The Three Little Birds

"The Three Little Birds" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 96.[1] The story is originally written in Low German. It is Aarne-Thompson type 707, the dancing water, the singing apple, and the speaking bird.[2] The story resembles Ancilotto, King of Provino, by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, and The Sisters Envious of Their Cadette, the story of the 756th night of the Arabian Nights.

This article is about the fairytale. For the Bob Marley & The Wailers song, see Three Little Birds.
The Three Little Birds
Folk tale
NameThe Three Little Birds
Data
Aarne–Thompson groupingATU 707
CountryGermany
Published inGrimms' Fairy Tales

Synopsis

Three sisters were tending cows when a king and his company went by. The oldest pointed at the king and said she would marry him or no one; her sisters pointed at the ministers and said the same. The king summoned them before him, and then, because they were very beautiful, he married the oldest and his ministers married the youngest.

The King had to go on a journey, and had her sisters attend the queen. She gave birth to a son with a red star on his forehead. Her sisters threw the baby boy into the water, and a bird sprang out of the water singing of what they had done. Despite the bird terrifying them, the sisters told the king that the Queen had given birth to a dog. Little did everyone know, a fisherman fished the boy out of the water and raised him. The King said that whatever God had sent was good. It happened again with their second son, and sadly their third child, the King and Queens daughter. However, instead of saying the Queen had given birth to a third dog, the sisters said that she had given birth to a cat. This forced the Kings hand and he threw his wife into a prison as punishment.

One day, the other boys would not let the oldest fish with them, because he was a foundling. So he set out to find his father. He found an old woman fishing and told her she would fish long before she caught anything. She told him that he would search long before he found his father, and carried him over the water to do it. The next year, the second boy set out in search of the brother, and he fared the same as his brother had. The next year, the girl set out as well, and when she found the woman, she said "May God bless your fishing." The old woman gave her a rod and told her to go to a castle, bring back a caged bird and a glass of water, and on the way back, strike a black dog with the rod. She did it, found her brothers on the way, and when she struck the dog, turned it into a handsome prince. They went back home to the fisherman.

The second son went hunting and, when he grew tired, played a flute. The king heard this and found him. He did not believe he was the fisherman's son, so the second son invited him home. There, the bird sang the story of what happened to them. The queen was let out of prison, the lying sisters were killed, and the daughter was married to the prince.

Analysis

Portuguese folklorist Teófilo Braga, in his annotations, commented that variants of the tale could be found in many Germanic sources published until then.[3]

Variants

Folklorist Franz Xaver von Schönwerth collected in the 19th century a Bavarian variant titled Der redende Vogel, der singende Baum und die goldgelbe Quelle ("The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Sparkling Stream"), published in the 21th century. In this tale, the middle child is the hero who obtains the magical objects.[4]

Schönwerth collected a second variant titled 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.[5]

See also

References
  1. Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimm's Fairy Tales, "The Three Little Birds"
  2. D.L. Ashliman, "The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales (Grimms' Fairy Tales)"
  3. For a listing of past and present collections that attest the tale type in German sources, see: Uther, Hans-Jörg. Deutscher Märchenkatalog – Ein Typenverzeichnis. Deutscheland, Münster: Waxmann Verlag GmbH. 2015. p. 161. ISBN 978-3-8309-8332-3 (e-book)
  4. Schönwerth. Franz Xaver von. The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales. Edited by Erika Eichenseer. Translated by Maria Tatar. Penguin Books. 2015. pp. 71–72. ISBN 978-0-698-14455-2.
  5. Schönwerth. Franz Xaver von. The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales. Edited by Erika Eichenseer. Translated by Maria Tatar. Penguin Books. 2015. pp. 83–85. ISBN 978-0-698-14455-2.
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