Misplaced Pages

#940059

90-397: The king of Green Bank had three beautiful daughters. The king of Fair Meadows had three sons, who had been transformed into a falcon , a stag , and a dolphin ; these sons loved the three daughters, but the king would not marry them to animals. The sons summoned all the animals of their kind and made war until the king yielded. They were married, and the queen gave each of her daughters

180-521: A behemoth by the father). The Brothers Grimm collected, in the very first edition of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812) the tale Die drei Schwestern ("The Three Sisters"), where the maidens are betrothed to a bear, an eagle and a generic fish due to their father's gambling. The tale, previously KHM 82, was later withdrawn from the collection. Louis Curtze collected a variant from Dieringhausen, in Germany , titled Reinhold, das Wunderkind . The name

270-564: A donkey in The Golden Ass . Proteus was known among the gods for his shapeshifting; both Menelaus and Aristaeus captured him to obtain information, and they succeeded only by holding on through his many transformations. Nereus told Heracles where to find the Apples of the Hesperides for the same reason. The Oceanid Metis , the first wife of Zeus and the mother of the goddess Athena,

360-402: A utopia full of wealth which is also without pain or death, they crave the pleasures and hardships of human societies. Transformation into human form is said to be rare, and usually occurs at night. The encantado will often be seen running from a festa , despite protests from the others for it to stay, and can be seen by pursuers as it hurries to the river and reverts to dolphin form. When it

450-436: A 20th-century inquiry, Other variants were collected by 19th century folklorists: " The Fair Fiorita " ( La bella Fiorita ), by Domenico Comparetti ; Lu re di li setti muntagni d'oru and Li tri figghi obbidienti by Giuseppe Pitrè ; Von der schönen Cardia , by Laura Gonzenbach ; Lu Bbastunélle , by Gennaro Finnamore; La bella del Mondo , by Antonio de Nino; Die vier Königskinder , by Hermann Knust. In De Nino's version,

540-556: A butterfly. The most dramatic example of shapeshifting in Irish myth is that of Tuan mac Cairill , the only survivor of Partholón 's settlement of Ireland. In his centuries-long life, he became successively a stag, a wild boar, a hawk, and finally a salmon before being eaten and (as in the Wooing of Étaín) reborn as a human. The Púca is a Celtic faery, and also a deft shapeshifter. He can transform into many different, terrifying forms. Sadhbh ,

630-670: A certain door. He does and meets Koshey, prisoner of Anastasia's castle for 15 years. Ivan unwittingly helps the villain and he kidnaps his wife. The bogatyr, then, journeys through the world and visits his sisters, married to the Raven King, the Hawk King and the Eagle King. They advise him to find a mare that comes from the sea to vanquish Koschey. Professor Jack V. Haney also translated a variant from storyteller Fedor Kabrenov (1895-?), from Pudozh . In this tale, titled Ivan Tsarevich and Koshchei

720-639: A dragon that kidnaps his wife and discovers the dragon's weakness lies within an egg inside a duck, inside a hare, inside an ox. In a second variant from Belarus, "Иван Иванович—римский царевич" (also cited by Horálek), the hero, Ivan Tsarevich, marries his sisters to the Wind, the Storm and the King of the Birds. He also learns from an old woman of a beautiful warrior princess. He journeys to this warrior princess and wants to fight her (she

810-468: A dwarf, a giant, or even a human, depending on the exact myth, but in all variants, he transformed into a dragon—a symbol of greed —while guarding his ill-gotten hoard. His brother, Ótr , enjoyed spending time as an otter, which led to his accidental slaying by Loki. In Scandinavia , there existed, for example, the famous race of she-werewolves known by the name of Maras, women who took on the appearance of huge half-human and half-wolf monsters that stalked

900-464: A falcon, a griffin and an eagle. After their marriages to the hero's sisters, the avian brothers-in-law gather to find a bride for him. They tell of a maiden the hero must defeat in combat before he marries her. He does, and, after the hero and the warrior maiden marry, she gives him a set of keys. The hero uses the keys to open a chamber in her castle and releases an enemy king. In another variant, collected by Carl Cappeller  [ sv ] with

990-438: A full human, she uses her beauty to seduce men and eat their hearts (or in some cases livers where the belief is that 100 livers would turn her into a real human). In Somali mythology Qori ismaris ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a " Hyena-man " by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn. ǀKaggen

