Fehérlófia (Hungarian folk tale)

In a tale collected in the Vend Romani dialect, the youth is the son of a "white horse", but the narration says the boy's father lifts the giant tree with a finger. Regardless, the boy is nursed by his mother for 21 years and finally uproots the tree. He travels the world and meets four other companions: Cliff-breaker, Hill-roller, Pine-twister and Iron-kneader. When he descends to the underworld, he rescues four princesses in the copper, silver, gold and diamond castles. Three of his companions marry three of the princesses, and the story concludes with the hero revealing Iron-kneader's betrayal and marrying the diamond princess.[3]

A Romani-Bukovina variant, titled Mare's Son, shows many identical elements with the Hungarian tale: the hero's supernatural birth (by a mare); the mare nursing the boy; the tree uproot test; the three companions (Tree-splitter, Rock-splitter and Tree-bender); the small-sized man who steals the food; the descent to the underworld; the rescue of the eagle nest and the escape on the eagle's back. However, in the Underworld, Mare's Son puts the escaped dwarf in the basket and helps an elderly couple against an evil fairy that stole their eyes.[4] Its collector and publisher, scholar Francis Hindes Groome, noted that the tale was "clearly defective", lacking the usual elements, despite the parallels with several other stories.[5]

In another Hungarian tale, collected by János Erdélyi and titled Shepherd Paul, a shepherd finds a two-year-old boy in a meadow and names him Paul. He gives the boy to a ewe to suckle, and the boy develops great strength to uproot a tree after fourteen years. Paul goes to travel the world and meet three equally strong companions: Tree-Comber, Stone-Crusher and Iron-Kneader. They strike a friendship and set an arrangement: one will stay at home while the others go hunt some game. Paul's three companions stay home and are attacked by a dwarf that steals their food. Paul defets the dwarf and ties his giant beard to a giant tree. Paul scolds his companions and wants to show them the defeated foe, but he has vanished. They soon follow him to an opening that leads underground. Paul descends, enters three castles, kills three many-headed dragons, liberates three princesses and transforms the castles into golden apples with a magic wand. The last dragon he kills was the dwarf in the surface, under a different form. Paul is betrayed by his companions, protects a nest of griffins with his cloak and their father takes him to the surface after a three day journey. After he rests a while, the hero goes after his traitorous companions, kills them and marries the youngest princess.[6]

In a Russian tale titled Ivan the Mare's Son, collected in Riazan district, an old peasant couple buys a small mare from twelve brothers. Later, the old man buys a fine colt from a gentleman and forgets about the little mare. Feeling dejected, the mare flies away to the open steppes and gives birth to a human boy named Ivan, who grows by the hour. The human boy fixes some food and water for his equine mother and goes on a journey to rescue the tsar's daughter, kidnapped by an evil twelve-headed serpent. He meets two companions on the road, Mount-Bogatyr and Oak-Bogatyr, and they set for the entrance to the serpent's undeground lair (this version lacks the episode of the little man and the hut). Ivan the Mare's Son descends the well, kills the serpent and rescues the tsar's daughter. His companions betray him and abandon him underground. Very soon (and suddenly), twelve doves appear and offer to take Ivan back to the surface (acting as the eagle of the other variants). After he arrives, he sees that his mother has died and ravens are pecking its body. He captures of the ravens as help in unmasking his traitorous companions.[7] This tale was originally collected by Russian folklorist Ivan Khudyakov (ru) with the name "Иванъ - Кобьлинъ сынъ".[8]

In a tale attributed to the Tungus of Siberia, also titled Ivan the Mare's Son (Russian: "Иван Кобыльников сын"),[9][10] the mare escapes from its owners who wanted to eat it. After she rushes into a forest, she sees the corpse of a fallen Tungus warrior and licks it, becoming instantly pregnant with a human child, Ivan. He grows up and decides to leave his mother to see the world, but his mother advises him to always leave an arrow standing upwards in the ground as a token of his well-being. On his travels, he meets two similarly named individuals, Ivan the Sun's Son and Ivan the Moon's Son. The three decide to live together in a hut made of wooden poles and animal skins. For two nights, after they hunt in the forest, they come home and see the place in perfect order. On the third night, Ivan, the Mare's Son, decides to stay awake and discovers that three herons descending to the ground and taking off their feathers and wings to become maidens. Ivan, the Mare's Son, hides their bird garments until they reveal themselves. The Mare's Son, marries heron maiden Marfida, and her sisters the other two Ivans. They live together for some time, until a day when an evil serpent crawls out of a hole behind their house to suck on the blood of the wives. The Three Ivans expel the foe, but it returns the next day with a thunder cloud and an army of demons, kills the three heroes and take their wives down the hole. Ivan's mother, the mare, appears in the nick of time to revive her son and the others. Ivan the Mare's Son descends through a rope to the underworld, rescued Marfida and her sisters and kills the serpent. After he takes the heron maidens to the rope, the other Ivans cut the rope and abandon the Mare's Son in the underworld. The mare rescues her son again and acts as the eagle in this variant, asking for her son to feed her meat on the journey back to the world of the living.[11]

According to scholarship, Romanian author Ion Creanga used similar plot elements to write his literary tale Făt-frumos, fiul iepei ("Făt-Frumos, Son of the Mare"),[12][13] or Prince Charming, the Mare's Son.[14]

