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„ The Belgian Bunny ” by William Elliot Griffis
A. — country and language: Belgian Fairy Tales
— original collector: William Elliot Griffis
— title of collection, year, place: „ The Silver Knight and The River Fairy”, 1919, New York;
— number of tales in that collection: 26
— English translation: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1919, New York;
— pages: 225-234, „ The Belgian Bunny.”
B. Summary: „The Belgian Bunny.”
Once upon a time was a fairy named Easter. It was called like that because she lived on a church spire in Belgic Land which was directed after the part of the sky and the world, the East or the Orient. One day, visiting the Orient, received a pair of bunnies and a couple of hares. Returning from the visit, she decided to let them go through the world. After thousands of years they have multiplied, reaching the houses of the people. But people have failed to understand why they have such a strange mouth: their mouth was made up of two parts. But one day, celebrating Easter they have told their story:
It was once a fairy who lived on the Moon and a prince named Bunny because he was very handsome. He was very in love with the fairy and asked her to take him to the moon and marry him. She cast a spell upon him, and made him work hard as a servant, then the Queen Moon gets sick and no doctor can cure her. One day Prince Bunny decides to go to the Venus Planet to bring the cassia tree out of the leafs to make the elixir of life. After the Queen Moon was cured, she promises to marry him, but first he must descend to earth and send her message to Easter and Belgic folk : „Shall you die, but live again! ” but the Prince ran to the earth and sent a wrong message to belgian people: „As I die and live no more, so shall it be with you poor mortals !” and spreading sadness upon the Belgians. When he get back to Moon Land, the Queen asked him why are the people crying. Then he answered with impudence, and boasted than he had outwitted human beings, who often treated bunnies badly. The fairy appreciated his sincerity and intelligence and she married him. After a few days Prince Bunny steals a piece of the cassia tree and he was lying again, then the Queen was very angry and lost her self-control, she lifted the hatchet and threw it at him. The blade struck Bunny on the upper lip, and divided it forever, since then all rabbits have stayed the same. Then all the people understood that the bad rabbit lied and they decided to name that day „ day of the glorious fest of Resurrection”, in our time, in English, the Easter. In order not to suffer all the other rabbits for Bunny's mistake she chose the rabbit as the symbol for this holiday along with the eggs and the hot cakes, wich, baked the day before and stamped with the mark of the cross, were served at the Easter breakfast and children named hot bun.
But not everyone could afford all this on the Easter table. A poor peasant, after being very sick, could not afford to buy his three daughters eggs or bun, until one evening a rabbit knocked at their door and offered them three cute eggs. Now many Belgian people think that the rabbit was none other than the Prince Bunny who descends to the first full moon after the spring echinox.
C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index.
96- When the hare was married;
130- Outcast Animals Find a New Home;
173- Man and animals readjust span of life;
D. Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp:
A presoner begs for his freedom : when Prince Bunny bags Queen Moon to send him back to Earth ; .
The hero agrees to an exchange, but immediately employs the magic power of the object exchanged against the barterer, when Prince Bunny asked the Queen to take him to the moon and marry him but she cast her spell.
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