The Knights of the Fish

The Knights of the Fish (Spanish: "''Los Caballeros del Pez''") is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Fernán Caballero in ''Cuentos. Oraciones y Adivinas''. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Brown Fairy Book''. A translation was published in ''Golden Rod Fairy Book''. Another version of the tale appears in '' A Book of Enchantments and Curses'' by Ruth Manning-Sanders.

It is classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as type 303 ("The Twins or Blood Brothers"). Most tales of the sort begin with the father catching a talking fish thrice and, in the third time, the animal asks to be sacrificed and fed to the fisherman's wife and horses, and for his remains to be buried underneath a tree. By doing so, twins are born to him and his wife, as well as two foals and two trees. It is also classified as ATU 300 ("The Dragon-Slayer"), a widespread tale.

Synopsis

An industrious but poor cobbler tried to fish until he was so hungry that he thought he would hang himself if he caught nothing. He caught a beautiful fish. It told him to cook it and then give two pieces to his wife, and bury two more in the garden. He did this. His wife gave birth to twin boys, and two plants sprang up, bearing shields, in the garden.

When the boys were grown, they decided to travel. At a crossroad, they parted ways. One found a city grieving, because every year a maiden had to be offered up to a dragon, and this year the lot had fallen on the princess. He went to see where the princess was, and then left her to fetch a mirror. He told her to cover it with her veil and hide behind it; when the dragon approached, she was to tear the veil off. She did, and the dragon stared at his rival, identical to him. He threatened it until he finally smashed it to pieces, but as every fragment reflected him, he thought he too had been smashed. While the dragon was still baffled, the knight killed it. The king married him to his daughter.

The princess then showed him all over the country. He saw a castle of black marble, and was warned that whoever went to it never returned. He set out the next day. When he blew his horn and struck the gate, a woman finally opened the door. Echoes warned him off. He lifted his helmet, and the woman, who was an evil witch, let him in because he was so handsome. She told him that she would marry him, but he refused. The witch showed him over the castle and suddenly killed him by dropping him through a trapdoor.

His brother came to the city, and was taken for him. He kept quiet, so he could help his brother, and told the princess that he had to go back to the castle. He demanded to know what happened to his brother, and the echoes told him the truth. With this knowledge, as soon as he met the witch, he stabbed her with his sword. The dying witch then beg him to save her life with magical plants from the garden. He found the bodies of his brother and the witch's previous victims, and restored them to life using the magic plants. He also found a cave full of maidens who had been killed by the dragon, reviving them too. After they all left, the witch died and her castle collapsed.

Motifs

The motif of the demand for sacrifice of youngsters of either sex happens in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. However, a specific variant, where the dragon or serpent demands the sacrifice of young maidens or princesses is shared by many tales or legends all over the world: Japanese tale of Susanoo-no-Mikoto and the eight-headed serpent Orochi; Chinese folktale of '' Li Ji Slays the Great Serpent'', attested in Soushen Ji, a 4th century compilation of stories, by Gan Bao.

The myth of Perseus and Andromeda is an archaic reflex of the princess and dragon theme: for disrespecting the Nereids, sea god Poseidon demands in sacrifice the life of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda to the sea monster Cetus. She is thus chained to a rock afloat in the sea, but is rescued by semi-divine hero Perseus. A similar event happens in the story of Trojan princess Hesione.

The many-headed serpent enemy shares similarities with Greek mythic creature Hydra, defeated by Heracles as part of his Twelve Labors. An episode of a battle with the dragon also occurs in several fairy tales: The Three Dogs, The Two Brothers, The Merchant (fairy tale), The Bold Knight, the Apples of Youth, and the Water of Life, The Three Princes and their Beasts, The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin, Georgic and Merlin, the epic feats of Dobrynya Nikitich, the Polish legend of the Wawel Dragon.

The motif of the birth of twin boys by eating a magical fish shares similarities with a practice involving flower petals, as seen in the ATU 711, "The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin" ( Tatterhood).

