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The Tale of the Woodcutter and his Daughters

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The Tale of the Woodcutter and his Daughters (German: Die Geschichte von dem Holzhauer und seinen Töchtern) is an Egyptian folktale related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom.

Source

German orientalist Enno Littmann collected this tale from an informant named Maḥmûd, who heard the story in Giza.[1]

Summary

A poor woodcutter finds a horse drinking rosewater and eating almond nuts. To his surprise, the horse defecates money. The woodcutter becomes rich, buys a palace and marries his two elder daughters to princes, while the youngest prefers the company of the strange horse. The horse gives her beautiful, gem-encrusted garments to wear at her sisters' weddings, which draws the attention of the queen. The woodcutter's youngest daughter betrays the horse's secret and he departs.

The girl, named "Herrin der Schönheit und Anmut" ("Mistress of Beauty and Grace") falls into a state of despair, and her father opens a public bath house for everyone to share stories. One day, an old spinner and her daughter go to the bath house and tell the girl about a strange scene: on a certain night, she saw a rooster screaming, and a man on a ship lamenting over a betrayed secret. The girl asks to be taken to that place. The three women arrive, and a see a hen singing a joyous tune, while the man appears on his ship, still lamenting over his secret. The girl goes to him and asks for his forgiveness. He explains he is a king, and that his mother wants to marry him to a princess.

The man then takes the human girl to meet his mother. He tells her she is a servant, and the mother forces the girl to do chores for her son's upcoming wedding: to separate a heap of mixed cereals (beans, wheat, corn and barley) and to clean her palace with a beaded cloth and a broom decorated with pearls and emeralds. For the first task, the king whistles and the birds come to separate the cereal grains for her, and commands his servants to clean the palace instead of her. His mother later talks to him in private about the girl, and he reveals the whole story. The mother admits that, if he loves her, and she loves him, she sees no problem in signing the marriage contract between them. They celebrate their wedding.[2]

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or the Search for the Lost Husband. Scholar Hasan M. El-Shamy classified the tale, according to the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, as types ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch", and ATU 425D, "The Vanished Husband".[3]

Type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch", is considered by scholarship to correspond to the ancient Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, that is, the supernatural husband's mother forces the heroine, her daughter-in-law, to perform difficult and impossible tasks for her.[4]

In tale type ATU 425D, "The Vanished Husband", after betraying her supernatural husband's secret, she builds an inn, hospital or bath house to listen to passers-by's stories. One day, she listens to a person's narration about a flock of birds transforming into men in a place somewhere. The heroine recognizes it is about her husband and asks to be taken there.[5][6]

Variants

Syria

In a Syrian tale collected by Uwe Kuhr with the title Seepferd ("Sea-Horse"), a king is gifted a wonderful horse "from the sea" by a strange man. The king parades his horse to the court, and his daughters complain that they wish to see it too. The horse sees the king's youngest daughter, princess Lapislazuli, and falls in love with her. The horse begins to pine away with love for the princess. The king's advisors tell him to have the princeses feed him. Princess Lapislazuli gives the horse its fodder. The horse takes off the horsekin and becomes a handsome youth. He explains that he loves her and that he is the king of ghouls. The king tries to betroth his third daughter to any suitor, but each time his horse seems to wither away. An astrologer suggests to marry Lapislazuli to the horse. Some time later, the king wants to ride his horse in some racing contests in the city. Seepferde takes off the horseskin and tells Lapislazuli he wants to take part in the contest as a human rider, but Lapislazuli cannot tell anyone about his secret, despite being subject to her sisters' mockery. Seepferde wins the contest; his wife betrays the secret in a moment of pride, and he vanishes. Suffering for his disappearance, and builds a public bath house. One day, a poor woman and her daughter wake up in a moonlit night and reach a meadow, where a man's voice orders tables and chairs to be set, laments over a lost love named Lapislazuli and has a meal with some companions. The woman and her daughter go to the public bath house and tell the princess the story. The princess asks to be taken to the meadow. The princess watches the scene unfold before her eyes and recognizes her husband. They meet again, but Seepferde explains that he is to be married to his cousin, that his family and friends are ghouls that may devour her, but she can earn the mother's favour by suckling her breasts. Seepferde takes Lapislazuli to the ghoul village and introduces her to his mother as a servant. Seepferde's ghoul mother forces Lapislazuli to do chores for the upcoming weeding: to sweep the floor with a tiny broom in a room full of pearls, to wash a pile of dirty clothes with a tiny bar of soap, and to get a sieve from the ghoul's sister. Seepferde summons his servants to do the chores for her, and instructs her to suckle on his aunt's breasts to avoid being eaten when she goes to get the sieve. As the wedding approaches, the ghoul mother orders Lapislazuli to hold a candle on each finger and to accompany the bride to the dressing room. The princess notices that the bride's hair is smeared with oil, then enters a second room. Seepferde appears to her. She begs her husband to save her, but he lights the candles again and tells her to touch the candles to the bride's hair; while the ghouls are distracted, they will make their escape. Lapislazuli goes to the bride's dressing room and burns the bride's hair with the candles. While the ghouls try to put ou the fire, Lapislazuli and Seepferde fly back to her kingdom. Now safely away from the ghouls, the princess introduces her husband to her father and they celebrate a new wedding.[7]

