The Fairy Maiden and the Gypsy Girl (Hungarian: A tündérkisasszony és a czigánylyány) is a Hungarian fairy tale published by Hungarian author . The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", wherein the heroine comes out of tree branches, is replaced by a false woman and goes through a cycle of transformations.
Sources According to Hungarian researchers Judit Gulyás and Mariann Domokos, author Lászlo Árany first collected it in the mid 19th-century, titled A tündérkisasszony és a czigánylyány ("The Fairy Maiden and the Gypsy Girl").
Summary In this tale, a prince goes to hunt in the forest, when he finds an old woman carrying three jugs to fill with the water in the well. The prince threatens to break her jugs, but she advises him not to. Despite the warning, the prices throws a rock at the jugs, breaking them, and the woman declares the prince shall find a bride in the forest. The prince dismisses her words, and returns to his hunt. After he ventures deep into the forest, he finds three oaks in a meadow. He cuts the branch of a tree, and a beaufitul fairy comes out of it. She asks for water, but the prince is astonished at the sight and cannot fulfill her request, so she dies. He brings her home to bury her and returns the next day to the three oaks' meadow, and finds the remaining trees in a crooked position, as if they have been crying. The prince cuts the branch of the another tree and releases another fairy that asks for water, but she dies for not having any. After he buries the second fairy, he returns the following morning to the last oak carrying a jug of water, which he gives to the fairy he releases from the third tree. The prince and the fairy profess their love for each other, and they walk out of the woods. However, since the fairy is still weak, the prince leaves her up a willow tree near a well, while he goes to fetch a carriage. While he is away, a gypsy girl appears to draw water from the well, when she sees the maiden's reflection in the water and mistakes it for her own. She then spots the fairy maiden up the tree and talks to her. The fairy maiden naïvely tells the gypsy everything, and is shoved down the well by the gypsy, where she turns into a goldfish.
The prince comes with a carriage and a wedding retinue, and notices the gypsy girl, instead of the fairy maiden, but the gypsy spins a story that she was not used to the weather, for the sun and the wind darkened her skin. Still, the prince takes the gypsy girl back to the castle and marries her. Later, the gypsy girl feigns illness which no royal doctor can cure, and asks the prince to catch the goldfish at the well, for only by eating it she will be cured. The prince captures the goldfish and the gypsy asks the cook to prepare it, but to burn its every remaining scale. However, a small fishbone escapes from being burnt, falls through the window and fall in the garden, where a tree sprouts overnight. The prince likes the tree, but the gypsy girl realizes it is the fairy maiden, so she again feigns illness and lies that she needs food to be cooked in a fire made with the tree's wood, and every part of it should be burned. Thus, the prince orders the tree to be felled down and every leaf and splinter burned. However, a single splinter survives, which a woodcutter brings home to his wife. The woman places the splinter on a shelf, and they leave home the next day. When they return, they find the house has been swept clean, the bed done and the food prepared, but they have locked the house before they left. They suspect a neighbour girl did it for them, and decide to investigate. On the second day, they find the same event happens again. On the third day, the couple pretend to leave the house, and discover a maiden comes out of the splinter to do chores around the house. The couple enter the house and throw the splinter in the fire, keeping the girl with them. The fairy maiden cries for not having where to go, but the couple comnfort her, and she tells them her whole story: about how the prince killed her two sisters, how the prince found her, and how the gypsy threw her down the well. The woodcutter and his wife decide to adopt her.
Despite living with the human couple, the fairy maiden feels she should earn her own living and bread, and suggests she works as a maid to the queen, for she can sew, weave and spin. The couple agree, and the woodcutter introduces her to the gypsy queen, passing her off as an orphan daughter of a rich man. She is hired by the gypsy queen, and works under her. Later, during wintertime, the gypsy queen gather her servants and bids them tell stories to the others to pass time. Every maid tells a tale, save for the newly hired maid. After some insistence, the girl begins to tell her story, narrating how the princess provoked the old woman in the forest, who cursed him his wife would be from the forest. The king, who was the prince, begins to notice the maid's tale is about him, but no one but himself should know of it. The maidservant then continues her tale, which the gypsy queen begins to realize it is about herself, and tries to leave the room, but the king forces her to stay and listen to the whole story. The maidservant then recalls how she changes shape into a goldfish and a tree, how she was found by the woodcutter couple, and how she was hired by the queen. As she finishes her story, the king recognizes the maidservant is the fairy maiden from the oak tree he once released, and the queen an imposter. The gypsy tries to flee, but the king knocks her down and reunites with the fairy maiden, asking her which punishment shall be meted out on the imposter. The fairy maiden then asks the gypsy should be given a hundred forints and expelled into the world. With this, the king and the fairy maiden marry in a grand wedding.László Arany. Eredeti népmesék. Pest: Nyomatott Landerer és Heckenastnál. 1862. pp. 128-153.
