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THE CONTENDING LOVERS
BY
WILLARD EDWARD FARNHAM
[Reprinted from the Publications of the Modern Language Association
of America, xxxv, 3]
The Modern Language Association of Amebica
1920
^
-^N
THE CONTENDING LOVERS
The Coniending Lovers ^ is a folk-tale of love rivalry —
but of love rivalry with a difference. Because it lias cer-
tain uncommon distinctions, among tliem a provocative
iove problem which is usually left wholly unsolved, I have
previously attempted to show in brief fashion its affinity
ivith Chaucer's Parlement of Foules ^ and to prove by
* The name is chosen after some consideration. Benfey in his
famous Ausland essay (Ausland, 1858, pp. 969 fT.; Eleinere Schriften
rr, iii, pp. 94 ff.) calls one type of the tale "Das Miirchen von den
Menschen mit den wunderbaren Eigcnscliaften," a denomination
which has the decided disadvantage of not fitting all types. The
lovers as we shall find them are not always men of skill or wonderful
gifts. Wesselofsky {II Paradiso degli Alherti, I, ii, p. 240) speaks
of " quel ciclo leggendario che noi diciamo dei fratelli artifici," laying
himself open to the objection that the lovers are not always brothers
and not always artificers. Therefore I submit The Contending Lovers
as indicating more accurately an important and distinctive feature,
namely the striving of the suitors both by deed and by argument
for the hand of the desired maiden.
' The Sources of Chaucer's " Parlement of Foules," Publications of
the Modern Language Association, xxxn (1917), pp. 492 flf.; The
Fowls in Chaucer's Parlement, University of Wisconsin Studies in
Language and Literature, no. 2 (1918), pp. 341 ff.
247
248 WILLAKD EDWAED FARNHAM
especial reference to II Paradiso degli Alherti,^ a work
cut of Chaucer's own period, that the Parlement should
be regarded as a poetical and highly sophisticated version
of the folk-tale. But the curious and interesting features
of The Contending Lovers will support a self-sufficient
study in folk-lore, and such a study is primarily the aim
of the following pages. The Parlement will occasionally
be admitted to the discussion, especially in conclusion,
since relationship to Chaucer necessarily gives the folk-
tale itself an enhanced interest, but only casual arguments
will be made for this relationship. The material, now
studied in detail,* is meant to form its own argument.
The similarities between the Parlenvent and Giovanni
da Prate's tale of the founding of Prato in II Paradiso
degli Alherti have already been sufficiently exploited.
Moreover, both Chaucer and Giovanni tell such sophisti-
cated elaborations that a neglect to discuss them syste-
matically in this study of the simpler folk versions does
small violence to good order.
'Publications of the Modern Language Association, xxxii, pp.
^' 495 ff.
j^ * Much material has become available since Benfey's Ausland essay
<V (see note 1) and Wesselof sky's notes to the tale of the founding of
Prato {II Paradiso degli Alberti, Bologna, 1867, I, ii, pp. 238 ff.).
Valuable as both works are, no attempt is made by either of these
scholars to distinguish or study types, and Benfey confines his study
largely to one type. In addition to these two treatments there are
convenient collections of notes or scattered presentations of material
in Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, 1887, i, pp. 277 flf. ; D'Ancona,
Stud) di Critica e Storia Letteraria, Bologna, 1912, revised and
enlarged edition, n, pp. 160 ff.; Kohler, Kleinere 8ch.riften, I, pp.
438 ff.; Chauvin, BihliograpMe dcs Ouvrages Arabes, 1892-1909, vi,
p. 133, note 3, and vin, p. 76; Basset, Revue des Traditions Popu-
laires, va (1892), p. 188, note 4; Cosquin, Revue des Traditions
Populaires, xxxi (1916), pp. 98 ff., and 145 ff. Bolte und Polivka,
AnmerkuJigen zu den Kinder- u. Hausmarchen dcr Briidcr Grimm,
Band iii, 1918, which was delayed by the war and has but recently
become available, furnishes by far the best and most exhaustive col-
lection of notes. (Xo. 129, pp. 45-58.)
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 249
ORIENTAL ORIGINS
From first to last The Contending Lovers is rightfullv
a problem tale, and jet its peculiar ending lias never been
duly emphasized. The plot is sometimes simple, some-
times complex, but it always deals with the almost equal
claims to a maiden by a number of suitors. However the
claims may be brought into being — and their foundations
are extremely varied — they are always so nearly alike in
merit that a contention arises among the lovers. Fre-
quently a judge or even the maiden herself cannot decide
the dispute, and thus there is provocation to discussion on
the part of the audience, which, when all is said and done,
seems to be the point of the story.
The hoax is made plain, as will be seen, by the Oriental
story frameworks which incorporate the earliest recorded
versions. Like so many stories which have been adopted
by Europe The Contending Lovers was, so far as is known,
born in India, and from its birthplace travelled a well
recognized route, first appearing in Sanskrit, then in Per-
sian, then in Arabic, and finally in European languages.
Oldest are four versions in the famous Sanskrit Vetdla-
panchavinsati (Twenty-five Tales of a Demon), which are
even here differentiated as four separate types, and which
later produce a numerous progeny in kind. These stories
form part of the traditions gathered together in the Vetdla-
panchavinsati and other compilations around that King
Arthur of India, the Rajah Vikramaditya, who was a his-
torical king of the first century B. C.^ The Qivaddsa re-
^ For brief information see Babington, The Veddla Cadai, 1831
{Misc. Trs. from Oriental Langs.), Preface, p. iv; Sagas from the
Far East, 1873, p. 245; Oesterley, Baital Pachlsl, 1873, Einleitung,
p. 2.
250 WILLARD EDWARD FABNHAM
daction of tlie Vetdlapanchavinsati ^ may be dated by in-
ternal evidence as probably of the sixth century after
Christ,^ but its tales were no doubt old when collected, and
originally may have had nothing to do with Vikramaditya.
From the most ancient collections built around the
heroic figure of Vikramaditya ^ we shall trace occurrences
of our folk-tale in rough chronological order through Per-
sian and Arabic works; important versions which have
severed the traditional connection with Vikramaditya will
appear in the Persian TutirNcima, the Persian 8indihdd-
. Ndma or Book of Shidihdd, and the Arabic Thousand and
One Nights.
The Vetdla Versions
The framework of the Vetdlapanchavinsati demonstrates
that four divergent versions of The Contending Lovers
were very early problem stories pure and simple. The
problems they offered were never meant to be fully settled.
Room for discussion was always to be left open. Every
tale in the Vetdla collection is so unsatisfactorily and
tantalizingly concluded that it will make the character to
whom it is told break a silence which it is greatly to his
' A text of the Vetdlapancliavinsati has been constituted by Uhle
based largely on the Qivadasa redaction {Die Vetdlapaficavincatika,
in den Recensionen des Qivadasa und eines TJngenwnnten, von Hein-
rich Ulile, Leipzig, 1S81). However, the tales are not fully trans-
lated and those which have been translated arc to be found in
scattered places. The first six, the eighth, and the twelfth are
accessible in translations into European languages. (See notes to
tales given in following pages.) The Hindi Baital PacMsl, however,
includes all the Vetala tales and has been translated into English
and German.
* Oesterley, Baital Pachlsl, Einleitung, p. 3.
* The Vetdla tales are also part of the more modern Sanskrit
collection Kathd-Sarit-Sdgara. The Siddhi-K-iir is a IMongolian
Vetdla redaction, and among Indian dialect versions are the Tamul
Veddla Cadai and the Hindi Baitdl Pachlsl.
THE CONTENDINa LOVEES 251
interest to keep. The veliicle which carries the tales is
this : ^
Vikramaditya is a powerful king, and about his throne, which is
called Sinhasana, wise men and famous gather. On a certain day a
Yogi, Cantigila by name, comes to the king's castle, and after pleas-
ing him greatly by a gift of fruits in each of which is contained a
marvellous jewel, obtains the king's promise to help him in some
incantations which will gain power over spirits. The king keeps a
rendez-vous with the sorcerer, who sends him to a spot where dead
bodies are burned, telling him that on a certain tree he will find a
corpse hanging. This he must cut doAvn and bring back with him,
being careful not to speak, however, or the body will go back and
suspend itself once more on its tree. Then his work will be to do
all over again. The king finds the corpse, climbs the tree, and cuts
it down. Throwing it over his shoulder, he starts to return, but
within the body there is a Vetala or demon, who speaks to the king
and proposes to make the journey less wearisome by telling stories."
The Vetala tells twenty-five tales in all, and at the conclusion of
each tale except the last the king immediately breaks silence to give
a decision or opinion on the problem raised by the narration. The
demon then goes back to the tree. After the twenty-fifth tale, the
king is so perplexed with the problem that he cannot find an answer.
The Vetala then tells the king that his ready wit has so pleased him
that he will warn him of harm intended by the Yogi. Following the
Vetdla's instructions, the king kills the Yogi on his return, and is
assured a successful and happy reign for many years thereafter.
The first version of The Contending Lovers is the second
tale of the collection : "^
^ See Der VetalapancavitiQati, oder fiXnfxmdzwanzig erzdhlungen
eines Daemon, erster Teil, tr. A. Luber, Gorz, 1875, pp. 14 fF. The
Hindi Baital Pachisi will be used to supplement direct translations
from the Sanskrit. The minor variations in the tales which it gives
are of small importance for our purposes. The Baital has been
translated into English by W. Burckhardt Barker, Hertford, 1855.
'The introduction is fuller and slightly different in the Baital
PacMsl, where we are given more traditional matter about King
Vikramaditya, or Bikram, as he is here called. For variations in
introduction among other versions of the Vetala collection see Oester-
ley, work cited, pp. 171 ff.
^ I summarize from a French translation of the Civadasa redac-
tion: La Jeune Fille et les Trois Brahmanes, tr. Victor Henry from
Uhle's text, Bev. des Trad. Pop., I (1886), pp. 370 ff.
252 WILLARD EDWAED FARNHAM
A brahman named Kegava has a daughter justly famed for her
beauty. Three brahmans ask her in marriage, and they are of such
equal merit that the father is much perplexed to know how he shall
decide among them. However, the maiden suddenly dies by the bite
of a serpent. The lovers are stricken with grief. One mounts the
pyre and is consumed along with the body of his beloved. The
second constructs a small hut in the cemetery and guards the tomb
in which the ashes are placed. The third makes a vow 61 asceticism
and departs for another country.
On his travels, the third lover stops with a brahman and his wife
who offer him their hospitality. He is horrified to see the woman
throw her child into the fire for a trifling ofTense. However, he is
reassured when the father produces a book out of which he reads a
formula that soon restores the child to life. At night the lover
steals away with the book. When he has reached the cemetery, he
tries the formula, and finds it efficacioiis in bringing to life both the
girl and the lover who had died on her pyre.
Thereupon the three brahmans in angry fashion dispute for the
hand of the girl.^
When he has finished his relation, the demon says, " O roi, parle,
de qui doit-elle etre I'epouse?" The king makes answer, "6coute:
celui qui a ressuscitS la jeune fille est son p6re, puisqu'il lui a donng
la vie; celui qui est mort avec elle est son frfere, puisqu'il est n6
avec elle; celui qui doit I'gpouser c'est celui qui a gardfi sa tombe."
The demon then escapes and returns to hang himself on his tree.
This is an excellent example of an early subdivision in
the general class of contending lover tales, namely, that in
v;hicli the services of the striving lovers procure a resusci-
tation of the maiden. The descendants of this type are
numerous. Very often the resuscitated maiden is not dead
but dying.
The second version of our tale is the fifth of the collec-
tion : ®
^In Luber's translation we have a variant version (ii. Erziihlung,
pp. 25 ff. ) . The lovers are four. A dies on the funeral pyre, B
gathers the ashes and holds watch over them, C travels as a religious
man, D goes back to his home and does nothing. The Baital has
three lovers, but the first and second divide the custody of the ashes,
and the first does not die. Henry translates still another variant
with three lovers in Rev. des Trad. Pop., i, pp. 372 ff.
''Translated by Benfey, Klcincre Schriftcn, ii, iii, pp. 96 ff., and
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 253
Haridasa, the minister of King Mahabala, has a daughter named
Mahade%a, who is exceedingly beautiful and has just reached mar-
riageable age. But the girl demands, " Father, give me only to
someone who possesses an imrivalled natural gift." While he is off
in another country transacting diplomatic business, Haridasa finds
a suitor who seems in every way acceptable. Meanwhile the eldest
brother of the girl, and also the mother, find acceptable young
brahmans. All three suitors have been definitely promised the hand
of the maiden. One has a chariot ready to his instant command
which will go anj^vhere through the air. The second has the art of
divination. The third is an exceptionally skilful marksman with
bow and arrow.
The bralimans have already commenced an argument among them-
selves as to their rights to the girl under the promises made to them,
when she is abducted by a Raksliasa, or evil spirit, and carried
away to a mountain. The man of knowledge has no trouble in
learning just where the maid has been taken. The owner of the
chariot volunteers its use to the marksman, and the latter succeeds
in killing the Raksliasa and rescuing the maid. Strife now ensues
between the suitors as to their new claims, and there is deep per-
plexity on the part of the father, who is called upon to pass judg-
ment.
The Vetala asks King Vikramuditya for an opinion, and the king
decides that the man of knowledge should possess the maid. On the
Vetala's protesting that all the suitors have gifts of equal worth,
the king replies that the man of knowledge has six natural gifts
which would make him feared by the gods themselves."
This version too is tlie early representative of a type.
It is distinguished by the rescue of a captured maiden
which the lovers accomplish by means of natural gifts, or
magic things such as the chariot.
The third tale of contending lovers is the sixth of the
Veidla collection. Although it does not belong to the group
which has had most influence on European folk-literature,
also by Luber. The Baital is remarkably close to the Sanskrit
version.
^""Eifer, Muth imd Geduld, Starke, Weisheit und hohe Tapfer-
keit, wer fiber diese sechs Gaben herrscht, den furchten die Gotter
eelbst," translates Benfey (see p. 98).
254 WrLLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
and althoiigli it may seem at first to be somewliat outside
the well-defined class under consideration, it has unde-
niable relation to the problem tales in wbicb a loved one
is the subject of dispute. It is as follows: ^^
A washerman goes to the temple of the goddess Devi, and there sees
and is smitten with love lor the daughter of the king's washerman.
He vows to the goddess on the spur of the moment that if he can
obtain her to wife, he will offer his ov\ti head as a sacrifice. A
friend takes pity on him because of his love-longifig, acts as go-
between, and succeeds in bringing the marriage to pass. As bride-
groom and friend are taking the bride home after the ceremony, they
pass the temple of Devi, and the bridegroom is suddenly reminded of
his vow. He leaves his wife and his friend by the roadside, enters,
and without more ado decapitates himself. After a time his friend
begins to wonder at his delay, and leaving the wife, finds the other
weltering in his blood. He is obsessed by fear that suspicion will
attach to him, and cuts off his head. The bride soon finds the two
corpses, and is about to strangle herself when the goddess speaks
and bids her replace the heads on the bodies. This she starts to do,
but in her joyful haste she mixes the heads, and places the wrong
ones on the bodies. A dispute arises.
To which combination of head and body does the woman belong
as wife, asks the Vetdla? The king decides that she belongs to the
husband's head, since of all parts of the body, the head is the best.^*
Of all the versions of Tlie Contending Lovers in the
Vetdla collection tbe most interesting for purposes of com-
parison witb tbe Paradiso and tbe Parlement of Foules is
the seventh tale told to King Vikramaditya : ^^
King Champakeshwar of the city of Champapur has a daughter
named Tribhuvan who is beautiful beyond description. When it ia
known that the king and queen are considering marriage for their
daughter, monarchs of all kingdoms round about cause their por-
" Translated by Benfey, Orient und Occident, i (1S62), pp. 730 ff.
"The version in the Baital Pachisi is the same in all essential
details.
" I siunmarize from the Baital Pachtsl, tr. Barker, 1855, pp. 157 ff.,
Oesterley has had the chance to compare the Baital version with a
siunmary of the Vetdla tale, and finds little difference between the
two.
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 255
traits to be submitted to the maid. But she is not pleased with any
one of them. Then the father says, " Malce clioice of a husband
thyself." She answers that she must have a husband who is at once
the happy possessor of good looks, good qualities, and good sense.
Four suitors from different countries present themselves before the
king and make their claims.
The first says, " I can malce a certain cloth which I sell for five
rubies," and explains to what use he puts his gains. " My good
looks are apparent," he modestly concludes.
The second says, " I understand the language of water and land
animals, of birds and of beasts, and I have no equal in strength j of
my comeliness you may yourself judge."
The third claims perfect knowledge of the Shastras and an
obviously handsome mien.
The fourtli also claims unique knowledge of the Shastras, and
declares that furthermore he has the art of discharging arrows and
hitting anything which is heard though not seen. Like the others,
he claims self-evident comeliness.
The father hears the speeches of the four, and begins to reflect,
" The four are equal in excellence and attainments, — to which shall
I give the maiden ? " He goes to the daughter, explains the situa-
tion, and asks her to decide for herself. She is abashed, and, hanging
down her head, does not know what to reply.