In an Eastern Tibetan (Amdo) variant, The Mare's Boy, a mare gives birth to a human boy who is adopted by an old woman. He grows up and strikes a friendship with two other human companions. During a heavy storm, the trio take shtlter in a nearby cave, on August 15th. They see three pigeons enter the cave and become three goddesses. The women say their prayers, return to their pigeon bodies and fly away. The same event happens in the next two years. On the third year, Mare's Boy and his companions burn the pigeon bodies to force the goddesses to retain their human forms. They marry the three goddesses, who alert the humans spouses that disease will come to afflict the men and animals in the area. Times passes; the human hunters notice the goddesses are becoming pale and thin. One day, they wait outside the hut; they see a kite flying by and becoming a copper-nosed creature or witch. It sucks on the goddesses' blood and flies away again. Mare's Boy shoot an arrow at it, hurting the bird. They follow a trail of blood to a hole. Mare's Boy descends into the hole through a rope. The rope cuts off. He is now in a strange land. He meets the witch's son, who guards part of his mother's strength. He kills him, and goes next to the witch. He breaks the next item of external strength and defeats the witch. He leaves the witch's house and kills a snake that was menacing a nest of birds. Their father, the Garuda, in gratitude, decides to help him back to his realm.[15]

According to scholar Ágnes Kovács, the tale belongs to type AaTh 301B, "The Strong Man and his Companions".[16][lower-alpha 1] She also stated that Fehérlófia was "one of the most popular Hungarian tales",[18] with more than 50 variants.[19] A recension by scholar Gabriella Kiss, in 1968, listed 64 variants across Hungarian sources.[20] Fieldwork conducted in 1999 by researcher Zoltán Vasvári amongst the Palóc population found 4 variants of the tale type.[21]

Scholarship also sees considerable antiquity in the tale.[22] For instance, Gabriella Kiss stated that the tale "Son of the White Horse" belonged to the "archaic material of Hungarian folk-tales".[23]

In regards to the journey on the back of a giant bird (an eagle or a griffin), folklorist scholarship recognizes its similarities with the tale of Etana helping an eagle, a tale type later classified as Aarne–Thompson–Uther ATU 537, "The Eagle as helper: hero carried on the wings of a helpful eagle".[24]

In another tale of the same folktype, AaTh 301B ("The Strong Man and his Companions"), named Jean de l'Ours, the hero is born from a human woman and a bear. The human woman is sometimes lost in the woods and the animal finds her, or she is taken by the animal to its den. In a second variation, the hero is fathered by a lion and he is called Löwensohn ("The Lion's Son").

Professor Michael Meraklis cited that the episode of a lion or bear stealing a human woman and the hero born of this "living arrangement" must preserve "the original form of the tale", since it harks back to the ancient and primitive notion that humans and animals could freely interact in a mythical shared past.[25]

In the Hungarian tale, however, the father is unknown, and the non-human parentage is attributed to a female animal (the white mare). This fantastical birth could be explained by the fact that the character of Fehérlófia was "originally a totem animal ancestor".[26] This idea seems supported by the existence of other Hungarian tales with a horse- or mare-born hero (like Lófia Jankó and Lófi Jankó) - a trait also shared by Turkish and Chuvash tales - and the existence of peoples that claim descent from a mythical equine ancestor.[27] A similar conclusion has been reached in regards to the animal-born hero of Russian folktales: the hero "magically born from a totem" represents "the oldest character type".[28]

Professor Mihály Hoppál's (de) study, titled Feherlófia, found "Eastern parallels" to the tale across the Eurasian steppes, in Mongols and Turkic peoples of Inner Asia and in Kyrgyz folklore (namely, the Er Töstük epic).[29] Also, according to him, the story of Fehérlófia does not have parallels in Europe, but belongs to a select group of tale types shared by Hungary and other Asian peoples.[30] In another article, he states that the type "can be traced all the way to the Far East (including the Yugur, Daur, Mongol and Turkic peoples of Central Asia)".[31]

In the same vein, professor Tünde Tancz says the type "belongs to the fairy tale area of West Asia", a region that encompasses "the repertoire of Finno-Ugric peoples and many Turkic peoples".[32]

Parallels have also been argued between Fehérlófia and an Asian tale from the collection of Vetala (also known as The Bewitched Corpse Cycle).[33] The tale in question, How the Schimnu-Khan was Slain, is of Tibetan or Mongolian provenance and concerns a youth named Massang "of the bull's head".[lower-alpha 2] A poor man's only cow gives birth to a half-man, half-cow hybrid and its owner is horrified by the creature. The cow-man, receiving clemency, flees from the old man and into the world. The youth meets a "black-coloured man (...) born of the dark woods", a "green-coloured man (...) born of the green meadows" and a "white-coloured man (...) born of the crystal rock" and the quartet soon move to a dweliing overlooking a hill. They take turns cooking the food while the others gather game nearby. One day, a small old woman appears and beats the three companions to steal their food ("milk and meat", as the story says). On the fourth day, Massang sees the little old woman and matches strength with the creature. After three tests, the little woman escapes and leaves behind a blood trail for the four heroes to follow. They soon come to an opening in the rock; down below, the witch's corpse strewn about near heaps and heaps of treasure. Massang descends to take the treasure to his companions but they betray him and leave him for dead in the pit. Massang sleeps on the witch's corpse - for years - and when he awakes, three cherry trees have sprouted, which he uses to climb to the surface. He visits his treacherous companions and discovers they have made a life for themselves with the witch's treasure, but they beg Massang to spare them.[35][lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6]