The Blue Bird (fairy tale)
"The Blue Bird" is a French literary fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy, published in 1697. An English translation was included in "The Green Fairy Book", 1892, collected by Andrew Lang. The tale is Aarne–Thompson type 432, The Prince as Bird. Others of this type include "The Feather of Finist the Falcon", "The Green Knight", and "The Greenish Bird". Plot summary. After a wealthy king loses his dear wife, he meets and falls in love with a woman, who is also recently widowed and they marry. The king has a daughter named Florine and the  queen also has a daughter named Truitonne. While Florine is beautiful and kind-hearted, Truitonne is spoiled, selfish and ugly and it is not too long before she and her mother become jealous of Florine's beauty. One day, the king decides the time has come to arrange his daughters' marriages and soon, Prince Charming visits the kingdom. The queen is determined for him to marry Truitonne, so she dresses her daughter in all her finery for the reception and bribes Florine's ladies-in-waiting to steal all her dresses and jewels. But her plan backfires for when the  Prince claps eyes on Florine, he falls in love with her at once and pays attention only to her. The queen and Truitonne are so furious that they badger the king until he agrees to lock Florine up for the length of the visit and they attempt to blacken her character to the Prince. The queen sends Prince Charming many gifts, but when he hears they are from Truitonne, he rejects them. The queen angrily tells him that Florine will be locked in a tower until he leaves. Prince Charming is outraged and begs to speak with Florine for a  moment. The devious queen agrees, but she goes to meet the Prince instead. In the darkness of their meeting place, Prince Charming mistakes Truitonne for Florine and unwittingly asks for the princess's hand in marriage. Truitonne conspires with her fairy godmother, Mazilla, but Mazilla tells her it will be difficult to deceive the Prince. At the wedding ceremony, Truitonne produces the Prince's ring and pleads her case. When Prince Charming realises he has been tricked, he refuses to marry her and nothing that Truitonne or Mazilla do can persuade him. At last, Mazilla threatens to curse him for  breaking his promise and when Prince Charming will still not agree, Mazilla transforms him into a blue bird. The queen, on hearing of the news, blames Florine; she dresses Truitonne as a bride and shows her to Florine, claiming that Prince Charming has agreed to marry her. She then persuades the King that Florine is so infatuated with Prince Charming that she had best remain in the tower until she comes to her senses. However, the bluebird flies to the tower one evening and tells Florine the truth. Over many years, the bluebird visits her often, bringing her rich gifts  of jewels. Over the years, the queen continues to look for a suitor for Truitonne. One day, exasperated by the many suitors that have rejected Truitonne, the Queen seeks Florine in her tower, only to find her singing with the bluebird. Florine opens the window to let the bird escape, but the Queen discovers her jewellery and realises that she has been receiving some kind of aid. She accuses Florine of treason, but the bluebird manages to foil the queen's plot. For many days, Florine does not call the bluebird for fear of the queen's spy; but one  night, as the spy sleeps soundly, she calls the bluebird. They continue to meet for some nights thereafter until the spy hears one of their meetings and tells the Queen. The Queen orders for the fir tree, where the bird perches, to be covered with sharp edges of glass and metal, so that he will be fatally wounded and unable to fly. When Florine calls for the bluebird and he perches on the tree, he cuts his wings and feet and cannot fly to Florine. When the bluebird does not answer Florine's call, she believes he has betrayed  her. Luckily, an enchanter hears the Prince lamenting and rescues him from the tree. The enchanter persuades Mazilla to change Prince Charming back into a man for a few months, after which if he still refuses Truitonne, he will be turned back into a bird. One day, Florine's father dies and the people of the kingdom rise up and demand Florine's release. When the Queen resists, they kill her and Truitonne flees to Mazilla. Florine becomes queen and makes preparations to find King Charming. Disguised as a peasant woman, Florine sets out on a journey to find the  King and meets an old woman, who proves to be another fairy. The fairy tells her that King Charming has returned to his human form after agreeing to marry Truitonne and gives her four magical eggs. The first egg she uses to climb a great hill of ivory. The second contains a chariot pulled by doves that brings her to King Charming's castle, but she can not reach the king in her disguise. She offers to sell to Truitonne the finest jewellery that King Charming