The Golden Root or The Golden Trunk (Neapolitan: "Lo turzo d'oro"; Italian: "Il ceppo d'oro") is a literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the "Pentamerone", as the fourth story of the fifth day. It is considered to be one of two rewritings of the Graeco-Roman myth of "Cupid and Psyche" by Basile, the other being "Lo Catenaccio".
In spite of its origins as a literary tale, it is related to the international cycle of "Animal as Bridegroom" or "The Search for the Lost Husband", in that a human girl marries a supernatural or enchanted husband, loses him and must search for him. Similar stories have been collected from oral tradition in Italy.
Summary.
The tale focuses on Parmetella, a poor girl and youngest of three sisters: she, Pascuzza and Cice. They are daughters of a gardener, who gives them pigs to rear in hopes of getting a future dowry. Her sisters often force Parmetella to drive the pigs in another part of the meadow, where she eventually finds a fountain and a tree with golden leaves beside it. She collects some foliage and gives the to her father who sells them as she returns. She repeats the action until the tree is stripped bare of its foliage.
Some time later, Parmetella notices that the golden-leaved tree has a golden root. She takes an axe to the root and finds a staircase leading underground. She descends on the hole where the tree trunk once stood and reaches a luxurious palace. She wanders through the palace and marvels at its sights, until she sees a table with food and drink. As she approaches the table, a Moorish slave appears before her and asks her to be his wife. She accepts the proposal before the slave tells her that she must promise never to light a lamp during the night, to which she consents.
The next night however, Parmetella waits until her mysterious companion is asleep, and lights a candle out of curiosity. She sees a handsome man in the place of her companion. The man wakes up, curses her for not obeying his orders, saying he will have to suffer another seven years with his curse, and vanishes. Parmetella leaves the palace and meets a fairy just outside the cave. The fairy warns her that she is "going to a slaughterhouse", and gives her seven spindles, seven figs, a jar of honey, and seven pairs of iron shoes. She instructs her to keep walking, passing by a straight bridge, narrow as a strand of hair, and until she meets seven bone-eating ogresses who are spinning on a bone on the balcony of a house. Parmetella is to wait for them to lower the bone, which she must replace for a spindle smeared with honey and put a fig in place of a button; the ogresses will ask her to come out, but Parmetella is to deny them; they will continue to find objects to swear an oath to, until they mention Truone-e-lampe's ("Thunder-and-Lightning") name - that is when she may appear to them.
After seven years walking in her iron shoes, she reaches a large with a balcony, the seven ogresses on it, just as the fairy predicted. Following the fairy's instructions, Parmetella gives them the honey-smeared spindle and figs, and waits until they swear on Truone-e-lampe's name not to harm her. After they make the promise, Parmetella appears to them. The ogresses mock and scold her, since they blame Parmetella for their brother Truone-e-lampe living as a blackamoor in a cave for 14 years, away from them. Despite the initial friction, the seven ogresses advise Parmetella to hide before their ogress mother arrive, and, when her guard is down, to catch her by surprise by clutching her breasts and make her swear on her son's name, Truone-e-lampe, not to harm her.
Following the ogress daughter's advice, Parmetella grabs her ogress mother-in-law from behind and makes her promise on her son's name not to harm her. After being released, the ogress mother, furious, claims she will make her pay when the right opportunity appears. The ogress mother then orders Parmetella, as a first task, to separate twelve sacks of grains that have been mixed into a single heap. Her husband, Truone-e-lampe, appears again before her and summons an army of ants to use to separate the grains, helping her in the process. As a second task, the ogress demands that she fills a dozen mattresses with feathers, which she also accomplishes with her husband's advice: she spreads the mattresses on the ground and shouts that the king of the birds is dead, and all the birds appear to give her some of their feathers.
The last task given to her is to go to the ogress' sister's house and fetch a box of instruments from her, to be used in the future wedding of Truone-e-lampe with another bride. Following her husband's advice, she enters the sister's house, gives food to the horse and the dog, and compliments the door hinges. She then tricks the ogress's niece who goes with her into the oven instead of her, takes the box of instruments before the witch commands the door hinges, the horse and the dog to stop her. Parmetella, however, leaves unscathed due to her previous actions. At a safe distance from the witch, curiosity takes the best of her again as she opens the box; causing musical instruments to fly out in process. Truone-e-lampe fortunately reappears before her and, with a whistle, commands the instruments back into the box.
Finally, the ogress mother prepares her son's wedding: she gives a torch to each of her seven daughters, and two to Parmetella to hold, and places her near a well so that, when she falls asleep, she may fall into it. Truone-e-lampe's ugly bride passes by Parmetella and mocks her for not kissing the bridegroom after claiming she has kissed a herdsman for some chestnuts. Truone-e-lampe overhears the bride's confession and fumes silently. After the wedding party is over, in his nuptial chambers, Truone-e-lampe kills his bride.
The ogress mother later sees her son in Parmetella's arms. Infuriated, she decides to conspire with her sister to get rid of her. When she enters her sister's house, the ogress discovers that, out of grief for losing her baby, her sister has jumped into the oven to die alongside her. The ogress turns into a ram and butts its head against the wall, leaving her fate unknown. Truone-e-lampe and Parmetella ultimately make peace with their sisters-in-law and live happily.
