The Golden Root (Italian fairy tale)

The Golden Root or The Golden Trunk (Italian: Lo turzo d'oro) is a literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone, as the fourth story of the fifth day. It is considered to be one of two rewritings of the Graeco-Roman myth of "Cupid and Psyche" by Basile, the other being "Lo Catenaccio".

In spite of its origins as a literary tale, it is related to the international cycle of Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, in that a human girl marries a supernatural or enchanted husband, loses him and must search for him. Similar stories have been collected from oral tradition in Italy.

Summary


The tale focuses on Parmetella, a poor girl and youngest of three sisters: she, Pascuzza and Cice. They are daughters of a gardener, who gives them pigs to rear in hopes of getting a future dowry. Her sisters often force Parmetella to drive the pigs in another part of the meadow, where she eventually finds a fountain and a tree with golden leaves beside it. She collects some foliage and gives the to her father who sells them as she returns. She repeats the action until the tree is stripped bare of its foliage.

Some time later, Parmetella notices that the golden-leaved tree has a golden root. She takes an axe to the root and finds a staircase leading underground. She descends on the hole where the tree trunk once stood and reaches a luxurious palace. She wanders through the palace and marvels at its sights, until she sees a table with food and drink. As she approaches the table, a Moorish slave appears before her and asks her to be his wife. She accepts the proposal before the slave tells her that she must promise never to light a lamp during the night, to which she consents.

The next night however, Parmetella waits until her mysterious companion is asleep, and lights a candle out of curiosity. She sees a handsome man in the place of her companion. The man wakes up, curses her for not obeying his orders, saying he will have to suffer another seven years with his curse, and vanishes. Parmetella leaves the palace and meets a fairy just outside the cave. The fairy warns her that she is "going to a slaughterhouse", and gives her seven spindles, seven figs, a jar of honey, and seven pairs of iron shoes. She instructs her to keep walking, passing by a straight bridge, narrow as a strand of hair, and until she meets seven bone-eating ogresses who are spinning on a bone on the balcony of a house. Parmetella is to wait for them to lower the bone, which she must replace for a spindle smeared with honey and put a fig in place of a button; the ogresses will ask her to come out, but Parmetella is to deny them; they will continue to find objects to swear an oath to, until they mention Truone-e-lampe's ("Thunder-and-Lightning") name - that is when she may appear to them.

After seven years walking in her iron shoes, she reaches a large with a balcony, the seven ogresses on it, just as the fairy predicted. Following the fairy's instructions, Parmetella gives them the honey-smeared spindle and figs, and waits until they swear on Truone-e-lampe's name not to harm her. After they make the promise, Parmetella appears to them. The ogresses mock and scold her, since they blame Parmetella for their brother Truone-e-lampe living as a blackamoor in a cave for 14 years, away from them. Despite the initial friction, the seven ogresses advise Parmetella to hide before their ogress mother arrive, and, when her guard is down, to catch her by surprise by clutching her breasts and make her swear on her son's name, Truone-e-lampe, not to harm her.

Following the ogress daughter's advice, Parmetella grabs her ogress mother-in-law from behind and makes her promise on her son's name not to harm her. After being released, the ogress mother, furious, claims she will make her pay when the right opportunity appears. The ogress mother then orders Parmetella, as a first task, to separate twelve sacks of grains that have been mixed into a single heap. Her husband, Truone-e-lampe, appears again before her and summons an army of ants to use to separate the grains, helping her in the process. As a second task, the ogress demands that she fills a dozen mattresses with feathers, which she also accomplishes with her husband's advice: she spreads the mattresses on the ground and shouts that the king of the birds is dead, and all the birds appear to give her some of their feathers.

