Dragon-Child and Sun-Child () is an Armenian fairy tale. The tale is part of the more general cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom,Holbek, Bengt; Lindow, John. "König Lindwurm (AaTh 433, 433 A–C)". In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Band 8: Klerus – Maggio. Edited by Rudolf Wilhelm Brednich; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Helge Gerndt; Lutz Röhrich. De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 160. . https://www.degruyter.com/database/EMO/entry/emo.8.037/html and is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as tale type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm", a type that deals with maidens disenchanting serpentine husbands. In the Armenian variants of the tale type, however, the story continues with the adventures of the banished heroine, who meets a cursed man, rescues and marries him, and eventually is found by her first husband, the snake prince whom she disenchanted before.
Sources The tale was originally published by ethnologue and clergyman Karekin Servantsians in the compilation Hamov-Hotov, in 1884, with the title "ՕՁԷՄԱՆՈՒԿ, ԱՐԵՒՄԱՆՈՒԿ" (Armenian: "Ojmanuk, Arevmanuk").Garegin Sruandzteantsʻ. Hamov hotov, Volume 2. Tparan "Arakʻs" Tʻopʻalean eghb., 1949. pp. 209ff. Author Frédéric Macler later translated it to French as Enfant-Serpent, Enfant-Soleil. The tale was also translated to English as Dragon-Child and Sun-Child by A. G. Seklemian and as Snake Child Otsamanuk and Arevamanuk, who Angered the Sun.
Summary A king has no children, and even the doctors cannot help him. One day, while on a hunt, he sees a snake with its young and sighs that even a serpent has its young. God answers his prayers and the queen gives birth to a monster, half-human, half-snake. The monarch places his son in a well and feeds him with goat's milk. In time, he grows larger, and begins to demand meat for his nourishment. Thus, the king begins to send humans to be devoured every week, first girls, then maidens. It happens to every family in town, until the lot falls on a family consisting of a widower, his daughter, his second wife, and his stepdaughter.
Both spouses argue about whom to send, and his wife insists his own daughter girl should be given as the sacrifice this time to the snake monster, called Dragon-child, instead of her own daughter. The girl cries to God for an answer. In her dreams, a voice talks to her to give her advice: her father should prepare three pots of milk, she should wear a mule (or bull's) skin and be suspended over a well; the snake will ask her to take off her garments, and she should thrice answer the snake prince must first take off his garments first; she should then cut the rope that ties her, jump into the well and wash the prince with the milk.
When she wakes up, she relays the instructions to her father, and is given the provisions. She is lowered down the well and faces the Dragon-child, insisting he removes his snakeskin first. The creature does and becomes a handsome youth. Realizing the dream was right, the girl quickly cuts up the bull's skin to continue the process, but in a hurry she accidentally tumbles down and breaks part of her front teeth. Stopping at nothing, the girl douses the prince in the milk, and releases him from his serpentine curse. The girl's father, overlooking the events from the rim of the well, rushes to tell the monarchs the good news. The king and queen hurry to the well and rope their son and the girl out of the pit, the prince now a human youth. Rejoicing in this fact, the monarchs marry the prince to the girl.
One day, the now human Dragon-child goes to war, but before he departs he leaves his wife under his mother's care, warning her to not let her out of their sight. While he is away, the girl's stepmother devises a wicked plan to destroy her, for her fortunate marriage: she tries to talk to the queen about letting the girl visit their family at least for a day, which the queen denies. The stepmother then sends her husband, the girl's father, on her behalf, and the queen attends his request. The Dragon-Child's wife is sent to her family house and the stepmother invites her for a bath in the sea. The woman then shoves the princess into the open sea, and dresses her own daughter as the princess to trick the snake prince.
As for the girl, she holds on to some flotsam and is washed away by the waves. She washes ashore on a beach, naked and tired, and weaves some clothes out of moss. In her long wanderings, she finds a cottage with a man asleep inside. The man awakens from his sleep and sights the maiden. She tells him her story, and he explains his own situation: he lived a very dissipate and arrogante life with no care in the world. one day, on a hunt, he was desperate to find some game, and decided to shoot the Sun itself, who became enraged for this affront and cursed the man, called Sun-Child, never to see sunlight again. Thus, Sun-Child can only leave the cottage at night to forage and hunt for food, lest he leaves it in the daylight and promptly dies.
