THE LAMB WITH THE GOLDEN FLEECE

Context
The Hungarian folk tale “The Lamb with the Golden Fleece” was collected by Kríza János and published in
Wild Roses, Collection of Székely Popular Poetry (Vadrózsák, Székely népköltési gyűjtemény) in January
1863. The collection contains 588 folk songs and folk ballads, 19 tales, short folklore genres and a Székely
idioticon (a dictionary of a particular dialect). The tale also appeared in Benedek Elek’s folk tale collection
Hungarian tales and lengends (Magyar mese- és mondavilág), published in 1894-1896, in five volumes. It
is a variant of the tale collected by Kríza.

The present edition The folk-tales of the Magyars, collected by Kríza, Erdélyi, Pap and others (London,
published for the Folklore Society by Eliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row) was published in 1889, contains 53
tales and was translated in English by the rev. W. Henry Jones and Lewis l. Kropf.

The present

According to a survey from 2017 the tale was chosen as the most popular tale among children (1900
children participated in the survey) and teachers.

Summary
The tale is about a poor boy who was sent to look for work by his father. He met a man who took him as
a shepherd and gave him a flute. The lad (young man) was hardworking, he never lay down, he walked
with the sheep and played his flute. Whenever he played a lamb with golden fleece started to dance. The
boy became very fond of this lamb and asked his master to give him the lamb after one year of service as
wages.

The boy set of for home with his lamb. The journey was tiresome, so he stopped for a night at a farmhouse
in a village. There lived a girl in the house who wanted to steal the lamb, but as soon as she touched the
lamb she got stuck to its fleece. When the boy took out his flute and played, the lamb started to dance
with the girl on. A woman who was baking bread saw them, her peel touched the girl and she also got
stuck. The village’s priest saw them too, touched them with a cane and got stuck to the woman.

The lad continued his journey home with the lamb and the people who got stuck to it and reached the
royal borough, where he found out that the king’s daughter is ill and only a good laughter would make
her better. The boy played the flute in front of the princess. When she saw the lamb dance with the girl,
the woman and the priest on its back the princess burst out laughing and that made the lamb so glad that
it shook everything off its back.

The shepherd married the princess, the priest was made court-chaplain, the woman court bakeress, and
the girl lady-in-waiting to the princess.

Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index.

It belongs to the category of the TALES OF MAGIC 300-749, the subcategory 571: `All stick together` -
Princess brought to laughter by people sticking together.

Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp.

Characters:

1. the Villain: the girl, who lived in the farmhouse and wants to steal the lamb (The villain seizes or
takes away a magical agent (A2).)
2. the Donor: the boy’s master, who took him as a shepherd and gave him the magic flute
3. the Magical Helper: the lamb with golden fleece
4. the Princess: the princess who never laughed, she is the final prize, she marries the hero
5. the Hero: the lad, the poor boy who set off on a journey to find work
6. the Dispatcher: the Hero’s father, who sent him to look for work

Episode Actions:
Someone is absent from home: the poor boy is sent to look for work by his father

An “interdiction” or ban or rule is announced: the boy is given work as a shepherd, but is forbidden
to lay down.

The hero is tested: the boy has to serv his master for one year, only after a year is offered the lamb.

A donor enters the plot and offers a magical agent or introduces a “helper” character: the master,
who gives the boy work and a flute to help him with the sheep.

The hero acquires a magical agent and arrives at the object of the search: the boy is given a
magical flute and a lamb with golden fleece that dances whenever it hears the flute.

The villain seeks information, seeks to deceive the hero: the girl wants to steal the lamb, but she
doesn’t succeed, because she gets stuck to its fleece. Next a woman is stuck to the girl and a priest
to the woman.

The hero leaves home: the boy goes to the King, because he wants to try to make the princess
laugh

A difficult task is proposed to the hero: the hero has to make the princess laugh

The hero marries (often the object of the quest) and/or is made the ruler: the princess finds the
dancing lamb with the people on its back so funny that she burst out in laughter. The king agrees for
her daughter to marry the shepherd and gives him half of his kingdome.

Similarities

A similar story appeared in Basile’s Pentamerone (I. How the tales came to be told), in which Zoza, the
daughter of the King of Woody Valley, was never seen to laugh, so his father invited all sorts of people to
his castle in order to make her daughter laugh.
Taper Tom is the Norwegian version of this tale, in which people get stuck to a magic goose, Taper Tom
takes them to the window of the princess, the princess starts to laugh and Taper Tom get the princess and
half the kingdom.

Similar tales can be found all over Europe. In most of them a goose has magical powers, not a lamb.

SOURCES

https://archive.org/stream/cu31924006488336#page/n5/mode/2up

https://archive.org/stream/MorphologyOfTheFolkTale/propp#page/n7/mode/2up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Folktales

https://books.google.ro/books?id=PIuLBDOUc80C&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=all+stick+together+571&
source=bl&ots=7Cn3IjEmEf&sig=ACfU3U1bChluhsX34Pzw35b0qjVUzy3H2Q&hl=ro&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEw
jd1r-1xvjlAhVvsYsKHTtlDFEQ6AEwCnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false