The Three Orange-Peris

The Three Orange-Peris is a Turkish fairy tale first collected by Hungarian Turkologist Ignác Kúnos in the late 19th century. 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.

Sources

The story was first published by folklorist Ignác Kúnos in Turkish as A három narancs-peri,[1] which was translated to Hungarian as A három narancs-peri,[2] and in German as Die Drei Orangen-Peris.[3] The tale was also translated into English as The Three Orange-Peris[4] and as The Orange Fairy in The Fir-Tree Fairy Book.[5]

Summary

A padishah suffers for not having children. One day, he takes his Vizir (or lala) with him on a trip, when a dervish appears to him, green-robed and yellow-slipped. He says he knows the padishah's ailment and gives him an apple, to be shared with the Sultana and for both to eat. The padishah does as he was instructed and the Sultana gives birth to a son after nine months and ten days. When he is fourteen years, he asks his father to build a marble palace with two springs, one with honey and the other with butter. It happens thus, and one day, an old woman comes with a pitcher to fill them from the springs. The prince throws a stone and tosses it at the woman's pitcher. The old woman returns with her pitchers on the following two days to fill them, and the prince again tosses a stone at her jugs, breaking them. For this, the woman tells the prince it is Allah's will to fall in love with the three Orange-peris.

The prince becomes ill with longing for the Orange-Peris and his father tries many methods to cure him. The prince finally admits he is in love with the Three Oranges and wants to seek them out. The padishah allows the prince to depart on the journey for the three oranges. He journeys on and meets a Dev-Mother (called Mother of Devils in an English translation), who welcomes him in after he explains the reason for his journey and turns him into a water har to hide her from her thirty sons, who devour people. Her thirty sons return home and sense a human's smell; the Mother of Devils make her sons promise not to hurt the human she is sheltering and restores the prince to human form. The prince explains the reason for his quest and the sons do not know, so they send him to their aunt, the Aunt of Devils.

The prince reaches the Aunt of Devils, who shelters him from her sixty man-eating sons, then restores him to human form after she makes her progeny promise not to devour him. Still not knowing where the location of the Three Oranges is, they send them to their grandaunt. Thus, the prince reaches the Grandaunt of Devils, who shelters him from her ninety man-eating sons. After they promise not to hurt him, the prince says he is after the Three Oranges, and the least of the devils says he can take him there. The youngest Dev takes the prince through a road until they reach a garden with a pond (or fountain) in it. The Dev-son takes the prince to the fountain where he sees the three oranges, and the Dev-son tells the prince "Shut your eyes, open your eyes" - and an orange appears on the water, which the prince seizes. The Dev-son repeats the command twice more and two other oranges appear on the water surface, which the prince also plucks.

The Dev-son advises the prince to only open the oranges near water, and they part ways. The prince makes a return home and decides to cut open the first fruit: out comes a lovely maiden who asks for water, but, since the prince has none with him, she vanishes. The prince walks a bit more and cuts open the second orange; out comes another maiden, more beautiful than the first one, who also asks for water. Since he has none with him, she vanishes. He then decides to withhold the third fruit when he comes near a large spring, from which he drinks. He cuts open the last fruit, and out comes the most beautiful of the three maidens, who asks for water and the prince gives her some.

On not vanishing, the prince guides the orange maiden up a tree near the spring, while he goes to a nearby town to bring a coach and a raiment. While he is a way, a black-skinned Moor maidservant comes to fetch water and sees the orange maiden's visage in water, mistaking for her own. Beliving herself to be beautiful, she breaks the pitchers and returns to her mistress to complain that she is too beautiful for such menial job. Her mistress draws a mirror to the servant's face to see that she is the same dark-skinned servant as before, and the maidservant goes to draw water again. She breaks the pitchers again after seeing the maiden's visage in water, and returns to her mistress's house to be shown her true face in the mirror.

Lastly, when the maidservant starts to break the pitchers again, the orange maiden tells her from atop the tree not to do so, since the visage in water belongs to her. The Moor maidservant spots the orange maiden and bids her come down to rest a spell on her lap. The orange maiden does so, and the maidervant sticks a pin on her head, turning into a bird that flies away, then she replaces the fruit maiden atop the tree. The prince returns with a carriage and spots the woman at the tree, now looking darker. The maidservant lies that the prince left her under the sun too much, and now her skin has darkened. The prince believes the words and takes the maidservant as his bride back home. The padishah and the court suspect that she is indeed a Moor servant, but the prince says she will return to her previous self after some rest.

