The Enchanted Maiden (Fairy tale)
"The Enchanted Maiden" is a Portuguese fairy tale that explores themes of social status, beauty, and familial relationships. The story follows a father with three daughters who, adhering to local customs, uses gold and silver balls to attract suitors for his daughters. The youngest daughter, initially overlooked due to her family's reduced means, ultimately finds love with a suitor who appreciates her for who she is. After receiving magical gifts from fairies, she transforms into the most beautiful woman, drawing the attention of a prince who was previously engaged to her cousin. The tale highlights the fickleness of the prince and critiques societal norms around marriage and class, as the enchanted maiden's fortunes change, leading her sisters to reconcile with her. Throughout the narrative, the enchanted maiden's character exemplifies modesty and resilience, ultimately reclaiming her love and status. The story reflects cultural values and critiques social behaviors, making it a significant piece of Portuguese folklore.
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The Enchanted Maiden (Fairy tale)
Author: Consiglieri Pedroso
Time Period: 1851 CE–1900 CE
Country or Culture: Portugal
Genre: Fairy Tale
PLOT SUMMARY
In Europe, there lives a man with three daughters. As is local custom, when the man’s oldest daughter wishes to get married, the father hangs a gold ball at his door. This gold ball is meant to deter any potential suitor who believes the daughter is too rich for him. One day, a prince passes by and sees the gold ball. He asks the father for his daughter’s hand in marriage and the father joyfully agrees.
This custom is repeated to marry the second daughter to a prince as well. When the youngest daughter later asks to get married, however, the father cannot afford another gold ball so they agree on a silver ball. A passing prince rejects the young woman, seeing the silver ball as beneath his station. One suitor, though, believes that the third daughter is just right for him and marries her. As a result, the older two sisters break off communications with the youngest.
The third daughter eventually has a baby girl. She becomes ill, and her husband leaves their home to get her medicine. While he is out, three fairies ask for shelter in their home, and the young mother permits them to stay. Before they take their leave, the fairies approach the baby. The first fairy touches the girl with her divining rod and promises she will become the most beautiful woman in the world. The second fairy promises that she will become the richest. The third fairy gives her the ability to create flowers from her lips. As their final gift, the fairies turn the modest home into a richly furnished palace. When the older two sisters learn of this, they become friends with the third one once again. Her daughter, the enchanted maiden, becomes more beautiful every day.
Years pass, and one of the older sisters has a daughter—the enchanted maiden’s cousin—who is betrothed to a prince. When this prince meets the enchanted maiden, however, he falls in love with her and rejects his fiancée. When the prince falls sick and his physicians send him abroad, the enchanted maiden climbs a high tower to see him for as long as possible. The rejected fiancée attacks the enchanted maiden and plucks out the eyes of her adversary with a pointed rod.
Blinded, the enchanted maiden finds shelter with a kindly man. The prince returns, and the former fiancée says that she is the enchanted maiden. He does not believe her, but she repeats her claim. Being blind, the enchanted maiden does not dare to approach the prince. When the prince is ready to marry his former fiancée, the enchanted maiden sends her cousin a proposal. For her wedding, she will furnish the bride with a nosegay—a flower bouquet—in exchange for her eyes. The other woman agrees.
The enchanted maiden dresses in black and veils her face. She approaches the palace and meets the prince, beseeching him not to get married. The prince replies that he must go through with the wedding because the guests have been invited. The enchanted maiden then shows the prince her hand with the ring he gave her, and the prince lifts her veil and recognizes his true fiancée. The enchanted maiden uses the fairies’ divining rod, still in her possession, to change into rich clothes.
The prince tells his wedding guests: “I lost something, and instead I bought another. I have now recovered that which I lost. Which ought I to make use of—that which I lost, or what I bought?” (Pedroso 40). The guests agree the prince should use what he recovered. The prince goes back to the enchanted maiden. She explains to the guests all that happened to her, and the two are married.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Portuguese fairy tale “The Enchanted Maiden” is part of the anthology Portuguese Folk-Tales published by Portuguese academic Consiglieri Pedroso in 1882. Centuries old, many of these folktales and fairy tales were told to Pedroso by storytellers, mostly older women, so he could transcribe them. By 1882, Pedroso was persuaded to select thirty of his collected tales, including “The Enchanted Maiden.” These were translated into English by Henrietta Monteiro and published by the American Folk Lore Society.
In his introduction to Portuguese Folk-Tales, the editor W. R. S. Ralston praised Pedroso’s tales for their authenticity. For Ralston, one significant indication of this was that like “The Enchanted Maiden,” these tales lacked literary finesse and finish. Instead, their “occasional clumsiness and obscurity, their frequent forgetfulness of their original meaning” attested to their original, unadulterated form (Pedroso i). Significantly, “The Enchanted Maiden” illustrates strong adherence to social order and subtly criticizes class snobbery. Through the actions of the prince of the second generation of lovers, the fairy tale implicitly critiques male romantic behavior.
First in “The Enchanted Maiden” is the story of the third daughter who finds marital happiness by adjusting her desires to the material means of her family. The fairy tale conveys a strong, significant obedience to social status and order among its characters. The plot ultimately rewards the third daughter for her modesty. From here, the fairy tale moves on to serve as a criticism of the two sisters married to princes. First, they reject their younger sister because she has married a man below the status of their own husbands. Once the fortunes of the third sister change, however, her sisters reestablish contact. This both satirizes and critiques social behavior.
With the next generation of characters, the original three sisters disappear from the plot and are replaced by their children. For Ralston, this points at the authenticity of the tale. An orally transmitted story does not polish its narrative as fully as would be expected from a published, edited tale.
From a feminist perspective, it is interesting that the prince appears of a rather fickle and indecisive character. Enamored of the beauty of the enchanted maiden, he abandons his previous engagement to her cousin. Even though he does not believe the cousin later on, he eventually agrees to marry her. When recognizing his true love, the enchanted maiden, he leaves the decision whom to marry to his wedding guests! This certainly connotes a significant critique of male behavior in this Portuguese fairy tale.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cardigos, Isabel. Catalogue of Portuguese Folktales. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2006. Print.
---. In and Out of Enchantment: Blood Symbolism and Gender in Portuguese Fairytales. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1996. Print.
Ong, Walter S. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. New York: Routledge, 1991. Print.
Pedroso, Consiglieri, comp. Portuguese Folk-Tales. Trans. Henrietta Monteiro. Introd. W. R. S. Ralston. New York: Folk Lore Soc., 1882. 37–40. Print.
Sellers, Charles. Tales from the Lands of Nuts and Grapes (Spanish and Portuguese Folklore). Charleston: BiblioLife, 2011. Print.