The Three Enchanted PrincesBasile, Giambattista; Strange, E. F. (Ed.); Taylor, John Edward (translator). Stories from the Pentamerone. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited. 1911. pp. 179-188. or The Three Animal Kings (Neapolitan: Li tre rri anemale; Italian: I tre re animale)Basile, Giambattista; Croce, Benedetto. Lo cunto de li cunti (Il Pentamerone): Testo conforme alla prima stampa del MDCXXXIV - VI;. Volume Secondo. Bari: Gius, Laterza e Figli. 1925. pp. 155-163. is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.Giambattista Basile, The Pentamerone "The Three Enchanted Princes" It is Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index ATU 552, "The Girls who married animals". At the end of the tale, the prince's brothers-in-law help him in defeating the dragon (or sorcerer, or ogre).
Synopsis
The king of Green Bank had three beautiful daughters. The king of Fair Meadows had three sons, who had been transformed into a falcon, a stag, and a dolphin; these sons loved the three daughters, but the king would not marry them to animals. The sons summoned all the animals of their kind and made war until the king yielded. They were married, and the queen gave each of her daughters a ring so they could recognize one another.
After the wedding, the queen gave birth to a son, Tittone. One day, she lamented that she never heard what happened to her daughters. Tittone set out to find them. He found the eldest with the falcon husband; she hid him and persuaded her husband to let him visit. He stayed for a time, and the falcon gave him a feather when he set out to find the other sisters. After a time, he found the second sister, and her husband the stag made him feel welcome, and when he left, gave him some of its hair. He found the third sister, and her husband the dolphin made him feel welcome and gave him some scales when he left.
Returning, he found a maiden captive in a tower, where a dragon slept, and which was surrounded by a lake. She begged him to save her. He threw down the feather, hairs, and scales, and his brothers-in-law appeared. The falcon summoned griffins to carry her to freedom; when the dragon woke, the stag summoned lions, bears, and other animals to tear it to pieces; the dolphin had waves engulf the tower to destroy it. This freed the brothers-in-law from their enchanted shapes, and they returned with their brides to their own parents, and Tittone returned to his with his bride.
Translations The tale was translated into English language as King Falcon, King Dolphin, and King Stag and published in The Italian Fairy Book.Macdonell, Anne. The Italian fairy book. London: Unwin. 1911. pp. 70-77. Another translation of the tale was given as The Three Brother Beasts, in The Golden Fairy Book.Millar, H. R. The Golden Fairy Book. London: Hutchinson & Co.. 1894. pp. 137-150.
Analysis Fate of the sisters There are variants where the girls' father is the one that gives away the daughters to the animals,Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. New York: Peter Lang. 2010 . p. 153. and their brother, born years later, goes after them. In other variants, the princesses and the prince are born in the same generation, and it is the brother who weds his sisters to the animals.
The animal suitors The second variation lies in the brothers-in-law: usually, there are three animals, one terrestrial, a second aerial and the third aquatic,Baudis, Josef. Czech folk tales. London: Allen & Unwin. [1917.] pp. 98-103. as in Musäus's version (respectively, a bear, a falcon and a giant fish). In the famous Russian version Marya Morevna, the husbands-to-be are a falcon, an eagle and a raven. In Czech fairy tale film The Prince and the Evening Star, the prince marries his sisters to the Sun, the Moon and the Wind, who are princes or kings, as per the original tale by author Bozena Nemcova."Sonnenkönig, Mondkönig, Windkönig". In: Waldau, Alfred. Böhmisches Märchenbuch. Prag: Drug und Verlag von Rath. Serzabeth. 1860. pp. 440-457.
Richard MacGillivray Dawkins also noted that in some variants, the suitors are "persons of great and magical potency", but appear to court the princesses under shaggy and ragged disguises.Dawkins, Richard McGillivray. Modern Greek folktales. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1953. p. 121. In the same vein, author Italo Calvino, commenting on an Italian variant he adapted, remarked that "in three similar Southern [Italian] versions", the brothers-in-law hold dominion over animals.Calvino, Italo. Italian Folktales. Houghton Mifflin Harcour. 1980 . p. 742. .
Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev, based on comparative analysis of Slavic folkloric traditions, stated that the eagle, the falcon and the raven (or crow), in Slavic versions, are connected to weather phenomena, like storm, rain, wind. He also saw a parallel between the avian suitors from the tale Marya Morevna with the suitors from other Slavic folktales, where they are the Sun, the Moon, the Thunder and the Wind.Афанасьев, А.Н. Поэтические воззрения славян на природу: Опыт сравнительного изучения славянских преданий и верований в связи с мифическими сказаниями других родственных народов. Том 1. Moskva: Izd. K. Soldatenkova 1865. pp. 506-508. (In Russian)
In a comparative study, Karelian scholarship noted that, in Russian variants, there are three brothers-in-law, the most common are three ornitomorphic characters: the eagle (named Orel Orlovich), the falcon (named Sokol Sokolovich) and the raven (almost always the third suitor, called Voron Voronovich). They may sometimes be replaced - depending on the location - by another bird (a dove or a magpie) or by a mammal (a bear, wolf, seal or deer).Дюжев, Ю. И. "Зооморфные персонажи – похитители женщин в русских и прибалтийско-финских волшебных сказках". In: Межкультурные взаимодействия в полиэтничном пространстве пограничного региона: Сборник материалов международной научной конференции. Петрозаводск, 2005. pp. 202-205. .