In answer to the demon's question King Vikramaditya decides
the problem wholly on the basis of caste. He says, " He who made
the cloth and sold it was the Shudr caste, and he who understood
the language of animals was a Vaishya, and he who was acquainted
with the Shastras was a brahman, and he who would discharge an
arrow which should hit what was heard though not seen was of the
same caste as herself, and she was therefore, a fitting wife for him."
The class relationship of all four stories just summar-
ized, with the exception of the story of the exchanged
heads, is apparent. A composite summary of them would
be something after this sort: Three or four youths of
noble rank sue for the hand of a well-born maiden, and
although each supports a well-founded claim to his loved
one, he cannot convince the father that he is the one to be
favored above the others. The father finally leaves the
question unsettled. In the story of the exchanged heads
there is a contention between parts of a lover instead of
256 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
between several lovers, but the general situation is similar
to that in the other three tales.
Thus early in our contact with The Contending Lovers
we are certain that the indecisive ending is an organic
part of the structure. The very plan and purpose of the
Vctdla collection precludes the telling of a tale about the
interpretation of which there could not be a possible differ-
ence of opinion. The Vetdlapanchavinsati is a most clever
collection of hoaxes from beginning to end, and an admir-
able climax is the twenty-fifth tale, which tells of a king
who marries a princess and of the king's son who marries
the queen, mother of the father's wife. It is not to be
wondered that the ready King Yikramaditya at last finds
himself nonplussed when the Vetdla asks what relation-
ship exists between the children of the two royal pairs;
this is a poser which might well give pause to a modern
court of law.
Strangely enough, this characteristic hoax feature of our
tale has been hardly considered at all by those who have
discussed its versions. Benfey makes suggestive com-
parisons between types of lovers and their services in the
tales he has collected, but deals only in a casual way with
the indecisive ending.^* Wesselofsky in his summaries
sometimes slights the endings, apparently taking the stories
as complete for his purposes of comparison when he has
traced the lovers through the different sorts of service
which they perform. ^^ Clouston also does not seem to
regard the story as having any characteristic ending. For
instance, he summarizes the tale from Slddlii-Kur and
omits to mention the strife between the lovers and the
opinion passed by King Yikramaditya.^^
"See the Ausland essay already referred to.
^5 See Paradiso, i, ii, pp. 238 ff.
" Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, i, pp. 288 S.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 257
The seventh tale of the Vetalapanchavlnsati, the last
just summarized, has one sharp and important line of
demarcation from the other tales. While in the first two
tales dealing with contending lovers, the Resuscitation and
Rescue tales, a large part of the claims preferred by the
lovers are based on service performed for the maiden, here
there is no service done for the maiden. The arguments
made by the lovers, and the later decision by King Vikra-
maditya, which is really outside the true confines of the
story, are concerned with unapplied accomplishments, and
Vikramaditya's judgment is based wholly on caste or
nobility.
The importance attached to arguments dealing with the
nobility of the suitors in the Parlement of Foules and in
the Paradiso bears resemblance to the emphasis on caste
in the Vetdla tale. Especially striking is the likeness of j,
the argument used by Mars in the Paradiso (namely, that
his protege and Melissa are both of warrior stock) ^"^ to the
argument of King Vikramaditya that the lover of warrior
caste is the only suitor who should rightfully marry the
maiden.
In the Vetdla tales where service is performed we have
some sort of arg-ument by the lovers implied in the dispute
which arises after their performances. But only in the
seventh tale do we find a definite set of pleadings held
before a judge and a schematic set of claims made by each
lover. The judge is, of course, the king, father of the
princess. This court scene seems to represent the begin-
nings of a later elaborate conception. A degree of sophis-
tication has magnified to large proportions the court and
the pleadings before the judge in Giovanni da Prato and
Chaucer.
" Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc, xxxn, p. 499.
258 WILLARD EDWAED FAENIIAM
A most noteworthy incident in the Caste tale is the
perplexity of the father and the final granting of self-
choice to the girl. Here is a sufficiently imusual folk-tale
feature which caps the climax and makes the resemblance
between the Vetdla, tale and both the Paradiso and the
Parlement very thorough-going.
A justifiable contention that this tale, or, indeed, any
other of The Contending Lovers, might have had entirely
different features outside a collection like the Vetdla-
'pancliavmsati, and might have had or have developed a
decisive conclusion that was part of the tale proper, is
militated against by the appearance of this very seventh
Vetdla tale in a wholly dissimilar setting within the Kathd-
Sarit-Sdgara (The Ocean of the Streams of Story), the
rich twelfth-century compilation of classic tales. All four
of the stories of The Contending Lovers are here, and they
are numbered as in the older collection, with the one ex-
ception that Vetdla 7 is here the ninth tale.^^ In each
tale the number of lovers is as it was before, and very few
changes in detail are made. We find a growth in the court
feature, which is perhaps the most outstanding and im-
portant change. In the later work the lovers in every tale
except that of the exchanged heads make set speeches and
lay their claims before a judge. Among these tales, then,
is the Caste story which we are discussing.^^ But the
Vetdla cycle of stories is only one small stream flowing
into The Ocean of the Streams of Story, and we find our
Caste tale a second time in this work, now outside the old
setting and in a place where there is no need on the part
^^ Katlia-Barit-Sagara, tr. C. H. Tawney, Calcutta, 1884, n, pp.
242 ff.
^* Tawney, li, pp. 275 flf. Worthy of note is one change. The man
of knowledge has a more definite accomplishment than before, for
he can restore dead creatures to life.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 259
of a demon to make a hearer break silence. In its new
frame it is called The Story of Anangarati and Her Four
Suitors.^^ The tale has here received some queer twists,
and is worth summarizing.
Anangarati is a princess of far-famed beauty who is about to
marry. She declares that she must have a husband who is brave and
handsome, and who possesses some splendid accomplishment. Four
heroes present themselves before the father of the princess. These
have accomplishments as in the Vetala tale and declare them in
much the same way," except that the man of knowledge claims to
know the art of raising a dead woman to life. The king asks his
daughter which suitor she prefers. She finds fault with each; the
caste, or the wealth, or the general merit of the man does not suit.
She can make no decision. Meanwhile the heroes conduct themselves
nobly in the chase and prove great valor. After the king requests
that his daughter reconsider and make a choice, an astrologer is
called. Hesitatingly he announces that the princess shows con-
formity of horoscope with none of the heroes, and that she is not to
be married on this earth because she is under a curse.
At the end of three months the maid suddenly dies. The brahman
lover who can raise women from the dead hastens to apply his skill,
but is unsuccessful. Grieving at the loss of the maid and the failure
of his powers, he is about to cut off his head, when a voice from the
eky tells him not to mourn, for the maid is in Heaven. It bids him
propitiate a certain goddess that he may hold hope of winning the
maid in another life. ' ,
This version shows some mixture of caste and service
elements, but the man of knowledge fails to perform the
most important service of all. The conception of equal
merit among the suitors is drawn out and played with in
a significant way ; for not only are the claims themselves
so much alike that neither the princess nor the king can
decide the case, but Heaven itself has mysteriously con-
formed the maiden's horoscope to that of no suitor, and
finally takes her to the realmj of bliss apparently to stop
the contention. Again the feature of self-choice appears,
« Tawney, i, pp. 498 ff.
" See sununary on p. 255 above.
260 WILLAKD EDWARD FARNIIAM
and is even made more of tlian in the original Vetdla
version.
Althougli this double appearance of the Caste tale in
the Kathd-Sarit-Sdgara would seem to show that it main-
tained popularity in India during many centuries, never-
theless it is the tale which soon begins to drop out of other
Oriental collections. In the Veddla Cadai, the Tamul
Vetdlapanchavinsati, the story is conspicuous for its ab-
sence. The other three tales of The Contending Lovers
are there, though in a much abbreviated form.^^ The
arguments of the suitors are only implied, not reproduced
and developed as in the Kathd-Sarit-Sdgara tales.
Somewhat outside the ni/ain group which is to be fol-
lowed into Europe through iSanskrit, Persian, and Arabic,
stands one version of The Contending Lovers in the Siddhi-
Kur, or Mongolian Vetdla stories : ^^
There are six youths who are boon companions, a rich man's son,
a doctor's son, a painter's son, an accoimtant's son, a woodcarver'a
son, and a smith's son. All go out into the world to gain their
fortunes, and separate at a place where six streams converge, first,
however, placing six " trees of life " at the point of convergence. If
one of them shall wither, it will indicate that harm has befallen that
youth to whom it belongs.
The rich man's son goes to another land and marries a woman of
such beauty that she seems unearthly. But a powerful clian takes
her away from the youth, and makes her his own wife, eventually
commanding his minions to make way with the rich man's son. This
is done, and his body is buried beneath a rock. Meanwhile the
companions of the youth find the withered tree and set out to follow
the stream along which their comrade travelled. The accoimtant's
son makes computations that allow them to find the rock under
'^The Vedala Cadai, tr. B. G. Babington, London, 1S31 {Misc.
Trs, from Orient. Langs.), vol. i; Vedala Cadai 2 is Vctala 2,
Vedala Cadai 4 is Vetala 5, and Vedala Cadai 5 is Vetala 6.
*'B. Jiilg, Kahniicl-ische Marchen, Leipzig, 1866, no. 1, pp. 5 ff .
The tale is also translated in Sagas from the Far-East, London, 1873,
no. 9, pp. 105 ff.. Five to One.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 2C1
which the dead man is buried, and the smith's son cracks it into bits
with his hammer. Tlie physician's son gives the dead man a potion
which brings him to life. At once the resuscitated young man
bewails the fact that his wife has been ravished from him, and the
companions volunteer to help him to recover her. The woodcarver's
son constructs a marvellous Garuda-bird, cutting it out of wood and
furnishing it with springs which control its flight. The painter's
son adorns this so skillfully that when the rich man's son flies in it
to the Chan's palace, the latter is deceived, and thinks it truly to be
the heavenly Garuda-bird. He sends the wife up to the roof of the
palace to welcome the bird, and the youth takes her into the machine
and flies away with her.
But when the companions see the woman, they are consumed with
love for her. Each maintains that he has first claim to her because
of his contribution to the rescue. Finally the strife leads to the
drawing of knives, and between them they cut the woman into bits.
The tale is in a framework very similar to that which
holds the Vetdia stories,^'* but when the demon in this case
has finished his narration, the king breaks silence merely
to express pity for the woman. That this particular type
of The Contending Lovers dealing with a rescue has gone
through many changes since it has left India, and that it
has in the course of its travels to the Mongols picked up
some new material from the general stock of folk-lore, is
at once apparent. The trees of life, or their counter-
parts,^° are found in stories which can have had nothing
to do at any time with The Contending Lovers.
The tale in the Siddhi-Kilr has been made more com-
plicated, and in a sense its problem has been debased, by
the changes which have been made in the number and
character of the lovers. Where we have hitherto found
lovers of noble blood, we now find artisans and sons of the
people. ISTobility and caste now, of course, have no bearing
'^^ BiddM-Kilr means a dead body endowed with supernatural
powers, substantially a demon like the Vetdia.
*^ Sometimes knives are stuck in the trees to indicate by rust
harm to the owners.
2
262 WILLARD EDWARD FARISrHAM
at all upon the suits preferred by the youths. Increasing
the number of lovers is a simple method of increasing in-
terest by adding material. The whole tale shows evidences
at different points of fusion between The Contending
Lovers and other folk-tales.
Nevertheless, the classification of the version is not diffi-
cult, for in all essentials it belongs to the Eescue type of
The Contending Lovers. The powerful chdn takes the
place of the monster which abducts the girl in the old
Vetdla Rescue tale. The general character of changes due
to Mongolian influence has been well pointed out by
Benfey.^*^
Versions in the Throne Collections
A second general cycle of tales clustering around the
hero-king Vikramaditya is supposed to be told by different
spirits residing in Vikramaditya's throne many years after
his death. N^o tale of The Contending Lovers appears in
the Sanskrit redaction, and but one is to be found in the
Mongolian. In the Persian, however, are four well devel-
oped and artistically told versions, one of a type that has
not been met before. With the Throyisagen, as with the
Vetdla stories, we are dealing with folk-lore which is dif-
ficult to date, but which doubtless is very old.
Although the Sanskrit Sinhdsana-dvdtrinsati (Thirty-
two Tales of a Throne) affords no tale of The Contending
Lovers in either the Jainica recension -"^ or the Bengali
translation known as the Batris-SinhasanJ^^ yet it does
offer certain elements which may be used to explain the
acquisition of the tales of contending lovers by the later
redactions. The framework of the cycle is simple in the
^ Ausland essay, Klcinere Schriften, n, iii, pp. 103 ff.
2^Tr. A. Weber, Indische Studien, XV (1878), pp. 184 flf.
«« Tr. Ldon Feer, Paris, 1S83.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 263
earliest form we know, and changes very little as it is
reworked. In the Sanskrit it is briefly this :
King Bhoja finds tlie throne of his glorious predecessor Vikrama-
ditya and wishes to ascend it, hut is hindered on thirty-two attempts,
each time by a spirit who dwells in one of the thirty-two statues
decorating the throne. He is told that Vikramaditya pleased the
gods by his wonderful reign, and that the throne was buried at his
death. Each time the new king tries to ascend the throne he is told
a story about its first possessor intended to show how wonderful
that monarch was and how unworthy he, the new aspirant, is of
occupying the hero's seat. Finally the spirits depart, having fulfilled
their mission of instruction, and Bhoja ascends the throne.
jSTaturally this framework by its associations with Vikra-
maditya might draw over to it some of the Vetdla tales.
But the amusing and popular tale of lovers' contention
found in the Ardsclii-Bonlsclii-Chan,~^ the Mongolian col-
lection of the Throne stories, is not one of those in the
Vetdlapancliavinsati:
Ardschi-Bordschi learns that in a certain place the haughty and
beautiful anchoress Xaran-Chatun sits in silence, and that whoever
can make her speak twice may gain her as his wife. The chan goes
to her with four companions, whom by magic power he transforms
into articles in and around the altar of Naran-Chatun. Then he
tells two problem stories, and each time his companions disgust the
anchoress so much by their discussion of the problem that she delivers
her own opinion, and breaks silence. One of these stories is our tale :
Four youths of four tribes go to mind their ftocics. During the
weary watches one passes the time by hewing the figure of a woman
out of wood, and leaves it where he has made it. The second youth
finds it and paints it in life-like colors, also going away and leaving
his work. The third endows it wath wit and understanding, and the
fourth, thinking it a pity that such a creation should remain nothing
but wood, touches his lips to those of the statue and breathes into
the figure the breath of life, making it a woman capable of loving.
Now each youth claims the woman for his own, and the dispute is
taken to the king for decision.
^B. Jiilg, MongoliscJie MarcJien-Sammlmig, 1868, pp. 238 ff. Also
in Sagas from the Far East, 1873, pp. 298 ff.
264 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
After the narration of the above tale the objects around
Naran-Chatun's altar argue the case^ and each upholds the
claims of a lover. ISTaran-Chatun finally declares for the
fourth suitor.
An entirely new form of The Contending Lovers, which
we may designate the Creation type, here comes to light
for the first time. Whether or not it is as old as the other
types we cannot say, nor can we say for certain how it
reached the Mongols. Probably, however, it is as much a
native of India as those versions found in the Vetdla-
imncliavinsati, for it appears in collections in other Ori-
ental languages which certainly draw material from India.
One of these compilations is the Senguehassen-Battissi, to
which we shall now turn.
The Persian Sengueliassen-Battissi has substantially the
same frame to hold its thirty-two tales as the Sanskrit
Throne collection. King Bhoja, the aspirant to Vikra-
maditya's throne, becomes the Rajah Behoudje, and the
talcs are told to him by thirty-two genies. The four ver-
sions of The Contending Lovers are in a frame within a
frame, very much as in the Ardschi-Bordschi-Chan, and
together form the tenth tale of the work : ^'^
The Rajah B^kermadjiet (Vikramaditya) goes to the palace of a
famous queen and wins her for another love-sick rajah by making
her break silence four times in one night. To do this the rajah tells
four stories. After each relation he asks the lamp, or the queen's
girdle, or some one of the other articles in which one of his friendly
genies are residing what it thinks of the problem raised by the tale.
Invariably the queen is dissatisfied with the answer given and passes
her own opinion, roundly berating the article for its foolish judg-
ment.
The first of Bekermadj let's tales is a Rescue version of
The Contending Lovers. It is substantially the same talc
'"Tr. Baron Lescailler, Le Trdne Enchants, New York, 1817, I,
pp. 177 flf.
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 265
as the Rescue version in the V etalapancliavinsati, for the
lovers possess the same accomplishments and prosecute
their rescue in the same way, except that a m,agic horse
takes the place of a magic chariot. But a very noteworthy
change is the addition of the episode of self-choice, which
is found only in the Caste tale of the Vetdla collection.
Moreover, the maid asks time to make this choice. The
exact words of the translation are these : " Le marchand
fit part a sa fille des propositions, et des differens talens
des trois jeunes gens qui pretendoient a sa main; elle
demanda jusqu'au lendemain pour faire connoitre sa re-
ponse." ^^
The opportunity to suggest a comparison of this with
the formel's request for delay in the Parlement of Foules
is irresistible.