The girl and Sun-Child fall into a routine, she becomes his companion, and eventually becomes pregnant. Sun-Child decides to send the girl to his parents' castle for her to give birth in safety, with a letter urging his parents not to look for him, for he is cursed. Sun-Child accompanies the girl to his parents' castle, avoiding the light of the Sun, then returns to the cottage. His parents welcome her as their son's wife and she gives birth to his son. Sun-Child's parents wish to rescue him, but the girl dissuades them. On some nights, while the girl is rocking the child with a lullaby, she hears a voice in the distance, singing to his son, despite the danger of his curse. Sun-Child 's parents also listen to the song, which the girl explains it is Sun-Child's voice, but they do not believe her at first, so they decide to catch the stranger. On another night, they discover it is indeed their son, Sun-Child, but he begs to be released, due to his curse.
The next morning, the sun's rays touch Sun-Child, and he falls dead, and still lies in that state after sunset, to everyone's horror. His parents mourn for the son they lost again, until his mother has a dream about having to travel on iron shoes and with an iron cane towards the West, and walk until the iron apparel is worn out. The woman wakes up, commissions the iron garments and begins her journey towards the West, passing by the lands of white men, black men, red men, and all sorts of animals and magical creatures, like fairies and djinns. She finally arrives at a palace made of blue marble. She enters the palace and finds a Queen dressed in shining garments.
The Queen says no mortal soul is allowed in Heaven, but senses her visitor is a person with a dire reason for her journey. The woman explains the reason for her journey, and the Queen says Sun-Child is an evil man, for he tried to kill the life-giving Sun, who is her son. Still, for her plight, the Queen advises the grieving human mother to take some of the water of the pond where he Sun bathes after his return, for it will revive Sun-Child. After the Sun returns, Sun-Child's mother hides behind a counter, then fetches some of his bathwater, and returns to revive Sun-Child.
Reports of her story reach far and wide. Back to Dragon-child, he returns from the wars and notices his wife is missing, with someone else in her place, for his wife has a golden tooth to cover her missing teeth, while the impostor does not. For this, Dragon-child journeys to Sun-Child and his mother's lands in hopes of getting his help. Dragon-child and Sun-Child break bread and become friends, and he recognizes his wife at the dinner table for her golden tooth. Dragon-child and Sun-Child decide to prepare a test for the person the girl will choose as her husband: they feed her very salty meat, and the person she asks for water shall be her husband. It happens thus, and the trio ride a bit in the fields. Suddenly, the girl shouts for "Sun-Child", but Dragon-child attends to her first, quenching her thirst. The girl tells Sun-Child to keep their son, while she leaves with Dragon-child back to their kingdom.RUSSELL, J. R. "Problematic Snake Children of Armenia". In: Revue des Études Arméniennes Vol. 25, 1994-1995, pp. 90-91.
Analysis Tale type The first part of the Armenian tale type corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm": a serpent (snake, or dragon) son is born to a king and queen (either from a birthing implement or due to a wish); years later, the serpent prince wishes to marry, but he kills every bride they bring him; a girl is brought to him as a prospective bride, and wears several layers of cloth to parallel the serpent's skins; she disenchants him.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. 148. Tale type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm", is part of the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom, stories that involve a human maiden marrying a prince in animal form and disenchanting him.
In a 1991 article, researcher noted a combination between tale type 433, "The Prince as Serpent" (called Odzmanuk in Armenian variants), and an independent type indexed as type 446, "Муж, умирающий на день" (English: "Husband that dies during the day"). In the latter type, a youth named Arevmanuk ("Sun Youth") tries to shoot at the Sun, who, annoyed at this provocation, curses him to sleep during the day and never see the sun again; Arevmanuk's mother, then, travels to the Sun in order to reverse the curse. Gullakian stated that, when this type combines with type 433, it retains the youth cursed to die during the day, but removes the Sun's curse and the youth's mother's journey.Гуллакян, С. А. "О сюжетном составе репертуара армянских волшебных и новеллистических сказок". In: "Советская этнография". № 6 (1991): 129-130. When both types are combined, in the second part, the wife of the serpent prince meets another man, whose name may be Arevmanuk, Arin-Armanelin, or Aliksannos.Hayrapetyan Tamar. "Combinaisons archétipales dans les epopees orales et les contes merveilleux armeniens". Traduction par Léon Ketcheyan. In: Revue des etudes Arméniennes tome 39 (2020). pp. 472-473, 474-476.