SECTION 10

#1732858906941

1080-436: A giant gold fish appears to claim one of his daughters as spouse. Next, a great storm rages on, and an eagle comes to take one of the girls as his wife. Lastly, a darkness covers the forest, and a bear appears to take the last daughter. In return, the old man receives three golden scales, three feathers and three hairs. The old man visits his daughters and their husbands, and works with his sons-in-law to disenchant them by finding

1170-607: A headache, so Hephaestus clove his head with an axe. Athena sprang from her father's head, fully grown, and in battle armor. In Greek mythology , the transformation is often a punishment from the gods to humans who crossed them. While the Greek gods could use transformation punitively – such as Medusa , who turned to a monster for having sexual intercourse ( raped in Ovid's version) with Poseidon in Athena 's temple – even more frequently,

1260-490: A hen and ate him. She became pregnant, and he was reborn as a baby. He grew up to be the bard Taliesin. In the Book of Taliesin , he mentions many forms which he is able to take, including that of lantern-light. Tales abound about the selkie , a seal that can remove its skin to make contact in human guise with people for only a short amount of time before it must return to the sea. Clan MacColdrum of Uist 's foundation myths include

1350-491: A king with three daughters and a son weds the princesses to the three sons of a wizard. The prince breaks an old woman's jug and she curses him to seek Maiurana as his bride. He visits his sisters and brothers-in-law and learns that Maiurana is at the mercy of their magician father and his ogre wife. In a variant Calvino adapted, The Princesses Wed to the First Passers-by , the prince marries his sisters to three simple men:

1440-403: A lion, an eagle and a snake. In a tale from Drava , Az acélember ("The Man of Steel"), a father's dying wishes is for his brothers to marry off their sisters to anyone who passes by. The first to pass is the eagle king, the second the falcon king and the third the buzzard king. On their way to their sisters, they camp out in the woods. While his elder brothers are sleeping, the youngest kills

1530-406: A mare to escape Poseidon , but Poseidon counter-transformed himself into a stallion to pursue her, and succeeded in the rape. Caenis , having been raped by Poseidon , demanded of him that she be changed to a man. He agreed, and she became Caeneus , a form he never lost, except, in some versions, upon death. Clytie was a nymph who loved Helios, but he did not love her back. Desperate, she sat on

1620-408: A pigherd, a fowler and a gravedigger. Later, when the prince is cursed to look for a beautiful maiden named Floret, he visits his sisters and discovers that his brothers-in-law have power, respectively, over pigs, birds and the dead. Svend Grundtvig collected a Danish variant titled The Wishing-Box ( Ønskedaasen ): Hans, the son of a poor peasant, receives from his father a wishing-box his father

1710-556: A quasi-historical figure who appears in the Icelandic Sagas , according to which she was the wife of Eric Bloodaxe , was credited with magic powers – including the power of shapeshifting and turning at will into a bird. She is the central character of the novel Mother of Kings by Poul Anderson , which considerably elaborates on her shapeshifting abilities. In the Finnish epic poem Kalevala of ancient folklore, Louhi , Mistress of

1800-423: A ransom. Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion transform flowers into a woman named Blodeuwedd , and when she betrays her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes , who is transformed into an eagle, they transform her again, into an owl. Gilfaethwy raped Goewin , Math fab Mathonwy 's virgin footholder, with help from his brother Gwydion . As punishment, Math turned them into different types of animals for one year each. Gwydion

1890-420: A ring so they could recognize one another. After the wedding, the queen gave birth to a son, Tittone. One day, she lamented that she never heard what happened to her daughters. Tittone set out to find them. He found the eldest with the falcon husband; she hid him and persuaded her husband to let him visit. He stayed for a time, and the falcon gave him a feather when he set out to find the other sisters. After

SECTION 20

#1732858906941

1980-546: A rock with no food or water for nine days looking at him as he crossed the skies, until she was transformed into a purple, sun-gazing flower, the heliotropium . As a final reward from the gods for their hospitality, Baucis and Philemon were transformed, at their deaths, into a pair of trees. Eos , the goddess of the dawn, secured immortality for her lover the Trojan prince Tithonus , but not eternal youth, so he aged without dying as he shriveled and grew more and more helpless. In

2070-463: A silver key and warns him never to open its respective door. He does so and finds a giant snake chained to the wall. In a third Russian variant, "Анастасья Прекрасная и Иванъ Русский Богатырь" ("The Beautiful Anastasia and Ivan, the Russian Bogatyr"), collected by Ivan Khudyakov ( ru ), the father of Ivan, the Russian Bogatyr, orders him, as a last wish, to marry his sister off to whoever appears at

