The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird

In some tales, when the sister is lured by the antagonist's agent, she is told to look for the belongings (mirror, flower, handkerchief) of a woman of unearthly beauty or a fairy. Such variants occur in Albania, as in the tales collected by J. G. Von Hahn in his Griechische und Albanische Märchen (Leipzig, 1864), in the village of Zagori in Epirus,[13] and by Auguste Dozon in Contes Albanais (Paris, 1881). These stories substitute the quest for the items for the search for a fairy named E Bukura e Dheut ("Beauty of the Land"), a woman of extraordinary beauty and magical powers.[14][15] One such tale is present in Robert Elsie's collection of Albanian folktales (Albania's Folktales and Legends): The Youth and the Maiden with Stars on their Foreheads and Crescents on their Breasts.[16][17]

Another version of the story is The Tale of Arab-Zandyq,[18][19] in which the brother is the hero who gathers the wonderful objects (a magical flower and a mirror) and their owner (Arab-Zandyq), whom he later marries. Arab-Zandyq replaces the bird and, as such, tells the whole truth during her wedding banquet.[20][21]

In a specific Armenian variant, called The Twins, the last quest for the brother is to find the daughter of an Indian king and bring her to his king's palace. In this version, it is a king who overhears the sisters' nightly conversation in his search for a wife for his son. At the end, the brother marries the foreign princess and his sister reveals the truth to the court.[22]

This conclusion also happens in an Indian variant, called The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead, from Bengali. In this tale, the seventh queen begets the wonder-children (fraternal twins, a girl and a boy); the antagonists are the other six queens, who, overcome with jealousy, trick the new queen with puppies and expose the children. When they both grow up, the jealous queens set the siblings on a quest for a kataki flower, with the brother rescuing Lady Pushpavati from Rakshasas. Lady Pushpavati marries the titular "boy with the moon on his forehead" and reveals to the King her mother-in-law's ordeal and the deceit of the King's co-wives.[23]

In an extended version from a Breton source, called L'Oiseau de Vérité,[24] the youngest triplet, a king's son, listens to the helper (an old woman), who reveals herself to be a princess enchanted by her godmother. In a surprise appearance by said godmother, she prophecises her goddaughter shall marry the hero of the tale (the youngest prince), after a war with another country.

In an Icelandic variant collected by Ján Árnuson and translated in his book Icelandic Legends (1866), with the name Bóndadæturnar (The Story of the Farmer's Three Daughters, or its German translation, Die Bauerntöchter),[25] the quest focus on the search for the bird and omits the other two items. The end is very much the same, with the nameless sister rescuing her brothers Vilhjámr and Sigurdr and a prince from the petrification spell and later marrying him.[26]

Another variant where this happy ending occurs is Princesse Belle-Étoile et Prince Chéri, by Mme. D'Aulnoy, where the heroine rescues her cousin, Prince Chéri, and marries him. Another French variant, collected by Henry Carnoy (L'Arbre qui chante, l'Oiseau qui parle et l'Eau d'or, or "The tree that sings, the bird that speaks and the water of gold"), has the youngest daughter, the princess, marry an enchanted old man she meets in her journey and who gives her advice on how to obtain the items.[27]

In a tale collected in Carinthia (Kärnten), Austria (Die schwarzen und die weißen Steine, or "The black and white stones"), the three siblings climb a mountain or slope, but the brothers listen to the sounds of the mountain and are petrified. Their sister arrives at a field of white and black stones and, after a bird gives her instructions, sprinkles magic water on the stones, restoring her brothers and many others - among them, a young man, whom she later marries.[28]

In the Armenian variant Théodore, le Danseur, the brother ventures on a quest for the belongings of the eponymous character and, at the conclusion of the tale, this fabled male dancer marries the sister.[29][30]

In The Three Little Birds, a folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm, in Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM nr. 96), instructed by an old woman fishing, the sister strikes a black dog and it transforms into a prince, with whom she marries as the truth settles among the family.

A similar conclusion happens in the commedia dell'arte The Green Bird, where the brother undergoes the quest for the items, and the titular green bird is a cursed prince, who, after being released from its avian form, marries the sister.

Some versions of the tale have the mother being cast out with the babies into the sea in a box, after the king is tricked into thinking his wife did not deliver her promised wonder children. The box eventually washes ashore on the beaches of an island or another country. There, the child (or children) magically grows up in hours or days and builds an enchanted castle or house that attracts the attention of the common folk (or merchants, or travellers). Word reaches the ears of the despondent king, who hears about the mysterious owners of such fantastic abode, who just happen to look like the children he would have had.

Russian tale collections attest to the presence of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore, as the antagonist in many of the stories.[31]

In some variants, the castaway boy sets a trap to rescue his brothers and release them from a transformation curse. For example, in Nád Péter ("Schilf-Peter"), a Hungarian variant,[32] when the hero of the tale sees a flock of eleven swans flying, he recognizes them as their brothers, who have been transformed into birds due to divine intervention by Christ and St. Peter.

In another format, the boy asks his mother to prepare a meal with her "breast milk" and prepares to invade his brothers' residence to confirm if they are indeed his siblings. This plot happens in a Finnish variant, from Ingermanland, collected in Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen (Bruder und Schwester und die goldlockigen Königssöhne, or "Brother and Sister, and the golden-haired sons of the King").[33] The mother gives birth to six sons with special traits who are sold to a devil by the old midwife. Some time later, their youngest brother enters the devil's residence and succeeds in rescuing his siblings.

