| Foundling-Bird | |
|---|---|
| Folk tale | |
| Name | Foundling-Bird |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping | ATU 313A (The Girl Helps the Hero Flee) |
| Country | Germany |
| Published in | Grimms' Fairy Tales |
Foundling-Bird (original German title: Fundevogel) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 51.
It is Aarne–Thompson type 313A, the girl helps the hero flee, [1] and revolves about a transformation chase. Others of the type include The Master Maid , The Water Nixie , Nix Nought Nothing , and The Two Kings' Children .
A forester is in the woods to hunt when he finds a baby boy in a bird of prey's nest on top of a tall tree. The child's mother had been asleep when the bird snatched him away and left him in the nest.
The forester climbs up the tree and brings the boy down, bringing him home to raise alongside his own daughter, Lenchen, and names the child Fundevogel or Foundling-Bird because a bird had carried him away. Foundling-Bird and Lenchen grow up loving each other early.
One evening, Lenchen spots her father's old cook carrying many buckets of water into the house. When asked what she is doing, the cook, who hates Foundling-Bird, tells Lenchen that she is going boil him to death.
When the forester leaves to go hunting the next day, Lenchen informs Foundling-Bird of the evil cook's plan and they run away into the woods.
When she has the water hot and boiling, the cook goes to fetch Foundling-Bird only to find the children's bedroom empty. Afraid of her master punishing her, the cook sends out three servants to bring the missing children back home.
In the woods, Foundling-Bird and Lenchen change their forms when they see the servants coming: the boy turning into a rosebush and the girl into a single rose on it. The servants go back empty-handed. When they tell the cook they had seen nothing but the rosebush, she scolds them for not uprooting it and bringing back the rose.
The servants go into the woods again but this time, Foundling-Bird turns into a church and Lenchen into a chandelier in it. The servants return home and tell the cook what they had seen, and she scolds them for not demolishing the church and bringing back the chandelier.
Accompanied by the cook, the servants return to the woods where Foundling-Bird turns into a pond and Lenchen into a duck swimming in it. When the cook bends down to drink the pond dry, the duck seizes her and drowns her in the water.
With the evil cook dead, Foundling-Bird and Lenchen assume their original forms and go back home.
"Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales, numbered as Tale 53. The original German title was Sneewittchen; the modern spelling is Schneewittchen. The Grimms completed their final revision of the story in 1854, which can be found in the 1857 version of Grimms' Fairy Tales.
"Hansel and Gretel" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of Grimms' Fairy Tales.
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Farmer Weathersky is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Chr. Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.
"The Water Nixie" or "The Water-Nix" is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 79. It came from Hanau.
"The Three Little Men in the Wood" or "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book (1890) as "The Three Dwarfs," and a version of the tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs (1964) by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
"The Hut in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book (1897). It is Aarne-Thompson type 431.
"The Three Little Birds" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 96. The story is originally written in Low German. It is Aarne-Thompson type 707, the dancing water, the singing apple, and the speaking bird. 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.
King Kojata or The Unlooked for Prince or Prince Unexpected is a Slavonic fairy tale, of Polish origin. Louis Léger remarked that its source was "one of the most important collections of Polish literature".
Prunella is an Italian fairy tale, originally known as Prezzemolina. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 310, the Maiden in the Tower.
"The Two Kings' Children" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales, tale number 113.
The Dove is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.
"The Pretty Little Calf" is a Chinese fairy tale collected by Wolfram Eberhard in "Folktales of China". It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and to the tale type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, in that a woman gives birth to children of wondrous aspect, but jealous relatives conspire to separate them. Similar stories are attested in East Asian literature, specially Mongolian and Korean, wherein the boy is murdered, but is later reborn in the shape of a calf.
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The Boy with a Moon on his Forehead is a Bengali folktale collected by Maive Stokes and Lal Behari Day.
Les Princes et la Princesse de Marinca is a French-Canadian fairy tale from Gaspésie published by Canadian folklorist Carmen Roy. It is related to the motif of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
The Golden Fish, The Wonder-working Tree and the Golden Bird is an Eastern European fairy tale. It is related to the motif of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
The Goose Wife is a mythical female character that appears in tales from the Inuit and other ethnic groups that dwell across the circumpolar Arctic region. The usual story is that the geese alight on land, become women by taking off their goose-skins and bathe in a lake. However, they are unaware that a human hunter is spying on them, and he steals the goose-skin of one of them, forcing her to be his wife. Due to the great similarities between both characters, the goose wife has been compared to the swan maiden, another female that alternates between human and bird forms.
The Son of Seven Mothers or The Son of Seven Queens is an Indian folktale, first published in the late 19th century by author Flora Annie Steel. It is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 462, "The Outcast Queens and the Ogress Queen".
Little Nightingale the Crier is a Palestinian Arab folktale collected by scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana. It is related to the theme of the calumniated wife and classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
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