Fairy Tales from Many Lands is a book written and illustrated by Katharine Pyle (1863-1938), in this case, misspelled as Katherine Pyle, the younger sister of legendary Howard Pyle (1853-1911), often called the father of American illustration.
Katharine was very productive as an author (poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction), editor, and illustrator, producing about 50 books in her lifetime. She also worked for magazines, portrayed local people, and even wrote a play. She was also an avid promoter of social reforms, especially in the field of children's rights, yet her legacy mainly lies in her illustrations. With this book, I try to present at least a bit of her work to a wider audience. It's actually a very sad fact how little is known of this exceptional lady from Delaware, USA.
Here are the fairy tales:
The Seven Golden Peahens
(Serbian)
Once upon a time, there was a king who had a tree with golden apples. But as soon they have ripened, they disappeared. Guards couldn't spot the thief, so his three sons offered to guard the tree. The eldest and the middle brother fell asleep, but both reported hearing some flapping just before they lost their focus. So the youngest put some cotton in his ears and saw seven peahens stealing from the tree. One of them changes into a beautiful princess and he started talking to her. They became friends and she left him three apples.
The king was delighted with the apples but didn't believe the story. The youngest son repeated his watch and his family still didn't believe. They wanted proof - a few feathers from the peahen. When he stole the feathers the princess declared they will never see her again unless he goes over seven hills and seven seas. So he goes.
He finds the castle where the enchanted princesses lived and wanted to meet the youngest. But the queen arranged he falls asleep just before she flies back to the castle. He discovered her plot soon enough to meet the princess and they marry. But after a while, she has to leave the castle for three days. She told him not to go to the third cellar.
Of course, he goes to the third cellar, discovers an imprisoned dragon who begs for water, gives him water and the dragon escapes kidnapping his wife who was just getting back. So the prince goes on another voyage to find his love again. On his way, he helps a fish, a fox, and a wolf, and all of them promise to help when he will need it.
Then he finds a dragon's castle and steals the princess while the master was not at home. Unfortunately, the dragon had an exceptional horse who caught the runaways. The dragon didn't kill the princess because the prince gave him water when the dragon was imprisoned but warned him this is his final warning. But the prince goes to the castle with the stolen princess again. Instead of running away, he suggests the princess find if there is another horse able to compete with the dragon's and she really finds out.
This horse had a brother who was at the witch and the prince goes there to earn the horse. It was a dangerous task but with the help of the fish, the fox, and the wolf he manages to get a horse. Then he goes to his wife once again and they ran away. The dragon is able to get very close to the runaways but the prince's horse convinces his brother to throw the dragon from the saddle, the dragon dies and the prince and the princess live happily ever after.
As we can see this fairy tale combines many well-known elements from different fairy tales: the beginning is almost the same as in The Golden Bird by the Brothers Grimm, the part with the sleep where he should meet the princess is similar to the Brother and Sister, also by Grimms, the forbidden cellar is like the forbidden room in Bluebeard by Charles Perrault, the episode with the imprisoned dragon like the Iron John (Iron Hans) by Grimms and the escape from dragon's castle-like Marya Morevna by Afanasyev.
Mishosha, The Magician
(Native Americans)
The story starts with a husband, wife, and two boys, their kids. The wife has a lover and every time the husband goes hunting, she sends the kids to play outside so her lover can visit her. One day the husband returns sooner than expected and sees her with a lover. He throws the food and the arms in front of the door and leaves.
When she sees the stuff in front of the door she guesses her affair is disclosed and is afraid of her husband's return. So she leaves home with her lover and forgets about the kids. Boys later discover they are abandoned and the older starts taking care of food for both. The younger is mischievous. One day he shoots arrows in the lake and the older tries to rescue them. When he is in the water, Mishosha comes by with his magic boat.
Mishosha kidnaps the boy, leaving the younger one on the coast. The kidnapped boy is transported to the island in the lake where he finds two young girls. One of them helps him with some information. He learns how to get back home with a magic canoe by night so he can give his sleeping brother some food and arms. But he returns to the island because he is too afraid of the magician and he fears Mishosha might punish the girls.
Soon he finds out the powers of Mishosha are limited. He is afraid of the storm, for instance. But he is still too strong for the boy. One day Mishosha takes him to the island of gulls and tries to sacrifice him. But the boy's guardian rescues him. Then Mishosha tries to sacrifice the boy on the island of fish but the boy is saved again. On the island of the eagles the same story.