The motif of a woman's babies, born with wonderful attributes after she claimed she could bear such children, but stolen from her, is a common fairy tale motif. In this plot-type, an evil stepmother (or grandmother, or gypsy, or slave, or maid) kills the babies, but the twins go through a resurrective reincarnation: from trees to animals and finally into humans babies again. This transformation chase where the stepmother is unable to prevent the children's reappearance is unusual, although it appears in "A String of Pearls Twined with Golden Flowers" and in "The Count's Evil Mother", a Croatian tale from the Karlovac area.[34]

Most versions of The Boys With Golden Stars[35] begin with the birth of male twins, but very rarely there are fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. When they transform into human babies again, the siblings grow up at an impossibly fast rate and hide their supernatural trait under a hood or a cap. Soon after, they show up in their father's court or house to reveal the truth through a riddle or through a ballad.

This tale's format happens in many variants collected in the Balkan area, specially in Romenia,[36][37] as it can be seen in The Boys with the Golden Stars (Romanian: Doi feți cu stea în frunte) collected in Rumänische Märchen,[38] which Andrew Lang included in his The Violet Fairy Book.[39]

In a Kaba'il version from Northern Algeria (Les enfants et la chauve-souris),[40] the bird is replaced by a bat, who helps the abandoned children when their father takes them back and his second wife prepares them a poisoned meal. The bat recommends the siblings to give their meal to animals, in order to prove it's poisoned and to reveal the treachery of the second wife.[41]

In a specific folktale from Egypt, El-Schater Mouhammed,[42] the Brother is the hero of the story, but the last item of the quest (the bird) is replaced by "a baby or infant who can speak eloquently", as an impossible MacGuffin. The fairy (or mystical woman) he sought before gives both siblings instructions to summon the being in front of the king, during a banquet.

In many widespread variants, the bird is replaced by a fairy or magical woman the Brother seeks after as part of the impossible tasks set by his aunts, and whom he later marries (The Brother Quests for a Bride format). Very rarely, it is one of the children themselves that reveal the aunts' treachery to their father, as seen in the Armenian variants The Twins and Theodore, le Danseur.[29][30] In a specific Persian version, from Kamani, the Prince (King's son) investigates the mystery of the twins and questions the midwife who helped in the delivery of his children.[43]

The story of the birth of the wonderful children can be found in Medieval author Johannes de Alta Silva's Dolopathos sive de Rege et Septem Sapientibus (c. 1190), a Latin version of the Seven Sages of Rome.[44] The tale was adapted into the French Li romans de Dolopathos by the poet Herbert.[45] Dolopathos also comprises the Knight of the Swan cycle of stories. This version of the tale preserves the motif of the wonder-children, which are born "with golden chains around their necks", the substitution for animals and the degradation of the mother, but merges with the fairy tale The Six Swans, where brothers transformed into birds are rescued by the efforts of their sister,[46] which is Aarne-Thompson 451, "The boys or brothers transformed into birds".

In a brief summary:[44][47] a lord encounters a mysterious woman (clearly a swan maiden or fairy) in the act of bathing, while clutching a gold necklace, they marry and she gives birth to a septuplet, six boys and a girl, with golden chains about their necks. But her evil mother-in-law swaps the newborn with seven puppies. The servant with orders to kill the children in the forest just abandons them under a tree. The young lord is told by his wicked mother that his bride gave birth to a litter of pups, and he punishes her by burying her up to the neck for seven years. Some time later, the young lord while hunting encounters the children in the forest, and the wicked mother's lie starts to unravel. The servant is sent out to search them, and find the boys bathing in the form of swans, with their sister guarding their gold chains. The servant steals the boys' chains, preventing them from changing back to human form, and the chains are taken to a goldsmith to be melted down to make a goblet. The swan-boys land in the young lord's pond, and their sister, who can still transform back and forth into human shape by the magic of her chain, goes to the castle to obtain bread to her brothers. Eventually the young lord asks her story so the truth comes out. The goldsmith was actually unable to melt down the chains, and had kept them for himself. These are now restored back to the six boys, and they regain their powers, except one, whose chain the smith had damaged in the attempt. So he alone is stuck in swan form. The work goes on to say obliquely hints that this is the swan in the Swan Knight tale, more precisely, that this was the swan “quod cathena aurea militem in navicula trahat armatum (that tugged by a gold chain an armed knight in a boat).”[44]

The motif of the heroine persecuted by the queen, on false pretenses, also happens in Istoria della Regina Stella e Mattabruna,[48] a rhyming story of the ATU 706 type (The Maiden Without Hands).[49]

India-born author Maive Stokes suggested that the motif of the children's "silver chains" (in her notes) are parallel to the astronomical motifs on the children's bodies.[50]

Waldemar Liungman has suggested that this tale has an even earlier point of origin, with a possible source in Hellenistic times.[51]

It has been suggested by Russian scholars that the first part of the tale (the promises of the three sisters and the substitution of babies for animals/objects) may found parallels in stories of the indigenous populations of the Americas.[52]

The motif of the children born with astronomical signs on their bodies appears in Russian fairy tales and healing incantations,[7] with the formula "a red star or sun in the front, a moon on the back of the neck and a body covered with stars". However, Western scholars interpret the motif as a sign of royalty.[53]

India-born author Maive Stokes, as commented by Joseph Jacobs, noted that the motif of children born with stars, moon or a sun in some part of their bodies occurred to heroes and heroines of both Asian and European fairy tales,[54] and are by no means restricted to the ATU 707 tale type.

