The Boys with the Golden Stars

The Boys with the Golden Stars (Romanian: ''Doi feți cu stea în frunte'') is a Romanian fairy tale collected in ''Rumänische Märchen''. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Violet Fairy Book''.Lang, Andrew.
The Violet Fairy Book
'. London; New York: Longmans, Green. 1906. pp. 299-310. An alternate title to the tale is ''The Twins with the Golden Star''.

Origins

The Romanian tale ''Doi feți cu stea în frunte'' was first published in the Romanian magazine ''Convorbiri Literare'', in October, 1874, and signed by Romanian author Ioan Slavici.

Synopsis

A herdsman had three daughters, Ana, Stana and Laptița. The youngest was the most beautiful. One day, the emperor was passing with attendants. The oldest daughter said that if he married her, she would bake him a loaf of bread that would make him young and brave forever; the second one said, if one married her, she would make him a shirt that would protect him in any fight, even with a dragon, and against heat and water; the youngest one said that she would bear him twin sons with stars on their foreheads. The emperor married the youngest, and two of his friends married the other two.

The emperor's stepmother had wanted him to marry her daughter and so hated his new wife. She got her brother to declare war on him, to get him away from her, and when the empress gave birth in his absence, killed and buried the twins in the corner of the garden and put puppies in their place. The emperor punished his wife to show what happened to those who deceived the emperor.

Two aspens grew from the grave, putting on years' growth in hours. The stepmother wanted to chop them down, but the emperor forbade it. Finally, she convinced him, on the condition that she had beds made from the wood, one for him and one for her. In the night, the beds began to talk to each other. The stepmother had two new beds made, and burned the originals. While they were burning, the two brightest sparks flew off and fell into the river. They became two golden fish. When fishermen caught them, they wanted to take them alive to the emperor. The fish told them to let them swim in dew instead, and then dry them out in the sun. When they did this, the fish turned back into babies, maturing in days.

Wearing lambskin caps that covered their hair and stars, they went to their father's castle and forced their way in. Despite their refusal to take off their caps, the emperor listened to their story, only then removing their caps. The emperor executed his stepmother and took back his wife.

Analysis

The birth of the wonder-children

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, " The Three Golden Children".

Most versions of ''The Boys With Golden Stars'' begin with the birth of male twins, but very rarely there are fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. When they transform into human babies again, the siblings grow up at an impossibly fast rate and hide their supernatural trait under a hood or a cap. Soon after, they show up in their father's court or house to reveal the truth through a riddle or through a ballad.

The motif of a woman's babies, born with wonderful attributes after she claimed she could bear such children, but stolen from her, is a common fairy tale motif; see " The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird", " The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "The Three Little Birds", "The Wicked Sisters", "Ancilotto, King of Provino", and "Princess Belle-Etoile". Some of these variants feature an evil stepmother.

The reincarnation motif

The transformation chase where the stepmother is unable to prevent the children's reappearance is unusual, although it appears in "A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers" and in "The Count's Evil Mother" (''O grofu i njegovoj zloj materi''), a Croatian tale from the Karlovac area, "The Pretty Little Calf" also has the child reappear, transformed after being murdered, but only has the transformation to an animal form and back to human.

Daiva Vaitkevičienė suggested that the transformation sequence in the tale format (from human babies, to trees, to lambs/goats and finally to humans again) may be underlying a theme of reincarnation, metempsychosis or related to a life-death-rebirth cycle. This motif is shared by other tale types, and does not belong exclusively to the ATU 707.

French scholar Gédeon Huet noted the "striking" (''frappantes'') similarities between these versions of ATU 707 and the Ancient Egyptian story of ''The Tale of Two Brothers'' - "far too great to be coincidental", as he put it.

India-born author Maive Stokes noted the resurrective motif of the murdered children, and found parallels among European tales published during that time. Austrian consul Johann Georg von Hahn also remarked on a similar transformation sequence present in a Greek tale from Asia Minor, ''Die Zederzitrone'', a variant of ''The Love for Three Oranges'' (ATU 408).

Asian parallels

A similar occurrence of the tree reincarnation is attested in the Bengali folktale ''The Seven Brothers who were turned into Champa Trees'' ('' Sat Bhai Chompa'', first published in 1907) and in the tale ''The Real Mother'', collected in Simla.

