The Lizard With the Seven Skins

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El lagarto de las siete camisas (English: "The Lizard with the Seven Skins") is a Spanish folktale from Cuenca, first published by folklorist Aurélio M. Espinosa.

The tale is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom. The first part of the tale shares similarities with King Lindworm, in that the animal husband kills his brides, but preserves the third one, who disenchants him; the second part is connected to The Search for the Lost Husband: a human maiden marries an animal that is a prince in disguise, breaks a taboo and loses him, and she has to seek him out.

Folklorist Aurélio M. Espinosa published the tale from a source in Cuenca. The tale was also republished as La joven María y el príncipe lagarto ("Young María and the Lizard Prince").[1]

Summary

In this tale, a queen longs for a child, even if it is a lizard. God grants her wish and she gives birth to a lizard. Whenever a wet nurse tries to feed the child, the lizard bites off the wet nurse's breast, so they have to find another wet nurse, but he keeps biting them.

The royal couple find a girl named Mariquita, who lives with her father and sisters, and is hired to suckle the prince with a pair of iron breasts filled with milk. The lizard prince grows up and wants to marry. Mariquita's sisters are given to him: he expects his wife to stay awake and wait for him on their bed; Mariquita's sisters fail due to falling asleep and the prince kills them. However, Mariquita stays awake and sees that the lizard is a prince underneath the animal skin after he removes them. He puts the seven lizard skins on a couch and warns his wife not to touch them.

Mariquita tells the queen about her son's secret and they decide to burn the lizard skins: the queen asks Mariquita to let the door to their bedroom open, so she can see for herself her son's true form. That same night, Mariquita allows the queen to see her husband's handsome human form, steals the seven skins and burns them. The following morning, the prince notices that his seven skins are gone, admonishes Mariquita and says she will have to find him at the Castillo de Irás y No Volverás, by wearing seven pairs of iron shoes, she and their unborn son, if she wants to find him again, then vanishes. Mariquita gives birth to a young boy and waits for his turning a young age so both can wear the pairs of iron shoes in pursuit of the lizard prince.

The mother-son duo begin their long journey, and, after wearing down six of the seven pairs, reach the house of an old lady, who gives them three nuts, for Mariquita to open in the hour of direst need. Finally, they reach a castle which belongs to the mother of the eagles, who welcomes them and summons the royal eagle, who may have information about the Castillo. The royal eagle appears and says it has just come from there, where a wedding was celebrated, and agrees to take Mariquita and her son across the skies to the Castillo.

After the aerial journey, Mariquita stops by the doors of the Castillo and cracks open the first nut, releasing a golden loom. The local princess's maidservant spots the golden object in the stranger's hands and informs the princess, who wishes to have it. Mariquita agrees to a deal: the golden loom for a night in the prince's room. The princess agrees, but has her maidservant give the now human lizard prince a sleeping drink. Mariquita cannot wake her husband up on the first night, and she and her son are thrown out of the room by morning.

Undeterred, Mariquita breaks open the second nut and releases a golden spindle, which she uses to trade for a second night in the prince's chambers. Once again, she fails to nudge him awake, since the princess and the maidservant give him a sleeping drink. After the first two nights, a servant informs the lizard prince of the princess's stratagem, and decides to avoid drinking anything the princess offers him. Back to Mariquita, she opens the last nut and finds a little golden egg, which she trades with the princess. The princess is worried about letting a stranger into her husband's room, when she was the one to have married him. Still, the princess takes the third object and tries to give a drink to the lizard prince, but he spills it and feigns sleep. Mariquita enters her husband's room for the third time and cries over his sleeping body. He listens to her story, wakes up and embraces her.

The following morning, the prince assembles the court and asks them that he had a key he lost, had a new one made, but found the first one, so he asks which key he should keep. The court reply that he should keep the first one, so the prince decides to leave with Mariquita and their son. The local princess's father tells the prince that, since his daughter and the prince have not spend the night together, she is free to marry another.[2][3]

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified, according to the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, as a combination of types: AaTh 433B, "El príncipe serpiente mata a las novias ariscas", and AaTh 425A, "El monstruo como esposo".[4][5][6]

The first part of the tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm": a serpent (snake, or dragon) son is born to a king and queen (either from a birthing implement or due to a wish); years later, the serpent prince wishes to marry, but he kills every bride they bring him; a girl is brought to him as a prospective bride, and wears several layers of cloth to parallel the serpent's skins; she disenchants him.[7][8] Tale type ATU 433B, "King Lindworm", is part of the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom, stories that involve a human maiden marrying a prince in animal form and disenchanting him.[9]

The second part of the tale is indexed as type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom". In this tale type, the heroine is a human maiden who marries a prince who is cursed to become an animal of some sort. She betrays his trust and he disappears, prompting a quest for him.[10]

Motifs

The heroine's journey

According to Hans-Jörg Uther, the main feature of tale type ATU 425A is "bribing the false bride for three nights with the husband".[11] In fact, when he developed his revision of Aarne-Thompson's system, Uther remarked that an "essential" trait of the tale type ATU 425A was the "wife's quest and gifts" and "nights bought".[12] It is "frequent" in Spanish variants that the heroine, in her quest, reaches the house of the Sol ('Sun'), Luna ('Moon') and Aire ('Air' or 'Wind').[13]

The animal husband

According to scholarship, the form of the animal husband may vary between Spanish and Hispano-American tradition, but the lizard as his enchanted form is "common" to both continents.[14]

Variants

See also

References

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