Line #23 Literature/TheLoveOfThreeOranges


1	[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thethreecitrons.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:345:Illustration by Warwick Goble]]
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4	''The Love Of Three Oranges'' is a wide-spread European FairyTale.
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6	A prince, for some reason, is on a quest for wife.
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8	He finds a place where he is given three oranges -- or citrons, or other fruit -- and directed not to break them open until he has some water. When he breaks them open, a beautiful woman appears and asks for water. Twice he fails, and she dies or disappears, but the third time, he gives her water and wins her.
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10	He leaves her by a spring or other body of water so that she can be brought to his father in proper state, and while he's gone, an ugly slave sees the reflection, takes it for her own, and decides she's too pretty to be a slave. Then she realizes the beautiful woman is there, and tricks her into letting her transform her into a bird by driving a pin into her head.
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12	When the prince returns, she claims to have been magically transformed, and the prince dutifully returns with her. The bird interfers with the wedding festivities. Someone catches her, and draws out the pin, revealing the truth.
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14	The slave is punished, and the prince marries the woman.
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16	The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther index as tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges", and Basile's tale is the oldest attestation of the tale type.
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18	Some variants include
19	* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20200221215105/https://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/31threecitrons1911.html The Three Citrons]] -- Italian, the oldest known variant.
20	* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20200221175526/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/portugual/pedroso/threecitrons.html The Three Citrons of Love]], a Portuguese variant
21	* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20200130021149/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/czech/fillmore/threecitrons.html The Three Citrons]], a Czech variant
22	* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20200125082904/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/crane/lovethreeoranges.html The Love of Three Oranges]], another Italian one.
23	* [[http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/096.htm The Enchanted Canary]], a French variant.
24	* [[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/64807/64807-h/64807-h.htm#THE_THREE_ORANGE-PERIS The Three Orange-Peris]], from Turkey.
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26	The tale was an inspiration for fiaba play by Carlo Gozzi, on which, in turn, Sergei Prokofiev based [[Theatre/TheLoveForThreeOranges his opera by the same title]].
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28	Compare ''Literature/{{Momotaro}}'' and ''Literature/UrikohimeAndTheAmanojaku'', characters from Japanese folklore that are also born from fruits.
29	----
30	!! Tropes in these stories:
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32	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: In almost all of the variants, the tale begins with the hero's quest for the fruit maiden, who brings her home, but leaves her atop a tree. From this point on, the tale changes its focus on the fruit maiden's cycle of transformations/reincarnations until she is restored to human(oid) form and reunites with her fiancé.
33	* BackFromTheDead: In some variants, the slave kills her, and she returns a bird-ghost.
34	* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The fruit maiden's beauty is contrasted with the slavewoman's ugliness, who is also the antagonist.
35	* BornAsAnAdult: The heroine comes out of the fruit/egg/reed as an adult, ready to marry the prince.
36	* BornFromPlants: The heroine in most of the variants comes out of a citrus fruit. Alternatively, she can come out of another type of fruit, or even a reed:
37	** ''[[https://dev.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=123&tale=4999 The Reed-Maiden]]'' (Hungary).
38	** ''[[https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2435/pg2435-images.html#link2H_4_0002 Lovely Ilonka]]'' (Hungary).
39	* BreadOfSurvival: In many variants of the story, the hero fetches three fruits with maidens inside and cuts open each one, releasing a maiden. In some tales, each of the maidens asks for ''bread'' (instead of water or cosmetic accessories), but, since he cannot provide them with some, they disappear or die soon after. The only exception is the third maiden, to whom he gives the bread she requested, thus allowing her to live.
40	* BrideAndSwitch: The slave pulls this after killing or transforming the fruit maiden.
41	* CosmicEgg: Downplayed. In a small group of Eastern European and Balkanic variants, the maiden comes out of an egg. Despite this difference, the tale is pretty much the same: replacement for false bride, heroine's transformation, heroine's reveal and punishment of the false bride.
42	* {{Curse}}: One reason for his setting out: after annoying a harmless old woman, she curses the hero to find the fruit maiden.
43	* DarkIsEvil: The fruit maiden's rival is described as a slavewoman, a Black, Moorish/Moor, Sarracen or Gypsy woman, often implying that she has dark skin. She is also the antagonist of the tale: she replaces the fruit maiden and curses her into another form, and tricks the prince.
44	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In one variant, why he sets out.
45	* FantasticFruitsAndVegetables: In this case, the fruits release adult maidens for the prince to marry. In many of the variants, more often than not, the fruits are citrus fruits, which include citrons, lemons, oranges, bitter oranges and bergamots. Alternatively, the prince may find apples, pumpkins, cucumbers, and even reeds.
46	* TheFool: Something the prince's motive is just being too stupid not to try.
47	* ForcedTransformation: The slave transforms the beautiful maiden into a bird.
48	* FromASingleCell: In a subset of variants, the fruit maiden's rival drowns her in water, and she goes through a cycle of reincarnations (from a fish or flower to tree to human again):
49	** The rival asks for the fish to be killed and cooked; a scale survives and turns into a tree.
50	** Then, she asks for the tree to be cut down, but a splinter remains and the fruit maiden comes out of it just as she was after the prince opened the fruit.
51	* InterspeciesRomance: The prince/hero in most of the variants is a normal human male, and the fruit maiden is described as a fairy (in Iranian and Turkish variants, as a peri).
52	* NeverMessWithGranny: In many variants, an old woman goes to the king's fountains to fetch water (or honey, milk, butter, depending on the tale), but the king's son breaks her jar. In retaliation, she curses him to fall in love with and search for the fruit maiden.
53	* {{Pride}}: The reflection really goes to the slave's head.
54	* ThePromise: One reason for his setting out.
55	* TheQuest: For the titular fruit.
56	* ReallyWasBornYesterday: In some Eastern European variants, the prince looks for a bride that has not been born by any human, and the recipient that holds the fairy maiden (either a fruit or an egg) creates her just as the prince opens it. Also, while he is away, the ugly gypsy tricks her into trading clothes, or she sticks a pin in the girl's hair on the false pretense to comb her.
57	* RoguishRomani: In some Balkanic and Hungarian variants of the tale type, the fruit maiden's rival is described as a "Gypsy" woman. As with the other tales, she tries to murder the fruit maiden and tricks the prince.
58	* RuleOfThree: There are always three fruits.
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Context Literature / TheLoveOfThreeOranges