In a Thai tale, ''Champa Si Ton'' or ''The Four Princes'' ( Thai: สี่ยอดกุมาร), king Phaya Chulanee, ruler of the City of Panja, is already married to a woman named Queen Akkee. He travels abroad and reaches the deserted ruins of a kingdom (City of Chakkheen). He saves a princess named Pathumma from inside a drum she was hiding in when some terrifying creatures attacked her kingdom, leaving her as the sole survivor. They return to Panja and marry. Queen Pathumma is pregnant with four sons, to the envy of the first wife. She replaces the sons for dogs to humiliate the second queen, and throws the babies in the river. A version of the tale is also preserved in palm-leaf manuscript form. The tale continues as the four princes are rescued from the water and buried in the garden, only to become champa trees and later regaining their human shapes.

In a Laotian version of ''Champa Si Ton'', or ''The Four Champa Trees'', King Maha Suvi is married to two queens, Mahesi and Mahesi Noi. Queen Mahesi gives birth to the four princes, who are taken to the water in a basket. When they are young, they are poisoned by the second queen and buried in the village, four champa trees sprouting on their graves. The second queen learns of their survival and orders the trees to be felled down and thrown in the river. A monk sees their branches with flowers and takes them off the river.

A similar series of transformations is found in "Beauty and Pock Face" and " The Story of Tam and Cam".

In a Burmese tale titled ''The Big Tortoise'', at the end of the tale, after she was replaced by her ugly stepsister, the heroine goes through two physical transformations: the heroine, Mistress Youngest, visits her stepfamily, who drops a cauldron of boiling water over her and she becomes a white paddy-bird. Later, the false bride kills her bird form and asks the cook to roast it. The cook buries the bird's remains behind the kitchen, where a quince tree sprouts. An old couple passes by the quince tree and a large fruit falls on their lap that they take home and put in an earthen jar. The fruit contains the true princess and, when the old couple leaves their cottage, the princess goes out of the earthen jar to tidy up the place.

In a Chinese tale from Fujian, ''Da Jie'' (also a Cinderella variant), after Da Jie marries a rich scholar, her stepfamily devises a plan to replace her with Da Jie's smallpox-riddled stepsister, Xia Mei. Xia Mei shoves Da Jie into a well, but she turns into a sparrow, which communicates with her husband to alert him of the substitution. Xia Mei kills the sparrow and buries it in the garden. In that spot a bamboo tree grows, which soothes her husband and annoys the false spouse. Xia Mei decides to have the bamboo tree made into a bed. If the scholar sleeps on it, he feels refreshed; if the stepsister sleeps on it, she feels awful, so she notices it is Da Jie's doing. She orders the bed to be burnt down, but an old woman discovers its charred remains and brings them home. When she goes out and returns at night, she notices someone has prepared her dinner. On the third night, she senses the presence of Da Jie and helps her regain human form and later reunite her with the husband.

Other regions

A similar transformation sequence occurs in French-Missourian folktale ''L'Prince Serpent Vert pis La Valeur'' ("The Prince Green Snake and La Valeur"), collected by Franco-Ontarian scholar Joseph Médard Carrière. After hero La Valeur disenchants Prince Green Snake, he receives a magical shirt and sabre. After being betrayed by his wife, the princess, La Valeur is resurrected into horse form by Prince Green Snake and returns to his wife's kingdom. The wife orders the horse to be killed, but before his death, La Valeur instructs a maid to save his first three droplets of blood. She does so and three laurel trees sprout. The traitorous princess recognizes the trees and orders them to be felled, but the maid rescues three wood chips, which become three ducks. Later, the three ducks fly to the magic shirt, disappear with it and La Valeur regains his human form.

A similar cycle of transformations is attested in a Sicilian tale collected by folklorist Giuseppe Pitré from Montevago. In this tale (another variant of the tale type ATU 707), ''La cammisa di lu gran jucaturi e l'auceddu parlanti'' ("The Shirt of the Great Player and the Talking Bird"), the prince marries a poor maiden against his mother's wishes. She gives birth to 12 boys and a girl, which the queen buries in the garden. However, 12 orange trees and a lemon tree sprout in their place. A goatherder passes by the garden and one of his goats eats some of the leaves. It gives birth to the 13 siblings, who grow up and later seek three treasures.

