Lovely Ilonka (; ) is a Hungarian fairy tale published in Ungarische Märchen by Elisabet Róna-Sklarek.Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Einl. A. Schullerus. Leipzig: Dieterich. 1901. pp. 68-74. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", albeit in a variation that appears locally in Hungary: instead of fruits, the fairy maiden comes out of reeds or bulrushes.
Source The tale was collected by Imre Veres in Orosháza, in dialect, and published in 1875 in Hungarian magazine , Vol. 4.Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Einl. A. Schullerus. Leipzig: Dieterich 1901. p. 289.Veres Imre. "Népmesék: Szép Ilonka". In: Magyar Nyelvőr, Vol. 4, 1875. pp. 463-476."Orosházi népmesék" [Volksmärchen von Orosháza]. In: A Száktő Kovács Muzeum 'Évkönyve. Orosháza: 1960. pp. 347-351.
Synopsis A prince wanted to marry, but his father told him to wait, saying that he had not been allowed until he had won the golden sword he carried. One day he met an old woman and asked her about the three bulrushes. She asked him to stay the night and in the morning, she summoned all the crows in the world, but they had not heard. Then he met an old man, who also had him stay the night. In the morning, all the ravens in the world had not heard. He met another old woman, and she told him it was well that he greeted her, or he would have suffered a horrible death. In the morning, she summoned magpies, and a crippled magpie led him to a great wall behind which were the three bulrushes.
He started to take them home, but one broke open. A lovely maiden flew out and asked for water, but flew off when he had none, same with the second. He took great care of the third, not splitting it until he had reached a well. With the water, she stayed, and they agreed to marry. He took her to his father's country, where he left her with a swineherd while he went to get a carriage. The swineherd threw her into a well and dressed up his daughter in her clothing. The prince was distressed but brought back the swineherd's daughter, married her, and received a crown, becoming a king.
One day, he sent a coachman to the well where Ilonka had been drowned. He saw a white duck, and then the duck vanished and a dirty woman appeared before him. This woman got a place as a housemaid in the castle. When she was not working, she spun: her distaff and spindle turned on their own, and she was never out of flax to spin. The queen, the swineherd's daughter wanted the distaff, but she would sell it only for a night in the king's chamber. The queen agreed and gave her husband a sleeping draught. Ilonka spoke to the king, but he did not respond, and she thought he was ashamed of her. Then the queen wanted the spindle, Ilonka decided to try again, but again the king slept. The third time, the queen made the same agreement for the flax, but two of the king's servants warned him, he refused everything, and when Ilonka appealed to him, he heard her. He had the swineherd, his wife, and his daughter hung and married Ilonka.
Analysis Tale type Hungarian scholarship classify the tale, according to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, as type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges", and ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband"."Orosházi népmesék" [Volksmärchen von Orosháza]. In: A Száktő Kovács Muzeum 'Évkönyve. Orosháza: 1960. p. 375 (Tale nr. 8).
The tale is related to type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges" or Die Drei Citronenjungfrauen ("The Three Maidens in the Citron Fruits").Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Einl. A. Schullerus. Leipzig: Dieterich. 1901. pp. 289-290.Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 85. . In some tales of the same type, the fruit maiden regains her human form and must bribe the false bride for three nights with her beloved.Gulyás Judit (2010). "Henszlmann Imre bírálata Arany János Rózsa és Ibolya című művéről". In: Balogh Balázs (főszerk). Ethno-Lore XXVII. Az MTA Neprajzi Kutatóintezetenek évkönyve. Budapest, MTA Neprajzi Kutatóintezete (Sajtó aatt). pp. 250-253.
In an article in Enzyklopädie des Märchens, scholar Christine Shojaei Kawan separated the tale type into six sections, and stated that parts 3 to 5 represented the "core" of the story:Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online, edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 347. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.063/html. Accessed 2023-06-20.
A prince is cursed by an old woman to seek the fruit princess; The prince finds helpers that guide him to the princess's location; The prince finds the fruits (usually three), releases the maidens inside, but only the third survives; The prince leaves the princess up a tree near a spring or stream, and a slave or servant sees the princess's reflection in the water; The slave or servant replaces the princess (transformation sequence); The fruit princess and the prince reunite, and the false bride is punished.
Motifs The motif of the heroine or maiden buying or bribing her way to her husband's chamber for three nights from the false bride harks back to variants of general tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", and ATU 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom".Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Einl. A. Schullerus. Leipzig: Dieterich. 1901. pp. 289-290.
Scholar Linda Dégh suggested a common origin for tale types ATU 403 ("The Black and the White Bride"), ATU 408 ("The Three Oranges"), ATU 425 ("The Search for the Lost Husband"), ATU 706 ("The Maiden Without Hands") and ATU 707 ("The Three Golden Sons"), since "their variants cross each other constantly and because their blendings are more common than their keeping to their separate type outlines" and even influence each other.Dégh, Linda. Narratives in Society: A Performer-Centered Study of Narration. FF Communications 255. Pieksämäki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1995. p. 41.
