The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird
The foster mother (doe) looks after the wonder-children.
Folk tale
Name	The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird
Data
Aarne–Thompson grouping	ATU 707 (The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird; The Bird of Truth, or The Three Golden Children, or The Three Golden Sons)
Region	Eurasia, Worldwide
Related	Ancilotto, King of Provino; Princess Belle-Étoile and Prince Chéri; The Tale of Tsar Saltan; The Boys with the Golden Stars

The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird is a Sicilian fairy tale collected by Giuseppe Pitrè, and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane for his Italian Popular Tales. Joseph Jacobs included a reconstruction of the story in his European Folk and Fairy Tales. The original title is "Li Figghi di lu Cavuliciddaru", for which Crane gives a literal translation of "The Herb-gatherer's Daughters."

The story is the prototypical example of Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale-type 707, to which it gives its name. Alternate names for the tale type are The Three Golden Sons, The Three Golden Children, The Bird of Truth, Portuguese: Os meninos com uma estrelinha na testa, lit. 'The boys with little stars on their foreheads', Russian: Чудесные дети, romanized: Chudesnyye deti, lit. 'The Wonderful or Miraculous Children', or Hungarian: Az aranyhajú ikrek, lit. 'The Golden-Haired Twins'.

According to folklorist Stith Thompson, the tale is "one of the eight or ten best known plots in the world".

Synopsis

Note: the following is a summary of the tale as it was collected by Giuseppe Pitrè and translated by Thomas Frederick Crane.

A king walking the streets heard three poor sisters talk. The oldest said that if she married the royal butler, she would give the entire court a drink out of one glass, with water left over. The second said that if she married the keeper of the royal wardrobe, she would dress the entire court in one piece of cloth, and have some left over. The youngest said that if she married the king, she would bear two sons with apples in their hands, and a daughter with a star on her forehead.

The next morning, the king ordered the older two sisters to do as they said, and then married them to the butler and the keeper of the royal wardrobe, and the youngest to himself. The queen became pregnant, and the king had to go to war, leaving behind news that he was to hear of the birth of his children. The queen gave birth to the children she had promised, but her sisters, jealous, put three puppies in their place, sent word to the king, and handed over the children to be abandoned. The king ordered that his wife be put in a treadwheel crane.

Three fairies saw the abandoned children and gave them a deer to nurse them, a purse full of money, and a ring that changed color when misfortune befell one of them. When they were grown, they left for the city and took a house.

Their aunts saw them and were terror-struck. They sent their nurse to visit the daughter and tell her that the house needed the Dancing Water to be perfect and her brothers should get it for her. The oldest son left and found three hermits in turn. The first two could not help him, but the third told him how to retrieve the Dancing Water, and he brought it back to the house. On seeing it, the aunts sent their nurse to tell the girl that the house needed the Singing Apple as well, but the brother got it, as he had the Dancing Water. The third time, they sent him after the Speaking Bird, but as one of the conditions was that he not respond to the bird, and it told him that his aunts were trying to kill him and his mother was in the treadmill, it shocked him into speech, and he was turned to stone. The ring changed colors. His brother came after him, but suffered the same fate. Their sister came after them both, said nothing, and transformed her brother and many other statues back to life.

They returned home, and the king saw them and thought that if he did not know his wife had given birth to three puppies, he would think these his children. They invited him to dinner, and the Speaking Bird told the king all that had happened. The king executed the aunts and their nurse and took his wife and children back to the palace.

Overview

The following summary was based on Joseph Jacobs's tale reconstruction in his Europa's Fairy Book, on the general analyses made by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion, and on the description of the tale-type in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index classification of folk and fairy tales. This type follows an almost fixed structure, with very similar characteristics, regardless of their geographic distribution:

The king passes by a house or other place where three sisters are gossiping or talking, and the youngest says, if the king married her, she would bear him "wondrous children" (their peculiar appearances tend to vary, but they are usually connected with astronomical motifs on some part of their bodies, such as the Sun, the moon or stars). The king overhears their talk and marries the youngest sister, to the envy of the older ones or to the chagrin of the grandmother. As such, the jealous relatives deprive the mother of her newborn children (in some tales, twins or triplets, or three consecutive births, but the boy is usually the firstborn, and the girl is the youngest), either by replacing the children with animals or accusing the mother of having devoured them. Their mother is banished from the kingdom or severely punished (imprisoned in the dungeon or in a cage; walled in; buried up to the torso). Meanwhile, the children are either hidden by a servant of the castle (gardener, cook, butcher) or cast into the water, but they are found and brought up at a distance from the father's home by a childless foster family (fisherman, miller, etc.).

Years later, after they reach a certain age, a magical helper (a fairy, or the Virgin Mary in more religious variants) gives them means to survive in the world. Soon enough, the children move next to the palace where the king lives, and either the aunts, or grandmother realize their nephews/grandchildren are alive and send the midwife (or a maid; a witch; a slave) or disguise themselves to tell the sister that her house needs some marvellous items, and incite the girl to convince her brother(s) to embark on the (perilous) quest. The items also tend to vary, but in many versions there are three treasures: (1) water, or some water source (e.g., spring, fountain, sea, stream) with fantastic properties (e.g., a golden fountain, or a rejuvenating liquid); (2) a magical tree (or branch, or bough, or flower, or a fruit – usually apples) with strange powers (e.g., makes music or sings); and (3) a wondrous bird that can tell the truth, knows many languages and/or turns people to stone.

The brother(s) set(s) off on his (their) journey, but give(s) a token to the sister so she knows the brother(s) is(are) alive. Eventually, the brothers meet a character (a sage, an ogre, etc.) that warns them not to listen to the bird, otherwise he will be petrified (or turned to salt, or to marble pillars). The first brother fails the quest, and so does the next one. The sister, seeing that the tokens changed colour, realizes her siblings are in danger and departs to finish the quest for the wonderful items and rescue her brother(s).

Afterwards, either the siblings invite the king or the king invites the brothers and their sister for a feast in the palace. As per the bird's instructions, the siblings display their etiquette during the meal (in some versions, they make a suggestion to invite the disgraced queen; in others, they give their poisoned meal to some dogs). Then, the bird reveals the whole truth, the children are reunited with their parents, and the jealous relatives are punished.

Variations

While the formula is almost followed to the letter, some variations occur in the second part of the story (the quest for the magical items), and even in the conclusion of the tale:

The Brother Quests for a Bride

In some tales, when the sister is lured by the antagonist's agent, she is told to look for the belongings (mirror, flower, handkerchief) of a woman of unearthly beauty or a fairy. Such variants occur in Albania, as in the tales collected by J. G. Von Hahn in his Griechische und Albanische Märchen (Leipzig, 1864), in the village of Zagori in Epirus, and by Auguste Dozon in Contes Albanais (Paris, 1881). These stories substitute the quest for the items for the search for a fairy named E Bukura e Dheut ("Beauty of the Land"), a woman of extraordinary beauty and magical powers. One such tale is present in Robert Elsie's collection of Albanian folktales (Albania's Folktales and Legends): The Youth and the Maiden with Stars on their Foreheads and Crescents on their Breasts.

Another version of the story is The Tale of Arab-Zandyq, in which the brother is the hero who gathers the wonderful objects (a magical flower and a mirror) and their owner (Arab-Zandyq), whom he later marries. Arab-Zandyq replaces the bird and, as such, tells the whole truth during her wedding banquet.

In a specific Armenian variant, called The Twins, the last quest for the brother is to find the daughter of an Indian king and bring her to his king's palace. In this version, it is a king who overhears the sisters' nightly conversation in his search for a wife for his son. At the end, the brother marries the foreign princess and his sister reveals the truth to the court.

This conclusion also happens in an Indian variant, called The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead, from Bengali. In this tale, the seventh queen begets the wonder-children (fraternal twins, a girl and a boy); the antagonists are the other six queens, who, overcome with jealousy, trick the new queen with puppies and expose the children. When they both grow up, the jealous queens set the siblings on a quest for a kataki flower, with the brother rescuing Lady Pushpavati from Rakshasas. Lady Pushpavati marries the titular "boy with the moon on his forehead" and reveals to the King her mother-in-law's ordeal and the deceit of the King's co-wives.

