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The Tale of Aftab (Azerbaijani: Aftabın nağılı) is an Azerbaijani fairy tale, about a maiden that marries a man under a snakeskin disguise, breaks the secret about his identity and has to search for him, eventually finding him at his mother's house, where she is forced to perform difficult tasks for her.

The tale is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, in that a heroine marries a supernatural husband in animal shape, loses him, and has to seek him out. It is also classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type 425B, "Son of the Witch", thus distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Summary

In this tale, a brother and a sister live together, the brother goes hunting and leaves his sister at home. One day, he hunts some game and prepares its heart, when a snake appears and coils around it. The youth is afraid, and the snake begins to talk and demands his sister Pəri as his bride, lest the snake kills him, and he makes sure of fulfilling the threat even if the youth hides in the depths of the earth or up in the sky. The youth returns home with the hunt and tells Pəri the snake threatened to kill him if Pəri does not consent with the snake's proposal. Pəri decides to go with the snake, and her brother delivers her to the animal, which is awaiting by the spring. Ten days later, the youth decides to see how his sister is doing, and goes to the spring, finding instead a castle where nothing was there previously. Pəri welcomes him and says Aftab is a human being under the snakeskin, so her brother asks her how can they destroy his snakeskin. He calls for other brothers and sisters and they prepare the tandoor to burn the animal disguise, but Aftab appears and warns them not to do it, since she will regret it. Aftab leaves for a month and Pəri's family burns the snakeskin in a tandoor. Aftab discovers the deed and admonishes his wife, saying that she will only find him again by wearing iron shoes and walking with an iron scepter.

Pəri follows after her husband in iron garments, and wanders the world until she reaches a spring, where a maidservant is fetching water. The maidservant explains she is bringing water to Aftab, since he fell in love with a human and now his body is burning after they burned his snakeskin. Pəri drops her ring into the jug, which the maidservant brings to Aftab. Aftab recognizes the ring when the water drops it in his hands, then asks his mother if a human was to come to their house, would she devour them? His mother promises not to do it, and Aftab orders the maidservant to bring the person at the spring. It happens thus, and Aftab recognizes his human wife, Pəri. Despite his mother promising not to harm her, she devises ways to kill her: first, she gives Pəri a pair of scissors that do not cut and orders her to deliver it down the mountain. Aftab intercepts his wife and tells her to drop the scissors there, fetch some clothes and rush back up the mountani. Pəri does as instructed, steals the clothes and makes her way up the mountain, with some voices echoing threats at her. Aftab's mother suspects the task was not Pəri's doing, but her son's, and gives her an ax with an order to go into the forest and bring back forty camel loads of firewood. Aftab tells Pəri to enter the forest and shout that Aftab is getting married, and needs forty loads of firewood in camels. Pəri does as instructed and forty camels come from the forest carrying bundles of firewood on their backs.

Thirdly, Aftab's mother tells Pəri to go to her sister and ask for the dastarkhan ("dəstərxanı") and the frying pan ("tavasını") for the wedding. Aftab intercepts Pəri and advises her how to proceed: pass by a thornbush and compliment it, compliment a river of white water, compliment a pool of black water by saying she would bathe and swim in it, reach his aunt's house and ask for the dastarkhan and the pan; while she goes to another room to sharpen her teeth, she is to steal the objects and rush back. Pəri follows his instructions to the letter and steals the dartarkhan and the pan, as his aunt commands her servants to stop the girl, to no avail. Finally, Aftab's mother arranges his wedding to his cousin, and places candles on Pəri's slippers, for she will illuminate the wedding couple. Pəri suffers for the burning on her feet, when Aftab beheads his cousin and throws her head across the room, takes his human wife and both escape from his mother's house. The next morning, Aftab's mother finds her niece dead and the couple gone, and sends her daughters after their brother. On the road, Aftab and Pəri transform themselves to trick their pursuers: first, into a chicken (him) with its chicks (her); then, into a Mollah (him) and a house (her); lastly, into a melon patch (her) and a garden keeper (him).

Analysis

Tale type

Azerbaijani scholarship indexes the tale as the Azerbaijani tale type 428, "Div qarısının qulluğunda" ("In the service of the Div woman"). In the Azeri type, the heroine marries a snake who is a human youth underneath it; convinced by her sisters, she burns his snakeskin and he vanishes; she dons iron shoes and goes after him, eventually finding him at the house of the Div woman, to whom she has to perform difficult tasks; with her husband's help, the heroine fulfills the tasks, then both flee in a transformation sequence, their third transformation a flower (the heroine) and a snake coiled around it (the snake husband).