2160-520: A time, he found the second sister, and her husband the stag made him welcome, and when he left, gave him some of its hair. He found the third sister, and her husband the dolphin made him welcome and gave him some scales when he left. Returning, he found a maiden captive in a tower, where a dragon slept, and which was surrounded by a lake. She begged him to save her. He threw down the feather, hairs, and scales, and his brothers-in-law appeared. The falcon summoned griffins to carry her to freedom; when

2250-510: A union between the founder of the clan and a shape-shifting selkie. Another such creature is the Scottish selkie, which needs its sealskin to regain its form. In The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry the (male) selkie seduces a human woman. Such stories surrounding these creatures are usually romantic tragedies. Scottish mythology features shapeshifters, which allows the various creatures to trick, deceive, hunt, and kill humans. Water spirits such as

2340-527: A version titled De dree verwünschenen Prinzen , in the 1909 edition of Heimat . Gustav Meyer referred, in his annotations, to Basile's, Musäus's and Grimm's versions. Ernst Meier published a Swabian version titled Donner, Blitz und Wetter ( English : "Thunder, Lightning and Weather"). Meier interpreted the characters of the meteorological phenomena as probably the remnants of ancient deities. There are two Portuguese variants: What Came of Picking Flowers ( Cravo, Rosa e Jasmim ), by Teophilo Braga , where

2430-441: Is a demi-urge and folk hero of the ǀXam people of southern Africa. He is a trickster god who can shape shift, usually taking the form of a praying mantis but also a bull eland , a louse , a snake, and a caterpillar . Amazon river dolphins are curious and lack of fear of foreign objects, are apex predators , and the male Amazon river dolphins are very physically aggressive during their mating period, particularly around

2520-434: Is advised by his brothers-in-law to find a horse from a witch, which he does by herding her horses. At last, Janko rides the horse into battle, and his horse convinces the dragon's mount - his brother - to drop the villain to the ground. Shapeshifting In mythology , folklore and speculative fiction , shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting

2610-435: Is among the most commonly known, but other such creatures include the bakeneko , the mujina , and the tanuki . Korean mythology also contains a fox with the ability to shapeshift. Unlike its Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the kumiho is always malevolent. Usually its form is of a beautiful young woman; one tale recounts a man, a would-be seducer, revealed as a kumiho. The kumiho has nine tails and as she desires to be

2700-403: Is disguised as a man). They marry soon after. She gives him the keys to the castle and warns him never to enter a certain chamber. He opens it and releases a human-looking youth (the villain of the tale). The prince vanquishes this foe with the help of a horse. In a Belarusian tale published by folklorist Lev Barag  [ ru ] and translated as Janko und die Königstochter ("Janko and

2790-687: Is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism , as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad . The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy , children's literature and popular culture . Examples of shapeshifters are vampires and werewolves . Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), ichchhadhari naag (shape-shifting cobra) of India, shapeshifting fox spirits of East Asia such as

The Three Enchanted Princes - Misplaced Pages Continue

2880-406: Is quite similar to the main character of Musäus's version, whose name was translated as "Rinaldo, the son of wonder". Heinrich Pröhle collected the tale Bärenheid, Adelheid und Wallfild , the sisters' names, which mirror the animals they will be married to: respectively, Bären ( English : " bear "), Adler ( English : " eagle ") and Wallfische ( English : " whale "). Gustav F. Meyer published

2970-400: Is the huli jing , a fox spirit that usually appears as a beautiful young woman; most are dangerous, but some feature as the heroines of love stories. Madame White Snake is one such legend; a snake falls in love with a man, and the story recounts the trials she and her husband faced. In Japanese folklore obake are a type of yōkai with the ability to shapeshifting. The fox, or kitsune

3060-558: Is under human form, it wears a hat to hide its blowhole , which does not disappear with the shapeshift. Ji%C5%99%C3%AD Pol%C3%ADvka (linguist) Jiří Polívka (6 March 1858 in Enns –21 March 1933 in Prague ) was a Czech linguist , slavist , literary historian and folklorist . He was a disciple of Jan Gebauer . In 1895, he was appointed professor at Charles University in Prague. He became

