Los Tres Claveles (Spanish folktale)

Los Tres Claveles (English: The Three Carnations) is a Spanish folktale from Extremadura collected by folklorist Sérgio Hernandez de Soto in Zafra, Badajoz. In the story, a poor girl works as a queen's servant, who, tricked by envious maidservants, orders the girl to accomplish impossible tasks, which she does with the secret help of the queen's son.
It is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom and distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch.
Writer Elsie Spicer Eells translated the tale as The Carnation Youth, in her book Tales of Enchantment from Spain, albeit making the third prince an only son.
The tale was also translated to German as Die drei Nelken, to Russian as "Три гвоздики" ("Three Carnations"), and to Italian as I tre garofani.
A poor laborer has a daughter. One day, he finds in the fields three carnations and brings them to his daughter. The girl is cooking, and one of the carnations falls in the fire, and a prince appears to her. The youth tries to talk to her, but she does not answer, and he tells her she will have to seek him in the "piedras de toito el mundo" ("the rocks of all the world"). The second and the third claveles also fall in the fire, and summon a second and a third princes. María, the girl, falls in love with the third prince and decides to look for the rocks of all the world. María climbs a large rock and begins to cry.
Suddenly, a rock cracks open and the third prince appears to comfort her. As she still will not talk, the prince directs her to a house in the valley, where she can find work as a maidservant. María goes there and is hired as a servant. She earns her employer's trust and the jealousy of the other servants, who lie to their mistress that María can wash all the clothes in the house. María takes the clothes' piles to the river and goes to the rocks to cry. The third prince appears again and advises her to summon all birds of the world to help her.
Next, the story explains that the mistress of the house lost her three sons, and cried to much her sight has deteriorated. So, the servants lie that María can find her a cure for her sight. The third prince advises her to summon all the birds again, and every one of them will carry a drop in their feathers to fill the flask. Finally, the other maidservants lie that María promises to disenchant the mistress's three sons.
María is advised by the third prince to summon all the maidens from the neighbouring villages, have each carry a lit candle, and they must form a procession around the rocks, and must not let any candle be put out. María follows his orders and a procession circles the rocks, but a gust of wind snuffs out María's candle and she shouts. The three rocks disappear and the three princes are back to normal. The third prince explains that the one who burned the carnation should talk to him, in order to break the spell. María marries the third prince.
The tale was classified as type 425B, Las Labores Difíciles ("The Difficult Tasks"), based on the Catalogue of Spanish Folktales devised by Julio Camarena and Maxime Chevalier.
In his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, Jan-Öjvind Swahn [sv] classified Los Tres Claveles ("The Three Carnations") as subtype 425A of his analysis, that is, "Cupid and Psyche", being the "oldest" and containing the episode of the witch's tasks. In the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, however, Swahn's typing is indexed as type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch":
In an Extremaduran tale titled El príncipe encantado ("The Enchanted Prince"), collected from an informant named Filomena Moreno Pozo, from Zalamea de la Serena, a traveller marries a merchant's daughter, who asks for three dresses as gifts: a white one, a "colorado", and a black one. In time, the couple have a daughter with the same colours as the dresses, and the woman dies, buy advises her husband to remain single if he decides to be, and to remarry if their daughter agrees to it. Time passes, and his daughter grows up. In the same village, she meets a widow with two daughters, who convinces the girl about marrying her father. It happens thus. Some time later, the traveller always bring gifts for his daughter and stepdaughters. One day, his own daughter asks for a three-leaf carnation. The man travels far and cannot find it, but is advised to look for the flower in a magic castle just outside the village. The man returns with the carnation and gives it to his daughter, who places it in her hair. Later, a king passes by with his retinue through the village, and he sights the girl with the carnation on her hair. He falls in love with her, she gives out a scream and says she wants to see him again, but he tells she can meet him in the castle of the Lions ("castillo de los Leones"). With this, he disappears, and his retinue do not know where he went. They know he is in the castle of the Lions, but those that enter it cannot leave. Meanwhile, the girl decides to pluck one of the carnation's petals; she does it and a voice asks the girl, María, to talk to them. María faints, and is helped by her stepfamily. María plucks the next two petals, and believes it to be her mother's voice. The stepmother admonishes her for her deed, and she leaves home. María goes to look for a job in a castle, and is hired as a maidservant. She works in the garden and teaches sewing to the two princesses. She also notices that the queen keeps muttering about her lost son, and one night, in bed, she realizes the prince has been enchanted into the carnation. Suddenly, the