In a variant collected from a Syrian refugee and published in 2015 with the title The Bewitched Camel, a woodcutter finds a camel in the forest and brings it home. He discovers that the camel produces golden eggs. One day, he takes the camel to the market. While he is selling wood, the king's daughter passes by his shop and inspects the merchandise, and the camel falls in love with her. Back home, the woodcutter's wife is told by the camel he wants to marry the princess, and the woodcutter goes to the court to convince the king. The king rebuffs the proposal, but his minister suggests he puts his prospective son-in-law to the test: to bring extraordinary things and to build a castle overnight. The camel does and marries the princess. On the wedding night, the camel reveals he is a bewitched prince, and that his secret must stay between them. One day, war comes to the kingdom and the camel-prince says he will fight as a champion wearing mustard-coloured garments. He returns home with an injury. The princess's sisters mock her marriage and she tells them the truth. The camel-prince disappears. She is advised by the minister to build a hammam (a public bathhouse), where everyone shall share stories. One day, a poor widow comes to the bathhouse and tells a story about a man coming out of the earth near a tree at night with three apples, lamenting over a lover who betrayed him. The princess notices it is her husband and goes to the place the widow described. She sees the earth cracking open and a prince comes out of it. She embraces him and he tells her that the witch cursed him to live underground. He takes her to the witch and she pretends to be a maid. The witch orders her to sweep her house with a beaded broom and not lose any bead, and to carry a heavy closed box to her sister's house in another country. The camel-prince helps his wife in both tasks: in the latter, while the wife rests a bit, the box opens on its own and snakes and monkeys leap out of it; her husband comes, draws the animals back into the box and closes it. Lastly, the witch decides to marry the camel-prince and orders the maid to dance at their wedding. The camel-prince advises his wife to ask for a lantern and a wick. The next day, during the wedding, the princess dances with the torch and the wick. The camel-prince takes the lantern and throws it at the witch. They vanquish her and return to the princess's castle.[8]

In a Syrian tale translated as Gomena, principe dei ginn ("Gomena, Prince of the Djinni"), a poor fisherman lives with his three daughters. One day, each of his daughters wants to accompany him during a fishing trip. With the first two, their father catches a few fishes for a meagre dinner. When the third goes with her father, they fish from the sea a large stone. The fisherman curses his third daughter, but she suggests they use the stone as a makeshift door. Her sisters mock her for their bad luck and she, feeling despondent, exits the house to mull over. At midnight, a handsome stranger appears to her and asks about her problems. She tells him everything, he becomes enchanted with her and they both marry. The mysterious husband creates two palaces, one for her family and another for her, but only appears to her at night. One day, she goes to the hamman for women and the women gossip about her new husband. One of the bathing women induces her to ask her husband about his name and his origins. That night, she forces the question on her husband, who tells her to get the stone at throw it back to the sea, and to wait for the sunrise. She obeys; her husband appears in the sea, slowly drowning. She insists to know his name, and shouts to him; he reveals his name is Gomena, and vanishes under the waves, and so the palaces and every treasure, save for her jewels she carried with her. She sells her jewelry and opens a hammam (a bath house), where everyone gets to bathe in exchange for a story. One night, a woman prepares to visit the hammam, but, since it is midnight and she is afraid of the ghouls, and climbs up a tree. She then sees three ginns appear, sing a song and announce the coming of Gomena; a table is set with a meal, Gomena appears and laments his lost lost. The woman goes to the bath house and tells the girl about the scene. The girl goes to the place the woman described and waits until midnight for Gomena. He appears, sings verses of yearning and sorrow, and the girl appears to him, begging for his forgiveness. Gomena explains that his parents are the rulers of the ginns, and might kills her. She insists to go with him, wherever he may go, and they depart on a magic carpet to Gomena's parents' palace. They arrive; Gomena gives his wife an almond, a nut, and a pistachio nut, to plant outside the palace for her, while he goes and talks to his parents. The girl plants each of the seeds on each night, but they are stolen overnight. Without food, she enters the ginns' service. One day, the queen of the ginns betrothes Gomena to a female ginn, and orders the girl to go to her sister, invite her for Gomena's wedding and get the box of the marching band. Gomena explains that this task is a trap: his aunt is a ghoul and will devour her, so he gives her two pieces of cow meat to throw to two ferocious dogs, get the box and escape. The human girl follows the instructions and flees from the aunt's house. She opens the box on the way back and small creatures playing instruments escape from it. Gomena gets the creatures back into the box. Next, the queen of the ginn orders the human girl to go back to the aunt's house and get from her a ceremonial carpet. She gets the carpet and unrolls it. Gomena appears to her and wrap it again, and concocts a plan with her: the human girl is to dance at the wedding, but she is to ask for two torches. The next day, during the wedding, the human girl dances with the torches, to the ginns' amazement. She then tosses one torch on the bride's lap, the other to the ginn assemblage, and escapes with Gomena on a winged horse.[9]

