The Princess Who Could Not Keep a Secret
The Princess Who Could Not Keep a Secret is a Turkish fairy tale published by Turkish folklorist Saim Sakaoğlu, about a princess who marries a youth in snakeskin, 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.
Publication
The tale was originally collected from an informant named Fazıl Mağa, from the region of Gümüşhane, and published by Turkish folklorist. It was translated to German by Adelheid Uzunoğlu-Ocherbauer as Die Prinzessin, die kein Geheimnis für sich behalten konnte.Summary
A poor couple have no children, and the old woman asks her husband to bring them a son, even if it is a snake. The old man earns their living by gathering firewood and selling it in the market. One day, the man brings home a bundle of firewood with a snake inside. Thanking God for having a son, the old couple feed and take care of the animal, and wherever the snake sleeps, a gold bar appears. Time passes, and the snake tells his father to go to the Sultan and ask for his eldest daughter in marriage with Mindilhava. The old man goes to the sultan's palace and sits on a stone reserved for suitors. The sultan takes the old man in and agrees with the proposal, but sets as a condition that a certain mountain must be moved next to the castle. Mindilhava fulfills the task; the sultan's eldest daughter is guided to a room, where she waits for her bridegroom: a snake comes into the room, but she returns to her father's palace. The sultan then says she should have waited a bit more. The snake then asks his father to go for the sultan's middle daughter; this time, the sultan orders that the river Tschoruh must flow next to his palace. The snake fulfills the second task; but the middle daughter also rejects her snake bridegroom. Finally, the snake asks for the sultan's youngest daughter, and this time he has to provide seven camels carrying loads of gold. The snake does and the third princess is guided to the room. She accepts the snake as her destiny, and shares the bed with the snake for three nights. On the fourth night, the snake takes off its skin and becomes a handsome youth, so handsome the sultan's daughter passes out.After six months, her elder sister suggests they invite their sister to see if she is still alive. The princess goes, and her father summons a jirit tournament, to which his snake son-in-law is invited. The snake, in human form, tells his wife he will take part in the festivities, but she must not tell anyone about his true identity. On the first day, he rides a fiery red horse with red clothes; on the second day, a black horse with black clothes; and on the third a white horse on white clothes. The princess's sisters mock her for her snake husband and admire the jirit rider, but on the third day she reveals the secret; a sudden storm rages and her husband disappears. She wears iron shoes and walks with an iron cane. On her journey, she meets a dervish who tells her she will reach a spring at the end of the way, where her husband's sister will come fetch water, and she must drop his ring on the water jug. It happens as the dervish advises: her husband recognizes the ring and goes to the fountain to get his wife. He explains that his mother is a Dev, with breasts fallen over her shoulders, so she should suckle his mother's breasts to avoid being devoured.
His dev-mother believes the princess is just a girl who lost her way, and suggests to her son they should take her a goose-herd. Meanwhile, Mindilhava has been betrothed to his cousin, and the Dev-mother orders the princess to go to his aunt to fetch instruments for the upcoming wedding. Mindilhava advises his human wife to go there and fetch a sooty box over the stove, and flee as quickly as she can. The princess gets the box, but, on the way, she opens the box and the instruments escape. Mindilhava comes and orders the instruments to return to the box. Next, the Dev-mother orders the princess to fetch bird feathers for a blanket. Mindilhava takes the princess to the top of a mountain and summons all the birds for them to give their feathers. Lastly, during the wedding, the Dev-mother dips the princess's body in wax and places ten candles on her fingers, and takes her to Mindilhava's room. The princess utters to herself for her fingers to "burn with love" for Mindilhava, and he hears it. He takes the candles and places them in his cousin's fingers, then takes the princess, two razors and flees with her on a horse.
The next morning, Mindilhava's mother opens the room and discovers her niece has burnt to death. His aunt chases after them, and the pair throws behind the razors to delay her. Next, his sister comes after them, and Mindilhava shapeshifts the princess into a tree and himself into a dervish to trick her. Lastly, his own Dev-mother goes after them; Mindilhava creates a lake and turns himself and the princess into ducks. The Dev-mother comes and asks the ducks how they got there, and the ducks answer that she should tie two millstones around her neck and swim. The Dev-mother does that and drowns. The princess and Mindilhava go back to the Sultan's realm.
Analysis
Tale type
Sakaoglu classified the tale, according to the Turkish Folktale Catalogue, as Turkish type TTV 98. In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen, by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, type TTV 98, "Der Pferdemann", corresponds in the international classification to tale type AaTh 425. In a later book, Boratav stated that the Catalogue registered 25 variants, but six more had been collected since its publication.In his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, acknowledged that Turkish type 98 was subtype 425A of his analysis, that is, "Cupid and Psyche", being the "oldest" and containing the episode of the witch's tasks. In the international index, however, Swahn's typing is indexed as type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch".