The Azerbaijani tale corresponds, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, as tale type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch": the heroine marries a man in animal shape, betrays his secret and seeks his out; after a long journey, she finds him at his mother's house, where she is forced to perform difficult tasks for her, which she accomplishes with her husband's secret help.

Motifs

The heroes' Magic Flight

According to Christine Goldberg, some variants of the type 425B show as a closing episode "The Magic Flight" sequence, a combination that appears "sporadically in Europe", but "traditionally in Turkey". Although this episode is more characteristic of tale type ATU 313, "The Magic Flight", some variants of type ATU 425B also show it as a closing episode. German literary critic Walter Puchner argues that the motif attached itself to type 425B, as a Wandermotiv ("Wandering motif").

Variants

Shamsi-Kamar

In an Azeri tale published by Azeri folklorist Hənəfi Zeynallı [az] with the title "Шамси-Камар" ("Shamsi-Kamar" or "Sun-Moon"), by analysing the ripeness of three melons, the king notices it is past time to marry his three daughters, so he organizes a contest: his daughters should cast three arrows at random, see where they land and marry the man that lives wherever the arrows land on. The two elders marry the son of a vizier and the son of a "vekila", while the youngest's arrow lands on a bush. The princess is dressed up and made to wait by the bush. A snake crawls out of the bush, summons a house and bids her enter. He takes off his scales, reveals he is a human named Shamsi-Kamar, and warns that the secret must stay between them, otherwise he will disappear and she must wear down a pair of iron shoes and walk with an iron cane. Her family visits her and she tells her mother the secret of the snake skin. Her mother takes the animal skin and throws it in the fire. Shamsi-Kamar enters the room, admonishes his wife and disappears. The princess follows his instructions and wanders the world for seven years, until her pair of iron shoes is worn out. Nearby, she sees some servant girls fetching water for their master, Shamsi-Kamar. The princess drops her ring on a jug that is taken to her husband, and he notices it. He brings her home on the pretense of having her as a maid. His father, then, orders her to fetch firewood in the forest. Her husband teaches her how to perform it: she must go to the woods and shout out that Shamsi-Kamar has died, and the firewood is for his pyre. That night, his father marries Shamsi-Kamar to another girl, but the prince goes to the kitchen, heats up two cauldrons of water, takes them and pours the scalding hot water on his second wife. He and the princess then escape on horses back to her kingdom. At the end of the tale, his family runs after them, but, on not finding them, return home empty-handed. The compiler classified the tale as type 425, and located its source as collected in 1930, in Nakhkray (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic).

The Woodcutter's Daughter

In an Azeri tale from Nakhchivan with the title Odunçu qızı ("The Woodcutter's Daughter"), a widowed man has three daughters. He earns his living by gathering firewood in the wilderness to sell it. One day, he finds a snake on his bundle ("şələni") and thinks the animal just came for a sleep. Suddenly, the snake begins to talk and demands one of the man's daughters. The man agrees to bring one the next morning, but in actuality ignores the snake's words and takes another route for fire wood the next day. Still, he finds the same snake, which makes the same demand. The man returns home and explains the situation to his daughter: the elder two refuse to go with the snake, while the youngest agrees to go with the snake. The man takes his cadette to the place where he met the snake, and instead of the animal, they find a man coming at their direction. The man takes the girl with him and they enter a large house, the palace of the divs. The snake, in human form, brings the girl with him to the palace. The tale explains he is the son of a div (a giantess) and her been betrothed to his aunt's daughter. He gives her a broom and advises her to agree to do whatever his mother asks of her, but to call on him. The div mother orders the girl to bring the broom with her, and orders the girl to sweep the floor for her son's wedding, in a way that no place is wet and no place is dry in equal measure. After the div mother leaves, the snake man uses his powers to summon a light rain and a gust of wind to fulfill the task. The dev mother suspects her son did it, but accepts the result of the task. Later, she writes a letter to her dev sister with a message to eat the human when she arrives there, then gives the letter to the girl to be delivered to the dev sister, and ask for tambourine. The snake man intercepts the girl, reads the letter, and advises her to deliver the letter and, when his aunt is distracted sharpening her teeth, she is to take the tambourine from a shelf and rush back. The girl does as instructed, and the dev aunt shouts at her to return. Finally, the dev mother arranges her son's wedding to his cousin: she pins the human girl to the wall, casts a spell to hold her in that position and places a candle between her fingers, so that the candle melts and the girl burns. The dev family brings the snake man's cousin and they marry. At night, the snake man undoes his mother's spell on the human girl, pins his cousin to the wall and makes her hold the candle, then escapes with the girl. The next morning, the dev family finds the couple gone and the cousin burnt to cinders, and chase after them. On the road, the snake man and the girl realize they are being pursued and transform into other objects to deceive them: first, into a stump (the girl) and a snake coiled around it (the man); next, into a pool (him) and a flower floating on it (the girl). His dev family fails to find them, and the couple make their way through the desert into a locked castle.

