Again, The Snake Bridegroom (; German: Wieder vom Schlangenbräutigam) is a Serbian folktale collected in the 19th century by Serbian philologist Vuk Karadžić, featuring the marriage between a human maiden and a husband in serpent guise.
The tale is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, in that a human maiden marries an animal that is a prince in disguise, breaks a taboo and loses him, and she has to seek him out. It shares motifs with other tales of the region, like Hungarian The Serpent Prince and Romanian Trandafiru and Enchanted Balaur: the heroine is cursed by her husband not to bear the child she is carrying, until he places a hand on her again.
Translations The tale was also translated to English as The girl who got married to a snake and to French as Encore un serpent nouveau marié.
Summary A childless queen prays to God for a child, even if it is a snake. God answers her prayers and a snake child is born. They raise the child for years and finally the snake talks to its parents: he wants a bride. His parents arrange a marriage for him with a peasant girl and they marry. Some time later, the girl appears pregnant and the queen questions how that is possible if her son is a snake. The girl reveals her husband takes off the snake skin at night and becomes a handsome man. The queen delights at this information and tells her daughter-in-law she should burn the snakeskin to keep him in human form for good.
That night, the girl burns the skin, causing her angered husband to leave, who tells his wife she shall not give birth until she finds him again after a long journey wearing down a pair of iron shoes and an iron rod. The girl goes on her quest and passes by the Mother of the Sun (who gives her a golden loom and distaff with golden flax and a golden spindle), the Mother of the Moon (who gives her a golden hen with golden chicks) and the Mother of the Winds (who gives her a golden loom with golden yarn)
The Wind directs her to another kingdom, where her husband has married another empress. The girl then ostentatiously sets up her golden loom and starts spinning, releasing the golden hen and chicks, to catch the Empress's attention, who covets these golden items. The girl bargains for the privilege to spend three nights with her husband: on the first two, he does not respond to her plea, because he has drunk a sleeping potion, but on the third night, he listens to her plight and touches her belly. Their child is born (a golden-haired, golden-armed boy), and they return home.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom".Dégh, Linda. Hungarian Folktales: The Art of Zsuzsanna Palkó. Routledge, 2014. p. 77. .Dégh, Linda. Folktales and Society: Story-telling in a Hungarian Peasant Community: Expanded Edition with a New Afterword. Indiana University Press, 1989. p. 325. .
This tale type has an introductory part and a main part. The introductory part (that falls under many patterns) explains how an animal son is begotten, and his gaining a bride. In the main portion, the young bride (often at the instigation of relatives) burns the husband's animal skin, which causes the husband to go away, and the bride is forced on a quest to find him (sometimes while wearing iron shoes). The Sun, the Moon and the Wind guide her. Typically when the bride reaches a castle where she finds her husband, a false bride has assumed the place of the wife, and typically, the bride infiltrates by hiring herself out a maid. She bargains the precious golden items of the Sun, Moon, and Wind, to spend three nights with her husband, who is drugged by a soporific except on the third night when he spills the potion, and recognizes her. In Balkanic variants of the tale type, the supernatural husband curses his wife not to give birth to their child for a long period of time until she finds him again.Wright, James R. G. "Folk-Tale and Literary Technique in Cupid and Psyche". In: The Classical Quarterly 21, no. 1 (1971): 276. http://www.jstor.org/stable/637841.
In tale type ATU 425A, the heroine journeys far and wide to encounter her husband, and finds him at the mercy of a second spouse. The supernatural husband, now human, is put to sleep by the magic potion of the second spouse, so that the heroine has no chance of rescuing him.Bálint Peter. Kedvenc Népmeséim (My Favourite Folk Tales): A hangok sokfélesége (The Multiplicity of Voices) - meseszöveg-gyűjtemény és tanulmányok (a collection of tales and studies). Hajdúböszörmény, 2010. p. 225. .
Others of this type include The Black Bull of Norroway, The Brown Bear of Norway, The Daughter of the Skies, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Tale of the Hoodie, The Sprig of Rosemary, and White-Bear-King-Valemon.
Motifs According to Hans-Jörg Uther, the main feature of tale type ATU 425A is "bribing the false bride for three nights with the husband". In fact, when he developed his revision of Aarne-Thompson's system, Uther remarked that an "essential" trait of the tale type ATU 425A was the "wife's quest and gifts" and "nights bought".
In a study published posthumously, Romanian folklorist noted that, in Romanian and in some South Slavic variants, instead of meeting the Sun, the Moon and the Wind on the way to her husband, the heroine finds incarnations of the days of the week, like Holy Wednesday and Holy Friday. They function the same as the elements and gift the heroine with golden objects.Caraman, Petru. "Identificarea episodului despre Cupidon şi Psyche, din romanul „Metamorphoses” al lui Apuleius, cu un basm autentic popular" [Identification of the Episode on Cupidon and Psyche, in the Novel Metamorphoses by Appuleius, with An Authentic Folk Fairy Tale]. In: Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei 9 (2009): 28–33.
