Peruonto is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.
Despite its origins as a literary tale, variants are recorded from oral tradition across Europe, in the Americas, and even in Asia.
Synopsis
A widow named Ceccarella had a stupid son named Peruonto, as ugly as an ogre. One day, she sent him to gather wood. He saw three men sleeping in the sunlight and made them a shelter of branches. They woke, and being the sons of a fairy, gave him a charm that whatever he asked for would be done. As he was carrying the wood back, he wished that it would carry him, and he rode it back like a horse. The king's daughter Vastolla, who never laughed, saw it and burst out laughing. Peruonto wished she would marry him and he would cure her of her laughing.
A marriage was arranged for Vastolla with a prince, but Vastolla refused, because she would marry only the man who rode the wood. The king proposed putting her to death. His councilors advised him to go after the man instead. The king had a banquet with all the nobles and lords, thinking Vastolla would betray which man it was, but she did not recognize any of them. The king would have put her to death at once, but the councillors advised a banquet for those still lower in birth. Peruonto's mother urged him to go, he went, and Vastolla recognized him at once and exclaimed. The king had her and Peruonto shut up in a cask and thrown into the sea. Vastolla wormed the story out of Peruonto, and told him to turn the cask to a ship. Then she had him turn it to a castle, and then she had him turn himself into a handsome and well-mannered man. They married and lived happily for years.
Her father grew old and sad. His councillors encouraged him to hunt to cheer him up. One day, he came to a castle and found only two little boys who welcomed him and brought him to a magical banquet. In the morning, he wished to thank them, but not only the boys but their mother and father—Vastolla and Peruonto—appeared. They were reconciled, and the king brought them back to his castle where the feast of celebration lasted nine days.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 675, "The Lazy Boy". 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. 236–237.
Mythological parallels Austrian consul and folktale collector Johann Georg von Hahn saw a parallel between the miraculous birth of the princess's child and their banishment to the sea in a casket and the Greek legend of Danae and her son, the hero Perseus.Hahn, Johann Georg von. Griechische und Albanesische Märchen 1-2. München/Berlin: Georg Müller, 1918. pp. 327-328. A similar, yet unique ("found nowhere else in Greece") story is narrated by geographer Pausanias in his Description of Greece:Beaulieu, Marie-Claire. "The Floating Chest: Maidens, Marriage, and the Sea". In: The Sea in the Greek Imagination. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. pp. 97-98. Accessed May 15, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt17xx5hc.7. after giving birth to her semi-divine son, Dionysus, fathered by Zeus, human princess Semele was banished from the realm by her father Cadmus. Their sentence was to be put into a chest or a box (larnax) and cast in the sea. Luckily, the casket they were in washed up by the waves at Prasiae.-4.Larson, Jennifer. Greek Heroine Cults. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. pp. 94-95.Holley, N. M. “The Floating Chest”. In: The Journal of Hellenic Studies 69 (1949): 39–40. doi:10.2307/629461. However, it has been suggested that this tale might have been a borrowing from the story of Danaë and Perseus.Larson, Jennifer. Greek Heroine Cults. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 95.Guettel Cole, Susan. "Under the Open Sky: Imagining the Dionysian Landscape". In: Human Development in Sacred Landscapes: Between Ritual Tradition, Creativity and Emotionality. V&R Unipress. 2015. p. 65. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737002523.61
Another parallel lies in the legend of Breton saint Budoc and his mother Azénor: Azénor was still pregnant when cast into the sea in a box by her husband, but an angel led her to safety and she gave birth to future Breton saint Budoc.Milin, Gaël (1990). "La légende bretonne de Saint Azénor et les variantes medievales du conte de la femme calomniée: elements pour une archeologie du motif du bateau sans voiles et sans rames". In: Memoires de la Societé d'Histoire et d'Archeologie de Bretagne 67. pp. 303-320.
The "half-man" hero Professors Michael Meraklis and Nicole Belmont remarked that, in some Greek and French variants of the tale type, the hero is a half-man son, born due to a hasty wish from his mother. At the end of the tale, the hero assumes a complete human body after he wishes to become a handsome nobleman.Merakles, Michales G. Studien zum griechischen Märchen. Eingeleitet, übers, und bearb. von Walter Puchner. (Raabser Märchen-Reihe, Bd. 9. Wien: Österr. Museum für Volkskunde, 1992. p. 159. .Belmont, Nicole. (2005). "Half-Man in Folktales. Places, Uses and Meaning of a Special Motive". In: L'Homme no 174(2), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.4000/lhomme.25059
Variants The tale type of ATU 675 is "told all over Europe"Belmont, Nicole (2005). Half-Man in Folktales. Places, Uses and Meaning of a Special Motive.. L'Homme, no 174(2): 11. https://doi.org/10.4000/lhomme.25059 and, argued Stith Thompson, "disseminated rather evenly" over the continent.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. p. 68. . While noticing its dissemination throughout Europe, Paul Delarue stated that the tale type can be found in Turkey, and "here and there in the rest of Asia" (including Vietnam).Delarue, Paul Delarue. The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1956. p. 389.