Scholars have proposed that the quest for the Dancing Water in these tales are part of a macrocosm of similar tales about the quest for a Water of Life or Fountain of Immortality.[55]

It has been suggested that the transformation sequence in the tale format (from human babies, to trees, to lambs/goats and finally to humans again) may be underlying a theme of reincarnation, metempsychosis or related to a life-death-rebirth cycle.[56] This motif is shared by other tale types, and does not belong exclusively to the ATU 707.

India-born author Maive Stokes noted the resurrective motif of the murdered children, and found parallels among European tales published during that time.[57]

The first attestation of the tale is possibly Ancilotto, King of Provino, an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550-1555).[63][64] A fellow Italian scholar, bishop Pompeo Sarnelli (anagrammatised into nom de plume Marsillo Reppone), wrote down his own version of the story, in Posilecheata (1684), preserving the Neapolitan accent in the books' pages: La 'ngannatora 'ngannata, or L'ingannatora ingannata ("The deceiver deceived").[65][66][67]

Spanish scholars suggest that the tale can be found in Iberia's literary tradition of the late 15th and early 16th centuries: Lope de Vega's commedia La corona de Hungría y la injusta venganza contains similarities with the structure of the tale, suggesting that the Spanish playwright may have been inspired by the story,[68] since the tale is present in Spanish oral tradition. In the same vein, Menéndez Y Pelayo writes in his literary treatise Orígenes de la Novela that an early version exists in Contos e Histórias de Proveito & Exemplo, published in Lisbon in 1575,[69] but this version lacks the fantastical motifs.[70][71]

Two ancient French literary versions exist: Princesse Belle-Étoile et Prince Chéri, by Mme. D'Aulnoy (of Contes de Fées fame), in 1698,[72] and L'Oiseau de Vérité ("The Bird of Truth"), penned by French author Eustache Le Noble, in his collection La Gage touché (1700).[73][74]

Italy seems to concentrate a great number of variants, from Sicily to the Alps.[62] Italian folklorist of Sicilian origin, Giuseppe Pitrè collected at least five variants in his book Fiabe Novelle e Racconti Popolari Siciliani, Vol. 1 (1875).[75] Pitrè also comments on the presence of the tale in Italian scholarly literature of his time. His work continued in the supplement publication of Curiosità popolari tradizionali, which recorded a variant from Ciociaria (Le tre figli);[76] and a variant from Sardinia (Is tres sorris; English: "The three sisters").[77]

An Italian variant named El canto e 'l sono della Sara Sybilla ("The Sing-Song of Sybilla Sara"), replaces the magical items for an indescribable MacGuffin, obtained from a supernatural old woman. The strange object also reveals the whole plot at the end of the tale.[78] Vittorio Imbriani, who collected the previous version, also gathers three more in the same book La Novellaja Fiorentina: L'Uccellino, che parla; L'Uccel Bel-Verde and I figlioli della campagnola.[79] Gherardo Nerucci, a fellow Italian scholar, has recorded El canto e 'l sono della Sara Sybilla and I figlioli della campagnola, in his Sessanta novelle popolari montalesi: circondario di Pistoia[80] The story of "Sara Sybilla" has been translated to English as The Sound and Song of the Lovely Sibyl, with a source in Tuscany, but differing from the original in that it reinserts the bird as the truth-teller to the King.[81]

Vittorio Imbriani also compiles a Milanese version (La regina in del desert), which he acknowledges as a sister story to that of Sarnelli's and Straparola's.[82]

Fellow folklorist Laura Gonzenbach, from Switzerland, translated a Sicilian variant into the German language: Die verstossene Königin und ihre beiden ausgesetzten Kinder (The banished queen and her two children).[83]

Domenico Comparetti collected a variant named Le tre sorelle ("The Three Sisters"), from Monferrato[84] and L'Uccellino che parla ("The speaking bird"), a version from Pisa[85] - both in Novelline popolari italiane.

Gennaro Finamore collected a version from Abruzzo, in Italy, named Lu fatte de le tré ssurèlle, with references to Gonzenbach, Pitrè, Comparetti and Imbriani.[86]

In a fable from Mantua (La fanciulla coraggiosa, or "The brave girl"), the story of the siblings's mother and aunts and the climax at the banquet are skipped altogether. The tale is restricted to a quest for the water-tree-bird in order to embellish their garden.[87]

Angelo de Gubernatis lists two variants from Santo Stefano di Calcinaia: I cagnolini and Il Re di Napoli,[88] and an unpublished, nameless version collected in Tuscany, near the source of the Tiber river.[89][90]

The "Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi" ("Central Institute of Sound and Audiovisual Heritage") promoted research and registration throughout the Italian territory between the years 1968-1969 and 1972. In 1975 the Institute published a catalog edited by Alberto Maria Cirese and Liliana Serafini including 55 variants of the ATU 707 type.[91]

The tale seems to have inspired Carlo Gozzi's commedia dell'arte work L'Augellino Belverde ("The Green Bird").[92][93] In it, the eponymous green bird keeps company to the imprisoned queen, and tells her he can talk, and he is actually a cursed prince. The fantastic children's grandmother sets them on their quest for the fabulous items: the singing apple and the dancing waters.[94]

