The Golden Bird
"The Golden Bird" is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm about the pursuit of a golden bird by a gardener's three sons.
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. 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, 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, a typical name for naïve or foolish characters in German fairy tales. In newer editions that restore the original tale, he is known as "The Simpleton".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 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.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, a bear or a hare. In some variants, it is a grateful dead who helps the hero as return for a good deed of the protagonist.In a variant collected in Austria, by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle, 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 father's house. Their aunt asks for the titular items, and the fox who helps the hero is his mother's reincarnation.
In a Polish variant by Oskar Kolberg, O królewiczu i jego przyjacielu, kruku, 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.
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". They quest for the firebird, the silver-maned horse from the "roi de fer" and the daughter of the Fairy Queen.
The bird as the object of the quest
The character of the Golden Bird has been noted to resemble the mythological phoenix bird. In this regard, according to Johannes Bolte, Jiri Polívka and, in many variants the hero quests for the Phoenix bird.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. August Leskien explained that the Hazaran bird may appear in Albanian tales as Gisar, and both names derive from the Persian word hezâr, although the name may be translated as "a thousand songs" or "a thousand voices".
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. The Slavic Firebird can also be known by the name Ohnivak ''Zhar Bird or Bird Zhar; Glowing Bird, or The Bird of Light.
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. Under this lens, the tale veers close to ATU 551, "The Water of Life", also collected by the Brothers Grimm.
In many variants, the reason for the quest is to bring the bird to decorate a newly built church, temple or mosque, as per the suggestion of a passing beggar or hermit that informed the king of its existence. Professors Michael Meraklis and Richard MacGillivray Dawkins remarked that this is the reason for the quest in Greek variants of the tale type. In addition, Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungman located this form of the story around the Black Sea and in Greece.
In 20th century Dutch collections, the bird is sometimes called Vogel Vinus or Vogel Venus. Scholarship suggests that the name is a corruption of the name Phönix by the narrators. The name also appears in the 19th century Hungarian tale A Vénus madara.
In a variant published by illustrator Howard Pyle, The White Bird, the prince takes part in a chain of quests: for the Fruit of Happiness, the Sword of Brightness and the titular White Bird. When the prince captures the White Bird, it transforms into a beautiful princess.
In the Hungarian variant Az aranymadár'', the king wants to own a fabled golden bird. A prince captures the bird and it reveals it is a princess cursed into the avian form by a witch.
In an Ossetian tale titled "Соловей горной долины", youth Warri/Wari lives with his old father. When the old man dies, he marries a girl and they build a house near a crossroads. Three times, passing hermits tell them the house is defective or lacks something. After much time passes, and three sons are born to them, the hermits compliment the building, but notice that their house will be even more beautiful if Warri has the Nightingale from the Mountain Valley. Frustrated with all the years, and now of an old age, his three sons promise to go on a quest for it. This tale lacks the princess and the horse, however.
The horse as the object of the quest
The horse of the variants of the tale is sometimes referenced along with the bird, attached to a special trait, such as in Flemish versions Van de Gouden Vogel, het Gouden Peerde en de Prinses, and Van de wonderschoone Prinses, het zilveren Paardeken en de gouden Vogel, and in French-Flanders version Van Vogel Venus, Peerdeken-Muishaar en Glooremonde.The horse, in many variants of the tale, is the means by which the hero escapes with the princess. In one Italian variant, the horse is described as irraggiungibile.
In the Hungarian variant A vak király, a king is going blind and his three sons quest for the only cure: the golden-feathered bird. The youngest prince, with the help of a fox, joins the quest for the golden bird, the horse with silver coat and golden mane, and a princess from another kingdom.
In a French tale from Poitou, Le merle blanc, an old king sends his sons to find the titular white blackbird so he can be young again. When the youngest prince begins his quest, he finds a friendly fox, which informs him about the lengthy chain of quests he must make: to get the bird, he must take the "belle fille" first; to get her, he must find the mule whose every step can jump seven leagues.
The princess as the object of the quest
In the title of many variants, the Princess as the last object the hero's quest is referenced in the title. The tales usually reference a peculiar characteristic or special trait, such as in Corsican variant La jument qui marche comme le vent, l'oiseau qui chante et joue de la musique et la dame des sept beautés, collected by Genevieve Massignon.In Italian variant L'acqua di l'occhi e la bella di setti veli, the prince is sent on a quest for "l'acqua di l'occhi", the beauty with seven veils, the talking horse and the "aceddu Bonvirdi".
In Romanian variant Pasărea cîntă, domnii dorm, the emperor asks for the golden bird whose song makes men sleep. His son travels the lands for the fabled bird, and discovers its owner is the princess of the golden kingdom.
In Hungarian variant A próbára tett királyfi, the prince is helped by a fox in his quest a golden bird and a golden horse. In the final part of the quest, the prince is tasked with kidnapping a fairy princess from her witch mother. With his faithful fox companion, which transforms into a replica of the fairy maiden to trick her mother, the prince obtains the fairy maiden.
In a tale collected by Andrew Lang and attributed to the Brothers Grimm, The Golden Mermaid, the king's golden apples are stolen by some creature or thief, so he sends his sons to find it. The youngest son, however, is the only one successful: he discovers the thief is a magic bird that belongs to an Emperor; steals a golden horse and obtains the titular golden mermaid as his wife. The tale is actually Romanian and was collected by Arthur and Albert Schott from the Banat region with the title Das goldene Meermädchen.
In a collection of Upper Silesian fairy tales by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff or Das Märchen vom Vogel Venus, dem Pferd Pontifar und der schönen Amalia aus dem schwarzen Wald, the king wants the bird Venus to regain his youth. The prince also quests for the horse Pontifar and lady Amalia, a mysterious maiden who lives in a dark castle in a dark forest, guarded by wolves, lions and bears. When the hero is ready to take her on his journey back, she is seen at the castle's gates wearing a black dress. The story is a combination of types: ATU 506, "The Grateful Dead", since the fox helper is the spirit of a dead man; ATU 551, "The Water of Life", and ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess".