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Dawn, Midnight and Twilight

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Dawn, Twilight and Midnight
Folk tale
NameDawn, Twilight and Midnight
Aarne–Thompson groupingATU 301 (Three Stolen Princesses)
RegionRussia
Published in
RelatedThe Three Kingdoms (fr)

Dawn, Twlight and Midnight (Russian: "Зорька, Вечорка и Полуночка") is a Russian fairy tale collected by Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev and published in his compilation Russian Fairy Tales as number 140. The tale was translated by Jeremiah Curtin and published in Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe.[1]

It is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 301, "The Three Stolen Princesses".[2] This type refers to a set of stories where three heroes (or three brothers) approach a cave or hollow and send one of them down to rescue three captured princesses.

Summary

A king, Gosudar, builds an underground palace to house his daughters from any danger. Yet, they insist they leave the palace for a stroll in the garden, to see "the white world". When they do so, a strong whirlwind blows and takes them away.

The king, then, sends his men all over the kingdom, to find heroes brave enough to rescue the three princesses. An old widow's three sons decide to try their luck and heed the king's proclamation. They were called Midnight, Twilight and Dawn, named so after the time of the day when they were born.

The three siblings go their way and arrive in an abandoned hut in the forest at the edge of a desert. They soon alternate their tasks: while two hunt, the other stays at home to cook something. For three days, a man, small in stature, but strong in power, defeats the older brothers, Midnight and Twilight, but Dawn defeats the creature, who escapes to a crevisse on the mountain.

Dawn fashions a strong rope from the bark of trees and descends the hole, arriving at three palaces, of copper, silver and gold. Inside each palace, one of the kidnapped princesses and a many-headed serpent that guards her.

Dawn kills each of the evil serpents, rescues the princesses and lifts them through the rope to the upper world.

Analysis

The story belongs to a Märchen cycle of a youth that rescues three princesses from their captivity in a subterranean realm and is betrayed by his companions. He soon finds another exit to the surface, reveals his companions' deceit and marries one of the princesses,[3] although in this version, the heroic brothers work together to rescue the princesses from the pit, which is unusual for the tale type.[4]

Professor Jack V. Haney stated that the motif of triplets being born at different times of one single day occurs in East Slavic tradition.[5]

The tale is related to tale type AT 301B, Jean de l'Ours, wherein a strong man, born of a union between a bear and a human woman, meets two equally strong companions and departs to rescue three maidens, imprisoned in an underground realm.

It has also been suggested that tale types ATU 301 and Jean de l'Ours, ATU 650 ("Strong Hans"), ATU 302 ("Devil's Heart in the Egg") and ATU 554 ("The Grateful Animals") may have once comprised a single narrative, but, with time, the original story fragmented into different tale types.[6]

Translations

Journalist and children's book author Arthur Ransome published an extended and more detailed version of the story, with the name The Three Men of Power - Evening, Midnight and Sunrise.[7] He described Evening as "dusky, with brown eyes and hair" and riding a horse of a dusky brown color; Midnight as "dark, with eyes and hair as black as charcoal" and riding a black horse; and Sunrise with "hair golden as the sun, and eyes blue as morning sky", and riding a horse "as white as the clouds".[8]

Professor Jack V. Haney translated the tale as "Dawn, Evening and Midnight".[9]

Variants

Russia

Russian variants of the tale fall under the banner The Realms of Copper, Silver and Gold.[10]

Variants of the tale type are also attested with Selkup storytellers. These variants show the presence of character Koschei, the Deathless, the sorcerer of Slavic folklore, and are also classified as type ATU 302, "Devil's (Ogre's) Heart in the Egg" or ATU 313, "The Magic Flight".[11]

Romania

In Romanian variants, the three heroes are born in the same day, at different times, which gives them their names: Serilă, Mezilă and Zorilă. In these tales, the youngest brother is named Dawn and appears to be the most heroic of the three brothers.[12]

Hungary

Elisabeth Rona-Sklárek commented that the tale about a youth who rescues three maidens from the underground prison was sehr verbreitetes ("very prevalent") in Hungary.[13]

In the Hungarian tale Este, Éjfél mëg Hajnal[14] or Abend, Mitternacht und Morgendämmerung ("Evening, Midnight and Daybreak"), a childless couple pray for a son. An old lady instructs the wife to eat however many beans she can find in her house. The woman finds three beans and eats them, giving birth to three boys: one at night, the second at midnight and the third at the break of dawn. The three brothers grow up very quickly and seek a job opportunity with the king, who sends them to rescue his three daughters. When the brothers camp out in the woods, a small creature defeats the two older brothers but is defeated by Daybreak. The usual story follows: Daybreak rescues the three princesses, is betrayed by his brothers, escapes to the upper world on the back of an eagle. At the end of the tale, he forgives his older brothers.[15]

