Fortunatus (book)
Fortunatus is a German proto-novel or chapbook about a legendary hero popular in 15th- and 16th-century Europe.
The tale
The tale follows the life of a young man named Fortunatus from relative obscurity through his adventures towards fame and fortune; it subsequently follows the careers of his two sons. Fortunatus was a native, says the story, of Famagusta in Cyprus, and meeting the goddess of Fortune in a forest received from her a purse which was continually replenished as often as he drew from it. With this he wandered through many lands, and at Cairo was the guest of the sultan. Among the treasures which the sultan showed him was an old napless hat which had the power of transporting its wearer to any place he desired. Of this hat, he feloniously possessed himself and returned to Cyprus, where he led a luxurious life. On his death he left the purse and the hat to his sons Ampedo and Andelosia; but they were jealous of each other, and by their recklessness and folly soon fell on evil days.Like Miguel de Cervantes' tale Don Quixote, Fortunatus is a tale which marks the passing of the feudal world into the more modern, globalised, capitalist world. Not quite a morality tale in the purest sense, it nonetheless was clearly written in order to convey lessons to the reader. The moral of the story is obvious: men should desire reason and wisdom before all the treasures of the world. It is far too easy, without wisdom, to lose one's fortune, no matter how it was acquired.
Author
The author is not known; it has been suggested that he may have been Burkhard Zink, an Augsburg merchant, councillor, chronicler and traveller. His Augsburg chronicle covers the years 1368-1468 and comprises four books, of which the third, an autobiography, is considered the best, and he is praised for giving "Einblicke von seltener Eindringlichkeit in die Lebensrealität des SpätMA" ; The most plausible suggestion to date is that Johannes Heybler—the publisher—was himself the author.Versions
The earliest known edition of the German text of Fortunatus appeared at Augsburg in 1509, and the modern German investigators are disposed to regard this as the original form. Karl Simrock reproduced this version in his Deutsche Volksbücher. In 1530 an edition was published entitled Fortunatus von seinem Seckel und Wunschhütlein. Innumerable versions occur in French, Italian, Dutch and English. The story was dramatized by Hans Sachs in 1553, and by Thomas Dekker in 1600, titled Old Fortunatus; and the latter's comedy appeared in a German translation in Englische Komodien und Tragodien, 1620. Ludwig Tieck has utilized the legend in his Phantasus, and Adelbert von Chamisso in his Peter Schlemihl; and Ludwig Uhland left an unfinished narrative poem entitled Fortunatus and his Sons.19th century theologue Johann Andreas Christian Löhr wrote an abridged and moralizing tale, using as basis the story of Fortunatus.
An anonymous English compilation of French fairy tales written by Charles Perrault and Madame d'Aulnoy published the story as Fortunatus, or the Wishing Cap. A later publication renamed it Fortunatus and the Wishing Cap. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book as "Fortunatus and his Purse".
A fairy tale compilation by English novelist Dinah Craik included the tale, under the name Fortunatus, following an 1818 publication by Benjamin Tabart, who included an homonymous tale. In the same vein, Ernest Rhys edited a collection of English fairy tales and included one version of tale, named Old Fortunatus after the English play. A third English version exists, titled The History of Fortunatus.
Analysis
In folkloristics, the episode of being gifted a never-emptying purse by a magical being is part of a series of tales later classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 566, "The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits". In several variants, the goddess of Fortune of the original tale is replaced by an old lady, a princess or other supernatural being.Scholarship points that the hero of the tale is sometimes an only child who is given the three objects, or one of three brothers or friends who are each given one of the items.
The tale is close to "The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn", where three brothers are given the magical objects. However, both tales differ in that in the ATU 566 the adversary is a cunning princess who acquires the magical objects, but gets her just desserts with magical fruits that grow horns or other deformities when eaten.
William Alexander Clouston, Scottish folklorist, publised an essay in which he compared the magic objects of the Fortunatus tale with many tales featuring similar items.