In an extended version from a Breton source, called L'Oiseau de Vérité, the youngest triplet, a king's son, listens to the helper (an old woman), who reveals herself to be a princess enchanted by her godmother. In a surprise appearance by said godmother, she prophecises her goddaughter shall marry the hero of the tale (the youngest prince), after a war with another country.

The Sister marries a Prince

In an Icelandic variant collected by Jón Árnason and translated in his book Icelandic Legends (1866), with the name Bóndadæturnar (The Story of the Farmer's Three Daughters, or its German translation, Die Bauerntöchter), the quest focus on the search for the bird and omits the other two items. The end is very much the same, with the nameless sister rescuing her brothers Vilhjámr and Sigurdr and a prince from the petrification spell and later marrying him.

Another variant where this happy ending occurs is Princesse Belle-Étoile et Prince Chéri, by Mme. D'Aulnoy, where the heroine rescues her cousin, Prince Chéri, and marries him. Another French variant, collected by Henry Carnoy (L'Arbre qui chante, l'Oiseau qui parle et l'Eau d'or, or "The tree that sings, the bird that speaks and the water of gold"), has the youngest daughter, the princess, marry an enchanted old man she meets in her journey and who gives her advice on how to obtain the items.

In a tale collected in Carinthia (Kärnten), Austria (Die schwarzen und die weißen Steine, or "The black and white stones"), the three siblings climb a mountain or slope, but the brothers listen to the sounds of the mountain and are petrified. Their sister arrives at a field of white and black stones and, after a bird gives her instructions, sprinkles magic water on the stones, restoring her brothers and many others – among them, a young man, whom she later marries.

In the Armenian variant Théodore, le Danseur, the brother ventures on a quest for the belongings of the eponymous character and, at the conclusion of the tale, this fabled male dancer marries the sister.

In The Three Little Birds, a folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm, in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM nr. 96), instructed by an old woman fishing, the sister strikes a black dog and it transforms into a prince, with whom she marries as the truth settles among the family.

A similar conclusion happens in the commedia dell'arte The Green Bird, where the brother undergoes the quest for the items, and the titular green bird is a cursed prince, who, after being released from its avian form, marries the sister.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan

Some versions of the tale have the mother being cast out with the babies into the sea in a box, after the king is tricked into thinking his wife did not deliver her promised wonder children. The box eventually washes ashore on the beaches of an island or another country. There, the child (or children) magically grows up in hours or days and builds an enchanted castle or house that attracts the attention of the common folk (or merchants, or travellers). Word reaches the ears of the despondent king, who hears about the mysterious owners of such fantastic abode, who just happen to look like the children he would have had.

Russian tale collections attest to the presence of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore, as the antagonist in many of the stories.

In some variants, the castaway boy sets a trap to rescue his brothers and release them from a transformation curse. For example, in Nád Péter ("Schilf-Peter"), a Hungarian variant, when the hero of the tale sees a flock of eleven swans flying, he recognizes them as their brothers, who have been transformed into birds due to divine intervention by Christ and St. Peter.

In another format, the boy asks his mother to prepare a meal with her "breast milk" and prepares to invade his brothers' residence to confirm if they are indeed his siblings. This plot happens in a Finnish variant, from Ingermanland, collected in Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen (Bruder und Schwester und die goldlockigen Königssöhne, or "Brother and Sister, and the golden-haired sons of the King"). The mother gives birth to six sons with special traits who are sold to a devil by the old midwife. Some time later, their youngest brother enters the devil's residence and succeeds in rescuing his siblings.

The Boys With The Golden Stars

The motif of a woman's babies, born with wonderful attributes after she claimed she could bear such children, but stolen from her, is a common fairy tale motif. In this plot-type, an evil stepmother (or grandmother, or gypsy, or slave, or maid) kills the babies, but the twins go through a resurrective reincarnation: from trees to animals and finally into humans babies again. This transformation chase where the stepmother is unable to prevent the children's reappearance is unusual, although it appears in "A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers" and in "The Count's Evil Mother", a Croatian tale from the Karlovac area.

Most versions of The Boys With Golden Stars begin with the birth of male twins, but very rarely there are fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. When they transform into human babies again, the siblings grow up at an impossibly fast rate and hide their supernatural trait under a hood or a cap. Soon after, they show up in their father's court or house to reveal the truth through a riddle or through a ballad.

This tale's format happens in many variants collected in the Balkan area, specially in Romenia, as it can be seen in The Boys with the Golden Stars (Romanian: Doi feți cu stea în frunte) collected in Rumänische Märchen, which Andrew Lang included in his The Violet Fairy Book.

The format of the story The Boys With The Golden Stars seems to concentrate around Eastern Europe: in Romenia; a version in Belarus; in Serbia; in the Bukovina region; in Croatia; Bosnia, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Alternate Source for the Truth to the King (Father)

In a Kaba'il version from Northern Algeria (Les enfants et la chauve-souris), the bird is replaced by a bat, who helps the abandoned children when their father takes them back and his second wife prepares them a poisoned meal. The bat recommends the siblings to give their meal to animals, in order to prove it's poisoned and to reveal the treachery of the second wife.

In a specific folktale from Egypt, El-Schater Mouhammed, the Brother is the hero of the story, but the last item of the quest (the bird) is replaced by "a baby or infant who can speak eloquently", as an impossible MacGuffin. The fairy (or mystical woman) he sought before gives both siblings instructions to summon the being in front of the king, during a banquet.

In many widespread variants, the bird is replaced by a fairy or magical woman the Brother seeks after as part of the impossible tasks set by his aunts, and whom he later marries (The Brother Quests for a Bride format).

Very rarely, it is one of the children themselves that reveal the aunts' treachery to their father, as seen in the Armenian variants The Twins and Theodore, le Danseur. In a specific Persian version, from Kamani, the Prince (King's son) investigates the mystery of the twins and questions the midwife who helped in the delivery of his children.

Distribution

According to Joseph Jacobs's Europa's Fairy Book, the tale format is widespread throughout Europe and Asia (Middle East and India). Portuguese writer, playwright and literary critic Teófilo Braga, in his Contos Tradicionaes do Povo Portuguez, confirms the wide area of presence of the tale, specially in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and in Russian and Slavic sources.

The tale can also be found across Brazil, Syria, "White Russia, The Caucasus, Egypt, Arabia".

Possible point of origin

Mythologist Thomas Keightley, in his 1834 book Tales and Popular Fictions, suggested the transmission of the tale from a genuine Persian source, based on his own comparison between Straparola's literary version and the one from The Arabian Nights ("The Sisters envious of their Cadette").

Another theory is that the Middle East is the possible point of origin or dispersal, due to the great popularity of the tale in the Arab world.

On the other hand, Joseph Jacobs, in his notes on Europa's Fairy Book, proposed a European provenance, based on the oldest extant version registered in literature (Ancilotto, King of Provino).

W. A. Clouston claimed that the ultimate origin of the tale was a Buddhist tale of Nepal, written in Sanskrit, about King Brahmadatta and peasant Padmavatí who gives birth to twins. However, the king's other wives cast the twins in the river.

Waldemar Liungman has suggested that this tale has an even earlier point of origin, with a possible source in Hellenistic times.

It has been suggested by Russian scholars that the first part of the tale (the promises of the three sisters and the substitution of babies for animals/objects) may find parallels in stories of the indigenous populations of the Americas.

Scholar Linda Dégh put forth a theory of a common origin for tale types ATU 403 ("The Black and the White Bride"), ATU 408 ("The Three Oranges"), ATU 425 ("The Search for the Lost Husband"), ATU 706 ("The Maiden Without Hands") and ATU 707 ("The Three Golden Sons"), since "their variants cross each other constantly and because their blendings are more common than their keeping to their separate type outlines" and even influence each other.

Earliest literary sources

The first attestation of the tale is possibly Ancilotto, King of Provino, an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550–1555). A fellow Italian scholar, bishop Pompeo Sarnelli (anagrammatised into nom de plume Marsillo Reppone), wrote down his own version of the story, in Posilecheata (1684), preserving the Neapolitan accent in the books' pages: La 'ngannatora 'ngannata, or L'ingannatora ingannata ("The deceiver deceived").

