The Daughter of the Skies (Fairy tale)

Author: John Francis Campbell

Time Period: 1851 CE–1900 CE

Country or Culture: Scotland; Western Europe

Genre: Fairy Tale

Overview

“The Daughter of the Skies” was recorded by John Francis Campbell in his four-volume collection Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860–62), but the fairy tale was preserved before that by a long oral history, and its original author is unknown. Campbell recorded the tale in its original Gaelic and also translated it into English. Classified as a type 425 fairy tale (the search for the lost husband) in the Aarne-Thompson tale-classification system used by folklorists to organize stories by motif, “The Daughter of the Skies” tells the story of a husband who goes missing and the wife who endures various trials as she searches for him.

She did as he asked her; she was not long at her father’s house when she fell ill, and a child was born. That night men were together at the fire to watch. There came the very prettiest music that ever was heard about the town; and every one within slept but she. He came in and he took the child from her. He took himself out, and he went away. The music stopped, and each one awoke; and there was no knowing to what side the child had gone.

“The Daughter of the Skies”

These trials and other events in the story are mysterious and mystical in nature. Curses are pronounced and lifted seemingly without cause or explanation. Deep in an unspecified rural region of the Highlands, fields of sheep and cattle vanish without notice, never to be recovered. Children are conceived and then stolen late in the night while mystical music forces everyone to sleep. Various magical tokens are shared in the tale: shears that can cut on their own, a needle that sews by itself, and of course string that magically threads the needle. There is also an enigmatic horse that is summoned by the shaking of a bridle. Throughout the story, a pervasive sense that everyone has and knows secrets leaves many questions unanswered. All of the characters remain nameless, shrouded even further in mystery.

The title of the story is somewhat misleading, as it suggests the titular character, the daughter of the skies, might be the main protagonist or heroine. Instead, the main heroine appears to be the daughter of a farmer. Little mention is made of the king of the skies, whose strange title seems to suggest that he might be a divine primordial figure, as is often the case in folklore. Although the daughter of the skies is named in the title of the story and seems to possess alchemist powers that contribute to the mystical nature of the tale, her role remains somewhat marginal in this story about an arranged marriage between a farmer’s daughter and a dog and the trials that they must dutifully undertake in order to preserve their faithful union.

In the dedication of his Popular Tales, John Francis Campbell praises the fundamental features of Gaelic folklore, saying that the readers “will find perseverance, frugality, and filial piety rewarded,” as well as “the creed of the people, as shewn in their stories, to be, that wisdom and courage, though weak, may overcome strength, and ignorance, and pride; that the most despised is often the most worthy; that small beginnings lead to great results” (vii). Possessing all of these features, “The Daughter of the Skies” contributes to an impressive collection of Gaelic folktales in its own way. Although some of the story line is bizarre and inexplicable, Campbell assures his readers that “[a]midst curious rubbish you will find sound sense if you look for it” (vii).

Summary

In a time long ago, there was a farmer who had three daughters, along with many cattle and sheep. One day, the farmer comes to his fields only to find that all of the cattle and sheep have vanished. After searching for his flocks all day in vain, he meets a dog who offers to find the cattle and sheep in exchange for marriage to one of the farmer’s daughters. The farmer agrees on the condition that his daughter consent, and he and the dog return to the farm. The farmer asks his eldest daughter, and she declines. He asks his second-eldest daughter, and she, too, declines. When he asks his youngest daughter, she agrees to marry the dog, despite the fact that the older sisters mock her for it.

After the farmer’s youngest daughter marries the dog, it transforms into a fine and handsome man. The two return home to his humble abode, where they are happy for some time before the daughter becomes homesick and longs to visit her father. Her husband agrees to let her go, but because she is pregnant with their first child, he advises her to return before the child is born. Before she leaves, her husband gives her a horse and tells her that before reaching her father’s house, she should take off the horse’s bridle and set the horse free. He instructs her to shake the bridle to recall the horse when she wishes to come home.

The daughter agrees to these conditions, but while at her father’s house, she becomes ill and gives birth there. During the night of the birth, mysterious music plays and puts everyone to sleep but the daughter, who watches as a man comes and takes the child from her. When the music stops, everyone wakes. No one but the daughter knows that the baby has been kidnapped.

Twice more the daughter becomes pregnant and then visits her father with the intention of returning home before giving birth, but both times she again falls ill and gives birth at her father’s house, only to have her babies kidnapped in the same mysterious way. Before she leaves home for the third time, her husband warns her that should she give birth at her father’s house again, she will have more difficulty this time. True to her husband’s word, after the third baby is kidnapped, the farmer angrily confronts his daughter about what has happened to her children. Escaping her father, the daughter tries to return to her husband by summoning the horse with its bridle, but this time the horse does not come. She sets out on foot, but when she returns to her house, her husband, according to his mother, has left.

The farmer’s daughter leaves in search of her husband. Eventually, she comes upon a house, and the housewife invites her in and tells her that her husband is to marry the daughter of the king of the skies. After letting her stay the night, the housewife gives the farmer’s daughter shears that are capable of cutting on their own and sends her off to the housewife’s middle sister’s house. The farmer’s daughter stays there overnight as well, leaving in the morning with the gift of a needle capable of sewing on its own. She then visits the youngest sister’s house. The youngest sister gives the daughter thread that will enter the needle on its own and sends her off into town the next morning.

The farmer’s daughter reaches town and lodges with the king’s henwife, whom she asks for something to sew. While she is sewing with her new magical tools, one of the royal maidservants notices them and reports them to the king’s daughter. Coveting the shears, the king’s daughter asks the girl what she might be willing to exchange for them. The girl asks for nothing but to sleep in the place where the king’s daughter slept. The king’s daughter agrees, but first she gives her bridegroom a sleeping potion to ensure he will remain asleep until the morning, when the girl will be asked to leave.

The next day, the king’s daughter asks for the needle, and the farmer’s daughter asks for the same thing in exchange. The king’s daughter again gives her bridegroom the sleeping potion and allows the farmer’s daughter to sleep in her bed. This night, however, the bridegroom’s oldest son also sleeps beside his father, and he overhears the farmer’s daughter confessing that she is the mother of the bridegroom’s children. The son tells his father, so that the third night, when the farmer’s daughter again sleeps in the king’s daughter’s bed in exchange for the magical thread, he throws out the sleeping potion and speaks to her. The next morning, the king’s daughter comes to throw the farmer’s daughter out, but the bridegroom tells the king’s daughter to leave because he has found his wife: the farmer’s daughter. The pair return home, and the spell is lifted from her husband.

Bibliography

Addy, Sidney Oldall. Household Tales with Other Traditional Remains: Collected in the Counties of York, Lincoln, Derby, and Nottingham. London: Nutt, 1895. Print.

Campbell, John Francis. Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Vol. 1. 1860. Hounslow: Wildwood, 1983. Print.

---. On Current British Mythology and Oral Traditions. London: Ethnological Soc. of London, 1870. Print.

Curtin, Jeremiah. Myths and Folklore of Ireland. New York: Wings, 1975. Print.

Dorson, Richard M. The British Folklorists: A History. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.

Thompson, Francis. “John Francis Campbell (1821–1885).” Folklore 101.1 (1990): 88–96. Print.

Zipes, Jack. Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment: Classic French Fairy Tales. New York: New Amer. Lib., 1989. Print.