They cannot enter the castle, but the girl utters aloud "let me be dead", and enters the castle, the snake man remaining outside. The girl searches around the castle and finds a youth lying as if dead, and an inscription saying that, if she reads a book nonstop for 40 days, the youth will be revived. The girl sets herself to the task for 39 days, when she begins to tire and sights a bald girl drawing some water nearby. The girl hires the bald girl to cover her for the remaining time, while she goes to sleep a bit. The bald girl reads the final pages of the book, accomplishing the task; the youth mistakes her for his saviour. He then goes to the market, and asks both girl what he should buy then: the girl requests a sharp knife and a stone of patience. The youth buys them at the market and brings them to the girl. The girl finds a spot under a tree and begins to pour out her woes to the stone: about her adventures with the snake man, the escape from the div and finally the vigil at the castle. When she is ready to kill herself with the knife, the youth stops her in the nick of time and recognizes her as his true saviour.

Back to the girl's father, he decides to look for her, and wanders the deserts in search of her. He reaches a place with two children playing about - his grandchildren, born of his daughter. The children welcome the old man in and his daughter recognizes him as her father. She invites him to a meal and places a knife on the table. The old man recognizes the knife as his daughter's, which his host confirms, and admits she is his long-lost daughter. They embrace.

The Youngest Daughter

Azerbaijani literary critic Ehliman Ahundov [az] collected an Azeri tale titled Küçük Bacı ("The Youngest Daughter"), translated to Turkish as Kiçik Bacı ("The Youngest Daughter"), sourced from Fuzuli rayonu. In this tale, a king has three daughters, the elder married to a vizier's son, the middle one to a politician's son, and the youngest still unmarried. One day, a little dog comes which she pets and feeds it for two days. When the little animal does not show up on the third day, she feels downcast, and the king forbids her from approaching the dog again, ordering her governess to inform him if it does so. The next time, the dog comes again, which the king threatens to kill. The princess intercedes in the animal's favour and is banished for her efforts. The girl and the dog move out to a cavern, where three other dogs are, and the pack hunts food for them. One day, the princess finds a handsome youth near the entrance of the cave: he says he is the dog, but his true form is that of the human-like son of the king of the fairies, named Hesenzard. The elder princesses go to look for their cadette and find her in the cave. She tells them about the fairy prince, and the elder sister suggest she burns the dogskin. After they leave, the princess asks Hesenzard how to burn the dogskin: with onion peels. The princess burns it, Hesenzard turns into a dove and admonishes her, saying that she will only find him again if she wears out iron shoes and an iron cane bends, then flies away. The princess commissions the iron garments and begins her long journey. After seven years, the princess notices the iron apparel is worn out and reaches a fountain, where a maidservant is fetching water for Hesenzard. The princess asks for some water to drink and drops a ring inside it. Hesenzard recognizes the ring when it drops on his hands and he goes to meet the princess near the fountain. They reunite, he turns her into an apple and brings her inside. He meets his grandmother and introduces the princess. The grandmother, of an evil nature, begins to order the princess: first, she is to sweep the floor with a beaded broom and not lose any, and wash the door and the chimney with her tears, in a way that the drops do not touch each other. Hesenzard summons a group of servants to fulfill the task for her. Next, the grandmother orders her to fulfill sacks with bird feathers: Hesenzard advises her to climb a mountain, summon the birds and tell them Hesenzard is getting married, and the birds will give them their feathers. During the night, Hesenzard teaches his human wife some verses that will calm his grandmother down. The next day, the woman gives a bar of soap and a black felt and orders the princess to wash it white - Hesenzard casts a spell for the felt to change colours. The grandmother then gives the princess a letter to be given to her sister and trade it for a "gаvalı" ("kavalı", 'pipe') - a trap, since the letter contains a command to eat the princess. Hesenzard intercepts his wife, warns her it is a trap, and advises her to proceed: compliment a stream of black water, compliment a stream of white water, compliment the water droplets dropping from the roof, open a closed door and shut an open one, fold an unfolded carpet and unfold a folded one, exchange the fodders between two animals (oats for a horse, bone for a dog), give a thread to a person, deliver the letter and, while she is distracted, steal the gаvalı and rush back.