Folklorist Stith Thompson suggested that the ATU 566 tale is "essentially west European folk tradition", following professor Antti Aarne's study on some 145 variants. On the other hand, French scholar Claude Bremond put forth a theory that tale types 566 "Fortunatus", 567 "The Magic Bird-Heart" and 938 "Placidus"/"Eustacius" are related and derive from a single source, possibly Indian.
Emmanuel Cosquin noted, in his time, two distinct groups of stories: the first one, where the hero regains the magical objects with the use of the fruits; and the second one, close to the tales later classified as ATU 567, "The Magical Bird-Heart".
Variants
Early parallels
and Jiri Polivka list as early literary parallels an Italian story from the 16th century and a French literary story from Le Cabinet des Fées with an oriental flair.Another literary predecessor pointed by both scholars is Die Prinzessin mit der langen Nase, penned by Friedrich Hildebrand von Einsiedel, whose work was published in the collection Dschinnistan, by Christoph Martin Wieland. This tale was also adapted to the stage as Der Barometermacher auf der Zauberinsel.
David Blamires points that the tale of Jonathan, in the Gesta Romanorum, is a version of the folktype later classified as ATU 566.
Spanish scholarship recognizes La ventura en la desdicha, one of the works of Zaragozan religious writer Ana Francisca Abarca de Bolea, as containing an incarnation of the story of Fortunatus written as a moralizing tale.
Europe
British Isles
Irish folklorist Patrick Kennedy listed an Irish variant titled Gilla na Gruaga Donna, and noted, in his commentaries, that the tale was known in Germany as Die Drei Soldaten.A Scottish variant, titled The Three Soldiers, was collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands. He also collected and transcribed a version in Gaelic, as well as a version with Coinneach Buidhe, from Dibaig, and a version from Castle Bay, Barra, involving swan maidens. He also compared it to The Krautesel, a forgotten Grimm's tale, and to Donkey Cabbages, where the characters are transformed into donkeys. Campbell's tale was translated by Loys Brueyre as Les Trois Soldats
Germany
French-born poet Adelbert von Chamisso developed in 1806 his own treatment of the Fortunatus legend, titled Fortunati Glücksäckel und Wunschhütlein.The Brothers Grimm collected a previous version titled Die lange Nase, with many similarities to this tale, but it was expunged from later editions of the collection. Apart from Grimm's purged tale, variants with the title Die lange Nase or the like were also collected by Louis Curtze, from Berndorf, August Ey, in Oberharze; Willhelm Wisser, in Silesia.
A Hessian variant was collected by the Brothers Grimm, but not published in their famous collection. Instead, it found its place in the third volume of their Kinder- und Hausmärchen, which contained their annotaions on the tales: three soldiers stand guard in a forest at night and receive the items from a short old man. The Brothers Grimm version was translated into English language as The Nose-Tree by Marian Edwardes, in her 1912 publication.
A version by Heinrich Pröhle differs in that four soldier brothers are given the magic objects, instead of the usual three heroes.
A variant where the soldier's name is explicitly given as Fortunatus, and the stealing princess is killed, can be found in the newly-discovered collection of Bavarian folk and fairy tales of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth, titled The Scorned Princess.
A literary treatment of the legend of Fortunatus is present in the work of Johann Karl August Musäus: his Volksmärchen der Deutschen contains the story of Rolands Knappen A French translation can be found in Contes de Museäus. In a short summary: three military companions, in a crusade against "infidels", take shelter in a cavern with an old lady who gifts them the purse, a mantle and a gauntlet. At the end of the tale, they never recover the objects, and rejoin the army to avenge their fallen leader, Roland.
A variant from Merano, Beutel, Hütlein und Pfeiflein, was collected by Ignaz and Joseph Zingerle.
Johann Reinhard Bünker collected a variant from the Heanzisch dialect, transcribing the dialect.
There are variants where the hero does not marry the princess that cheats him out of the magical objects. Instead, he returns to the house where he gained the magical items and marries the donor, as in a tale from Lower Saxony, Die Prinzessin mit dem Horne.
