A king borrows all of the titular drake’s money, but doesn’t return it after a couple of years have passed. Drakestail decides to go see the king personally and demand the money back. On the way, he comes across four of his friends: a fox, a ladder, a river and a wasp nest. They all want to come along with him, so Drakestail asks them to make themselves small so he can swallow and carry them on his gizzard.
Once Drakestail arrives at the king, the latter doesn’t even budge giving back the money, so he orders the palace porter to put the duck in the poultry yard. When the chickens and turkeys attack him, Drakestail calls upon the fox, who comes out of the gizzard (on his normal size) and kills them all. The king, infuriated, demands to throw Drakestail in the well, but no to avail, as the drake calls out for the ladder to escape. The king then orders to put Drakestail in the furnace, but our hero simply summons the river forward, who not only puts out the fire, but floods the whole palace as well. Fed up with the duck, Your Majesty decides to straight up kill him with his sword, but the protagonist summons the wasp nest. The wasps attack the monarch and his ministers, causing them to jump out the window in panic and break their necks. With the king having been defeated, Drakestail looks for his money, but can’t find it. He decides to rest a little on the royal throne, only to then be interrupted by the townsfolk, who have come over to the palace after hearing that the king is dead. Drakestail is thus turned into the new king by them.
The tale is classified as Type 715 in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index. Notable direct variants include the Spanish Half Chick (Medio Pollitonote ), the Indian The Valiant Blackbird and the African-American Teenchy Tiny Duck (collected by Joel Chandler Harris as part of the Uncle Remus stories). In other variants of the story ―like the Hungarian The Little Rooster and the Turkish Sultan, the Russian The Cock and the Hand Mill and the Romanian The Little Bag With Two Coins (Punguta cu doi bani)― the bird protagonist doesn’t meet other animals and objects on his way to meet a high class person, but rather shallows the whole objects with whom said person tries to kill it. That way, after getting thrown in the well, the bird drinks all of the water, and once it's thrown in the furnace, it spits out the drunken water in order to put out the fire.
Although the story of Drakestail is not so well-known, there have been a few noteworthy adaptations over the years. This include an episode of the children’s radio series Let's Pretend, which also had a Comic-Book Adaptation; an episode of the series Hello Kitty’s Animation Theater starring Pekkle the duck as the main role; and the picture books Drakestail by Jan Wahl, Quackling by Aaron Shepard and You Can’t Have Too Many Friends! by Mordecai Gerstein.
Andrew Lang's translation of the story can be read here
and here.
“Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my tropes back?”
- Adaptation Name Change: Drakestail is sometimes named "Drakesbill".
- Adaptation Species Change: Several adaptations, like the Hello Kitty and Let’s Pretend ones, have the wasp nest be replaced by a simple swarm of wasps, usually with a “wasp commander” that talks to Drakestail in behalf of the rest.
- An Aesop: As Drakestail puts it, “one can’t have too many friends”.
- Also, one must give back what they promised to someone else.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: The townspeople upon hearing of the king’s death.Townspeople: The king is dead, long live the king! / Heaven has sent us down this thing!
- Animate Inanimate Object: The ladder, river and wasp nest.
- Bag of Holding: In some versions of the story, like in Aaron Shepard’s picture book Quackling, Drakestail puts his allies in a small sack or bag.
- Bowdlerize: Some modern versions of the story have Drakestail putting his friends on his clothing pockets or on a bag (see Bag of Holding above) in order to reduce the possible
Squick that the mention of his gizzard could ensue. - Character Catchphrase: Drakestail’s “Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?”.
- Also his “One can’t have too many friends”.
- Corrupt Politician: Exaggerated. Not only does the king refuse to give back Drakestail’s money, but straight up attempts to kill the duck every time he protests at him.
- Everything Talks: See Animate Inanimate Object above.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: The king’s poultry first (courtesy of the fox) and the king himself along with his ministers afterwards (thanks to the wasps).
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Subverted as the story’s focus is not on the ones inside Drakestail’s gizzard but rather on how the titular character needs them to save him from the king.
- Feathered Fiend: The turkeys and chickens in the king’s poultry yard don’t hesitate to peck on Drakestail once he gets locked in there.
- Foul Fox: To the king’s turkeys and chickens at least. He’s actually one of Drakestail’s best friends.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Drakestail's companions don't seem to have any problem travelling inside his gizzard.
- High-Dive Escape: The king and his ministers escape from the wasps this way, which ultimately leads to their deaths.
- Hitchhiker Heroes: Drakestail collects his helpers en route to the king.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Ducks and humans and ladders, oh my!
- Subverted in the Hello Kitty adaptation, which sets the story in a World of Funny Animals (and Funny Inert Beings of course). The king and his men are all dogs.
- Making a Splash: Downplayed. When on the furnace, Drakestail briefly gets to command what is basically a whole river.
- Man-Made House Flood: More like “Duck-Made Palace Flood” instead. This happens when Drakestail is thrown in the furnace and summons the river so she can put out the fire.
- Meaningful Name: As the tale puts it: “Drakestail was very little, that is why he was called Drakestail”. The same logic applies for the versions on which he is called "Drakesbill".
- In very few adaptations, Drakestail is named that way because of having a very long tail.
- Murder by Cremation: At one part, the king tries to kill Drakestail by having him being thrown in the furnace. Drakestail simply calls upon his river friend for help.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: Each of Drakestail’s friends is conveniently suited to save him from each of the king’s murder attempts.
- Rags to Royalty: Drakestail, who is implied to be nothing but a royal (albeit avian) subject, becomes the new king at the end of the story.
- Rhymes on a Dime: In the Andrew Lang translation, Drakestail summons his friends with rhyming couplets:
- ”Reynard, Reynard, come out of your earth, / Or Drakestail's life is of little worth” (for the fox)
- ”Ladder, Ladder, come out of thy hold, / Or Drakestail's days will soon be told”
- ”River, River, outward flow, / Or to death Drakestail must go”
- ”Wasp's-nest, Wasp's-nest, make a sally, / Or Drakestail nevermore may rally”
- Sizeshifter: Drakestail’s friends can shrink so as to travel inside his gizzard. When he needs one of them, that friend comes out in their normal size.
- In some adaptations, like the Let’s Pretend Comic-Book Adaptation, Drakestail himself has the magical ability to shrink things and make them grow again, which he uses on his friends.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Modern versions have the fox only scaring the royal poultry away and/or the king and his men simply running away from the wasps.
- Stomach of Holding: More like “Gizzard Of Holding”. Drakestail swallows his shrunken-down allies so they can travel along with him without getting tired.
- Exaggerated even more in the adaptations on which Drakestail straight up swallows his friends without them having to shrink first.
- Super Window Jump: See High-Dive Escape above.
- Thrown Down a Well: The king tries to kill Drakestail by invoking this trope at one part of the story. Luckily, Drakestail’s friend ladder bails him out of that.
- Wicked Wasps: Subverted. They are Drakestail’s friends, but directly attack the king and his ministers, causing their deaths.
