The Three Golden Children (folklore)

The Three Golden Children refers to a series of folktales related to the motif of the calumniated wife, numbered K2110.1 in the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. The name refers to a cycle of tales wherein a woman gives birth to children of wondrous aspect, but her children are taken from her by jealous relatives or by her mother-in-law, and her husband punishes her in some harsh way. Only years later, the family is reunited and the jealous relatives are punished.[1][2] According to folklorist Stith Thompson, the tale is "one of the eight or ten best known plots in the world".[3]

Alternate names for the tale type are The Three Golden Sons, The Bird of Truth, Portuguese: Os meninos com uma estrelinha na testa, lit. 'The boys with little stars on their foreheads',[4] Russian: Чудесные дети, romanized: Chudesnyye deti, lit. 'The Wonderful or Miraculous Children',[5] or Hungarian: Az aranyhajú ikrek, lit. 'The Golden-Haired Twins'.[6]

  1. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 122. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  2. ^ El-Shamy, Hasan (2004). Types of the Folktale in the Arab World: A Demographically Oriented Tale-Type Index. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 385.
  3. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 121. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  4. ^ "Contos Maravilhosos: Adversários Sobrenaturais (300–99)" (in Portuguese). p. 177. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020.
  5. ^ Toporkov, Andrei (2018). "'Wondrous Dressing' with Celestial Bodies in Russian Charms and Lyrical Poetry" (PDF). Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore. 71: 210. doi:10.7592/FEJF2018.71.toporkov. ISSN 1406-0949. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 6, 2020.
  6. ^ Bódis, Zoltán (2013). "Storytelling: Performance, Presentations and Sacral Communication". Journal of Ethnology and Folklorsitics. 7 (2). Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian National Museum, University of Tartu: 22. eISSN 2228-0987. ISSN 1736-6518. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020.