Talk:Thirteenth (fairy tale)

Three sons?
The article says a couple had three sons, the thirteenth of which is the hero of the tale. How can there be a thirteenth son out of 3? --DuncanHill 13:31, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Name of story
If this is an Italian fairy tale, is it called "Tredicesimo" (Italian for "Thirteenth")?

The article doesn't explain why the son is called "Thirteenth". Sure, he is the thirteenth-born, but no one names their child "Thirteenth", do they?

In Italian families it is or once was traditional to name children after the ordinal numbers; so the first-born would be "Primo" ("First"), the second "Secondo" ("Second"), etc. I imagine this comes from the Roman custom: compare "Sextus" and "Septimus" ("Sixth" and "Seventh" in Latin). So, in a very large Italian family, "Tredicesimo" would not be an unusual name. &mdash; Paul G 13:44, 14 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Also fairy tales can have Very Odd Name indeed. Goldfritha 01:28, 15 March 2007 (UTC)