15276.1997 (In Iranian)Espargham, Samin; Moosavi, S M. "The mythical criticism of the girl of narenj o toranj tale". In: LCQ. 2010; 3: 237-243. URL: http://lcq.modares.ac.ir/article-29-1257-en.htmlZahra Yazdanpanah; Asieh Qavami, "The Comparative of literary symbols of Naranj o Toranj Myth with Myth of Osiris". In: Comparative Literature Studies 8, no. 29 (2014): 129-151. magiran.com/p1334660 (In Persian)

Variants Origins