Spanish scholars suggest that the tale can be found in Iberia's literary tradition of the late 15th and early 16th centuries: Lope de Vega's commedia La corona de Hungría y la injusta venganza contains similarities with the structure of the tale, suggesting that the Spanish playwright may have been inspired by the story, since the tale is present in Spanish oral tradition. In the same vein, Menéndez Y Pelayo writes in his literary treatise Orígenes de la Novela that an early version exists in Contos e Histórias de Proveito & Exemplo, published in Lisbon in 1575,

Two ancient French literary versions exist: Princesse Belle-Étoile et Prince Chéri, by Mme. D'Aulnoy (of Contes de Fées fame), in 1698, and L'Oiseau de Vérité ("The Bird of Truth"), penned by French author Eustache Le Noble, in his collection La Gage touché (1700).

Europe

Italy

Italy seems to concentrate a great number of variants, from Sicily to the Alps. Henry Charles Coote proposed an Eastern origin for the tale, which later migrated to Italy and was integrated into the Italian oral tradition.

Italian folklorist of Sicilian origin, Giuseppe Pitrè collected at least five variants in his book Fiabe Novelle e Racconti Popolari Siciliani, Vol. 1 (1875). Pitrè also comments on the presence of the tale in Italian scholarly literature of his time. His work continued in the supplement publication of Curiosità popolari tradizionali, which recorded a variant from Ciociaria (Le tre figli); and a variant from Sardinia (Is tres sorris; English: "The three sisters").

An Italian variant named El canto e 'l sono della Sara Sybilla ("The Sing-Song of Sybilla Sara"), replaces the magical items for an indescribable MacGuffin, obtained from a supernatural old woman. The strange object also reveals the whole plot at the end of the tale. Vittorio Imbriani, who collected the previous version, also gathers three more in the same book La Novellaja Fiorentina: L'Uccellino, che parla; L'Uccel Bel-Verde and I figlioli della campagnola. Gherardo Nerucci, a fellow Italian scholar, has recorded El canto e 'l sono della Sara Sybilla and I figlioli della campagnola, in his Sessanta novelle popolari montalesi: circondario di Pistoia The story of "Sara Sybilla" has been translated to English as The Sound and Song of the Lovely Sibyl, with a source in Tuscany, but differing from the original in that it reinserts the bird as the truth-teller to the King.

Vittorio Imbriani also compiles a Milanese version (La regina in del desert), which he acknowledges as a sister story to that of Sarnelli's and Straparola's.

Fellow folklorist Laura Gonzenbach, from Switzerland, translated a Sicilian variant into the German language: Die verstossene Königin und ihre beiden ausgesetzten Kinder (The banished queen and her two children).

Domenico Comparetti collected a variant named Le tre sorelle ("The Three Sisters"), from Monferrato and L'Uccellino che parla ("The speaking bird"), a version from Pisa – both in Novelline popolari italiane.

Gennaro Finamore collected a version from Abruzzo, in Italy, named Lu fatte de le tré ssurèlle, with references to Gonzenbach, Pitrè, Comparetti and Imbriani.

In a fable from Mantua (La fanciulla coraggiosa, or "The brave girl"), the story of the siblings's mother and aunts and the climax at the banquet are skipped altogether. The tale is restricted to a quest for the water-tree-bird to embellish their garden.

Angelo de Gubernatis lists two variants from Santo Stefano di Calcinaia: I cagnolini and Il Re di Napoli, and an unpublished, nameless version collected in Tuscany, near the source of the Tiber river.

Carolina Coronedi-Berti collected a variant from Bologna called La fola del trèi surèl ("The tale of the three sisters"), with annotations to similar tales in other compilations of that time. Ms. Coronedi-Berti mentioned two Pemontese versions, written down by Antonio Arietti: I tre fradej alla steila d'ör and Storia dël merlo bianc, dla funtana d'argent e dël erbolin che souna. Coronedi-Berti also referenced two Venetian variants collected by Domenico Giuseppe Bernoni: El pesse can, where the peasant woman promises twins born with special traits, and Sipro, Candia e Morea, where the three siblings (one male, two female) are exposed by the evil maestra of the witch princess.

Christian Schneller collected a variant from Wälschtirol (Trentino), named Die drei Schönheiten der Welt (Italian: "La tre belleze del mondo"; English: "The three beauties of the world"), and another variant in his notes to the tale.

Stanislao Prato collected a version from Livorno, titled Le tre ragazze (English: "The three girls"), and compared it to other variants from Italy: L'albero dell'uccello que parla, L'acqua brillante e l'uccello Belverde, L'acqua que suona, l'acqua que balla e l'uccello Belverde que canta and L'Uccello Belverde from Spoleto; Le tre sorelle, from Polino; and L'albero que canta, l'acqua d'oro e l'uccello que parla, from Norcia.

British lawyer Henry Charles Coote translated a version collected in Basilicata, titled The Three Sisters, where the magical objects are "the yellow water, the singing bird and the tree that makes sounds like music", and the bird transforms into a fairy who reveals the truth to the king.

The "Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi" ("Central Institute of Sound and Audiovisual Heritage") promoted research and registration throughout the Italian territory between the years 1968–1969 and 1972. In 1975 the Institute published a catalog edited by Alberto Maria Cirese and Liliana Serafini including 55 variants of the ATU 707 type.

A singular tale, attributed to Italian provenance, but showing heavy Eastern inspiration (locations such as the Yellow River or the Ganges), shows the quest for "the dancing water, the singing stone and the talking bird".

France

There are many oral variants collected and analysed by folklorists, found, for instance, in Brittany and Lorraine: Les trois filles du boulanger, or L'eau qui danse, le pomme qui chante et l'oiseau de la verité ("The Three Daughters of the Baker, or water that dances, the fruit that sings and the bird of truth"), and Les Deux Fréres et la Soeur ("The Two Brothers and their Sister"), a tale heavily influenced by Christian tradition – both collected by François-Marie Luzel; La mer qui chante, la pomme qui danse et l'oisillon qui dit tout ("The Singing Sea, The Dancing Apple and The Little Bird that tells everything"), recorded by Jean-François Bladé, from Gascony; La branche qui chante, l'oiseau de vérité et l'eau qui rend verdeur de vie ("The singing branch, the bird of truth and the water of youth"), by Henri Pourrat; L'oiseau qui dit tout, a tale from Troyes collected by Louis Morin; a tale from the Ariège region, titled L'Eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau de toutes les vérités ("The dancing water, the singing apple and the bird of all truths"); a variant from Poitou, titled Les trois lingêres, by René-Marie Lacuve; a version from Limousin (La Belle-Étoile), by J. Plantadis; and a version from Sospel, near the Franco-Italian border (L'oiseau qui parle), by James Bruyn Andrews.

Emmanuel Cosquin collected a variant from Lorraine titled L'oiseau de vérité ("The Bird of Truth"), which is the name used by French academia to refer to the tale.

A tale from Haute-Bretagne, collected by Paul Sébillot (Belle-Étoile), is curious in that if differs from the usual plot: the children are still living with their mother, when they, on their own, are spurred on their quest for the marvelous items. Sébillot continued to collect variants from across Bretagne: Les Trois Merveilles ("The Three Wonders"), from Dinan.

A variant from Provence, in France, collected by Henry Carnoy (L'Arbre qui chante, l'Oiseau qui parle et l'Eau d'or, or "The tree that sings, the bird that speaks and the water of gold"), has the youngest daughter, the princess, marry an enchanted old man she meets in her journey and who gives her advice on how to obtain the items.

An extended version, almost novella-length, has been collected from a Breton source and translated into French, by Gabriel Milin and Amable-Emmanuel Troude, called L'Oiseau de Vérité (Breton: Labous ar wirionez). The tale is curious in that, being divided in three parts, the story takes its time to develop the characters of the king's son and the peasant wife, in the first third. In the second part, the wonder-children are male triplets, each with a symbol on his shoulder: a bow, a spearhead and a sword. The character who helps the youngest prince is an enchanted princess, who, according to a prophecy by her godmother, will marry the youngest son (the hero of the tale).