The second tale told hy Bekermadjiet to the queen is
that of the mixed heads. It is almost the same story as
that in the Vetdlapanchavinsati. At its conclusion the
queen's girdle expresses the opinion that the woman is
rightfully the wife of the body, and the queen angrily
declares for the head as the seat of understanding.
The third tale is a Resuscitation version :
\\Tien, a girl's corpse is being borne to tlie burial ground, one
suitor obtains permission to raise the covering on tbe bier and take
one last look at the loved one. The second suitor, a physician,
approaches and discovers signs of life. He proposes ceremonies that
will restore the girl to full health, and the third suitor carries these
out. An argument follows, and each suitor presents his claims
before the parents.
At B6kermadjiet's question the vase decides for the man who
raised the covering of the bier, and the queen then breaks silence a
third time to say that anyone of understanding can see that the girl
belongs to the suitor wlio performed the resuscitation ceremonies.
Her reasons are that the first suitor is already recompensed by the
** Lescailler, i, pp. 191-2.
2GG WILLABD EDWAED FAENIIAM
sight of the girl, and that the second is rewarded by the reputation
arising from his having prescribed tlie cure, whereas the third youth
can only be rewarded by the girl herself.
Instead of collecting the maiden's ashes as in the Vetdla-
pancJiavinsatij the lover who makes the resuscitation pos-
sible here pcrformis a service that is even more fortuitous
bj raising the covering on the bier. It is through no skill
or forethought on his part that the maiden is found to show
signs of life.
The fourth and last tale told to the queen is of the
Creation type. This version of the wooden woman story
is more expanded than that in the Ardschi-Bordschi-Chdn,
and a few changes have been made. The painter has be-
come a jeweler, and the man Avho gives wit and under-
standing has become a clothier. Certainly it would be
highly interesting to know where the Creation type joined
our stories. The other three tales of The Contending
Lovers in the Persian show clearly a close relation to
Indian sources, though, as it happens, not to the Indian
Throne stories, but to the Vetdla. It is highly probable
that there was a Sanskrit version of the Creation type
which we do not now know.
Veesions in the Tilti-Ndma
Our tale now loses all relation with Vikramaditya, and
is more or less cleverly fitted into frameworks quite dif-
ferent from those of the Vetdlapanchavinsati or the
Senguehassen-Battissl. It has now become well acclimated
in Persian territory, and has thus alni,ost completed an
important leg of its journey toward Europe.
A Persian story compilation which probably draws
material from some of the oldest Indian sources is the
Tuti-Nama. It has a Sanskrit prototype in the (Jiika-
saptati, but for the tale of The Contending Lovers the
o
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 267
Persian redaction is the one of real importance.^^ This
furnishes three types of our story, and one of the three is
u Creation version, which would seem to have been popular
ct the time Persian rifacimenti of Indian works were in
the process of making.
The age and author of the (Jukasaptati have not been
determined. It takes its name (meaning The Seventy
Tales of a Parrot) from the supposed telling of the stories
to a woman by a parrot, and the framework is funda-
mentally the same for both Sanskrit and Persian works.
A merchant goes away on a journey, and the wife immedi-
ately allows her thoughts to turn to the joys she may have
with a lover. A parrot who belongs to the husband cleverly
detains the womjan from wrong-doing by telling one or
ujore tales each night as she is about to go to meet her
paramour. In the Sanskrit the tales are seventy, the gen-
eral plan calling for one relation each night, but in the
Persian of Zijai-ed-din-lSTachshebi, probably of the begin-
ning of the fourteenth century, the nights are reduced to
fifty-two and more than one tale is given each night. In
later versions the nights are yet more reduced, while as
many as five and six tales are told in one night. Such is
the case in the Turkish version.^^
Notwithstanding the similarity in general plan between
the Sanskrit and Persian works, neither in the Textus
Simplicior,^'* nor in the Textus Ornatior ^^ of the Sanskrit
^^ For a complete discussion of the versions of the Ttiti-Ndma see
Benfey, Gottingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1858, pp. 52911., (Kleinere
Schriften, Ii, iii, pp. 64 ff.),
^ Tfitl-Nameh (Das Papagaienluch) , translated by Georg Rosen,
1858.
^Die Qul-asaptati (Textus Simplicior) aus dem Sanskrit iiber-
setzt von Richard Schmidt, Kiel, 1894.
^Der Textus Ornatior dcr (Jiikasaptati, von Richard Sclrmidt,
Stuttgart, 1896.
268 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
is any trace of our tale to be discovered. That the parrot's
stock of tales should eventually attract T'Jie Contending
Lovers with its problems and its indecisive conclusion is
natural, however, for this framework would welcome its
incorporation as much as the Throne framework. In the
QuJcasaptati the parrot usually tells his tale up to the most
interesting point and then hesitates until the merchant's
wife, Prabhavati, has asked him to tell the ending. How
well our tale will fit such a scheme may be easily seen.
The tales of the Tuti-Ndma which I shall discuss appear
in a Persian version in which the parrot's stories have been
reduced to thirty-five^** and which was probably made in
the seventeenth century as an abridgment of the Persian
of Nachshebi.^''' Because they have by now become famil-
iar, I shall try to present them in. the briefest possible
form. The fifth of the collection is the tale of the wooden
woman : ^^
A goldsmith, a carpenter, a tailor, and a hermit are keeping watch
by turn one night in a desert place. Each contributes of his ability
and helps to make a beautiful woman, the carpenter beginning with
a block of wood, and the hermit bringing this to life. The inevitable
dispute arises.
Thus far the story is as we have found it before with only slight
changes. But the conclusion takes a new and amusing turn. In
the words of the translation we are told: " In short, this dispute had
continued a long time when accidentally there came to the spot a
person whom they desired to do justice between them. When this
man saw the woman's face, he exclaimed, ' This is my lawful spouse,
whom you have seduced from my house, and separated from me,'
After this manner he seized and carried them before the Cutwal.
When the Cutwal beheld the woman's countenance, he cried out,
'This is my brother's wife, whom he took with him on a journey;
you have killed my brother, and taken the woman by force.' "
*" The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, translated for J. Debrett,
London, 1801.
*'See Benfey, Eleinere Scliriften, ii, iii, p. 66.
* Translation for Debrett, pp. 49 flF.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 269
Finally the Cazy claims the woman as his bondmaid, and the four
suitors of the original dispute have been augmented to seven. An
old man now recommends submission of the case to the Tree of
Decision. The tale concludes : " To shorten the story, these seven
men went under the tree, and also carried the woman along with
them; and each of them set forth the circumstances of his particular
case. On the instant, the trunk of the tree divided asunder, and the
woman ran into the cleft, upon which the tree united, and she disap-
peared. A voice proceeded from the tree, (saying) that everything
returns to first principles; and the seven suitors for the woman were
overwhelmed with shame." "
As we found our Caste tale from the VetdlapancJia-
vin~sati amplified in the Katlia-Sarit-Sdgara, and the idea
of the impossibility of decision much dwelt upon, here we
meet the Creation tale under the same circumstances.
The problem gets worse and worse and the suitors more
numerous as the disputants go from judge to judge, and
finally the woman is turned back into wood, it being
thereby implied that the problem is in fact incapable of
solution.
The parrot begins the twenty-second tale, which is of the
now well-established Rescue type, after this fashion : " My
mistress, go this time to the house of your lover, and relate
to him the story of the merchant's daughter in order to try
his understanding. If he gives you a proper answer, you
may esteem him wise." The tale thus is a hoax to be used
as a test.^*^ It has few new features and need not be
summarized.
For the testing of the lover's wisdom the parrot also
recommends the telling of the twenty-fourth tale, which
deals with the mjixed heads : *^
A king's son vows to a god that if he obtains his loved one he will
^This tale appears in Rosen's Turkish version, Theil i, pp. 151 ff.
^Translation for Debrett, pp. 113 flf. See Rosen, n, pp. 165 flf. for
the Turkish version.
« Translation for Debrett, pp. 122 if.
270 WILLARD EDWAED FAENHAM
sacrifice his head. He marries her and later makes a journey to his
father-in-law with his new wife and a friend. The two men decapi-
tate themselves just as in stories of this type previously cited, and
the woman mixes heads when she comes to put them back. Then
begins " a dispute between the prince's body and the brahmin's head,
each claiming her for his wife."
In answer to Khojisteh's question, the parrot gives what he
regards as the correct solution : " The rightful owner of that woman
is the husband's head, because the head is the seat of wisdom, and
presides over the body."**
The Resuscitation tale is missing from versions of the
Tuti-Ndma to which I have had access. It is possible that
it appears in some collection which is not abridged.
The principal contribution of the Tuti-Ndma to The
Contending Lovers is the interesting conclusion added to
the Creation type. It is significant, however, that the par-
rot recommends two of the tales as means by which to test
the perspicacity of Khojisteh's lover. Clearly the bird
regards them as problem stories, and the fact that he gives
an opinion of his own as to the way they should be solved
would not hinder the holding of different opinions by
readers of the tales.
The Version in the Sindihad-Ndma
There remains another Persian version of our tale to
consider. It furnishes at least one important variation,
and we have now reached a point where anything new may
bear fruit nuany fold after its seed has been sown on Euro-
pean soil. In the 8indihdd-Ndma, or Booh of Sindihdd,
a Persian redaction of the Seven Wise Masters, is a tale
of The Contending Lovers which shows evidence of change
and combination due to contact with other folk-tales. It
is one of the final tales told by the prince : ^^
"See Rosen, ii, pp. 169 IT. for the Turkish version.
« W. A. Clouston, The Book of BindiUd, 1884, pp. 106 ff. The tale
does not occur in other important eastern texts of the Seven Wise
Masters. See the comparative table at the beginning of the work.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 271
A king has a beautiful daughter who is carried ofT by a div
(corresponding to the Hindu rakshusa) . He promises to give half
his kingdom and the daughter in marriage to anyone who will rescue
her. There are in his city four brothers with peculiar gifts who are
ready to undertake the task. One is a guide who has travelled all
over the world, one is a daring freebooter, who is capable of taking
the prey from the lion's mouth if necessary, one is a daring cavalier
and fighter, and the last is a physician of wondrous power. The
guide finds the maid in a cave within a mountain, the freebooter
steals her, the warrior slays demons who pursue the companions, and
the physician revives the maid when it is fovmd that she is seriously
ill. The king gives rewards to all, but gives the daughter and the
throne to the warrior.
The tale is a misfit, it would seem, in tlie framework of
the Seven Wise Masters, l^o strife is said to have occurred
between the lovers, and there is small matter for a problem,
since the king has no difficulty in choosing the warrior as
the most meritorious. But it is important to note the addi-'
tion to the ranks of the lovers of one man boasting a novel
profession, that of thievery, and also the addition of a new
episode in the slaying of pursuing demons by the warrior,
!Meither the thief nor the pursuing demons have been met
before in our tale, and both of these innovations will be
found immensely popular in Europe. Although the ver-
sion is primarily of the Rescue type, there is some tele-
scoping of Rescue and Resuscitation themes, and this gives
the maid a chance to be both taken from the demon by one
brave hero and cured from a dangerous illness by another.
The Version in the Thousand and One Nights
In the Arabian Thousand a7id One Nights, The Con-
tending Lovers is mingled with another tale to form the
story of Prince Ahmed and the Fay Pari-Banou. The
first part of this is plainly a story with close similarities
to the Resuscitation type; the second belongs to quite a
272 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
different class of tales, as Cosquin has sliown.'*^ The ver-
sion represented by the introduction to the Prince Ahmed
story has had enormous influence on European folk-
literature, a fact to which numerous descendants of the
type will be found to testify. Many of these seem almost
certainly to have been subjected to no means of trans-
laission except that by word of mouth, but some are imder
suspicion of having been adopted into circulation among
the folk from Galland's Les Mille et Une Nuits.^^ The
tale is this:^«
A sultan takes his niece Nourounniliar to rear in his own house-
hofd after her father's death. On perceiving that his three sons,
Houssain, Ali, and Ahmed, are all enamoured of her, he tries vainly
to show that three men cannot marry one maiden, and that they
should conquer their passions. Finally he proposes that each one
shall travel to a different country and return with a rare and
extraordinary thing. He who obtains the most rare and singular
article shall marry the princess.
Houssain, the eldest, goes to the city of Bisnagar, and buys there
a carpet wherewith one may transport one's self instantly wherever
one wishes' to go merely by forming the wish.
Ali goes to Schiraz, the capital of Persia, where he buys a tube of
ivory through which one may see whatever one wishes in any part of
the world.
** Revue des Traditions populaires, xxxi (1916), pp. 98 ff., and
pp. 145 ff.
^ This tale with the adventures of Prince Ahmed is one of those in
Galland's work which can now be found in no Oriental original.
Galland, it was even thought at one time, might have constructed
the tale himself, but it is now thought by many that such a suspicion
is groundless. For his edition Burton translates it in roundabout
fashion from a Hindustani translation of Galland in order to get rid
of " inordinate Gallicism." Cosquin's ire is considerably aroused at
this attitude {Revue des Traditions populaires, xxxi, pp. 116 ff.),
and somewhat justly, since after all Galland's French is the closest
text we have to what is probably a genuine Oriental story. Clouston
in his note to the tale in Burton expresses wonder that anyone
should accuse Galland of fabricating a tale that rings so true. See
Burton, Supplemental Nights, Appendix, rn, p. 600.
*^ Galland, ed. 1881, x, pp. 1 ff.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 2'73
Alimed, the youngest, goes to Samarcande, where he buys a pecu-
liar apple of which anyone who is ill has but to smell, and he will
then be cured.
Sfter a time the brothers meet and display their rare articles.
But by means of his telescope Ali suddenly sees that the princess
is at the point of death. Houssain offers the use of his carpet by
which the brothers are at once transported to the palace. Ahmed
then cures the princess with his apple.
Each lays claim to tlie maid, but the sultain says, " Ainsi, comme
ni le tapis ni le tuyau d'ivorie, ni la pomme artificielle ne donnent
pas la uioindre preference il I'un plus qu'i\ I'autre, mais au contraire
une parfaite ggalite a chacun, et que je ne puis accorder la princesse
Nourounnihar qu'a un seul, vous voyez vous-memes que le seul fruit
que vous avez rapports de votre voyage est la gloire d'avoir con-
tribu6 ggalement a lui rendre la sant^."
■Consequentiy tlie sultan finds a new way to decide which
one of his sons shall marry his niece. JSTow follows the
second part of the tale, and this part must really be re-
garded as the central story to which the account of the
resuscitation of the princess has been attached as a mere
opening episode. The sultan decrees an archery contest,
and promises that the son who shoots farthest shall be
chosen. Ahmed's arrow is lost, and in his search for it he
is led to the retreat of the fay Pari-Banou. This part of
the tale has, of course, no importance for our discussion.
Although I have indicated that the Story of Prince
Ahmed is in its first part close to the Resuscitation type of
The Contending Lovers, it may be easily seen that the
Rescue type has also exercised its influence in certain de-
tails. The first two lovers are recognizable as the man of
knowledge and the speedy traveller who play parts in
rescuing the maiden from a monster in the oldest versions.
A most important change is that by which the lovers are
made to perform their services through the utilization of
magic things instead of magic powers. We have met be-
fore magic things which are used together with magic
powers; the swfit chariot or magic horse of the Rescue
274 WILLABD EDWARD FARNHAM
tale is one of these. But in the Arabic tale there is no
trace of any magic powers or skilled accomplishments. It
is noteworthy that here for the first time the suitors are
brothers. This is due to a borrowing from other folk-
tales,*'^ but so popular did the feature become that in
Europe the lovers of all types of The Contending Lovers
are very often brothers. However, it is by no means to be
supposed that all later versions in which the lovers are
brothers are under influence from the tale recorded in the
Thousand and Oyie Nights.
Definition of Types
During the examination of Oriental sources for The
Contending Lovers which has just been concluded I have
tried to designate the salient features of the various ver-
sions, and to emphasize the hoax or problem characteristics
for all. We are now prepared to marshal the results of
our investigation, and to arrange the versions of the tale
with which we are dealing according to a few sharply
defined types.
Roughly generalized, the arguments of the lovers are
found to rest upon three different classes of things : first,
services which are due to skill or knowledge; secondly,
services which are not due to skill, and which are often
more or less fortuitous ; thirdly, inherent worth, sometimes
thought of as evidenced by nobility.
However, although it is instructive to keep in mind the
character of the lover's claims, the versions of The Con-
tending Lovers are best classified in another way. I make
five sub-divisions, not maintaining that they represent
absolutely pure types among which there is no interchange,
but only that they are to all intents independent in the
*' For a discussion of this matter see pp. 305 ff. below.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 275
Orient, and tliat tlieir definition will prove of great value
in the classification and study of tlie tale for Europe.
I. The Besusciiation Type.'^^ In its most usual form
this type has three well-born lovers. Their claims may
vary. IToAvever, each youth must contribute something
toward the resuscitation of a maiden, who is often a prin-
cess (not so in Senguehassen-Battissi^ tale 10, part 3), and
who may be dead (Vetdla 2), or sick to the point of death
{Bool: of Sindihad and Thousand and One Nights). The
services may be skilled (third lover of Vetdla 2), or un-
skilled and fortuitous (first and second lovers of Sengue-
hassen-Battissi, tale 10, part 1 ; Thousand and One
Nights) .