There are many oral variants collected and analysed by folklorists, found, for instance, in Brittany and Lorraine:[62] Les trois filles du boulanger, or L’eau qui danse, le pomme qui chante et l’oiseau de la verité ("The Three Daughters of the Baker, or water that dances, the fruit that sings and the bird of truth"),[95] and Les Deux Fréres et la Soeur ("The Two Brothers and their Sister"), a tale heavily influenced by Christian tradition[96] - both collected by François-Marie Luzel; La mer qui chante, la pomme qui danse et l’oisillon qui dit tout ("The Singing Sea, The Dancing Apple and The Little Bird that tells everything"), recorded by Jean-François Bladé, from Gascony;[97] La branche qui chante, l’oiseau de vérité et l’eau qui rend verdeur de vie ("The singing branch, the bird of truth and the water of youth"), by Henri Pourrat; L'oiseau qui dit tout, a tale from Troyes collected by Louis Morin;[98] a tale from the Ariège region, titled L'Eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l’oiseau de toutes les vérités ("The dancing water, the singing apple and the bird of all truths");[99] a variant from Poitou, titled Les trois lingêres, by René-Marie Lacuve;[100] a version from Limousin (La Belle-Étoile), by J. Plantadis;[101] and a version from Sospel, near the Franco-Italian border (L'oiseau qui parle), by James Bruyn Andrews.[102]

Emmanuel Cosquin collected a variant from Lorraine titled L'oiseau de vérité ("The Bird of Truth"),[103] which is the name used by French academia to refer to the tale.[104]

A tale from Haute-Bretagne, collected by Paul Sébillot (Belle-Étoile), is curious in that if differs from the usual plot: the children are still living with their mother, when they, on their own, are spurred on their quest for the marvelous items.[105] Sébillot continued to collect variants from across Bretagne: Les Trois Merveilles ("The Three Wonders"), from Dinan.[106]

A variant from Provence, in France, collected by Henry Carnoy (L'Arbre qui chante, l'Oiseau qui parle et l'Eau d'or, or "The tree that sings, the bird that speaks and the water of gold"), has the youngest daughter, the princess, marry an enchanted old man she meets in her journey and who gives her advice on how to obtain the items.[107]

An extended version, almost novella-length, has been collected from a Breton source and translated into French, by Gabriel Milin and Amable-Emmanuel Troude, called L'Oiseau de Vérité (Breton: Labous ar wirionez).[108] The tale is curious in that, being divided in three parts, the story takes its time to develop the characters of the king's son and the peasant wife, in the first third. In the second part, the wonder-children are male triplets, each with a symbol on his shoulder: a bow, a spearhead and a sword. The character who helps the youngest prince is an enchanted princess, who, according to a prophecy by her godmother, will marry the youngest son (the hero of the tale).

The tale of La mer qui chante, la pomme qui danse et l’oisillon qui dit tout ("The Singing Sea, The Dancing Apple and The Little Bird that tells everything") preserves the motif of the wonder-children, born with chains of gold "between the skin and muscle of their arms",[109] from Dolopathos and the cycle The Knight of Swan.

In French sources, there have been attested 35 versions of the tale (as of the late 20th century).[110]

There are also variants in Romance languages: a Spanish version called Los siete infantes, where there are seven children with stars on their foreheads,[111] and a Portuguese one, As cunhadas do rei (The King's sisters-in-law).[112] Both replace the fantastical elements with Christian imagery: the devil and the Virgin Mary.[113]

Modern sources, from the late 20th century and early 21st century, confirm the wide area of distribution of tale across Spain,[114] for instance, in Catalonia.[62] Scholar Montserrat Amores has published a catalogue of the variants of ATU 707 that can be found in Spanish sources (1997).[115] A structural analysis of the tale type in Spanish sources has been published in 1930.[116]

In compilations from the 19th century, collector D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros writes four Catalan variants: Los Fills del Rey ("The King's Children"), L'aygua de la vida ("The Water of Life"),[117] Lo castell de irás y no hi veurás and Lo taronjer;[118] Sérgio Hernandez de Soto collected a variant from Extremadura, named El papagayo blanco ("The white parrot");[119] Juan Menéndez Pidal a version from the Asturias (El pájaro que habla, el árbol que canta y el agua amarilla);[120] Antonio Machado y Alvarez wrote down a tale from Andalusia (El agua amarilla);[121] writer Fernán Caballero collected El pájaro de la verdad ("The Bird of Truth");[122] Wentworth Webster translated into English a variant in Basque language (The singing tree, the bird which tells the truth, and the water that makes young)[123]

Some versions have been collected in Mallorca, by Antoni Maria Alcover: S'aygo ballant i es canariet parlant ("The dancing water and the talking canary");[124] Sa flor de jerical i s'aucellet d'or;[125] La Reina Catalineta ("Queen Catalineta"); La bona reina i la mala cunyada ("The good queen and the evil sister-in-law"); S'aucellet de ses set llengos; S'abre de música, sa font d'or i s'aucell qui parla ("Tree of Music, the Fountains of Gold and the Bird that Talks").[126]

A variant in verse format has been collected from the Madeira Archipelago.[127] Another version has been collected in the Azores Islands.[128]