The tale of La mer qui chante, la pomme qui danse et l'oisillon qui dit tout ("The Singing Sea, The Dancing Apple and The Little Bird that tells everything") preserves the motif of the wonder-children, born with chains of gold "between the skin and muscle of their arms", from Dolopathos and the cycle The Knight of Swan.

In French sources, there have been attested 35 versions of the tale (as of the late 20th century).

Iberian Peninsula

There are also variants in Romance languages: a Spanish version called Los siete infantes, where there are seven children with stars on their foreheads, and a Portuguese one, As cunhadas do rei (The King's sisters-in-law). Both replace the fantastical elements with Christian imagery: the devil and the Virgin Mary.

Modern sources, from the late 20th century and early 21st century, confirm the wide area of distribution of tale across Spain, for instance, in Catalonia. Scholar Montserrat Amores has published a catalogue of the variants of ATU 707 that can be found in Spanish sources (1997). A structural analysis of the tale type in Spanish sources has been published in 1930.

In compilations from the 19th century, collector D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros writes four Catalan variants: Los Fills del Rey ("The King's Children"), L'aygua de la vida ("The Water of Life"), Lo castell de irás y no hi veurás and Lo taronjer; Sérgio Hernandez de Soto collected a variant from Extremadura, named El papagayo blanco ("The white parrot"); Juan Menéndez Pidal a version from the Asturias (El pájaro que habla, el árbol que canta y el agua amarilla); Antonio Machado y Alvarez wrote down a tale from Andalusia (El agua amarilla); writer Fernán Caballero collected El pájaro de la verdad ("The Bird of Truth"); Wentworth Webster translated into English a variant in Basque language (The singing tree, the bird which tells the truth, and the water that makes young)

Some versions have been collected in Mallorca, by Antoni Maria Alcover: S'aygo ballant i es canariet parlant ("The dancing water and the talking canary"); Sa flor de jerical i s'aucellet d'or; La Reina Catalineta ("Queen Catalineta"); La bona reina i la mala cunyada ("The good queen and the evil sister-in-law"); S'aucellet de ses set llengos; S'abre de música, sa font d'or i s'aucell qui parla ("Tree of Music, the Fountains of Gold and the Bird that Talks").

A variant in the Algherese dialect of the Catalan language, titled Lo pardal verd ("The Green Sparrow"), was collected in the 20th century.

A variant in verse format has been collected from the Madeira Archipelago. Another version has been collected in the Azores Islands.

The tale El Papagayo Blanco was translated as The White Parrot by writer Elsie Spicer Eells in her book Tales of Enchantment from Spain: a sister and a brother live together, but the sister, spurred by an old lady, sends her brother to meet her whimsical demands (the fountain, the tree and the bird). At the end of the tale, after saving her brother, the sister regrets sending him on that dangerous quest.

British Isles

A singular occurrence of the ATU 707 type is attested in Irish folklore, recorded by Irish folklorist Sean O'Suilleabhain in Folktales of Ireland, under the name The Speckled Bull. In Types of the Irish Folktale (1963), by the same author, he lists a variant titled Uisce an Óir, Crann an Cheoil agus Éan na Scéalaíochta.

Greece and Mediterranean Area

Greece

Fairy tale scholars point that at least 265 Greek versions have been collected and analysed by Angéloupoulou and Brouskou.

Scholar and writer Teófilo Braga points that a Greek literary version ("Τ' αθάνατο νερό"; English: "The immortal water") has been written by Greek expatriate Georgios Eulampios (K. Ewlampios), in his book Ὁ Ἀμάραντος (German: Amarant, oder die Rosen des wiedergebornen Hellas; English: "Amaranth, or the roses of a reborn Greece") (1843).

Some versions have been analysed by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion (five variants), and by W. A. Clouston in his Variants and analogues of the tales in Vol. III of Sir R. F. Burton's Supplemental Arabian Nights (1887) (two variants), as an appendix to Sir Richard Burton's translation of The One Thousand and One Nights.

Two Greek variants alternate between twin children (boy and girl) and triplets (two boys and one girl). Nonetheless, the tale's formula is followed to the letter: the wish for the wonder-children, the jealous relatives, the substitution for animals, exposing the children, the quest for the magical items and liberation of the mother.

In keeping with the variations in the tale type, a tale from Athens shows an abridged form of the story: it keeps the promises of the three sisters, the birth of the children with special traits (golden hair, golden ankle and a star on forehead), and the grandmother's pettiness, but it skips the quest for the items altogether and jumps directly from a casual encounter with the king during a hunt to the unveiling of truth during the king's banquet. A similar tale, The Three Heavenly Children, attests the consecutive births of three brothers (sun, moon and firmament) and the king overhearing his own sons narrating each other the story in their foster father's hut.

Albania

Albanian variants can be found in the works of many folklorists of the 19th and 20th centuries: a variant collected in the village of Zagori in Epirus, by J. G. Von Hahn in his Griechische und Albanische Märchen (Leipzig, 1864), and analysed by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion; Auguste Dozons's Contes Albanais (Paris, 1881) (Tale II: Les Soeurs Jaleuses, or "The Envious Sisters"); André Mazon's study on Balkan folklore, with Les Trois Soeurs; linguist August Leskien in his book of Balkan folktales (Die neidischen Schwestern) and Robert Elsie, German scholar of Albanian studies, in his book Albanian Folktales and Legends (The youth and the maiden with stars on their foreheads and crescents on their breasts).

Malta

A Maltese variant has been collected by Hans Stumme, under the name Sonne und Mond, in Maltesische Märchen (1904). This tale begins with the ATU 707 (twins born with astronomical motifs/aspects), but the story continues under the ATU 706 tale-type (The Maiden without hands): mother has her hands chopped off and abandoned with her children in the forest. A second Maltese variant was collected by researcher Bertha Ilg-Kössler, titled Sonne und Mond, das tanzende Wasser und der singende Vogel.

Germany, Western and Central Europe

Portuguese folklorist Teófilo Braga, in his annotations, comments that the tale can be found in many Germanic sources, mostly in the works of contemporary folklorists and tale collectors: The Three Little Birds (De drei Vügelkens), by the Brothers Grimm in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (number 96); Springendes Wasser, sprechender Vogel, singender Baum ("Leaping Water, Speaking Bird and Singing Tree"), written down by Heinrich Pröhle in Kinder- und Völksmärchen, Die Drei Königskinder, by Johann Wilhelm Wolf (1845); Der Prinz mit den 7 Sternen ("The Prince with 7 stars"), collected in Waldeck by Louis Curtze, Drei Königskinder ("Three King's Children"), a variant from Hanover collected by Wilhelm Busch; and Der wahrredende Vogel ("The truth-speaking bird"), an even earlier written source, by Justus Heinrich Saal, in 1767. A peculiar tale from Germany, Die grüne Junfer ("The Green Virgin"), by August Ey, mixes the ATU 710 tale type ("Mary's Child"), with the motif of the wonder children: three sons, one born with golden hair, other with a golden star on his chest and the third born with a golden stag on his chest.

A variant where it is the middle child the hero who obtains the magical objects is The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Sparkling Stream (Der redende Vogel, der singende Baum und die goldgelbe Quelle), published in the newly discovered collection of Bavarian folk and fairy tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. In a second variant of the same collection (The Mark of the Dog, Pig and Cat), each children is born with a mark in the shape of the animal that was put in their place, at the moment of their birth.

A version collected from Graubünden (Vom Vöglein, das die Wahrheit erzählt, or "The little bird that told the truth"), the tale begins in media res, with the box with the children being found by the miller and his wife. When the siblings grow up, they seek the bird of truth to learn their origins, and discover their uncle had tried to get rid of them. Another variant from Oberwallis (canton of Valais) (Die Sternkinder) has been collected by Johannes Jegerlehner, in his Walliser sagen.

