"King Iguana" (Galela: Ma Kolano o Kariànga; ) is an Indonesian folktale in the Galela language, collected by H. van Dijken and M. J. van Baarda, and sourced from the island of Halmahera. It deals with the marriage between a human girl and a suitor in animal form that she disenchants to become human. Later, her envious sisters try to murder her and replace her as the animal suitor's wife.
According to Dutch philologist Jan de Vries, the tale belongs to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom, in a form that appears in the Indonesian archipelago. Variants also exist in Southeast Asia.
Translations The tale was also translated into Hungarian language with the title Gyíkkirály ("The Lizard King").Bodrogi Tibor; Katona Tamás. A tigrisember: Indonéziai Mesék [Indonesian Tales]. Budapest: Európa Könyvkiadó. pp. 173-178.
Summary A couple has an iguana for a son. One day, the lizard passes by a lake where four women are bathing and falls in love with one of them. He tries to woo the maiden by knocking down some flowers from a tjampaka tree, but her sisters shoo him away. The iguana returns home and asks his mother to woo the maiden on his behalf. The woman goes and tries to talk about her son's proposal, but they rebuff her by throwing ashes. Defeated, the woman returns home with no positive answer, so her son decides to try it himself. He goes to his intended's house as an iguana, then enters her room. He takes off the reptile disguise and becomes a youth. At night, his bride pretends to be asleep, takes the iguana skin and burns it. The next morning, the now human iguana warns his bride against having done so, since sorrow and trouble will follow her decision.
At any rate, he exits his bride's room as a man clad in fine garments, to the three sisters' delight and jealousy, who then decide to get rid of their cadette and marry the youth. Later, he goes on a boat trip to get a dowry for her, but gives her an areca nut and a rooster's egg before he leaves, which she hides in her sarong. After he goes away, the three sisters try to invite the maiden to go out with her on some activities (a pretext to kill her): first, to cut firewood for barrels. The elder sisters guide the cadette to the forest, shove her into a pit, then go back home. Her parents ask where their youngest daughter is, and go to the pit to rescue her.
Next, the three sisters invite her to pick up leaves atop a mountain. The maiden decides to join her sisters and climbs up the mountain with them. Up there, there is also a swing that they use for a little play. The elders play in the swing, then the youngest. As she is on the swing, the others cut off the rope and the maiden flies off to the middle of the sea. The areca nut and the rooster's egg then sink a bit into the water, when out of the areca nut a tree sprouts and a rooster hatches out of the egg, which starts to crow. As some ships pass them by, the rooster asks the ships if King Iguana is coming soon; the captains of the first two ships say he is coming after them.
After the third ship passes, the rooster is told King Iguana is on that ship. Thus, the bird takes the maiden on its wings and flies to King Iguana's ship. After it lands, King Iguana admonishes his wife for burning his skin, but hides her in a gond box. King Iguana disembarks and visits his sisters-in-law. He tells them he brought them a present: two chests, just lying on the beach. The three sisters-in-law, hoping to find something precious inside, run to the beach and open up the chests in a hurry. Inside, only needles and knives, which spring out of the chests and kill the envious sisters. Accessed 22 July 2023.
Analysis Tale type Philologist Jan de Vries recognized, in his commentaries, that the tale belonged to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom ("Het sprookje van den dierechtgenoot", in the original), but noted a specific narrative that appears in tales from the Indonesian archipelago. In this narrative, the animal bridegroom marries a human maiden or forces her father to surrender her to him; the human maiden (the heroine) discovers her husband becomes a handsome youth and destroys the animal skin, and they live together; the husband, now in human form, gives her a nut or seed and an egg, then departs; the heroine's jealous sisters try to get rid of her by shoving her in the sea, but she survives; a tree sprouts from the seed/nut and a rooster from the egg, or she is rescued by a ship; the heroine's husband returns and punishes the sisters-in-law for their deceit. Similarly, J. A. T. Schwarcz noted, in his collection of Tontemboan tales, the "general outline" is that a human couple gives birth to an animal or vegetable that they get rid of, but the strange son is adopted by an old woman. The son has wonderful powers, and asks the old woman to court a man's daughters on his behalf, by following costumary law: first the eldest daughter, and so on, until the youngest agrees to marry the creature. The creature reveals he is indeed human underneath the animal or vegetable disguise, and lives happily with his human wife. However, the heroine's sisters begin to envy her and try to replace her.
Motifs The husband's identity According to linguist Nicolaus Adriani, the husband in these stories may appear in the shape of an animal (like an ape, an iguana, a hound, a pig, or a buffalo), even a coconut or a lame-bodied man. However, this is merely a disguise he discards to become a beautiful person.
