KidLit Forum

Georgian Folk Tales- THE THREE SISTERS AND THEIR STEPMOTHER

A. Context
Country and language: Georgia/ Georgian
The Georgian Folk Tale “The Three Sisters and Their Stepmother” was collected by Marjory Scott Wardrop, and published by David Nutt in the Strand, London, 1894. The “Georgian Folk Tales” collection is made of three parts. There was not an original collection like this published before. The tales are takes from different sources, as the collector confesses in the preface. So, the stories from Part I are taken from a collection edited by Mr. Aghniashvili, and published in Tiflis, in1891, under the title Khalkhuri Zghaprebi. Part II comprises the Migralian Stories in Professor A. A. Tsagareli’s Mingrelskie Etiudy, Spbg. 1880 and the ones from Part III are taken from an anonymous collection entitled Gruzinskiya Narodnyya Skazki. Sobr. Bebur. B.* S. Pbg., 1884)
In this collection there are 38 tales. In Part I there are 16 Georgian Tales, in Part II, there are 8 Mingrelian Tales and in Part III there are 14 Gurian Tales.
The collection is still published and sold nowadays, as we can find from the Amazon.

B. Summary
Even if from the title we find out that this tale is about three sisters and their stepmother, the tale is actually about the fate of the youngest sister and about the trials she passed through until she could fulfill her real destiny. The tale tells us that there was a widower peasant who had three daughters and took another wife who hated the stepdaughters, so she convinced her husband to get rid of the girls. They were left in a hole, under an apple-tree, in the forest. When the apples were finished the sisters decided to eat the one whose blood was sweetest, and that was the youngest sister. She prayed the other sisters not to eat her and gave them the three apples that she had hidden before. She also prayed to God to change one hand in a pickax and the other one in a shovel. Her prayer was listened and instead of hands, she had tools with which she dug until she got to a mouse hole, then to stable which belonged to a king and to an old woman’s hut from where they stole food. Once when the girls went into the king’s stable to take raisins the groom appeared and took them before to the king, to whom they told their story. He asked them what they could do. The eldest sister answered the she can weave a carpet that every men on the army could sit on and still half of it would be unrolled, the second one said that she could cook enough food in an egg-shell so as the army could eat only half of it. The youngest told to the king that she could bear golden-haired boys and the king married her. The two sisters could not do what they have promised and the king told his wife that if she fails to accomplish her promise none of them would live. He went to a battle just shortly before his wife gave birth to a golden-haired boy and when he returned home, he found a pestle over the door, not a sword as a sign that they had a boy and not even a spinning-wheel in case they had a girl. The sisters, who were angry that their youngest sister managed to keep her promise, replaced the boy with a puppy. They did not dare to kill the baby but they laid him in a box and put it in a river. The box reached to a miller, who took the boy and looked after him. The king was very surprised, but he decided to give his wife another chance. A year later, the same thing happened, only this time, the golden-haired boy was replaced with a kitten. In his anger, the king took his wife out, wrapped her in a bullock’s skin, bound her to a column in front of the palace, and ordered that everyone who passed by to spit in her face and strike her. While the innocent girl was tortured, the miller loved the boys as if “they were the apples of his eyes” because they were wise, brave, handsome and because they “grew as much in a day as other children grow in a year”.
One day the king was out hunting and saw a group of boys. He noticed that two resembled him and he could not withdraw his eyes from them. Only when one of the boys remained without the cap and showed his golden hair he asked whose sons they were. The next day the king gave a banquet and he invited the miller and his sons, too. In the courtyard, the boys saw a woman bound and they guesses that she was their mother. Once they were in, one of the boys told their mother’s story and the other, their story. They proved that they were telling the true when the bullock’s skin burst and their mother came in, or when the roasted pheasant had feathers and flew away. The king ordered that the jealous sisters to be punished, they were bound to horses’ tails and had them dragged about. Then he took his wife and golden-haired sons into the palace and he was happy he found the true.


C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index
It belongs to the category of REALISTIC TALES 850-999, the subcategory 875, The Clever Peasant Girl. The youngest sister marries the king.

D. Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp
Characters
1. The King: he married the girl, but he cannot be truly called a hero because he did not marry her as a reward, after beating the villain.
2. The youngest sister: she married the king. The roles are a little bit changed, because the girl passed through many trials before she married the king and before she could have been happy with him.
3. The villain: The two eldest sisters, who wanted to eat their youngest sister to survive and who replaced her golden-haired children with pets.
4. The Dispatcher: The king’s enemies.
5. The Doner: The miller who saved and grew up the children
6. The Magical Helpers: the pickax and the shovel, the bullock’s skin and the roasted pheasant.

Functions:
The First Sphere
Initial situation: Presents the girls’ family and how, after the father took a second wife, their life began to change. The stepmother hated the girls and did everything to get rid of them. The father agreed and they were left in a hole, into the forest.
4. The villain: The sisters wanted to survive, that is why they wanted to eat their youngest sister.
5. Delivery: The sisters found that their youngest sister accomplished her promised made to the king
The Second Sphere
8. Villainy and lack: In order to make the youngest sister to be a liar like both of them, the sisters replaced the golden-haired boys with pets.
9. Mediation: The princess was bond of one column in front of the palace.
11. Departure: The King went for a battle or went hunting.
The Third Sphere
14. Acquisition: The King was thrilled by the boys, especially when he saw the golden hair of one them.
The Fourth Sphere
28. Exposure: The miller and his sons were invited to the palace. Through their stories, the sons managed to save their mother and to reveal their identity. The eldest sisters were brought to the king.
30. Punishment: The sisters were punished.
31. Marriage: Even if they were married, the king, his wife and their sons got together as a reward for what they have been through.


C. Similarities
We can identify similar characters and episodes in Romanian fairytale “Doi feti cu stea in frunte” by Ioan Slavici. A shepherd’s daughter married a prince; they had twins with golden hair, who were separated by their parents. In the end, they got back together, like in this tale.
There are other similarities, not necessarily with tales from other cultures, but with stories from the Bible: the apple-tree from the forest is like the one from the Garden of Eden or the boys who were laid into boxes as Moses was laid in a basket and put in a river. The faith also plays an important role when the youngest sister prays to transform her hands into tools and God listens to her prayer.

Sources:
https://archive.org/stream/cu3192402993 ... 3/mode/2up
https://sites.ualberta.ca/~urban/Projec ... _Tales.htm
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44536/4 ... 4536-h.htm
https://archive.org/stream/MorphologyOf ... p#mode/2up
https://www.amazon.com/GEORGIAN-FOLK-TA ... B075587V9Q