Italian Folktales (74 page)

“And why would you want to kill an innocent girl like me?”

“King's orders,” answered the general, unsheathing his sword. But the sight of the poor girl so frightened moved him to pity, and he took away her clothes to dip them in a lamb's blood and present them to the king as proof of her death.

The girl remained in the woods weeping, terrified at the thought of the wildwood king who lived in those woods and ate everyone who crossed his path. After crying for a while, she dried her eyes and fell asleep in a hollow tree trunk.

In the morning, the old wildwood king was out hunting and in pursuit of a wounded stag. But instead of finding the stag, he came upon the sleeping maiden. Seeing how beautiful she was, he awakened her and asked, “Would you like to come with me? Don't be afraid.” The girl accepted, and followed the wildwood king to his house in the depths of the woods, where he led a sad, solitary life, going out hunting and never seeing a living soul. The girl began keeping house for him, and the old hermit loved her like a daughter.

In the morning as soon as she got up, she braided her hair at the window, and a parrot lit on the ledge and said:

 

“In vain are you pretty and neat,

You will become the forest king's meat.”

 

Hearing those words, the girl started crying. The wildwood king came in from hunting and, seeing her upset, asked, “What's the matter?” The girl told him what the parrot had said.

“Do you know what you should tell him?” asked the wildwood king.

 

“Parrot, parrot, hear this ban:

Your feathers for my fan,

Your meat is for my pan,

Your master will become my man!”

 

When she repeated those words the next day the parrot, out of spite, shook himself so vigorously that he flew off minus half his feathers. The parrot belonged to a king in the vicinity, who seeing his bird come back half-plucked, asked the servants, “Who is pulling out the parrot's feathers?”

The servants replied, “Every morning he flies off in the direction of the wildwood king's house and comes home plucked.”

“I shall follow him tomorrow morning,” said the king, “and find out what is going on.”

So next morning, riding through the woods, he followed the parrot's flight and came up to the window where the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen was arranging her hair. The parrot lit on the window ledge and sang:

 

“In vain are you pretty and neat,

You will become the forest king's meat.”

 

And the maiden replied:

 

“Parrot, parrot, hear this ban:

Your feathers for my fan,

Your meat is for my pan,

Your master will become my man!”

 

And the parrot shook out all his feathers.

Then that king went to the wildwood king and asked for the girl's hand in marriage. The wildwood king gladly gave her to him, although it grieved the old king to be separated from her. She thanked him and bid him farewell, leaving him by himself in the depths of the woods.

The wedding banquet was also attended by the bride's royal father, who asked her forgiveness for all the suffering he had caused her at the prompting of the wicked sisters.

And the parrot? He flew off and was never seen again.

 

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112

There was a wife and a husband, and a baby was about to be born to them. The father went to the door to see who was passing by, for his son would become exactly like that person.

Some loose women came down the street, and the father cried to his wife, “Don't have him just now, for heaven's sake!”

Some thieves went by, and again the father cried out, “Not yet, not yet, please!”

Then the king came by, and in that instant the baby was born, and it was a boy. So father, mother, grandmother, and aunts shouted, “The king has just been born! The king has just been born!”

The king heard them and entered the house. He asked for an explanation, and they told him the whole story. Then the king said he would take the baby home with him and raise him. Father and mother blessed the child and handed him over to the king.

Along the way the king got to thinking, Why should I raise a child that will only be my undoing in the end? He pulled out a knife, planted it in the baby's throat, and left him lying in the middle of an orchard of almond trees in bloom.

The next day two merchants came that way. They found the baby still alive, so they bandaged up his wound, and one of them took him home to his wife. They were a rich couple with no children of their own, and they came to love him dearly. They named him Mandorlinfiore, which means “almond blossom.”

Mandorlinfiore grew to be a handsome and clever youth. Then, quite unexpectedly, the merchant had a son of his own. One day when this second son was already a big boy, he got into an argument while playing with Mandorlinfiore and called him a bastard. Mandorlinfiore went and told his mother, and thus learned how he had been found in an orchard. At that he decided to leave home and nothing the merchant and his wife said could make him change his mind. After going some distance he reached the city of the king who had stabbed and then abandoned him. Finding Mandorlinfiore such an intelligent youth, the king engaged him as his secretary, for he naturally did not recognize him.

Now the king had a daughter as fair as day, named Belfiore, and the youth fell in love with her. When the father realized that his daughter was being courted by his secretary, rather than deprive himself of a secretary he really needed, he chose to send his daughter to live in the house of another king, his brother. In his unhappiness Mandorlinfiore fell sick, and it was then that the king, visiting his bedside, discovered the scar on his neck. He remembered the baby he had knifed, and asked the secretary where he was born. “I was found in a field of almond trees in bloom,” replied the youth.

So the king resolved to put him to death. He told him to carry a letter to the other king, his brother, and Mandorlinfiore departed. The letter said the young man was to be hanged immediately. But Belfiore, who had got wind of her lover's arrival, was waiting for him and brought him in
on the sly through a small secret entrance. Once they were alone, Belfiore asked to see the letter her father was sending her uncle, but Mandorlinfiore said no, he'd promised to give it to no one except its addressee. But when the youth went to sleep, Belfiore opened the letter and read it. That way she discovered the trap set by her father, and she and Mandorlinfiore together sought a way to get the better of the king. In place of the letter, they put another that said the youth was to marry Belfiore immediately, and Mandorlinfiore went back through the secret entrance, purchased princely garb and a gilded carriage and then returned with the letter. Uncle called in niece and told her that, by order of her father, he was to give her in marriage, and Belfiore pretended to be thunderstruck. The marriage was celebrated, and when the king learned of it, he was so mad he died.