II. The Bescue Type.'^^ The usual number of lovers
is three, but may be four (Book of Sindibdd), or even six
(8iddhi-Kur) . They claim the maiden, here also usually
a princess, because each through his exceptional gifts has
been able to contribute skilled services toward her rescue
from a demon (Vetdla 5), magician (Senguehassen-
Battissi, tale 10, part 1), powerful king (Siddhi-Kur) .
Three lovers may be regarded as the early nucleus : a man
of knowledge, a fast traveller, and a man of war. Others
may be added, however (Siddhi-Kilr; Booh of Sindihad).
III. The Head Type. N'o services are performed.
The controversy grows out of a mistake made by a woman
in mixing the heads of husband and friend, and placing
them on the wrong bodies. It is really, then, a form of
argument between two mjembers of the body as to inherent
^8 1 do not pretend to make a complete collation of incidents for
the following simimaries. Eeferences to tales are given merely as
examples.
*»This is the type in which Benfey finds the beginnings of Das
Marchen von " den Menschen mit den wunderbaren Eujcnschaftcn."
Consequently it is the type which has attracted to itself most
scholarly interest.
276 WILLARD EDWARD FARNHAM
worth. The lover who cuts off his head may be a man of
low degree (Vetdla G) or a prince (Tuti-Ndma 24).
IV. The Caste T^ype. No services are performed for
the princess by her lovers, who are four, and base their
claims on unapplied accomplishments. The caste of the
suitors is also important when merit comes to be consid-
ered. The youths are a weaver, a man who understands
the language of animals {Vetdla 7), a man of knowledge
{Vetdla 7) who may be able to raise a dead woman to life
{Kathd-Sarit-Sdgara, tale independent of the Vetdla
framework), and a warrior. The king is perplexed and
gives his daughter her own choice. She is, however, unable
to make a decision.
V. The Creation Type. Four young men dispute
about the possession of a woman because each has con-
tributed something to her creation. The first hews a figure
out of wood, the second paints it (Ardschi-Bordschi-Chdn)
or bejewels it (Senguehassen-Battissi, tale 10, part 3 ;
Tuti-Ndma 5), the third gives will and understanding
(Ardschi-Bordschi-Chdn) or clothes it (Senguehassen-
Battissi, tale 10, part 3; Tuti-Ndma 5), and the fourth
gives life. The youths are herdsmen {Ardschi-Bordschi-
Chdn) or tradesmen {Senguehassen-Battissi, tale 10,
part 3).
A product of the mingling of types is the first part of
Prince Ahmed and the Fay Pari-Banou in the Thousand
and One Nights, but the story became so popular in Europe
that it will be well for practical classification to make it
a type by itself, even though it deals primarily with the
Kesuscitation themjO. It will be called the Gifts type,
because the lovers perform their services by means of
magic gifts.
In all the types, the lovers fall into an argument for the
possession of the maiden. They may simply wrangle
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 277
among themselves witliout trying to get a disinterested
person to decide the matter, but more often there is some-
one to whom thej appeal for a judg-ment. As we have
seen, this person is frequently the father of the maiden.
In these disputes by the lovers lies the germ of such an
elaborate court scene as that describecl in the Paradiso or
the Parlement of Foules. We are soon to trace its growth.
It goes without saying that as a rule each one of the
types just described has the indecisive ending which is
characteristic of The Contending Lovers.
II
SUMMAEY OF TEE CONTENDING LOVERS
The evolution of The Contending Lovers after it has
reached Europe, its spread, and the relative popularity
gained among many peoples by the different types which
have been distinguished may be best studied after a syste-
matic classification and summary of versions has been
made. I give in the following pages such a summary. My
purpose being to C&nvey in as short space as possible a
fairly comprehensive knowledge of the different types of
The Contending Lovers, I indicate in all cases what seem
pertinent features of the stories listed. In some cases I
summarize more fully than in others, as the importance of
the versions or their relationship to other versions dictates,
but at all times particular attention is paid to the dispute
between the lovers and the conclusion of the story. Dis-
cussion of the different versions, however, has been re-
served. If this list with its accompanying notes vexes the
reader as a too mechanical dissection of tales that are
usually gracefully told, let me ask him to use it only for
reference and skip to ensuing discussion.
Because of the Chaucer problems which lie in the back-
3
278 WILLABD EDWAED FAENHAM
ground, tlie summary is meant primarily to give in tiie
briefest and most usable form possible a characterization
of European versions vi^liicli are thorouglily representative
of botli peoples and types, but some modern Oriental ver-
sions are included, as are also a few Highly interesting
tales from Africa.^ The Pcirlement of Foules itself has
been left out of the attempted classification. The versions
are grouped as follows :
The Resuscitation type.
The Gifts type.
The Rescue type.
Versions with the Incident of the Ship.
Versions with the Incident of the Tower.
Miscellaneous versions of the Rescue type.
The Creation type.
Anomalous versions.
Chronological classification for any mass of European
folk-lore is, of course, next to impossible. This is one of
the reasons why the method of presenting material has
here been changed from that used with Oriental begin-
nings, where a rough chronological arrangement of the
tales could be made.
THE RESUSCITATION TYPE
Oriental Prototypes. — Vetdlapancliavinsati 2 ; Sengue-
hassen-Bobttissi, tale 10, part 3 ; Booh of Sindibdd.
African. — R. E. Dennett, FolJc-Lore of the Fjort, London,
1898, no. 3, pp. 33-4, How the Wives Restored Their
Husband to Life.
*Lack of space and the inaccessibility of rarer versions in less-
read European languages forbid completeness. For further material
see the indispensable notes to Grimm 129 by Bolte and Polivka,
Anmerl'ungen, Band in (1918), pp. 45-58. In most cases the char-
acter of inaccessible versions there noted is suflBciently indicated.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 279
Curious case where sexes are reversed. Three wives resuscitate
dead husband and dispute about merit. Husband favors her who
has knowledge of life-giving herbs.
Ceylonese. — H. Parker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon,
London, 1910, no, 74, i, pp. 378 £F., The Three Suitors.
A goes to a soothsayer, B watches at the girl's burying place, C
says, " It doesn't matter to me," and goes away. Eesuscitated
maiden chooses C.
Ceylonese. — H. Parker, work cited, no. 82, ii, pp. 36-9
(Variant a). The Nobleman and His Five Sons.
Mutilated. Only three of the sons, to whose number is added
the father, claim the girl. No decision.
Ceylonese. — H. Parker, work cited, no. 82, ii, pp. 42-
3 (Variant c). The Attempt of Four Brahmana
Princes to Marry.
Four brothers learn respectively the sciences of looking at omens,
of going in the sky, of abating poison, and of giving life. Quarrel.
No one gets princess.
Chaldean. — F. Macler, Quatre Contes Chaldeans, Revue
des Traditions Popidaires, xxiii (1908), no. 1, pp.
327 ff., Les Trois Freres.
Brothers go out into the world to learn professions: astronomy,
medicine, civil engineering. Resuscitate maiden. '• Les parents et
les amis vinrent et tinrent conseil; a qui la donner." Decision in
favor of A, the eldest.
Gkeek. — Eev. E. M. Geldart, Folk Lore of Modern
Greece, London, 1884, pp. 106-25, The Golden Casket.
(Translated from the Greek texts collected by Von
Halin and published by J. Pio, Contes Popidaires
Grecs, 1879.)
Told to make a princess break silence. (Cf. Senguehassen-Battissi
10. Three lovers not brothers; A is a famous astrologer, B an emi-
nent doctor, C a swift runner.
Indian. — Cbarles Swynnerton, Indian Nights Entertain-
280 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
ment, 1892, i, p. 228, The Story of All the Merchant
and the Brahmin.
Modern Indian folk version of tlie old Vetdla Resuscitation story.
Italian. — Giovanni da Prato, II Paradise degli Alherti,
ed. Alessandro Wesselofskj, Bologna, 1867, Tale of
tlie Founding of Prato, ii, pp. 98-171. (Summarized
in Publications of the Modern Language Association^
XXXII, pp. 496 ff.)
THE GIFTS TYPE
Oeiental Peototype. — Thousand and One Nights,
Prince Ahmed and the Fay Pari-Banou.
These versions usually bear close resemblance to the
Oriental prototype, and show strikingly small variation
among each other. Three is the universal number of
the lovers.
Afeican. — George W. Ellis, Negro Culture in West
Africa, 'New York, 1914, no. 18, pp. 200 ff.. Three
Rival Brothers.
Magic glass, magic medicine, magic hammock. Dispute taken to
a judge, who is unable to make a decision, and turns the matter over
to the people. " To which of the brothers did the daughter belong ? "
Afeican. — ^Henri A. Junod, Les Chants et les Contes des
BorBonga de la Baie de Delagoa, Lausanne, 1897, no.
27, Les trois Vaisseaux.
Three sons of a white man journey through the world and buy
respectively a basket, a mirror, and a powder, which are the means
of bringing their loved one back to life and causing a hot dispute for
her. Ending takes a nonsensical turn when an old man decrees that
the girl shall be given to the first lover who can say " Mamma."
Afeican. — C. Velten, Mdrchen und Erzdhlungen der
Suaheli, 1898, p. 71. (The tale is here printed in the
dialect. It is summarized by Cosquin, Revue des Tra-
ditions Po'pulaires, xxxr [1916], p. 103.)
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 281
Marvellous articles are a mirror, a mat, and a bottle of scent.
After the three brothers have resurrected the maid they ask her to
choose for herself among them. She does the unexpected, and chooses
the father of the brothers, because, she says, they can then all three
call her " Mamma."
Balochi. — M. Longworth Dames, Balochi Tales, Folk-
Lore, IV (1893), no. 12, pp. 205 ff., The Three Won-
derful Gifts.
Three youths wish to marry the daughter of their imcle, who
sends them on the quest for wonderful gifts. They get a revivifying
bead, a looking-glass, and a flying couch, and thereby restore the
dead loved one to life. Uncle sends lovers to king for judgment,
which is: "According to the law I give her to him who first saw
her while the women were washing her, as he saw her undressed,
and she would be ashamed in his presence."
Bohemian. — Jolm T. ifTaake, Slavonic Fairy Tales, Lon-
don, 18T4, pp. 194 ff., The Wise Judgment.
Sophisticated version. Gifts are a carriage, a looking glass, and
three apples with the usual magic qualities. Father imable to de-
cide among the three brothers and calls in the wise men of the
kingdom. Girl finally awarded to yoimgest suitor.
Geeek. — J. G. VON TTattn, Griechische und Alhanesische
Mdrchen, Leipzig, 1864, no. 47, i, pp. 263 £F., Yon den
drei um die Braut streiteyiden Brildern.
Brothers see, reach, and resuscitate dying maiden by means of
telescope, magic " apfelsine," and flying carpet. Quarrel hopelessly
and father takes girl for his own wife.
Hungarian. — G. Stier, Ungansche Sagen und Mdrchen,
Berlin, 1850, no. 9, pp. 61 ff., Drei Kosthare Dinge.
Very close to the Bohemian version, Naakg, p. 194, even in the
matter of the judgment.
Icelandic. — Adeline Rittersliaiis, Die Neuisldndischen
VolJcsmdrchen, Halle a. S., 1902, no. 43, pp. 183 ff..
Die drei Freier um eine Braut.
Telescope, mantle, apple. An assembly is called to settle the
lovers' dispute, and the decision is that the problem is insoluble
except by a new test.
282 WILLAED EDWAKD FAKNHAM
Icelandic. — Mrs. A. W. Hall, Icelandic Fairy Tales,
London, 1897( ?), pp. 19 ff., The King's Three Sons.
Variant of the preceding version with the judgment scene de-
scribed in greater detail. King calls a great " Thing " or national
assembly and has the brothers exhibit their gifts before it. Set
speeches are made by the brothers, who harangue their audience
with some spirit. No decision reached.
Icelandic. — Jon Arnason, tr. Powell-Magniisson, Ice-
landic Legends, 1866, pp. 348 ff., The Story of the
Three Princes.
Still another variant close to the preceding two.
Italian. — ^Glierardo J^eriicci, Sessanta Novelle Popolari
Montalesi, Firenze, 1880, no. 40, pp. 335 ff., I tre
Eegali.
Father of princess proposes to give her to that one of three
brother princes who will acquire the most wonderful gift for her.
A gets magic flying carpet, B a telescope with a range of one hun-
dred miles, C three grape stones which will resuscitate a dying
person. By means of these princess is resuscitated. No decision.
Italian. — ^^Cliristian Sclineller, Mdrchen und Sagen aus
Wcilschtirol, Innsbruck, 1867, no. 14, Die Drei Lieh-
haber (Z tre Aynanti).
Gifts are a crystal of observation, resuscitating apple, flying chair.
After maiden is cured of illness " Welchen von den dreien hat nun
das Madchen wol etwa geheiratet ? "
Magtae. — Eev. W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf,
The Folk-Tales of the Magyars, London, 1889, pp.
155 ff., The Three Valuahle Things.
Magic properties are a telescope, a cloak, and an orange. After
the maid is restored to life there is among the three brothers " a good
deal of litigation and quarrelling," and " all the learned and old
people of the realm " are called together to make a decision. The
girl is awarded to the youngest brother, who possessed the orange.
Portuguese. — ^Consiglieri Pedroso, tr. Miss Ilenriqueta
Monteiro, Portuguese Folk-Tales, London, 1882, no.
23, pp. 94 ff., The Three Princes and the Maiden.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 283
Three princes acquire looking-glass, rug of transportation, and a
candle that restores the dead to life. Resuscitated maiden says,
" As you all three have a right to naarry me, and as I cannot have
three husbands at one time, I shall not marry any of you! "
Roumanian-<Gypsy. — F. II. Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales,
London, 1899, no. 13, pp. 53 ff.. The Watchmaker.
Young watchmaker wins dumb princess by making her break
silence over the tale of the gifts. Jlirror, robe, apple. " And whom
then did she choose ? "
Seebian. — Madam Csedomille Mijatovies, ed. Rev. W.
Denton, Serbian Folk-Lore, London, 1874, pp. 230 ff.,
The Three Suitors.
Carpet, telescope, ointment. Disputation is useless, and king,
father of the princess, sends the three suitors away without a
judgment.
South Slavic. — Friedrich S. Kranss, Tausend Sagen und
Maerchen der Sildslaven, Wien, 1914, no. 63, i, pp.
196 ff., Drei Liebhaber beleben ihre verstorbene Liebe
wieder.
Three youths (not brothers) learn that a maiden in next village
is dead by means of a glass which one of them possesses, go to the
scene on a flying " fellchen," and restore her to life with " ein
fliischchen des Abuhajol-Wassers." Dispute as to possession of girl
taken before Kadi, who gives maiden the self-choice. She chooses
"einen von ilmen"; which one the tale does not say.
Spanish. — Fernan Caballero, tr. J. H. Ingram, Spanish
Fairy Tales, Philadelphia, 1881, pp. 22 ff., A Girl
Who Wanted Three Husbands.
Striking self-choice. Father wants daughter to take one of three
eligible suitors and she says, " I will accept the three." The father's
remonstrances are useless and he finally decrees the test by gifts.
Those forthcoming are a glass, a balsam, and a boat, which aid the
suitors to resuscitate the girl after life has departed. When dis-
pute begins, the irrepressible daughter arises smiling from her coflSn,
and turning to her father, says, " You see, father, that I must marry
all three of them."
284 WILLARD EDWAED FARNHAM
Turkish. — Ignacz Kunos, Forty-four Turkish Fairy
Tales, London, 1918 ( ?), pp. 44 ff., The Silent Prin-
cess.
Corrupted, Three young men learn arts corresponding to the
usual gifts in this type. Princess is ill and resuscitated.
THE RESCUE TYPE
Orientax Prototypes. — Vetdlapanchavinsati 5 ; Sengue-
hassen-Baitissij tale 10, part 1 ; Tuti-Ndma 22 ; Booh
of Sindibdd.
rescue versio2s"s with the incideis't of the ship
Bretoist. — F. M. Luzel, Contes Populaires de Basse-
Bretagne, Paris, 1887, no. 9, iii, pp. 312 ff., Les Six
Freres Paresseux.
A delightfully told and very elaborate tale. The poor father
here has six sons whom he sends into the world to make their
fortunes. A becomes a climber, B a mender, C an archer, D a violin
player and reviver of the dead, E a shipbuilder, F a diviner; the
skilled six are enabled to rescue the usual princess held captive on
an island. Father holds a miniature court to decide the dispute
for the girl's hand, and each son presents his case in turn. The
maiden is finally allowed to choose for herself, but we are not told
whom she chooses.
Breton. — Paul Sebillot, Contes Populaires de la Haute-
Bretagne, Paris, 1880, no. 8, pp. 53 ff., Les Quatre
Fits du Meunier.
Details again much like those in Grimjoi 129^-51^2^ decide which
brother shall keep the princess, the four g^ t^ r- " courte-paille."
Th^e- the tailor is chosen ; the king rewards the others.
Ceylonese. — H. Parker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon,
London, 1910, no. 82, ii, pp. 33 ff., The Princes who
Learnt the Sciences.