Analysis Tale type The tale is related to type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges" or Die Drei Citronenjungfrauen ("The Three Maidens in the Citron Fruits").Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Einl. A. Schullerus. Leipzig: Dieterich. 1901. pp. 289-290.Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 85. .
In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, scholar Christine Shojaei Kawan separated the tale type into six sections, and stated that parts 3 to 5 represented the "core" of the story:Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online, edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 347. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.063/html. Accessed 2024-07-218.
(1) A prince is cursed by an old woman to seek the fruit princess; (2) The prince finds helpers that guide him to the princess's location; (3) The prince finds the fruits (usually three), releases the maidens inside, but only the third survives; (4) The prince leaves the princess up a tree near a spring or stream, and a slave or servant sees the princess's reflection in the water; (5) The slave or servant replaces the princess (transformation sequence); (6) The fruit princess and the prince reunite, and the false bride is punished.
Motifs The heroine's appearance According to Hungarian folktale collector Arnold Ipolyi, Hungarian variants of the tale type usually show the fairy maiden coming out of a plant ("növényből").Arnold Ipolyi. Ipolyi Arnold népmesegyüjteménye (Népköltési gyüjtemény 13. kötet). Budapest: az Athenaeum Részvénytársulat Tulajdona. 1914. p. 521. In addition, the Hungarian Folktale Catalogue (MNK) named the type A Három Nádszálkisasszony ("The Three Reed Maidens"), since the maidens come out of reeds instead of fruits.Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). p. 202. However, they may also appear out of eggs (in 5 variants)Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online, edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 350. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.063/html. Accessed 2024-01-07. or from apples (in 3 variants).Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). p. 206. According to Ákos Dömötör, the motif of "girls from eggs" in variants of type 408 indicates "the Subcarpathian unity" of the tales.
Variants According to scholar Stith Thompson, Hungarian professor Ágnes Kovács, Hungarian-American folklorist Linda Dégh and German scholar Hans-Jörg Uther, the tale of the reed girls is one of the popular fairy tales in Hungary.Sebestyén Ádám. Bukovinai Székely Népmesék. Volume I. Szekszárd: 2009. p. 516 (notes to tale nr. 85). . In addition, the tale type is known all throughout the Hungarian speaking regions. The Hungarian Folktale Catalogue (MNK) listed 59 variants of type 408, A Három Nádszálkisasszony ("The Three Reed Maidens"), across Hungarian sources.Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). pp. 202-205. On the other hand, Hans-Jörg Uther reports 79 variants.
A previous study reported four texts in Palóc. Later fieldwork conducted in 1999 by researcher Zoltán Vasvári amongst the Palóc population found 3 texts.Vasvári, Zoltán. "Népmese a Palócföldön". In: Palócföld 1999/2, pp. 93-94.
Tales with trees Hungarian linguist collected the tale A háromágú tölgyfa tündére ("The Fairy from Three-Branched Oak Tree"). A king goes hunting in the woods, but three animals plead for their lives (a deer, a hare and a fox). All three animals point to a magical oak tree with three branches and say, if the king break each of the branches, a maiden shall appear and request water to drink. With the first two branches, the maidens die, but the king gives water to the third one and decides to marry her. They both walk towards the castle and the king says the fairy maiden should wait on the tree. A witch sees the maiden, tricks her and tosses her deep in a well; she replaces the fairy maiden with her own daughter.Antal Horger. Hétfalusi csángó népmesék (Népköltési gyüjtemény 10. kötet). Budapest: Az Athenaeum Részvénytársulat Tulajdona. 1908. pp. 96-103. He also cited two other variants: A tündérkisasszony és a czigányleány ("The Fairy Princess and the Gypsy Girl"), by Laszló Arányi, and A három pomarancs ("The Three Bitter Oranges"), by Jánós Érdelyi.Antal Horger. Hétfalusi csángó népmesék (Népköltési gyüjtemény 10. kötet). Budapest: Az Athenaeum Részvénytársulat Tulajdona. 1908. p. 456.