Grünkappe
Grünkappe is an Iranian folktale collected by Arthur Christensen, a human maiden who marries a youth in horseskin, loses him due to her breaking his trust, and goes after him at his mother's home, where she is forced to perform hard tasks for her.
The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human princess marries a supernatural husband, loses him, and goes on a quest to find him. It is also distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch or her mother-in-law.
Summary
In this tale, a fisherman catches in the sea with his net a fine foal. He brings it home and hides it from his seven daughters in a room. He feeds it with candies and gives the leftovers to his daughters. One day, the fisherman leaves the room and takes the candies with him. his daughters take the chance to spy into the room. They enter and see a foal in the corner of the room. The seven sisters fight among themselves to have the horse, thinking it a gift from their father. In the fracas, the horse pulls the youngest over to him, despite her protests, and her six sisters leave her in the horse's room. The fisherman returns and sees his youngest daughter in the room with the horse. The horse then asks the man to marry his daughter. The man is doubtful about the proposal: "A horse for a husband? What will people think?". The horse explains he belongs to the race of the Peri, ran away from there due to a fight, and fell in love with the human girl.Herzveloren marries him, and is endlessly mocked by her sisters. One day, the horse, named Grünkappe, tells his wife not to cry, for he is a handsome youth beneath the horseskin, since his own mother, who is from the race of the Dîwe, cursed him into that state. He also makes a deal with Herzveloren: he can take off his horseskin at night to become a man, if she can keep the secret between them. One day, she reveals to her sisters that her husband is a man by night and a horse by day, and her sisters, jealous of her good luck, goad her into asking Grünkappe how to burn his horseskin. Herzveloren insists to know the answer, and Grünkappe tells her the horseskin can be burnt in pistachio peels and onion peels. Herzveloren burns his horseskin. Grünkappe warns her that only misfortune awaits them, gives her a ring, and tells her to seek him with seven pairs of iron shoes in the land of Peris and Divs.
After a long journey, she reaches her mother-in-law's house, and, drained by the effort, rests by a spring. A slave comes to fetch water and Herzveloren drops her ring into the slave's jug. Grünkappe is informed about the woman at the spring and goes to check on her; his wife Herzveloren sees him and embraces him, her journey at an end. However, her husband takes her in to his mother and his wife is forced to perform chores for her: to wash a black piece of cloth white and black again. Grünkappe's mother then sends Herzveloren, her true daughter-in-law, to her sister under false pretences: to get a pair of scissors for the upcoming wedding, but she is sending the human to be devoured by the aunt. Herzveloren goes to the Dev's sister to get the scissors. Once there, the Div-aunt goes to another room to sharpen her teeth. The Div-aunt's child, from her cradle, advises Herzveloren to get the scissors and escape, for its mother is preparing to eat the human. Later, Grünkappe is forced to marry his cousin, and his Diwe mother places ten candles on Herzveloren's fingers. The human girl complains to her husband that her fingers are burning, and Grünkappe can only answer her that his heart is also burning.
After the marriage with the Div-cousin, Grünkappe kills and beheads her, and goes to meet his human wife, Herzveloren, and turns into a red horse for them to escape. His personal black slave takes a bridle and escapes with them. The following morning, his Div-family enters the bridal chambers to see the wedding couple, and find the slain Div-bride. They also realize that the man escaped with Herzveloren and the slave, and order the Divs to chase after them. At the end of the tale, the pair escapes from his mother and, as a last trick on her, turn into grains of corn, while the witch becomes a chicken.
Analysis
Tale type
In his notes, Christensen classified the tale as type AaTh 425, Der Tierbräutigam .In his Catalogue of Persian Folktales, German scholar classified the tale as his type AaTh 425B, Der Tierbräutigam: Die böse Zauberin. Marzolph's typing corresponds to type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. Type 425B 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.
Scholars Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Boratav, establishers of the Typen Türkischen Volksmärchen, in the introduction to their joint work, noted that the tale Grünkappe was parallel to the Turkish tale type TTV 98, "Der Pferdemann".
Motifs
Swedish scholar asserted that the animal or supernatural husband appears as a horse in tale type 425A "in the Orient".According to Swahn's study on Animal as Bridegroom tales, a characteristic motif that occurs in the "Indo-Persian" area is the heroine using a ring to signal her arrival to her husband, when she finds his location.