The princess follows the instructions to the letter, steals the gаvalı and rushes back, the grandmother's sister commanding her servants to stop the princess, to no avail. For the next task, the woman orders the princess to plant a tree to reach the Heavens. Hesenzard casts a spell and the tree sprouts. When they are climbing the tree, Hesenzard kills the false bride and escapes with his human wife. On the road, they turn into a mountain of salt (the princess) and a mountain of blades (Hesenzard), a garden (the princess) and a garden-keeper (Hesenzard). The false bride's sisters plucks a pear and accidentally bites off three fingers from the princess's hand. After the creature leaves, Hesenzard restores the princess's fingers and they return to the cave.

See also

• Grünkappe
• Habrmani
• The Snake-Prince Sleepy-Head
• Yasmin and the Serpent Prince

References

1. "Azərbaycan Folklor Külliyyatı". Vol. IX: Nagillar. Bakı: Nurlan nesriyyati, 2008. pp. 295-299 (text), 393 (classification) (In Azerbaijani).
2. Naxçivan Folkloru I. Naxçivan: 2009. pp. 280-284 (text).
3. Rüstəmzadə, İlkin (2013). Azərbaycan nağıllarının süjet göstəricisi (in Azerbaijani). Bakı: Elm və təhsil. p. 134.
4. Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Third Printing. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 . p. 142 (footnote nr. 1).
5. Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 251. ISBN 978-951-41-0963-8.
6. Goldberg, Christine. (2000). "Gretel's Duck: The Escape from the Ogre in AaTh 327". In: Fabula 41: 47 (footnote nr. 20). 10.1515/fabl.2000.41.1-2.42.
7. Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 250. ISBN 978-951-41-0955-3.
8. Puchner, Walter. "Magische Flucht (AaTh 313 sqq.)". In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Band 9: Magica-Literatur – Neẓāmi. Edited by Rudolf Wilhelm Brednich; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Helge Gerndt; Lutz Röhrich; Klaus Roth. De Gruyter, 2016 . pp. 13-14. ISBN 978-3-11-015453-5. https://www.degruyter.com/database/EMO/entry/emo.9.003/html
9. Зейналлы, Ханефи; Багрий, Александр Васильевич. "Азербайджанские тюркские сказки" . Academia, 1935. p. 662.
10. Зейналлы, Ханефи; Багрий, Александр Васильевич. "Азербайджанские тюркские сказки" . Academia, 1935. pp. 216-221.
11. "Şəmsi Qəmər". Azərbaycan Folklor Külliyyatı (PDF) (in Azerbaijani). Vol. V: Nagillar. Bakı: Nurlan nesriyyati. 2007. pp. 290-293 (text), 389 (source), 396 (classification).
12. R. Seyfi Yurdakul, ed. (2017). "Şemsi Kamer". Azerbaycan'dan Masallar: Azerbaycan Folklorundan Masal Örnekleri (in Turkish). Ankara: Millî Eğitim Bakanlığı. pp. 181–184. ISBN 978-975-11-4178-1.
13. Зейналлы, Ханефи; Багрий, Александр Васильевич. "Азербайджанские тюркские сказки" . Academia, 1935. p. 636.
14. Naxçıvan folkloru antologiyası III. AZƏRBAYCAN FOLKLORU ANTOLOGİYASI (in Azerbaijani). Naçxivan. 2012. pp. 219–225.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
15. AHUNDOV, Ehliman (1970). Azerbaycan Nağılları (in Azerbaijani). Vol. II. Dövlet Neşriyatı Bakü. pp. 166-173 (text for tale nr. 16).
16. AYDIN, A. (2008). Azerbaycan Masalları. Vol. 2: Üzerine Bir Araştırma. Yayımlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Atatürk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü. pp. 201-208.
17. Aydin, ALİYE (2008). Azerbaycan masalları - 2 -üzerine bir araştırma (masalların propp metoduyla incelenmesi) [A study on Azerian tales-2 (analyzing the tales with propp method)] (Thesis) (in Turkish). Atatürk Üniversitesi; Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü; Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Ana Bilim Dalı. pp. 201–208.

• Azerbaijani folklore
• Male characters in fairy tales
• Female characters in fairy tales
• Fictional snakes
• Fiction about shapeshifting
• ATU 400-459