Beschrijving
The King and the Farmer’s Son. A boy (farmer’s son, Solomon) astonishes a king passing by his hut by giving clever answers. The answers refer to questions like: what do you (does your father, mother, brother, sister) do? [H583.1–H583.6]. And/or they deal with a paradoxical demand to come to the king under certain conditions [H1050–H1064].
The following questions and answers are most frequent:
(1) What are you doing? I boil those coming and going (I boil peas, beans, and/or lentils that keep rising and falling in the water [H 583.6]).
(2) What is your father doing? He makes a bad thing worse (he blocks a path in a field which causes another to be trodden [H583.2.1]). Or, he is in the vineyard doing good and bad (he prunes vines but sometimes cuts good ones and leaves the bad [H583.2]). Or, he makes many out of few (he sows grain [H583.2.2]).
(3) What is your mother doing? She does for another what the latter cannot do for herself (she lays out a corpse [H583.4]). Or, she is baking forgotten bread (to pay back borrowed bread [H583.4.2]).
(4) What is your brother doing? He hunts; he throws away what he catches, and what he does not catch he carries home (he hunts for lice on his body [H583.3]).
(5) What is your sister doing? She is mourning last year’s laughter (she nurses her child, the fruit of last year’s love affair [H583.5]. Cf. Types 875, 920.
The following questions and answers are most frequent:
(1) What are you doing? I boil those coming and going (I boil peas, beans, and/or lentils that keep rising and falling in the water [H 583.6]).
(2) What is your father doing? He makes a bad thing worse (he blocks a path in a field which causes another to be trodden [H583.2.1]). Or, he is in the vineyard doing good and bad (he prunes vines but sometimes cuts good ones and leaves the bad [H583.2]). Or, he makes many out of few (he sows grain [H583.2.2]).
(3) What is your mother doing? She does for another what the latter cannot do for herself (she lays out a corpse [H583.4]). Or, she is baking forgotten bread (to pay back borrowed bread [H583.4.2]).
(4) What is your brother doing? He hunts; he throws away what he catches, and what he does not catch he carries home (he hunts for lice on his body [H583.3]).
(5) What is your sister doing? She is mourning last year’s laughter (she nurses her child, the fruit of last year’s love affair [H583.5]. Cf. Types 875, 920.
Motief
H583.1
H583.6
H1050
H1064
H583.2.1
H583.2
H583.2.2
H583.4
H583.4.2
H583.3
H583.5
Commentaar
Type 921 is closely related to Type 875, and the stories are often combined with each other. In Type 921 the enigmatic answers occur in many more versions, which renders the classification under Type 921 and the separation of the two types more difficult.
Combinaties
This type is usually combined with episodes of one or more other types, esp. 875 and 922B, and also 920, 921F*, and 922.
Oorspronkelijk Verhaaltype
921
Subgenre
sprookje