The King of England and his Three Sons is a

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

fairy tale collected by

Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Jacobs ...

in ''More English Fairy Tales''. He listed as his source

Francis Hindes Groome Francis Hindes Groome (30 August 1851 – 24 January 1902), son of Robert Hindes Groome, Archdeacon of Suffolk, was a writer and foremost commentator of his time on the Romani people, their language, life, history, customs, beliefs, and lore. Li ...

's ''In Gypsy Tents'', where the informant was John Roberts, a Welsh Roma.Joseph Jacobs, ''More English Fairy Tales''
"The King of England and his Three Sons"
/ref> Groome published the tale as ''An Old King and his three Sons in England''. A version of this tale appears in The Red King and the Witch: Gypsy Folk and Fairy Tales by

Ruth Manning-Sanders Ruth Manning-Sanders (21 August 1886 – 12 October 1988) was an English poet and author born in Wales, known for a series of children's books for which she collected and related fairy tales worldwide. She published over 90 books in her lifeti ...

, under the title ''An Old King and His Three Sons of England''.

Synopsis

An old king could be cured only by golden apples from a far country. His three sons set out to find them, and parted ways at a crossroads. The

youngest son The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters. In a family of many daught ...

found a house in a forest, where an old man greeted him as a king's son, and told him to put his horse in the stable and have something to eat. After the meal, he asked how the man knew he was a king's son, and the man said he knew many things, including what the prince was doing. He told the prince that he had to stay there the night, though many snakes and toads would crawl over him, and if he stirred, he would turn into one himself. The prince got little sleep but did not stir. In the morning, the old man gave him breakfast, a new horse, and a ball of yarn to throw between the horse's ears. When the prince threw it and chased it, he came to the old man's brother, who was uglier than the first one. He received the same hospitality, and the same unpleasant night, and this brother sent him on to the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

brother. At the third brother's, the brother, who was even uglier than the second one, told him he must go on to a castle. There, he must tell swans to bear him over the lake to a castle. It was guarded by

giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) *Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...

, lions, and dragons, but they would be asleep, and so he must go in at one o'clock and come out again by two. He must go through some grand rooms, go down into the kitchen, and then go out into the garden. There he must pick the apples. He should come back the same way, and when riding off, never look back because they would pursue him until he nearly reached the old man's house. He went to bed, and this time the brother assured him that nothing would disturb him, and nothing did. In the morning, the old man warned him not to tarry because of a beautiful woman. He reached the castle by the swans and saw a beautiful woman there. He exchanged his garter, gold watch, and pocket-handkerchief for hers, and kissed her. Then he got the apples and had to flee with all speed, because the hour was nearly up, but he escaped. The old man brought him to a well and insisted that the prince cut the old man's head off and throw it into the well. This turned him into a young, handsome man, and the house into a palace. At the second brother's, he received a new bed, with no snakes or toads, and cut off his head as well, and then the same with the first. He met up with his brothers again.

They In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusat ...

stole his apples and put others in their place, and went on before him. When he reached home, his apples were not as good as his brother's, and his father thought they were poisoned and told his headsman to cut his head off. The headsman instead took him into the woods and left him there. A bear came up to him, and he climbed a tree, but the bear persuaded him to come down. The bear brought him to some tents, where they made him welcome, and changed in a handsome young man, Jubal. He stayed with them and was happy, although he had lost the golden watch somewhere. One day, he saw it in the tree where he had climbed to hide from the bear, and climbed it to get it again. Meanwhile, the princess, realizing one of the king's sons had been there, set out with an army. When she reached the king, she demanded to see his sons. When the oldest came, he said he had been to her castle, but when she threw down the handkerchief and he walked over it, he broke his leg; then the second brother said the same, but also broke his leg. She demanded of the king whether he had more sons; the king sent to the headsman, who confessed he had not killed the prince, and the king said he must find him, to save the king's life. They found Jubal, who pointed to the tree where the prince was, and they told the prince he must come because a lady was looking for him, and they brought Jubal with them. He did not break his leg over the handkerchief, and the princess knew he was the prince, so they married, and went back to her castle.

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 551, "The Sons on a Quest for a Wonderful Remedy for their father" or "Water of Life". This tale type concerns a king that is dying or going blind, and sends his three sons to find the only thing that can cure him.

Motifs

Jacobs noted the king with three sons was a common motif, and that the

Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...

-like character is found in Perrault. In several variants, the object that can cure the king (a magical water, an enchanted bird or wonderful fruits) belongs to a foreign princess or fairy maiden in a distant kingdom. At the end of the tale, the fairy maiden or foreign princess travels with her army or navy to the prince's kingdom in order to find the man who stole her wonderful bird or magical water.

Variants

Groome reported another Welsh-Romani variant titled (

sic The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...

) ("The Bottle of Black Water"), wherein the golden apples are replaced for the titular bottle of black water as the king's remedy. The tale was eventually published in the journal of the

Gypsy Lore Society The Gypsy Lore Society was founded in Great Britain in 1888 to unite persons interested in the history and lore of Gypsies and rovers and to establish closer contacts among scholars studying aspects of such cultures. History David MacRitchie w ...

, from the collection of John Sampson. In this tale, titled ("The Bottle of Black Water"), a king is ill, and sends his sons for the bottle of black water, which is his only remedy. The two elder brothers let the youngest, Jack, go on the quest alone. An old man gives Jack a ride and directs him to a lake, where he is to command a swan to take him across the water. Inside the castle, everyone is asleep, and Jake lays in bed with a princess. He steals her two garters and the bottle of black water, and leaves. Jack meets his brothers and presents them the bottle. While he rests, his brothers exchange the bottle for a flask of another liquid. When Jack and his brothers return to his father, the elder brothers take the credit for the deed, and Jack is expelled from the kingdom for failing the quest. Jack lives in the woods, his beard and hairs grown over time. The princess visits Jack's father and his brothers to discover who took the bottle of black water from her. She identifies Jack as the one responsible and marries him.

William Reginald Halliday Sir William Reginald Halliday (26 September 1886 – 25 November 1966) was a historian and archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The ...

, in his commentaries to the tale, related the story to the German tale ("The Water of Life"), collected by the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

Adaptations

English novelist

Alan Garner Alan Garner (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. Much of his work is rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native coun ...

adapted the tale as ''The Castle of Melvales'', in his book ''Alan Garner's Book of British fairy tales''. His version names the princes Oliver, Valentine and Jack.Garner, Alan. ''Alan Garner's Book of British fairy tales''. New York: Delacorte Press, 1984. pp. 146-158, 160.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King of England and his Three Sons, The European fairy tales English fairy tales Romani fairy tales Romani in Wales Fictional kings Fictional English people Fictional families Fiction about shapeshifting ATU 500-559 Joseph Jacobs