Two Pieces of Nuts

In a Moravian variant collected by Beneš Method Kulda and Jan Soukop with the title Princ se zlatým křížem na čele ("The Prince with a golden cross on the forehead"), a poor mother has three young daughters, the youngest sister always promising to give birth to children with a golden cross on the forehead. She marries a king and bears three sons in three consecutive pregnancies, but, while the king is away, each time a son is replaced by a puppy and thrown in the water. Fortunately, the children are washed ashore safely at St. Anna's Chapel. After the third birth, the king's chambermaid falsifies a king's letter with a command to kill the queen, but she is spared and is exiled from the castle. The queen finds her three sons in St. Anna's Chapel. Some time later, the king learns of his wife's "death" and is persuaded to marry again, but he sets a test: he will marry the one that is able to count the nuts in a bowl. St. Anna appears to the sons and convinces the eldest to go to his father's castle and count the nuts in front of the king.[7]

Russian ethnographer Grigory Potanin cited a Belarusian tale published in 1887 in the book Belorussky Sbornik (A Belarusian Compilation), by E. Romanov. In this story, there lived three sisters. One day, heavy rain starts to pour and they take refuge under a tree. A local river floods and the king sends a servant to find the problem at its source. The servant finds the three sisters and overhears their conversation: the youngest promises to give birth to the king's son with the moon on the forehead and a star on the back. The sisters falsify a letter to trick the king and cast the queen and child in the sea. Later, the prince returns to the palace to reveal the truth while counting nuts before the king.[8]

In a Polish tale collected around Zamość and Krasnystaw and published in scholar publication ''Wisła'' with the title Synek ze złotą główką ("A Son with a Golden Head"), three sisters comment among themselves what they would do if each one married the king, and the youngest says she will give birth to a son with a golden head. She marries the king and her envious sisters kill the boy and bury him in the garden. An apple tree with golden leaves appears, the sisters notice it is the boy and order it to be burnt down. An ewe passes by the pyre, licks the ashes and becomes pregnant with a golden-fleeced sheep. The sisters order the sheep to be killed for the feast at the ball and its innards to be eaten by the forsaken queen, in her house. The innards tell the mother they are her son and she should wait until they regain his former human shape. It happens so and the boy, now six years old, goes to court to tell his story while counting nuts.[9] Polish scholar Julian Krzyżanowski, establisher of the Polish Folktale Catalogue, listed this tale as a variant of type 707, which is known in Poland as Trzej synowie z gwiazdą na skroni ("Three Sons With Stars on the Temple").[10]

In a tale from Łowicz, collected from a Malzorgata Falowska, Bajka o chłopcu z gwiazdą ("About the boy with the star"), three sisters see the king passing by and state their wishes, the youngest to marry the king and bear him a son with a star on the forehead. She marries the king and gives birth to the boy, who is cast into the sea. He is saved by an old woman who raises the boy. Years later, the king prepares his wedding and a test: he will give half his kingdom to anyone who can count the nuts. The boy wears a cap to hide his birthmark and goes to the wedding.[11]

In a Croatian tale, by Fran Mikuličić, Žena kraljeva rodila tri sini zlatnemi vlasi ("The Queen who gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), a woman marries the king, after promising him three golden-haired sons. When each of the babies are born, the queen mother throws her grandchildren in the water. They are saved by a peasant couple, who raise the boys. Years later, the king sets a challenge: could anyone count how many nuts there are in a receptacle. One of his golden-haired sons begins counting and interweaving the story of their family.[12] This tale was sourced as South Slavic and translated as Die Frau eines Königs gebar drei goldhaarige Söhne ("A King's wife gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), given in abridged form in the Archiv für slavische Philologie.[13]

According to professor Bronislava Kerbelyte, the tale type is reported to register 244 Lithuanian variants, under the banner Three Extraordinary Babies, with and without contamination from other tale types.[14] However, 140 variants in Lithuania contain the character (the mother or one of her sons) counting nuts in front of the king while singing a song about their family story.[15]

In a Lithuanian tale translated by author Stepas Zobarskas as Two Nuts and Two Barrels, three sisters are washing their clothes by the edge of a lake. They begin to talk among themselves, and the youngest promises to give birth to a boy with the sun on the front, a moon on the top of his head, and stars in his ears. The king overhears the conversation and takes the youngest sister as his queen. When she is pregnant and gives birth to her promised child, one of the queen's sister falsifies a letter with a command to cast the boy in the sea in a glass barrel and to tie the queen to a millstone. The glass barrel is found by a poor woman who raises him. Years later, the king, in his loneliness, sets a challenge to find his heir: he places two barrels filled to the brim with nuts and two empty ones, and whoever counts the nuts shall get half of the kingdom. The boy goes to the king's court and begins to count the nuts while interlacing a rhyme about the story of his mother and her sisters. After the counting, the boy takes off his cap and shows the shining birthmarks to the whole court, confirming his tale.[16]