Austria
In an Austrian variant, collected by the Zingerle Brothers in Zillertal, the father, a famous and beloved local lord, dies and his sons discover the secret of their fortune.The Netherlands
A version of the tale, titled De appels van Damasko, was sent in 1894 to the collection of Dutch philologist Gerrit Jacob Boekenoogen.France
Andrew Lang included a French variant in his The Green Fairy Book, which he obtained from Charles Deulin.Henry Carnoy collected a variant from Warloy-Baillon, titled La bague magique, where the protagonist enlarges the nose of the princess with a ring and a spell.
Emmanuel Cosquin collected two variants from Lorraine: La bourse, le sifflet et le chapeau and a nameless variant in his annotations.
Two variants from Brittany were collected by François-Marie Luzel and Paul Sébillot. Sébillot also published two abridged versions in Revue de traditions populaires: Les poires qui font les cornes and La serviette, le manteau et la bourse.
Another variant was collected in Brittany by Adolphe Orain : a poor boy is adopted by a fairy who lives in the woods. The fairy helps her adopted child to win the hand of the princess.
Abbot Leopold Dardy collected two tales from Albret and Gascony: Pipéto and Lous trés hillos de là hadéto.
In the 20th century, French ethnologist Genevieve Massignon collected another variant, from the Pyrenees, titled Les trois déserteurs. In a second variant, from Central France, collected by Henri Pourrat, the protagonist is given the magical objects by a miller's daughter, and at the conclusion of the tale uses the items to return to the humble maiden, choosing her over the haughty princess. A third modern variant, collected by Achille Millien, was among the tales collected from Morvan and Nivernais.
Basque Country
collected a Basque version called Dragon and, on a footnote, noted the parallel to John Francis Campbell's "The Three Soldiers" and its wide diffusion.Spain
A Galician version titled Un novo papa en Roma e un novo rei en España was collected in late 20th century.Eastern Europe
A tale from Bukovina, collected from Gypsy populations, mixes two forms of physical transformation: figs and the water from a stream. The tale is also part of the "Three Stolen Princesses" type: three brothers/heroes rescue trhee princesses from a subterranean hideout.In West Slavic sources, a version of the Slavi witch Baba Yaga, named Jezibaba, appears as an antagonist in a version of the ATU 566.
Southern Europe
translated a tale from South Europe titled Beauty and the Horns: The Story of an Enchanted Maiden.The tale is attested in Pomak oral tradition, but instead of figs, the usual fruits of the tale-type, the main character uses grapes to cause the condition.
Greece
collected a tale from Zagori, in Epirus, Greece, and compared the characters in the tale to a Servian variant and a Romanian one.Richard M. Dawkins collected a variant from Phloïtá in which the hero forces both the horns and the donkey transformations on the characters.
In the 20th, scholar Georgios A. Megas collected another variant.
Russia
An early version in Russian was recorded in Старая погудка на новый лад, with the name Сказка об Иване-гостином сыне : the story of two brothers, one eats the head of a magic bird and the other the heart. The one who ate the heart goes into the forest and resolves a dispute over magical objecs and escapes in a magic carpet to another kingdom.Russian folktale collector Alexander Afanasyev compiled three variants of the tale, under the banner Рога.
Emmanuel Cosquin cited a Russian version from author A. A. Erlenwein, which was translated by Angelo de Gubernatis in his Florilegio with the name I tre Soldati.
Czech Republic
author Jan Werich wrote a literary treatment of the legend, named Tři veteráni, in his book Fimfárum. The tale was later adapted into a movie with the same name in 1983.Denmark
A variant titled Svend's Exploits was translated by Benjamin Thorpe, from the work of Carit Etlar.A second variant, De lange Næser was collected by Evald Tang Kristensen and included in his folktale collection Tales from Jutland.
Iceland
The Icelandic variant was given by Adeline Rittershaus in abbreviated form: the hero is a prince, and the objects are lost due the carelessness of a servant.Hungary
Hungarian folktale collections attest a few variants: A szent leányok ajándéka ; A három szerencsepróbáló, collected by Elek Benedek.Romania
A tale titled Härstäldai was collected from Romania and pertains to the ATU 566 tale-type: the soldier spends the night in a hut that belongs to the devil. Unflinching, the soldier menaces the creature with his gun and receives the magic purse.In a second variant, collected by Pauline Schullerus, three brothers, gamblers, acquire the magic items from a mysterious woman in a house in the forest. The youngest gains the magical purse and loses it to a princess. As a payback, he does not cure her of the horns when he gets his items back.