Four skilled princes. Eemarkable similarities to Grimm 129.
Danish. — Svend Grundtvig, Danske Folkeaeventyr, Kj0-
benhavn, 1881, no. 17, pp. 210 ff., Syvstjaemen.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 285
Six sons are sliipbuilder, helmsman, keen hearer, crack shot,
climber, master-thief. King camiot settle contention and has maiden
and lovers placed in the heavens as stars.
German. — Jacob and William Griiii,m, Kinder- und Haus-
mdrcTien, no. 129, Die vler hwistreichen Briider.
A poor man sends his four sons away from home to learn trades,
and they become thief, astronomer, huntsman, and tailor, each super-
latively skilled in his calling. On their return he tests them. Later
they rescue the captured princess in the usual way, the tailor being
forced to repair the broken ship. After the return each brother
presents his claims 'to the princess and the king decides that as each
has an equal right he will reward them all handsomely instead of
settling the dispute.
German. — Friedrich Woeste, Zeitschrift fiir Deutsche
Mytliologie, i, p. 338.
A variant of Grimm 129 in which the tailor becomes a cooper,
and the astronomer an " allwisser."
Italian. — Gian Battista Basile, II Pentamerone, v, 7.
(Tr. Sir Eichard Burton, London, 1893.)
A is a clever rogue, B a skilful boat-builder, C an unerring cross-
bow marksman, D a physician, and E a student of the language of
birds. There is an added incident in which the ghul who guards
the princess pursues the company and is shot by C. The ghul falls
upon the boat and the princess would have been killed if D had not
revived her. King awards the princess to the father of the suitors.
Italian. — Domenico Comparetti, Novelline Popolari ltd-
liane, 1875, no. 19, i, pp. 80 ff., I tre ragazzi.
Three young men rescue princess kept in a cavern by a magician,
sail away with her, and are pursued. Hunter shoots magician, who
falls on the boat. Carpenter mends the boat. In the resulting
quarrel for the girl the father declares that none of the lovers shall
have her but that he will provide other wives for them.
Italian. — Hieronymus Morlinus, no. 79, De fratrihus
qui per orhem pererrando ditati sunt. See Parthe-
nopei, Novellae, Fabulae, Comoedia, Paris, 1855, pp.
155 ff.
Tale translated closely by Straparola. See summary below.
286 WILLAED EDWARD FARNHAM
Italian. — II Novellino, The Story of the King of Jeru-
salem and hk Four 8o7is. See text by Giovanni Pa-
panti, Catalogo del Novellieri Italiani in Prosa, 1871,
no. 23, I, pp. 44 ff.
Version incomplete owing to lacimae in the manuscript, but ex-
tremely interesting as one of the earliest recorded European tales
of the type.
Italian. — Giovanni Francesco Straparola, I Piacevoli
Noti, night vii, fable 5. (Tr. W. G. Waters, London,
1894.)
A poor man's three sons go out into the world and learn arts or
trades; A becomes a warrior and clever scaler of fortress walls, B
a skilful shipwright, C a student versed in the language of birds.
By means of these accomplishments they learn of a princess im-
mured in a castle on an island, reach her, and rescue her. But since
they cannot divide her into three parts, they wrangle over her pos-
session. " Wherefore we shall each settle the cause as we think
right, while the judge keeps us waiting for his decision." As in all
versions with this incident, the maiden is reached by means of
a ship.
Italian. — Georg Widter und Adam Wolf, V olksmdrchen
aus Venetien, Jahrhuch fur Bomanische und Englische
Literature vii, p. 30, Die vier hunstreichen Briider.
Four sons who Avish to marry their foster sister are sent out into
the world by the father to learn arts. They become carpenter,
hunter, thief, magician, and when the girl is stolen by a prince,
they find and rescue her. Carpenter mends the ship when a pur-
suing dragon has fallen upon it and broken it. Father awards the
maid to the carpenter.
Moravian. — A. H. Wratislaw, 8ixtij Folh-Tales, London,
1889, no. 9, pp. 55 ff.. The Four Brothers.
Cobbler, thief, astrologer, huntsman. Cobbler mends the boat.
After a contention for the rescued girl, the suitors ask her father
to pass judgment. He quibbles by saying that he has promised to
give the princess to the one who should find her, and that since the
astrologer has done this, he shall have her.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 287
Slavic. — Joseph Wenzig, Westslawischer Mdrchenschatz,
Leipzig, 1857, pp. 140 ff., Die vier Brilder.
Variant of the version above, in which the thief becomes a " ha-
dersammler." At the request of the brothers the princess is allowed
to choose for herself, but we are not told which she chooses.
RESCUE VERSIONS WITH THE INCIDENT OF THE TOWER
In the following versions the rescue is accomplished in
much more elaborate fashion than in any others of the
type. There is here a peculiar incident which has to do
with the hiding of the princess in a tower or refuge which
one of the suitors can erect at a moment's notice. The
suitors are usually seven.
Albanian. — Auguste Dozen, Contes Alhanais, Paris,
1881, no. 4, pp. 27 ff., Le Pou.
A demon wins a princess in a most curious fashion by identifying
the hide of a monstrous louse, which is himg up in a public place.
The girl is rescued from her demon lover, who hides her imder-
ground, by the seven skilled lovers. A can hear keenly, B malce the
earth open at command, C steal anything, D throw " un Soulier " to
the end of the world, E build a tower, F shoot unerringly, G catch
safely anything falling from the sky. WTien the demon flies away
with the princess after she has almost been brought to safety, F
shoots him, and G catches the falling girl. The king asks the
princess to choose among the lovers and she takes the one who
caught her when she fell.
Albanian. — Gustav Meyer, Alhanische Mllrclien, 1881,
no. 8, pp. 118 ff., Die siehen Brilder mit den Wunder-
gahen.
Contains the incident of the louse substantially as in preceding
tale. The judgment scene is noteworthy. A great assembly is con-
vened, and the princess asks of her father the right to choose for
herself. She chooses the brother who raised the palace.
Greek. — Eev. E. M. Geldart, Folk Lore of Modern
Greece, London, 1884, pp. 106 ff., The Golden Casket.
Problem tale told to make a dumb princess break silence. The
lovers are seven and have accomplishments of the usual sort.
288 WILLAED EDWAED FAENIIAM
Italian. — Laura Gonzenbacli, Sicilianische Mdrchen,
Leipzig, 1870, no. 45, i, pp. 305 ff., Von den siehen
Briidern, die Zauhergahen hatten.
The daughter of a king is stolen by an ogre and seven skilled
young men undertake her rescue. A can run like the wind, B can
hear anything anywhere, C can with his fists beat in seven iron
doors, D can steal anything, E can build an iron tower in a mo-
ment's time, F can shoot unerringly, G can wake the dead with his
guitar. In the obvious ways the youths locate the girl, steal her
from the ogre, and flee with her. When the ogre pursues, E builds
his tower, F shoots the monster, but also hits the princess, and G is
forced to restore her to life. The king invites a discussion as to
which youth deserves the princess, and she is finally awarded to G.
Italian. — Giuseppe Pitre, Novelle Popolari Toscani,
Eirenze, 1885, no. 10, i, pp. 65 ff., II Negromante.
Seven suitors have slightly different accomplishments from those
in preceding version. King quashes the ambitions of the brothers
to marry into the royal family, and rewards them otherwise.
Italian. — Giuseppe Pitre, work cited, i, pp. Yl ff., Mente
Infusa.
Variant of the above tale.
Italian. — Giuseppe Pitre, Fiahe Novelle e Racconti
Popolari Siciliani, Palermo, 1875, i, pp. 196 ff., II
Mago Tartagna.
Seven skilled brothers rescue the princess in the usual way, and
carry their dispute for her possession into court. It is there de-
cided that the brother who carried her in his arms should take her
to wife.
Italian. — Giuseppe Pitre, same work, i, p. 197, I sette
Fratelli.
Summarized incompletely by Pitrfe as a variant of the preceding
tale. No dispute mentioned.
Lesbian. — Leon Pineau, Coxites Populaires Grecs de
L'isle de Lesbos, Revue des Traditions Populaires, xii
(1897), pp. 201 ff., L'epouse du Liable.
Another version with the incident of the louse. Lovers are only
three. After deliberation by the king the princess is not awarded.
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 289
Serbian. — V. Jagic, Aiis dem Sudslavischen Mdrclien-
schatZj Archiv fur Slavische Philologie, v (1881), no.
4G, pp. 36 ff., Ahermals die Plejaden.
Lovers are again six, and again the principals in the dispute are
transformed into stars. " Das sind die sieben Sterne die man
Plejaden nennt."
Slavic. — Friedrich S. Krauss, Sagen und Mdrchen der
Sudslaven, Leipzig, 1883, no. 32, i, pp. 120 ff., Das
Siehengestirn.
Lovers are five, but the king's " Hofmann " who finds these skilled
brothers also lays claim to the princess. The mother of the five
brothers is unable to pass judgment, and the suitors together with
the princess are transformed into stars in the firmament.
MISCEtiLANEOUS VERSIONS OF THE RESCUE TYPE
African. — M. D. Charnaj, Revue des Cours litteraires de
la France, 1865, p. 210, Souvenirs de Madagascar.
(Quoted in full by Wesselofsky, II Paradiso degli
Alherti, i, ii, p. 287.)
Physician, far-seer, and strong man, rescue and resuscitate prin-
cess. " A qui f aut-il accorder la recompense promise ? La question
n'est pas encore rfeolue."
African. — ^Reinsch, Die Saho-Sprache, Wien, 1889, no.
3, pp. 50 ff., ScJiiedsgerichtliclie ZuerTcennung eines
Mcidchens an einen von vier Freiern.
Four skilled young men rescue and resuscitate a maiden who has
been devoured by a hippopotamus. A judge gives the loved one to
the suitor who had sounded a trumpet and attracted the beast.
Cambodian. — E. Aymonier, Textes Kmers, premiere
serie, Saigon, 1878, p. 44.
Four men learn from a sage brahman respectively astrology, the
science of arms, the art of plunging and travelling in water, the
art of resuscitating the dead. When an eagle flies away with a
princess they are thus enabled to learn of the matter, to shoot the
bird, and after the girl has fallen into the sea to rescue and resus-
citate her. The king judges that the princess belongs to him who
resuscitated her.
290 WILLARD EDWARD FARNIIAM
German. — ^A. M. Tendlau, Fellmeiers Ahende, Mdrchen
und GeschicJiien aus grauer Vorzeit, Frankfurt am
Main, 1856, ii, pp. 16 ff., Die siehen Kiinste.
Seven brothers named after the days of the week learn highly
specialized arts, and rescue a princess from a knight. The suitors
argue concerning their rights to the loved one, and the youngest
finally prevails.
German-Jewish. — Reinhold Koliler, Jahrhuch fur ro-
vianische und englisclie Literatur, vii (1866), pp.
33 ff.
A close variant of the tale immediately preceding.
Greek. — ^R. M. Dawkins, Modern Greek in Asia Minor,
Cambridge, 1916, p. 573 ff.. How the Companions
Rescued the Prvncess.
Corrupted version. Seven brothers include a listener, a catcher,
a crack shot, and a lifter. The father of the maid asks her to
choose and she takes the youngest suitor.
Tirolese. — ^^Christian Schneller, Mdrchen und 8agen aus
Walschtirol, Innsbruck, 1867, no. 31, pp. 86 if.. Die
Frau des TeufeJs.
Contains the incident of the louse. The lovers are a far-seer, a
sharp-hearer, and a strong man. There is no dispute over the maid.
Turkish. — J. A. Decourdemancbe, Revue des Traditions
Popidaires, xiv (1899), pp. 411 ff., La fille du Roi de
Cachemire, L'afrite et les Quatre Freres. (From a
Turkisb redaction of the Seven Wise Masters of the
sixteenth century.)
A clever tracker, a man of war, a man wise in writings, and a
physician rescue a princess, who is not awarded by the king to
any of them.
Slavic. — Friedricb S. Krauss, Sag en und Marchen der
Siidslaven, Leipzig, 1883, no. 33, pp. 124 ff.. Die
GlucJce.
Serpent carries off the maiden. Five brothers, Master-shot, INIas-
ter-eye, Master-ear, Master-thief, and Master-flight, rescue her. The
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 291
mother of the brothers cannot decide the dispute for the girl, and
she with her lovers is enveloped in a cloud and all become stars.
There are here obvious resemblances to versions with the incident
of the tower.
THE CEEATION TYPE
Oriental Peototypes. — Ardschi-Bordschi-Chdn; Sen-
guehassen-Battissij tale 10, part 1 ; Tuti-Ndma 5.
The versions of this type all resemible each other so
closely that little characterization is needed.
Algerian. — Belkassem, ben Sedira, Cours de Langue
Kahyle, Alger, 1887, pp. ccxxv ff., La fille du roi.
Youth wins princess by telling the tale of the carpenter, the silk-
merchant, and the t'aleb, and making her speak.
Arabian. — Eene Basset, Revue des Traditions Populaires,
xv^ p. 114, Le menuisier, le commerqant, et le t'aleh.
Judge favors t'aleb, who has given life.
Arabian. — Albert Socin, Diwan aus C entralarahien.
Leipzig, 1900, {Ahhandlungen der philologisch-liisto-
rischen Classe der Konigl. Sachs. Gesellschaft der
Wissenschaften) Teil ii^ no. 107, p. 126.
Creators are here four, a goldsmith being introduced to ornament
the woman. Judge gives woman to priest.
Balochi. — M. Longworth Dames, Baloclii Tales, Folk-
Lore, III (1892), pp. 524 ff., no. 6, The Four Men
Who Made the Figure of a Woman.
King awards woman to tailor, for, he says, " it is the bridegroom
who gives clothes to the bride."
Bohemian. — Th. Benfey, Pantschatantra, 1859, i, pp.
491 ff. (Benfey translates from a collection by B.
ISTemcova, 1855.)
Has the usual three lovers. Told to make a princess break silence.
Cambodian. — Adhemard Leclere, Contes Laotiens et Corv-
tes CamhodgienSj Paris, 1903, pp. 161 £F., La Statue
vivifiee.
292 WILLARD EDWARD FAENHAM
Carpenter, sculptor, magician, resuscitator. Told to make a prin-
cess speak.
CuALDEAK". — r. Macler, Revue des Traditions Populaires,
XXIII (1908), pp. 333 ff., no. 2, Les Trois Amis.
Judge declares in favor of the priest, but makes him pay the
other two companions for their work.
Georgian. — Marjory Wardrop, Georgian Folk-Tales^ Lon-
don, 1894, pp. 105 ff., The King and the Apple.
Joiner, tailor, and priest. Corrupted version in which the figure
created is a man. Dispute as to merit.
Greek. — R. M. Dawkins, Modern Greek in Asia Minor,
Cambridge, 1916, p. 465 ff., The Carpenter, the Gold-
smith, the Tailor, and the Priest.
A dervish and other judges are not able to decide the contention
and the girl goes back into the tree from which she was made.
Greek. — E. M. Geldart, Folk-Lore of Modern Greece,
London, 1884, pp. 106 ff., The Golden Casket.
Another provocative problem tale told to make a princess break
silence. A monk, a tailor, and a carpenter journey to find employ-
ment. At night while they are keeping watch for robbers each in
his turn contributes of his skill or materials toward the creation
of a woman, the carpenter carving the figure, the tailor clothing it,
and the monk giving it life. They argue for her possession.
Greek. — ^W. R. Paton, Folk-Tales from the Aegean, Folk-
Lore, xn (1901), pp. 317 ff., TJlum-Sefer.
Priest, carpenter, and tailor. No decision of the dispute.
Indiajst. — ^Ferdinand Hahn, Blicke in die Geisteswelt der
Heidnischen Kols, 1906, no. 13, pp. 24 ff., ^Yessen
Frau ist sie ?
Claimants are four. Judge favors him who bestowed life.
Turkish. — H. Carnoj, La Tradition, v (1891), pp.
326 ff., Le Menuisier, le Tailleur, et le Sophta.
Also told to make an obstinate princess speak.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 293
Turkish. — Ignacz Ki'mos, Forty-four Turkish Fairy
Tales, London, 1918 ( ?), p. 48, The Silent Princess.
Carpenter, softa, and tailor.
ANOMALOUS VERSIONS
African. — E. E. Dennet, FoJh-Lore of the Fjort, London,
1898, no. 16, pp. 74 ff., How the Spider ^Yon and
Lost Nzamhis Daughter.
An unusual tale in which naturally skilled creatures perform a
difficult task and dispute for a girl as the prize. The mother can-
not decide the contention and gives each the " market value " of
the daughter.
African. — George W. Ellis, Negro Culture in West
Africa, 'New York, 1914, no. 27, pp. 211 £f., Three
Royal Lovers.
Three lovers visit a princess. For A she prepares a bath, for B
she serves a dinner, and for C she does nothing but take a walk
with him. The youths are unable to agree which has won moat
favor from the innamorata, and take the matter before a judge, who
is also nonplussed. The maid is still unmarried.
EsTiioNiAN. — Friedricli Kreutzwald, tr. F. Lowe, Ehst-
nische Mdrchen, Halle, 1869, no. 3, pp. 32 ff., Schnell-
fuss, Flinhhand, und Scharfauge.