In a variant collected in Austria, by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle (Der Vogel Phönix, das Wasser des Lebens und die Wunderblume, or "The Phoenix Bird, the Water of Life and the Most beautiful Flower"), the tale acquires complex features, mixing with motifs of ATU "the Fox as helper" and "The Grateful Dead": The twins take refuge in their (unbeknownst to them) father's house, it's their aunt herself who asks for the items, and the fox who helps the hero is his mother. The fox animal is present in stories of the Puss in Boots type, or in the quest for The Golden Bird/Firebird (ATU 550 – Bird, Horse and Princess) or The Water of Life (ATU 551 – The Water of Life), where the fox replaces a wolf who helps the hero/prince.

A variant from Buchelsdorf, when it was still part of Austrian Silesia, (Der klingende Baum) has the twins raised as the gardener's sons and the quest for the water-tree-bird happens to improve the king's garden.

Professor Maurits de Meyere listed three variants under the banner "L'oiseau qui parle, l'arbre qui chante et l'eau merveilleuse", attested in Flanders fairy tale collections, in Belgium, all with contamination from other tale types, specially ATU 303, "The Twins or Blood Brothers".

Hungary

Hungarian scholarship classify the ATU 707 tale under the banner of "The Golden-Haired Twins" (Hungarian: Az aranyhajú ikrek). In the 19th century, Elisabet Róna-Sklárek also published comparative commentaries on Hungarian folktales in regards to similar versions in international compilations of the time. Professor Ágnes Kovács commented that the tale type is frequent and widespread in Hungarian-language areas. In the same vein, professor Linda Dégh stated that the national Hungarian Catalogue of Folktales (MNK) listed 28 variants of the tale type and 7 deviations.

A variant translated by the Jeremiah Curtin (Hungarian: A sündisznó; English: "The Hedgehog, the Merchant, the King and the Poor Man") begins with a merchant promising a hedgehog one of his daughters, after the animal helped him escape a dense forest. Only the eldest agrees to be the hedgehog's wife, which prompts him to reveal his true form as a golden-haired, golden-mouthed and golden-toothed prince. They marry and she gives birth to twins, Yanoshka and Marishka. Her middle sister, seething with envy, dumps the royal babies in the forest, but they are reared by a Forest Maiden. When they reach adulthood, their aunt sets them on a quest for "the world-sounding tree", "the world-sweetly speaking bird" and "the silver lake [with] the golden fish". Elek Benedek collected the second part of the story as an independent tale named Az Aranytollú Madár ("The Golden-Feathered Bird"), where the children are reared by a white deer, a golden-featherd bird guides the twins to their house, and they seek "the world-sounding tree", "the world-sweetly speaking bird" and "the silver lake [with] the golden fish".

In a third variant, A Szárdiniai király fia ("The Son of the King of Sardinia"), the youngest sister promises golden-haired twins: a boy with the sun on his forehead, and a girl with a star on the front.

In another Hungarian tale, A tizenkét aranyhajú gyermek ("The Twelve Golden-Haired Children"), the youngest of three sisters promises the king to give birth to twelve golden-haired boys. This variant is unique in that another woman also gives birth to twelve golden-haired children, all girls, who later marry the twelve princes.

In the tale A tengeri kisasszony ("The Maiden of the Sea"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to an only child with golden hair, a star on his forehead and a moon on his chest. The promised child is born, but cast into the water by the cook. The miller finds the boy and raises him. Years later, the king, on a walk, takes notice of the boy and adopts him, which was consented by the miller. When the prince comes to court, the cook convinces the boy to search for "the bird that drinks from the golden and silver water, and whose singing can be heard from miles", the mirror that can see the whole world and the Maiden of the Sea.

Another version, Az aranyhajú gyermekek ("The Golden-Haired Children"), skips the introduction about the three sisters: the queen gives birth to a boy with a golden star on the forehead and a girl with a small flower on her arm. They end up adopted by a neighbouring king and an old woman threatens the girl with a cruel punishment if the twins do not retrieve the bird from a cursed castle.

In the tale A boldogtalan királyné ("The Unhappy Queen"), the youngest daughter of a carpenter becomes a queen and bears three golden-haired children, each with a star on their foreheads. They are adopted by a fisherman; the boys become fine hunters and venture into the woods to find a willow tree, a talking bird on a branch and to collect water from a well that lies near the tree.

In Tündér Ilona és az aranyhajú fiú; or Fee Ilona und der goldhaarige Jüngling ("Fairy Ilona and the golden-haired Youth"), of the Brother quests for a Bride format, the Sister is told by an old lady about the wonderful belongings of the fabled Fairy Ilona (Ilona Tünder) and passes this information to her brother as if she saw them in a dream.

In the tale Jankalovics, the youngest sister, a herb-gatherer, promises the king twin children with golden hair. When the twins are cast out in the water, they are recued by a miller. In their youth, they find out they are adopted and leave the miller's home to seek out their origins. During their travels, they give alms to three beggars and they reward the twins by summoning a creature named Jankalovics to act as the twins' helper.

In the tale Az aranyhajú hármasok ("The Triplets with Golden-Hair"), the baker's youngest daughter gives birth to triplets with golden hair and a star on the forehead. The usual story follows, but the older male twins meet the king during a hunt, who invites the youths three times for a feast. In the third time, the truth is revealed in front of the whole court.

In the tale A mosolygó alma ("The Smiling Apple"), a king sends his page to pluck some fragant scented apples in a distant garden. When the page arrives at the garden, a dishevelled old man appears and takes him into his house, where the old man's three young daughters live. The daughters comment among themselves their marriage wishes: the third wishes to marry the king and give him two golden-haired children, one with a "comet star" on the forehead and another with a sun. The rest of the story follows The Boys with the Golden Star format.

Bishop János Kriza (hu) collected another version, Aranyhajú Kálmán ("Golden-Haired Kálman"), wherein the youngest sister promises the king an only son with golden hair. Years later, the boy, Kalman, quests for a magical tree branch, a mirror that can see the whole world and Világlátó, the world-famed beauty.

In the tale Az aranyhajú királyfiak ("The King's Sons with Golden Hair"), collected by Elek Benedek, the youngest sister promises the king two golden-haired boys. They are born and a witch from the king's court casts them in the water. They are saved and grow up as fine youths. The king sees them one day and invites them for a dinner at the castle. The witch, then, sends both of the brothers in a series of quests: to bathe in the water of the Sun, to dry themselves with the cloth/towel of the Sun and to see themselves in the Sun's mirror. The brothers are helped by incarnations of Friday, Holy Saturday and the Holy Sunday.

Other Magyar variants are Die zwei goldhaarigen Kinder (Hungarian: "A két aranyhajú gyermek"; English: "The Two Children with Golden Hair"), of The Boys With Golden Stars format; and Nád Péter ("Schilf-Peter"), a variant of The Tale of Tsar Saltán format.

Scandinavia

One version collected in Iceland can be found in Ján Árnuson's Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri, published in 1864 (Bóndadæturnar), translated as "The Story of The Farmer's Three Daughters", in Icelandic Legends (1866); in Isländische Märchen (1884), with the title Die Bauerntöchter, or in Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen (1902), by Adeline Rittershaus (Die neidischen Schwestern). The Icelandic variant was given a literary treatment and titled The Three Peasant Maidens in Icelandic Fairy Tales, by Angus W. Hall.

Other versions have been recorded from Danish and Swedish sources: a Swedish version, named Historie om Talande fogeln, spelande trädet och rinnande wattukällan (or vatukällan); another Scandinavian variant, Om i éin kung in England; Danish variant Det springende Vand og det spillende Trae og den talende Fugl ("The leaping water and the playing tree and the talking bird"), collected by Evald Tang Kristensen.

Before the edition of Antti Aarne's first folktale classification, Svend Grundtvig, translated by Astrid Lunding, classified the tale as the proto folktype 44.Den forskudte dronning og den talende fugl, det syngende træ, det rindende vand ("The Disowned Queen and the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, the Flowing Water"), by comparing the tale present in Jyske folkeminder, Vol. V, and Grimm's KHM 96 The Three Little Birds.

Finland

A Finnish variant, called Tynnyrissä kaswanut Poika (The boy who grew in a barrel), follows the Tale of Tsar Saltan format: peasant woman promises the King three sets of triplets in each pregnancy, but her envious older sisters substitute the boys for animals. She manages to save her youngest child but both are cast into the sea in a barrel. A second variant veers close to the Tale of Tsar Saltán format (Naisen yhdeksän poikaa, or "The woman's nine children"), but the reunion with the kingly father does not end the tale; the two youngest brothers journey to rescue their siblings from an avian transformation curse.