A singular occurrence of the ATU 707 type is attested in Irish folklore, recorded by Irish folklorist Sean O'Suilleabhain in Folktales of Ireland, under the name The Speckled Bull.[129] In Types of the Irish Folktale (1963), by the same author, he lists a variant titled Uisce an Óir, Crann an Cheoil agus Éan na Scéalaíochta.[130]

Fairy tale scholars point that at least 265 Greek versions have been collected and analysed by Angéloupoulou and Brouskou.[131][132] Scholar and writer Teófilo Braga points that a Greek literary version ("Τ’ αθάνατο νερό"; English: "The immortal water") has been written by Greek expatriate Georgios Eulampios (K. Ewlampios), in his book Ὁ Ἀμάραντος (German: Amarant, oder die Rosen des wiedergebornen Hellas; English: "Amaranth, or the roses of a reborn Greece") (1843).[133]

Some versions have been analysed by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion (five variants),[134] and by W. A. Clouston in his Variants and analogues of the tales in Vol. III of Sir R. F. Burton's Supplemental Arabian Nights (1887)[41] (two variants), as an appendix to Sir Richard Burton's translation of The One Thousand and One Nights.

Two Greek variants alternate between twin children (boy and girl)[135][136] and triplets (two boys and one girl).[137][138][139][140] Nonetheless, the tale's formula is followed to the letter: the wish for the wonder-children, the jealous relatives, the substitution for animals, exposing the children, the quest for the magical items and liberation of the mother.

In keeping with the variations in the tale type, a tale from Athens shows an abridged form of the story: it keeps the promises of the three sisters, the birth of the children with special traits (golden hair, golden ankle and a star on forehead), and the grandmother's pettiness, but it skips the quest for the items altogether and jumps directly from a casual encounter with the king during a hunt to the unveiling of truth during the king's banquet.[141][142]

Albanian variants can be found in the works of many folklorists of the 19th and 20th centuries: a variant collected in the village of Zagori in Epirus, by J. G. Von Hahn in his Griechische und Albanische Märchen (Leipzig, 1864), and analysed by Arthur Bernard Cook in his Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion;[143] Auguste Dozons's Contes Albanais (Paris, 1881) (Tale II: Les Soeurs Jaleuses, or "The Envious Sisters");[144] André Mazon's study on Balkan folklore, with Les Trois Soeurs;[145] linguist August Leskien in his book of Balkan folktales (Die neidischen Schwestern)[146] and Robert Elsie, German scholar of Albanian studies, in his book Albanian Folktales and Legends (The youth and the maiden with stars on their foreheads and crescents on their breasts).[147]

A Maltese variant has been collected by Hans Stumme, under the name Sonne und Mond, in Maltesische Märchen (1904).[148] This tale begins with the ATU 707 (twins born with astronomical motifs/aspects), but the story continues under the ATU 706 tale-type (The Maiden without hands): mother has her hands chopped off and abandoned with her children in the forest. A second Maltese variant was collected by researcher Bertha Ilg-Kössler, titled Sonne und Mond, das tanzende Wasser und der singende Vogel.[149]

Portuguese folklorist Teófilo Braga, in his annotations, comments that the tale can be found in many Germanic sources,[150] mostly in the works of contemporary folklorists and tale collectors: The Three Little Birds (De drei Vügelkens), by the Brothers Grimm in their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (number 96);[151][152] Leaping Water, Speaking Bird and Singing Tree, written down by Heinrich Pröhle in Kinder- und Völksmärchen,[153] Die Drei Königskinder, by Johann Wilhelm Wolf (1845); Der Prinz mit den 7 Sternen ("The Prince with 7 stars"), collected in Waldeck by Louis Curtze,[154] Drei Königskinder ("Three King's Children"), a variant from Hanover collected by Wilhelm Busch;[155] and Der wahrredende Vogel ("The truth-speaking bird"), an even earlier written source, by Justus Heinrich Saal, in 1767.[156] A peculiar tale from Germany, Die grüne Junfer ("The Green Virgin"), by August Ey, mixes the ATU 710 tale type ("Mary's Child"), with the motif of the wonder children: three sons, one born with golden hair, other with a golden star on his chest and the third born with a golden stag on his chest.[157]

A variant where it is the middle child the hero who obtains the magical objects is The Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Sparkling Stream (Der redende Vogel, der singende Baum und die goldgelbe Quelle), published in the newly-discovered collection of Bavarian folk and fairy tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth.[158]

A version collected from Graubünden (Vom Vöglein, das die Wahrheit erzählt, or "The little bird that told the truth"), the tale begins in media res, with the box with the children being found by the miller and his wife. When the siblings grow up, they seek the bird of truth to learn their origins, and discover their uncle had tried to get rid of them.[159] Another variant from Oberwallis (canton of Valais) (Die Sternkinder) has been collected by Johannes Jegerlehner, in his Walliser sagen.[160]

A Hungarian variant has the siblings as twins and their grandmother, the old queen, as the villain, as in The Golden Fish, The Wonder-working Tree and the Golden Bird, collected by J. Walker McSpadden in his Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe.[161] Other Hungarian tales fall under the banner of "The Golden-Haired Twins" (Hungarian: Az aranyhajú ikrek):[162] Fee Ilona und der goldhaarige Jüngling ("Lady Ilona and the golden-haired Youth"), of the Brother quests for a Bride format;[163] Die zwei goldhaarigen Kinder ("The Two Children with Golden Hair"), of The Boys With Golden Stars format;[164] Nád Péter ("Schilf-Peter"), a variant of The Tale of Tsar Saltán format.[165] Elisabet Róna-Sklárek has also published comparative commentaries on Hungarian folktales in regards to similar versions in international compilations.[166]