Norwegian
Ornul Hodne, in his 1984 publication of Norwegian folktales, classified Underepla as ATU 566.Estonia
Andrew Lang collected an Estonian variant, titled Tiidu the Piper, in The Crimson Fairy Book. The story tells of a piper who, at a later point in the tale, gets stranded on an island after a shipwreck and eats the nose-enlarging fruits. The tale was first published by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in Ehstnische Mährchen, named Dudelsack-Tiddu. Kreutzwald even noticed the similarities of the episode with the fruits to that of Fortunatus.Finland
A Finnish tale, collected in Karelia, begins with a poor farmer finding a self-moving golden ship in the forest with devils. He distracts them and takes the marvellous objects for himself, setting sail for a king's castle, where he invites the princess on a ride on the magical ship. When they arrive on an island, the princess abandons him and takes the objects, while he finds the horn-growing berries. The tale was first collected by Eero Salmelainen, titled Hiiden laiva, and translated int English editions with the name Hidden Laiva or the Golden Ship.Italy
A scholarly inquiry by Italian Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi, produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s, found fourteen variants of the tale across Italian sources. However, studies suggest the distribution of the tale through Italy may have originated from a 17th century translation of the German novel by abbot Pompeo Sarnelli.Sicilian folklorist Giuseppe Pitrè collected a Sicilian variant named La vurza, lo firriolu e lu cornu 'nfatatu. In his commentaries, he also listed two short variants, and commented on similar tales found in the works of fellow folklorists Laura Gonzenbach and Vittorio Imbriani. The Sicilian version was later translated to German by Waldemar Kaden as Beutel, Mäntelchen und Wunderhorn and included in Fiabe italiane by Italo Calvino as tale nr. 189. La Reginetta cornuta.
Giuseppe Pitrè collected a second Sicilian variant named Petru, lu Massariotu, in which a poor man gambles with the princess the magical items he received, loses them and gets thrown in prison, where he learns from the other prisoners the tricks of the cheating princess. He also collected a Tuscan variant named Soldatino, with notes to other existing Italian and European versions.
Laura Gonzenbach, folklorist of Swiss origin, collected two Sicilian versions of the tale: Die Geschichte von Ciccu and Von dem Schäfer, der die Königstochter zum Lachen brachte.
Vittorio Imbriani collected a version from Firenze, with mentions to variants contained in Gesta Romanorum, in Laura Gonzenbach and Pitré, four variants from Pomogliano d'Arco and a variant from Milan.
Thomas Frederick Crane published another version, The Shepherd Who Made the King's Daughter Laugh, which he translated from Laura Gonzenbach's book of Italian folktales.
Angelo de Gubernatis commented on a nameless narrative, in Zoological Mythology, which was collected in Osimo. Instead of the figs that grow horns, they grow a tail on the deceiving princess. At the end of the tale, the poor brother regains the magical items the princess stole, but he does not heal the princess.
Gherardo Nerucci collected a Montalese variant, titled I fichi brogiotti, where there are three poor brothers who sleep in the woods and dream of the fabled objects. When they wake up, an old man gifts each brother the respective item they saw in their dreams.
Gennaro Finamore collected a variant from Abruzzi, named Lu fatte de le tre ffàte.
British traveller Rachel Harriette Busk collected two versions in Rome: Dodici Palmi di Naso and Mezza Canna di Naso.
Carolina Coronedi-Berti wrote down a variant from Bologna, and compared it to Gonzenbach's and Imbriani's versions.
Scholar Jack Zipes classifies Venetian tale Der arme Fischerknabe as pertaining to the ATU 566 tale type: poor Almerigo witnesses a quarrel in the forest about an invisibility cloak, the never-emptying purse and a pair of fast travelling shoes.
Heinrich Zschalig collected a tale from Capri, where the magic objecrs are inherited by three brothers and it is the king who steals the items.
