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The Knights of the Fish

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The Knights of the Fish
The seven-headed dragon.
Folk tale
NameThe Knights of the Fish
Also known asLos Caballeros del Pez; The King of Fishes (Joseph Jacobs)
Aarne–Thompson groupingATU 303 (The Twins or Blood Brothers)
ATU 300 (The Dragonslayer)
RegionEurasia, Worldwide
Published inCuentos. Oraciones y Adivinas (1878), by Fernán Caballero
The Brown Fairy Book, by Andrew Lang
Europa's Fairy Book (1916), by Joseph Jacobs
RelatedThe Twins (Albanian tale); Perseus and Andromeda
Princess and dragon

The Knights of the Fish (Spanish: "Los Caballeros del Pez") is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Fernán Caballero in Cuentos. Oraciones y Adivinas.[1] Andrew Lang included it in The Brown 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 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.[2]

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 it was still baffled, the knight killed it. The king married him to his daughter.

The princess showed him all over the castle, and 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 he would marry her, and he refused. The witch showed him over the castle and 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. When he met the witch, he quickly stabbed her with his sword, and then she asked him to save her life with magical plants from the garden. He found the bodies of his brother and all her other victims, whom he restored with that magic, and also a cave full of the maidens killed by the dragon, whom he also restored. After they all escaped, the witch died and her castle fell.

Motifs

The motif of the demand for sacrifice of youngsters of either sex happens in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.[3] 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,[4][5][6][7][8] 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 disrepecting 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.

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

See also

References

  1. ^ Caballero, Fernán. Cuentos, oraciones, adivinas y refranes populares e infantiles. Leipzig: Brockhaus. 1878. pp. 11-19.
  2. ^ Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. p. 27. ISBN 0-520-03537-2
  3. ^ Schmidt, Bernhard. Griechische Märchen, Sagen und Volkslieder. Leipzig: Teubner, 1877. pp. 236-239.
  4. ^ Gan Bao. In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record, translated into English by Kenneth J. DeWoskin and James Irving Crump. Stanford University Press, 1996. pp. 230-231. ISBN 0-8047-2506-3
  5. ^ Maeth Ch., Russell. “El Cuento De Li Ji.” Estudios De Asia y Africa, vol. 25, no. 3 (83), 1990, pp. 537–539. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40312235. Accessed 15 Apr. 2020.
  6. ^ Journey of a Goddess: Chen Jinggu Subdues the Snake Demon. Translated, edited, and with an introduction by Fan Pen Li Chen. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 2017. p. 31. ISBN 978-14384-6-7078
  7. ^ Idema, Wilt L. Personal Salvation and Filial Piety: Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her Acolytes. University of Hawai'i Press. 2008. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-8248-3215-5
  8. ^ He, Saihanjula. "Critical Fantasies: Structure of Chinese Folk Tales" (2000). Masters Theses. 1609. [1]

Bibliograhy

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