In a variant collected in Austria, by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle (Der Vogel Phönix, das Wasser des Lebens und die Wunderblume, or "The Phoenix Bird, the Water of Life and the Most beautiful Flower"),[167] the tale acquires complex features, mixing with motifs of ATU "the Fox as helper" and "The Grateful Dead": The twins take refuge in their (unbeknownst to them) father's house, it's their aunt herself who asks for the items, and the fox who helps the hero is his mother.[168] The fox animal is present in stories of the Puss in Boots type, or in the quest for The Golden Bird/Firebird (ATU 550 - Bird, Horse and Princess) or The Water of Life (ATU 551 - The Water of Life), where the fox replaces a wolf who helps the hero/prince.[169]

A variant from Buchelsdorf, when it was still part of Austrian Silesia, (Der klingende Baum) has the twins raised as the gardener's sons and the quest for the water-tree-bird happens in order to improve the king's garden.[170]

One version collected in Iceland can be found in Ján Árnuson's Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og æfintýri, published in 1864 (Bóndadæturnar), translated as "The Story of The Farmer's Three Daughters", in Icelandic Legends (1866); in Isländische Märchen (1884), with the title Die Bauerntöchter,[171] or in Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen (1902), by Adeline Rittershaus (Die neidischen Schwestern).[172]

Other versions have been recorded from Danish and Swedish sources:[59] a Swedish version, named Historie om Talande fogeln, spelande trädet och rinnande wattukällan (or vatukällan);[173] another Scandinavian variant, Om i éin kung in England;[174] Danish variant Det springende Vand og det spillende Trae og den talende Fugl ("The leaping water and the playing tree and the talking bird"), collected by Evald Tang Kristensen;[175] Den forskudte dronning og den talende fugl, det syngende træ, det rindende vand ("The Disowned Queen and the Talking Bird, the Singing Tree, the Flowing Water"), present in Jyske folkeminder, Vol. V, mentioned by Astrid Lunding.[176]

A Finnish variant, called Tynnyrissä kaswanut Poika (The boy who grew in a barrel), follows the Tale of Tsar Saltan format: peasant woman promises the King three sets of triplets in each pregnancy, but her envious older sisters substitute the boys for animals. She manages to save her youngest child but both are cast into the sea in a barrel.[177] A second variant veers close to the Tale of Tsar Saltán format (Naisen yhdeksän poikaa, or "The woman's nine children"),[178] but the reunion with the kingly father does not end the tale; the two youngest brothers journey to rescue their siblings from an avian transformation curse.

Other Finnish variants can be found in Eero Salmelainen's Suomen kansan satuja ja tarinoita.[179] A version was translated into English with the name Mielikki and her nine sons.[180]

Another Finnish variant, from Ingermanland, has been collected in Finnische und Estnische Volksmärchen (Bruder und Schwester und die goldlockigen Königssöhne, or "Brother and Sister, and the golden-haired sons of the King").[181]

Jonas Basanavicius collected a few variants in Lithuanian compilations, including the formats The Boys with the Golden Stars and Tale of Tsar Saltan. Its name in Lithuanian folktale compilations is Nepaprasti vaikai[182] or Trys auksiniai sûnûs.

The work of Latvian folklorist Peteris Šmidts, beginning with Latviešu pasakas un teikas ("Latvian folktales and fables") (1925-1937), records 33 variants of the tale type. Its name in Latvian sources is Trīs brīnuma dēli or Brīnuma dēli.

A thorough study on Estonian folktales (among them, the ATU 707 tale type) was conducted by researchers at Tartu University and published in two volumes (in 2009 and in 2014).[183]

Slavicist Karel Horálek published an article with an overall analysis of the ATU 707 type in Slavic sources.[184]

The earliest version in Russian was recorded in Старая погудка на новый лад (1794-1795), with the name Сказка о Катерине Сатериме ("The Tale of Katarina Saterima").[185][186] Another compilation in the Russian language that precedes both The Tale of Tsar Saltan and Afanasyev's tale collection was Сказки моего дедушки (1820), which recorded a variant titled Сказка о говорящей птице, поющем дереве и золо[то]-желтой воде.[186]

The fairy tale in verse The Tale of Tsar Saltan, written by renowned Russian author Alexander Pushkin and published in 1831, is another variant of the tale, and the default form by which the ATU 707 is known in Russian and Eastern European academia.[187] It tells the tale of three sisters, the youngest of which is chosen by the eponymous Tsar Saltan as his wife, to the blind jealousy of her two elder sisters. While the royal husband is away at war, she gives birth to Prince Gvidon Saltanovitch, but her sisters conspire to cast mother and child to the sea in a barrel. Both she and the baby wash ashore in the island of Buyan, where Prince Gvidon grows up to an adult male. After a series of adventures - and with the help of a magical princess in the form of a swan (Princess Swan), Prince Gvidon and his mother reunite with Tsar Saltan, as Princess Swan and Prince Gvidon marry.