Variants
Slavic In a South Slavic tale collected by Friedrich Salomo Krauss with the title Die entzauberte Schlange ("The Enchanted Snake"), a childless couple longs to have a son. The wife declares she wants a son, even if it is a snake, so a snake is born. The husband tries to convince the wife to kill it, but the snake tells them he will live out his days in the forest. The snake works as a swineherd. A king passes by the snake's herds and feels impressed by his efforts. The snake marries the princess, who rejects him at first until she sees his true human form at night. The princess tells her mother-in-law her discovery and she suggests to burn the snakeskin, which she does. The snake husband curses his wife to not give birth to their child until he embraces her, and for her ring to stay on her finger. The husband disappears; the princess gets the help of the Wind to take to where her husband is. Despite being classified as type 425A, this tale lacks the three nights bribe of the second spouse.Krauss, Friedrich Salomo. Volkserzählungen der Südslaven: Märchen und Sagen, Schwänke, Schnurren und erbauliche Geschichten. Burt, Raymond I. and Puchner, Walter (eds). Böhlau Verlag Wien. 2002. pp. 79-83, 613. .
In a South Slavic tale collected by Ivan Krmpotić from Lici with the title Zmija mladoženja ("Snake Bridegroom"), an old woman lives alone, and utter she wishes to have a son, even if he is a snake. Thus, a snake appears to her, but he is in fact human underneath the snakeskin, and is so beautiful like the sun he shines. The emperor's daughter marries the snake son and plots to burn the disguise. She burns the snakeskin, and the tale explains he would have been released from the curse after four more nights, and he vanishes. The princess searches for her husband for nine years and reaches the house of the mother of the Sun, where she gains a golden "preslicu" (a distaff). She is directed to the house of the South Wind ("Jug"), where she gains a golden "pletivo" (knitting material), and guides her to the house of "Siverov", who knows everything. Siverov's mother gives the princess a golden hen with chicks. Finally, the princess reaches a castle and asks if they are in need of servants. The princess is hired as another servant, then takes out the golden hen with chicks. The local empress is stunned at the golden hen and wishes to have it; the princess makes a deal with the empress: the golden hen with chicks for a night with the king, as Siverov's mother instructed her to do. The princess tries to nudge her husband awake, who is the king, and begs him to touch her belly so that she can give birth to a golden-haired son. The king remains fast asleep for the empress gave him some soporific wine. The next morning, the king asks a servant about what happened last night, and a servant tells him about a woman crying for him to touch her belly. On the second day, the princess draws out the golden yarn and a golden spindle and distaff, and on the third day she takes out the yarn and some golden needles and begins to sew. The golden objects disappear, but the princess still has a golden apple given by the South Wind's mother, and makes a last trade. As for the king, he tells his servant to drop the wine the empress brings him, so that he does not fall asleep. The princess enters the king's chambers and the king places his hand on her, allowing her to give birth to a golden-haired son of nine years. The king makes the princess his queen and turns the empress into their servant.
Serbia Beautiful Youth In another Serbian tale, collected in Горња Крајина ("Gorya Krajina") by historian and published in Letopis Matice Srpske with the title "Лијепи младић" ( Lijepi mladić, "Beautiful Youth"), a man complains to his wife that they have no son, but will be happy even if they have a snake for a son. And so it happens: the woman gives birth to a snake. Time passes, and, when the snake is old enough, he asks his parents to find him a human bride. They choose a girl and they marry. On the wedding night, the bride is afraid at first of the snake husband, until he takes off the snakeskin and becomes the titular "beautiful youth". When morning comes, the youth wears the snakeskin again. This goes on for months, until one day, the snake son's mother asks the girl about their sleeping arrangements. The girl tells her mother-in-law that the snake becomes a youth at night, and the woman advises the girl to take the snakeskin after her son is asleep, and give it to her. The girl follows through with the suggestions and steals the snakeskin for her mother-in-law, who throws it into a fire. The youth wakes up, curses his wife not to give birth to their child until he place his hands on her, then vanishes. For three years, she waits, until she decides to go on a quest for him. She passes by the Sun and its mother (who gives her a "Медуља", a "medulya"), the Moon and his mother (who also gives her a "medulya"). Finally, she passes by the Vlašićs (, , which are the Pleiades constellation in Serbian folk astronomy), who give her a "medulya", and tell her to go to the "Belitarians" (which, according to a compiler's note, is a group of stars). The Belitarians welcome the girl and tell her where her husband is: he is under the power of some fairies, which can be bribed with the "medulyas" the girl received. The Belitarians take her there, and the girl gives the medulyas to the fairies. Her husband touches her body and she gives birth to their child, after an eleven year long pregnancy, then they both go back home.Красић, Владимир. "Летопис Матице српске". уређује А. Хаџић. Књига 146 [Volume 146]. Свеска прва, издато у Новом Саду, 1886. pp. 118-120.
King and Queen