"The Golden Bird" (German: Der goldene Vogel) is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm about the pursuit of a golden bird by a gardener's three sons. The Grimms included it as Tale 57 (KHM 57) in the very first volume of their famous collection, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen, KHM).
It is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as type ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess", a folktale type that involves a supernatural helper (animal as helper). Other tales of this type include "The Bird 'Grip'", "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener", "Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf", "How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon", and "The Nunda, Eater of People".
Origin A similar version of the story was previously collected in 1808 and published as Die weisse Taube ("The White Dove"), provided by Gretchen Wild and published along The Golden Bird in the first edition of the Brothers Grimm compilation. In the original tale, the youngest son of the king is known as Dümmling,Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1-60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 503–504. a typical name for naïve or foolish characters in German fairy tales.Grimm, Jacob & Grimm, Wilhelm; Taylor, Edgar; Cruikshank, George (illustrator). Grimm's Goblins: Grimm's Household Stories. London: R. Meek & Co.. 1877. p. 289. In newer editions that restore the original tale, he is known as "The Simpleton".Grimm, Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm, JACK ZIPES, and ANDREA DEZSÖ. "THE SIMPLETON." In The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition, 207–15. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2014. Accessed August 13, 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctt6wq18v.71.
Synopsis
Every year, a king's apple tree is robbed of one golden apple during the night. He sets his gardener's sons to watch, and though the first two fall asleep, the youngest stays awake and sees that the thief is a golden bird. He tries to shoot it, but only knocks a feather off.
The feather is so valuable that the king decides he must have the bird. He sends his gardener's three sons, one after another, to capture the priceless golden bird. The sons each meet a talking fox, who gives them advice for their quest: to choose an old and shabby inn over a rich and pleasant one. The first two sons ignore the advice and, in the pleasant inn, abandon their quest. The third son obeys the fox, so the fox advises him to take the bird in its wooden cage from the castle in which it lives, instead of putting it into the golden cage next to it, because this is a signal. But he disobeys, and the golden bird rouses the castle, resulting in his capture. The king of the castle agrees to spare him and give him the golden bird only if he can retrieve the golden horse. The fox advises him to use a dark gray leather saddle rather than a golden one which is a signal again, but he fails again by putting a golden saddle on a horse, resulting in his capture by a different castle. This castle's king sent him after the princess from the golden castle. The fox advises him not to let her say farewell to her parents, but he disobeys, and the princess's father orders him to remove a hill in eight days as the price of his life. The fox removes it for him, and then, as they set out, he advises the son how to keep all the things he has won since then. It then asks the son to shoot it and cut off its head. When the son refuses, it warns him against buying gallows' flesh and sitting on the edge of rivers.
He finds that his older brothers, who have been carousing and living sinfully in the meantime, are to be hanged (on the gallows) and buys their liberty. They find out what he has done. When he sits on a river's edge, they push him in, take the bird, horse and princess and bring them to their father. However, all three grieve for the youngest son. The fox rescues the prince, and when he returns to his father's castle dressed in a beggar's cloak, the bird, the horse, and the princess all recognize him as the man who won them, and become cheerful again. His older brothers get punished for their bad deeds, and he marries the princess.
Finally, at the request of the fox, the third son cuts the head off of the fox. The fox is revealed to be a man, the brother of the princess who had been enchanted by a witch after being lost for a great many years.
Analysis The tale type is characterized by a chain of quests, one after the other, that the hero must fulfill before he takes the prizes to his father. In many variants, the first object is the bird that steals the golden apples from the king's garden; in others, it is a magical fruit or a magical plant, which sets up the next parts of the quest: the horse and the princess.Sorlin, Evelyne. "Le Thème de la tristesse dans les contes AaTh 514 et 550". In: Fabula 30, Jahresband (1989): 285–288. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1989.30.1.279
The animal helper
The helper of the hero differs between versions: usually a fox or a wolf in most versions, but very rarely there is another type of animal, like a lion,"Der Goldvogel". In: Löwis of Menar, August von. Finnische und estnische Volksmärchen. Jena: Eugen Diederichs. 1922. pp. 12–16. a bear"Der Vogel Phönix". In: Wolf, Johann Wilhelm. Deutsche Hausmärchen. Göttingen/Leipzig: 1851. pp. 229–242. or a hare."The Golden Bird and the Good Hare". In: Groome, Francis Hindes. Gypsy folk-tales. London: Hurst and Blackett. 1899. pp. 182–187. In some variants, it is a grateful dead who helps the hero as return for a good deed of the protagonist.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1-60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 503–515.