Other Finnish variants can be found in Eero Salmelainen's Suomen kansan satuja ja tarinoita. A version was translated into English with the name Mielikki and her nine sons.

Another Finnish variant, from Ingermanland, has been collected in Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen (Bruder und Schwester und die goldlockigen Königssöhne, or "Brother and Sister, and the golden-haired sons of the King").

Baltic Region

Jonas Basanavicius collected a few variants in Lithuanian compilations, including the formats The Boys with the Golden Stars and Tale of Tsar Saltan. Its name in Lithuanian folktale compilations is Nepaprasti vaikai or Trys auksiniai sûnûs. In addition, according to Professor Bronislava Kerbelytė, the tale type is reported to register 244 (two hundred and forty-four) Lithuanian variants, under the banner Three Extraordinary Babies, with and without contamination from other tale types.

The work of Latvian folklorist Peteris Šmidts, beginning with Latviešu pasakas un teikas ("Latvian folktales and fables") (1925–1937), records 33 variants of the tale type. Its name in Latvian sources is Trīs brīnuma dēli or Brīnuma dēli.

A thorough study on Estonian folktales (among them, the ATU 707 tale type) was conducted by researchers at Tartu University and published in two volumes (in 2009 and in 2014). Folklorist William Forsell Kirby translated an Estonian version first collected by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, with the name The Prince who rescued his brothers: a king with silver-coated legs and golden-coated arms marries a general's daughter with the same attributes. When she gives birth to her sons, her elder sister sells eleven of her nephews to "Old Boy" (a devil-like character) while the queen is banished with her twelfth son and cast adrift into the sea in a barrel. At the end of the tale, the youngest prince releases his brothers from Old Boy and they transform into doves to reach their mother.

Russia and Eastern Europe

Slavicist Karel Horálek published an article with an overall analysis of the ATU 707 type in Slavic sources. Further scholarship established subtypes of the AT 707 tale type in the Slavic-speaking world: AT 707A*, AT 707B* and AT 707C*.

Scholar Jack Haney stated that the tale type registers seventy-eight Russian variants, twenty-three Ukrainian versions and thirty Byelorusian tales.

Russia

The earliest version in Russian was recorded in "Старая погудка на новый лад" (1794–1795), with the name "Сказка о Катерине Сатериме" (Skazka o Katyerinye Satyerimye; "The Tale of Katarina Saterima"). The same work collected a second variant: Сказка о Труде-королевне ("The Tale of Princess Trude"), where the king and queen consult with a seer and learn of the prophecy that their daughter will give birth to the wonder-children, which catches the interest of a neighboring king.

Another compilation in the Russian language that precedes both The Tale of Tsar Saltan and Afanasyev's tale collection was "Сказки моего дедушки" (1820), which recorded a variant titled "Сказка о говорящей птице, поющем дереве и золо[то]-желтой воде" (Skazka o govoryashchyey ptitse, poyushchyem dyeryevye i zolo[to]-zhyeltoy vodye).

The fairy tale in verse The Tale of Tsar Saltan, written by renowned Russian author Alexander Pushkin and published in 1831, is another variant of the tale, and the default form by which the ATU 707 is known in Russian and Eastern European academia. It tells the tale of three sisters, the youngest of which is chosen by the eponymous Tsar Saltan as his wife, to the blind jealousy of her two elder sisters. While the royal husband is away at war, she gives birth to Prince Gvidon Saltanovitch, but her sisters conspire to cast mother and child to the sea in a barrel. Both she and the baby wash ashore in the island of Buyan, where Prince Gvidon grows up to an adult male. After a series of adventures – and with the help of a magical princess in the form of a swan (Princess Swan), Prince Gvidon and his mother reunite with Tsar Saltan, as Princess Swan and Prince Gvidon marry.

Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev collected seven variants, divided in two types: The Children with Calves of Gold and Forearms of Silver (in a more direct translation: Up to the Knee in Gold, Up to the Elbow in Silver), and The Singing Tree and The Speaking Bird. Two of his tales have been translated into English: The Singing-Tree and the Speaking-Bird and The Wicked Sisters. In the later, the children are male triplets with astral motifs on their bodies, but there is no quest for the wondrous items.

A Russian variant follows the format of The Brother Quest for a Bride: in Ivan Tsarevich and Maria the Yellow Flower, the tsaritsa is expelled from the imperial palace, after being accused of giving birth to puppies. In reality, her twin children (a boy and a girl) were cast in the sea in a barrel and found by a hermit. When they reach adulthood, their aunts send the brother on a quest for the lady Maria, the Yellow Flower, who acts as the speaking bird and reveals the truth during a banquet with the tsar.

Eastern Europe

In an Eastern European variant, The Golden Fish, The Wonder-working Tree and the Golden Bird, the siblings are twins and their grandmother, the old queen, is the villain. Their father, Prince Yarboi, met their mother and her sisters when they were cutting grass on a hot summer day. The sisters commented that their fates were foretold, and the youngest revealed she was destined to marry the prince and bear the wonder twins. This variant was first collected by Josef Košín z Radostova, in Národní Pohádky, Volume III, in 1856, with the title O princovi se zlatým sluncem a o princezně se zlatým měsícem na prsou ("The prince with the golden sun and the princess with the golden moon on her breast"). However, the tale was translated by Jeremiah Curtin and published in Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe, as a Hungarian story.

In another Eastern European variant, Princ se zlatým křížem na čele ("The Prince with a golden cross on the forehead"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to children with a golden cross on the forehead. The usual story of abandonment occurs, but the truth is revealed by one of the brothers, who plays a riddle with nuts in front of the king.

In the South Slavic tale Die böse Schwiegermutter, also collected by Friedrich Salomon Krauss, the mother gives birth to triplets: male twins with golden hands and a girl with a golden star on her forehead. Years later, they search for the green water, the speaking bird and the singing tree.

Slovakia

In a Slovak variant, Zlatovlasé dvojčatá ("The Golden-Haired Twins"), the prince marries the youngest sister, who promises to give birth to twins with golden hair and a star on their breast. When the time comes, a woman named Striga steals the newly-born infants and casts them out in the water. The boy and girl are soon found and given the name Janík and Ludmilka. Years later, the Striga sets the boy on the quest for the golden pear and the woman named Drndrlienka as a companion for his sister.

Scholar Jiří Polívka mentioned the existence of a Slovak variant titled Stromčok, Voďička, Ptáčik ("Tree, Water, Bird"), reported to be part of a Slovak collection named Codexy Revúcke ("Codices of Revúca").

Poland

A version from Poland has been collected by Antoni Józef Glinski, titled O królewiczu z księżycem na czole, z gwiazdami po głowie and translated into German with the name Vom Prinzen mit dem Mond auf der Stirn und Sternen auf dem Kopf (English: "The Princes with the Moon on the Forehead and Stars on the Head").

Polish ethnographer Stanisław Ciszewski (pl) collected two variants, one from Maszków, titled O grającem drzewie, złotej wodzie i gadającym ptaku ("The Music-Playing Tree, the Golden Water and the Speaking Bird"), and another from Skała, named O śpiewającem drzewie, złotej wodzie i gadającym ptaku ("The Singing Tree, the Golden Water and the Speaking Bird").

Czech Republic

A Czech variant was collected by author Božena Němcová, under the name O mluvícím ptáku, živé vodě a třech zlatých jabloních ("The speaking bird, the water of life and the three golden apples"): three poor sisters, Marketka, Terezka and Johanka discuss among themselves their future husbands. The king overhears their conversation and summons them to his presence, and fulfills Johanka's wishes. Each time a child is born (three in total), the envious sisters cast the babies in the water, but they are carried by the stream to another kingdom. The second king adopts the babies and names them Jaromír, Jaroslav and Růženka.

Bulgaria

A version from Bulgaria was recorded by Václav Florec in 1970, with the name Tři sestry ("Three sisters"). An older Bulgarian variant was also given in abridged form in Archive für Slavische Philologie.

