This week we look at a tale collected by Portuguese philologist Francisco Adolfo Coelho. What’s a philologist? I had to look it up because this was the only information I could find about Coelho.
Philology is more commonly defined as
the study of literary texts as well as oral and written records, the
establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the
determination of their meaning.
The story of The Horse’s Skin was published in Tales of Old Lusitania from the Folk-Lore of Portugal, in
1888 and translated by Henriqueta
Monteiro for the English speaking market.
This is a fascinating tale with
elements of Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, a pinch of Rapunzel and a quite bit of the
Donner Party. Our heroine is but one of three unnamed sisters (why do they
rarely have names?) whose father decides to remarry. The woman he chooses doesn’t want his
daughters around and so he takes them all out what looks like a holiday, but
really is abandoning them in a tower far away with no food so they can starve
to death. Father of the year he is not, but I suppose it is better that he didn’t
try to have sex with his own flesh and blood.
There is no food
and so the eldest offers herself as a meal and promptly dies in order for her
two sisters to eat her dead body and therefore stay alive. The middle sister
follows suit and our heroine partakes of the flesh of her second sibling. Then
she gets some spunk and decides to get rescued out of the tower by going to the
top and waving her handkerchief at some passing sailors. I do not understand
why they couldn’t have pulled the hanky trick before and saved on the cannibalism,
but hey-ho.
The hanky waving
from the top of a tall tower does the trick and she is immediately spotted by
the sailors who rescue her. She packs a trunk with some of her dead sister’s
best dresses and they take her far away. She gets a job as the King’s water
bearer and disguises herself in clothes made out a horse’s skin so that none
would recognise her wealth and high status having once been a princess, but the
rough garment seems to be well cut as the text says:
One day as she
entered the palace yard, carrying a pitcher of water poised on her head in a
light and graceful manner, which showed off her elegant figure…
She pretends to not
be interested in the ball, but secretly attends wearing some of her dead sister’s
gear and of course the King falls for her. The story ends with a wedding as you
would expect after a lost ring is matched to its owner.
While she has no name,
I liked this tale because she does have spunk. She doesn’t take the easy way
out and be a martyr and drop dead to be eaten. She wipes her tears and finds a solution.
The Horse's Skin source
This is the story of a wicked king, who
was a widower and had three daughters.
Many years had elapsed since his queen
died, and he began to feel lonely without a partner in life, and one who could
occupy the vacant seat beside him on the throne, so he resolved to visit a
certain court where a princess lived, whom he admired, and to make an offer of
marriage to her.
The princess, who was selfish and only
cared for her own comfort, asked the king before accepting his offer, what he
intended to do with his daughters, as she did not want them about her in the
palace.
"If my daughters," replied the
king, "are a hindrance to our union, I can soon dispose of them, and send
them where you will never see them or hear of them."
On his return to the palace he said to his
daughters, "Get ready at once to go with me to the Tower of Moncorvo,
where I will show you what you have never seen before in your life."
The daughters, full of confidence in their
father, and not suspecting any treachery, readily prepared to accompany him,
and after travelling many leagues arrived at the celebrated tower.
When the king had them safe in the castle,
he said to his daughters, "Remain here, whilst I pay a short visit to a
friend and worthy subject, who lives in this neighbourhood. On my return I will
take you back to the palace."
The wicked king, who only made up this
excuse to blind his daughters to his real intentions, fastened the great gates
of the tower as he went out, so that his daughters could not possibly escape.
He supplied them with food every day until his marriage day, but after that he
never concerned himself about them anymore but left them to their fate.
Hours passed, and days came and went, and
still no succour arrived, and they began to be in a dreadful state, without a
morsel of food or water to refresh them.
And so it happened that one day, when they
had given up all hopes of being relieved, and were nearly dead from starvation,
the eldest of the princesses said to her sisters, "Why should we all
starve? The best thing you two can do is to kill me and feed upon me as long as
I afford you sustenance." She had hardly said these words when she dropped
down dead from want.