Variants

Origins

Greek folklorist listed several conflicting theories that different scholars have proposed for the origins of the tale type (ATU 303): some see a possible connection with the Ancient Egyptian story '' Tale of Two Brothers''; suggested a origin in the Byzantine period (300-1500 CE); Wolfgang Hierse indicated the Eastern Mediterranean, during the Hellenistic period.

According to scholar Christine Goldberg, studies on both tale types ATU 300 and ATU 303 using the historic-geographic method concluded that type 300 has "old elements", but the "modern form" originated in medieval times, while type 303 is more recent because it included type 300 within its narrative. Kurt Ranke, for example, supposed that type 303 originated in Western Europe, in France, during medieval times.

Distribution

German scholar Kurt Ranke, who authored one of the definitive studies on the tale type ATU 303, analysed some 770 variants. As researcher Richard M. Dorson put it, the tale type "is well distributed throughout Europe and densely reported from Finland, Ireland, Germany, France, and Hungary.".

Variants are also found in Africa, such as ''The Twin Brothers'' from French Congo; ''Rombao'', from Quelimane; and ''The Queen of the Fish'', from Réunion, in the Indic Ocean. Similar tales are also reported among indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as ''The Eight-Headed Windigo'', from a Chippewan teller.

On a more global scale, Daniel J. Crowley, comparing tale indexes of Indonesia, Africa, Madagascar, British Islands, France, Spain and the Muslim Near East, concluded that the tale type appears "among the most popular and widespread tales on earth".

The birth of the twins (triplets)

Ingestion of fish or aquatic animal

The usual tale involves the birth of twins from the ingestion of the flesh of the fish - a motif that opens the tale type and, according to scholar Patrice Lajoye, with considerable antiquity. French historian François Delpech ( fr) noted that the twins or triplets born of the fish show celestial birthmarks on the head - a similar appearance shared by the foals and hounds that are also born through the fish. From the remains of the fish a pair of swords and a bush sprout (which serve as their token of life).

Very rarely, there are born triplets, such as in a variant from Brittany, France, collected by folklorist Adolphe Orain: in ''Les chevaliers de la belle étoile'', instead of the usual twins, three sons are born when their mother is given the flesh of the enchanted eel (which replaces the fish). Each of the brothers is born with a star on the forehead. Similar variants include , from Bélesta, Ariège, wherein triplets are bron from the magical fish; and Polish "О рыбаке и трех его сыновьях" (English: "About the Fisherman and his Three Sons"), where the fisherman catches, as third try, a fish with diamond scales and gills that engenders the human triplets.

In Czech fairy tale ''The Twin Brothers'', the enchanted fish is described as a princess cursed into piscian form. When a woman catches her (as fish) to eat, the princess says she will be delivered from her curse "as soon as erbody has rotted".

The fish is also replaced by three eels in Serbian fairy tale "Три јегуље" ("The Three Eels"), by Vuk Karadzic.

In a Valencian tale collected by Enric Valor i Vives, ''La Mare dels Peixos'' ("The Mother of Fishes"), when the fisherman is sailing in the sea, he captures an eel-like, aquatic being with three heads that introduces itself at the "Mother of the Fishes". She tells the fisherman to kill it, and to give one of its heads to his wife, his dogs and his horses.

In an Asturian tale collected by Aurelio de Llano Roza de Ampudia, ''El pescador y la serena'' ("The Fisherman and the Mermaid"), the titular fisherman captures a mermaid who tells him to cut her apart in eight parts and give two to his wife. Thus, she will bear twins.

Ingestion of fruit

The aquatic animal is replaced altogether for a fruit in other variants, such as an apple in the Slavonic tale ''The Brothers''; or a mango, which appears in the Indic form of the tale type (according to researcher Mary Brockington).

According to Armenian scholarship, the motif of the apple also appears in Armenian variants: a passing dervish gives the apple to the king's wife so that she may bear twins, but the dervish asks for one of the twins in payment. One of the boys is given to the dervish. After some time, he dips his hair in a magic golden pool, escapes from him with a horse and wears a disguise to work as a king's gardener (tale type ATU 314, " The Goldener", wherein a youth gains golden hair by magic and later works in a menial position). After the boy is petrified by a witch, his twin comes to his rescue (type ATU 303).