=Greece

=
According to the Greek folktale catalogue of Angelopoulou and Brouskou, some Greek variants of type 707 contain the motif of the wonder-children and the rebirth as plants, animals and humans again. In one variant from Roccaforte del Greco, in Calabria, the third sister promises to give birth to 100 sons with a golden apple in the hand and a daughter with a golden star. They are buried, turn into 101 oranges trees, which are burned down. In their ashes, 100 grains of pepper and an aubergine that are eaten by a goat.

In a tale from Arminou-Néa Pafos, ''La tisseuse'', the mother promises to give birth to 101 children. They are buried and on their graves sprout 100 cypresses and one platanus tree. Their flowers are eaten by a goat and they return to human form.

In a variant from Asia Minor, the tale begins with type ATU 510A, "Cinderella". The story continues as the princess gives birth to three sons of gold. They are buried and become trees. The villain orders the trees to be burnt down, but some sparks are eaten by a goat, which gives birth to the three sons anew. The Sun and its mother pass by the boys to provide them with clothes and gifts.

In the tale Ό Ήλιος, ό Αύγερινός καί ή Πούλια (''The Sun, the Morning-Star and the Pleiad''), the older sister tells her sisters she dreamt she married the king and gave birth to "three beautiful children": Sun, Morning Star and Pleiad. The king overhears their conversation and marries the older sister. When they are born, "the room shone from their beauty". The midwife replaces them for puppies and buries them in the basement of the castle. The king calls for his children, and they answer him. He decides to erect a new palace, but the midwife takes the children's bones and buries them in the yard. Three cypress trees sprout. The midwife orders the trees to be felled down. Three flowers sprout and the queen sends her pet goat to eat them. The goat gets pregnant and the queen wants it killed. After her order is carried out, a slave girl washes its entrails in the river and the children reappear in human form.

Distribution

Analysing some of the available variants of tale type 707 during his lifetime, Romanian folklorist Lazar Saineanu suggested that the killing of the twin children and their rebirth in a cycle of metamorphoses seemed "typical" to Eastern Europe. in Romenia; Belarus; in Serbia; in the Bukovina region; in Croatia; Bosnia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and among the Transylvanian Saxons.

Hungarian scholar Ágnes Kovács stated that this was the "Eastern European subtype" of the tale ''Cei doi fraţi cu păr de aur'' ("The Twin Brothers With Golden Hair"), found "all across the Romanian language territories", as well in Hungarian speaking regions.

Professor Reginetta Haboucha remarked that the reincarnation cycle of these variants (human - tree - sheep - human) constitutes a new type she identified as **707B, "Truth Comes to Light" - a combination between type 707 and "essential elements" from type AT 780A, "The Cannibalistic Brothers".

Development

Russian scholar T. V. Zueva names this format "Reincarnation of the Luminous Twins" and considers this group of variants as "an ancient Slavic plot", since these tales have been collected from Slavic-speaking areas. Another argument she raises is that the tree transformation in most variants is the sycamore, a tree with mythical properties in East Slavic folklore. She also argues that this format is the "archaic version" of the tale type, since it shows the motif of the tree and animal transformation, and recalls ancient ideas of twin beings in folklore.

Variants

Romania

Writer and folklorist Cristea Sandu Timoc considered that these tales were typically Romanian, and belonged to tale type AaTh 707C*. He also reported that "more than 70 variants" of this subtype were "known" (as of 1988).

A version of the tale, collected in the Wallachia region, from a Mihaila Poppowitsch, has an evil maid who murders the children, but at the end of the tale their father exiles the murderess instead of executing her. The source of this variant was later identified as the Banat region.

In another Romanian variant, ''A két aranyhajú gyermek'' ("The Two Children With Golden Hair"), the youngest sister promises the king to give birth to a boy and a girl of unparalleled beauty. Her sisters, seething with envy, conspire with the king's gypsy servant, take the children and bury them in the garden. After the twins are reborn as trees, they twist their branches to make shade for the king when he passes, and to hit their aunts when they pass. After they go through the rebirth cycle, the Sun, stunned at their beauty, clothes them and gives the boy a flute.

