The Bird Lover Explained

The Bird Lover, also known as The Prince as Bird, is a type of narrative structure in folklore, no. 432 in the Aarne–Thompson classification system. In the typical version of story, a woman acquires a bird lover—a nobleman in the shape of a bird—who is wounded by means of a trap set by the woman's husband, such as a set of sharp points set up outside the woman's window. She follows the wounded bird's trail, cures him, and then marries him.

In French scholarship, this type is often referred to as "loiseau bleu" or "the blue bird", so named for a story by Madame d'Aulnoy.^[1]

Origins

Folklorist Jack Haney traced the origins of the tale type to France and Germany in the Middle Ages.^[2]

An example of the motif is found in one of Marie de France's Lais, "Yonec", though the lai develops somewhat differently: instead of a happy ending, the lai ends in tragedy.^{[1] [3]} A "sophisticated rationalization" of the type is found in Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, where Lancelot appears at Guinevere's heavily barred window and cuts his fingers bending the bars back.^[4]

Swedish scholar also pointed Yonec as a predecessor to the tale type. However, he also noted that in tales of "later tradition", especially from India and Persia, the lover comes to the heroine in the shape of a bird, and in that regard cited the tale of "King Parrot", from a 15th century Turkish version of The Seven Wise Masters.^[5]

Overview

Some variants may begin akin to type ATU 425C, "Beauty and the Beast": the third daughter asks her father for a present, a memento that belongs to the Bird Prince that she will use to contact him.^[6] In other tales, the heroine is trapped in a high tower, which is only accessible by the prince in his bird form. Whatever its beginning, the heroine's lover is eventually hurt in his bird form by blades, pieces of glass or thorns left by the heroine's sisters. The Bird Prince vanishes back to his kingdom and the heroine goes after him intending to heal his wounds.^[7]

A line of scholarship (e.g.,, Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Sr.,) recognizes the independence of the narrative, but argues that it could fit as a subtype of the more general tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", due to their proximity, e.g., in its motifs and in the heroine's quest for her lost supernatural husband.^{[8] [9] [10]}

Motifs

According to Samia Al Azharia Jahn, "in all Arabic variants", the Bird Prince is put in mortal danger by the use of glass.^[11]

In turn, according to Georgios A. Megas, the "characteristic motifs" of this type include the heroine overhearing the conversation between two creatures (animals, like birds and foxes) or two ogres about the prince's cure, the heroine killing the creatures (since their body parts are used in the cure),^[12] and the heroine asking the prince for a belonging as reward (a ring or towel).^[13]

The gifts for the heroine

In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, folklorist Christine Goldberg noted the many objects the heroine asks her father in variants of the tale type: a feather, a plant or branch, but also a mirror, a violin, or a book. In Indian variants, the heroine utters "Sobur" ('Wait'), which her father mistakes for an object.^[14] In the same vein, Samia Al Azharia Jahn stated that, in Arabic language variants, the heroine asks her father for a strangely named object, which also happens to be the name of the Bird Prince.^[11]

Distribution

Haney stated the tale type enjoyed "worldwide distribution".^[2]

According to professors Stith Thompson,, Anna Angelopoulou and Aigle Broskou, the tale type is "especially popular" in Mediterranean countries, being found in Iberian Peninsula and in Greece.^{[15] [16] [17] [18]} In the same vein, professor Christian Abry stated that the tale type is "frequent" (fréquent) in Italy.^[19]

The ATU 432 folktype is also present in the folklore of Latin America, for instance, in Chile (The Parrot Prince).^[20] Further variants are found in Canada and New Mexico.^[16]

In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, both scholars identified a cycle of stories they classified as TTV 102, "Die Traube I" ("The Grape - Version I"),^[21] with 31 variants registered.^[22] These tales are comparable to the international tale type ATU 432, "The Prince as Bird".^{[23] [18] [24] [25]}

German folklorists and Manfred Hesse stated that the tale type was "widespread" in the Arab-speaking regions, although with different motifs.^[26]

List of tales

• The Blue Bird
• The Canary Prince
• The Three Sisters
• The Green Knight
• The Feather of Finist the Falcon
• Prince Sobur
• The Fan of Patience
• The Greenish Bird

See also

• The Crow (fairy tale)
• The White Bird and His Wife
• The Girl Langa Langchung and the Rooster

Bibliography

• Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. University of California Press. 1977. pp. 102–103 and 181.

