Devojka postala iz pomaranče (English: The Maiden Out of the Oranges) is a Croatian fairy tale, first collected by poet and linguist from Varaždin. It is classified as tale type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. As with The Three Oranges, the tale deals with a prince's search for a bride that lives inside a fruit, who is replaced by a false bride and goes through a cycle of incarnations, until she regains physical form again.
Summary
In this tale, a young lord wishes to marry, but cannot find a bride. However, he hears about the orange tree at the garden of an emperor, from where he can get a bride. On the road, he meets an old lady, who instructs him how to get the fruits from the garden: there are only three guards at the emperor's garden who rest at midday, so the prince can simply get the oranges when the guards are asleep. The young lord does as instructed and steals three oranges. On the road back, he cuts open the first fruit, releasing a naked maiden that asks for a mirror, a comb and some water. The lord has none with him, so the maiden dies. He opens the second orange, releasing another maiden that asks for the same items, and dies for not getting them. Finally, the lord buys a mirror and a comb, and opens the last fruit: a third naked maiden appears, to whom he gives the mirror and the comb, which she uses on herself.
Noticing the orange maiden is naked, the prince asks her to stay there while he goes to find some clothes. An old gypsy woman appears and sticks a pin on the maiden's head, turning her into a bird, and replaces her. When the lord comes back, she says that the sun darkened her skin. The lord brings her back to his house, and his friends complain that she is not white as he described, but of a darker complexion. As for the true orange maiden, in dove form, she lives amid some pigeons, when the false bride realizes the bird is the orange maiden and asks the lord to capture and cook the animal, so she can eat its meat and regain strength.
The lord spares the bird, hiding it from the gypsy's eyes, and kills another bird instead, which the gypsy eats with relish. The lord feeds and pets the little bird in secret, and notices a pin on its head. He takes it off, and the bird turns back into the orange maiden. The lord then assembles other lords and asks the false bride what should be a fitting punishment to someone; the false bride answers that execution by horse, and it is exactly what happens to her, who is tied to some horses. The young lord then marries the orange maiden in a grand ceremony.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges".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. 135-137. In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, scholar Christine Shojaei Kawan separated the tale type into six sections, and stated that parts 3 to 5 represented the "core" of the story:
(1) A prince is cursed by an old woman to seek the fruit princess; (2) The prince finds helpers that guide him to the princess's location; (3) The prince finds the fruits (usually three), releases the maidens inside, but only the third survives; (4) The prince leaves the princess up a tree near a spring or stream, and a slave or servant sees the princess's reflection in the water; (5) The slave or servant replaces the princess (transformation sequence); (6) The fruit princess and the prince reunite, and the false bride is punished.
Motifs The maiden's appearance According to the tale description in the international index, the maiden may appear out of the titular citrus fruits, like oranges and lemons. However, she may also come out of pomegranates or other species of fruits, and even eggs.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. 135. According to Walter Anderson's unpublished manuscript, variants with eggs instead of fruits appear in Southeastern Europe.Ranke, Kurt. Folktales of Germany. Routledge & K. Paul. 1966. p. 209. . In addition, Christine Shojaei-Kawan located the motif of the heroine emerging from the eggs in Slavic texts.
The transformations and the false bride The tale type is characterized by the substitution of the fairy wife for a false bride. The usual occurrence is when the false bride (a witch or a slave) sticks a magical pin into the maiden's head or hair and she becomes a dove. In some tales, the fruit maiden regains her human form and must bribe the false bride for three nights with her beloved.Gulyás Judit (2010). "Henszlmann Imre bírálata Arany János Rózsa és Ibolya című művéről". In: Balogh Balázs (főszerk). Ethno-Lore XXVII. Az MTA Neprajzi Kutatóintezetenek évkönyve. Budapest, MTA Neprajzi Kutatóintezete (Sajtó aatt). pp. 250-253.
In other variants, the maiden goes through a series of transformations after her liberation from the fruit and regains a physical body. In that regard, according to Christine Shojaei-Kawan's article, Christine Goldberg divided the tale type into two forms. In the first subtype, indexed as AaTh 408A, the fruit maiden suffers the cycle of metamorphosis (fish-tree-human) - a motif Goldberg locates "from the Middle East to Italy and France"Goldberg, Christine. "Imagery and Cohesion in the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)". In: Folk-Narrative and World View. Vortage des 10. Kongresses der Internationalen Gesellschaft fur Volkserzahlungsforschung (ISFNR) - Innsbruck 1992. I. Schneider and P. Streng (ed.). Vol. I, 1996. p. 211. (especifically, it appears in Greece and Eastern Europe). In the second subtype, AaTh 408B, the girl is transformed into a dove by the needle.Shojaei-Kawan, Christine (2004). "Reflections on International Narrative Research on the Example of the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)". In: Folklore (Electronic Journal of Folklore), XXVII, p. 35.