3150-611: The Aswang , a vampiric monster capable of transforming into a bat, a large black dog, a black cat, a black boar, or some other form to stalk humans at night. The folklore also mentions other beings such as the Kapre , the Tikbalang , and the Engkanto , which change their appearances to woo beautiful maidens. Also, talismans (called " anting-anting " or " birtud " in the local dialect), can give their owners

3240-552: The each-uisge , which inhabit lochs and waterways in Scotland, were said to appear as a horse or a young man. Other tales include kelpies who emerge from lochs and rivers in the disguise of a horse or woman to ensnare and kill weary travelers. Tam Lin , a man captured by the Queen of the Fairies is changed into all manner of beasts before being rescued. He finally turned into a burning coal and

3330-579: The huli jing of China, the obake of Japan, the Navajo skin-walkers , and gods, goddesses and demons and demonesses such as the Norse Loki or the Greek Proteus . Shapeshifting to the form of a wolf is specifically known as lycanthropy , and creatures who undergo such change are called lycanthropes. It was also common for deities to transform mortals into animals and plants. The prefix "were-" comes from

3420-475: The Deathless , the sisters of prince Ivan Tsarevich decide to take a walk "in the open steppe", when three strange storms appear and seize each one of the maidens. After he goes in search of his sisters, he discovers them married to three men equally named Raven Ravenson, Talon Talonson (albeit with different physical characteristics: one with "brass nose, lead tail", the second with "brass nose, cast iron tail", and

3510-476: The Giant Killer and The Black Bull of Norroway , feature shapeshifting. Pwyll was transformed by Arawn into Arawn's shape, and Arawn transformed himself into Pwyll's so that they could trade places for a year and a day. Llwyd ap Cil Coed transformed his wife and attendants into mice to attack a crop in revenge; when his wife is captured, he turns himself into three clergymen in succession to try to pay

3600-420: The King's Daughter"), a dying king makes his son, Janko, promise to marry his three sisters to whoever appears after he dies. Some time later, three man, Raven Ravenson, Eagle Eagleson and Zander Zanderson, come to take the princesses as wives. Later, Janko steals items from quarrelling peoples and visits his three sisters. He rides his horse to a king and courts its princess with the magical objects he stole from

3690-491: The Moon and the Wind, who are princes or kings, as per the original tale by author Bozena Nemcova . Richard MacGillivray Dawkins also noted that in some variants, the suitors are "persons of great and magical potency", but appear to court the princesses under shaggy and ragged disguises. In the same vein, author Italo Calvino , commenting on an Italian variant he adapted, remarked that "in three similar Southern [Italian] versions",

The Three Enchanted Princes - Misplaced Pages Continue

3780-529: The North, attacks Väinämöinen in the form of a giant eagle with her troops on her back as she tries to steal Sampo . In Armenian mythology , shapeshifters include the Nhang , a serpentine river monster that can transform itself into a woman or seal, and will drown humans and then drink their blood; or the beneficial Shahapet , a guardian spirit that can appear either as a man or a snake. Philippine mythology includes

3870-575: The Old English word for "man". While the popular idea of a shapeshifter is of a human being who turns into something else, there are numerous stories about animals that can transform themselves as well. Examples of shapeshifting in classical literature include many examples in Ovid 's Metamorphoses , Circe 's transforming of Odysseus ' men to pigs in Homer 's The Odyssey , and Apuleius 's Lucius becoming

3960-587: The Sun, the Moon, the Thunder and the Wind. In a comparative study, Karelian scholarship noted that, in Russian variants, there are three brothers-in-law, the most common are three ornitomorphic characters: the eagle (named Orel Orlovich), the falcon (named Sokol Sokolovich) and the raven (almost always the third suitor, called Voron Voronovich). They sometimes may be replaced - depending on the location - by another bird (the dove or

4050-619: The Sun-king, the Wind-king and the Moon-king. The prince then journeys to find his own bride, Kavadiska. They marry and his wife warns not to open the last chamber in their castle while she is away. Argilius disobeys and releases Holofernes, the Flame-King. The translation indicated a "Slavonic" origin. However, W. Henry Jones, in his notes to a book of Magyar folktales by Janos Kriza , gave a summary of

4140-514: The Three Sisters , Reinald, the Wonder-Child, or The Chronicles of the Three Sisters and The Enchanted Forest . 19th century theologue Johann Andreas Christian Löhr wrote a version of the tale, titled Reinhald das Wunderkind , where the sisters are called Wulfheid, Adelheid and Bertha, married, respectively, to a bear, an "Aar" (a dated or poetic German word for eagle) and a giant fish (called

