Commentary: The Golden Bird
From Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf, Ivan Bilbin
In the absence of overwhelming scholarship - and I'm sure there's some around for AT 550, just not available through my regular sources - I present a comparison of a few tale types, much as I did for Suan the Guesser. The tales I've chosen - The Golden Bird (Grimms, most likely German), The Bird Grip (Swedish), Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf (Russian), The Nunda, Eater of People (Swahili), and The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener (Irish) - are an interesting collection of tales within the same type, with The Nunda, Eater of People being a good example of the variation than can exist within a given group, and The Bird Grip aptly illustrating how some tales fit within two groupings. I'll post some links to, or versions of, these tales in the coming days.
1. In the beginning…
The Golden Bird - theft of golden apples, discovery of a golden feather, leading to the king's wish to possess the golden bird. (Fox)
The Bird Grip - when the king loses his sight, an old woman tells him that the song of the bird Grip will restore it.
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf - the theft of golden apples leads the king to declare that whichever of his sons catches the thief, the Firebird, will have half his kingdom and be his heir.
The Nunda, Eater of People - the failure of the Sultan's eldest sons to catch a date-thieving bird leads to a change in status of the youngest.
The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener - the theft of the king's curative fruit leads the king to declare that whomever catches the golden bird shall marry his daughter.
2. And then there was one…
The Golden Bird - the king's three sons each attempt to stop the apple thief. Only the youngest succeeds. Then the three sons each try to track and capture the bird, but the eldest two ignore a fox's advice and are waylaid, leaving the youngest to succeed.
The Bird Grip - the king's three sons set out to fetch the bird Grip, but the eldest two are waylaid at an inn, leaving the youngest to continue on and eventually succeed.
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf - the king makes offer of half the kingdom &c. To his eldest sons, each of whom are waylaid by indecision at a crossroads. The youngest, after much begging and cajoling, is allowed to set forth also, and it is he that succeeds.
The Nunda, Eater of People - the sultan sets six of his seven sons, year after year, to defend his dates. Each son fails; when it reaches the turn of the youngest, the sultan believes him incapable, eventually grants the youth's request to try, and is surprised when he succeeds.
The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener - the gardener's three sons, the finest archers in the land, each attempt to stop the apple thief. Only the youngest succeeds. Then the three sons each try to track and capture the bird, but the eldest two ignore a fox's advice and are waylaid, leaving the youngest to succeed.
3. The Animal Aide
The Golden Bird - the sons each meet a talking fox; only the third son takes his advice. Interestingly, the youngest soon proceeds to disregard the fox's advice, but never for selfish reasons, but rather because he feels he's doing the right thing by the golden bird, the golden horse, and the princess from the golden castle.
The Bird Grip - after leaving his brothers at an inn, the youngest pays the debts of a dead man unable to be buried, then meets with a fox who tells him he can help him. The fox proceeds to give instructions for the coming tasks, which the youth follows half way, leading to other tasks. This tale also fits ATU 505, The Grateful Dead, as the fox is in fact the dead man whose debts the prince had paid.
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf - unlike the other stories, the animal to offer help in this story is a grey wolf. After the youth has met with the wolf, the story continues in a similar fashion to those with the fox.
The Nunda, Eater of People - there is no fox-like creature within this story; the closest thing, as an animal advisor, is the thieving bird. Although the bird does offer to aid the youth through the gift of his feather, and is benign in that he does not cause the prince to fall, he has no other similarities to the fox, most particularly because he is never called upon through the use of said feather.
The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener- the gardener's sons each meet a talking fox; only the third son takes his advice, and the story continues in a similar fashion to The Golden Bird.
4. Happily Ever After…?
I've chosen not to go into detail of the tasks set to each of the youths, as much of this will be covered in the following part of this commentary.
The Golden Bird - after rescuing his brothers from the gallows-despite the fox's warning not to do so - surviving after they push him into a well and attempt claim credit for his deeds, and eventually establishing himself as the rightful hero of the story, the youth is asked to cut off the fox's head (sometimes head and paws). This he does; the fox is then revealed to be the enchanted brother of the princess. Note than in some tellings, the youth refuses to do this out of love for his friend, and it is not until he and the fox meet again many years later that the youth relents, and the fox is returned to his true form.
The Bird Grip - as above, save that the brothers throw the youth into a den of lions rather than push him into a well; the fox is the dead man whose debts the youth paid.