Meanwhile, on the padishah's castle gardens, the Orange Bird perches on a tree and asks the gardener how fares the prince and his black bride. The gardener says they are alright, and the Orange Bird curses the tree it is perched on to wither. The bird returns on the next days and keeps asking about the prince and his false bride, and cursing the trees to wither. One day, the prince goes for a walk in the garden to avoid dealing with the black bride, and notices that the trees have withered, then complains to the gardener. The gardener mentions the incident with the Orange Bird, and the prince orders him to place bird-lime to capture the bird the next time it appears. It happens thus, and the prince catches and cages the bird, taking it to the castle.

The black servant realizes the Orange Bird is the true Orange Peri, feigns illness and bribes the physicians to prescribe the meat of such a bird. The prince notices her has such bird, and orders the cooks to kill the Orange Bird and cook it. It happens thus, and the Orange Bird is given to the false bride to eat. However, a feather of the Orange Bird falls to the floor and lodges between two planks. One day, a woman that teaches the inmates of the harem to read and write is walking down the stairs and notices the dazzling feathers, which she brings home with her. While the woman is away, the feather turns into the Orange Maiden, does chores around the house like cooking the meal and cleaning, then returns to the feathery form. The woman returns home and notices that the house is tidy and clean. On the second day, the woman goes away again, and the Orange Maiden leaves the feather, does the chores around the house, then returns to her inert form.

After two days, the woman decides to investigate, leaves her door ajar and sees the Orange Maiden. The woman quickly grabs hold of the fairy and asks for explanations. The Orange Maiden tells the woman everything about the prince and how the black maidservant killed her twice. The woman promises to set everything right. Thus, she invites the prince for a meal in her house. When the Orange Maiden goes to serve the coffee with the cups, the prince sees the Orange Maiden's face and swoons at her beauty. The prince regains his consciousness and asks the woman who is this maiden, and if she can give her to him. The woman admits that the Orange Maiden belonged to him once, takes her by the hand and reunites the prince with his bride, then bids him take good care of the Orange Peri this time. The prince reunites with his true bride, executes the maidservant, and marries the Orange Peri in a forty day and forty night celebration.[6][7][8]

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges".[9][10][11] 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:[12]

  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.

In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, tale type ATU 408 corresponds to Turkish type TTV 89, "Der drei Zitronen-Mädchen" ("The Three Citron Maidens").[13][14] Alternatively, it may also be known as Üç Turunçlar ("Three Citruses" or "Three Sour Oranges").[15] The Turkish Catalogue registered 40 variants,[16] being the third "most frequent folktale" after types AT 707 and AT 883A.[17]

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.[18][19] According to Walter Anderson's unpublished manuscript, variants with eggs instead of fruits appear in Southeastern Europe.[20] In addition, Christine Shojaei-Kawan located the motif of the heroine emerging from the eggs in Slavic texts.[21]

In Turkish variants, the fairy maiden is equated to the peri and, in several variants, manages to escape from the false bride in another form, such as a rose or a cypress.[22] In most of the recorded variants, the fruits are oranges, followed by pomegranates, citrons, and cucumbers in a few of them; then apples, eggs or pumpkins (respectively in one variant each).[23][24] In addition, according to French folklorists Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Théneze, a very frequent motif in the Turkish texts is the hero breaking the old woman's jar or jug, and the old woman, in return, cursing the hero to find the fruit maidens.[25]

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.[a] In some tales, the fruit maiden regains her human form and must bribe the false bride for three nights with her beloved.[27]

In other variants, the maiden goes through a series of transformations after her liberation from the fruit and regains a physical body.[b] 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"[29] (especifically, it appears in Greece and Eastern Europe).[30] In the second subtype, AaTh 408B, the girl is transformed into a dove by the needle.[31]

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.[32]