4230-518: The White"), where the prince weds his sisters to three magical suitors: the Thunder, the Rain and the Wind. They also help him by teaching Ivan magical abilities related to their elements, which allow the prince to command the destructive aspects of the rain, the thunder and the wind. In another Russian variant, "Иванъ царевичъ и Марья Маревна" ("Ivan Tsarevich and Marya Marevna"), collected by Ivan Khudyakov ( ru ),

4320-507: The ability to shapeshift. In one tale, Chonguita the Monkey Wife , a woman is turned into a monkey, only becoming human again if she can marry a handsome man. Tatar folklore includes Yuxa , a hundred-year-old snake that can transform itself into a beautiful young woman, and seeks to marry men to have children. Chinese mythology contains many tales of animal shapeshifters, capable of taking on human form. The most common such shapeshifter

4410-590: The air"). The brothers-in-law are the King of the Birds, King of the Fishes and King of the Rats and Mice. German author Johann Karl August Musäus wrote a literary treatment of the tale type in his Volksmärchen der Deutschen , with the title Die Bücher der Chronika der drei Schwestern ("The Book of the Chronicles of the Three Sisters"). This version has been translated into English several times, including as The Chronicles of

4500-531: The animals are the king of birds and the king of fishes, and A Torre da Babylonia , by Adolpho Coelho , where the brothers-in-law are the king of fishes, the king of "leões do mar" ( sea lions ) and the king of birds. Calvino stated that "the three kings of animal realms" as brothers-in-law is a "widespread Italian folk motif". Apart from Basile's literary work, the tale is attested in Italian folktale compilations, with seven variants (AT 552 and AT 552A), according to

4590-462: The animals helpers have changed into brothers-in-law. Linguist Jiri Polívka reached a similar conclusion in his work about Slovak fairy tales. He argued that in the cycle of stories where a princess is kidnapped by a monster released by her husband, the motif of the grateful animals merged with the motif of the enchanted brothers-in-law. Professor Stith Thompson commented that, apart from two ancient literary versions (Musäus and Giambattista Basile),

SECTION 50

#1732858906941

4680-532: The appearance of shapeshifting, through their power, called "glamour", to create illusions, and some were limited to changing their size, as with the spriggans , and others to a few forms. But others, such as the Hedley Kow , could change to many forms, and both human and supernatural wizards were capable of both such changes, and inflicting them on others. Witches could turn into hares and in that form steal milk and butter. Many British fairy tales, such as Jack

4770-481: The brothers-in-law hold dominion over animals. Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev , based on comparative analysis of Slavic folkloric traditions, stated that the eagle, the falcon and the raven (or crow), in Slavic versions, are connected to weather phenomena, like storm, rain, wind. He also saw a parallel between the avian suitors from the tale Marya Morevna with the suitors from other Slavic folktales, where they are

4860-505: The brothers-in-law: usually, there are three animals, one terrestrial, a second aerial and the third aquatic, as in Musäus's version (respectively, a bear , a falcon and a giant fish ). In the famous Russian version Marya Morevna , the husbands-to-be are a falcon, an eagle and a raven. In Czech fairy tale film The Prince and the Evening Star , the prince marries his sisters to the Sun,

4950-486: The castle. Three people appear and requests Ivan to deliver them his sisters. Some time later, Ivan sees that three armies have been defeated by a warrior queen named Marya Marevna. Ivan invades her white tent and they face in combat. Ivan defeats her and she reveals she is not Marya Marevna, but a princess named Anastasia, the Beautiful. They yield and marry. Anastasia gives him the keys to her castle and warns him never to open

5040-478: The courtship practice of object carrying. Amazon river dolphins , known by the natives as the boto , encantados or toninhas, are very prevalent in the mythology of the native South Americans. They are frequently characterized in mythology with superior musical ability, seductiveness and love of sex, resulting in illegitimate children, and attraction to parties. Despite the fact that the Encante are said to come from

5130-531: The dragon woke, the stag summoned lions, bears, and other animals to tear it to pieces; the dolphin had waves engulf the tower to destroy it. This freed the brothers-in-law from their enchanted shapes, and they returned with their brides to their own parents, and Tittone returned to his with his bride. The tale was translated into English language as King Falcon, King Dolphin, and King Stag and published in The Italian Fairy Book . Another translation of

