Povestea cu măr moramăr și păsărica a ciută (English: "The tale of the moramar apples and the little bird") is a Romanian fairy tale published as part of the collection .
It contains similarities to two tale types of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess", and ATU 551, "The Water of Life".
A king has three sons and is losing sight. One day, he has a vision in a dream that only the titular moramar apples and the little bird can restore it, so his sons offer to go on a quest for the objects. The elder prince takes a fine horse and goes on his journey, when he meets an old woman begging for alms. He refuses her plight, and she curses him that his quest will fail. As the old woman rightly predicted, he tries to cross a narrow bridge and falls into the water below, then a fox turns him into a stone pillar. The same thing happens to his middle brother. When it is the youngest's turn, he gives some coins to the old woman, and confides in her about the dangerous quest ahead of him. The old woman gives him a crutch and a needle, in gratitude, and advises him to use the objects before he crosses the stream. He does as instructed and a beautiful bridge opens the path for him. On the other side of the stream, the fox appears and promises to help since he was generous. With the fox's help, the prince takes part in a chain of quests: to get the moramar apples and the little bird, he must procure the 24-legged horse with 12 heads from the zmeis; to get the horse from the zmeis, they order him to bring princess Ileana Cosinzeana.
The prince tries to cross the water to reach Ileana Cosinzeana's abode, and is attacked by a "tall person" when he tries to cross. The fox grabs the tall man from behind and forces him to become their new servant. Finally, he arrives at a beautiful garden, where Ileana sleeps with her twelve fairy handmaidens, and two flowers under her head. The prince tries to take the princess, but accidentally wakes her up. She is told the whole story, and agrees to join the prince, but asks him to get a letter from her brother in the other world, a person named Măr Rotat. The prince asks how he can reach the other world, and the fox says he has to ask the fierarul pămîntului ('World Blacksmith') to shod his horse's shoes with iron and steel, and climb down a well. He descends the well and discovers Măr Rotat has died in the hands of a witch during a hunt. Following Măr Rotat's loyal hounds' advice, he retrieves Măr Rotat's eyes and heart and resurrects him. In gratitude, he gives the prince a letter, but he still has to come out of the underworld, so he finds a snake threatening a nest of eaglets, and kills it. The eagle mother appears and offers to take him out of the other world, by having the prince feed the bird meat, bread and water on the journey upwards to the surface world.
The prince gathers cartloads of bread, cows and barrels full of wine, mounts on the eagle and begins his flight back to the surface. Next to the surface, the eagle asks for a last feeding, but the food is gone, so the prince cuts off pieces of flesh from his body to feed the eagle one last time and complete the journey. The eagle then lands on the surface world, and comments to the prince on the sweetness of the last food, but notices the injuries on the human's body, and heals him.
Finally, back home, the prince delivers Măr Rotat's letter to his sisters Ileana Cosinzeana, who reads the contents and decides to join the prince in getting to the kingdom where the multiheaded, multilegged horse is held. Once there, the fox asks the prince what his decision is: to have the princess or the horse, to which the price replies he wants to have both. Upon hearing this, the fox turns into the princess to trick the kites (zmeis), and allows the prince to fetch the horse for himself. In the shape of the princess, the fox tells the zmeis she will take a short leave, and ties a string around her foot to assuage the zmeis. At a distance, the fox assumes it’s real form and meets with the prince and Ileana Consinzeana.
This repeats with the next kingdom: the prince decides to have the horse, the moramar tree and the bird for himself, so the fox turns into the horse and is delivered to the zmeis. Later that day, when it is put in the stables, the fox-as-horse darts off and goes to meet the prince, the princess and their servant. Finally, the group reaches the fox's house, and the animal points to two stone pillars: the prince's brothers, and asks the prince if it should restore them to life. The prince chooses to have them restored to life. The fox respects his decision, and turns them back into humans. The prince's brothers depart for their kingdom ahead of them, while the prince rests with the fox in its hut for three days.
