Silver Hair and Golden CurlsA. F. C. "Bibliographical Notes: Books. Collection de Contes et Chansons Populaires by Frédéric Macler" [review]. In: The Journal of American Folklore 20, no. 76 (1907): 87. Accessed May 20, 2021. doi:10.2307/534734. () is an Armenian folktale originally collected by ethnologue and clergyman Karekin Servantsians in Hamov-Hotov (1884).Garegin Sruandzteantsʻ. Hamov hotov, Volume 2. Tparan "Arakʻs" Tʻopʻalean eghb., 1949. pp. 209ff. It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children". These tales refer to stories where a girl promises a king she will bear a child or children with wonderful attributes, but her jealous relatives or the king's wives plot against the babies and their mother.
Summary A king's son builds his tent in a meadow full of flowers. One day, three maidens come to the meadow to pick vegetables and flowers, and begin to talk among themselves: the first promises to marry the king and plant a grapevine that will still have grapes after everyone plucks one; the second that she will weave such a carpet that the whole army will seat and there is still more than half left; and the third promises to bear twins, a silver-haired girl and a golden-haired boy.
The king's son overhears their conversation and decides to marry all three, the older two fail in their promises, but the third gives birth to her children. After the birth of the royal twins, the queen's jealous sisters take their nephews and cast them in the sea in a box, and replace them for animals to humiliate her sister. Now disgraced before the king, she is sentenced to a public punishment by the people.
Meanwhile, the twins are saved from being exposed and are raised in a loving environment. Years later, the sister advises her twin brother to go to the woman at the public square (their mother) and give her a rose, instead of the punishment meted out to her. This strange behaviour draws the attention of the king to investigate what happened to his twin children all those years ago.
Translations The tale was translated into French by Frédéric Macler as Cheveux d'argent et Boucles d'or.Macler, Frédéric. Contes arméniens. Paris: Ernest Leroux Editeurs. 1905. pp. 71–79.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children":Гуллакян, Сюзанна Арменовна [Syuzanna Armenovna Gullakian]. Указатель сюжетов армянских волшебных и новеллистических сказок: (Учеб.-вспом. пособие) / С. А. Гуллакян; М-во нар. образования АрмССР, Респ. учеб.-метод. каб. - Ереван : РУМК Миннаробразования АрмССР, 1990. p. 35. three sisters converse among themselves about their plans to marry the king, the youngest promising to bear children with wondrous aspect; the king decides to marry the youngest (or all three), and the youngest bears the wondrous children, who are taken from her and cast in the water by the jealous aunts; years later, the children, after many adventures, reunite the family, which leads to the aunts being punished.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. 242–243.Hoogasian-Villa, Susie. 100 Armenian Tales and Their Folkloristic Relevance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1966. pp. 491–495.Stevens, E. S. Folktales of Iraq. Mineola, N.Y.; Dover; Newton Abbot: David & Charles distributor, 2006. p. 299. .Zakaryan, Eva. "ԵՐԿՎՈՐՅԱԿԱՅԻՆ ԱՌԱՍՊԵԼՆԵՐԻ ԴՐՍԵՎՈՐՈՒՄՆԵՐԸ ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ՀԵՔԻԱԹՆԵՐՈՒՄ" [MANIFESTATIONS OF MYTHICAL TWINS IN ARMENIAN FOLKTALES]. In: Voské Divan: Journal of fairy–tale studies. Vol. 5 (2014-2015). pp. 71-72. . According to Armenian scholar Tamar Hayrapetyan, tale type 707 exists in the Armenian tale corpus, under the title "Երեք քրոջ հեքիաթը" ("Yerek’ k’roj hek’iat’y"; "The Tale of the Three Sisters").Hayrapetyan, Tamar. "Արքետիպային հարակցումները հայկական հրաշապատում հեքիաթներում և վիպապատմական բանահյուսության մեջ" [Combinition of Arcetypes in Armenian Tales of Magic and Epic Heritage]. Yerevan: Gitutyun of Nas Ra, 2016. pp. 398-399. . (In Armenian)
Motifs According to researcher , Armenian variants of type 707 begin with the king listening to the three sisters' conversation. An alternative opening involves the king finding the youngest sister in the stables, after she and her sisters are abandoned by their father in the forest on their step-mother's orders.Гуллакян, Сюзанна Арменовна [Syuzanna Armenovna Gullakian]. Указатель сюжетов армянских волшебных и новеллистических сказок: (Учеб.-вспом. пособие) / С. А. Гуллакян; М-во нар. образования АрмССР, Респ. учеб.-метод. каб. - Ереван: РУМК Миннаробразования АрмССР, 1990. p. 35. In a 1991 article, Gullakian claimed that this second opening was "common" ("распространена", in the original) in Armenian variants.Гуллакян, С. А. "О сюжетном составе репертуара армянских волшебных и новеллистических сказок". In: "Советская этнография". № 6 (1991): 128.