Variants

Turkey

In a Turkish tale collected in the Ankara province with the title The Young Lord and the Cucumber Girl, a young lord takes his horse to drink water from a fountain and the animal accidentally steps on the foot of a witch. For this, she curses the young lord to burn with love for a cucumber girl. He tells his father, the bey, of his longing, and decides to ride away to find this girl. He takes shelter with a man with a long beard and his daughter. Both give instructions to the lord how he can reach the orchard with the cucumbers. He warns them to open the cucumbers near a body of water, lest the girls that come out of will die of thirst. The young lord follows the instructions and gets the cucumbers. On his way back, he opens the first two vegetables in desert places, and the girls die. He reaches a fountain next to the city and cracks open the last cucumber, giving water to the girl. The cucumber girl asks the young lord to hold a 40-day wedding celebration, then return to fetch her, since she will be waiting on top of a poplar tree. After the lord leaves, an ugly woman appears with pitchers and mistakes the image of the cucumber girl for her own reflection, and stops working, breaking the pitchers. Her family chastises her and she goes to the fountain, where she notices the girl on the tree. She convinces the girl to climb down so she would delouse the girl's hair, but she plucks a strand of white hair (the girl's vital spot) and she dies. When she dies, a sesame plant sprouts. The young lord returns and is tricked by the ugly woman, who passes herself off as the cucumber girl. As for the girl, she passes by a cycle of reincarnations: first, into a sesame plant, which is tossed in the fire; then to two pigeons, who are captured and killed; third, to a poplar tree where the birds are buried, which is cut down to make a crib for the woman's child; then to a single chip that is taken by an old woman. The cucumber girl comes out of the wooden chip to clean the woman's house, and is discovered, being adopted by her. Later, during a famine, the lord sends his horses to each house, even to the old woman's, to be taken care and fed. The cucumber girl feeds and grooms the lord's horse for a while, and, when the lord goes to get it back, he finds out the truth from the reborn cucumber girl.[33]

In a Turkish Cypriot tale published by Saim Sakaoğlu with the title Hıyarcı Kızı ("The Cucumber Girl"), a padishah has no children, so his wife asks a neighbour how they can have one. The neighbour tells the queen to make a vow with God, which the queen does: she will build fountains of oil and honey. In time, a son is born to them. One night, the queen has a dream: a voice tells her to fulfill her vow. The queen then orders the building of two canals, one with oil and another with honey. People flock to fetch oil and honey for themselves, including the neighbour lady. The old woman fetches some oil and honey with eggshells, but the prince tosses a stone at her and breaks her recipients. Enraged, the old woman curses the prince to suffer for the Cucumber Girl. Some time later, the prince decides to search for the cucumber Girl, and departs. He meets a man on the road who directs him to a cucumber patch, and advises him to pluck three cucumbers, one white, another yellow, and the third green, cut each open and shout for the "cucumber girl". The prince goes to the cucumber patch and fetches the vegetables; he opens the first one and finds nothing inside. The same thing happens to the second one. After he cuts open the third one and calls out for the cucumber girl, a maiden appears to him. He places her on his horse and both ride away. They reach a stream where he leaves the cucumber girl, while he goes to hunt some birds. The cucumber girl climbs up a tree. A servant from a nearby house comes to draw water from the stream and sees the girl's reflection in the water, mistaking it for her own, so she returns to her master's house to refuse to work anymore. The master expels the servant and she goes back to the stream, where she spots the girl atop the tree. She convinces the girl to come down and sticks a magic pin on her head, turning her into a dove, then takes her place. The prince returns and sees the servant, who lies that the sun darkened her skin and made her lips grow. Still, the prince takes the servant back home and marries her. As for the true cucumber girl, she, as a dove, flies to the palace and asks the king what the prince and the servant are doing, then blesses his sleep and curses the servant's, then wishes for the trees in the garden to dry up. In time, the prince notices the trees in the garden are drying up and learns of the strange bird that flies in. The prince captures the bird and locks it up in a cage. The servant realizes the bird will reveal the secret and bribes a doctor to prescribe the bird's meat as cure for a feigned illness. The bird is killed and cooked, its body thrown in the sea, but a drop of the bird's blood survives and falls to the ground, where a cypress tree sprouts. The servant orders the tree to be burnt down. An old woman comes and asks for the cypress splinters as firewood, which she brings home. She tries to cut the branch, when a voice comes from inside it. The old man cuts open the firewood and releases the cucumber maiden, whom she adopts. Later, the prince arranges for the marriage with the servant, and the cucumber girl attends. The false bride (the servant) cannot string a pearl necklace, and the cucumber girl does with ease, while recounting her story. The false bride realizes the newcomer is the real cucumber girl and expels her. The prince sends a messenger to the old woman's house and learns of the whole story, marrying the true cucumber girl. He returns to the palace and asks the servant which she prefers: a sword or a horse? The false bride chooses the horse; the prince places her on a horse and banishes her.[34]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "The motif of a woman stabbed in her head with a pin occurs in AT 403 (in India) and in AT 408 (in the Middle East and southern Europe)."[26]
  2. ^ As Hungarian-American scholar Linda Dégh put it, "(...) the Orange Maiden (AaTh 408) becomes a princess. She is killed repeatedly by the substitute wife's mother, but returns as a tree, a pot cover, a rosemary, or a dove, from which shape she seven times regains her human shape, as beautiful as she ever was".[28]