The last task given to her is to go to the ogress' sister's house and fetch a box of instruments from her, to be used in the future wedding of Truone-e-lampe with another bride. Following her husband's advice, she enters the sister's house, gives food to the horse and the dog, and compliments the door hinges. She then tricks the ogress's niece who goes with her into the oven instead of her, takes the box of instruments before the witch commands the door hinges, the horse and the dog to stop her. Parmetella, however, leaves unscathed due to her previous actions. At a safe distance from the witch, curiosity takes the best of her again as she opens the box; causing musical instruments to fly out in process. Truone-e-lampe fortunately reappears before her and, with a whistle, commands the instruments back into the box.

Finally, the ogress mother prepares her son's wedding: she gives a torch to each of her seven daughters, and two to Parmetella to hold, and places her near a well so that, when she falls asleep, she may fall into it. Truone-e-lampe's ugly bride passes by Parmetella and mocks her for not kissing the bridegroom after claiming she has kissed a herdsman for some chestnuts. Truone-e-lampe overhears the bride's confession and fumes silently. After the wedding party is over, in his nuptial chambers, Truone-e-lampe kills his bride.

The ogress mother later sees her son in Parmetella's arms. Infuriated, she decides to conspire with her sister to get rid of her. When she enters her sister's house, the ogress discovers that, out of grief for losing her baby, her sister has jumped into the oven to die alongside her. The ogress turns into a ram and butts its head against the wall, leaving her fate unknown. Truone-e-lampe and Parmetella ultimately make peace with their sisters-in-law and live happily.

Tale type
The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, which corresponds, in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", and its subtypes. Philologist Gianfranco D'Aronco classified the tale as Italian type 425, Lo sposo scomparso ("The Lost Husband"). Nancy Canepa indexes it as type 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom".

Scholars have called attention to structural similarities between the tale and the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, as related by Apuleius in the 2nd century AD. In fact, The Golden Root is considered to be one of Basile's renditions of the myth, the other being Il catenaccio ("The Padlock", former tale type AaTh 425L, "The Padlock on the Enchanted Husband"). Folklorist Joseph Jacobs stated that The Golden Root is the first appearance in modern times of the "Cupid and Psyche story" (invisible husband, breaking a taboo, heroine's tasks for mother-in-law).

The heroine's tasks


Scholars commonly noticed the resemblance between Parmetella's quest for the box of instruments and Psyche's quest for Persephone's casket, and the result of curiosity for both women. Catalan scholarship located the motif of the box of musical instruments in Greek, Turkish and South Italian variants. In that regard, Swahn, in his study on Cupid and Psyche, remarked that the instruments as the contents of the box are "common" to Mediterranean tradition.

The heroine is also helped by ants to carry grains from one place to the other. A similar event occurs in the myth of Psyche and in other fairy tales, such as The Queen Bee, by the Brothers Grimm. Swedish scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn remarked that, in tales of "The Search for the Lost Husband" type, the task of sorting seeds or grains occurs in Mediterranean and Near Eastern variants of type ATU 425B, "The Witch's Tasks".

Marvizia
In a Sicilian tale collected by Giuseppe Pitrè with the title Marvizia, a prince's daughter owns a potted plant that produces a rose with good seeds to eat. A green bird comes and eats the seeds. The girl wants to own this green bird, but the prince's servants fail to catch it. Then, she dons a disguise as a pilgrim and follows the bird to various villages, under the pretense that she is going on a seven year penance. She arrives at a city whose queen misses her son. The queen soon shelters the girl. In return, the girl asks for the queen's ring, a memento of her lost son, as an attempt to reassure her. The queen agrees and the girl pilgrim continues on her journey. She arrives at the house of a mammadraga and asks for lodging. The mammadraga invites her in, calls her Marvizia (from Marva, a mallow plant) and sets her to doing strenuous tasks. First, the girl, Marvizia, has to clean all copper utensils, and confides to the mammadraga's giant servant, Ali. The green bird appears on the window sill and advises the girl. Next, to wash all the mattresses, and finally to weave clothes for the mammadraga. The next day, the mammadraga turns the green bird into a man, and sets her giant servant Ali to take Marvizia to be devoured by goats. Ali meets the green bird, who gives him a magic staff to create grass to satiate the goats. A shepherd girl gives food to mammadraga, who, after thanking her, decides to make the girl her daughter-in-law. The green bird agrees to the mammadraga's decision, but secretly, uses the Ring of Command to materialize a torch with gunpowder and pellets inside. After their marriage, with Marvizia holding the torch on the foot of the bridal bed, the green bird asks for his new wife to hold the torch. The torch explodes on the shepherdess's hands, taking the mammadraga's house with it. Marvizia, the now human green bird and the giant soon attempt to escape from the mammadraga with the Ring and the Book of Command, with the villainess hot in pursuit. The trio eventually escape and meet with the queen who gave Marvizia the ring. Author Woldemar Kaden translated the tale as Pappelröschen ("Poplar Rose"), and commented that this was another variant of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Ruth Manning-Sanders translated the tale as The Green Bird in her work A Book of Ogres and Trolls.