 

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113

There were three sons of a king, but the king was dead, like the queen. The nursemaid was the one who ran the house. The three king's sons wanted to get married, and had three portraits of three girls they liked.

They said to the ambassadors, “Go all over the world. If you find three girls like the portraits, bring them back for us to marry.” The ambassadors searched the world over without finding anyone. Finally they saw a fisherman's three daughters, who alone looked like the portraits. The ambassadors had them dressed as queens and presented to the three sons of the king. They liked one another and got married.

War broke out. The three noble sons departed, leaving the nursemaid in charge of the house. But the nursemaid, with those three queens at home, couldn't have her own way as in the past. So she told a minister to kill them and, as proof, to bring her back three pairs of eyes. The minister said to the queens, “The weather is truly delightful today, let's go for a ride.” They got into a carriage, and the carriage kept right on going until
it came to the foot of a mountain. The three queens got out, and then the minister. The minister drew a sword and sighed. “I have the honor to announce I shall kill you and carry your eyes back to the nursemaid.” The three queens replied, “No, listen, don't kill us. Leave us here on the mountain. As for the eyes, we will give them to you ourselves.”

They gouged out their eyes and gave them to the minister, who wept. When the three royal sons returned and asked about the three queens, the nursemaid said they had died in an accident. The three widowers swore they would never take any other wives.

Inside a cave, the three blind queens lived on herbs and roots. They were each expecting a baby, and one night, each of them gave birth at the same time to a fine baby boy. The mothers and their babes lived on herbs and roots. When the herbs and roots ran out, to keep from starving to death the mothers drew lots to see whose baby they would eat. It fell to the oldest, so her baby was eaten. Next it was the turn of the second sister's baby. The youngest sister, whose turn had now come, picked up her baby and groped her way hastily out of the cave.

She found another cave and a spot with many herbs. So the baby grew to be a big boy, went hunting with a gun made from a reed, and brought his mother back something to eat. Then he found the other two blind women and took them to his mother's cave.

One of the royal sons, who happened to be his father, was out hunting one day and met the boy in a forest. “Come with me,” said the king's son.

“I'll go and tell my mother,” replied the boy. His mother said all right, and the boy left her.

The nursemaid pretended to be glad to see him, but behind his back she scowled. When it came to handling weapons, the boy was the best and bravest man in the whole kingdom. The nursemaid decided to impose on him a task that would get him out of the way for good. A long time ago a princess of the family had been kidnapped by the fairies. The nursemaid said to the three royal sons, “This youth could go and find the girl.” At that, the three sons instructed him to go and look for her.

First the young man went to the blind women's cave for advice, after which he set out. In a desert stood a black and white palace. He drew near, and a plaintive voice called to him, “Do you see where I am? Do you see? Turn around!” The youth replied, “No, if I turn around, I'll change into a tree.” He entered the black and white palace. Three yellow candles were burning in one of the rooms. The young man blew them out in one puff. That broke the evil spell, and he suddenly found himself back at the palace of the three royal sons, together with the very lovely prin
cess and his mother and aunts, who had all recovered their eyes. The youth married the princess. At dinner everyone told a story. The three queens told theirs, and the nursemaid got to shivering so much that, to warm her up, they coated her with pitch and roasted her alive.

 

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114

A king was out strolling. He looked at the people, the swallows, the houses, and was content. A little old woman passed, minding her own business. She was a very well bred old soul, but she limped a little, and was also a trifle hunchbacked and, in addition, had a wryneck. The king stared at her and said, “Hunchback wryneck hobbler! Ha, ha, ha!” And he laughed heartily in her face.

Now this old woman was a fairy. She looked the king in the eye and said, “Go on, laugh your fill. We'll just see who's laughing tomorrow.”

At that, the king went into another peal of laughter. “Ha, ha, ha!”

This king had three daughters who were beautiful girls indeed. The next day he called them to go out walking with him. The oldest girl showed up with a hump on her back. “A hump?” asked the king. “How on earth did you get that?”

“Well,” explained the daughter, “the maid made up my bed so badly that I got a big hump last night.”

The king began pacing the floor; he felt uneasy.

He sent for his second daughter, who showed up with a wryneck. “What's the meaning of coming in now with a wryneck?” asked the king.

“Here's what happened,” replied the second daughter. “While the maid was combing my hair, she pulled out a hair . . . and here I am now with a wryneck.”

“And this girl?” said the king, noticing his youngest daughter limp into the room. “Just why is she limping now?”

“I went out into the garden,” explained the third daughter, “and the
maid picked a jasmine blossom and flung it at me. It fell on my foot and lamed me.”

“But who is this maid?” screamed the king. “Have her come before me at once!”

The maid was called and had to be dragged before the king by the guards because, in her words, she was ashamed to be seen: she was hunchbacked, wrynecked, and hobbling—the very same old woman as the day before! The king recognized her instantly and yelled, “Coat her with pitch and burn her to death!”

The old woman shrank and shrank until her head was the size of a nail and just as pointed. There was a tiny hole in the wall, and she squeezed through it and disappeared from sight, leaving behind only her hump, wryneck, and lame foot.

 

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115

There were two friars who went out begging. Darkness fell on the mountains. From a cave shone a little light.

“Lord of the house,” they called, “will you give us shelter for the night?”