The Golden-Headed Fish is an Armenian fairy tale. It was first collected by ethnologist and clergyman Karekin Servantsians (Garegin Sruandzteants'; Bishop Sirwantzdiants) in Hamov-Hotov (1884) with the title ԱԼԹՈՒՆ ԲԱՇ ԲԱԼԸՂ ("Alt'un Bash Balygh").Macler, Frédéric. Contes arméniens. Paris: Ernest Leroux Editeurs. 1905. pp. 8 and 149 (footnote nr. 1).Seklemian, A. G. The Golden Maiden and Other Folk Tales and Fairy Stories Told in Armenia. Cleveland and New York: The Helman-Taylor Company. 1898. p. xvi.A. F. C. "Bibliographical Notes: Books. Collection de Contes et Chansons Populaires by Frédéric Macler" [review]. In: The Journal of American Folklore 20, no. 76 (1907): 87. Accessed May 20, 2021. .
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 507B, part of the cycle of The Grateful Dead. Variants are located in Armenia and other Caucasian countries, as well as in Southern Europe, the Middle East and in Turkey.
Translations The tale was later translated to English by A. G. Seklemian, and to French as Le poisson à tête d'or by Frédéric Macler. Andrew Lang included it in The Olive Fairy Book. Isidor Levin and Uku Masing republished the tale in German as Der Goldkopffisch.
Synopsis
A king was going blind. A traveller said that if a golden-headed fish, found in the Great Sea, was brought to him within a hundred days, he would prepare an ointment from its blood to save the king's sight, but he had to leave in a hundred days. The prince took men and fished for it. He finally caught it, too late to bring it back. He intended to bring it back to show his father what he had done, and decided not to, because the doctors would try to make the ointment and so kill the fish uselessly.
The king refused to believe that the prince had tried, and ordered his execution. Servants warned the queen who gave her son common clothing and gold and sent him off to a distant island with a warning to take no man in his service who wanted to be paid every month. At the island, he bought a house and rejected many servants, who wanted to be paid by the month, and finally took on an Arab who wished to be paid every year.
On this island, a monster left half of it a wasteland, and whoever went to fight it fell asleep. The Arab asked the governor what he would give for killing it, and the governor offered half the land and his daughter; the Arab asked instead that he share whatever he gained. The governor agreed. The Arab killed the monster and told the prince to take the credit. The governor gave him a ship at his request, and secretly filled it with jewels.
They sailed to a far country. The Arab urged the prince to ask the king for his daughter. The king warned the prince that she had been married one hundred and ninety times, and all the bridegrooms had not lived out twelve hours, but the Arab urged him to marry her anyway. They were married, but at night, he saw men digging a grave for him. Then a small black snake wiggled into the bridal chamber, but the Arab saw it and killed it. After that, the princess lived happily with her new husband.
One day, he was summoned home with the news that his father was dead. He succeeded his father as king. One day, the Arab told him he had been summoned home and must leave him. The new king wished to reward him, because he had saved his life, but the Arab refused all, because he was the Golden-Headed Fish.
Variants Europe Eberhard and Boratav reported at least one variant from the Kalmyks collected by Gustaf John Ramstedt.Eberhard, Wolfram; Boratav, Pertev Nailî. Typen türkischer Volksmärchen. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1953. p. 71.
Caucasus Region According to Isidor Levin and Uku Masing, there are about 10 variants registered with the "fish helper" in the Caucasus Region.
Armenia In a 1991 article, researcher noted the fish appears as the helper in Armenian tales of The Grateful Dead. According to Gullakian, in the "more common" version, totalling 10 variants, the prince has to find a fish to cure his father's blindness.Гуллакян, С. А. "О сюжетном составе репертуара армянских волшебных и новеллистических сказок". In: "Советская этнография". № 6 (1991): 129. In a later article by Armenian scholar Tamar Hayrapetyan, 22 variants of the tale of a talking fish have been recorded, with two alternate openings: the hero is either the son of a fisherman, or a king's son; in the latter, he releases the fish that could have saved the king.Hayrapetyan, Tamar. "ՀԱՅ ԺՈՂՈՎՐԴԱԿԱՆ ՀԵՔԻԱԹՆԵՐԻ ԹՈՒՄԱՆՅԱՆԱԿԱՆ ՄՇԱԿՄԱՆ ՄԻՋԱԶԳԱՅԻՆ ԶՈՒԳԱՀԵՌՆԵՐԸ" [INTERNATIONAL PARALLELS OF TOUMANIAN’S TRANSLATIONS OF ARMENIAN FOLKTALES]. In: ՈՍԿԵ ԴԻՎԱՆ – Հեքիաթագիտական հանդես [Voske Divan – Journal of fairy-tale studies]. 6, 2019, p. 72.
In another Armenian variant, titled Ոսկե ձուկը (Voske dzuky; English: "Golden-Fish"), the prince is schooled for years and learns his father is going blind. A foreign doctor explains that the only cure is the blood of the golden fish. The prince sets to capture him. Once he fishes the animal, he spares its life and returns it to the sea. The king is furious and banishes his son. The prince, now a beggar, meets a mysterious Arab in his travels and they both agree to journey together. After a series of adventures, including an episode of pretending to divide the prince's newly married wife, the Arab reveals himself to be the very Golden Fish the prince spared once.Հայկական ժողովրդական հեքիաթներ [Armenian national fairy tales]. Vol. 2. խմբագիր՝ Հովսեփ Օրբելի [Editor: Hovsel Orbeli]. Երեւան: ԳԱ հրատարակչություն, 1959 [Yerevan, NAS Publishing House]. pp. 39-49.