prince's voice talks to her, and tells her he can disenchant him: first, she is to ask the queen for every cloth, which she is to wash in a single day. Her orders are carried out, and María, following the prince's voice, simply rests for a bit, and the clothes are washed, ironed and folded. Next, the queen tells María she can feel happier if someone could bring her her husband's ring, lost at sea. María offers to get the ring, and follows the prince's instructions: she is to guide some soldiers to the sea, then enter the water on a horse, and raise her sword. María puts on a man's disguise ("jinete"), rides the horse into the sea, and brings back the queen's ring. Lastly, the queen sighs that she could be with her son again, and María offers to bring him back. The prince's voice advises her how to rescue him: she is to gather bones and bring two brushes with herself to the castle of the Lions; she is to give the brushes to two people cleaning up an oven and the bones to two lions; she will then meet a witch who will say the girl dropped a kerchief, whom she is to shove into the ground. María does as instructed and meets the prince in a pavilion just past the witch. The prince embraces María and both escape through a backdoor, while the castle of the Lions becomes filled with smoke. The pair returns to the castle, and the queen thanks María for saving her son. María and the prince marry. The tale was classified as type 425B, Las Labores Difíciles ("The Difficult Tasks").
In a Catalan tale published by author Joan Amades with the title Les pedres del Cap del Món ("The Rocks of The End of the World"), heroine Maria asks her father to bring her three roses. The girl takes the roses and tosses them in the fire, one at a time. The first rose summons the image of a handsome prince who bids her talk to him, but she remains silent. The image then tells her to find him at the "Pedres del Cap del Món" and vanishes. Maria then tosses the second flower into the fire, which also produces a prince, and finally the third one. Each image bids him talk to her, and still she does not react to them, and they tell her to find them again at the same location: at the stones at the end of the world. Maria falls in love with the first prince she summoned, and decides to search for the location they mentioned: she journeys far and wide, until she reaches a mountaintop with three large stones. Believing she has found her destination, she begins to cry. Suddenly, the first prince comes out of the stone and comforts Maria, advising her to reach a nearby house by the shore and find work there as a maidservant. Maria does as instructed and hires herself at the house, where an old lady lives. Maria is so hardworking, she earns the old lady's trust and the jealous ire of the other hundred servants. Driven by jealousy, the servants lie to their employer that Maria boasted she herself could wash the clothes for a hundred maids in one morning. Maria tries to deny having done so, but the old lady threatens to imprison her. Maria then goes to cry at the foot of the large stones, and the prince appears again. After learning of Maria's ordeal, he advises her to go to the shore and cry out for all the birds, which will appear to help her in the task. Maria goes to the shore and summons the birds, and many species of birds appear to do the task for her. After a month, the envious maidservants lie to the old lady Maria promised to sew five dresses for each of the maids and a hundred more for her. Once again, Maria is forced to obey the old lady and perform the false task. Maria goes to cry at the stones, again; the same youth appears out of the rock and advises Maria to return to the river and summon the birds again, which will help her. Maria does as asked and hundreds, thousands of birds of many species come to help Maria spin, sew and weave more than six hundred clothes for the old lady and the other maidservants. The old lady is so surprised at Maria's dilligence she allows Maria to have her favourite meal, to the other maidservants' greater jealousy. As a final task, the maidservants lie to the old lady Maria can bring her lost sons back. Maria goes to cry at the stones, and the same youth appears to her with instructions: Maria is to ask the old lady, who is his mother, to gather all local maidens, dress them in white and order them in a procession, and have them carry lit atxas, which cannot be put out, lest the youths cannot be disenchanted. Maria rushes to tell the old lady her son's instructions: they gather the maidens and order them to form a procession and circle the stones three times. As soon as the girls make the third round, a sudden strong wind blows out Maria's atxa. She curses the wind, and suddenly the large stones revert to three youths, the same youths Maria saw when she burnt the three roses in her fireplace. The youngest youth then explains the three are brothers whom a sorcerer cursed into stones and to whom gave three beautiful red roses, and they could only be disenchanted if a girl named Maria cursed near the stones; believing Maria could save them, that is why they helped her by sending the birds, which they "rule and command", and thus she can choose which youth she wants to marry. Amades sourced the tale from an informant in Barcelona named Maria de la Castanya, in 1922. Swahn classified Amades's tale as subtype 425A of his analysis, that is, "Cupid and Psyche", being the "oldest" and containing the episode of the witch's tasks. In the international index, however, Swahn's typing is indexed as type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch".