Motifs
The supernatural husband
In most of the variants collected, the supernatural husband is a horse, followed by a man with a donkey's head and a camel. In other tales, he may be a snake, a frog, or even Turkish hero Kaloghlan.The heroine's tasks
Another motif that appears in the tale type is that the heroine must travel to another witch's house and fetch from there a box or casket she must not open. German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther remarked that these motives are "the essential feature" of the subtype.The heroes' Magic Flight
According to Christine Goldberg, some variants of the type show as a closing episode "The Magic Flight" sequence, a combination that appears "sporadically in Europe", but "traditionally in Turkey". As their final transformation to deceive the ogress mother, the princess becomes a tree and her supernatural husband becomes a snake coiled around it. Although this episode is more characteristic of tale type ATU 313, "The Magic Flight", some variants of type ATU 425B also show it as a closing episode. German literary critic Walter Puchner argues that the motif attached itself to type 425B, as a Wandermotiv.Variants
Leylahar and Gülbahar
In a Turkish tale collected from an informant in Kahramanmaraş with the title Leylahar ile Gülbahar, a woodcutter and his wife pray to Allah to have a son, even if he is a snake, thus a snake is born to them. Some time later, the snake son falls in love with the princess and asks his mother to court her on his behalf, but his mother is worried that they are poor and she will be dismissed as just a beggar. Still, the snake son produces some jewels for his mother and sends her to the palace. The guards mistake her for a beggar at first, but is brought to the padishah's presence, who agrees to their children's marriage, but first asks her to produce a palace and a garden more beautiful than the monarch's. The snake son fulfills the padishah's task and builds a shining golden palace. The padishah's daughter is brought to the wedding and is shocked at the sight of the snake. The snake's mother comforts her by saying her bridegroom is a handsome youth, and she enters the wedding chambers. The snake appears again and she screams, but he reveals his true form as a normal human named Leylahar, asking the princess, called Gülbahar, to keep his secret, lest he vanishes and she has to seek him out until she wears out golden shoes and a golden belt. Some time later, the princess is invited to a wedding and is endlessly mocked by the women at the party, while they watch a mysterious knight throw javelins in the games. Days into the celebration, after enduring the mockery thus far, Gülbahar reveals the knight is her snake husband, and he gallops away, never to be seen again. The princess asks her father for the golden apparel and begins a journey after him.She passes by a spring where a maidservant is fetching water in a brass jug and asks for some, then reaches a second spring where another girl is fetching water with a golden jug for her master Leylahar. Gülbahar drops her ring into the jug, which Leylahar recognizes and goes to meet his wife outside. He turns her into a pin and brings it with him. The Devs can smell a human scent, so he turns his wife into an apple. However, the creatures still sense a foreign smell, and Leylahar turns Gülbahar back into human form and introduces has as his sister, threatening the Dev matriarch not to marry her daughter if they devour the human. Reluctantly, the dev woman makes a vow. Still, she soon forces her to fetch bird feathers for a mattress by going up the mountain - Leylahar tells her to summon the birds by saying he sends his regards. It happens thus and Gülhabar fulfills the task. Next, the dev woman gives the princess a "darbuka" and a box, and orders her to deliver them to her sister. Leylahar intercepts his wife, warns her the box must not be opened, for it contains three devs that will jump out and devour her, and advises her how to proceed: pass by a fountain of pus and blood and compliment them, open a closed door and shut an open one, exchange the fodder between two animals, leave the box and darbuka only if the dev's sister is sleeping with her eyes open. Gülbahar follows the instructions to the letter, delivers the box and rushes back, the dev's sister commanding her servants to stop her, to no avail.
Finally, the dev woman celebrates her daughter's wedding to Leylahar, and both enter the wedding chambers. Leylahar kills his bride, turns into a fly and flees through a keyhole to meet his human wife near the fountain, and both escape. The next morning, the dev woman discovers her daughter is dead and sends her relatives after the runaway couple. On the road, in order to trick their pursuers, Leylahar transforms himself and the princess into other objects: first, into a poplar and a snake coiled around it to fool the dev's sister; next, into a fountain and a stone to trick the dev's brother; thirdly, into an orchard and a seller to deceive the dev's brother-in-law. The dev woman herself goes after them and they take refuge in a mosque. She asks for a last memento, and cuts off a finger from the dev's son. Leylahar and Gülbahar return home and celebrate a new wedding.