Tasks and tests of skill are perfoiTaed for the princess's hand.
The brothers cannot decide among themselves which has the greatest
merit, and settle the matter by casting lots. Scharfauge wins.
Italian. — Novella del Fortunato nuovamente stampata,
Livorno, 1869. (Carefully summarized by H. Kohler,
Kleinere Schriften, ii, pp. 590 if.)
Three companions win a princess who sets her lovers the task of
running a race against her. Coricorante, the swift runner, under-
takes the task, and when Vedividante of keen sight sees him lag
behind, Tiritirante, the archer, is induced to spur him on with a
harmless arrow. The king calls a council to decide the dispute.
" La coppia della sententia 6 nelle mani del Fortunato a beneficio di
quelli che li piacera vederla."
4
294 WILLAED EDWARD FAENHAM
]jOkeainese. — E. Cosquin, Conies populaires de Lorraine,
Paris, 1886, no. 59, pp. 184 ff., Les trois Charpentiers.
Three brothers, all carpenters, receive magic things from an old
man: a belt to produce precious stones, a bell which when rung
resuscitates the dead, a sabre which makes its possessor a con-
queror. In obvious ways the youths help a king to win his battles,
and the princess marries the possessor of the bell.
Macedoniajst. — G. F. Abbot, Macedonian FolHore, Cam-
bridge, 1903, p. 264, The Princess and the Trwo
Dragons.
Curious because the lovers are only two. They perform tasks for
the princess's hand, and finally kill each other, when their hopeless
equality is apparent.
Ill
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENDING LOVERS
The Contending Lovers has undergone mucb transfor-
mation, and some of its types bave been raised up in popu-
larity, some cast down, as it bas been adopted by European
tale-tellers. But tbe fact tbat it bas made a definite appeal
to European peoples, and must bave been widely known at
a reasonably early date, is attested by tbe mere number of
occurrences wbicb appear in tbe preceding summary.
Tbe Rescue type of our tale bas outdistanced all otbers.
Altbougb tbe Gifts type bas attained a surprisingly wide
spread, few cbanges bave been made in tbe story by tbe
succession of its European tellers. It remains so close to
tbe form in tbe Thousayid and Qyie Nights tbat some sus-
picion of recent appropriation by tbe folk from Galland's
translation bas been cast on at least one version.^ But tbe
^ Clouston, Appendix, Burton's 8uppleme7ital Nights, xa, p. 608 :
" Almost suspiciously like the story in Galland in many of the
details is an Icelandic version in Powell and MagnGsson's collection,
yet I cannot conceive how the peasantry of that country could have
got it out of ' Les Mille et Une Nuits.' " See this tale in the sum-
mary above.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 295
liescue type lias taken new life from its contact with
Europe, and has split up into new and interesting forms,
evidently absorbing some material from the general stock
of folk-lore around it. The result has been the evolution
of two sub-tjpes, which I have seen fit to classify for the
sake of convenience according to the distinct incidents of
the ship and of the magic tower. Besides those found in
these sub-types, there are other changes rung on the
i\escue theme.
Strangely, the pure Resuscitation type has fallen to such
a minor place that its characteristics appear very seldom
in Europe, notwithstanding the fact that the related Gifts
type, in which a resuscitation occurs, has become so pop-
ular. The Paradiso tale obviously uses the Resuscitation
theme, but in other European tales only a few evidences
of mixture from the Resuscitation type are found.^
Others of the Oriental types occur extremely seldom in
Europe. The story of the wooden woman, or the Creation
type, has been discovered in Bohemia, but is most often
found in the Orient. The story of the exchanged heads is
little known to the folk in Europe except by recent literary
circulation.
Lastly, The Co7itending Lovers has taken something
from tales where a princess is won by the performance of
hard tasks or feats, often set by her father the king, and
has evolved a few versions in which no real service is ren-
dered to benefit the maiden.
^ It will be rememLered that even in the Orient a mixture of
Rescue and Resuscitation themes occurred in the Persian Booh of
Sindibdd, where there are both a warrior to rescue the maiden and
a physician of wondrous power to resuscitate her when she is dan-
gerously ill. As a European example see Luzel 9, where a violin
player brings the princess back to life after she has been drowned
in the course of the rescue.
296 willaed edward farnham
Transmission to Europe
Some light would no doubt be thrown on certain varia-
tions of The Contending Lovers found in Europe bj a
definite knowledge of the route which our tale followed in
its migration from the Orient. However, we can only de-
pend on what has been learned regarding the transmission
of folk-lore in general, and upon a few more specific the-
ories regarding particular tales.
General knowledge and opinion would point to the en-
trance of our tale into Europe mainly through lands about
the Mediterranean, and perhaps partly through Russia by
way of some Mongolian contact. Benfey thinks certain
European versions of the Rescue type, particularly those
nearest to Grimm 129, are most closely related in form to
the Tuti-Ndma.^ He points out the relationship between
a tale in a Turkish version of the Tuti-Ndma and the
Rescue tale in Morlinus, which he mistakenly thinks to be
the oldest European occurrence.'^ Since the time of Ben-
fey, however, two older Italian tales than that in Morlinus
have come to our knowledge. Italy's seeming priority in
the appropriation of our tale is streng-thened by these two
tales from II Paradiso and II Novellino; ^ and other ex-
ceedingly numerous Italian versions, medieval, renais-
sance, and modern, may be considered good evidence of
sustained popularity. There can be little doubt that
through Italy many versions got into Europe, and this is
an important fact when we come to connect our tale with
Chaucer.
^ " Alle uns bekannten Formen desselben zeigen sich mit der zu-
letzt gegebenen des Papagaienbuclies innigst verwandt," he declares
(Klcinere Schriften, n, iii, p. 110).
*Ibid., p. 112.
« See pp. 280 and 286 above.
the contending lovers 29y
The Lovers
After The Contending Lovers has passed into Europe,
it soon falls under a series of influences which change it
in more or less orderly fashion. How much of this change
takes place in Europe, and not in the Orient, it is some-
times hard to tell. On© patent fact is the trend among
European tellers to change the number and character of
the lovers. Partly because the Rescue type of the tale
gains greatest popularity, strong emphasis comes to be laid
on the skill and the professions or trades of the lovers. In
the Orient this type already has skilled suitors, and in
Europe the professions or accomplishments soon grow to
be more important than any rank or nobility possessed by
the young men. The maiden remains high-born, usually
a princess, but her lovers become men of the people who
set out to win her hand and half her father's kingdom in
the most approved fairy-tale fashion.
From three suitors, usually a bold fighter, a mail of
knowledge, and a man who possesses some means of fast
travel, the number grows in the Rescue type to as many
as seven under some conditions. Consequently many ac-
complishments are added which are not found in the Ori-
ental prototypes. In the stories of the Rescue type where
the suitors reach their princess by means of a ship, the
carpenter who can construct a ship on a moment's notice,
or the shipwright, corresponds to the man with the magic
chariot in certain Oriental versions. The marksman, or
hunter, or scaler of fortress walls, corresponds to the war-
rior. The astrologer, deviner, or possessor of keen sight
or hearing, is the man of knowledge. Besides these, in the
stories of more than three lovers, we are apt to find such
skilled men as a tailor, who can mend the ship when the
pursuing demon falls upon it and breaks it, perhaps a
298 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
skilled sailor or helmsman to steer the ship, and a notable
man of skill in the shape of a master-rogue or clever thief,
"who does the actual taking of the princess from the demon
or dragon.
In that curious variation of the Rescue type distin-
guished by the raising of a tower or palace in which to
hide the princess from a pursuing demon, the lovers are
usually seven. Their accomplishments tend to become so
unnatural and so highly specialized that they appear to be
constructed merely for purposes of fiction. There are
suitors who can beat in seven iron doors with their fists,
v.'ho can make the gi'ound open at command, who can catch
anything falling from the sky, or who can lift and carry
any weight; and there is the ubiquitous suitor who, by
waving a magic wand, stamping his foot, or utilizing
magic skill in masonry, can raise a tower or palace in the
wink of an eye. The uses to which these suitors are put
are familiar from the tales already summarized.
It is worthy of note that the Rescue type with the inci-
dent of the tower seems to be confined to three contiguous
regions of Europe, namely, Italy, the Balkans, and Greece,
as may be seen from the bibliography.
But in spite of the fact that the suitors are debased in
rank for the Rescue type, they remain noble in manj'- other
versions. In the Gifts tj^e, they are still almost always
sons of a king.
A very marked change is effected in many European
versions of The Contending Lovers when the suitors are
made brothers. In by far the majority of occurrences we
find this new feature. It is not at all natural to the ear-
liest Oriental versions, although the change does appear at
a late date. The suitors are brothers in the Gifts tale from
the Thousand and One Nights.
Both the introduction of new and more definitely em-
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 299
phasized arts or professions and tlie introduction of tlie
fraternal relationship are bound up witli the almost cer-
tain influence of other groups of stories. It is impossible
to saj just when this influence began to take effect, but
we have seen a few of its results in the Orient. One of
these outside tales is The Skilful Com/panions.
There is conclusive evidence that The STcilful Com-
panions is in origin quite distinct from The Contending
Lovers. Originally The Contending Lovers is itself sim-
ple, and the lovers are by no means necessarily skilled.
They may base their contentions on rank or on fortuitous
service, as in the Caste type or the Resuscitation type.
On the other hand, The Skilful C ompanions appears to
have had at one time nothing to do with a contest of skill
for any maiden; even when it appears in combination it
frequently does not involve this incident.
In simple versions of The Skilful Companions there are
usually three or more expert young men who go out into
the world to seek their fortune. Their services are not to
win a maiden for themselves. Even when in the more
elaborate tales they assist a hero to win a princess, they
only play a role which is frequently given to helpful ani-
mals. Moreover, there is usually no dispute at the end as
to which one of the companions deserves the highest re-
ward. In a tale from the Panchatanira,^ three young
men, the son of a merchant, the son of a learned man, and
the son of a king, go out into the world to gain fame and
fortune, and finally the king's son gains a kingdom."^
Nutt points out the frequent appearance of skilful com-
"Ed. Benfey, n, pp. 150 ff., Der Muge Feind.
^See also a later Arabic version in the Kalila u Dimna summar-
ized and commented upon by Wesselofsky, Paradiso, i, ii, pp. 246 ff.
For other references see Benfey, work cited, i, pp. 287 flf; also Chau-
vin, Bibliogra-pMe des Ouvrages Arabes, vn, pp. 124-5.
300 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
panions not only in Celtic folk-tales, but in Celtic heroic
saga.^ He finds an old instance in the Imran Curaig ua
Corra, of which there was probably an Irish version in the
eleventh century.^ In this the travellers take with them
a shipbuilder and other skilful companions.
An interesting tale from Madagascar may help to for-
tify the supposition that originally The Skilful Com-
panions existed alone and unconnected with any tale of
lovers or of rescue. It should be compared with an inci-
dent in Grimm 129, where the four contending lovers are
brothers, and where before they leave to rescue the princess
their skill is tested by their father. The incident has to
do with some eggs in a chaffinch's nest, which the far-seer
counts, and the thief steals without the knowledge of the
bird. The huntsman breaks all five with one shot, and the
tailor mends them so that the bird is able to hatch them.
After this the young men rescue the princess. Substan-
tially the same test is applied to the lovers in a Rescue
story from Ceylon, which would make it seem that the
episode is not a European interpolation, since the source
of the Ceylonese tale must almost certainly be Oriental.
In the Madagascar tale ^° the test by means of the bird's
eggs forms the whole story, and is not used as a mere
preface to the larger test of skill involved in rescuing a
princess. Three men meet, and each states that he is going
to learn a trade. Later they meet again after they have
become skilled. To proceed in the words of the story:
" lis virent un ladroinga qui avait pondu des oeufs. ' Tire
sur les oeufs du ladroinga,' dirent-ils au tireur. II casa
un seul des oeufs. ' Ya derober les oeufs du ladroinga,
* Notes to Mac Iiines, Folk and Hero Tales, pp. 445 S.
"Ibid., p. 448.
"Charles Renel, Conies de Madagascar, 1910, no. 91, n, pp. 118 ff.,
Les trois Hommes.
THE CONTENDING LOVEKS 301
sans qu'il te voie/ dircnt-ils au voleur. II j alia, mais les
cassa en les rapportant. '' Repare ces oeufs casses/ dirent-
ils a rouvrier en bois. II repara les oeufs. Apres avoir
ainsi montre ce qii'ils savaient faire, cliacun s'en retourna
chez lui. Quel est le plus liabile de ces trois hommes ? "
Is this the original simple tale which has been combined
with The Contending Lovers as an incident ? It is, of
course, impossible to say that the teller might not have
taken the incident from some more complicated tale and
made it self-sufficient. But I confess I am inclined to
think this probably a descendant of an original simple tale.
It no doubt reached Madagascar from the Orient, perhaps
through the Arabs. ^^ This belief is strengthened by the
other evidence which tends to show that The Skilful Com-
panions is a separate tale unto itself.
The simple story of skilful companions who go out into
the world to seek their fortunes becomes combined fre-
quently with a tale in which a hero has a feat to perform,
and often this feat is the rescue of a princess. The com-
panions are his helpers. In a tale from the Highlands of
Scotland,^^ three prodigiously accomplished men aid a
hero to rescue not one^ but three^ princesses from three
giants by finding the maidens for him, and by besting the
giants at feats of strength and endurance to which they are
challenged. One helper can hear the grass grow, one can
drink rivers, and one can eat great quantities of flesh.
A Russian tale from Afanasiev ^^ furnishes a striking
example of the way in which the companions, who are in
"Renel thinks no. 146 of his collection a " conte arabe." (See
n, p. 291.)
"J. F. Campbell, Popular Talcs of the West Highlands, no. 16, i,
pp. 236 flf.
" Translated by Anton Dietrich, Russische Yolksmarchen, 1831,
no. 3, Von den sieben Siineonen, den levblichen Brildern.
302 WILLARD EDWARD FARNIIAM
this case brothers, may rescue a princess for another, and
not in any wav contend for her. This tale is so close to
Rescue versions of The Contending Lovers that it may be
only a corruption of the lover tale. On the other hand,
it may represent an intermediate stage in the development
of the skilful companions into contending lovers. The
tale may be summarized as follows :
A man and his wife after seven years of unfulfilled desire for
children are at last granted seven sons, all of whom are called
Simeon. When the parents die, the tsar is struck with the promise
shoAvn by the seven boys, and takes them into his palace. " What
arts would you like to learn? " he asks each, and each answers that
he wants no new art but is already proficient in one. The first can
forge a pillar reaching to the sky. The second can climb this pillar
and see over all lands. The third with an axe made by the first
can construct in a moment a ship. The fourth on necessity can
take this ship to the underground kingdom to avoid an enemy. The
fifth can hit a bird, no matter how far away, with a gun forged by
the first brother. The sixth can catch this bird before it touches
the ground. The seventh is a clever thief.
On the advice of his counsellors, the tsar decides to let the seven
brothers try to get for him the Tsarevna Yelena the Beautiful.
The climber from the top of his pillar sees her, and in a quickly
constructed ship the brothers go to her. The thief entices her
aboard ship by a clever ruse, but when she finds that they are at
sea, she changes herself into a swan. The marksman shoots her,
the catcher catches her, and she becomes once more a woman. The
tsar from whom she was taken pursues, but the ship is taken to the
underworld, and escapes.
There is no strife for the captured beauty. The tale concludes:
" Die Simeonen aber fuhren gliicklich in ihr Eeich, und iiberlieferten
die schone Zarin Helene dem Zaren Ador, welcher den Simeonen
fiir ihren so grossen Dienst die Freiheit gab imd viel Gold imd
Silber und Edelsteine schenkte. Und er lebte mit der schonen
Konigin Helene viele Jahre in Gliick und Frieden."
But it need not be a princess whom the companions help
the hero to rescue. In six Celtic stories of The Hand and
the Child treated by Professor Kittredge,^^ it is a child.
^*Arthm and Gorlagon, 1903, pp. 223 ff.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 303
According to one of these versions," which may be taken as typ-
ical, Finn undertakes to help A Big Young Hero, who has been
losing his children in a mysterious manner. He meets seven skilful
companions: a carpenter, a tracker, a gripper, a climber, a thief,
a listener, a marksman. The carpenter makes a ship, the tracker
guides Finn across the sea to the house of the Big Young Hero.
At midnight when a child is born, a hand comes down the chimney,
which the gripper seizes and wrenches off at the shoulder. The
giant outside puts down his other hand and takes the child. Finn,
with the aid of his companions, however, rescues the child next
morning. The climber scales the castle of the giant, carrying up
the thief, who takes the baby, and two other children who had been
stolen. The party flees, and the listener hears the giant awake
after the band has put to sea. The giant is wading after them,
when Finn, who plays the part of the man of knowledge, finds that
there is one vulnerable spot on the giant, and this the marksman
hits. The adventure is successfully concluded.
