KidLit Forum

A.Context
The Hungarian folk tale Three Oranges was originally collected by Kríza, Erdéli, Pap and others and published in a collection called The Folk Tales of the Magyars, in London, in 1889 for the Folklore Society by Eliot Stock, 62, Panternoster Row. It contains 53 tales translated in English by the rev. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf.

B.Summary
The fairy tale is about three young princes who were sent by their father to look round in the world for suitable wives. The three sons went away and reached a small cottage, in which a very old woman lived. After she had asked them about the purpose of the journey, she provided them with everything they needed for it, and besides that she gave an orange each, with the instructions to cut them open in the neighbourhood of water, else they would suffer great damage.
The eldest brother was not able to restrain his curiosity and cut the orange open and a beautiful girl suddenly appeared. Due to the fact that there was no water around, the girl died. The younger one began to be inquisitive as well and repeated the same mistake. So, the youngest continued his journey alone and cut the orange only when he reached a well and gave the beautiful girl that came out of it water, and death had no power over her. He left her sitting up in a tree and went to the town to purchase dresses for her.
In his absence a gipsy woman came and threw her in the well and took her place. The next moment a beautiful gold fish appeared in the water. The gipsy woman tried to catch it, but the prince arrived. The prince immediately noticed the difference but she succeeded in making him believe that the more he loved her, the sooner she would recover.
She couldn’t forget the gold fish, and therefore feigned an illness, saying she would not get better till she had eaten the liver of a gold fish. The prince had the fish caught, the princess ate the liver. However, a scale fell in the courtyard and a tree began to grow. She noticed and again fell ill, and said she could not get better until they burnt the tree, and cooked something by the flames. The wish was fulfilled, but one of the woodcutters took a piece of timber home to his wife and used it as a lid for a milk jug.
Whenever the woman was absent, the girl got out of the lid and did the housework. One day, in order to find out what was happening the old woman remained outside peeping through the keyhole. Then she opened the door abruptly. The girl told her everything, so the old woman threw the lid into the fire to prevent her for slipping back. She at once went to the prince, told him the story and justice was restored.

C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index
The folk tale belongs to the category of the 400-459: Supernatural enchanted relatives; Wife 400-424, 408

D.Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp
Characters:
The hero of the story: the prince who eventually weds the princess
The villain: the gipsy woman
The princess or the prize: the girl that comes out of the orange
The dispatcher: the hero’s father, who sends him to look for a wife
The donor: the old woman who gives him the orange

Functions:
Initial situation: The king’s sons are sent to seek for suitable wives.
An interdiction: The old woman tells the prince not to cut the oranges if there isn’t any water around, else they will suffer great damage.
Violation of interdiction: The elder brothers cut the oranges where there is no water.
Absentation: The hero continues the journey alone and leaves the girl by the well and hurries to town to purchase rich dresses for her.
Delivery: The villain gains information about the hero.
Trickery : The villain makes the hero believe that she will recover her beauty if he loves her.
Villainy: The villain has the gold fish killed and eats its liver, she has the tree burnt.
Mediation: The woodcutter’s wife finds out the truth and she is set free when the old woman burns the lid.
Exposure: The villain, the gipsy girl, is exposed.
Marriage: The prince marries the princess.

E.Similarities
It is impossible not to notice that it is very much alike Cele trei rodii aurite and Giambattista Basile’s The Three Citrons from Il Pentamerone; or The Story of Stories. Both of them have three girls coming out from three fruits and only the last one survives due to the water.
As far as the metamorphosis is concerned, besides the fairy tale mentioned above, it also resembles the Romanian fairy tale Doi feți cu stea in frunte and the Gipsy fairy tale No. 17- It all comes to Light from the volume Gipsy Folk Tales by Francis Hindes Groome (London: Hurst and Blackett Limited 13 Great Melborough Street, 1889) .

Sources:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pent ... s1911.html
https://archive.org/stream/gypsyfolktal ... 6/mode/2up
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pent ... s1911.html
https://ro.wikisource.org/wiki/Cele_trei_rodii_aurite
https://ro.wikisource.org/wiki/Doi_fe%C ... AEn_frunte