In a variant collected in Austria, by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle (Der Vogel Phönix, das Wasser des Lebens und die Wunderblume, or "The Phoenix Bird, the Water of Life and the Most beautiful Flower"),Zingerle, Ignaz und Zingerle, Joseph. Kinder- und Hausmärchen aus Süddeutschland. Regensburg: F. Pustet. 1854. pp. 157–172. the tale begins with the motif of the birth of twin wonder-children, akin to "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird". Cast away from home, the twins grow up and take refuge in their (unbeknownst to them) father's house. Their aunt asks for the titular items, and the fox who helps the hero is his mother's reincarnation.The Pleasant Nights. Volume 1. Edited with Introduction and Commentaries by Donald Beecher. Translated by W. G. Waters. University of Toronto Press. 2012. p. 598.
In a Polish variant by Oskar Kolberg, O królewiczu i jego przyjacielu, kruku ("About the prince and his friend, the Raven"), a raven, sent by a mysterious hermit, helps a prince in his quest for a golden bird. The hero continues his quest for a golden-haired princess, then for a golden-maned horse.Kolberg, Oskar. Lud: Jego zwyczaje, sposób życia, mowa, podania, przysłowia, obrzędy, gusła, zabawy, pieśni, muzyka i tańce. Serya VIII. Kraków: w drukarni Dr. Ludwika Gumplowicza. 1875. pp. 48–52.
In a Hungarian variant translated by Michel Klimo as L'Oiseau de Feu, the hero is a poor farmer's youngest son, named Ladislas. His helper is a "ours d'argent" (silver bear). They quest for the firebird (which has been taking his father's flowers), the silver-maned horse from the "roi de fer" ("Iron King") and the daughter of the Fairy Queen.Klimo, Michel. Contes et légendes de Hongrie. Les littératures populaires de toutes les nations. Traditions, légendes, contes, chansons, proverbes, devinettes, superstitïons. Tome XXXVI. Paris: J. Maisonneuve. 1898. pp. 259–265.
The bird as the object of the quest The character of the Golden Bird has been noted to resemble the mythological phoenix bird.Grimm, Jacob & Grimm, Wilhelm; Taylor, Edgar; Cruikshank, George (illustrator). Grimm's Goblins: Grimm's Household Stories. London: R. Meek & Co.. 1877. p. 289. In this regard, according to Johannes Bolte, Jiri Polívka and , in many variants the hero quests for the Phoenix bird.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1–60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 503–515.
However, in Oriental and Southeastern Europe variants, the phoenix bird is replaced altogether by a nightingale. In tales from the Middle East and Turkey, the bird's name is Hezārān Nightingale.Boratav, Pertev Naili. "The Tale and the Epico-Novelistic Narrative". In: Dégh, Linda. Studies In East European Folk Narrative. American Folklore Society, 1978. p. 19. August Leskien explained that the Hazaran bird may appear in Albanian tales as Gisar, and both names derive from the Persian word hezâr ('a thousand'), although the name may be translated as "a thousand songs" or "a thousand voices".Leskien, August. Balkanmärchen. Jena: Eugen Diederichs, 1915. p. 326.
The Golden Bird of the Brothers Grimm tale can be seen as a counterpart to the Firebird of Slavic folklore, a bird said to possess magical powers and a radiant brilliance, in many fairy tales.Ralston, William Ralston Shedden. Russian fairy tales: a choice collection of Muscovite folk-lore. New York: Pollard & Moss. 1887. pp. 288–292. The Slavic Firebird can also be known by the name OhnivakHarding, Emily J. Fairy tales of the Slav peasants and herdsmen. London: G. Allen. 1886. pp. 265–292. Zhar BirdPyle, Katherine. Fairy Tales of Many Nations. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. 1911. pp. 118–139. or Bird Zhar;Bain, R. Nisbet. Cossack fairy tales and folk tales. London : G.G. Harrap & Co.. 1916. pp. 95–104. Glowing Bird,"Tzarevich Ivan, the Glowing Bird and the Grey Wolf" In: Wheeler, Post. Russian wonder tales: with a foreword on the Russian skazki. London: A. & C. Black. 1917. pp. 93–118. or The Bird of Light.Russian Folk-Tales by Alexander Nikolaevich Afanasyev. Translated by Leonard Arthur Magnus. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company. 1916. pp. 78–90.
Sometimes, the king or the hero's father send the hero on his quest for the bird to cure him of his illness or blindness, instead of finding out who has been destroying his garden and/or stealing his precious golden apples.Bolte, Johannes; Polívka, Jiri. Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- u. hausmärchen der brüder Grimm. Erster Band (NR. 1-60). Germany, Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1913. pp. 503–515. Under this lens, the tale veers close to ATU 551, "The Water of Life" (The Sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father), also collected by the Brothers Grimm.Hyltén-Cavallius, Gunnar Olof och Stephens, George. Svenska Folk-Sagor och Äfventyr. Förste Delen. Stockholm: pa A. Bohlins Förlag. 1844. pp. 151–152.