5220-466: The dragons that emerge from the lake. Later, he meets giants who want to kidnap a princess. The youth tricks them and decapitates their heads. His brothers wake up and go to the neighbouring castle. The king learns of the youth's bravery and rewards him with his daughter's hand in marriage. The king also gives him a set of keys and tells his son-in-law never to open the ninth door. He does and releases "The Steel Man", who kidnaps his wife as soon as she leaves

5310-471: The emperor's church. In the last part of the tale, with the help of his avian brothers-in-law, he finds the Steel Man's strength: inside a butterfly, inside a bird, inside a fox. In The Story of Argilius and the Flame-King , the King and Queen wish to marry their three daughters to their only brother, to keep the kingdom intact. Prince Argilius ( hu ), in defiance of their parents' wishes, marries his sisters to

5400-476: The end, Eos transformed him into a cicada . In some variants of the tale of Narcissus , he is turned into a narcissus flower. Sometimes metamorphoses transform objects into humans. In the myths of both Jason and Cadmus , one task set to the hero was to sow dragon's teeth ; on being sown, they would metamorphose into belligerent warriors, and both heroes had to throw a rock to trick them into fighting each other to survive. Deucalion and Pyrrha repopulated

5490-493: The external soul of the devil that cursed them. In another Latvian tale, sourced as from the collection of Latvian lawyer Arveds Švābe ( lv ), "Три сестры, брат да яйцо бессмертия" ("Three Sisters, A Brother, and the Egg of Immortality"), a dying king begs his only son to look after his three sisters. One day, while they are strolling in the garden, the three princess vanish with a strong gust of wind. Their brother goes after them, and, on

SECTION 60

#1732858906941

5580-413: The form of a mare to bear Odin's steed Sleipnir which was the fastest horse ever to exist, and also the form of a she-wolf to bear Fenrir . Svipdagr angered Odin , who turned him into a dragon. Despite his monstrous appearance, his lover, the goddess Freyja , refused to leave his side. When the warrior Hadding found and slew Svipdagr, Freyja cursed him to be tormented by a tempest and shunned like

5670-463: The horse to each of his sisters, and confirms the princes' story: they are brothers who were cursed by a dragon whose life lies outside his body. Vowing to break their curse, the prince flies to the dragon's palace, and meets a princess - the dragon's prisoner. The tale type ATU 552 is known in Estonia as Loomad kälimeesteks ("Animals as Sisters' Husbands"), and the suitors appear as the kings of animals:

5760-505: The latter tale, the hero Ivan marries his three sisters to an eagle, a falcon and another man, then goes to find Marya Morevnva, "The Princess with the Pouch". He opens the forbidden door to the castle and releases Kaschei the Immortal, who kidnaps his wife. Ivan summons his fiery horse "Sivko-Burko" and visits his sisters. When Ivan reaches Kaschei's lair, Marya Morevna obtains a valuable information:

5850-457: The living and dead waters, and tell him to seek a magical colt from the stables of Koschei's mother. In a Belarusian variant (summarized by Slavicist Karel Horálek), "Прекрасная девица Алена" ("Beautiful Girl Alena"), one of the tsar's sons marries his sisters to the Thunder, the Frost and the Rain. On his wanderings, he learns the titular Beautiful Alena is his destined bride. They marry, he releases

5940-459: The location of Kaschei's external soul. She also finds out that the villain's magical horse he obtained from herding Yega Yegishna's twelve mares, in her abode across a fiery river. Apart from the story about Koschei , the Deathless and Marya Morevna (both present in the same variant), Russian folktale compilations attest similar tales about human maidens marrying either animals or personifications of nature (sun, wind, storm, etc.). For instance,

6030-442: The magpie) or by a mammal (the bear, the wolf, the seal or the deer). Professor Karel Horálek mentioned that tale type AaTh 552 ("specially in Slavic variants") shows the motif of the hero opening, against his wife's orders, a door or the dungeon and liberating a Giant or Ogre that kills him. W. R. Halliday attempted a reconstruction of the supposedly original form of the tale, dubbed "The Magic Brothers-in-law", which incorporates

6120-436: The marriage to animals or other creatures, and the fight against an adversary whose soul is located outside his body ("Ogre's life in an egg"). Professor Susie Hoogasian-Villa seemed to concur that Halliday's reconstruction is the original form. On the other hand, it has been suggested that the tale type ATU 552 may have been derived from an original form that closely resembles ATU 554, "The Grateful Animals". In this transition,