Notes and References

1. Book: Boivin, Jeanne-Marie. Jean Dufournet. Amour et merveille: les Lais de Marie de France. 1995. Champion. fr. Paris. 147–68. Bisclavret et Muldumarec: La part de l'ombre dans les Lais.
2. Haney, Jack V. The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev. Volume II: Black Art and the Neo-Ancestral Impulse. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2015. pp. 536-556.
3. Book: Bacquin, Mari. Olivier Delsaux. Hélène Haug. Original et originalité: Aspects historiques, philologiques et littéraires. https://books.google.com/books?id=WtTaqAi1YAEC&pg=PA9. 15 November 2012. 2012. Presses univ. de Louvain. fr. 9782875580221. 7–14. Le motif de l'aigle d'or.
4. Book: Mandel, Jerome. Piero Boitani. Anna Torti. The Body and the Soul in Medieval Literature: The J.A.W. Bennett Memorial Lectures, Tenth Series, Perugia, 1998. https://books.google.com/books?id=mckhSghfWM4C&pg=PA71. 15 November 2012. 1999. Boydell & Brewer. 9780859915458. 63–78. 'Polymorphous Sexualities' in Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory.
5. Book: 10.1515/9783112618004-004 . Zaubermärchen . Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen . 1961 . 70 . 978-3-11-261800-4 .
6. Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. p. 341. .
7. Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. pp. 281-282. .
8. Palmaitis, Letas. "Romeo Moses and Psyche Brunhild? Or Cupid the Serpent and the Morning Star?" In: Caucasologie et mythologie comparée, Actes du Colloque international du C.N.R.S. - IVe Colloque de Caucasologie (Sèvres, 27-29 juin 1988). Paris, PEETERS, 1992. p. 177. .
9. Paredes, Americo. Folktales of Mexico. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. p. 215. .
10. Book: Megas, Georgios A. . Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche in der griechischen Volksüberlieferung . Πραγματειαι της Ακαδημιας Αθηνων . 30 . Athens . Grapheion Dēmosieumatōn tēs Akadēmias Athēnōn . 1971 . 180 . DE.
11. Book: 10.1515/9783112525760-062 . Anmerkungen . Arabische Volksmärchen . 1970 . 497–554 . 978-3-11-252576-0 . 246213856 .
12. Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 103. .
13. Book: Megas, Georgios A. . Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche in der griechischen Volksüberlieferung . Πραγματειαι της Ακαδημιας Αθηνων . 30 . Athens . Grapheion Dēmosieumatōn tēs Akadēmias Athēnōn . 1971 . 182 . DE.
14. Goldberg, Christine. "Prinz als Vogel (AaTh 432)" [Prince as Bird (ATU 432)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online. Edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 [2002]. p. 1321. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.244/html. Accessed 2023-06-21.
15. Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 282. .
16. Pino Saavedra, Yolando. Folktales of Chile. University of Chicago Press, 1967. p. 260.
17. Stockings of Buttermilk: American Folktales. Edited by Neil Philip. New York: Clarion Press, 1999. p. 120. .
18. Angelopoulou, Anna; Broskou, Aigle. "ΕΠΕΞΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΙΑΚΩΝ ΤΥΠΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΑΛΛΑΓΩΝ AT 300-499". Tome B: AT 400-499. Athens, Greece: ΚΕΝΤΡΟ ΝΕΟΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΕΡΕΥΝΩΝ Ε.Ι.Ε. 1999. p. 781.
19. Abry, Christian. “Sur les traces des sentiers des âmes dans les outre-monts: in memoriam Gaston Tuaillon”. In: Nouvelles du Centre d’Etudes Francoprovençales. Saint-Nicolas (Aoste, Italie), vol. 64, 2011. p. 62.
20. Bierhorst, John. Latin American folktales: stories from Hispanic and Indian traditions. Pantheon. 2002. pp. 240-245, 352-353.
21. Eberhard, Wolfram; Boratav, Pertev Nailî. Typen türkischer Volksmärchen. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1953. pp. 118-121.
22. Neuman . Dov . Review of Typen Tuerkischer Volksmaerchen . Midwest Folklore . 1954 . 4 . 4 . 254–259 . 4317494 .
23. Delarue . Paul . Review of Typen türkischer Volksmärchen, (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Veröffentlichungen der orientalischen Kommission, Band V) . Arts et Traditions Populaires . 1954 . 2 . 2 . 176–181 . 41002386 .
24. Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 23.
25. Megas, Georgios A. Das Märchen von Amor und Psyche in der griechischen Volksüberlieferung. Πραγματειαι της Ακαδημιας Αθηνων, Volume 30. Athens: Grapheion Dēmosieumatōn tēs Akadēmias Athēnōn, 1971. p. 185.
26. Die Silberpappel mit den goldenen Früchten und andere türkische Volksmärchen erstmals übersetzt von Otto Spies. Textbearbeitung von Manfred Hesse. Wiesbaden: B. Heymann Verlag, 1976. p. 113.