Făt-Frumos with the Golden Hair (Romanian: Făt-Frumos cu părul de aur) or The Foundling Prince is a Romanian fairy tale about Făt-Frumos collected by Petre Ispirescu in Legende sau basmele românilor.
The story is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 314, "Goldener": a hero has a horse as a helper, and later finds work as a king's gardener.
Source According to Ispirescu, the tale was provided by his father, who heard it in the period of 1820-1834. Ispirescu then published it in 1872.
Publication The tale was also published under the title Fet-Frumosu cu perulu de auru, both by author Fundescu, I. C. Basme, orații, păcălituri și ghicitori. Bucuresci: Librari Editori Socec și Compania. 1875. pp. 61-76. and Romanian folklorist Atanasie Marian Marienescu in newspaper Albina (ro).Marienescu, At. "Fetu frumosu cu perulu de auru". In: Albina. Anulu VI. Nr. 17 (21-Feb-1871).
Synopsis
A hermit lived alone. One day, a box floated down the river to him. It contained a beautiful boy child, Făt-Frumos, and a letter saying that his mother was a king's daughter who had erred and done this out of fear of her parents. A grape vine sprung up in his hut, and with its fruit, he was able to feed the child. When he was grown, the hermit died, telling him that a lion would come to dig his grave, and that he should take the horse reins in the attic, which, if he shook, would bring him a horse. He did as his foster father said. The horse gave him clothing, and he rode off. At the horse's direction, he took service with three fairies. The horse told him that every seven years, their bathroom had a flow of gold that would turn anyone's hair gold; it also had a chest with three magnificent suits of clothing. One day, the fairies went to a party but directed him to summon them back if the gold started to flow. It did. The horse directed him to bathe in it himself and take the clothes. He did, and they escaped the fairies.
He hid his hair and got a job working for a gardener for a king. One day, the king's oldest daughter arranged for herself and her sisters to bring melons to the king: hers was overripe, her next sister's was ripe, the youngest's was just about ripe. His councilors explained that the oldest should have been married already, the next was ready for marriage, and even the youngest daughter was nearly ready. Suitors came for them, and the oldest was married to a prince. The wedding procession set out from the castle; only the youngest princess stayed behind. Făt-Frumos loosed his hair, put on the suit like a flowering meadow, and rode his horse over the garden. It did much damage, but the princess was enchanted with him. The gardener was angry, but the princess gave him gold and told him not to beat the boy. When the second sister married, the youngest princess stayed behind, the boy loosed his hair, wore a suit like the starry night and rode his horse, ruining the garden; the youngest princess bribed the gardener with two handfuls of gold not to beat him. The king had a feast at his hunting lodge; again the youngest princess did not go, and Făt-Frumos loosed his hair, wore a suit with the sun, the moon, and the stars, and ruined the garden so badly that weeks did not restore it. The youngest princess bribed the gardener with three handfuls of gold.
The king saw how his youngest daughter was always sad. His councilors suggested that all the princes and nobles should walk under the gate, and whoever the princess dropped a golden apple to would be her husband. They all walked, but she did not drop the apple. Then all the servants, last of all the bald undergardener, Făt-Frumos, appeared. She dropped the apple to him. The king refused, but after three times she took the walk three times and each time dropped the apple to him he relented. They married quietly and the king gave them a hut in a distant corner of his courtyard.
The princes who had wooed her were offended and banded together to attack her father. His sons-in-law raised armies to come to his aid. Făt-Frumos said he would do the same, but his father-in-law jeered at him, finally let him come only as a water carrier. But out of sight, Făt-Frumos changed into the clothes he had stolen from the fairies and came to the king's aid. The forces attacked three times, and the third, Făt-Frumos was wounded. The king gave him a handkerchief to bind his wounds.
The king began to go blind. It was learned that only the milk of red wild goats would cure him. His sons-in-law set out to find it. Făt-Frumos found the goats and got the milk, and offered to sell some to his brothers-in-law if they would let him brand them as his slaves. They agreed, thinking they could escape, but only Făt-Frumos's milk restored the king's sight.
At the banquet, Făt-Frumos revealed that he had branded the other two kings as his slaves and was the hero who had helped the king's army. The king demanded that he reappear as he appeared then. When Făt-Frumos did so, he gave up his throne to Făt-Frumos. The first thing Făt-Frumos did was free his brothers-in-law.
Translations The tale was also translated from the original Romanian into English with the title The Hermit's Foundling with the Golden Hair;Mawr, E. B. Roumanian Fairy Tales And Legends. London: H.K. Lewis, 1881. pp. 27-41. Prince Charming, the Golden-Haired,Sturdza, Ioana; Vianu, Raymond; Lăzărescu, Mary; Hillard, Richard. Fairy Tales and Legends from Romania. New York: Twayne Publishers. 1971. pp. 92-105. and Lad-Handsome with the Golden Hair.Ispirescu, Petre; Segall, Jacob Bernard. Roumanian Folk Tales Retold From the Original. Orono, Me.: Printed at the University press, 1925. pp. 61-76.
Analysis Tale type Romanian scholars classify the tale as type 314 of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.Petre Ispirescu - Opere. Volume 1. Ed. Minerva, 1971. pp. lxii, lxxxvii. In tale type ATU 314, "Goldener", the hero enters the service of a sorcerer or another magical being, and finds a horse that warns him about the danger his benefactor poses. The hero then flees with the horse to another kingdom, where he hides his golden hair (hence the name of the type) under a cap and finds work as a king's gardener.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 108-109. According to Romanian scholarship, the hero of the tale type is also called Cheleş, for the fact that he hides his golden hair under a cap of ox bladder. Fourteen variants of tale type 314 are registered in Romania, with six others combined with the narrative about the hero answering "Nu ştiu" or "I Don't Know" (type ATh 532).Petre Ispirescu: Opere. Volume 1. Ed. Minerva, 1971. p. Xliii (in Romanian).
Motifs The suitor selection test The motif of the princess throwing an apple to her suitor is indexed as motif H316, "Suitor test: apple thrown indicates princess' choice (often golden apple)". According to mythologist Yuri Berezkin and other Russian researchers, the motif is "popular" in Iran, and is also attested "in Central Europe, the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Near East, and Central Asia".
According to Turkologist , types ATU 314 and ATU 502 contain this motif: the princess chooses her own husband (of lowly appearance) in a gathering of potential suitors, by giving him an object (e.g., an apple). However, he also remarks that the motif is "spread in folk literature" and may appear in other tale types.Reichl, Karl. Turkic Oral Epic Poetry: Traditions, Forms, Poetic Structure. Routledge Revivals. Routledge. 1992. p. 136. .
The gardener hero According to Richard MacGillivray Dawkins, in the tale type, the hero as gardener destroys and restores the garden after he finds work, and, later, fights in the war. During the battle, he is injured, and the king dresses his wound with a kerchief, which will serve as token of recognition.Dawkins, Richard McGillivray. Modern Greek folktales. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1953. p. 249.
Quest for the remedy A motif that appears in tale type 314 is the hero having to find a cure for the ailing king, often the milk of a certain animal (e.g., a lioness). According to scholar Erika Taube, this motif occurs in tales from North Africa to East Asia, even among Persian- and Arabic-speaking peoples.Taube, Erika. "Löwenmilch" [Lion's Milk]. 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 . pp. 1232-1233. Similarly, Hasan M. El-Shamy noted that the quest for the king's remedy appears as a subsidiary event "in the Arab-Berber culture area".
Variants Făt-Frumos cel rătăcit