Thunder and Lightning
Author Heinrich Zschalig published a tale from the island of Capri with the title Blitz und Donner ("Thunder and Lightning"): a girl named Rosinella lives with her poor father. One day, she takes her pig to graze in the forest and finds a tree with golden leaves and golden branches. She takes some foliage to her father. They eventually revisits the forest on the next day before they see the tree tumbling down. After the tree falls, they see a staircase leading underground. Her father is reluctant to go down the stairs, but Rosinella soon climbs down the hole and finds a large underground palace. In one of the chambers, Rosinella meets a shadowed being and offers her services to it. The shadow agrees and lets her stay, as long as she does not enter his bedchambers neither during the day nor at night. She obeys his instructions from one year, until she enters his chambers and sees a beautiful youth asleep on the bed. The next morning, the shadowed man reproaches Rosinella, but gives her iron shoes and some figs. He explains that the figs are for his sisters, and that, if she suffers for a year, three months and three weeks, the man, named Thunder and Lightning, will marry her. Rosinella goes to the city and reaches a terrace where the three sisters are and gives them the figs. The sisters welcome her, but warn that their mother, Luisa, is a cannibal and may devour her, but the girl can gain her favour by pulling her hair and forcing her to swear on her son's name. Luisa appears and smells Rosinella's "Christian flesh". Rosinella forces Luisa not to harm her on her son's name. Luisa forces the human girl on difficult tasks: to fill two sacks with feathers and to separate a large heap of mixed seeds. Thunder and Lightning helps her: he summons all birds to give their feathers and an army of ants to separate the seeds. Next, Luisa sends Rosinella to her sister, also a cannibal, with a letter and an order to get a casket from a cabinet. On the way there, the man reappears and tells her that the task is a trap; he gives her a bag full of oatmeal and biscuits, and instructs her to give the oatmeal to the horse and the biscuits to the parrot, get the casket and escape. Rosinella gets the item and, on the way back, opens it, and a flock of birds escapes. The same man uses his magic powers to draw the birds back to the casket. Lastly, Luisa arranges her son's wedding to an ugly woman. Before the ceremony, Thunder and Lightning asks Rosinella for a kiss, but she refuses. The ugly bride confesses that she kissed a pig herder for three nuts. Thunder and Lightning scolds the ugly bride and chooses Rosinella. Luisa, his mother, tired of her defeats, jumps into a well.