This Celtic storj is an interesting composite of a tale
of tlie Beownlf type ^® and some tale in whicli the skilful
artisans occur. There is an obvious similarity between
the attainments of the helpers in this case and those of
the lovers in the versions of The Contending Lovers which
contain the incident of the ship. Perhaps the Celtic tale
derived its skilful companions from some version of The
Contending Lovers in which a maiden is rescued, the
rescue in each case forming the common term which sug-
gested the borrowing. Or, the situation may have been
reversed and The Contending Lovers have obtained skilled
suitors from some tale of rescue like The Hand and the
Child. Matters are now getting pretty intricate, and we
must be careful to keep relationships clear at this point.
It is important to remember that both The Hand and the
Child and the Eescue type of The Contending Lovers are
"MacDaugal, Foil- and Hero Tales, no. 1, pp. Iff. Summarized
at length by Professor Kittredge.
" See Kittredge, work cited, p. 227, note 2, for extensive refer-
ences to literature on the subject.
304 WILLAED EDWAED FAENIIAM
almost certainly composites, and that no matter wliich one
may have borrowed from the other, the skilful young men
are ultimately derived from a simpler tale.
If the companions in the Celtic tale actually do come
from some already made combination in The Contending
Lovers, and not from a simple tale of The Shilful Com-
panions where no girl figures as the prize, the following
Icelandic tale might be taken as showing an intermediate
stage in the combination, since it is much closer to the
true tale of contending lovers than The Hand and the
Child. It also shows elements of the Beowulf story. ^'''
A king and queen have six daughters. The king's brother and
wife have six sons reared in seclusion. The sons finally set out for
the court, their mother giving wonderful gifts to four of them to
aid them in making their fortunes. The first receives a " kniiuel "
to show the way, the second a sharp sword which cuts anything,
the third a nutshell which can be set on water and quickly con-
verted into a ship, the fourth a powder in a linen sack which makes
things bright as day. But the brothers are also endowed with
natural gifts and they take appropriate names: Guthauende, Gut-
wachende, Gutsingende, Gutkletternde, Gutsplirende, Gutschlafende.
A monster has carried off all the princesses but the youngest. Wlien
he comes again, the brothers through their accomplishments watch
for him, track him to his castle, kill him and his wife, and rescue
the five princesses held by him. Then each prince marries one of
the six daughters of his uncle the king.
This tale is interesting in many ways. It is curious
because of the material gifts and natural gifts, which are
not usually found together. Moreover, the only changes
necessary to make it a perfect combination of the contend-
ing-lover theme with what we may call the Beowulf theme
are the reduction of the six princesses to one and the
raising of a dispute about her possession. The brothers
perform their rescue much as the companions do in The
" Adeline Eittershaus, Die Neuislondischen Volksmarchcn, 1902,
no. 42, pp. 177 ff., Die Jctinstreichcn Briider.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 305
Hand and the Child. But even here there is nothing to
prove that the skilful brothers do not come from a simple
tale of skilful companions or brothers.^^
The Icelandic composite has brought us naturally to a
consideration of the brotherhood of the lovers or com-
panions. Tales in which brothers go out into the world
to learn something useful, and to make their fortunes, are
common in a host of forms. Very often a father or a
mother sends the boys out to shift for themselves because
of poverty. The interesting peculiarity of such tales is
that they seem to be simple; the abilities which the sons
acquire are merely told of, or perhaps tested by the parent.
A folk-tale from Lorraine ^^ is of this class. Here three
sons of a widow set out to seek their fortunes, separate at
a cross-roads, and return in one year. One has become a
clever baker, one a clever locksmith, and the third a
marvellously clever thief. The thief is called upon to test
his ability by the lord of the neighborhood, and his dem-
onstration suggests the group of tales known as The Master
Thief. In an African tale,^° an .old man who has six sons
asks them to choose professions. They choose in turn war,
thievery, trading, highway robbery, farming, and black-
smithing. The ending of the tale takes a moral turn, for
the first four sons are killed, and the last two prosper.
An Irish tale, Triur mac na Bdrr-sgoloige,^'^ relates more
complicated adventures of skilful brothers who go out into
the world to obtain fortune. Grimm 124, Die drei Brilder,
in which one son becomes a clever blacksmith, the second
a barber, and the third a fencing-master, and then demon-
^ For still other tales of skilful companions see the second part
of Benfey's Ausland essay {Kleinere Schriften, u, iii, pp. 132 ff.).
^^ Cosquin, Cotites populaires de Lorraine, no. 70, ii, pp. 271 ff.,
Le Franc Voleur.
^S. W. Kolle, African Native Literatwre, 1854, no. 4, pp. 145 ff,
" Douglas Hyde, An Sgealuidlie Gaelhealach, no. 32.
306 WILLARD EDWARD FARNIIAM
state their abilities before their father, will be recalled to
mind as another example. Such stories appear to spring
from the same folk interest which would produce any tale
of skilful companions, namely, the interest in the common
professions or trades of the world and the skill which
might be attained in them.
Tales of ingenious brothers are related to those of
skilful brothers. A French tale ^^ tells of three brothers
to whom their poor father can give only a cat, a cock, and
a ladder. By ingenuity and luck each uses his heritage
to such good advantage that he gains a fortune, a rich
wife, and a castle.^^
The Water of Life is a tale in which the principals are
usually three brothers, and which has shown some tend-
ency to mix with both The Contending Lovers and The
Skilful Companions. The simple form of the story,
according to Professor Gerould, is something like this : ^*
" A sick king has three sons, who go out to seek some
magical waters (or bird, or fruit) for his healing. The
two older sons fall by the way into some misfortune due
to their own fault; but the youngest, not without aid
of one sort or another from beings with supernatural
powers, succeeds in the quest and at the same time wins
a princess as wife. While returning, he rescues his
brothers, and is exposed by their envy and ingratitude to
the loss of all he has gained (sometimes even of his life).
In the end, however, he comes to his own either because
the cure cannot be completed without him or because his
wife brings the older princes to book."
^^Mrs. M. Carey, Fah-y Legends of the French Provinces, 1887,
pp. 183 ff.
*'For more tales of the sort see Kohler, Kleinere Bchriften, i,
p. 141.
«* The Grateful Dead, p. 124.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 307
Even when versions of tliis tale tell of a princess being
won, tliej are quite distinct from tales of contending
lovers. One of their essential conditions is inequality in
worth among the brothers, for the youngest proves him-
self the most deserving, whereas in The Contending
Lovers it is most necessary that the brothers (or lovers)
shall be equally deserving in order that the dispute may
have some point. The success of a youngest brother com-
peting with elder brothers is, of course, a favorite folk
theme. A princess is often his reward in many tales
beside The Wate?' of Life. For instance, in a Sicilian
tale,^^ a king promises his daughter to one who shall make
a ship that will travel both on sea and on land. Brothers
try the task, but only the youngest, who gains supernatural
aid, succeeds. It is the same in a Tuscan tale, Delia figlia,
del re, che chi huttava qui Valhero, Vaveva per isposa.^^
Of the three brothers the two elder lose their heads through
discourtesy to an old woman, while the youngest wins the
maid for taking pains to be civil.^'^
It is not hard to see how the many tales where the
youthful heroes are brothers could have exercised their
influence, and could soon have turned contending lovers
into brothers. Folk-tale conceptions of this sort are con-
stantly flowing from one tale to another.
One of the most notable men of skill introduced into
The Contending Lovers is the thief. He is found also in
many versions of The Skilful Companions, and wherever
he appears his skill is usually dwelt upon with some gusto.
He is a popular member of the professional group.
Beyond a doubt this thief has some relationship to the
^ Laura Gonzenbaoh, SiciliaiiiscJie Mdrchen, 1870, no. 74, rr, pp.
96 ff.
=«Pitr6, Novclle Popolari Toscani, 1S85, no. 17, pp. 115 if.
=^ Cf. Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, I, pp. 192-3.
308 WILLARD EDWARD FAENHAM
thief in the ancient and widespread cycle of stories dealing
with clever thievery, and conveniently called The Master-
Thief. Perhaps the thief in The Contending Lovers has
been taken over bodily from these tales of roguery, the
popularity of his character making for its inclusion in
any group of stories having to do with skilled arts. Cer-
tainly he is not found among the lovers in the earliest
versions of our tale. He first appears in the Persian
Book of Sindihdd, where he is described as a daring free-
booter who can take the prey from the lion's mouth.
A most natural setting for the thief is found in the
Rescue type of The Contending Lovers^ where there is a
maiden ready to be snatched from some demon or monster
without his knowledge, a situation which the dexterous
fellow is eminently fitted to cope with. We find his skill
variously described in our versions. He can steal the
eggs from under a bird without her knowing it,^^ or can
steal a thing by merely saying, " Let it be here !" ^^ Some-
times he can steal a lamb while it is at suck without its
mother noticing the loss,^*^ and it is often simply stated
that he can take anything from anybody without his
knowing it. Or, perhaps he can strip a man asleep with-
out his being aware of it.^^
It will take only a few of the many instances which
might be gathered to show how close the characteristics of
the thief in The Contending Lovers are to those of the
master-thief. In The Two Thieves, a Roumanian-Gypsy
tale,^^ a town thief and a country thief have a test of skill.
The country thief steals eggs from under a crow, a feat
much like the one performed in the contending-lover tale
^ Grimm 129. ^'Wratislaw 9.
*» Pineau, Rev. dcs Trad. Pop., xii, pp. 201 ff.
'iPio, tale 3 of The Golden Casket.
'» Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales, 1899, pp. 41 flf.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 309
Grimm 129, but in the meanwliile tlie city thief steals the
breeches from off his colleague.^^ Ahnost the same feats
are performed under different circumstances in a tale
from Kashmir.^'* A royal mother wants her son educated
in the profession of thievery to help her in her nefarious
designs, and the boy proves a brilliant pupil. To show
his skill, he steals an egg from under a hawk without her
knowing it, and a pair of pajamas from off the body of an
unsuspecting laborer. ISTo matter how difficult it may be,
the master-thief is always equal to his task. Cases will
at once suggest themselves where he is even successful in
stealing persons without their knowing that they are being
kidnapped.^^
Another combination with The Contending Lovers
which is easy to understand is that of what we may call
the magic things. The resulting composite is the Gifts
type. Even in the earlier Oriental stories of contending
lovers no distinction is made between service for the
maiden performed by skill and that rendered through the
possession of some magic thing. Thus in the Rescue type,
one suitor has a magic chariot or conveyance of some sort,
while others have exceptional skill in various arts. It is
an easy step to make all the suitors possessors of magic
things efficacious for performing the service needed. The
change may be due to influence from tales where magic
" Without attempting to go into the question I give an interesting
comment by Groome on this tale : " Dr. Barhu Constantinescu's
' Two Thieves ' is so curious a combination of the ' Rhampsinitua '
story in Herodotus and of Grimm's Master Thief, that I am more
than inclined to regard it as the lost original which, according to
Campbell of Islay, ' it were vain to look for in any modern work or
in any modern age.'" (Work cited, p. 52.)
^Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, 1S93, pp. 110 ff.
^ As in Grimm 192, Cosquin, Conies -pop. de Lorraine, u, pp.
271 S., and other cases. See Kohler, Kleinere Schriften, I, pp. 255 ff.
5
310 WILLARD EDWARD FARNHAM
gifts play prominent parts in advancing the fortunes of
the hero. In the uses to which they are put the familiar
seven-league boots or wishing carpet of so many stories
are extremely similar to the magic chariot or the magic
ship with which contending lovers are wont to reach their
princess. Things of magic virtue which bring people or
animals back to life after they have been killed are of
enonnous variety and occur in numberless tales.^®
On the possible intermixtures with The Contending
Lovers which would influence the character and service of
the suitors I have barely touched in the preceding few
pages. Many versions of our tale show evidences of con-
tact and fusion with surrounding folk-lore which might
be profitably studied at length. But it has become clear
that with all the minglings and changes which have taken
place The Contending Lovers has not been altered in any
of its essentials. Though the lovers have often been
increased, their characters changed, and incidents juggled
about, the point of the story remains as self-evident as
ever. The tale still deals with service by several lovers for
the same maid, and since all the lovers still contribute
very necessary things to the common end, the dispute
between them as to relative merit almost always rises.
It is true that in Europe, because of the emphasis laid
upon the professions of the rivals and the popularity of
the Rescue type, claims based upon intrinsic worth, such
as might be manifested in caste or nobility, grow infre-
quent. ^Nevertheless, in the Gifts type, the lovers have not
become artisans at all, and they perform service which is
more fortuitous than skilled.
So far our examination of The Contending Lovers has
shown only a general resemblance between that tale and
^ See a short treatment by W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-Tale^
1873, pp. 231 ff.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 311
Chaucer's Paiiement of Foules. The versions we have
studied, by multiplyiug the number of the suitors and
focusing attention on their technical skill, have departed
from the fomi of the story which must have been known .
to Chaucer. The features we have next to discuss may^^
well cause us to revert to the Parlement. These features <*
are the assemblies held to decide the dispute, the argu-
ments of the lovers, the right of self-choice which is often
granted to the maiden, and the final inability of judge or
maiden to reach a decision. All may be regarded as to a
greater or less degree characteristic of The Contending
Lovers, and all throw light on the Parlement.
The Dispute and the Couet
The assembly for the disposition of the maid and its
accompanying parliamentary discussion often appear in
embryonic stages, and the development of the idea may
be easily traced. iSometimes there are mere statements
that a dispute is held, or brief descriptions of an argument
before the father of the girl, and again there are much
more elaborate descriptions of an actual court with a
presiding judge.
A dispute without a judge occurs, it will be remem-
bered, in the second tale of the Vetdlapanchavinsafi. We
are told : " La-dessus, voila les trois brahmanes qui,
aveugles par la colore, se disputent la jeune fiUe." ^"^ In
the fifth of the same collection, the father of the girl is
called upon to pass judgment: " Dcr Vater liberlegte:
' Alle haben Hiilfe geleistet, wem soil ich sie nun geben,
und wem nicht ? ' " ^s The deliberative character of the
father is expanded in the seventh Yetdla tale, where four
^'Tr. Henry, Rev. des Trad. Pop., J, p. 371.
»»Tr. Benfey, Kleinere Schriftcn, ii, iii, p. 98.
312 WILLARD EDWARD FARNHAM
suitors present their claims in turn with brief speeches
and in orderly fashion. Then the father says, " The four
are equal in excellence and attainments — to which shall I
give the maiden ? " ^^
The suitors in the story of the wooden woman (Crea-
tion type) in the Tuti-Ndma actually agree to take their
case before a judge, and this leads to some amusing com-
plications, and the final changing of the woman back into-
wood.^^
>. So the basic idea of a court was present in the Oriental
'versions, and even received some development. However,
once the tale reaches Europe this same idea appears in a
variety of forms. The extensive elaboration in the
Paradiso has been already discussed. Another early
Italian handling of the court conception from the Rescue
tale told by Morlinus and Straparola is interesting.
Straparola says: *^ " But with regard to the lady, seeing
it was not possible to divide her into three parts, there
arose a sharp dispute between the brothers as to which one
of them should retain her, and the wrangling over this
point to decide who had the greatest claim to her was very
long. Indeed, up to this present day it is still before the
court : wherefore we shall each settle the cause as we think
right, while the judge keeps us waiting for his decision."
Straparola's ending is a free translation of that in Mor-
linus : *^ " Post longas disceptationes, adhuc sub Palae-
mone jacet quaestio ; Quis eorum in pari causa aglaeam
indivisibilem meretur. Ipse vero tibi lectori argumentis
judicandum relinquo."
The fact that a court was held is taken for granted
^ Tr. Barker, Baital Pachlst, p. 162.
« Tr. for J. Debrett, pp. 51 ff. See p. 268 above.
"■ Tr. Waters, p. 73.
*^ Hieronymi Morlini, Parthenopei, Novellae, etc., 1855, p. 155.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 313
•here. Incidentally, it is doubtful if any one instance
could make plainer the fact that The Contending Lovers
was still regarded as a hoax story, lacking a definite
decision.
An extensive elaboration of the court scene is probably
a sign of sophistication, but other simple versions besides
the one told by Morlinus and Straparola have short refer- p
ences to an actual court or a parliament. The lovers ■ga ^^
- io~st " courte-paille " in a Breton Rescue tale, for we are
told : ^^ " Les quatre freres ramenerent la princesse au
palais du roi; comme elle devait epouser son liberateur,
et que tons les quatre avaient contribue a sa delivrance,
ils tirerent a la courte-paille pour savoir celui qui devien-
drait le gendre du roi." In this case the deadlock is
broken, and the decision falls to the tailor.
Sometimes it is expressly stated that people come to the
judgTnent from all sides and that the hearing is held
before a great assemblage.^'* In other versions the lovers
may find difiiculty in obtaining a judge. In a Serbian
Rescue tale,"*^ the brothers first go to the Mother of the
Wind, who directs them to the Mother of the Moon, who
directs them to the Mother of the Sun, who finally directs
them to their ovsti mother; and in a Bohemian Gifts tale,^^
the question is thrown open to anyone who thinks himself
wise enough to settle it. " ---^
There is one Breton tale in which the court scene is so >
much expanded, and which is so startlingly close in essen-
tial character to the judgment in the Parlement of Foules, ]
« S6billot, p. 59.
**As in IMeyer, p. 121, an Albanian Rescue story, and Jones-Kropf,
p. 156, a Magyar Gifts story. In the latter "all the learned and old
people of the realm " are called together.