Slovenia

A recent publication (2007) of Slovenian folk tales, collected by Anton Pegan in the 19th century, has a Slovenian variant of the ATU 707, under the name Vod trejh predic.

In another Slovenian variant, Zlatolasi trojčki (sl) ("The Triplets with Golden-Hair"), the three wonder children with golden hair seek the golden apple, the speaking bird and the dancing water.

Serbia

Variants from Serbia collected by Serbian philologist Vuk Karadžić have been translated into German language and published in Archiv für Slavische Philologie: Die böse Schwiegermutter ("The evil mother-in-law"), containing a quest for the green water, the singing tree and the speaking bird; and Bruder und Schwester, beide goldhaarig und silberzähnig ("Brother and Sister, golden-haired and silver-toothed"), where the Brother brings the maiden Djuzelgina as a friend for his Sister. Other tales from Serbian sources were also published in the collection: Abermals die böse Schwiegermutter, where the twins born with golden stars are helped by an angel; and Zwei goldene Kinder, of the Boys With the Golden Stars format, given in abridged form.

Croatia

A Croatian tale, collected by Plohl-Herdvigov and translated as Die Königin und ihre drei Töchter ("The Queen and her three daughters") was given in abridged form in Archiv Für Slavische Philologie.

In another Croatian tale, by Fran Milkulic, Žena kraljeva rodila tri sini zlatnemi vlasi ("The Queen who gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), a woman marries the king, after promising him three golden-haired sons. When each of the babies are born, the queen mother throws her grandchildren in the water. They are saved by a peasant couple, who raises the boys. Years later, the king sets a challenge: anyone should count how many nuts there are in a recipient. One of his golden-haired sons begins counting and interweaving the story of their family. This tale was sourced as South Slavic and translated as Die Frau eines Königs gebar drei goldhaarige Söhne ("A King's wife gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), given in abridged form in Archiv für Slavische Philologie.

Belarus

Karel Jaromír Erben collected a Belarussian variant from Grodno, titled The Wonderful Boys, where the youngest sister gives birth to twin boys "with the moon on the forehead and stars on the nape of the neck".

Bosnia

In a Bosnian version, Die Goldkindern ("The Gold-Children"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to a daughter with golden hair, golden hands and teeth of pearl, and a son with one golden hand, prophecizing her son will become the greatest hero that ever was. Years later, the emperor's first wife tries to get rid of the brother by telling him to kill some Moors that were threatening the realm; by sending him to tame a wild horse, Avgar, which lives in the mountains; to fetch an enchanted flowery wreath from the Jordan River; and to find an all-knowing young maiden whom "hundreds of princes have courted".

Caucasus Mountains

At least two Armenian versions exist in folktale compilations: The Twins and Cheveux d'argent et Boucles d'or. A variant collected from tellers of Armenian descent in the Delray section of Detroit shows: the king listens to his daughters – the youngest promising the wonder children when she marries; the twins are the king's grandsons; the Brother quests for the bird Hazaran Bulbul and a female interpreter for the bird. When the interpreter is delivered to the Sister, the former requests the Brother to go back to the bird's owner, Tanzara Kanum, and bring the second woman who lives there, so that they may keep company and protect the Sister. A fourth Armenian variant (Théodore le Danseur) places a giant named Barogh Assadour ("Dancing Theodore") in the role of the mystical woman the brother seeks, and this fabled character ends up marrying the sister.

A variant in Avar language is attested in Awarische Texte, by Anton Schiefner.

Two Georgian variants exist in international folktale publications: Die Kinder mit dem Goldschopf ("The children with golden heads") and The Three Sisters and their Stepmother.

Asia

Turkey

Folklorists and tale collectors Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, who wrote a thorough study on Turkish tales, list at least 55 versions of the story that exist in Turkish compilations. Part of the Turkish variants follow the Brother Quests for a Bride format: the aunts' helper (witch, maid, midwife, slave) suggests her brother brings home a woman of renowned beauty, who becomes his wife at the end of the story and, due to her supernatural powers, acquits her mother-in-law of any perceived wrongdoing in the king's eyes.

A Turkish variant, translated into German, has twins with golden hair: the male with the symbol of a half-moon, and the female with a bright star, and follow the Brother quests for a Bride format, with the prince/hero seeking Die Feekönigin (The Fairy Queen). This character knows the secrets of the family and instructs the siblings on how to convince the King. Another variant has been collected from the city of Mardin, in the 19th century.

Middle East

The tale appears in fairy tale collections of Middle Eastern and Arab folklore. One version appears in the collection of The Arabian Nights, by Antoine Galland, named Histoire des deux sœurs jalouses de leur cadette (English: The Story of the older sisters envious of their Cadette or The Story of the Three Sisters). The tale contains a mythical bird called Bülbül-Hazar, thus giving the tale an alternate name: Perizade & L'Oiseau Bülbül-Hazar. The heroine, Perizade ou Farizade, also names the tale Farizade au sourire de rose ("Farizade of the rose's smile"). English translations of the tale either focus on the name of the princess, such as Story of the Princess Periezade and the Speaking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Golden Water, Perizade and the Speaking Bird or on the speaking bird itself. 19th century theologue Johann Andreas Christian Löhr wrote a German translation of the Arabian Nights tale with the name Geschwisterliebe, oder die drei Königskinder.

A second variant connected to the Arabian Nights compilation is Abú Niyyan and Abú Niyyatayn, part of the frame story The Tale of the Sultan of Yemen and his three sons (The Tale of the King of al-Yaman and his three sons). The tale is divided into two parts: the tale of the father's generation falls under the ATU 613 tale type (Truth and Falsehood), and the sons' generation follows the ATU 707. A third version present in The Arabian Nights is "The Tale of the Sultan and his sons and the Enchanting Bird", a fragmentary version that focuses on the quest for the bird with petrifying powers.

Other versions in Arab-speaking countries that preserve the quest for the bird mention a magical nightingale.

Iraq

An Iraqi folktale, collected by E. S. Drower, The King and the Three Maidens, or the Doll of Patience, focuses on the mother's plight: the youngest sister promises children born with hair of gold on one side and silver on the other, but, as soon as they are born, the children are cast into the water by the envious older sisters. She is told she must never reveal the truth to her husband, the king, so she buys a doll to confide in (akin to The Young Slave and ATU 894, "The Stone of Pity").

India

An Indian tale, collected by Joseph Jacobs in his Indian Fairy Tales (1892), The Boy who had a Moon on his Forehead and a Star on his Chin, omits the quest for the items and changes the jealous aunts into jealous co-wives of the king, but keeps the wonder-child character (this time, an only child) and the release of his mother. Jacobs's source was Maive Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales (1880), with her homonymous tale.

The character of the Boy with the Moon on his forehead reappears in an eponymous tale collected from Bengal (The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead) by Lal Behari Dey in his Folk-Tales of Bengal: the seventh queen begets a boy and a girl, and the jealous co-wives of the king try to eliminate both siblings. Francis Hindes Groome already saw a parallel between this tale with the Romani tale he collected, and Grimm's The Three Little Birds.

A third variant can be found in The Enchanted Bird, Music and Stream, recorded by Alice Elizabeth Dracott, in Simla Village Tales, or Folk Tales from the Himalayas. This tale follows the general format, but the quest items's descriptors mention no significant magical properties, unlike most variants of the tale.

In true family saga fashion, an Indian tale of certain complexity and extension (Truth's Triumph, or Der Sieg der Wahrheit) tells a story of a Ranee of humble origins, the jealousy of the twelve co-wives, the miraculous birth of her 101 children and their abandonment in the wilderness. In the second part of the tale, the youngest child, a girl, witnesses her brothers' transformation into crows, but she is eventually found and marries a Rajah of a neighboring region. Her child, the prince, learns of his family history and ventures on a quest to reverse his uncles's transformation. At the climax of the story, the boy invites his grandfather and his co-wives and reveals the whole plot, as the family reunites.

James Hinton Knowles collected three variants from Kashmir, in which the number of siblings vary between 4 (three boys, one girl; third son as the hero), 2 (two sons; no quest for the water-tree-bird) and 1 (only male child; quest for tree and its covering; no water, nor bird).