Variants Indonesia Princess Gulungi-luri In a tale from the Loda language titled Ngo Pitiri-Gulungi-luri (Dutch: Prinses Gulungi-luri, English: "Princess Gulungi-luri"), a wellkeeper goes to fetch water by the sea and finds an iguana she brings home in a box. Back home, she prepares dishes for herself; the iguana crawls out of the box, removes its reptile skin and becomes a handsome youth. Nearby in a flying palace, lives the king of the Rising of the Sun (or "of the East") with his seven daughters. The iguana asks the wellkeeper to court one of the princesses for him. She goes to the palace and asks each of the princess which will be the iguana's bride: the six elders refuse, save for the youngest. The wellkeeper reports back to the iguana, who goes to take an evening bath as a human being: his toenails are of a golden colour, his fingernails of silver; and his finger and toes are like gemstones. When he is not bathing, he visits the seventh princess at night. Seven days later, he says he is going on a journey on a ship named IJzer for seven nights. After he leaves, the six elder princesses put a plan in motion: they invite their cadette to cut some bamboos with them, and shove her into a pit. The king learns of this and rescues his youngest daughter. Next, the princesses take her to a swing and push her so hard she flies off into the ocean. Fortunately, the princess has on her sarong an areca nut and an egg the Iguana, her husband, gave her: the areca nut becomes an areca tree and a rooster hatches out of the egg. The princess climbs on top of the tree and stays under the rooster's wings. The rooster crows seven times about how princess Gulungi-luri has drowned, which is seen by the Iguana in the distance. The rooster crows seven times again and flies to Iguana's boat to alert him. The Iguana approaches the tree and rescues his wife, then hides her in a golden basket. He then docks his boat on the seashore and finds his six sisters-in-law waiting for him, thinking their brother-in-law is free to choose one of them. The Iguana, in human form, asks the princesses to lie down on the beach and stay still, while the brings the ship to shore. The Iguana carries his boat over their bodies and crushes his sisters-in-law. Princess Gulungi-luri then disembarks. Accessed 28 July 2023.
Molek In an Indonesian tale from Riau Province titled Molek (in the original, Si Molek dan Tanara), a couple have seven daughters of marriageable age, the youngest and seventh, Molek, the most beautiful. Many have come to court and marry them, but the girls reject them. One day, however, a fish named Jerawan appears to propose marriage to one of the girls. Their parents ask them which will choose the fish: the six elders refuse him, but Molek agrees to go with the fish, thus they marry. Although she is mocked for marrying a fish, she loves her husband, but, some time later, decides to discover where her husband does all day, so she follows the fish one day to the forest. The fish goes behind a bush, and out emerges a handsome youth; he goes to the beach, joins a crew on a sailboat and goes to fish in the ocean. Molek discovers her husband's true form and true profession, and decides to keep it a secret, until one day she goes behind the bush and takes the fish skin to hide it. She stays in the bush waiting for Jerawan, and he returns at night, finding his human wife with his fish skin. Molek asks him not to hide himself behind a fish skin anymore, and, although theirs is a happy marriage, she is endlessly mocked by her sisters, so she would like to show them his true form. The man agrees to live as human for now on, and says his name is Tanara. Some time later, after Tanara remains human, Molek's elder sisters nurture jealousy towards their cadette, since they wished to marry him. One day, Tanara goes on a long journey, and Molek's elder sisters plot the perfect moment to get rid of her. Years later, when Tanara is ready to come back, Molek's sisters pay her a visit and suggest they sail on small boats to wait for Tanara out in the open sea. After playing and splashing in the water, the girls abandon Molek on a small boat and make their way to the shore. Molek, adrift at sea, tries to paddle her small boat somewhere, but she faints, exhausted from her efforts. Meanwhile, Tanara's ships, filled with gold, silver and jewels, are nearing the shore, when they sight a small boat with a woman inside. They rescue the castaway and bring her up to Tanara's quarters. Tanara recognizes the castaway as his wife, Molek, and she reveals her sisters' ploy against her. After listening to her tale, he plans to teach a lesson to his sisters-in-law: he asks some men to hide Molek in a box, to keep her survival a secret, then comes to port. He is greeted by people, and goes up to his sisters-in-law's house, where they are expecting him with their best dresses and the best food, hoping to draw his attentions. Tanara takes a seat and tells his adventures to them, and, lastly, about a woman he found adrift at sea, then bids his wife enter and sit beside him. The girls look at the woman and realize she is their sister Molek, safe after all. The girls feel ashamed for their deed, and Tanara swears he will not pursue any revenge against them.
King Baung