| Folk Tale Name: | Donkey Cabbages |
| Aarne-Thompson Grouping: | ATU 567 (The Magical Bird-Heart) |
| Country: | Germany |
| Published In: | Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the Brothers Grimm |
| Related: |
"Donkey Cabbages" (or "The Donkey Cabbage"; German: Der Krautesel) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 122. A man shoots birds in a forest and gains magical objects. By also ingesting the heart of one of the birds he shot, he acquires an inexhaustible source of wealth. Later on, his magical abilities and items are stolen by a trio of witches, but he regains everything thanks to a magical herb that causes one to transform into a donkey.
A huntsman gave an old woman alms. She told him to go to a tree where nine birds fought for a cloak. If he shot among them, one would die and they would drop the cloak that turned out to be a wishing cloak. Furthermore, if he swallowed the heart of the dead bird, he would find a gold coin by his pillow every morning.
He went out into the world and came to a castle where an old witch lived with her beautiful daughter. The witch knew about the bird's heart and told her daughter what she must do to steal it. She gave the huntsman a drink and the bird's heart came up. The daughter swallowed it herself. Then the witch told her that she had to steal the wishing cloak as well and how to do it. The daughter looked at the Garnet Mountain and told the huntsman that she wished she were there. He took her under the cloak and wished them both there. The huntsman slept there and she stole the cloak and wished herself back home.
Three giants saw the huntsman and talked of killing him, but the third said that a cloud would carry him away. He climbed up the mountain and rode off on a cloud. It took him to a cabbage garden. He was so hungry that he ate some and it turned him into a donkey. The huntsman went on and found a different patch of cabbage which turned him back into a human. He took both kinds of vegetables and went back to the castle. The huntsman told the old witch that he was a royal messenger sent to fetch the finest vegetables for the king, but he was afraid that the heat would make it wither. The old witch asked for some. He gave it to her and she, her maidservant, and the daughter all ate the cooked vegetables and became donkeys. The huntsman sold them to a miller, telling him to give the old one (the witch) one meal a day and three beatings, the younger one (the maidservant) three meals and two beatings, and the youngest (the witch's daughter) three meals and one beating.
After a time, he came back to the miller to see how the donkeys were doing. The miller told him that the oldest donkey was dead, but the two younger donkeys were so sad he thought they would die. The huntsman bought them back and turned them back into women. The old witch's daughter told him where the cloak was and said she would give him back the heart as it had been stolen, but he said it would make no difference, if they wed, so they married shortly afterwards.
The tale is analysed as part of a series of folk stories connected to the Fortunatus cycle:[1] a soldier is gifted magical items by a fairy (or an old lady, or the goddess of Fortune) but the items are stolen by someone else (a witch, a king, a princess, etc.). With the help of a strange fruit or herb with magical properties, the hero recovers the items. In some variants, the hero eventually marries the thief (if female) or the thief's daughter. These tales are classified in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index as ATU 566, "The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits".[2]
British traveller Rachel Harriette Busk collected a variant from Rome: The Transformation Donkey.[3]
The beginning of the tale sometimes involves male twins or a pair of brothers that eat the bird's head and heart (or liver, or breast), unaware of its magical properties. One such variant was collected by Hans Stumme, in North Africa (Die Geschichte von den beiden Knaben, die das Herz und den Kopf des Vogels gegessen hatten, und von der Rhalia Bint Manssor).[4] [5]
Variants of the story differ in the kind of vegetable or herb that is ingested, and the sort of physical transformation, mostly into animals. For instance, in a Czechoslovak tale, collected by Parker Fillmore, the protagonist finds a sorrel and is transformed into a goat.[6]
The Brothers Grimm collected a previous version titled Die lange Nase, with many similarities to this tale.[7]
Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.[8]
The tale was also translated as The Salad and published in Grimm's Goblins: Grimm's Household Stories, by Edgar Taylor.[9]
Ruth Manning-Sanders included it, as "The Donkey Lettuce", in A Book of Witches.