Scottish fairy tale
"The Black Bull of Norroway" is a fairy tale from Scotland. A version titled "The Black Bull of Norroway" in the 1870 edition of "Popular Rhymes of Scotland" was reprinted in an Anglicised version by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book "More English Fairy Tales".
It was included within "The Blue Fairy Book" by Andrew Lang, "English Fairy Tales" by Flora Annie Steel, "Scottish Folk Tales" by Ruth Manning-Sanders, and "A Book Of British Fairytales" by Alan Garner. J. R. R. Tolkien cited it in the essay "On Fairy-Stories" as the example of a "eucatastrophe".
It is Aarne–Thompson–Uther type 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom". Others of this type include, The Brown Bear of Norway, The Daughter of the Skies, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Enchanted Pig, The Tale of the Hoodie, Master Semolina, The Sprig of Rosemary, The Enchanted Snake, and White-Bear-King-Valemon.
Synopsis.
A washerwoman's three daughters each in succession ask her to cook them some food to take with them on a journey to seek their fortune. Along their way, they consult a witch on how to seek the fortune. The woman advised them to look out her back door. On the third day, the eldest sees a coach-and-six come for her and leaves with it, delighted; the second daughter finds a coach-and-four and leaves; but the third and youngest finds only a black bull, which the witch tells her she must accompany.
The daughter is terrified but goes off with the bull, who surprises her by being kind and gentle. When she grows hungry, he tells her to eat out of his right ear, and drink out of his left. The first night of their journey, they arrive at a castle, which, the bull tells the girl, belongs to his eldest brother. The daughter is welcomed and treated lavishly. As a parting gift, she is given a beautiful apple and told to never use it until she comes to the first great need of her life, and then it would help her. The second night of the journey, they once more stay at a castle, this one belonging to the bull's second brother. Once more the daughter receives a parting gift: a beautiful pear that she is not to use until the second great need of her life; the third night, they are hosted at the youngest brother's castle, and the daughter is given a final gift of a beautiful plum, not to be used until the third great need of her life. At last, the girl and the bull arrive at a valley of glass.
"You must wait here," the bull tells the girl, "and whatever you do, do not move, even an inch, or I will not be able to find you". He goes on to explain that he is to fight the devil who rules the valley so that they may exit. If the sky turns blue, then she will know that the bull has won; but if the sky turns red, then he has lost. The black bull leaves the girl there, and after some time she sees the sky turn blue. Overjoyed, the girl shifts her position slightly... and so the black bull does not return for her.
Unable to climb out of the valley on her own, the girl wanders alone until she finds a blacksmith. He tells her that if she serves him for seven years, he will repay her by making her a pair of shoes. When seven years have gone by, the blacksmith, true to his word, makes the girl—now a young woman—a pair of iron shoes, and nails them to her feet. With the shoes, the young woman is able to climb out of the glass valley.
The young woman eventually wanders back to the home of the witch, who offers her shelter if she will wash some bloody shirts that both she and her daughter have been unable to clean. Whoever could clean the shirts would marry the gallant young knight staying at the witch's home, whom the shirts belong to. Despite the failure of those before her, no sooner has the young woman touched the soap to the shirts than the bloodstains vanish, and the young woman's feet heal perfectly, as if they had never been bloodied or injured. Delighted, the witch brings the knight his shirts and convinces him that it was her daughter who cleaned them. Thus, the knight and the daughter are to be married.
Desperate, the young woman realizes that she is in the first great need of her life. She breaks open the apple, and finds it full of rich jewelry. She offers the jewelry to the witch's daughter, in exchange for being allowed to sing outside the knight's room at night. But the witch gives her daughter a sleeping-drink to offer the knight, so the young woman cannot wake him, though she sobs and sings:
"Seven long years I served for thee,
The glassy hill I clamb for thee,
Thy bloody clothes I wrang for thee;
And wilt thou not waken and turn to me?"
She is in the second great need of her life, so she tries the pear, and finds it full of jewelry richer than that of the apple, but the second night goes as before. Finally, the young woman is in the third great need of her life, and breaks the plum to find the richest jewelry yet. This time, though the sleeping-drink is brought again, the knight accidentally knocks it over, so, when the young woman buys her third and final chance, the knight is awake to hear her song. In this way he learns the truth.
The young woman marries the knight, who had been her black bull all along. He has the witch and her daughter burned, and the knight and the washerwoman's youngest daughter live happily ever after.
Origins.
English scholar James Orchard Halliwell republished the Scottish tale "The Bull of Norroway", in his "Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales", and commented that it was a modern version of the "very old tale" "Black Bull of Norroway", mentioned in "The Complaynt of Scotland" (1548). Similarly, folklorist Joseph Jacobs remarked on its mention in "The Complaynt of Scotland" and in Phillip Sidney's "Arcadia".