In a Spanish tale from Salamanca published by Hispanists Julio Camarena and Maxime Chevalier with the title El Príncipe Enamorado ("The Enamoured Prince"), a merchant has a daughter named Elena to whom he brings roses whenever he comes back from the market. One day, however, the man forgets about it, then meets another man to whom he explains he brings roses to his daughter Elena. The second man goes to Elena's house and calls for her from under the balcony, but she does not answer. The man goes back the following mornings, and still she does not answer. One day, Elena decides she wants to leave home to be a servant elsewhere. Her parents agree with her decision and she departs. The girl eventually knocks on the house of the man who tried to talk to her under her balcony and offers her services; the man's mother denies her at first, for they have other maidservants, but the man vouches for Elena and the girl is hired. In time, the other four maidservants notice their employer only has eyes for Elena, and begin to spread gossip about her: first, that she can wash every mattress in the palace. The woman (the queen) arranges for a cart loaded with mattresses to be delivered to Elena. On the road, the prince appears and tries to talk to her, but she remains silent. Still, he gives her a wand of virtue and teaches her a spell to go to the riverbank and summon the birds to help her wash and dry them. It happens thus. The next time, the maidservants lie to the queen that Elena boasted she could fill every mattress in the palace with bird feathers. Elena takes a new cart loaded with mattresses and meets the prince, who advises her to go to the sea and summon the birds for them to offer their feather and fill the mattresses. After doing the second task, the prince's grandmother dies, and falls under a spell, and there is a little box guarded by animals and an old man sitting on the box that is holding the prince's grandmother. The maidservants then tell the queen Elena can fetch them the box. Elena cries for the task; the prince appears to her and bids her talk to him, and still she remaisn silent. Despite this, the prince gives her a house key, some meat for wolves and some milk for some snakes. Elena steals the box and rushes back to the palace, the old man commanding the animals to stop her, to no avail. Elena delivers the box to the queen, who, pleased with the girl's success, wishes to marry her to her son. The next day, the queen arranges for her son's wedding and places Elena on his right, while the prince's bride on his left. The maidservants hold candles, while Elena holds a melted "cirio". The prince takes notice of the sad-looking candle in Elena's hand and she tells him that sadder still is the person holding it. The prince then announces he will marry Elena instead of his bride.
In a tale collected in Guadalix de la Sierra with the title Los hermanos convertidos en piedras ("The Brothers Turned to Stone"), a ploughman has a beautiful daughter. One day, he finds three carnations on the road which he brings her. Some years later, the man dies, and the girl's carnations are as fresh as the first day she gained them. Now all alone, she plans to leave and find work elsewhere. She then throws a carnation in the fire, which makes a youth appears to her. The prince asks if she needs something, she remains silent, and the youth tells her to seek him in the "piedras de las tres hermanas". After the youth disappears, she suspects something about the flowers, and throws the other two in the fire, with two other youths appearing before her and telling her to seek them in the same location. After exhausting the three flowers, the girl decides to go to the "piedras de las tres hermanas", and stops by the rocks. The third youth appears to her, to whom she explains she is looking for a job. The youth then points her to a house in a valley, where they are looking for a maidservant. Following the youth's directions, the girl knocks on the house's door and is welcomed as a servant. One of the house's servants gives the newcomer a huge pile of clothes to be washed. The girl goes near the rocks; the eldest of the three brothers comes out of the rock, is told about the task, and advises her to go near the riverbank and summon the birds to help her. It happens thus. Some time later, the other servant lies to the lady of the house the newcomer can find her a remedy for her eyesight. The girl goes to the rocks; one of the youth appears and directs the girl to a bramble where the birds will give her their tears to fill a flask, and she is to pluck a feather from the last bird to use it on the lady's eyes. The third time, the servants lie to their employer the girl can disenchant the lady's missing three sons. The girl returns to the rocks and meets a youth, who instructs her to gather a hundred maidens from the village, have each carry a candle and circle around the rocks, and they will be disenchanted. The girl arranges for the hundred maiden retinue, each holding a candle. They circle around the rocks and restore the youths to human form. The girl marries the lady's elder son.