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf - the only story in which the animal advisor, the wolf, takes an active part in the tasks, shapeshifting into necessary forms (the princess, the horse) such that the youth may escape. The youth's brothers meet him and the princess on the road, killing him and stealing the princess, the firebird, and the horse. After they have left, the wolf has a crow fetch the water of life, restores the youth, and takes him home, where arrives in time to marry the princess. In contrast to the other tales listed here, the brothers are sometimes killed by the wolf, othertimes made servants. Note that the wolf is not enchanted in any way, and remains a wolf.
The Nunda, Eater of People - after the youth has made a covenant with the date-thieving bird, the king's cat slowly transforms into a demon, the Nunda. After some events, the youth and his slaves kill it, with no great confrontation, but rather through the use of intellect. The bird does not feature in this part of the story.
The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener - the end of this story stands out in that is happy for all. The gardener's elder sons are not evil; once the youth has rescued them (they are beggars), they return to the king with him. As in the other stories, the fox asks the youth to cut off his head, but the youth cannot do it; the eldest brother does it for him, revealing that the fox is the princess' brother. The fox-prince then marries the king's daughter, and the youth the princess he has brought.
What is AT 550?
The quest for the golden bird, or, sometimes, Firebird, this is a fairly well known tale type. Sometimes, as in the case of The Nunda, Eater of People, it is combined with other tale types also. Interestingly, the Nunda, or the swallowing monster, is a common element in African tales, and is rarely stand alone (more below).
From Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Grey Wolf, Ivan Bilbin
Animal Aides
Defining the tale type is both complex and simple. The tales discussed here suggest that the inclusion of a fruit-thieving bird is the only necessary element, though many tales within the type also include the enchanted fox (or other animal) and the disreputable brothers. As we see in Nunda, the youth and the bird make a covenant, but there is no other interaction between them, nothing which can be construed as animal aid in the manner of the fox's. The wolf in Firebird is an animal aide, and yet lacks the enchanted quality of the fox in the other tales (as the dead man, or the enchanted prince), though, as the wolf is clearly a magical creature, perhaps the idea of the enchanted animal should be changed to the more encompassing "magical".
Thieving Birds
I think it's worth noting that in all the AT 550 tales I've read, the fruit thief is a bird. It's possible this is for reasons of logic - it is easiest for a bird to steal undetected and to flee unharmed, and the bird in a gilded cage is a well known motif. Perhaps it is for this reason, too, that I've been unable to find anything relating to the specificity of the tale, with most scholars believing the bird-thief an obvious choice.
Youngest sibling
In The Dead Wife commentary, I posted about stories and reader assent-i.e. The reader's acceptance of the fairy tale world and the paradigms within. AT 550 contains another example of a plot line in which the reader already knows the end - the youngest sibling, (in this case, the youth) is most always the one to succeed at a given task. I hesitate to say that it is always the youngest who has the happily ever after-in The Singing Bone[1], the youngest certainly succeeds in the tasks set, but still dies-without resurrection-before the end of the story.
Why, in the case of three siblings, is it always the youngest who succeeds? As an eldest child, I have to admit that this questions holds some fascination for me. Even in the absence of evil siblings (such as the gardener's sons in The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener), it is most often the youngest of three who succeeds. This youngest child, however, is also usually an underdog: sometimes he/she is lacking in intelligence compared to the elder siblings, or is considered weaker, more frail, sometimes even perceived to be soft of spirit. All manner of things are thought about the youngest, with the elder siblings laughing at the "child", or a parent at first refusing to let the youngest participate.
Why is all this important? As the underdog, the youngest sibling rarely fails to engage the reader's sympathy-everyone has been an underdog at some point, marginalised, forgotten, or somehow perceived as inferior/not good enough. The fairy tale youngest is easy to relate to regardless of one's birth position. Moreover, the youngest as hero gives a story depth-there are not only two previous attempts through which a story builds tension, but rather two antagonists already woven into the very fabric of the tale.
The theme of the youngest sibling succeeding has been much popularised in recent years. In her The Matisse Stories
, A.S. Byatt follows the journey of an eldest sister determined to elude her expected fate, while Diana Wynne Jones opens Howl's Moving Castle
by telling us that Sophie, the eldest sister, does not expect much from life because she is not only an eldest sister, but technically an ugly stepsister as well.
For more on apples, see an earlier commentary, Mother Holle.
Footnotes:
[1] A German tale, collected by the Grimms and somewhat prevalent in Lower Hesse; the most well known tale type in. AT 780. AT 780 is common in certain parts of northern Europe, particularly Scandinavia.