According to the Latvian Folktale Catalogue, tale type 707, "The Three Golden Children", is known in Latvia as Brīnuma bērni ("Wonderful Children"), comprising 4 different redactions. Its fourth redaction is the one that contains the child counting nuts and telling his story in front of the king.[17]

In a Latvian tale translated into German language as Der Wundersohn ("The Wonder Son"), three girls are picking flax. Suddenly, the king passes nearby with his army. One of the girls then utters that she will bear the king a son with the sun on his breast and a moon on his forehead. The second girl promises to feed the army with an ear of corn; and the third promises to clothe the entire army with only a handful of flax. The king overhears their conversation and chooses the sister that promised to bear him the wonder child. While the king goes to war, the queen writes him a letter with the good news of his son's birth, but the queen's sisters intercept the letter and write that their sister gave birth to a creature. The queen receives a king's false letter saying that the creature is to be given to the pigs. Afraid of the king's orders, but not wanting to kill her son, she gives the baby away to a poor couple to raise, and lies that she killed the infant. As her punishment, the queen is immured. Meanwhile, her son is alive and well, and, after a few years, tells his adoptive father he wants to go to the castle. He enters the king's castle and begins to count the nuts from a drawer, all the while narrating the story of his father and mother. After he ends the tale, his astral birthmarks shine, thus confirming his identity. The king rescues his wife from the wall and punishes his sisters-in-law.[18] According to the compiler's notes, the tale was collected in 1860, in Riga, and corresponds to the first registered variant of tale type 707 in Latvia.[19]

In an Estonian tale published by Oskar Loorits with the title "Der Mond im Nacken, die Sonne an der Stirn, der Leib voller Himmelssterne" ("The Moon on the neck, the Sun on the front, celestial stars on the body"), a family of four (father, mother, brother and sister) go to church, except the daughter. The father threatens to kill his daughter if she keeps behaving like this. This happens for three subsequent Sundays. After the third Sunday, the brother, intent on filling his father's threat, takes the sister and a rifle to a forest. However, he lets her go and kills a hare in her place. The girl lives by eating berries in the forest and hides atop of a tree. A king's son finds her there and takes her to work at his fields as a shepherdess. Three years later, when the king's son announces he will marry, three women approach him (the shepherdess among them): the first promises to feed the entire army with a corncob, the second promises to clothe the entire army with a linen thread, and the third (the shepherdess) promises to bear him nine sons, each with a moon on the neck, a sun on the front, and the heavenly stars on their bodies. The king's son marries the third woman. One day, he has to go to war, and, while he is away, she gives birth to a son like she promised, and sends a raven as emissary to inform her husband. Some demons that lived in palace take the children and replace him for a puppy. This happens again with the two other sons. The king's son banishes his wife, who becomes a beggar woman. In her wanderings, she finds a barrel floating in the river and knocks on it three times, releasing her sons from it. She raises her sons until they are older. The sons each go their separate ways in the world, and bring home a castle, a large orchard with many trees and a squirrel, and a golden sow with silver piglets. These sights draw the attention of the king's son, and the demons at his court try to stifle his curiosity. This does not impede the king's son, however, and a beggar woman comes to explain the sights, but she asks for two boxes filled with nuts. The beggar woman begins to tell her story while she counts the nuts. The king's son notices the beggar woman is his wife.[20]

In an Estonian tale titled Kuu kukla taga, Päev otsa ees ("The Moon on the Neck, the Sun on the forehead"), a king passes by three sisters sat on a window working with linen, and asks them what they will do if one of them becomes his wife: the elder promises to cover his army with a single fiber of linen. the middle one that she can feed his army with a single bread; the youngest promises to bear him a son with the moon on the neck, the sun on the front and the morning star over his heart. The king takes the youngest as his wife, to the king's mother's chagrin. The king's mother conspires with her advisors and tell the king she gave birth to a monster. The king's wife and her son are placed in a casket and thrown in the sea. The barrel washes ashore on dry land. The woman and her son beg for alms and return to the king's castle. They creep into the castle and overhear that, after a period of mourning, the king is to marry again, but after one can count the pairs of nuts from a sheaf. The boy goes in front of the king, his father, and counts the nuts as he recounts the story of how their parents met. The king recognizes his son, not only by the story, but by the boy's shining birthmarks, just like his wife promised.[21]