Cristina and the Monster
In a variant from Toscana translated by German scholar Rudolf Schenda with the title Cristina und das Ungeheuer ("Cristina and the Monster"), a mother has three daughters of marriageable age; the youngest, Cristina, is the prettiest of the three, but finds no adequate suitor. One day, the mother consults a magician to learn her youngest daughter's fate. The magician answers that her fate will be the most fortunate of the three sisters, and suggests to take Cristina for a stroll in the mountains, lace her food with opium and, after the girl falls asleep, leave her there and return home which she follows soon after. Cristina eventually wakes up and finds herself in a grand palace, and a voice tells her that the palace and everything in it belongs to her. Time passes, and she wants to visit her family. The voice gives her a magic ring, and warns her not to tell her mother or her sisters about her life. Cristina's mother consults with the magician and learns her daughter is living a life of luxury in the palace of a prince named Cupido, changed into a monster by the work of a Maga (sorceress). Cristina breaks the voice's trust: she lights a candle at night and sees not a monstrous form, but a handsome youth with wings on his shoulders. A bit of wax burns his chest, he wakes up, curses Cristina and disappears. She now has to do penance, so she finds work with the Ungeheuer ("Monster"). The first task given to Cristina is for her is to clear away a mountain top; then to get an egg from its depths. She is soon instructed to go to another mountain filled with tigers and find enough hides to sew a pair of gloves. Cristina's last task is for her to go to hell and get a box from the Devil, without opening it. Cristina gets a box from the devil and stops a bit on the way; she opens the box and a dark fog comes out of it and covers the world in darkness. In this tale, the heroine's helper is an old lady: she waves her wand and the darkness goes back to the box.

Ermenegilda e Cupido
Pitrè collected a tale from Tuscany (Garfagnana) with the title Ermenegilda e Cupido, collected from a teller named Rosina Casina. In this tale, a merchant has three daughters, Caterina, Maria and Ermenegilda. Whenever their father went to buy goods, the elder two requested extravagant gifts, while the youngest did not. The merchant loves the youngest more dearly than the elder two, to the latter's jealousy. One day, they commission a crystal chest from a carpenter, draw Ermenegilda to a mountain for a picnic, and shove her inside the chest. The elder sisters return home and abandon their cadette in the mountain. One day, a strong gust of wind blows the chest away to another place, where she exits the chest an enters a palace. Inside the palace, she is served by invisible servants, and a mysterious voice talks to her. She lives with this mysterious character that comes at night to her bed. Ermenegilda asks his name one time, and he answers by "Cupido", then reveals he fears his mother for she will try to separate them. Still living with Cupido, she suspects he might be a monster, so the next time he comes to their bed, she will light a candle to see him. So she does, and finds a handsome youth. He awakes and tells her he feels betrayed, and that she must seek his mother, a sorceress, and warns his wife that his mother is an astute woman. Ermenegilda goes to meet her mother-in-law, who discovers she married her son, so she sends the girl on difficult tasks: first, she orders Ermenegilda to wash a bicoloured piece of cloth to all white in a nearby fountain under three hours; next, she is to separate many feathers and fill a pillow with them, also under three hours. Cupido helps his wife in both tasks. The third task is for Ermenegilda to carry a letter to the sorceress's sister and get from her "i canti, i balli e soni". Cupido gives her some resources for the journey to his aunt's house (four coins, a rope, rags, grease), and advises her how to proceed: she is to pay a ferryman with the coins, give the rope to women by a well, the rags to a woman cleaning an oven with her breasts, and throw grease to some lions; on reaching his aunt's house, she will be greeted by the aunt's children, to whom she is to give some sweets to distract them, give the letter to one of them, steal the box and rush back, but she must not open it, for the box contains small people that dance, play music and sing, which will be difficult to be locked up again. Ermengilda follows the instructions to the letter, gets the box and hurries back to her mother-in-law's house, but, en route, she becomes curious and opens it: little men and little women escape from it and begin to dance, sing and play. Cupido appears to her and brings them back into the box. Succeeding in getting the box, the sorceress sends Ermenegilda again, this time to get a ring. The girl goes through the same path, gets another box with a ring, then goes back. As a last order, the sorceress gives Ermenegilda a letter to be delivered to her sister inviting her to Cupido's wedding. Ermenegilda goes one last time to the sorceress's house, and goes back to Cupido's wedding. Finally, the sorceress forces Ermenegilda to carry ten candles, one on each finger, to her son's wedding to another woman. During the ceremony, Cupido simply takes Ermenegilda with him back to her family in a carriage. At his parents-in-law's house, the elder sisters are surprised at Ermenegilda's survival, but Ermenegilda leaves them be, and marries Cupido in a grand wedding.