In a tale from Dagestan translated into Hungarian with the title ''Aranyhajú Arszlan'' ("Golden-Haired Arszlan"), a childless man is given a pair of beans as remedy for his plight by an old hermit, who asks for one of the twins in return. The beans work, and a pair of twins is born, named Arszlan and Batir. Arszlan is given to the hermit, who is in reality an evil creature. The youth escapes with a horse, dips his body in a river of a golden colour and works as gardener in another kingdom (tale type ATU 314).

In an Iranian tale collected by Emily Lorimer and David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer from Bakhtiari with the title ''The Gazelle Maiden and the Golden Brothers'', a childless king with seven wives, named Malik Ahmad, receives a pomegranate from a dervish to give to his wife. She bears twins, and the elder twin, called Malik Mahmad, opts to accompany the dervish as part of his father's deal. On the way to a golden fountain, an old greybeard warns the youth that the dervish will kill him, so he should escape from him with his horse. He follows the man's instructions, bathes in the golden fountain and kills the dervish. He finds work in another kingdom, marries a girl and follows a gazelle to a cave. He enters the cave and sees a beautiful maiden, who reveals she is the gazelle. She challenges the golden twin to a physical battle. He loses and is put away with other prisoners. Far away, his younger twin, Sultan Mahmad, sees the brother's ring turn black and senses his twin is in danger. Sultan Mahmad meets his sister-in-law and puts a sword between them in bed. Later, Sultan Mahmad defeats the strong lady, marries her and releases his twin brother and the prisoners.

Imbibing of water

In an Afro-American variant from Antigua, ''Black Jack and White Jack'', a White lady and a Black lady move to a strange land and walk about with a bottle of water. During three walks, as soon as their bottles are empty, they return home. On the fourth time, they see two ponds, one white and the other black. The White lady drinks from the white pond and gives birth to a White boy, and the Black lady from the black pond, and gives birth to a Black boy.

Birth of lookalike individuals

The ATU 303 type usually involves the birth of twins (or triplets), but in variants there are born two similar-looking individuals from a rich mother (queen, lady) and a poor one (maid, servant), who both ate the magical item that, according to some in-story superstition, is said to have pregnancy-inducing properties, such as a fruit or herb. Despite their different origins, both youths hold great affection and loyalty towards each other. One example is the Swedish folktale ''Silfver-hvit och Lill-vacker'' (English: "Silverwhite and Lillwacker").

In a Romanian fairy tale, ''Der Morgenstern und der Abendstern'' ("The Morning-Star and the Evening-Star"), a king and a queen have tried to conceive a child, but no such luck. One night, the empress dreams that God told her the method: the king must catch a fish, cook it and give it to the queen, who gives birth to a boy. A maid also tastes the queen's plate and gives birth to another boy. The prince is named ''Busujok'' and the maid's son ''Siminok''.

In the Moravian tale ''Zkamenělí lidé'' ("The Petrified People"), a princess and her friend, a burgermeister's daughter, drink seawater and become pregnant at the same time. Seven years later, the king suspects foul play and plans execution of the maidens and their incredibly similar children, Petr and Karl. The king prepares a trial by ordeal: both boys should walk on water. Both pass the trial, since they did not sink in the sea.

In a Russian fairy tale, when the fisherman gives the fish for his wife to eat, she shares the food with the mare and the cow. Later, three individuals are born: three half-brothers, one of the human woman, the second of the mare and the third, Cow's Son, of the cow. The cow's son is the strongest and the hero of the tale.

In an Irish tale published by poet W. B. Yeats from an "old man" in Galway, ''Jack and Bill'', the king's wife and a female cook eat a fish and give birth to identical individuals. They become very close friends, but depart to have their own adventures. Jack kills dragons and rescues a princess. He is later killed by a witch in the woods, but Bill saves him soon after. This tale was also published in Yeats's ''The Celtic Twilight'' with the name ''Dreams that have no Moral'' and in Lady Gregory's ''The Kiltartan Wonder Book'', wherein the heroes are named Seamus and Shawneen.

In a Swiss tale collected by author Dietrich Jecklin from Schlans

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