Separated from her husband, she goes to the palace (alone or with other maidens) to tell tales to the king. She shares her story with the audience and is recognized by him.Angelopoulos, Anna and Kaplanoglou, Marianthi. "Greek Magic Tales: aspects of research in Folklore Studies and Anthropology". In: FF Network. 2013; Vol. 43. p. 15.
Variants Tales about oranges In a Croatian tale from Pazina v Istri with the title Svrha treh naranač ("The Purpose of the Three Oranges"), an old lady goes to fetch some oil in an eggshell, but a botegar mocks her for it. For this, the old lady hopes God curses him with the "purpose of the three oranges". Another old lady comes to fetch oil in an eggshell and the botegar mentions the incident to her. The second old lady then advises him to go up a certain mountain, where he will find the three oranges inside a house that belongs to fairies, but he is to carry some grease (to use on some iron gates), some food for a cat, and a broom to give to some ladies cleaning the place. The botegar does as the old lady instructed, fetches the three oranges and escapes the house of the fairies, who command their servants to stop him, to no avail. He walks along the path and cuts open one of the oranges, releasing a maiden that asks for water. Since he has none with him, the maiden dies. At another part of the road, he opens the second orange, releasing a maiden that asks for water, but dies for not getting any to drink. Finally, the botegar reaches a water body and releases a third maiden from the last orange, to whom he gives water. She survives, but he notices she is naked and leaves her up a tree, while he goes back home to fetch some clothes for her. While he is away, an old woman's daughters come to draw water and see the orange maiden's reflection in the water, mistaking it for their own. The girls' mother goes to check herself and finds the orange maiden atop the tree. She questions the maiden about her presence there, and sticks a pin in her head, turning her into a bird. As the botegar appears, the old woman places her eldest daughter to pose as the orange maiden, and lies to him that the sun and the wind burnt her skin. Still, the botegar takes her to his house and arranges a grand wedding. However, the little bird appears in the kitchen to ask the cook about the false bride and the botegar and curses the food to the overcooked. It happens thus. The bird returns twice to pester the cook, and he goes to complain to the botegar. The cook reports the incident, and the botegar wishes to see it for himself. He goes to the kitchen and finds the little bird, then takes it with him back to the wedding table, where the false bride is waiting. The false bride is clearly upset with the bird's presence, while the botegar simply pets the little animal. He takes off the pin from the bird's head and it turns back to the orange maiden. She tells the whole story to the botegar. The false bride is forcibly undressed and taken to a field to be executed by burning, while the true orange maiden marries the botegar.
In a Croatian tale from Varazdin with the title Putnik Ferko, a traveller named Ferko wants to drink some water, but cannot find a well anywhere. A man directs him to a certain town, in a certain village, where an old woman in a house has three oranges that will sate his thirst, but he is to take some objects with him to use on seven gates, and some bread to throw to the cats and dogs that guard her. Ferko does as instructed and knocks on the old woman's door. He steals the three oranges and rushes back, passing by the guardians. The old woman commands the animals and the gates to stop him, to no avail, since he has done them a good deed. On the road, Ferko decides to check on the contents of the fruits, and cuts open the first one: a beautiful maiden appears to him, asking for food, drink and some nice clothes, but, since he has nothing on him, she vanishes. Ferko cuts open the second one and again a maiden comes out of it, asking for food, drink and clothes, but vanishes. Ferko then runs to a tavern, arranges some food, drink and clothes before he cuts open the last fruit, and releases the third maiden. The third maiden survives and lives with Ferko. Some time later, Ferko has to go on a journey, and asks a shepherd to look after the girl and not let her go out in the sun, because she is white. Some time after Ferko leaves, the orange maiden wishes to leave for a while, and goes to rest under an oak tree. She climbs some branches of the oak tree to rest, and sees a gypsy woman coming to draw water from the well near the oak tree. The gypsy woman spots the orange maiden and convinces her to come down the tree. The gypsy woman then sticks a pin in the orange maiden's head, and places her own daughter in the maiden's bed to wait for Ferko. When the youth returns, he notices his bride is now dark-skinned, and complains to the shepherd he let her out in the sun. As for the orange maiden, she becomes a tit, flies in next to the window and rocks Ferko's sleep by telling him to sleep, but not next to the gypsy. Ferko asks the shepherd to capture the bird and cage it. The false bride feigns illness and asks to eat the bird. The cook prepares another bird and spares the tit. Ferko suspects there is something with the bird and notices the pin on it; he removes it and restores the orange maiden to human form, but she dies. Ferko asks the false bride how should they punish one that has done evil to a beautiful creature, and the gypsy answers that they should be tied to horses which are to be let loose. The gypsy is thus punished so.