A few days after this sad event the
surviving princesses were again short of food, and nothing was left them but to
die. Then the second sister, remembering what the first one had so generously
done, followed her example, and suggested that her younger sister should kill
her for food; and when she had finished uttering the last words of her advice
she also dropped down and died.
The poor young girl, now left alone in the
large dreary castle, felt very disconsolate, and rent the air with her
lamentations. But after a while, being of a courageous mind, she thought to
herself that weeping was no remedy for her woes, and that she must devise some
means of escape from her prison before she became faint again with want.
She now set about examining the various
rooms of which the castle was composed, and when she reached the top of the
watchtower she looked out and saw a ship sailing on the ocean. Overjoyed at the
sight, she at once began to make signals, waving her handkerchief in hopes of
attracting the notice of someone in the vessel.
The sailors were not slow to perceive the
signal, and calling up their captain, drew his attention to it.
The captain,
who was a humane and chivalrous man, directed the ship towards the spot, and
effected an entrance by scaling the wall of the fortress. On reaching the
watchtower, the captain and the sailors that accompanied him were shocked to
see a maiden of such rank and beauty treated worse than a common criminal. They
took her up tenderly and lowered her into the vessel and sailing to a port of
safety they landed her, together with a chest in which she had packed some of
her own and her sisters' dresses.
As she stood on the seashore, she glanced
around her, and felt the wretchedness of her situation, without a home or
friends to whom to apply for shelter. She had not been long immersed in these
melancholy thoughts when she perceived an old woman coming towards her, whom
she felt sure was a good benevolent person.
She approached her and addressed her thus:
"My good woman, do you know of anyone that would give me shelter and a
meal for today? I am willing to work for it."
"If you want employment come and draw
water from the well and help me to carry it to the house I work for; there you
will get a meal, and in the evening, you can take up your quarters in my little
cottage."
"Tell me first," replied the
princess, "what house it is you work for?"
"Oh! I draw water for our king's
palace."
The young maiden consented to help the old
woman, but as she could not work in her fine clothes, she had a garment made
for her of the skin of a horse, and thus disguised she did not think that
anyone would take her for a princess.
Every day she went to the well and helped
the old woman to draw water and carry the pitchers to the palace; and from the
odd garments she wore everyone in the palace called her "Horse-Skin."
One day as she entered the palace yard,
carrying a pitcher of water poised on her head in a light and graceful manner,
which showed off her elegant figure, a page, who had often noticed her beauty,
and secretly suspected that the girl was not born to do this drudgery, and that
there was some mystery about her, accosted her very respectfully, and said:
"Do you know that our good king is going to give balls for three nights
running, so that he may choose himself a wife from among the dancers? The
prettiest girl is to carry off the prize, and the king, as a mark of his
choice, is to give her a ring -- and what a ring that will be! I wish you could
manage to go."
"What have I to do with balls, a poor
girl like me? It is all very well for princesses and fine people. I shall turn
in at my old woman's tonight, as usual."
When the princess had done her work she
went home, and that evening being the first night of the balls at the palace,
she dressed herself in her eldest sister's clothes, and went to the ball. When
she entered the ballrooms, which were brilliantly lighted up, all eyes were
turned upon her, and before the end of the dance she was pronounced by all
present as most beautiful.
The king was not long in discovering her
charms, and caused great jealousy among the ladies by asking her again and
again to dance with him, and loading her with delicate and polite attentions.
But she slipped out of the palace early, before the king had time to notice her
absence.
The next day Horse-Skin was again toiling
and carrying water to the palace as if nothing had happened. As she entered the
palace yard the page again accosted her, and repeated what he had said the day
before.
"Have I not told you, man, that all
this does not concern me? What is it to me whether the king gives a ball or
not? I shall go home to my old lady and spend the evening resting after my hard
work."
The princess went to the second ball in
her second sister's dress, which set off her beauty even more than the first
had done. A number of partners were anxious to dance with her, but they had
little chance, for the king mostly danced with her.
