The Three Citrons of Love- Portuguese fairy tale -
by Consiglieri Pedroso
Consiglieri Pedroso (1851 – 1910) was a concerned author of Portuguese culture. He was an historian, writer, etnographer but most important, a folklorist of his dear Portugal. His collection Portuguese Folk-Tales was first published in England before in Portugal and is a premiere example of Portuguese folklore. He devoted his life to studying ethnography and is one of the introducers of anthtropology in Portugal, being fascinated with studying myths, popular traditions and superstitions.
The group of folk-tales represented in this collection by Consiglieri Pedroso is mainly that "which treats of a supernatural spouse who is temporarily condemned to assume an unnatractive appearance" (Introduction, i - ii). It is often presented as groups like Beauty and the Beast or the Cupid and Psyche. In these tales, influences from the Catholic Church are numerous and they mingle into tales of enchantment and adventure, for example heroes seeking assistance from Mother Mary.
The fairy tale I chose to present is called "The Three Citrons of Love" and it is a rewriting of the oldest known variant of this tale named "The Three Citrons" or "The Love for Three Oranges" by Giambattista Basile in the volume Pentamerone.
The story begins with a prince that went hunting and on his way he met an old woman who was starving and thirsty. He gave her all the food and water he had and in return she gave him three citrons but with the condition of opening them only near a fountain and to cut them open length-ways and not across. The prince opened the first two citrons but forgot about the condition that he should open them near a fountain and the two beautiful maidens that appeared died of thirst. When he opened the third he remembered about the fountain and out of the citron it appeared a girl "much more and beautiful than any of the others". The prince wished to marry her but she was to weak to walk with him to the castle and had to wait for him in a tree above the fountain. After a while a black woman came to drow water from the fountain and saw the girl and starts talking to her. The beautiful maiden starts talking about the prince and when the black woman found everything she wanted to know she drew out a large pin and stuck it into the girl's head. At an instanst the girl was transformed into a dove a flew away. When the prince arrived and saw the black woman in the three instead of his beautiful bride he was scared but the woman said that she is cursed to change looks from time to time. The prince believed her and took her to the castle. One morning when the prince was walking in his garden he saw the most beautiful dove and ordered the gardener to catch him. The dove couldn't de caught either with a snare of ribbons, nor with snares of silver or gold, but only with a snare of brilliants. While the prince was petting the dove he felt the pin and drew it out of the dove's head. The dove transformed into the beautiful maiden he left at the fountain. The black woman was killed the prince ordered : "and a drum to be made of her skin with her bones steps for the maiden to get to her bed".
According to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index this fairy tale is a Tale of Magic: Supernatural or Enchanted Wife.
Taking into account Vladimir Propp's classification of characters, I idenitified in this tale 4 dramatis personae:
1.The Hero or the Seeker: the prince.
2.The Villain: the black witch.
3.The Princess or the Prize: the beautiful maiden from the citron.
4.The Donor: the old woman that gave the prince the three citrions in the beginning.
According to V.Propp's functions I identified:
1.Absentation: the moment when the prince goes for hunting
2.The Villain: the black witch finds the girl in the tree.
3.Delivery: the black woman finds all the information she needs from the beautiful maiden.
4.Complicity: the black witch draws the pin the girl's head transforming her into a dove.
5.Exposure: the black woman is exposed
6.Punishment: the black woman is killed and transformed intro a ladder for the young lady.
7.Marriage: the prince finally marries the beautiful maiden
In conclusion, the present fairy tale may look like a classical fairy tale but it actually contains things that are diverse from other, for example the influence the Catholic Church had on the Portuguese fairy tales. The most obvious influence can be the woman of black colour as the villain, because black colour was tied to a negative character, to sin, considered impure.
Bibliography:
1.Pedroso, Consiglieri. Portuguese Folk-Tales.Folk Lore Society Publications, Vol. 9. Miss Henrietta Monteiro, translator. New York: Folk Lore Society Publications, 1882.
2.
Introduction.Portuguese Folktales, by W.R.S. Ralston, pp. i-ii.
3.
https://fairytalez.com/author/zofimo-co ... i-pedroso/
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