had given her, and Truitonne shows it to the King to find out the  proper price. He recognizes it as the jewellery he gave to Florine and is saddened. Truitonne returns to Florine, who will sell them only for a night in the Chamber of Echoes, which King Charming had told her of one night: whatever she says in there will be heard in the king's room. She reproaches him for leaving her and laments all night long, but he has taken a sleeping potion, and does not hear her. She breaks the third egg and finds a tiny coach drawn by mice. Again, she trades it for the Chamber of Echoes, and  laments all the night long again, but only the pages hear her. The next day, she opens the last egg and it holds a pie with six singing birds. She gives it to a page, who tells her that the King takes sleeping potions at night. She bribes the page with the singing birds and tells him not to give the King a sleeping potion that night. The King, being awake, hears Florine and runs to the Chamber of Echoes. Recognising his beloved, he throws himself at her feet and they are joyfully reunited. The enchanter and the fairy assure  them that they can prevent Mazilla from harming them, and when Truitonne attempts to interfere, they quickly turn her into a sow. King Charming and Queen Florine are married and live happily ever after. Publication history. The tale of "The Blue Bird" ("L'Oiseau Bleu") is one of Madame d'Aulnoy's most famous fairy tales, with republications in several compilations. The tale was renamed "Five Wonderful Eggs" and published in the compilation "Fairy stories my children love best of all". Legacy. The tale was one of many from d'Aulnoy's pen to be adapted to the stage by James Planché, as  part of his "Fairy Extravaganza". The tale was retitled as "King Charming, or the Blue Bird of Paradise" when adapted to the stage. Variants. Europe. In a Greek tale, "The Merchant's Daughter", Daphne, the youngest of the titular merchant's daughters, asks for her father to bring her "The Golden Ring". The Golden Ring is a prince from a foreign country (India) who, after meeting the merchant, tells him he saw Daphne in his dreams and wishes to marry her - an event akin to variants of Scandinavian tale "The Green Knight". The merchant gives his daughter a letter, a  cup and the golden ring. The prince metamorphoses into a pigeon to meet Daphne by her window in secret. Jealous of her hidden happiness, her sisters see that a knife as inside the cup and summon the prince to be hurt while in bird form. Daphne wears as masculine disguise, sails to India and wanders to her prince's kingdom. On the way, she overhears the conversation between two birds about a way to cure the prince. Asia. Iraq. Russian professor V. A. Yaremenko published an Iraqi variant (types 432 and 425D, "]"), and claimed that it was "very popular" among  populations who dwell in Shatt al-Arab. In an Iraqi folktale, collected by E. S. Drower, "The Crystal Ship", a merchant has to travel and asks his daughters what presents he can buy them. The youngest, as per her mother's suggestion, asks for "clusters-of-pearl", who is "the son of the Sultan of the Jānn". The prince himself gives the merchant a box with three hairs, to be given to his third daughter. The merchant builds a room to allow her encounters with the prince. She uses the three hair to summon the prince and over the threshold , a lake appears, on it a ship of crystal with the prince. One day, the eldest sister rubs the three hairs: she sees the prince coming on the crystal ship and, scared by the sight, screams. The ship breaks apart into splinters and some of them injure the prince. Africa. Egypt. Scholar Hasan El-Shamy collected a variant in Egypt in 1971 from a female storyteller. In this tale, a king has to go the peregrination to Mecca and asks his three daughters what presents they want when he goes back. The two elders insist on material possessions, while the  youngest only wishes for his safe return. The two sisters insist that their younger sibling "must" be wishing for something. An old woman advises her to asks for "Pearls-on-Vines", who is actually "the son of the king of the Moslem jinn". The prince Pearls-on-Vines appears to him in a dream and tells him to pass along instructions to his daughter: to make a hole in the wall and sprinkle it with rosewater. The prince materializes in the princess room in the form of a snake, and her sisters prepare a trap for him. America. Author Elsie  Spicer Eells recorded a Brazilian variant titled "The Parrot of Limo Verde" (Portuguese: "O Papagaio do Limo Verde"): a beautiful princess receives the visit of a parrot (in fact, a prince in disguise). Mentions in other works. In the autobiography "The Words" from Jean-Paul Sartre, "The Blue Bird" was mentioned by the author as one of the first books he liked as a child. In the ballet, The Sleeping Beauty, the Bluebird and Princess Florine make an appearance at Aurora's wedding celebration.