6210-490: The night in search of human or animal prey. If a woman gives birth at midnight and stretches the membrane that envelopes the child when it is brought forth, between four sticks and creeps through it, naked, she will bear children without pain; but all the boys will be shamans , and all the girls Maras. The Nisse is sometimes said to be a shapeshifter. This trait also is attributed to Hulder . Gunnhild, Mother of Kings ( Gunnhild konungamóðir ) (c. 910  –  c. 980),

6300-425: The original tale, Zauberhelene , and pointed as its primary source a collection of Hungarian fairy tales by Count Máilath . The Norwegian translation of the tale, Trold-Helene , gave the brothers-in-law's names as Solkongen (Sun-King), Stormkongen (Storm-King) and Maanekongen (Moon-King). The most representative version of the tale type ATU 552 is Marya Morevna , or its variant The Three Sons-in-Law . In

6390-588: The plague wherever he went. In the Hyndluljóð , Freyja transformed her protégé Óttar into a boar to conceal him. She also possessed a cloak of falcon feathers that allowed her to transform into a falcon, which Loki borrowed on occasion. The Volsunga saga contains many shapeshifting characters. Siggeir 's mother changed into a wolf to help torture his defeated brothers-in-law with slow and ignominious deaths. When one, Sigmund , survived, he and his nephew and son Sinfjötli killed men wearing wolfskins; when they donned

6480-449: The sisters and is given "a bit of wool from the ram, a bit of fin from the salmon, and a feather from the eagle". French historian Robert Darnton cites, in his book The Great Cat Massacre , a burlesque narrative of a peasant couple marrying their daughters off to a wolf, a fox, a hare and a pig. A variant from Brittany was collected by Paul Sébillot , titled Le Château suspendu dans les airs ( English : "The Castle that hangs in

6570-522: The sisters are married to the "Vento Maggiore", the sirocco and the sun, while in Gonzenbach's they are married to the king of ravens, the king of "the wild animals" and the king of birds. In another variant, titled La Bella di Setti Veli , collected by Letterio Di Francia, a queen has three daughters that are married to the sun, the wind and the mist. Pitrè also provided a summary of another variant from Cianciana , titled La bella Maiurana . In this tale,

6660-505: The skins themselves, they were cursed to become werewolves . The dwarf Andvari is described as being able to magically turn into a pike . Alberich , his counterpart in Richard Wagner 's Der Ring des Nibelungen , using the Tarnhelm , takes on many forms, including a giant serpent and a toad, in a failed attempt to impress or intimidate Loki and Odin/ Wotan . Fafnir was originally

6750-466: The tale The Sun, The Moon and Crow Crowson or Sun, Moon and Raven Ravenson , classified as type 552B. In another variant by Alexander Afanasyev , Fedor Tugarin and Anastasia the Beautiful , prince Fedor Tugarin weds his sisters to the wind, the hail and the thunder . Alexander Afanasyev saw a parallel between versions where the raven or crow is the last suitor and variants where it is the wind, and suggested that they both were equated. Another tale

6840-604: The tale is also widespread all over Europe. W. R. Halliday suggested the tale is "characteristic of the Balkan states and the Near East ". Jeremiah Curtin collected an Irish variant titled The Weaver's Son and the Giant of the White Hill , where a poor family "sells" their daughters to three noblemen for "their price in gold/silver/copper". Years later, their youngest brother visits each of

6930-470: The tale was given as The Three Brother Beasts , in The Golden Fairy Book . There are variants where the girls' father is the one that gives away the daughters to the animals, and their brother, born years later, goes after them. In other variants, the princesses and the prince are born in the same generation, and it is the brother who weds his sisters to the animals. The second variation lies in

7020-538: The tales using it are of amorous adventure. Zeus repeatedly transformed himself to approach mortals as a means of gaining access: Vertumnus transformed himself into an old woman to gain entry to Pomona 's orchard; there, he persuaded her to marry him. In other tales, the woman appealed to other gods to protect her from rape, and was transformed ( Daphne into laurel, Corone into a crow). Unlike Zeus and other gods' shapeshifting, these women were permanently metamorphosed. In one tale, Demeter transformed herself into

7110-411: The third with "golden nose, steel tail"). He tells them he wants to court Maria Tsarevna, the princess of a foreign land. He visits her court but is locked up in prison. He trades three magical objects for a night with Maria Tsarevna. They marry, and Ivan Tsarevich releases Koschei the Deathless from his captivity "with the press of a button". Ivan is killed, but his avian brothers-in-law resurrect him with