The heroine's appearance According to Hungarian folktale collector Arnold Ipolyi, Hungarian variants of the tale type usually show the fairy maiden coming out of a plant ("növényből").Arnold Ipolyi. Ipolyi Arnold népmesegyüjteménye (Népköltési gyüjtemény 13. kötet). Budapest: az Athenaeum Részvénytársulat Tulajdona. 1914. p. 521. In addition, the Hungarian Folktale Catalogue (MNK) named the type A Három Nádszálkisasszony ("The Three Reed Maidens"), since the maidens come out of reeds instead of fruits.Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). p. 202. However, they may also appear out of eggs (in 5 variants)Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Orangen: Die drei Orangen (AaTh 408)" [Three Oranges (ATU 408)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Online, edited by Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heidrun Alzheimer, Hermann Bausinger, Wolfgang Brückner, Daniel Drascek, Helge Gerndt, Ines Köhler-Zülch, Klaus Roth and Hans-Jörg Uther. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016 . p. 350. https://www-degruyter-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/database/EMO/entry/emo.10.063/html. Accessed 2024-01-07. or from apples (in 3 variants).Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). p. 206. According to Ákos Dömötör, the motif of "girls from eggs" in variants of type 408 indicates "the Subcarpathian unity" of the tales.
Variants According to scholar Stith Thompson, Hungarian ethnographer , Hungarian-American folklorist Linda Dégh and German scholar Hans-Jörg Uther, the tale of the reed girls is one of the popular fairy tales in Hungary.Sebestyén Ádám. Bukovinai Székely Népmesék. Volume I. Szekszárd: 2009. p. 516 (notes to tale nr. 85). . In addition, the tale type is known all throughout the Hungarian speaking regions. The Hungarian Folktale Catalogue (MNK) listed 59 variants of type 408, A Három Nádszálkisasszony ("The Three Reed Maidens"), across Hungarian sources.Dömötör Ákos (szerk.). Magyar népmesekatalógus 2. Budapest, MTA Néprajzi Kutató Csoport, 1988. A magyar tündérmesék katalógusa (AaTh 300-749). pp. 202-205. On the other hand, Hans-Jörg Uther reports 79 variants.
A previous study reported four texts in Palóc. Later fieldwork conducted in 1999 by researcher Zoltán Vasvári amongst the Palóc population found 3 texts.Vasvári, Zoltán. "Népmese a Palócföldön". In: Palócföld 1999/2, pp. 93-94.
Tales with plants Another Hungarian tale was collected by with the title A nádszál kisasszonyMerényi László. Eredeti Népmesék. Masódik Rész. Pest: Kiadja Heckenast Gusztáv. 1861. pp. 35-64. and translated by Jeremiah Curtin as The Reed Maiden.Curtin, Jeremiah. Myths and Folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1890. pp. 457-476. In this story, a prince marries a princess, the older sister of the Reed Maiden, but his brother only wants to marry "the most lovely, world-beautiful maiden". The prince asks his sister-in-law who this person could be, and she answers it is her elder sister, hidden with her two ladies-in-waiting in three reeds in a distant land. He releases the two ladies-in-waiting, but forgets to give them water. The prince finally releases the Reed Maiden and gives her the water. Later, before the Reed Maiden is married to the prince, a gypsy comes and replaces her.
In another variant by Elisabeth Rona-Sklárek, Das Waldfräulein ("The Maiden in the Woods"), a lazy prince strolls through the woods and sights a beautiful "Staude" (a perennial plant). He uses his knife to cut some of the plant and releases a maiden. Stunned by her beauty, he cannot fulfill her request for water and she disappears. The same thing happens again to a second plant. In the third time, he gives some water to the fairy maiden and marries her. The fairy woman gives birth to twins, but the evil queen mother substitutes them for puppies. The babies, however, are rescued a pair of two blue woodpeckers and taken to the woods. When the king returns from war and sees the two animals, he banishes his wife to the woods.Sklarek, Elisabet. Ungarische Volksmärchen. Einl. A. Schullerus. Leipzig: Dieterich 1901. pp. 74-79.
In a Hungarian tale collected from a teller named Palásti Annuska in Csongrád with the title Nádlányok ("Reed Girls"), a king has a son he notices to be very sullen and withdrawn. The prince then decides to go on a ride around the forest. He lies on the green grass and falls asleep. After he wakes up, he finds some reed nearby and decides to make a pipe out of one. He cuts off the first one and releases a maiden that asks for water, but dies for not having any. The prince cuts off a second one, releasing another maiden, until he cuts off ten reeds. With the tenth maiden, he gives her water and sates her thirst. The reed maiden then asks the prince to take her away from the place, since she lost nine sisters there. The prince brings the reed maiden with him to the castle and introduces her to his parents. The king agrees to his choice of bride. Later, in a private talk between the reed maiden and the prince, she tells him her family was cursed into reeds and the prince freed her, so she consents to marry him. The king then marries his son to the reed maiden.