In the tale Hajnal, Vacsora és Éjféle ("Dawn, Night and Midnight"), an old woman gives birth to three boys, each named after the time of the day they were born. When they are of age, the king orders the youths to rescue his three daughters, otherwise they may lose their heads. The three brothers traverse a silver forest and a diamond forest until they reach a hole in the ground. The two brothers, with the help of a gypsy boy, begin to descend but feel afraid and climb back. Hajnal descends the rope and reaches three castles: the first guarded by an iron gate and two lions; the second by a stone walls and a pair of bears, and the third made entirely of marble and guarded by two elephants. After he is abandoned by his brothers and a gypsy boy, Hajnal has further adventures in the underworld and gains a three-legged horse. With the horse, he manages to reach the surface and the king's city.[16]

In a variant by Gyorgy Gaal, Három Királyleány ("The Three Princesses"), the titular three princesses ask their father to stroll in the garden. When they are exposed, a dragon comes out of the water and takes them. Meanwhile, three brothers, Estve ("Night"), Éjfél ("Midnight") and Hajnal ("Dawn") comment with their mother the occurrence. Hajnal asks his mother to go to king and convince him to construct a large chain, which the youth intends to use to reach the princesses in their underground prison. Hajnal climbs down the chain and arrives at three palaces, one of copper, the second of silver and the third of gold, each housing one of the princesses and her serpentine captor. After Hajnal defeats the monsters, each princess transforms her respective palace into an apple, and follows Hajnal back to the surface.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Curtin, Jeremiah. Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe. New York, McBride, Nast & Company. 1914. pp. 15-23. [1]
  2. ^ The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. Edited by Haney Jack V. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. pp. 491-510. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.115.
  3. ^ Gonzenbach, Laura. Sicilianische Märchen. Leipzig: Engelmann. 1870. p. 238.
  4. ^ The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. Edited by Haney Jack V. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. pp. 491-510. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.115.
  5. ^ The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. Edited by Haney Jack V. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. pp. 491-510. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.115.
  6. ^ Frank, R. M. (2019). "Translating a Worldview in the longue durée: The Tale of 'The Bear's Son'". In: Głaz A. (eds). Languages – Cultures – Worldviews. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 68-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28509-8_3
  7. ^ Ransome, Arthur. Old Peter's Russian tales. London, New York: Thomas Nelson and sons. 1916. pp. 269-293.
  8. ^ Ransome, Arthur. Old Peter's Russian tales. London, New York: Thomas Nelson and sons. 1916. pp. 274-275.
  9. ^ The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas’ev. Volume I. Edited by Haney, Jack V. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. pp. 317-320. doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qhm7n.90.
  10. ^ Afanasyev, Alexander (1916). Magnus, Leonard A. (ed.). Russian Folk-Tales. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.. pp. 225-229.
  11. ^ Терещенко, А. В. [Tereshchenko, A. V.]. "ФОЛЬКЛОРНЫЙ СЮЖЕТ «ТРИ ЦАРСТВА» В СОПОСТАВИТЕЛЬНОМ АСПЕКТЕ: НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ РУССКИХ И СЕЛЬКУПСКИХ СКАЗОК" [COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE FOLKLORE PLOT "THREE STOLEN PRINCESSES": RUSSIAN AND SELKUP FAIRY TALES DATA]. In: Вестник ТГПУ (TSPU Bulletin). 2017. 6 (183): 128—134. DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2017-6-128-134
  12. ^ Nicolae, Raluca. "Personifications of Day and Night in Romanian Folktales". In: Fabula 49, 1-2 (2008): 70-86. doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/FABL.2008.006
  13. ^ Róna-Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Neue Folge. Leipzig: Dieterich 1909. pp. 294.
  14. ^ János Berze Nagy. Népmesék Heves- és Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok-megyébol (Népköltési gyüjtemény 9. kötet). Budapest: Az Athenaeum Részvény-Társulát Tulajdona. 1907. pp. 1-15.
  15. ^ Róna-Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Neue Folge. Leipzig: Dieterich 1909. pp. 186-198.
  16. ^ Oszkár Mailand. Székelyföldi gyüjtés (Népköltési gyüjtemény 7. kötet). Budapest: Az Athenaeum Részv.-Társulat Tulajdona. 1905. pp. 489-521 and 573.
  17. ^ György Gaal. Gaal György magyar népmese-gyujteménye (3. kötet). Pest: Emich Gusztáv könyvnyomdája. 1859. pp. 46-51.
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