Analysis.
Tale type.
The tale belongs to the international cycle of the "Animal as Bridegroom" or "The Search for the Lost Husband", which corresponds, in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", and its subtypes. Philologist Gianfranco D'Aronco classified the tale as Italian type 425, "Lo sposo scomparso" ("The Lost Husband"). Nancy Canepa indexes it as type 425A, "The Animal as Bridegroom".
Scholars have called attention to structural similarities between the tale and the Graeco-Roman myth of "Cupid and Psyche", as related by Apuleius in the 2nd century AD. In fact, "The Golden Root" is considered to be one of Basile's renditions of the myth, the other being "Il catenaccio" ("The Padlock", former tale type AaTh 425L, "The Padlock on the Enchanted Husband"). Folklorist Joseph Jacobs stated that "The Golden Root" is the first appearance in modern times of the "Cupid and Psyche story" (invisible husband, breaking a taboo, heroine's tasks for mother-in-law).
Motifs.
The heroine's tasks.
Scholars commonly noticed the resemblance between Parmetella's quest for the box of instruments and Psyche's quest for Persephone's casket, and the result of curiosity for both women. Catalan scholarship located the motif of the box of musical instruments in Greek, Turkish and South Italian variants. In that regard, Swahn, in his study on "Cupid and Psyche", remarked that the instruments as the contents of the box are "common" to Mediterranean tradition.
The heroine is also helped by ants to carry grains from one place to the other. A similar event occurs in the myth of Psyche and in other fairy tales, such as "The Queen Bee", by the Brothers Grimm. Swedish scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn remarked that, in tales of "The Search for the Lost Husband" type, the task of sorting seeds or grains occurs in Mediterranean and Near Eastern variants of type ATU 425B, "The Witch's Tasks".
Variants.
Italy.
Marvizia.
In a Sicilian tale collected by Giuseppe Pitrè with the title "Marvizia", a prince's daughter owns a potted plant that produces a rose with good seeds to eat. A green bird comes and eats the seeds. The girl wants to own this green bird, but the prince's servants fail to catch it. Then, she dons a disguise as a pilgrim and follows the bird to various villages, under the pretense that she is going on a seven year penance. She arrives at a city whose queen misses her son. The queen soon shelters the girl. In return, the girl asks for the queen's ring, a memento of her lost son, as an attempt to reassure her. The queen agrees and the girl pilgrim continues on her journey. She arrives at the house of a "mammadraga" and asks for lodging. The mammadraga invites her in, calls her Marvizia (from "Marva", a mallow plant) and sets her to doing strenuous tasks. First, the girl, Marvizia, has to clean all copper utensils, and confides to the mammadraga's giant servant, Ali. The green bird appears on the window sill and advises the girl. Next, to wash all the mattresses, and finally to weave clothes for the mammadraga. The next day, the mammadraga turns the green bird into a man, and sets her giant servant Ali to take Marvizia to be devoured by goats. Ali meets the green bird, who gives him a magic staff to create grass to satiate the goats. A shepherd girl gives food to mammadraga, who, after thanking her, decides to make the girl her daughter-in-law. The green bird agrees to the mammadraga's decision, but secretly, uses the Ring of Command to materialize a torch with gunpowder and pellets inside. After their marriage, with Marvizia holding the torch on the foot of the bridal bed, the green bird asks for his new wife to hold the torch. The torch explodes on the shepherdess's hands, taking the mammadraga's house with it. Marvizia, the now human green bird and the giant soon attempt to escape from the mammadraga with the Ring and the Book of Command, with the villainess hot in pursuit. The trio eventually escape and meet with the queen who gave Marvizia the ring. Author Woldemar Kaden translated the tale as "Pappelröschen" ("Poplar Rose"), and commented that this was another variant of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Ruth Manning-Sanders translated the tale as "The Green Bird" in her work "A Book of Ogres and Trolls".
Thunder and Lightning.
Author Heinrich Zschalig published a tale from the island of Capri with the title "Blitz und Donner" ("Thunder and Lightning"): a girl named Rosinella lives with her poor father. One day, she takes her pig to graze in the forest and finds a tree with golden leaves and golden branches. She takes some foliage to her father. They eventually revisits the forest on the next day before they see the tree tumbling down. After the tree falls, they see a staircase leading underground. Her father is reluctant to go down the stairs, but Rosinella soon climbs down the hole and finds a large underground palace. In one of the chambers, Rosinella meets a shadowed being and offers her services to it. The shadow agrees and lets her stay, as long as she does not enter his bedchambers neither during the day nor at night. She obeys his instructions from one year, until she enters his chambers and sees a beautiful youth asleep on the bed. The next morning, the shadowed man reproaches Rosinella, but gives her iron shoes and some figs. He explains that the figs are for his sisters, and that, if she suffers for a year, three months and three weeks, the man, named Thunder and Lightning, will marry her. Rosinella goes to the city and reaches a terrace where the three sisters are and gives them the figs. The sisters welcome her, but warn that their mother, Luisa, is a cannibal and