Ethnologist Verrier Elwin collected a Baiga story from the Mandla district, titled The Brave Children: the fourth queen gives birth to a boy and a girl, but the three jealous co-wives of the king cast them in the water. They are found by a Sadhu, who gives them two sticks with a magical command. Years later, the jealous queens send the boy on a quest for a lotus flower and Pathari Kaniya (The Stone Maiden) as his wife.

Variants of the tale type have also been found in Himalayan tradition.

East Asia

Folklorist D. L. Ashliman, in his 1987 study of folktales, lists The Golden Eggplant (黄金の茄子 <<Kin no nasu>>) as a Japanese variant of the tale.

Africa

The tale is said to be particularly widespread in Southeast Africa.

North Africa

Some versions of the tale have been collected from local storytellers in many regions: two versions have been found in Morocco, one on the Northern area; some have been collected in Algeria, and one of them in the Tell Atlas area, and some in Egypt.

Two versions have been recorded by German ethnographer Leo Frobenius in his Atlantis book collection: Die ausgesetzten Geschwister and Die goldhaarigen Kinder.

In a specific folktale from Egypt (The Promises of the Three Sisters), the male twin is named Clever Muhammed, while the female twin is called Mistress of Beauty, and both quest for the "dancing bamboo, singing water and talking lark". In the El-Schater Mouhammed tale, a variant from Egypt, the Brother is the hero of the story, but the last item of the quest (the bird) is replaced by "a baby or infant who can speak eloquently", as an impossible MacGuffin.

In a Tunisian version (En busca del pájaro esmeralda, or "The quest for the emerald bird"), the older brother is the hero of the story and the singing branch is conflated with the titular emerald bird, which reveals the story at a feast with the Sultan. Another Tunisian version has been collected from oral sources under the name M'hammed, le fils du sultan ("M'hammed, the son of the Sultan").

Central Africa

A version of the tale was found amongst Batanga sources, with the name The Toucan and the Three Golden-Girdled Children, collected by Robert Hamill Nassau and published in the Journal of American Folklore, in 1915.

West Africa

Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons collected five variants from Cape Verde Islands, grouped under the banner of The Envious Sisters.

In a West African tale, local chief Nyambe marries other four women, who later move to his house. There, they need to follow the rules of the head-wife, who asks the women what each would give to their husband. The youngest one answers she would bear him a "child of gold", but eventually gives birth to a twin of silver and a twin of gold.

A variant of The child born with a moon on his breast is mentioned by Édouard Jacouttet as hailing from "Gold Coast", an old name for a region on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa: a king named Miga has many wives, who had not born any children. A witch doctor gives a remedy for the wives: all of them give birth to animals, except one, who mothers a son "with a peculiar sign on his forehead", just like his father. This tale was first recorded in 1902 by G. Härtter, from the Ewe people in Togo.

East Africa

Scholars have attested the presence of the tale type in African sources, such as the East African version collected by Carl Meinhof.

Southern Africa

A tale of the Sotho people (Basotho) with the motif of the wonderful child with a moon on his breast (Khoédi-Séfoubeng, or Ngoana ea Khoeli-Sefubeng; "The child with a moon on his breast") was recorded in The treasury of Ba-suto lore (1908), by Édouard Jacouttet.

A tale from the Venda people, The Chief with the Half-Moon on his Chest was compared to the Sotho tale and noted to be similar to the male character of Lal Behari Day's Bengali tale of The Boy with a moon on his forehead.

The tale is sometimes known as The Moon-Child in compilations of South African foktales.

Americas

North America

United States

A few versions have been collected from Mexican-American populations living in American states, such as California and New Mexico, and in the Southwest.

In a variant collected around Los Angeles area, there are two sons, one golden-haired and the other silver-haired, and a girl with a star on her forehead, while a second variant mixes type ATU 425A ("Search for The Lost Husband") with type ATU 707.

A variant from Northern New Mexico has been collected by José Manuel Espinosa in the 1930s and published by Joe Hayes in 1998: El pájaro que contaba verdades ("The Bird that spoke the Truth"). A second version from New Mexico was collected by Professor R. D. Jameson, titled The Talking Bird, The Singing Tree, and the Water of Life, first heard by the raconteur in his childhood. In a second version by R. D. Jameson, the princess promises to give birth to twin boys: one golden-haired and one silver-haired. In another variant, first collected in 1930 by Arthur L. Campa in his thesis (El Pájaro Verde; English: "The Green Bird"), the quest is prompted by the siblings's foster mother, in order to ensure a life-long happiness for them.

Canada

A version from French Canada (Québec) was collected by professor Marius Barbeau and published in the Journal of American Folklore, with the title Les Soeurs Jalouses ("The envious sisters").

Mexico

A variant was collected from Tepecano people in the state of Jalisco (Mexico) by J. Alden Mason (Spanish: Los niños coronados; English: "The crowned children") and also published in the Journal of American Folklore. A version from Mitla, Oaxaca, in Mexico (The Envious Sisters), was collected by Elsie Clews Parsons and published in the Journal of American Folklore: the siblings quest for "the crystalline water, the tree that sings, and the bird that talks".

Central America

Four variants have been collected by Manuel José Andrade, obtained from sources in the Dominican Republic. The tales contain male children as the heroes who perform the quest to learn the truth of their birth.

Other versions are also present in the folklore of Puerto Rico, and of Panama.

Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons recorded a tale from Martinica (L'arbre qui chante, l'oiseau qui parle, l'eau qui dort; English: "The singing tree, the talking bird, the sleeping water"), Guadalupe (De l'eau qui dort, l'oiseau dite la vérité; English: "About the water that sleeps, the bird that tells the truth") and Haiti (Poupée caca la: Trois sé [soeurs] la). The version from Guadalupe begins like Snow White (ATU 709), a mother's envy of her daughter's beauty, and continues as ATU 707.

A version from Jamaica was collected by Pamela Colman Smith, titled De Golden Water, De Singin' Tree and De Talkin' Bird.

South America

Brazil

A Brazilian version has been collected by Brazilian literary critic, lawyer and philosopher Silvio Romero, from his native state of Sergipe and published as Os três coroados ("The three crowned ones") in his Contos Populares do Brazil (1894). In this version, the siblings are born each with a little crown on their heads, and their adoptive mother is the heroine.

Argentina

Folklorist and researcher Berta Elena Vidal de Battini collected eight variants all over Argentina, throughout the years, and published them as part of an extensive compilation of Argentinian folk-tales. An etiological folk tale, collected by Bertha Koessler-Ilg among the Mapuche of Argentina (Dónde y cómo tuvieron origen los colibries, English: "How and why the colibris were created"), holds several similarities with the tale-type. Another variant (La Luna y el Sol) has been collected by Susana Chertudi.

Chile

Versions collected in Chile have been grouped under the banner Las dos hermanas envidiosas de la menor ("The two sisters envious of their youngest"): La Luna i el Sol ("Moon and Sun") and La niña con la estrella de oro en la frente ("The girl with the golden star on her forehead"). This last tale is unique in that the queen gives birth to female twins: the eponymous girl and her golden-haired sister, and its second part has similarities with Biancabella and the Snake.

Colombia

In a Colombian version, The Three Sisters, after the children are cast in the water and reared by the royal gardener, the queen, their mother, comments with the gardener that the royal gardens need "a bird that speaks, an orange tree that dances, and water that jumps and leaps". The sister, then, rescues her brothers, Bamán and Párvis.

Adaptations

The tale seems to have inspired Carlo Gozzi's commedia dell'arte work L'Augellino Belverde ("The Green Bird"). In it, the eponymous green bird keeps company to the imprisoned queen, and tells her he can talk, and he is actually a cursed prince. The fantastic children's grandmother sets them on their quest for the fabulous items: the singing apple and the dancing waters.

The tale has also inspired Canadian composer Gilles Tremblay to compose his Opéra Féerie L'eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit la vérité (2009).

Lithuanian professor Asta Gustaitienė (lt) acknowledges that French-Lithuanian poet Oscar Milosz adapted a traditional Lithuanian variant titled Auksaplaukis ir Auksažvaigždė ("Golden-Hair and Golden Star"), by delving more into the relationships between the characters.