Russian folklorist Alexander Afanasyev collected seven variants, divided in two types: The Children with Calves of Gold and Forearms of Silver (in a more direct translation: Up to the Knee in Gold, Up to the Elbow in Silver),[188][189] and The Singing Tree and The Speaking Bird.[190][191] Two of his tales have been translated into English: The Singing-Tree and the Speaking-Bird[192] and The Wicked Sisters.[193] In the later, the children are male triplets with astral motifs on their bodies, but there is no quest for the wondrous items.

A version from Poland has been collected by Antoni Józef Glinski ans translated into German (Vom prinzen mit dem Mond auf der Stirn und Sternen auf dem Kopf).[194]

A Czech variant was collected by author Božena Němcová, under the name O mluvícím ptáku, živé vodě a třech zlatých jabloních ("The speaking bird, the water of life and the three golden apples").[195]

A version from Bulgaria was recorded by Václav Florec in 1970, with the name Tři sestry ("Three sisters").[196]

A recent publication (2007) of Slovenian folk tales, collected by Anton Pegan in the 19th century, has a Slovenian variant of the ATU 707, under the name Vod trejh predic.[197][198]

The format of the story The Boys With The Golden Stars seems to concentrate around Eastern Europe: in Romenia;[36][37][199][200] a version in Belarus;[201] in Servia;[202] in the Bukovina region;[203] in Croatia;[204][205] Bosnia,[206] Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia.[207]

At least two Armenian versions exist in folktale compilations: The Twins[22] and Cheveux d'argent et Boucles d'or.[208] A variant collected from tellers of Armenian descent in the Delray section of Detroit shows: the king listens to his daughters - the youngest promising the wonder children when she marries; the twins are the king's grandsons; the Brother quests for the bird Hazaran Bulbul and a female interpreter for the bird. When the interpreter is delivered to the Sister, the former requests the Brother to go back to the bird's owner, Tanzara Kanum, and bring the second woman who lives there, so that they may keep company and protect the Sister.[209] A fourth Armenian variant (Théodore le Danseur) places a giant named Barogh Assadour ("Dancing Theodore")[210] in the role of the mystical woman the brother seeks, and this fabled character ends up marrying the sister.[211]

A variant in Avar language is attested in Awarische Texte, by Anton Schiefner.[212]

Two Georgian variants exist in international folktale publications:[213] Die Kinder mit dem Goldschopf ("The children with golden heads")[214] and The Three Sisters and their Stepmother.[215]

Folklorists and tale collectors Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, who wrote a thorough study on Turkish tales,[216] list at least 55 versions of the story that exist in Turkish compilations.[217] Part of the Turkish variants follow the Brother Quests for a Bride format: the aunts' helper (witch, maid, midwife, slave) suggests her brother brings home a woman of renowned beauty, who becomes his wife at the end of the story and, due to her supernatural powers, acquits her mother-in-law of any perceived wrongdoing in the king's eyes.[218]

A Turkish variant, translated into German, has twins with golden hair: the male with the symbol of a half-moon, and the female with a bright star, and follow the Brother quests for a Bride format, with the prince/hero seeking Die Feekönigin (The Fairy Queen). This character knows the secrets of the family and instructs the siblings on how to convince the King.[219] Another variant has been collected from the city of Mardin, in the 19th century.[220][221]

The tale appears in fairy tale collections of Middle Eastern and Arab folklore,[222] as a possible point of origin or dispersal.[223] One version appears in the collection of The Arabian Nights, by Antoine Galland, named Histoire des deux sœurs jalouses de leur cadette, or The Story of the older sisters envious of their Cadette (cadette or cadet is a French word meaning youngest sibling). The tale contains a mythical bird called Bülbül-Hazar, thus giving the tale an alternate name: Perizade & L'Oiseau Bülbül-Hazar. The heroine, Perizade ou Farizade, also names the tale Farizade au sourire de rose ("Farizade of the rose's smile").[224][225]

A second variant connected to the Arabian Nights compilation is Abú Niyyan and Abú Niyyatayn, part of the frame story The Tale of the Sultan of Yemen and his three sons (The Tale of the King of al-Yaman and his three sons). The tale is divided into two parts: the tale of the father's generation falls under the ATU 613 tale type (Truth and Falsehood), and the sons' generation follows the ATU 707.[226] A third version present in The Arabian Nights is "The Tale of the Sultan and his sons and the Enchanting Bird", a fragmentary version that focuses on the quest for the bird with petrifying powers.[227]

Other versions in Arab-speaking countries that preserve the quest for the bird mention a magical nightingale.[228]

An Indian tale, collected by Joseph Jacobs in his Indian Fairy Tales (1892), The Boy who had a Moon on his Forehead and a Star on his Chin, omits the quest for the items and changes the jealous aunts into jealous co-wives of the king, but keeps the wonder-child character (this time, an only child) and the release of his mother.[229][230] Jacobs's source was Maive Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales (1880), with her homonymous tale.[231]

The character of the Boy with the Moon on his forehead reappears in an eponymous tale collected from Bengali (The Boy with the Moon on his Forehead), where the seventh queen begets a boy and a girl, and the jealous co-wives of the king try to eliminate both siblings.[23]

A third variant can be found in The Enchanted Bird, Music and Stream, recorded by Alice Elizabeth Dracott, in Simla Village Tales, or Folk Tales from the Himalayas.[232] This tale follows the general format, but the quest items's descriptors mention no significant magical properties, unlike most variants of the tale.