Assyrian people

In a tale collected from the Assyrian people with the title "Теленок" ("The [Bull] Calf"), an old couple finds a bull calf on their doorstep and take him in. Some time later, the bull calf tells his mother to ask for the princess's hand in marriage. The old woman goes to the king's court to introduce her adopted son as a potential suitor, and the king orders him to permform some tasks first: first, to build a large palace as splendid as the king's; then, to amass as much gold as silver as the king has, and lastly, to create pathways of marble decorated with fountains between the old couple's house and the king's palace. The bull calf tells her not to worry after each task is given and bids her sleep well, then turns into a human youth, rubs a ring and with a command fulfills the king's orders. The king marries the princess to the bull calf. On the wedding night, the bull calf takes off the bovine skin, becomes a human youth and in the morning wears the skin again. One day, the princess tells her mother, the queen, about her husband's true apperance, and she suggests that her daughter sits on some thorns and pretends to bake bread in front of the tandoor, and she should ask for his calfskin to sit on. The princess follows her mother's instructions and is given the animal skin, but the husband warns her she may regret it. The princess throws the skin in the fire to burn it, her husband becomes a bird and flies away to his family (mother and sisters). The princess regrets her actions, wears iron shoes and an iron cane and looks for him for years. When she notices that her iron shoes are worn out, she builds an inn, where she gives food and water to people in exchange fos news of her husband. One day, a father and duo son come to the inn and tell the princess about a strange sight: one night, the son looks for their donkeys, and sees three apples on the river; then, camels come with sacks of flour and unload in a magic mill; the flour is used to bake bread that is put on a table; the boy finds the donkeys, three pigeons sat on each, a yellow, a white and a blue one; they talk to each other about lost wives, the blue one about the princess who built an inn. After listening to the story, the princess asks to be guided to the place where the father and son saw the scene. They reach the place with the mill and dimisses the pair. She meets her husband in the mill and he warns her that his family might kill her. She says she doesn't care, so her husband takes her to his youngest sister, who is more compassionate. However, the mother-in-law discovers that the princess is there and forces her on chores. First, the human princess is to wash a piece of white wool black and to wash the blackened wool white again. With a magic command taught by her husband, she accomplishes the task. Next, the mother-in-law sends the princess to her sister to get a comb - a trap, since the aunt might devour her. Her husband warns her this task is a trap, and guides her: she is to use a command to a river of pus and blood, give the correct fodder for a lion and a horse; and get the comb in the barn. The princess gets the comb and runs back to her mother-in-law's house, as the aunt orders the horse, the lion and the river to stop her. Finally, the mother-in-law weds her son to her niece, but he kills the wife and escapes with the princess. They change shape to throw off their pursuers: first, an old man (him) and a mill (the princess); and a gardener (him) and a cucumber orchard (the princess). The husband's sisters notice the cucumber is the princess, but stay their place and go back to their mother. The princess and her husband return to her kingdom and celebrate a new wedding.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Littmann, Enno. Arabische Märchen und Schwänke aus Ägypten. Wiesbaden: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, 1955. pp. 139-140.
  2. ^ Littmann, Enno. Arabische Märchen und Schwänke aus Ägypten. Wiesbaden: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz, 1955. pp. 48-52.
  3. ^ El-Shamy, Hasan (2004). Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 203 (entry nr. 4), 204 (entry nr. 10).
  4. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. pp. 250–251. ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
  5. ^ Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 89. ISBN 0-313-25961-5.
  6. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 253. ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
  7. ^ Kuhr, Uwe. Arabische Märchen aus Syrien/Syrische Märchen. Frankfurt am Main und Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1993. Tale nr. 23.
  8. ^ Abu Risha, Zulaikha. Timeless Tales. Folktales Told by Syrian refugees. Amman: The Hakawati project publications. 2015. pp. 30-35.
  9. ^ Fiabe Persiane e Siriane. A cura di Inge Hoepfner. Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., 1997. pp. 371-382.
  10. ^ Истребитель колючек. Сказки, легенды и притчи современных ассирийцев [Fairy Tales, Legends and Parables from the Modern Assyrians]. Сост., перев. с ассир. и европ. яз. К. П. Матвеева [ru]. Отв. ред. М. С. Лазарев. М., Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1974. pp. 253–258.

Category:African fairy tales Category:Egyptian fairy tales Category:Fictional princes Category:Male characters in fairy tales Category:Female characters in fairy tales Category:Fiction about shapeshifting

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