Then Mishosha decides to kill the boy in cold weather. He takes the boy to the forest, destroys one of his shoes, and with his magic causes snow. The boy's guardian protects the kid again. Bit by bit the balance of powers changes. In the end, the boy arranges for the magician freezes to death, rescues his little brother, and starts living with both girls on the island. They grow up, marry and have children on their own. The magic canoe still works for them.
Haamdaanee and the wise gazelle
(Zanzibar)
Haamdaanee was so poor he was dressed in rugs and ate what he found in the trash or others gave away. One day he found a coin. He decided to spend it on something lasting longer than a meal. Soon after he met a merchant with gazelles. He bought the smallest and weakest one because he had only one coin. But this was not an ordinary gazelle. She was able to talk and suggested she should find food for herself. After a while, she found a huge diamond in the forest.
The gazelle was smart. She knew a poor man like Haamdaanee would get only into trouble with such a diamond. So she decided to travel to the city where the king was just looking for a husband for his only daughter. The gazelle lied the diamond was sent by her master, who is a prince, and that he had a huge fortune. The king wanted to meet the prince.
When gazelle arrived back home, Haamdaanee became worried. But the gazelle made a plan. They stopped at the river close to the kingdom with a princess waiting for him. Haamdaanee threw away his rugs hit himself a few times and gazelle ran to the castle to tell he was robbed and his servant kidnapped. The king sent precious clothes to the false prince, the princess was happy to see him and soon they married.
After a while, the princess asked when will they leave her home and move to his, which should be much more luxurious. The gazelle went to another city where all the houses were empty. Only in the castle lived an old woman who told the gazelle a huge snake ate everybody and left her only for cooking the snake's victims. But the gazelle found a special sward on the wall and with the help of the woman tricked the snake on her return to the castle. The gazelle killed the snake and gained a castle with a whole town to her master Haamdaanee. They all live happily ever after.
This fairy tale is obviously very similar to the Puss in Boots.
Here are the major points:
- the gazelle, just like the cat gives a precious gift to the king and lies it comes from her master who is very wealthy,
- when the meeting with the poor boy is inevitable the gazelle and the cat convinced the king about the robbery, so the king gives the clothes of wealthy people to the poor man,
- the final test is the poor boy's property which is in both cases acquired from the mighty yet pretty naive master (shapeshifting ogre in one and a man-eating snake in another tale).
Two Sisters
Once upon a time there lived rajah who had two beautiful daughters. His wife and their mother died, so he remarried. The new ranee was very mean to the girls, so they ran out to the jungle. There they found a splendid palace that belonged to rakshas (maneaters) but the place was empty at the moment. The girls entered and hid before the rakshas returned. The younger, Balna, saw an opportunity when the owners of the castle got back and leaned over the well to quench their thirst. She pushed them and they both died in the well.
Then they lived in the palace for some time. Balna took care of the flocks and herds, taking them to pasture and the older stayed at home, cooking and cleaning.
One day, when Balna was away, a prince came to the door of the palace, forced the elder sister to open it, and seeing her beauty decided to kidnap her and marry her. She had a necklace of pink pearls and dropping one by one on the way to his castle, marked the way for her younger sister. Balna really found pearls and by the way, also a body of an old woman with dried and wrinkled skin she used to mask herself into an old lady.
Disguised she came to the palace where the trace of pearls stopped and found a place to stay at the rajah's gardener. By day she looked like an old lad, but by night she bathed in the pool in the garden, decorating herself with lotus flowers and playing with a necklace that she strung again. Rajah soon found out somebody is destroying his lotus flowers and his younger son, the brother of the prince who married Balna's sister, decided to watch in the garden through the night.
He instantly fell in love and insisted he married her despite the fact everybody else believed she is an old woman. Balna also wanted to stay hidden in the old skin hoping he will get tired of her and leave her alone to continue her search for the sister. One night the prince pretended to sleep until she took the skin off and threw it into the fire. Then she finally told him the story about her sister, he led her to the palace of his older brother and the sisters were both united again.
While this story looks pretty original at first sight, we can easily find several elements of more known fairy tales:
- a remarried father and a wicked stepmother who causes his kids to run away and are exposed to unknown dangers in the wood (Snow White, Hansel, and Gretel),
- unequal fight with monsters, resulting in lovely profit for the seemingly weaker kids (Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk),
- pretending to be mute, protecting a sibling (Seven Ravens),
- pretending to be somebody else to protect oneself (Bearskin, Beauty and the Beast),
- destroying one's second skin to force him or her to show the true identity (Frog Princess),
- a reunion of siblings after a long search (Seven Ravens, Wishing Table).
To be continued ...