References

  1. ^ Kúnos, Ignácz (1887). Oszmán-török Népköltési Gyűjtemény (in Turkish). Vol. I. Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia. pp. 106-113 (Turkish text for tale nr. 24).
  2. ^ Kúnos, Ignácz (1899). Török népmesék [Turkish Folktales] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Hornyánszky Viktor Akadémiai Könyvkereskedése. pp. 10–26.
  3. ^ Kúnos, Ignaz (1905). Türkische Volksmärchen aus Stambul [Turkish Folktales from Istambul] (in German). Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 17–27.
  4. ^ Kúnos, Ignácz. Turkish fairy tales and folk tales collected by Dr. Ignácz Kúnos. London, Lawrence and Bullen. 1896. pp. 12-30.
  5. ^ Johnson, Clifton (1912). The fir-tree fairy book: favorite fairy tales. Boston: Little, Brown. pp. 158–172.
  6. ^ Гордлевскiй, В. А.. "Обзоръ турецкихъ сказокъ по сборник Куноша". In В честь Миллера Всеволода Федоровича. Юбилейный сборник, изданный его учениками и почитателями. Под ред. Н.Я. Янчука. Мoskva: типо-лит. А.В. Васильева, 1900. Vol. XXII pp. 185-218 [192-193 (summary for tale nr. 24)]. (In Russian)
  7. ^ Kúnos, Ignácz. Turkish fairy tales and folk tales collected by Dr. Ignácz Kúnos. London, Lawrence and Bullen. 1896. pp. 12-30.
  8. ^ Kúnos, Ignaz. Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales. George G. Harrap & Co. London. 1913. pp. 19-30.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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. 241–243. ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
  11. ^ Marzolph, Ulrich. Typologie des persischen Volksmärchens. Beirut: Orient-Inst. der Deutschen Morgenländischen Ges.; Wiesbaden: Steiner [in Komm.], 1984. pp. 79-80, 82 (entry nr. 18).
  12. ^ Kawan, Christine Shojaei (2016) [2002]. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In Rolf Wilhelm Brednich; Heidrun Alzheimer; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Daniel Drascek; Helge Gerndt; Ines Köhler-Zülch; Klaus Roth; Hans-Jörg Uther (eds.). Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online (in German). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. p. 347. doi:10.1515/emo.10.063. Accessed 2023-06-20.
  13. ^ Eberhard, Wolfram; Boratav, Pertev Nailî. Typen türkischer Volksmärchen. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1953. pp. 98-103 (tale type), 421 (table of correspondences) (In German).
  14. ^ Walker, Warren S. (1982). "The Daemon in the Turkish Wood: An Application of the Bynum Thesis". II. Milletlerarası Türk Folklor Kongresi Bildirileri. Vol. II Cilt: Halk Edebiyatı. Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı. p. 426. ... Type 408, The Three Oranges, in the Aarne-Thompson index The Types of the Folktale, and Type 89, Die drei Zitronmädchen, in the Eberhard-Boratav index Typen Türkischer Volksmärchen.
  15. ^ Koçak Macun, Büşra. (2016). "Erzurum Halk Masallarından Üç Turunçlar Masalı'nın Vladimir Propp'un Yapısal Anl" [Investigation of Fairy Tale Name is Three Sour Oranges That is Folk Tale from Erzurum by Using Vladimir Propper’s Structural Narrative Analysis Methods]. In: Turkish Studies volume 11., issue 15 (Summer/2016): 327-346. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.9542
  16. ^ Eberhard, Wolfram; Boratav, Pertev Nailî. Typen türkischer Volksmärchen. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1953. pp. 98-99 (section "Belege").