He treated the princess with the
profoundest respect as he gazed on her loveliness and dared not ask her who she
was. But she with her usual discretion left the ballroom at a moment when the
king's attention was engaged by other guests; and next morning, as usual,
Horse-Skin was at her duties in the palace.
The page once again came up to her and
said in a beseeching tone: "Do, Horse-Skin, go to the last ball, which is
to take place in the palace tonight, for the king is to give the ring tonight
to the fairest lady and the one he admires most! You should have seen what
jealousy there was among the ladies that attended the ball last night; they say
it is useless for them to go to the ball again, as the king would not so much
as look at them or speak a word to them. All his interest was centred on a
lovely and mysterious maiden who attended the last two dances, and who, I
assure you, has nearly turned the king's brain with love; you should see her
smile, her coral lips, her star-like eyes -- the very image of yours, I
declare! -- and the fascinating manner in which she danced -- there -- I only
wish I was a prince to marry her!"
The princess's only reply to all this,
was: "Leave me alone; what matters it to me whom the king admires? Tonight
I shall be at my old woman's, as usual."
At the last ball the princess wore her own
robes, the colour, stuff, and make of which harmonised with her beauty still
more than did her sister's garments; and as she mingled among the invited in
the state apartments that night, she outshone all the other ladies --
princesses, marchionesses, duchesses, and squires' daughters -- like a
brilliant gem of the first water.
The king, fairly captivated, danced with
her alone, and towards the end of the evening gave her the ring, as the sign of
his having chosen her to be his spouse and queen. And though he had set several
of his court courtiers to watch and see which way she took when she left the
palace, the princess eluded their vigilance, and departed without being noticed
even by the sentinels at the palace gate.
Next day the king was sorely puzzled and
grieved when, on making enquiries, he found that no one in the palace could
give him the slightest information about the lady to whom he had given the
ring, in token of his admiration and choice. He ordered a search through all
the country round, to find out, if possible, who the maiden was; but all was of
no avail, for the damsel could not be discovered high or low.
At this the king, from grief and
disappointment, sickened, and lay in a stupor for days together, until the
physicians began to fear he would not live much longer. One day Horse-Skin met
his majesty's nurse and asked her how the king was.
The nurse said the king was so ill that he
was not expected to live through the day, all through the violent passion his
majesty had conceived for the damsel to whom he had given the ring, and of whom
no traces could be found. "And," said she, "unless the cruel
girl makes herself known to his majesty soon, we shall lose our beloved
king."
The nurse was at the time carrying some
broth to give to the king; and Horse-Skin took this opportunity to drop the
ring into the basin, without the nurse perceiving her. Great was the king's
surprise when he discovered the ring; and the nurse being asked who had put
that ring in his broth, replied that she did not know, and that the only person
that had come near her, when carrying the basin, was poor Horse-Skin.
The king then sent for Horse-Skin and bade
her tell him who had given her the ring which she had dropped into the basin.
"If your majesty will allow me to
leave your presence for a few minutes, I will tell you, on my return, who gave
the ring to me."
She had not been absent long when she
returned to the king dressed in her own rich garments, and adorned as she had
appeared at the last ball in the palace.
She stood before the king, and said,
"Does your majesty know me now?"
"Of course I do, you are the same
sweet damsel to whom I gave the ring."
"Very well," said the princess,
"I am she who dropped it in the broth, and I am your humble servant,
Horse-Skin."
"Explain yourself, you are still a
mystery to me."
Thereupon the princess related the history
of her life, which she did amid tears and sobs, as it brought back to her mind
all she had suffered since her cruel father had deserted her and her sisters.
The king from being sad, was now delighted
to have found his lost love, and soon recovered from his illness, and was once
more full of health. The king then led her to a magnificently furnished chamber
where she was to remain until his marriage with her, as he would not let her
return to the old woman's cottage.
The happy pair were married amid great
rejoicings, and the king and his beautiful bride were heartily welcomed by his
subjects, who had mourned his absence from state affairs. They reigned happily
for many long years.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for a tale of a
Princess in Cat Skins.
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