After the abandonment of the children, some Armenian variants may continue their story by involving a quest for strange items, as per the suggestion of an old woman (usually, an agent of the jealous sisters). In some tales, there is a magical nightingale named Hazaran Bulbul;Hayrapetyan Tamar. "L’appropriation culturelle des mondes étrangers dans le rossingnol prodigieux: la forêt comme symbole cryptique (traduit ci-dessous par Léon Ketcheyan)". In: Revue des etudes Arméniennes tome 38, 2018, p. 434. in others, they seek a woman of great beauty.Zakaryan, Eva. "ԵՐԿՎՈՐՅԱԿԱՅԻՆ ԱՌԱՍՊԵԼՆԵՐԻ ԴՐՍԵՎՈՐՈՒՄՆԵՐԸ ՀԱՅԿԱԿԱՆ ՀԵՔԻԱԹՆԵՐՈՒՄ" [MANIFESTATIONS OF MYTHICAL TWINS IN ARMENIAN FOLKTALES]. In: Voské Divan: Journal of fairy–tale studies. Vol. 5 (2014-2015). pp. 68-69. .
Variants The Twins Author A. G. Seklemian translated an Armenian variant he titled The Twins. In this tale, three sisters sit near the royal tent and talk among themselves: if one of them marries the king's son, they say; the eldest brags she will weave a tent to accommodate his entire army, and then some; the middle one a carpet for the entire court to sit on, and the youngest says she will bear a silver-haired boy and a golden-haired girl. The king chooses the latter as his daughter-in-law, and marries her to his son. Her envious sisters take the babies and throw them in the river, and put two puppies in their place. However, the twins are saved by an old fisherman and his wife, who, whenever they wash the babies' hair, silver and gold fall down. Years later, their aunts, noticing their survival, convince the king to send the boy on dangerous errands: to get a dozen lions' skins, seven pairs of elephant tusks, and the King of India's daughter as his bride. The twins reveal the truth to their family during a banquet.Seklemian, A. G. (1898). "The Twins". In: The Golden Maiden and Other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories Told in Armenia. New York: The Helmen Taylor Company. pp. 111–122.
The Golden-Haired Twins In a variant collected by professor Susan Hoogasian-Villa from an Armenian-descent teller named Mrs. Mariam Serabian, from the Delray section of Detroit, with the title The Golden-Haired Twins, the king listens to his daughters – the youngest promising to bear two wonder children when she marries: a boy and a girl with golden hair, each with a golden cane in hand, and a bag of gold under his pillow every morning. Her two older sisters hire a midwife to get rid of the babies, but they survive. Years later, the Brother quests for the bird Hazaran Bulbul and a female interpreter for the bird. When the interpreter is delivered to the Sister, the former requests the Brother to go back to the bird's owner, Tanzara Kanum, and bring the second woman who lives there, so that they may keep company and protect the Sister.Hoogasian-Villa, Susie. 100 Armenian Tales and Their Folkloristic Relevance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1966. pp. 245–252.
Théodore le Danseur In the tale Théodore le Danseur, the third sister promises to bear twins with astral birthmarks, a boy with a moon on the front and a girl with the sun, and with the ability to turn their bathwater into gold, their tears into pearls, make roses fall from their cheeks with their smiles, and make flowers appear with every step.Hoogasian-Villa, Susie. 100 Armenian Tales and Their Folkloristic Relevance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 1966. p. 492. Years later, the pair is sent for the belongings of a giant named Barogh Assadour ("Dancing Theodore"),Garnett, Lucy Mary Jane. Greek folk poesy, annotated translations from the whole cycle of Romaic folk-verse and folk-prose. London: Nutt. 1896. p. 453. who also plays the role of the mystical woman the brother seeks in other variants. At the end of the tale, Theodore marries the sister.Tchéraz, Minas. L'Orient inédit: légendes et traditions arméniennes, grecques et turques recueillies et traduites. Paris: Ernest Leroux, Editeur. 1912. pp. 67–80.
The Tale of the Lad with Golden Locks In a rather lengthy variant translated by author Leon Surmelian, The Tale of the Lad with Golden Locks, a widowed king sees three sisters fetching water in jugs by the fountain and commenting with themselves about the king, the youngest telling them she would bear sons and daughters with golden hair if she were to marry the king. The king marries her and she gives birth to a boy with golden hair. The new queen's sisters bribe the king's Arab (or Black) stablemaster to drown the child and replace him with a puppy. He does as intended, but spares the boy's life and hides him in a cave in a distant region. The king is furious with his wife and orders his stablemaster to drown the queen, but he brings her to her son and reveals the truth. Ten years pass and king decides to go on a deer hunt. His golden-haired son shoots the deer and the king decides to follow him. He meets the queen and the stablemaster and learns the truth. He takes them all back to the palace and the Golden-Haired brings with him his own bird of truth. When they arrive, the bird senses the treacherous sisters and escapes, which prompts a new quest for him (tale type ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess"). The tale continues with further adventures of the Golden-Haired Son and his half-brothers Poghos and Petros.Surmelian, Leon. Apples of Immortality: Folktales of Armenia. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1968. pp. 75-91.
The Story of the King of Jinns