Other motifs Professor Karel Horálek mentioned that tale type AaTh 552 ("specially in Slavic variants") shows the motif of the hero opening, against his wife's orders, a door or the dungeon and liberating a Giant or Ogre that kills him.
Origins W. R. Halliday attempted a reconstruction of the supposedly original form of the tale, dubbed "The Magic Brothers-in-law", which incorporates the marriage to animals or other creatures, and the fight against an adversary whose soul is located outside his body ("Ogre's life in an egg").Dawkins, Richard McGillivray. Modern Greek in Asia Minor: A study of the dialects of Siĺli, Cappadocia and Phárasa, with grammar, texts, translations and glossary. London: Cambridge University Press. 1916. pp. 272-274. Professor Susie Hoogasian-Villa seemed to concur that Halliday's reconstruction is the original form.Hoogasian-Villa, Susie. 100 Armenian Tales and Their Folkloristic Relevance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1966. p. 438.
On the other hand, it has been suggested that the tale type ATU 552 may have been derived from an original form that closely resembles ATU 554, "The Grateful Animals". In this transition, the animals helpers have changed into brothers-in-law. Linguist Jiri Polívka reached a similar conclusion in his work about Slovak fairy tales. He argued that in the cycle of stories where a princess is kidnapped by a monster released by her husband, the motif of the grateful animals merged with the motif of the enchanted brothers-in-law."5. Princezna, unesená netvorom, prepusteným z väzenia: A) Pomoc troch radcov a troch zakliatych švagrov (entry 3)". In: Polivka, Jiri. Rozprávky s živly nadprirodzenými (číslo 3–30). Zväzok II. 1924.
Variants Professor Stith Thompson commented that, apart from two ancient literary versions (Musäus and Giambattista Basile), the tale is also widespread all over Europe.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 55-56. W. R. Halliday suggested the tale is "characteristic of the Balkan states and the Near East".Dawkins, Richard McGillivray. Modern Greek in Asia Minor: A study of the dialects of Siĺli, Cappadocia and Phárasa, with grammar, texts, translations and glossary. London: Cambridge University Press. 1916. p. 273.
Europe Western Europe Ireland Jeremiah Curtin collected an Irish variant titled The Weaver's Son and the Giant of the White Hill, where a poor family "sells" their daughters to three noblemen for "their price in gold/silver/copper". Years later, their youngest brother visits each of the sisters and is given "a bit of wool from the ram, a bit of fin from the salmon, and a feather from the eagle".Groome, Francis Hindes. Gypsy folk-tales. London: Hurst and Blackett. 1899. p. lxx.
France French historian Robert Darnton cites, in his book The Great Cat Massacre, a burlesque narrative of a peasant couple marrying their daughters off to a wolf, a fox, a hare and a pig.Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. New York: Basic Books. 1984. pp. 35-36.
A variant from Brittany was collected by Paul Sébillot, titled Le Château suspendu dans les airs (English: "The Castle that hangs in the air"). The brothers-in-law are the King of the Birds, King of the Fishes and King of the Rats and Mice.Sébillot, Paul. Contes de terre et de mer. G. Charpentier. 1883. pp. 212-222.
Germany German author Johann Karl August Musäus wrote a literary treatment of the tale type in his Volksmärchen der Deutschen, with the title Die Bücher der Chronika der drei Schwestern ("The Book of the Chronicles of the Three Sisters").J. K. A. Musäus. Volksmärchen der Deutschen. München 1976. pp. 17-36.J. K. A. Musäus. Volksmärchen der Deutschen. München 1976. pp. 36-60.J. K. A. Musäus. Volksmärchen der Deutschen. München 1976. pp. 60-73. This version has been translated into English several times, including as The Chronicles of the Three Sisters, Reinald, the Wonder-Child, or The Chronicles of the Three Sisters and The Enchanted Forest.
19th century theologue Johann Andreas Christian Löhr wrote a version of the tale, titled Reinhald das Wunderkind, where the sisters are called Wulfheid, Adelheid and Bertha, married, respectively, to a bear, an "Aar" (a dated or poetic German word for eagle) and a giant fish (called a behemoth by the father).Löhr, Johann Andreas Christian. Das Buch der Maehrchen für Kindheit und Jugend, nebst etzlichen Schnaken und Schnurren, anmuthig und lehrhaftig [1–]2. Band 1, Leipzig [ca. 1819/20]. pp. 186-210.
The Brothers Grimm collected, in the very first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812) the tale Die drei Schwestern ("The Three Sisters"), where the maidens are betrothed to a bear, an eagle and a generic fish due to their father's gambling. The tale, previously KHM 82, was later withdrawn from the collection.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Zweiter Band (NR. 61-120). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 190–199.
Louis Curtze collected a variant from Dieringhausen, in Germany, titled Reinhold, das Wunderkind.Curtze, Louis. Volksüberlieferungen aus dem Fürstenthum Waldeck nebst einem Idiotikon. Arolsen: verlag vom A. Speper. 1860. pp. 96-113. The name is quite similar to the main character of Musäus's version, whose name was translated as "Rinaldo, the son of wonder".Lemon, Mark. Fairy Tales. London: John Stark. [ca. 187x?] p. 77
Heinrich Pröhle collected the tale Bärenheid, Adelheid und Wallfild, the sisters' names, which mirror the animals they will be married to: respectively, Bären (English: "bear"), Adler (English: "eagle") and Wallfische (English: "whale").Pröhle, Heinrich. Kinder- und Volksmärchen. Leipzig: 1853. pp. 1-5.