Analysis.
Tale type.
The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom". In this tale type, the heroine is a human maiden who marries a prince that is cursed to become an animal of some sort. She betrays his trust and he disappears, prompting a quest for him.
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".
Motifs.
According to Jan-Öjvind Swahn's study on some 1,100 variants of Cupid and Psyche and related types, he concluded that variants with the enchanted bull husband may originate from Ireland or Britain.
The chivalric romance "Generides" features a garment where the lady's tears can only be washed out by the lady herself. Despite the commonplace status of magical shirts in folktales, this particular detail is so unusual as to point as a source in a fairy tale such as this or The Feather of Finist the Falcon.
Variants.
Europe.
Scotland.
Robert Chambers published a similar tale in 1842, in his book "Popular Rhymes of Scotland". In this tale, titled "The Red Bull of Norroway", which he sourced from Dumfriesshire, a king has three daughters, the elder two ugly and the youngest beautiful and kind. One night, they are talking about their marriage wishes: the elder wants to marry a king, the middle one a prince or great duke, and the youngest wishes for the Red Bull o' Norroway. The next morning, the Red Bull appears at the king's door and demands his wife. The king tries to trick the creature with a henwife, but he notices the deception and turns back. The king then sends his servants, and even his elder daughters, until the monarch is forced to surrender his youngest daughter. The Red Bull takes his intended to a lord's castle where they spend the night. In their chambers, the princess notices a pin on the bull's back and removes it; this turns the bull into a prince. Celebrations are held, but the prince suddenly disappears. The princess, then, begins her wanderings through the world until she finds a hut in the dark woods, where an old woman lives. The old woman gives her three nuts, and the princess departs. Still on her journey, the princess spots a wedding procession for the Duke o' Norroway's wedding, who is the prince. The princess follows the wedding procession to the Duke's castle and cracks open each of the nuts: inside, a "wee wifie" carding, a "wee wifie" spinning, and lastly, a "wee wifie" reeling. The princess uses the spinning instruments to bribe the Duke's bride to allow for one night in the Duke's chambers, one night for each item. The princess tries to wake the Duke on the first two nights by singing sorrowful verses, but he does not budge, since he drank a sleeping potion. The next morning, the Duke asks a servant about the singing he hears in his sleep, and his servant tells him about the mysterious girl that comes to his bed at night. On the third night, the Duke avoids drinking the potion and interacts with the princess, his saviour. The Duke and the princess reunite, while the enchantress flees from the country.
Peter Buchan collected a variant of the story, titled "The Brown Bull of Ringlewood". In this tale, the King of Coil gives alms to an old beggar man, who, in gratitude, grants the king's three daughters a wish each. Each of the princesses wishes for a husband: the eldest for the King of Westmoreland, and so it happens. Seeing her sister's good fortune, the middle one asks for the King of Southland as her husband and he appears to court her. Lastly, the youngest jokingly wishes for "The Brown Bull of Ringlewood", and a bull appears not too long after to take her. The Brown Bull comes to take the princess as his wife and to take her to his castle. Once there, he takes off the bull skin and becomes a man at night. The princess bears him three sons. Instructed by an old woman, the princess burns the bull skin and the husband tells her they must go to his father's castle, beyond the sea and up a crystal mountain named Hill of Forgetfulness. The princess takes their children and accompanies her husband to the Hill, asking her how she can join him. However, the human Brown Bull asks her to look between her and the sky; by doing so, she sights a castle where she leaves one of her sons. By looking to the east and the west, she spots two other castles where she leaves her other children to be educated and fed. Meanwhile, the human Brown Bull climbs the Hill and forgets about his wife. Abandoned by her husband, she finds work nearby with a local lord, where she serves for seven years before gaining enough provisions to climb the Hill of Forgetfulness. After doing so, she meets an old woman up the Hill, who asks her to fetch three pears from a tree, in return she will give the girl three eggs for her hour of need. The girl plucks the fruits and gives to the old woman, gaining the three eggs. She then takes lodge inside the castle, where she learns the Prince, her husband, is soon to be married. Downcast, the girl cracks open the three eggs, each egg on each day, and produces marvellous objects: a wheel spinning golden yarn from the first egg, a reel spinning gold yearn from the second egg, and a singing bird from the third. She trades the wheel and the reel on the first two days with the local Princess for a night in the Prince's chambers, and tries to wake him, but he is under a spell by a powder and enchanted bedclothes. On the third day, the singing bird tells the girl about the enchanted bedclothes