Italian poet Guido Gozzano wrote a fiaba titled I Tre Talismani, where three brothers are given the magical items by their father.
Spain
Ralph Steele Boggs listed the occurrence of the tale in two compilations: one in A. de Llano Roza de Ampudia's Cuentos asturianos, and other in A. M. Espinosa 's Cuentos populares españoles.Aurelio M. Espinosa, Jr. in an 1993 article, analysed the tale collection of Castilla y León, and affirmed that the tale type AT 566 is "muy difundido".
Armenia
In an Armenian variant, collected by Frederic Macler, La belle de Tiflis, the hero is the son of a rich merchant and is instructed never to reveal the secret of the family's wealth: the magical purse.America
Canada
French folklorist Henry Carnoy obtained a variant titled Les Figues Merveilleuses from Canada.Marius Barbeau collected a variant titled La Princesse de Tomboso, from a man named Joseph Mailloux, and a second variant, unpublished at the time.
United States
A version was collected among German-speaking populations living in Pennsylvania, being a unique composition of types made by the storyteller.Folklorist Stith Thompson analysed a variant collected among the Native Americans.
A variant was collected by researcher Susie Hoogasian-Villa amongst Armenian descent populations of the United States, in Detroit: The Magic Figs.
Mexico
Professor Stanley Robe collected, in 1947, a variant named La fruta extranjera from a 24-year-old housewife from Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco who provided many tales, later published in 1970. In this version, the hero inherits a little sombrero and the purse, and the pair of magic fruits are bananas and prunes.Cuba
British traveller Rachel Harriette Busk registered a version from Matanzas, in Cuba, about a family man named Perrico, who is given the purse, a tablecloth and a stick from a sprite.Costa Rica
In a variant collected in Costa Rica with the name Prince Simpleheart, the magical objects are an invisbility cloak, the money knapsack and a violin that forces people to dance.Asia
Middle East
Scholar Ulrich Marzolph points that Maronite storyteller Hanna Diyab had in his repertoire of narratives - according to Antoine Galland's diary - an as of yet unpublished version of type 566: The Purse, the Dervish’s Horn, the Figs, and the Horns.A variant in the Mehri language was collected and published at the turn of the 20th century.
Iran
A Persian variant, The Story of Magic Bird, mixes the motif of the ATU 567 with the magical objects the hero steals from his step-brothers by trickery.India
Reverend James Hinton Knowles collected a variant from Kashmir titled Saiyid and Said: two poor brothers eat the head and breast of a golden bird and gain special abilities. They go their separate ways: one becomes a king; the other gets romantically involved with a beautiful woman who betrays him twice.A Bengali variant was collected by Wiiliam MacCulloch, titled Learning and Motherwit: the princess is transformed into a monkey by the use of special leaves in her bath.
A variant was collected from India in the 20th century, by tale collector A. K. Ramajunan, with the title Three Magic Objects, originally in the Kannada language.
Writer Adeline Rittershaus pointed to the existence of an "Hindustani" version published in the 1865 edition of Revue orientale et americaine: L'Inexorable Courtisane et Les Talismans, whose translation was provided by Garcin de Tassy.
China
Folklorist Joseph Jacobs sees a parallel of the tale of Fortunatus in a Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, where the monk is given a magic jug.Missionary Adele M. Fielde trancribed a Chinese tale from Guangdong where a poor man goes to an island and is gifted a cap of invisibility, a cloak of transportation and a basket that replenishes itself with jewels, and the horn-growing fruits are bananas.
Vietnam
A Vietnamese variant is reported to have been collected by F. Zuchelli and published in 1968, in a compilation of Vietnamese folktales.Philippines
Professor Dean Fansler collected two variants from Philippines, and suggested its entry in the archipelagical oral tradition from an external source.Africa
North Africa
A version from Kabyle, Ahmed, le fils du charbonnier, is related to the ATU 566 cycle. A second variant was collected by German archeologist Leo Frobenius.A variant from Egypt was collected by Guillaume Spitta-Bey in the 19th century and classified by scholar Hasan El-Shamy as belonging to the ATU 566 tale-type.