7200-417: The three man. They marry and she gives him a set of keys, forbidding him to open a certain door. Janko does and releases a dragon who kidnaps his wife. The dragon warns that Janko has three tries (or "lifes") to follow him and try to regain his wife. After the third attempt, the dragon kills Janko. Janko's brothers-in-law find his corpse and restore him to life with the water of life and the water of death. Janko

7290-451: The title Kaiser Ohneseele ("King With-no-Soul"), the protagonist weds his three sisters to the bird griffin, an eagle, and the king of nightingales. The tale continues as his brothers-in-law help him to rescue his beloved princess, captured by Kaiser Ohneseele. In a Latvian variant, Die Tiere als Schwiegersöhne or "Животные-зятья" ("Animal Sons-in-Law"), an old man lives with his three daughters. One day, heavy rain starts to pour down, and

7380-400: The way, helps a hare, a wolf, a crab, a nest of wasps, mosquitoes and an eagle. He reaches three witches who live in houses that gyrate on chicken legs. He learns from them that his sisters are now married to a pike, an eagle and a bear - who are cursed princes - , and that to reach them, he must first seek an equine mount by taking up work with a witch. After he works with the witch, he flies on

7470-489: The wife of the famous hero Fionn mac Cumhaill , was changed into a deer by the druid Fer Doirich when she spurned his amorous interests. There is a significant amount of literature about shapeshifters that appear in a variety of Norse tales. In the Lokasenna , Odin and Loki taunt each other with having taken the form of females and nursing offspring to which they had given birth. A 13th-century Edda relates Loki taking

7560-468: The world after a flood by throwing stones behind them; they were transformed into people. Cadmus is also often known to have transformed into a dragon or serpent towards the end of his life. Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea , a statue he had made. Aphrodite had pity on him and transformed the stone into a living woman. Fairies , witches , and wizards were all noted for their shapeshifting ability. Not all fairies could shapeshift, some having only

7650-509: The young Ivan Tsarevich takes his sisters for a walk in the garden, when, suddenly, three whirlwinds capture the ladies. Three years later, the Tsarevich intends to court princess Marya Morevna, when, in his travels, he finds three old men, who reveal themselves as the whirlwinds and assume an avian form (the first a raven, the second an eagle and the third a falcon). After a series of adventures, Ivan Tsarevich and Marya Moreva marry and she gives him

7740-426: Was believed to be able to change her appearance into anything she wanted. In one story, her pride led Zeus to trick her into transforming into a fly. He then swallowed her because he feared that he and Metis would have a son who would be more powerful than Zeus himself. Metis, however, was already pregnant. She stayed alive inside his head and built an armor for her daughter. The banging of her metalworking made Zeus have

7830-493: Was compiled by author A. A. Erlenwein, which was translated by Angelo de Gubernatis in his Florilegio with the name Vaniúsha , where the sisters marry a bear, an iron-nosed bird ("uccello dal naso di ferro") and a pike ("luccio"). The "bird with iron beak" appears to be a creature that inhabits several Slavic folktales. Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev mentioned the existence of an old Russian tale titled "Сказку об Иване Белом" ( Skazky ov Ivanye Byelom ; "The Tale of Ivan,

7920-456: Was given by a sorcerer, in exchange for Hans's older sisters. The wishing-box contains a magical being that must serve the owner of the box. In his journeys, he meets his sisters' husbands: three princes cursed into animal forms (wild bear, eagle and fish). August Leskien collected a variant in Lithuania ("Von dem Königssohn, der auszog, um seine drei Schwestern zu suchen"), where the animals are

8010-501: Was thrown into a well, whereupon he reappeared in his human form. The motif of capturing a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is a common thread in folktales . Perhaps the best-known Irish myth is that of Aoife who turned her stepchildren, the Children of Lir , into swans to be rid of them. Likewise, in the Tochmarc Étaíne , Fuamnach jealously turns Étaín into

8100-432: Was transformed into a stag, sow, and wolf, and Gilfaethwy into a hind, boar, and she-wolf. Each year, they had a child. Math turned the three young animals into boys. Gwion , having accidentally taken the wisdom from a potion that Ceridwen was brewing for her son , fled from her through a succession of changes, which she answered with changes of her own. This ended when he turned into a grain of corn and she turned into

#940059