Cupido, King of the Fairies
In an Italian tale collected by Ciro Marzocchi from Sinalunga with the title Cupido re dei Fati ("Cupido, King of the Fairies"), a poor woman has two daughters, one called Nina, and they earn their living by weaving and selling their products. One day, bereft at their poverty, Nina decides to travel the world and earn her own living. The girl departs and reaches a beautiful meadow, where she stops to rest. She hears a voice calling her in her dreams, and wakes up. The voice calls her again and bids her follow it to find happiness. Nina does as asked and arrives at a small hut. The voice welcomes her and says everything belongs to her, but she can never open a certain door in the cellar, lest misery befalls her; if she obeys this one order, she will be most fortunate. Everything she asks for is given, but curiosity get the better of her and, eight days later, she decides to peer into the door. She smears the keyhole with the lamp oil, then opened: inside, a large marble castle. She presses on and goes up a staircase leading into a room, where fairies are preparing clothes for her upcoming wedding to Cupido, and a handsome youth is lying on a bed, Cupido. Nina approaches the sleeping youth to better see him, and a drop of oil falls on his arm. Cupido wakes up with a startle and laments Nina's deed, since he would have married her and made her his queen, but now she must die at his mother's hands. Nina pleads for her life, when Cupido's mother, the Fairy, comes in the room to punish the human girl. Cupido and Nina cry for the girl's fate, and the Fairy says Nina can save herself if she does what the Fairy orders of her: Nina is to go beyond a mountain to the Fairy's sister's castle and give her a letter; while Nina waits for the written answer, the girl is to grab the "scatola dei ballerini" ('a box of dancers') and bring it back. Nina asks Cupido for help, who agrees to guide her, out of love for her. He gives her a magic wand that can teleport her to the mountain. Nina beats the wand in the ground and finds herself near the mountain, where a rusty gate blocks her path. Nina uses the wand again to produce jars of butter she uses to oil the gate doors; next, she climbs up the mountain and finds a woman cleaning an oven without supplies, to whom she gives rags; and a cobbler to whom she gives tools. Finally, she arrives at the Fairy's sister's courtyard where two dogs are prowling, to which she throws some bread she creates with the wand. She meets the Fairy's sister and delivers the letter. While the fairy is occupied with writing a response, Nina steals the box of dancers and hurries all the way down the mountain. The Fairy's sister commands her servants to stop Nina, but she leaves unscathed. Powerless, the Fairy's sister throws herself out of a window. Back to Nina, on the way back to the Fairy, the girl senses something in the box and takes a peek inside: 24 golden puppets spring out of the box, 10 male dolls, 10 female dolls and 4 musicians, and begin to play music and dance. Nina tries to place them inside the box, and even uses the magic wand Cupido gave her, to no avail. Cupido appears to her and, with a nod, summons the puppets back into the box. Nina and Cupido go back to his mother's palace with the box, and the Fairy agrees to marry each other. Nina invites her mother and sister to her wedding, and Nina's sister marries a male fairy ("fato").

Other tales
Gennaro Finamore summarized a tale from Abruzzo named Lu fatte de Ggijje-me’-bbèlle. In this tale, a woman has a son and a step-daughter. Disliking her step-daughter, the woman forces the girl on impossible tasks. The woman's son, named Ggijje-me’-bbèlle, offers his help to the girl, his step-sister, in exchange for a kiss. One day, the woman sends her step-daughter to get the scàttele de le sunarjielle, and Ggijje-me’-bbèlle advises the girl on how to reach it. Eventually, the woman marries her son to another bride, and forces the step-daughter to hold ten candles on her fingers during the wedding night. The girl bears the burning, and Ggijje-me’-bbèlle wishes to help her. Ggijje-me’-bbèlle's bride mocks the girl's suffering and confesses that she kissed the hands of the milkman for some figs and a glass of milk. Ggijje-me’-bbèlle kills the bride and eventually marries his step-sister.