The Knights of the Fish
A Spanish fairy tale of twin brothers, a dragon, and a witch.
The Knights of the Fish is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Fernán Caballero and included by Andrew Lang in The Brown Fairy Book. It combines two tale types: ATU 303 (The Twins or Blood Brothers) and ATU 300 (The Dragon-Slayer). The story is notable for its widespread distribution across Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Quick Facts
- Aarne–Thompson grouping
- ATU 303 (The Twins or Blood Brothers); ATU 300 (The Dragonslayer)
- Also known as
- Los Caballeros del Pez; The King of the Fishes (Joseph Jacobs)
- Region
- Spain, Eurasia, Worldwide
- Related
- The Twins (Albanian tale)
- Perseus and Andromeda
- Princess and dragon
Facts from the source article.
Synopsis
A poor cobbler, starving after a day of fishing, caught a beautiful fish. The fish instructed him to cook it, give two pieces to his wife, and bury two more in the garden. He obeyed, and his wife bore twin boys while two plants bearing shields sprouted in the garden. When the twins grew up, they set out to travel. At a crossroad they parted. One brother came to a city where a dragon demanded a yearly maiden sacrifice; that year the princess had been chosen. He left her at the dragon's lair, fetched a mirror, and told her to cover it with her veil and hide behind it. When the dragon approached, she tore off the veil. The dragon saw its own reflection, threatened it, and smashed the mirror. Believing itself shattered, the dragon was confused, and the knight killed it. The king married the knight to the princess. Later, the knight saw a black marble castle and was warned that no one returned from it. He went there, blew his horn, and a witch let him in because of his handsome face. She offered to marry him; he refused. She showed him the castle and dropped him through a trapdoor, killing him. His brother arrived in the city and was mistaken for him. He kept silent to help his twin, told the princess he must return to the castle, and learned from echoes what had happened. He stabbed the witch, who begged him to save her with magical plants from the garden. He found his brother's body and those of other victims and revived them with the plants. He also discovered a cave of maidens killed by the dragon and restored them to life. The witch died, and her castle collapsed.
Motifs
The demand for a sacrifice of young maidens to a dragon appears in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, as well as in the Japanese tale of Susanoo-no-Mikoto and the eight-headed serpent Orochi, and the Chinese folktale Li Ji Slays the Great Serpent. The myth of Perseus and Andromeda, where the sea god Poseidon demands the sacrifice of the princess to the sea monster Cetus, is an archaic reflex of this theme. A similar event occurs in the story of Trojan princess Hesione. The motif of twin boys born after eating a magical fish parallels a practice involving flower petals in ATU 711, The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin.
Variants
Scholars have debated the origins of this tale type for years. Some theories link it to an ancient Egyptian story, while others point to the Byzantine or Hellenistic periods. Research using the historic-geographic method suggests that type 300 is older in its basic elements but took its modern form in medieval times. Type 303 is considered more recent because it often includes type 300 within its plot. Kurt Ranke believed type 303 began in medieval France. He studied around 770 versions and noted that type 300 frequently appears inside type 303, with key features being three magical attacking dogs, a monster fight, and a false hero who is later punished. Richard M. Dorson observed that the tale is common across Europe, especially in Finland, Ireland, Germany, France, and Hungary. Versions also exist in Africa, including tales from the French Congo, Quelimane, the Yoruba, Réunion, the Djerma-Songay, and the Vezo people. Among Indigenous American groups, a Chippewan version called The Eight-Headed Windigo has been recorded. Daniel J. Crowley found the tale type to be one of the most popular and widespread on earth. According to Ranke, the story’s core is the twins’ birth, which happens when their mother drinks magic water or eats a special fish or apple.
Adaptations
The tale type was adapted into the story Los hermanos gemelos by Spanish writer Romualdo Nogués, with a moral at the end. A second adaptation, El pez y los tres rosales, was published in the Spanish newspaper El Imparcial in 1923. A Hungarian variant was adapted into an episode of the television series Magyar népmesék, titled A kővé vált királyfi, which replaces the sacrifice of a maiden to a dragon with a fight against an invincible warrior. British author Alan Garner adapted a British variant as The Golden Brothers, in which a poor fisherman catches a magical golden fish that grants him a castle, but the spell breaks when he tells his wife. He catches the fish again, cuts it into six pieces, and gives two to his wife, two to his mare, and buries the last two. Two golden twins, two golden foals, and two golden lilies are born. One twin marries a girl from a village; the other rescues his brother from a witch's petrification spell.
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