In a variant from "Siebenburgen" (Transylvania), ''Die Schnitterin als Kaiserin'' ("The Harvester as Queen"), the maiden is made queen on the promise of bearing golden-haired twins. A "gypsy" who worked at the king's court, jealous of the newly-crowned queen, exchanges her children for two puppies and buries the babies in the garden. From their burial place, two ''Tännenbaum'' (fir trees) sprout.

Writer and folklorist Cristea Sandu Timoc collected two other Romanian variants, published in 1988. In one, ''Doi feţi logofeţi'', collected from Ţăranu Dumitru, the third sister promises to give birth to twins as beautiful as gold and silver. In the second, ''Trei fete mari in cînepă'', collected from Sandru Gherghina, the third sister promises twins of gold and silver. In both tales, the twins, a boy and a girl, go through the cycle of transformations (trees, animals, humans again).

Serbia

In a Serbian variant published by author Elodie Lawton with the title ''The Golden-Haired Twins'', a king is looking for a wife. In his wanderings, he overhears the conversation between three maidens: the first promises to bear the king a son who would be the greatest hero in the world; the second promises to bear two golden-haired male twins; and the third promises to bear him a beautiful daughter. The king chooses the second maiden and they marry. While the king is away a war, the king's stepmother takes the twins as soon as they are born and buries them in the garden, and places two puppies in their place. The queen is imprisoned beneath the castle and two trees with golden leaves and golden blossoms sprout in the garden. The king's stepmother realizes the trees are related to the twins and orders them to be chopped down and made into boards for a new bed. She cannot sleep in her new bed, for the twins converse to each other all night, so she orders the bed to be burned. Two sparks fly out of the pyre and turn into golden lambs. The king's stepmother orders the lambs to be killed. While their fleece is washed in the river, the fleeces float downstream. A fisherman then finds a box with the golden-haired twins and raises them. Years later, when they are grown up, they ask their foster father to dress in beggar's clothes to hide their golden hair. They make a living by playing a goussle and a cymbal and singing songs. One day, they go their father's castle and sing a song to the whole court, then take off their caps to reveal their golden hair.

In an article in the '' Archiv für slavische Philologie'', scholars Vatroslav Jagić and reported a Serbian tale published in magazine '. In this tale, titled "Двоје златие деце" and translated as ''Zwei goldene Kinder'' ("Two Golden Children"), the king finds three women harvesting the fields; they stop to rest and the youngest promises to bear the king two golden children. She marries the king and gives birth to two golden male twins. A wicked servant buries them in the garden. The twins go through a cycle of transformations (from golden spruce trees, to doves, to lambs, to humans again).Jagic, Vatroslav; Kohler, Reinhold.
Aus dem südslavischen Märchenschatz
. In: ''Archiv Für Slavische Philologie''. Vol. 2. Berlin: Weidmann. 1876. pp. 627–628.

Croatia

In a Croatian variant collected by linguist with the title ''O grofu i njegovoj zloj materi'' ("About the count and his evil mother"), a count passes by a window where three girls are talking: the first one wants to marry the count's coachman, the second one the count's cook and the third the count himself. The count brings them to his house the next day and weds them to their respective partners. One day, he has to go to war, and leaves his pregnant wife in his mother's care. While the man is away, his wife gives birth to golden-haired twins, whom the count's mother takes and buries in the garden. On their grave two linden trees sprout. The count's mother orders the trees to be felled and to make a bed for her. The bedposts talk to each other and does not let their grandmother sleep, so she orders the bed to be burnt down. Two sparks fly out of the pyre and are swallowed by a sheep, which foals two golden lambs after a while. The count's mother feigns illness and wants the lambs slaughtered as remedy for her, and their innards to be washed in the river. Her orders are carried out, but a raven steals the innards. Some time later, the golden-haired twins regain human form and meet their father. Linguist Erich Karl Berneker translated the tale into German as ''Vom Grafen und seiner bösen Mütter'' and sourced it from the Kajkavian dialect.