«Jagi(5, Arch. f. Slav. Phil, y, p. 37.
*• Naake, p. 206.
314 WILLAED EDWAKD FARNHAM
that I quote part of it in full. The version is of the
Eescue type with the incident of the ship. The court is
described as follows : ^"^
Les six fr^res gtaient amoureux de la Princesse, et chacun d'eux
pr6tendait avoir le plus de droits a obtenir sa main. Comme ils ne
pouvaient s'entendre a ce sujet, ils convinrent de s'en rapporter au
jugement de leur p&re. Chacun d'eux exposa done ses raisons et
ses pr^tendus droits aux vieux seigneur, assis sur un fauteuil, conime
un juge sur son tribunal, et ayant a cot4 de lui la Princesse.
L'aine, le grimpeur, parla d'abord et dit:
iC'est moi, qui, au p6ril de ma vie, >ai enlev6 la Princesse du
chateau oH le monstre la retenait captive.
Et c'est moi, dit le constructeur de batiments, qui ai construit le
batiment qui vous a conduits a I'ile et vous en a ensuite ramen^s.
(The pleading continues in this fashion until each of the six
suitors has placed his claims before the judge.)
Le vieux seigneur etait fort embarrass^ et ne savait en faveur
duquel de ses fils se prononcer, leur trouvant a tons des droits incon-
testables, si bien que Ton finit par decider, et c'etait bien le plus
sage, que ce serait la Princesse elle-menie qui ferait son choix.
L'histoire ne dit pas duquel des six frferes elle donna le prefe-
rence; mais, moi, je croirais volontiers que ce fut au devineur, parce
qu'il etait le plus instruit, le plus jeune, et surtout le plus joli
gargon.
In this remarkable modern folk-tale we find most of
the essential similarities to the Parlement that occur in
^ \ the Paradiso, and one which is not there. The sitting of
.■^J^^ .^ the judge on the " fauteuil " with the girl beside him
' while the suitors plead for themselves instead of having
advocates to plead for them reminds us somewhat more
strongly of the scene in the Parlement with I^ature hold-
ing the formel eagle in her hand. Like both Pamdiso and
(^' Parlement, the folk-tale has the judge put the decision
-^;"up to the maiden herself. Exceedingly significant is the
statement of the teller that there is nothing in the real
story to indicate what decision she really made. With a
« Luzel, pp. 324 S.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 315
show of honesty that is at once an invitation to discussion,
the teller separates his own opinions from the actual tradi-
tional facts.
The evidence shows conclusively, then, that the court
scene, embryonic or developed, is a native feature of The
Contending Lovers. Even when the suitors wrangle
among themselves with no other persons present, they may
be regarded as holding a court without the judge.
The development of the court may be partly due to an
intermixture from other tales. The idea of a court or
parliament held to decide some question is by no means
uncommon in folk-tales. E'evertheless, there is no great
need to go far outside The Contending Lovers itself for
the material found in its descriptions of the lovers' court.
Some of the elaboration here could be explained by an
every-day interest of the tellers in actual court trials with
which they were familiar.
The Svayamvara,
A notable feature of the Parlement of Foules which has
rarely failed to attract attention, no matter what the ,i Jc.
interpretation put upon the poem, is the permission given y^ '
to the formel by Dame Nature to choose her own mate.
In Giovanni da Prato's Paradiso, substantially the same
grant is made by Jove to Melissa,^^ and so is it given to
the maiden in several other versions of The Contending
Lovers. In spite of the usual belief that woman in the
East plays but a small part in the making of her own
marriage, the convention of self-choice as found in our
tales probably is of Oriental origin. The public choice of
a husband by a princess from among a number of noble
suitors assembled for the purpose was a well-recognized
«See P«&. Mod. Lang. Assoc, xxxn, p. 499.
-^<
316 WILLARD EDWARD FARNHAM
proceeding in ancient India, and the custom was called tlie
svayamvara, literally self-choice.
Among the Oriental versions of our talc, the maiden is
granted the self-choice in the Caste story which is the
seventh of the Vetdlapanchavinsati. It will be remem-
bered that when the princess cannot choose between certain
youths whom her father proposes as likely husbands, he
tells her to make choice of a husband herself, and she then
says she must have a mate who is at once the happy
possessor of good looks, good qualities, and good sense.
After the four qualifying suitors present themselves and
argue, the perplexed father goes to the daughter, explains
the claims, and asks her to make final decision among the
four. " On hearing this statement, she was abashed, and
hanging down her head, knew not what to reply." ^^
By way of reviewing the evidence, it may be well to
point out that the self-choice is also definitely given to
the maiden in the following versions which have been
already incliTded in the summary:
Resuscitation. — Ceylonese, Parker 74.
Rescue. — Breton, Luzel 9 ; Albanian, Dozon, p. 27 ;
Albanian, Meyer 8 ; Danish, Grundtvig 17 ; Slavic, Wen-
zig, p. 140.
Gifts. — Slavic, Krauss 63 ; Roumanian-Gypsy, Groome
13 ; Spanish, Caballero-Ingram, p. 22 ; Portugmese, Pe-
droso-Monteiro 23 ; African, Yelten, p. 71.
These versions are by no means a majority, but the
incident of self-choice crops up too frequently not to be
tradition rightfully belonging to The Contending Lovers
under certain conditions. We have found it in Vetdla 7,
one of the oldest versions, in the medieval version from
the Paradiso, and in the modern versions of varying types
collected above.
*» Barker, Baital PacMsl, p. 162.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 317
The ancient Indian epics give plentiful information as
to how the svaymivara is usually held. Great pomp and
ceremony attend the event. After the father has notified
" the princes of the earth " that his daughter is to choose
a husband at the svayamvara, an amphitheatre is often
made ready, and costly decorations are strewn about. On
the day of the choice the princes stand in array in the
amphitheatre. How the maid signifies her will is told
in a description of Kunti's svayamvara from the MaJid-
hharata: ^^
The large-eyed daughter of Kunti-bhoja, Pritha by name, was
endued with beauty and every accomplishment. Of rigid vows, she
was devoted to virtue, and possessed every good quality. But though
endued with beauty and youth and every womanly attribute, yet it
so happened that no king asked for her hand. Her father Kunti-
bhoja, seeing this, invited, O best of monarchs, the princes and
kings of other countries and desired his daughter to elect her hus-
band from among his guests. The intelligent Kunti, entering the
amphitheatre, beheld Pandu — the foremost of the Bharatas — that
tiger among kings — in that concourse of crowned heads. Proud as
the lion, broad-chested, bull-eyed, endued with great strength, and
out-shining in splendour all other monarchs, he looked like another
Indra in that royal assemblage. The amiable daughter of Kunti-
bhoja, of faultless features, beholding Pandu, that best of men in
that assembly, became very much agitated. And advancing with
modesty, all the while quivering with emotion, she placed the nuptial
garland round Pandu's neck. The other monarchs, seeing Kunti
choose Pandu for her lord, returned to their respective kingdoms,
on elephants, horses, and cars, as they came.
The svayamvara and the mediaeval tournament for a
lady's hand seem to be two institutions with similarities,
but not necessarily related, ^^ ISTor does the tournament
*The Mahahharata in English, translated by Pratapa Chandra
Riiy, Calcutta, 1889 — . Adi Parva, Section cxn, pp. 332 ff. In spite
of the obvious shortcomings of this translation due to somewhat
infelicitous use of English idiom I must use it for lack of a better.
^ The resemblance is especially striking when feats of strength or
skill are performed at the svayamvara, as sometimes happens. (See
318 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
seem to have influenced perceptibly the self-choice as it
is found in the usual story of The Conteiiding Lovers.
That feature of the tale bears the stamp of its Oriental
origin.
The right of self-choice, then, may be regarded as a bit
of elaboration which has attached itself to our tale. The
conditions do not require that such a privilege should be
conferred upon the maid in order that the desired denou-
ment may be reached, but they are unquestionably favor-
able to the introduction of the incident. Suspense is
heightened when the problem is laid before the maid, and
the resulting situation is one that naturally makes its own
appeal to the interest of an audience. When, after con-
sideration, the maid finds that even she, who is most con-
cerned in the outcome of the controversy, cannot arrive
at a decision, greater emphasis is laid on the fact that
the solution of the problem is actually impossible.
The self-choice is capable of being attached to stories
which show no good indication of ever having belonged to
The Contending Lovers. Such is the case in a modern
peasant tale from Ukraine.^^ Three brothers come to woo
a girl, and the father thinks them all worthy of her. He
account of Draupadi's Svayamvara, Mahahharata, tr. Ray, Adi Parva,
section CLXXXvii, pp. 524 ff . ) There are stories of mediaeval tourna-
ments which have almost all the features of the Oriental svayam-
vara. In Ipomedon, for example, the daughter of the Duke of
Calabria, when she is besought by her barons to take a husband,
requests that a three days' tournament be announced for her hand,
expecting Ipomedon to win her. (Ed. Kolbing and Koschwitz, 1889,
11. 2515-52, p. 43.) Instances from romances might be multiplied
beyond necessity. Sir Triamour, Sir Gowther, Le Bone Florence de
Rome, Parthenope of Blois, and Sir Degravant all furnish instances
of jousts where the fair lady is the prize.
"Friedrich S. Krauss, Das Gesclilechtleben des Ukrainischen
Bauernvolkes, 1909, Teil i, pp. 248 ff., Das hoffnimgsvolle, siindige
Fleisch.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 319
decides to let the girl herself choose, and upon being called
and viewing the young men, she does so. The details
connected with her choice are generally obscene.
But it is evident that the svdyarmara does not of itself
produce an insoluble love problem, for in the Indian epics
the maiden usually finds no difficulty in discovering a
preference for some one of the suitors arrayed before her._
Yet when combined with The Contending Lovers, the«c^
svayanivara may be made to complicate the problem by
heightening the suspense. Our tale is par excellence the
story of a love problem. In the Oriental versions this is
usually made clear beyond peradventure of doubt by the
settings in which it is placed. In Europe the story has
at times been corrupted so that one suitor or another is
raade to gain a favorable decision, but in such cases the
narrator's preference has been allowed to color the story.
Thus The Contending Lovers presents a true questione
d'amore formulated by the Orientals before the principles
of courtly love were established in European society.
The Ending of the Tale
Although uncorrupted versions of our tale have in com-
mon a lack of definite decision, the means adopted to set
the problem and yet wind up the story in some satisfactory
fashion are many and ingenious. We have seen that a
narrator niay say flat-footedly, as did Morlinus and Stra-
parola,^^ that the case is still under discussion. But some
tellers are loath to leave matters thus wholly in the air.
In the Pentamerone,^'^ the girl is, not without comic in-
tent, adjudged to the father of the skilful suitors, since no
ground of preference can be discovered among the con-
testants themselves. The reason given is that he is respon-
" See p. 312 above. ^ See p. 285 above.
320 WILLAED EDWAED FAENHAM
sible for having the sons instructed in their arts. The
father is simih^rlj rewarded in Velten, p. 71. A fanciful
and poetic conclusion occurs in four European Rescue
versions.^^ The suitors and the girl, when it is realized
that no decision can be reached, are taken up to Heaven
miraculously, w^here they become stars. Grundtvig 17
adds that the princess twinkles most brightly, and that the
feeblest star of the galaxy is the master-thief. In a Serbian
Gifts version,^^ the despairing suitors retreat to a desert
and become hermits, while the princess marries another.
The maid in a (Spanish Gifts version ^"^ rises smiling from
her coffin and says, " You see, father, that I must marry
all three of them," — a comic touch which recalls a story
of a svayamvara in the ancient Jdtaka.^^ Here the
maiden cannot decide which of five princes to elect and
consequently takes them all.
Often the suitors are not given the desired maiden, but
are mollified with gifts of great wealth, or of kingdoms
to rule, or of other maidens to wife, and with these rewards
they declare themselves perfectly satisfied. Such conclu-
sions as these would seem to arise from a repugnance on
the part of the narrators and the folk in general at leaving
the threads of a story untied. It is felt that the suitors
deserve happiness, even though Fate has been so unkind
as to make them principals in a hopeless love tangle.
Consequently the " happy ending " is added as best
may be.
In conclusion it may be reiterated that The Contending
Lovers belongs to a broad class of literature which has
always had vogue, and which will probably never lose its
^Grundtvig 17; Krausa 32 and 33; Jagid 46.
" Mijatovies-Denton, p. 230.
■" Caballero-Ingram, p. 22.
** See The Jataka, tr. H. T. Francis, 1905, no. 536, v, pp. 226 S.
THE CONTENDING LOVEES 321
infinite variety. For centuries people have been interested
in discussing problems raised by the literature they read
or hear. Riddles have long been popular for themselves,
and have also been introduced into the plots of folk-tale
or ballad. The medieval questioni d'amore appealed to
the same natural desire for interesting and discussable
problems that gave popularity to The Contending Lovers; '
the questionij however, were sophisticated manifestations
of the general tendency to create love problems. To-day
we discuss the problem novel and the problem play.
IV
THE PABLEMENT OF FOULES
As was said at the beginning, an attempt to classify
Chaucer's Parlement of Foules arbitrarily among folk
versions of The Contending Lovers is unnecessary. But
a very brief statement of possibilities, now that the mate-
rial is before us, may be pardoned.
The Pwrlement beyond question holds a love problem,
whether it has allegorical reference to a marriage in the
royal house or not. The story presenting this love problem
has certain features distinctive of The Contending
Lovers: — arguments of the lovers based on love service
and nobility, a court scene, a judge, general discussion,
granting of choice to the maiden, an indefinite conclusion.
These features are so unusual in combination that they
settle the matter of a general relationship. The Parle-
ment is a tale of contending lovers.
But the Parlement has gone far from any simple folk
version which we have been able to find. It is nearest to
the sophisticated tale of the founding of Prato in Gio-
vanni da Prato's II Paradiso degli Alberti, but even this
tale has characteristics which make us certain that in
c.
322 WILLARD EDWARD FAEIfllAM
itself it does not explain the Parlement. In place of
human lovers Chaucer gives us birds, a fanciful departure
from the usual which can be explained naturally enough
as I have tried to show in another paper/ but which is
none the less a large departure. Chaucer, with an appre-
ciative eye to dramatic worth, dwells almost exclusively
<f"'^ on the court scene, and what the lovers have done to
deserve the formel we can only guess from their impas-
sioned but none too specific speeches. Chaucer thus gives
us only part of the story, though it is the most interesting
and picturesque part. Obviously the tale has been much
changed by Chaucer himself or by a predecessor, and
changed according to cultivated notions of what love
rivalry ought to be, most especially notions found in the
tenets of courtly love.
This means that we cannot clearly discern to which type
of The C ontending Lovers the version behind the Parle-
ment belonged, since the logical classification of types
rests largely on the character of service performed by the
lovers. But venturesomely we may say that the Parlement
shows more family resemblance to the Resuscitation type
and the Caste type than the others. The reasons are these :
I. The earliest and most normal Resuscitation ver-
sions have no professions fastened upon the lovers. This
is also true of the very popular Gifts type, which is related
to the Resuscitation group, and in which the youths buy
magic gifts instead of learning wonderful accomplish-
ments. Consequently the services performed ate less
materialistic and approach more nearly to courtly love
service. Acts of love such as the moiinting of the funeral
pyre to be consumed by the same fire which burns the
^ The Foiols in Chaucer's Parlement, University of Wisconsin
Studies in Language and Literature, no. 2 (1918), pp. 341 flf.
THE CONTENDING LOVERS 323
loved one's body, or the building of a but in the cemetery
to guard the tomb of tbe maid, wliicb occur in VctdJapan-
chavhisati 2, could be understood by a disciple of courtly
love. So could tbe act of tbe first suitor in tbe Persian
Sengueliassen-Baitissi, tale 10, part 3, wbo asks for tbe
boon of lifting tbe covering on tbe bier to take one last
look at tbe maiden, and tbus discovers signs of life.
II. Tbe Caste version Vetdlapanchavinsati 7, wbich
sbows some bints of an affinity for tbe Resuscitation type,
since one suitor bas tbe power of bringing tbe dead to life,
lays most empbasis on difference in class among tbe
suitors. Wbile in many otber versions tbe lovers are all
equally noble, bere tbe difference belps to make the love
problem, much as in tbe Parlement.^
III. Tbe self-cboice first appears in a Caste version,
Vetalapanchavinsati 7, and is afterward especially popu-
lar in tbat split from tbe Resuscitation type, tbe Gifts
type. Tbis argument is at best doubtful, for tbe self-
cboice also appears in a few European Rescue versions.
IV. The Paradiso version, wbich is closest to Chaucer,
is of tbe Resuscitation type.
As for Chaucer's getting bold of The Contending
Lovers, we know that this was in every way possible, and
we need not worry overmuch about lost steps in the trans-
mission. The tale was popular in Italy both before and
during Chaucer's lifetime, as recorded versions testify.
Chaucer may have beard the story told, but from the
elegantly dressed and generally gallant character of the
Parlement love story and from what we know of Chaucer's
own character we should judge that more likely he read it.
WiLLARD Edward Farnham.
' This is also true of the redaction of the Vetdla story in the
Kathd-Sarit-Sagara.
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