The Greenish Bird
Encyclopedia
The Greenish Bird is a Mexican fairy tale
collected by Joel Gomez in La Encantada, Texas from a seventy-four-year-old woman, Mrs. P.E.
It combines Aarne-Thompson types 425, the Search for the Lost Husband, and 432, the Prince as Bird. Other types of the first type include The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway
, East of the Sun and West of the Moon
, The King of Love
, The Enchanted Pig
, The Tale of the Hoodie
, Master Semolina, The Enchanted Snake
, The Sprig of Rosemary
, The Daughter of the Skies
, and White-Bear-King-Valemon
. Others of the second include The Feather of Finist the Falcon
, The Green Knight
, and The Blue Bird
.
She bought herself iron shoes and set out. She finds the Sun's house, where his mother warns her that he will eat her; she nevertheless hides until the mother calms her son down, whereupon he does not know the way but sends her to the Moon. The same thing happens with the Moon, and then with the Wind, but the Wind can not send her anywhere. She happens on a hermit who can summon all the birds and animals, and an old eagle says that the Greenish Bird is to marry, except that he is very ill, and if she kills him a cow, he could take her. When they flew, he asked for meat, and she gave him another leg. When she was out, she offered to cut off her own leg, but the eagle said he was testing her.
At the prince's, she worked in the kitchen and played the guitar. This cured the prince. The prince then said every woman must make a cup of cocoa, and whoever's he drank, he would marry the woman. He drank Luisa's, not caring whether it was bitter, and married her.
The conclusion is unusual in that while some domestic skill is usually the test, it is also usually only the heroine who can perform it, as in Black Bull of Norroway and East of the Sun and West of the Moon, where only she can wash the shirt. Curing the prince, where it occurs, as in The Enchanted Snake
, is usually enough to win him.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
collected by Joel Gomez in La Encantada, Texas from a seventy-four-year-old woman, Mrs. P.E.
It combines Aarne-Thompson types 425, the Search for the Lost Husband, and 432, the Prince as Bird. Other types of the first type include The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway
The Brown Bear of Norway
The Brown Bear of Norway is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Fitzroy MacLean in West Highland Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Lilac Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A, the search for the lost husband...
, East of the Sun and West of the Moon
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
East of the Sun and West of the Moon is a Norwegian folk tale.East of the Sun and West of the Moon was collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe...
, The King of Love
The King of Love
The King of Love is an Italian fairy tale collected by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A. Others of this type include The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway, The Daughter of the Skies, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Enchanted...
, The Enchanted Pig
The Enchanted Pig
The Enchanted Pig is a Romanian fairy tale, collected in Rumanische Märchen and also by Petre Ispirescu in Legende sau basmele românilor. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A, the search for the lost husband...
, The Tale of the Hoodie
The Tale of the Hoodie
The Tale of the Hoodie is a Scottish fairy tale, collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Andrew Lang included it, as The Hoodie-Crow, in The Lilac Fairy Book....
, Master Semolina, The Enchanted Snake
The Enchanted Snake
The Enchanted Snake or The Snake is an Italian fairy tale. Giambattista Basile wrote a variant in the Pentamerone. Andrew Lang drew upon this variant, for inclusion in The Green Fairy Book....
, The Sprig of Rosemary
The Sprig of Rosemary
The Sprig of Rosemary is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Dr. D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros in Cuentos Populars Catalans. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book.It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A, the search for the lost husband....
, The Daughter of the Skies
The Daughter of the Skies
The Daughter of the Skies is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as James MacLauchlan, a servant from Islay.It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A...
, and White-Bear-King-Valemon
White-Bear-King-Valemon
White-Bear-King-Valemon is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by the artist August Schneider in 1870, after a peasant woman, Thore Aslaksdotter , in Setesdal. The tale was for the first time retold and published in Peter Christen Asbjørnsen's Norske Folke-Eventyr. Ny Samling...
. Others of the second include The Feather of Finist the Falcon
The Feather of Finist the Falcon
The Feather of Finist the Falcon or Finist the Falcon is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.It is Aarne–Thompson type 432, the prince as bird...
, The Green Knight
The Green Knight (fairy tale)
The Green Knight is a Danish fairy tale, collected by Evald Tang Kristensen in "Eventyr fra Jylland" and by Svend Grundtvig in Danish Fairy Tales.This tale combines Aarne-Thompson type 510A with type 425N, the bird husband, and type 432, the prince as bird...
, and The Blue Bird
The Blue Bird (fairy tale)
"The Blue Bird" is a French literary fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy, published in 1697. An English translation was included in The Green Fairy Book, 1892, collected by Andrew Lang.The tale is Aarne-Thompson type 432, The Prince as Bird...
.
Synopsis
Of three sisters, only Luisa sewed; her sisters hung out in bars instead. A greenish bird that was a prince came and wooed her. Her sisters found out and put knives in the window so he was wounded. He told her to that he lived in crystal towers on the plains of Merlin.She bought herself iron shoes and set out. She finds the Sun's house, where his mother warns her that he will eat her; she nevertheless hides until the mother calms her son down, whereupon he does not know the way but sends her to the Moon. The same thing happens with the Moon, and then with the Wind, but the Wind can not send her anywhere. She happens on a hermit who can summon all the birds and animals, and an old eagle says that the Greenish Bird is to marry, except that he is very ill, and if she kills him a cow, he could take her. When they flew, he asked for meat, and she gave him another leg. When she was out, she offered to cut off her own leg, but the eagle said he was testing her.
At the prince's, she worked in the kitchen and played the guitar. This cured the prince. The prince then said every woman must make a cup of cocoa, and whoever's he drank, he would marry the woman. He drank Luisa's, not caring whether it was bitter, and married her.
Motifs
The informant learned it from her mother, who was famed for her guitar playing, which may explain that motif.The conclusion is unusual in that while some domestic skill is usually the test, it is also usually only the heroine who can perform it, as in Black Bull of Norroway and East of the Sun and West of the Moon, where only she can wash the shirt. Curing the prince, where it occurs, as in The Enchanted Snake
The Enchanted Snake
The Enchanted Snake or The Snake is an Italian fairy tale. Giambattista Basile wrote a variant in the Pentamerone. Andrew Lang drew upon this variant, for inclusion in The Green Fairy Book....
, is usually enough to win him.