Moldavia

In a variant from Moldavia, the youngest maiden promises to give birth to twin children with golden hair. A witch takes the newborn royals and tries to kill them by putting them under the hooves of animals to be trampled. She fails, so she resorts to burying both under the threshold. The boys become walnut trees, then lambs, then ducks, then regain human form.

Bulgaria

In a Bulgarian variant, "Дети воеводы" ("The Voivode's Children"), three sisters of marriageable age, while spinning under the moonlight near the mill, comment among themselves what they can do if they marry the voivode's son. The youngest answers she will bear him twin boys with golden hair and silver teeth. The voivode's son marries the youngest and becomes voivode. When the times comes, the queen's sisters insist they be brought to the palace to help in labor. The eldest sister, envious of her fortune and marriage, takes both boy as soon as they are born, kills them, buries them in the garden, while putting two puppies in their place to further humiliate the queen. The voivode banishes her to a hut near a lake and marries her elder sister. Two trees with silver leaves and golden flowers sprout on the children's graves. When taking a stroll in the garden, both trees lean forward to caress the father with their leaves and to hit his new wife with their branches. The voivode's new wife cuts down the trees and burns them. Their ashes are gathered by the former wife and spread through the garden, where two cornflowers with golden stamens and silver petals grow and are eaten by a sheep. The sheep gives birth to two lambs with golden horns and silver wool. They are put in a basket and washed downstream to their mother's hut. She suckles both lambs and they regain human form. After a while, the voivode and his new wife visit the former queen in her hut and see the twin boys. The voivode returns to the palace, questions the cat, which reveals the whole truth. He punishes the new wife and restores his first wife."Болгарские народные сказки" ulgarian Folk Tales Moscow: Государственное издательство художественной литературы. 1951. pp. 80–84.

Belarus

In a Belarusian tale, "Блізняткі" (''The Twins''), an evil witch kills two boys - the sons of the prince. On their grave two sycamores grow. The witch realizes it is the boys and orders the gardener to fell them down. A sheep licks the ashes and soon enough gives birth to two sheep - the very same princes. Later, they regain their human form and tell the king the whole story.

In another tale, "ЧУДЕСНЫЕ МАЛЬЧИКИ" (''Chudetsnye Malchiki''; English: "Wonderful/Miraculous Boys"), first collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Grodno, in 1857, the youngest sister states she will give birth to "two boys, each with a moon on his head and a star on the nape of his neck". When they are buried, on their grave two maples sprout (or, in another translation, "two plane-trees"), a golden stem and a silver one (or "one with golden, the other with silver branches"). The tale was also published by A. H. Wratislaw with the name "The Wonderful Boys", or "The Wondrous Lads", and by Czech folklorist Karel Jaromír Erben with the name ''Podivní chlapci'' ("The Wonderful Boys").

Hungary

Hungarian scholarship classifies the ATU 707 tale under the banner of "The Golden-Haired Twins" ( Hungarian: ''Az aranyhajú ikrek'').

In the tale ''A mostoha királyfiakat gyilkoltat'', the step-parent asks for the organs of the twin children to eat. They are killed, their bodies are buried in the garden and from their grave two apple trees sprout.

In the tale ''A mosolygó alma'' ("The Smiling Apple"), a king sends his page to pluck some fragant scented apples in a distant garden. When the page arrives at the garden, a dishevelled old man appears and takes him into his house, where the old man's three young daughters live. The daughters comment among themselves their marriage wishes: the third wishes to marry the king and give him two golden-haired children, one with a "comet star" on the forehead and another with a sun. The rest of the story follows ''The Boys with the Golden Star'' format.

Other Magyar variant is ''Die zwei goldhaarigen Kinder'' (Hungarian: "A két aranyhajú gyermek"; English: "The Two Children with Golden Hair"). The tale begins akin to tale type ATU 450, "Brother and Sister", wherein the boy drinks from a puddle and becomes a deer, and his sister is found by the king during a hunt. The sister, in this variant, begs the king to take her, for she will bear him twin sons with golden hair. After the twin boys are born, they are buried in the ground and go through a cycle of transformations, from golden-leaved trees, to lambs to humans again. When they assume human form, the Moon, the Sun and the Wind give them clothes and shoes.