In true family saga fashion, an Indian tale of certain complexity and extension (Truth's Triumph, or Der Sieg der Wahrheit) tells a story of a Ranee of humble origins, the jealousy of the twelve co-wives, the miraculous birth of her 101 children and their abandonment in the wilderness. In the second part of the tale, the youngest child, a girl, witnesses her brothers' transformation into crows, but she is eventually found and marries a Rajah of a neighboring region. Her child, the prince, learns of his family history and ventures on a quest to reverse his uncles's transformation. At the climax of the story, the boy invites his grandfather and his co-wives and reveals the whole plot, as the family reunites.[233]

James Hinton Knowles collects three varians from Kashmir, in which the number of siblings vary between 4 (three boys, one girl; third son as the hero), 2 (two sons; no quest for the water-tree-bird) and 1 (only male child; quest for tree and its covering; no water, nor bird).[234]

Folklorist D. L. Ashliman, in his 1987 study of folktales,[225] lists The Golden Eggplant (黄金の茄子 <<Kin no nasu>>) as a Japanese variant of the tale.[235]

Some versions of the tale have been collected from local storytellers in many regions: two versions have been found in Morocco,[236] one on the Northern area; some have been collected in Algeria,[40] and one of them in the Tell Atlas area,[237] and some in Egypt.[238][239][240][241]

Two versions have been recorded by German ethnographer Leo Frobenius in his Atlantis book collection: Die ausgesetzten Geschwister and Die goldhaarigen Kinder.[242]

In a specific folktale from Egypt (The Promises of the Three Sisters),[243] the male twin is named Clever (name), while the female twin is called Mistress of Beauty, and both quest for the "dancing bamboo, singing water and talking lark". In the El-Schater Mouhammed tale, a variant from Egypt, the Brother is the hero of the story, but the last item of the quest (the bird) is replaced by "a baby or infant who can speak eloquently", as an impossible MacGuffin.

In a Tunisian version (En busca del pájaro esmeralda, or "The quest for the emerald bird"), the older brother is the hero of the story and the singing branch is conflated with the titular emerald bird, which reveals the story at a feast with the Sultan.[244] Another Tunisian version has been collected from oral sources under the name M'hammed, le fils du sultan ("M'hammed, the son of the Sultan").[245]

A version of the tale was found amongst Batanga sources, with the name The Toucan and the Three Golden-Girdled Children, collected by Robert Hamill Nassau and published in the Journal of American Folklore, in 1915.[246]

Scholars have attested the presence of the tale type in African sources,[247] such as the East African version collected by Carl Meinhof.[248]

A tale of the Sotho people (Basotho) with the motif of the wonderful child with a moon on his breast was recorded in The treasury of Ba-suto lore (1908), by Édouard Jacouttet.[249]

A few versions have been collected from Mexican-American populations living in American states, such as California and New Mexico,[250] and in the Southwest.[251] A variant from Northern New Mexico has been collected by José Manuel Espinosa in the 1930's and published by Joe Hayes in 1998: El pájaro que contaba verdades ("The Bird that spoke the Truth").[252] A variant collected around Los Angeles area has two sons, one golden-haired and the other silver-haired, and a girl with a star on her forehead,[253] while a second variant mixes the ATU 425A ("Quest for The Lost Husband") with ATU 707.[254]

A version from French Canada (Québec) was collected by professor Marius Barbeau and published in the Journal of American Folklore, with the title Les Soeurs Jalouses ("The envious sisters").[255] The tale has inspired Canadian composer Gilles Tremblay to compose his Opéra Féerie L'eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit la vérité (2009).[256]

A variant was collected from Tepecano people in the state of Jalisco (Mexico) by J. Alden Mason (Spanish: Los niños coronados; English: "The crowned children") and also published in the Journal of American Folklore.[257]

Four variants have been collected by Manuel José Andrade, obtained from sources in the Dominican Republic.[258] The tales contain male children as the heroes who perform the quest to learn the truth of their birth.

Other versions are also present in the folklore of Puerto Rico,[259][260] and of Panama.[261]

A Brazilian version has been collected by Brazilian literary critic, lawyer and philosopher Silvio Romero, from his native state of Sergipe and published as Os três coroados ("The three crowned ones") in his Contos Populares do Brazil (1894). In this version, the siblings are born each with a little crown on their heads, and their adoptive mother is the heroine.[262][263]

Folklorist and researcher Berta Elena Vidal de Battini collected eight variants all over Argentina, throughout the years, and published them as part of an extensive compilation of Argentinian folk-tales.[264] An etiological folk tale, collected by Bertha Koessler-Ilg among the Mapuche of Argentina (Dónde y cómo tuvieron origen los colibries, English: "How and why the colibris were created"),[265] holds several similarities with the tale-type.[266] Another variant (La Luna y el Sol) has been collected by Susana Chertudi.[267]

Versions collected in Chile[268] have been grouped under the banner Las dos hermanas envidiosas de la menor ("The two sisters envious of their youngest"): La Luna i el Sol ("Moon and Sun") and La niña con la estrella de oro en la frente ("The girl with the golden star on her forehead").[269] This last tale is unique in that the queen gives birth to female twins: the eponymous girl and her golden-haired sister, and its second part has similarities with Biancabella and the Snake.