Azerbaijan Azerbaijani scholarship registers a similar tale in the Azerbaijani Tale Corpus, indexed as 507C, Xeyirxah ölü ("The Good Dead"): either the hero ransoms a debtor's corpse from the creditors by paying the dead man's debts, or the king's father gives a snake some water to drink; the hero meets a mysterious helper (the dead man or the snake in human form), and both strike a friendship; they reach a kingdom where a princess is suffering from a strange illness or has killed many suitors at night; after winning the princess for his friend, the hero's companion offers to cut up the girl in two pieces, which causes her to release a snake from her body.
In an Azeri tale titled "Золотой подсвечник" ("The Golden Candlestick"), a shah is going blind and the only cure indicated by his new doctor is the blood from a speckled fish that lives in the White Sea. The shah's son mounts an expedition with fishermen and goes to the White Sea to find the fish. They catch the speckled fish and the prince is ready to strike it down, but the fish, with human voice, begs to be spared. The prince releases it back into the water and threatens his crew into silence. They return to the kingdom empty-handed. Later, an informant alerts the shah about the prince's deed and the shah, feeling betrayed by his own son, banishes him from the kingdom. The prince wanders to the White Sea and meets a companion. They become friends and agree to divide every earning equally between them. heu reach a kingdom where a princess lives who lost her voice. The king allows anyone who claims to be able to cure her, but kills those that fail. The prince and his companion promise to cure her. The companion enters the princess's room and tells a story to the princess's golden candlestick: a carpenter, a weaver and a doctor enter the forest; the carpenter carves a woman out of wood; the weaver dresses the wooden image and the doctor vivifies it - to whom does she belong? The companion asks the candlestick, but the princess answers for it. Her father rewards the companion with her hand in marriage, but he declines and lets the prince marry her. The companion leads the prince and the princess to the White Sea and reveals he was the speckled fish, son of the ruler of all the fishes. He cuts his finger and drops some of his blood in a cup to give to the prince's father as remedy, turns into a fish and returns to the sea."Азербайжанские сказки". Составитель: Нуреддин Сеидов. Baku: Азербайджанское государственное издательство, 1977. pp. 34-38. The tale was also translated to German language with the title Der wundersame Kerzenleuchter ("The Miraculous Candlestick").
Georgia Georgian scholarship registers variants of the fish as the helper as the Georgian type 507, "Grateful Dead". In these tales, the hero releases "a blue fish" that helps him to discover the princess's deadly secret and purifies her.Kʻurdovaniże, Tʻeimuraz et al. The index of Georgian folktale plot types: systematic directory, according to the system of Aarne - Thompson. Tbilisi: Merani, 2000. p. 49.
Author Marjory Wardrop collected a Georgian variant titled Gulambara and Sulambara. In this tale, the only cure for the king's blindness is "a fish red as blood", which can only be found in a distant sea. A fisherman captures the fish and brings it to the king. One day, the prince sees the fish in a basin and, feeling great remorse at its killing, decides to release the fish back to the water. The king learns of this and banishes his son. Wandering about, the boy reaches a stream, when he sees another boy of the same age and they decide to be brothers. When they reach a city, the mysterious boy warns the prince to stay indoors while he earns their living. He leaves their house one day and, walking around town, sees a tower and a row of spiked heads. The prince asks what is the meaning of such a sight, and he learns that the heads are from suitors who have failed to answer the princess's riddle: "Who are Gulambara and Sulambara?". The prince knows Gulambara and Sulambara are names of flowers, but he is given a chance to answer correctly. After a series of adventures, he answers the princess's riddle and marries her. When the prince and the princess come across the stream, the mysterious boy appears and suggests they divide the maiden equally. The mysterious boy binds her to a tree and threatens to strike her with a sword, but - lo and behold! - a "green stream" flows from the maiden's mouth, and the boy explains that "she was venomous" and "it would have killed the prince". He then reveals he is the crimson fish, and gives the prince a handkerchief with the cure for the prince's father.
In the tale "Сын рыбака" ("The Fisherman's Son"), a fisherman sets his son to help him catch fish. One day, the son catches quite a netful of fish, and beats every last one of hem, but he sees a small red fish still alive and lets it be. The red fish thanks the boy for sparing his life and gives him one of his bones to summon the fish in case he needs any help. The son tells his fisherman father of the event, and the man beats and banishes his son. The boy asks his mother for a bit of food and leaves home. On the way, he meets another person and shares his food with him. They become companions and reach another kingdom. The princess of this kingdom has become mute for some reason and her father will marry her to whoever can reverse her condition. The mysterious companions tells two riddle-like tales to her and she responds. The king gives the pair his daughter and the boys leave. When they pass by a bridge, the fisherman's son notices the absence of his friend - who was, after all, the same red fish.Грузинские народные сказки [Georgian Folk Tales]. Сост., вступит, статья, примеч. и типолог. анализ сюжетов Т. Д. Курдованидзе. Book 2. Moskva: Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1988. pp. 56-59 (Tale nr. 80). The compiler related this tale to the Grateful Dead cycle (types ATU 507C and 508).Грузинские народные сказки [Georgian Folk Tales]. Сост., вступит, статья, примеч. и типолог. анализ сюжетов Т. Д. Курдованидзе. Book 2. Moskva: Главная редакция восточной литературы издательства «Наука», 1988. p. 323.