After three days, the prince rides back to his father's kingdom and stops to sleep by a well. Suddenly, his brothers kill him, cut up his body, throw it in the well and cover it with soil. Then, they force princess Ileana to keep quiet about it, lest she shares the prince's fate, and take the bird, the tree and the horse with them to the kingdom. However, the moramar tree and the bird do not interact and cannot cure the king.
Back to the prince: The fox rushes to the well and notices the grass on the well is red, marking the prince's grave. The fox digs up his corpse, douses him with water of death to restore his body, then water of life to revive him. After the prince wakes up, the fox admonishes him for choosing to revive his brothers, but gives him a magic cloak and departs. The prince goes back to his kingdom and finds some work with a blacksmith.
Some time later, princess Ileana Cosinzeana has a dream about a golden distaff with a golden spindle that spins by itself. The blacksmith is ordered to make one, but the prince asks to do it: he swishes the cloak the fox gave and creates the golden distaff, then goes to the castle's garden and takes out the golden distaff. Ileana sees the object from her window and smiles, the bird begins to sing and the moramar tree shakes a bit. The next day, she says that she wants another object she saw in a dream: a golden reel to spins thread with a golden spool that gyrates by itself. The prince fashions the second object with the magic cloak and goes to the castle to show it by Ileana's window. Her smile grows even larger, and the tree and the sing react even more to their master.
Lastly, on the third day, Ileana says she wants a golden hen with chicks that chirp to be made. Once again, the prince produces the golden object by waving the fox's cloak, then goes to show it to Ileana. The princess is overjoyed the prince has come, and so are the other objects he procures during his quest: the horse neighs in response to its master, the bird sings and the moramar tree dances. The prince goes to talk to his father about his brothers' deception, and is asked about how to deal with them. The prince answers a large shirt should be made, large enough to fit the three brothers; then they are to throw up spears, if they are guilty, the spears will kill them. The king fulfills his request: the three brothers throw their spears in the air; the prince's falls at his feet, while his brothers' fall squarely on them, killing them. After punishing his traitorous brothers, the prince marries princess Ileana Cosinzeana, and rules after his father.[1]
The tale contains similarities to two tale types listed in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index: ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess", and ATU 551, "The Water of Life". Scholars Stith Thompson and Hans-Jörg Uther remarked on the similarities between these plots and the likeness of their motifs, which make it difficult to index this tale as either one type or the other.[2] [3]
In tale type ATU 550, "Bird, Horse and Princess" (previously, "Quest for the Golden Bird"), a king requests the bird as the only thing that can cure him, so he sends his three sons on a quest for the bird. The two elder sons fail, are turned to stone or are distracted partway through their journey, and only the youngest prince perseveres. Eventually, he finds the bird, but must complete further quests (usually for a horse and a princess). After the quests, he returns to save his brothers, who betray him and take the princess, the bird, and the horse with themselves. At the end, the young prince is saved by his animal helper and returns to the kingdom to unmask his traitorous brothers.[4] [5] [6]
In tale type ATU 551, "The Water of Life", the king is usually going blind and asks his three sons to fetch him a remedy. Eventually, the youngest son finds the remedy in the possession of a princess in a distant kingdom. He then steals the remedy and goes home only to be betrayed by his elder brothers. Meanwhile, the princess discovers that someone stole her possession and goes after the thief.[7] [8] [9]
In both tale types, the hero (the youngest prince) is helped by an animal, which can be a fox or a wolf.[10] The animal companion gives advice to the hero, encourages him to continue on the quest, and even revives him after his brothers betray and kill him.[11]
In a tale translated to English as Boy-Beautiful, the Golden Apples, and the Were-Wolf, the sons of the emperor investigate who has been eating the emperor's prized apples, and the youngest prince (possibly Făt-Frumos) finds two shining golden feathers in the foliage. The prince then quests for the golden bird, the white saddle-horse with golden-bridle of another Emperor, and the golden-haired "divine Craiessa" ("queen").[12]