19th century Portuguese folklorist Consiglieri Pedroso claimed that the tale type is "popular everywhere", but specially "in the East of Europe".Pedroso, Consiglieri. Portuguese Folk-Tales. London: Published for the Folk-Lore Society. 1882. pp. vii. This seemed to be confirmed by Jack Haney, who observed that the tale is "common throughout the Eastern Slavic world".Haney, Jack V. The Complete Russian Folktale: v. 4: Russian Wondertales 2 - Tales of Magic and the Supernatural. New York: Routledge. 2019 . p. 437. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315700076
Historian William Reginald Halliday suggested an origin in Middle East, instead of Western Europe,Dov Neuman (Noy). "Reviewed Work: Typen Tuerkischer Volksmaerchen by Wolfram Eberhard, Pertev Naili Boratav". In: Midwest Folklore 4, no. 4 (1954): 259. Accessed April 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4317494. since the Half-Man or Half-Boy hero appears in Persian tales.Dawkins, Richard McGillivray. Modern Greek folktales. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1953. p. 20.
Literary variants Other European literary tales of the tale type are Straparola's "Peter The Fool" (Night Three, Fable One)"Pietro the Fool and the Magic Fish." In: The Pleasant Nights - Volume 1, edited by Beecher Donald, by Waters W.G., 367-86. Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/9781442699519.19. and Madame d'Aulnoy's The Dolphin.Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 100,
Distribution Europe Ireland In an Irish variant collected in Bealoideas, a leprechaun is the magical creature that grants the wishes to a half-wit hero.Hares-Stryker, Carolyn (1993). “Adrift on the Seven Seas: The Mediaeval Topos of Exile at Sea”. In: Florilegium 12 (June): 83. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/flor/article/view/19322.
France A folk variant of the tale type is the French Half-Man.Paul Delarue. The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1956. p. 389-90.
In a Breton language variant, Kristoff, the narrative environment involves the legendary Breton city of Ys.Boyd, Matthieu. "What’s New in Ker-Is: ATU 675 in Brittany", Fabula 54, 3-4 (2013): 235-262, doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/fabula-2013-0020
In a variant from Albret (Labrit), Bernanouéillo ("Bernanoueille"), collected by abbot Leopold Dardy, the donor who offers the protagonist the power to fulfill his wishes is "Le Bon Dieu" (God).Dardy, Leopold. Anthologie populaire de l'Albret (sud-ouest de l'Agenais ou Gascogne landaise). Tome II. J. Michel et Médan. 1891. pp. 62-71.
Southern Europe In the Portuguese variant The Baker's Idle Son, the pike that blesses the fool with the magical spell becomes a man and marries the princess.Pedroso, Consiglieri. Portuguese Folk-Tales. London: Published for the Folk-Lore Society. 1882. pp. 72-74.
In a Greek variant collected by Johann Georg von Hahn, Der halbe Mensch ("The Half-Man"), the protagonist, a man born with only half of his body, wishes for the princess to be magically impregnated. After the recognition test by the child and the banishment of the family on the barrel, the princess marries a man of her father's court, and the half-man another woman.Hahn, Johann Georg von. Griechische und Albanesische Märchen 1-2. München/Berlin: Georg Müller. 1918 . pp. 45-53.
At least one variant from Cyprus has been published, from the "Folklore Archive of the Cyprus Research Centre".Puchner, Walter. "Argyrō Xenophōntos, Kōnstantina Kōnstantinou (eds.): Ta paramythia tēs Kyprou apo to Laographiko Archeio tou Kentrou Epistemonikōn Ereunōn 2015 [compte-rendu]". In: Fabula 57, no. 1-2 (2016): 188-190. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabula-2016-0032
Italy The "Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi" ("Central Institute of Sound and Audiovisual Heritage") promoted research and registration throughout the Italian territory between the years 1968–1969 and 1972. In 1975 the Institute published a catalog edited by and Liliana Serafini reported 16 variants of type 675 across Italian sources, under the name Il Ragazzo Indolente.
In a variant collected by Sicilian writer Giuseppe Pitre, Lu Loccu di li Pàssuli e Ficu ("The Fig-and-Raisin Fool"), the foolish character's favorite fruits are figs and raisins. He gains his wish-fulfilling ability after an encounter with some nymphs in the woods.Pitré, Giuseppe. Catarina the Wise and Other Wondrous Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales. Edited and Translated by Jack Zipes. Illustrated by Adeetje Bouma. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 217. pp. 203-206 and 275-276.