Slovakia

Czech scholar Jiri Polivka identified a Slovak tale of the ''Boys With the Golden Stars'' format, which he then named ''Pani s chlapci zakopaná do hnojiska. Slncová matka im pomáha'' ("Maiden and sons buried in manure; the Sun's Mother helps them"). In this tale, titled ''O jednom zlatom orechu'' ("About a golden nut"), a wife gives birth to twins while her husband is at war. A witch sews the boys in an oxen hide and buries it in a pit of manure. Out of the pit springs a nut tree. The witch orders the trees to be made into beds; later, when she hears he twins' voices coming from the beds, she orders the beds to be burnt to cinders. Sparks fly out of the beds' pyre and reach a rose bush, which is eaten by a goat. Some time later, the she-goat gives birth to two kids. The animals are killed and the twins regain human form. The Sun, on his daily journey, sees the twins and, impressed by their beauty, tells his mother. The Sun's mother comes to them with clothes and a golden apple.

Ireland

On the other hand, according to researcher Maxim Fomin, Irish folklorist Seán Ó Súilleabháin identified this as a ''second'' ecotype (oikotype) of type ATU 707 in Ireland, which corresponds to the birth of the miraculous twins, their death by burial, and the cycle of transformations from plant to animal to humans again.

Lithuania

Similarly, Lithuanian scholarship (namely, and Daiva Vaitkevičienė) lists at least 23 variants of this format in Lithuania. In these variants, the youngest sister promises to give birth to twins with the sun on the forehead, the moon on the neck and stars on the temples. A boy and a girl are born, but they are buried by a witch, and on their graves an apple tree and a pear tree sprout. They mostly follow the cycle of transformations (from human babies, to trees, to animals and finally to humans again), but some differ in that after they become lambs, they are killed and their ashes are eaten by a duck that hatches two eggs. Kerbelyte locates most of the Lithuanian variants of this format in the Dzūkija region.

Latvia

According to the Latvian Folktale Catalogue, tale type 707, "The Three Golden Children", is known in Latvia as ''Brīnuma bērni'' ("Wonderful Children"), comprising 4 different redactions. Its ''third'' redaction follows ''The Boys with the Golden Stars'': the twins are buried by their stepmother in the garden and go through a cycle of transformations (from babies, to trees, to burnt trees, to lambs, to humans again).

Albania

Slavicist , in his study on Balkan folklore, published an Albanian language variant he titled ''Les Trois Soeurs''. In this tale, a king forbids lighting any light at night the next evening. However, three poor sisters do not follow the ban and keep working through the night. Then they talk among themselves about their wishes to marry the king: the elder promises to dress the entire army with a single roll of cloth; the middle one that she can feed the army with a single batch of bread, and the third sister promises to give birth to a boy with a moon on his breast and a girl with a star on the front. The king's son overhears their conversation, then marries the first sister. She fails in clothing the army, and is made a servant. The king's son marries the second sister and she also does not fulfill her boast, so she is also made a servant. He marries the third sister and has to go to war. While he is away, his wife gives birth to her promised twins, but the sisters take the babies and bury them in the garden. After the king's son returns, the queen is made to be a goose herd. On the children's graves, two cypress trees sprout and incline whenever their parents pass by. Their aunts notice the trees are the children and order them to be felled and planks made from them. This does not stop them, so the aunts order the planks to be burned. On the place they were burns, a palace appears and the twins are reborn as humans. During a hunt, the king discovers the palace and visits the twins.Mazon, André.
Documents, Contes et Chansons Slaves de l'Albanie du Sud
'. Bibliothéque d'Études Balkaniques – V. Paris: Librarie Droz. 1936. pp. 232–237.

Adaptations

A Hungarian variant of the tale was adapted into an episode of the Hungarian television series ''Magyar népmesék'' ("Hungarian Folk Tales") ( hu), with the title ''A két aranyhajú fiú'' ("The Two Sons With Golden Hair").

Footnotes

References

External links

Original text of the fairy tale
at Wikisource (in Romanian)

Doi feți cu stea în frunte
at Project Gutenberg
*

{{The Three Golden Children

Romanian fairy tales
Fictional princes
Fictional twins
Twins in fiction
Fiction about shapeshifting
Romanian mythology
Fictional emperors and empresses
Infanticide
ATU 700-749