In the Romanian tale Povestea lupului năsdrăvan şi a Ilenei Cosinzene, a wolf helps the prince in his quest for the feather of a golden dove, a golden apple, a horse, and the legendary princess Ileana Cosânzeana. When the king's other sons kill the prince, the apple wilts, the dove becomes a black raven and the horse and the princess vanish into the sky.[13]
In a tale titled The Wonderful Bird (Romanian: ), the king sends his sons to find a bird to decorate a newly built church. His elder sons return with the bird and a poultry maid. The bird does not sing, and the maid seems to be despondent. The youngest prince returns secretly to his father's kingdom and tells his story. The bird begins to sing when the prince enters the church, recognizing its master.[14]
In the tale Der Vogel des Paradieses ("The Bird of Paradise"), collected by Romanian ethnologue from, the king wants to find the Bird of Paradise to become young again. An old man (implied by the narrative to be God himself) helps the king's youngest son, and both quest for the Bird of Paradise, the horse of "Negru Dovedit", the saber of the Red King and the daughter of the Green King.[15]
In a variant from Bukovina translated into German as Der närrische Prinz ("The Foolish Prince"), a king has three sons: the elder two smart, but the third one considered a fool. He also has in his garden a tree that yields golden apples, which are stolen overnight by a mysterious thief. The three princes offer to keep watch over the tree at night, but the elder two fail and the third discovers the true culprit: a bird with golden feathers and golden talons. He captures the bird and presents it to the king the next morning, but lets it escape, save for some feathers. The king then orders the three princes to get him the bird. The youngest prince begins his quest by finding an injured wolf and giving it a piece of meat. After the animal regains his strength, it aids the prince in a chain of quests: for the golden bird, a golden horse ("goldenes pferde") and for the princess that lives in the land where the Sun first shines.[16]
Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga translated a Romanian tale into French as Le fils cadet de l'empereur ("The Emperor's Youngest Son"). In this tale, an emperor has three sons, the elder two proud and arrogant, while the youngest is the bravest. The monarch also has a beautiful garden wherein grows a tree that produces golden blooms and golden fruits. One day, the golden fruits begin disappearing, and the emperor orders his three sons to guard it at night. The elder two fail, but the youngest discovers the culprit: a bird with golden plumes. With the help of a talking wolf, the youngest prince gets the bird with golden plumage from the emperor of birds, as well as an enchanted horse from another emperor, and the beautiful daughter of a prince that is kept away from people's eyes.[17]
In a Moldavian tale published by author and folklorist with the title Break-of-Day, an emperor has no children but is told that his empress is to walk an untrod path in the woods, where the dew is untouched. The empress becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy named Break-of-Day. He grows up very quickly. After an argument with his father, he climbs a very tall tree for twelve years to get the fruits at the top. He picks three golden apples, but a white bird with a golden tail eats two of them. Break-of-Day keeps the last apple with him and plucks a feather from the white bird, then climbs down the tall tree for another seven years. He shows his father the only apple he saved and declares he will pursue the white bird. Break-of-Day goes on a journey and meets a "thick-lipped" man named Black Arab, who possesses magic powers. The Black Arab tells Break-of-Day about the golden-tailed white bird: it is an enchanted maiden that the Devil keeps in a cradle. Break-of-Day tries to steal the maiden from the cradle, but the Devil catches him. The Devil promises him the maiden, but Break-of-Day must first get the Devil's horses from his brother in the underworld. Break-of-Day and the Black Arab then take part in a series of quests: to get the Devil's horses from the Tartar, prince of the netherworld, and to find the maiden Ilyana Kosinzyana to be the Tartar's wife. At the end of the tale, they release Ilyana Kosinzyana from the Tartar's grasp and disenchant the golden-tailed white bird by killing the Devil.[18]