Variants
Iran
Professor Manūchihr Lamʻah collected and published a tale from Boyer-Ahmad with the title "متیل سرخر", which Erika Friedl translated as Donkey-Head. In this tale, a woman prays to God for a son, and a boy with donkey's head is born to her and her husband, whom they name Sozalqaba. He grows up and asks his parents to find him a wife, but even his father questions who will want to marry one such as him. He insists to be married to the princess, Bi Delhava. His father goes to the king's court to court her in his son's stead, and the king agrees to their marriage, but only if Sozalqaba can provide sacks of gold and silver as a wedding gift. Sozalqaba provides the monarch with the requested gift with his powers and marries the princess. On the wedding night, in their chambers, Sozalqaba removes the donkeyskin and becomes a handsome youth, warning the princess not to burn his animal disguise, lest they separate and she has to search for him. Time goes on, and the princess is advised by her sisters to burn his donkeyskin. She does; he appears to her, telling her she can only find him if she wears down seven pairs of iron shoes. The princess goes after him. Meanwhile, Sozalqaba has found work with a div named Alazangi as their shepherd. The princess finds him again at the end of her journey, and he has to hide her from his Div-mother, which he does by transforming her into a handkerchief, but his mother still senses a human's smell nearby. Eventually, Sozalqaba shows his Div-mother his human wife, whom he introduces as his sister to ward off suspicions. Some time later, Alazangi forces the girl to separate heaps of grain, which Sozalqaba fulfills for her. Next, Alazangi orders the princess to go to his mother and bring back a comb, scissors and a mirror. Sozalqaba intercepts her and advises how to proceed: she is to exchange the fodder between two animals, roll out an unrolled carpet and roll up the spread rug, open up a closed well and close off an open one. Bi Delhava does as instructed and reaches Alazangi's mother's house. The creature greets her and retires to another room to sharpen its teeth, when a baby in a cradle warns her Alazangi's mother wishes to eat her, so she is to get the comb, mirror and scissors from the cradle and escape. Bi Delhava fetches the objects and rushes back to Alazangi's house, while Alazangi's mother orders the carpets and animals to stop the princess, to no avail.Literary versions
Author Shahriar Nafici published a Persian language tale obtained from his mother. In this tale, Sheep's Head, in the town of Make Believe, a childless couple wants a son, but no such luck. A wise man gives the woman a remedy which she brings home with her. However, her husband eats the halva, becomes pregnant and, advised, by his wife, gives birth to a baby with a sheep's head. The old man tries to get rid of the sheep by dropping it on the well, but it survives and lives with the couple. Years later, the baby with the sheep's head wants to marry, but his parents ask him who could marry a person with his characteristics. Still, the man goes to propose to the king's daughter on Sheep's Head behalf, and the king asks some suitor's tasks first: to bring one hundred camels loaded with gold, one hundred with silver and a hundred with jewels. The old man informs Sheep's Head of the king's request and the creature sends his father to the well, where he is to ask for a rope. It happens thus, and the man returns home with a single rope, but the camels appear in the morning.The king is delighted with the wedding gift and offers one of his seven daughters to Sheep's Head, who prefers the youngest, princess Maleknâz, who has been having dreams about a mysterious and handsome prince. Maleknâz is told about her upcoming wedding to the sheep-headed bridegroom and brings a dagger to kill him after the weddin. On the wedding night, Sheep's Head takes off his animal disguise and reveals he is a handsome youth named Malek Mohammad, born to the "king of the angels" and cursed by his mother for refusing to marry her sister's daughter. In regards to their marriage and the breaking of the curse, he explains that princess Maleknâz must bear humiliation and mockery from her sisters until forty days have passed, then Malek Mohammad's curse will be broken and he can assume human form permanently, since his "apparent" human parents failed in keeping him inside their house for the same period of time. Maleknâz bears each day their endless mockery, with her husband's support and life lessons.
After seven days, Maleknâz, bearing the brunt of her sisters' mockery, takes them to her chamber and pull the curtains to let them see her husband's real form when he leaves his sheep head disguise. By doing this, she breaks his trust. Disappointed, Sheep's Head gives her instructions on how to find him: she shall wear pairs of shoes made of "pure metal", walk with seven walking sticks, go through seven cities and learn several important lessons, then she may find him. On her way, she finds Malek Rouh, a blacksmith who claims to be Malek Mohammad's father. She finally reaches the palace of her mother-in-law in the town of demons. Malek Mohammad finds her and explains that his mother is a cannibal and a "demon". He turns her into a brooch to hide from his human-eater mother and makes her promise not to eat Maleknâz. Some time later, his mother sends her to empty a flooded area using only a sieve. Her husband helps her with a magic trick. She continues to force impossible tasks on the princess, like counting stones in the desert or emptying a basin with a thimble. One of the last tasks she forces upon the princess is to be naked, cover herself in candles and dance at the upcoming wedding of Malek Mohammad and his cousin. At the wedding, Maleknâz dances while the wax from the candles melts all over her body. A sudden gust of wind blows open the doors and snuffs out the candles to save Maleknâz. A ball of light comes in and takes the princess away from the demons and into the Town of Knowledge. Maleknâz recognizes her saviour: her father-in-law.