  17. ^ Dov Neuman (Noy). "Reviewed Work: Typen Tuerkischer Volksmaerchen by Wolfram Eberhard, Pertev Naili Boratav". In: Midwest Folklore 4, no. 4 (1954): 257. Accessed April 12, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4317494.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ 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. 241. ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
  20. ^ Ranke, Kurt. Folktales of Germany. Routledge & K. Paul. 1966. p. 209. ISBN 9788130400327.
  21. ^ Kawan, Christine Shojaei (2016) [2002]. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In Rolf Wilhelm Brednich; Heidrun Alzheimer; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Daniel Drascek; Helge Gerndt; Ines Köhler-Zülch; Klaus Roth; Hans-Jörg Uther (eds.). Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online (in German). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. p. 350. doi:10.1515/emo.10.063. Accessed 2024-07-03.
  22. ^ Günay Türkeç, U. (2009). "Türk Masallarında Geleneksel ve Efsanevi Yaratıklar" [Traditional and Legendary Creatures in Turkish Tales]. In: Motif Akademi Halkbilimi Dergisi, 2 (3-4): 92-93. Retrieved from [1]
  23. ^ Eberhard, Wolfram; Boratav, Pertev Nailî. Typen türkischer Volksmärchen. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1953. p. 99.
  24. ^ Walker, Warren S. (1982). "The Daemon in the Turkish Wood: An Application of the Bynum Thesis". II. Milletlerarası Türk Folklor Kongresi Bildirileri. Vol. II Cilt: Halk Edebiyatı. Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı. p. 426. In Turkey there are versions known as The Orange Girl, The Lemon Girl, The Pomegranate Girl, and The Cucumber Girl.
  25. ^ Delarue, Paul; Ténèze, Marie-Louise (1957). Le conte populaire français; catalogue raisonné des versions de France et des pays de langue française d'outre-mer: Canada, Louisiane, îlots français des États-Unis, Antilles françaises, Haïti, Ile Maurice, La Réunion (in French). Érasme. pp. 64, 67. ISBN 978-2-7068-0623-0. OCLC 1625284. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  26. ^ Goldberg, Christine. [Reviewed Work: The New Comparative Method: Structural and Symbolic Analysis of the Allomotifs of "Snow White" by Steven Swann Jones] In: The Journal of American Folklore 106, no. 419 (1993): 106. Accessed June 14, 2021. doi:10.2307/541351.
  27. ^ 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 aatt). pp. 250-253.
  28. ^ Dégh, Linda. American Folklore and the Mass Media. Indiana University Press. 1994. p. 94. ISBN 0-253-20844-0.
  29. ^ Goldberg, Christine (1996). "Imagery and Cohesion in the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)". In I. Schneider; P. Streng (eds.). Folk-Narrative and World View. Vortage des 10. Kongresses der Internationalen Gesellschaft fur Volkserzahlungsforschung (ISFNR) - Innsbruck 1992. Vol. I. P. Lang. p. 211. ISBN 978-3-631-48698-6.
  30. ^ Goldberg, Christine (1997). The Tale of the Three Oranges. Suomalainen tiedeakatemia. p. 84.
  31. ^ Shojaei-Kawan, Christine (2004). "Reflections on International Narrative Research on the Example of the Tale of the Three Oranges (AT 408)" (PDF). Folklore (Electronic Journal of Folklore). XXVII: 35.
  32. ^ Angelopoulos, Anna and Kaplanoglou, Marianthi. "Greek Magic Tales: aspects of research in Folklore Studies and Anthropology". In: FF Network. 2013; Vol. 43. p. 15.
  33. ^ Walker, Warren S.; Uysal, Ahmet Edip (1992). Tales Alive in Turkey. Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press. pp. 64-71 (text), 267 (source). ISBN 978-0-89672-286-6.
  34. ^ Saim Sakaoğlu, ed. (1983). Kıbrıs Türk Masalları (in Turkish). Kültür Bakanlığı. pp. 59–66.