The Bird of Truth

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The Bird of Truth is a Spanish fairy tale collected by Cecilia Böhl de Faber in her Cuentos de encantamiento. Andrew Lang included it in The Orange Fairy Book.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A fisherman finds two beautiful babies in a crystal cradle, a girl and a boy, floating in the river and brings them to his wife to raise. Their older brothers were cruel to them and they often ran away to the riverbank, where they would feed birds on breadcrumbs. In gratitude, the birds taught them to speak their language.

One day the oldest boy taunted them with having no parents, and they set out to seek their fortunes. When they sit down to rest, they heard birds gossiping, and one bird said that the king had married the youngest daughter of a tailor, over the opposition of the nobles. He was obliged to go to war, and when he returned, he was told that his wife had given birth to twins who had died, and gone mad, and had to be shut up in a tower in the mountains where the fresh air might restore her. In fact, the babies were in a gardener's cottage, and that night the chamberlain threw them into the river in a crystal cradle, which the children recognized as how the fisherman had found them.

The bird went on to say that only the Bird of Truth could convince the king that his children were his children, and it was kept by a giant who only slept a quarter hour a day in the castle of Come- and-never-go. Only a witch could tell the way to the castle, and she would not do it except for the water from the fountain of many colours. Furthermore, the Bird of Truth is surrounded by the Birds of Ill Faith, and only an owl could tell which one was which.

They went to the city, where they begged hospitality for a night, and were so helpful that she asked them to stay. The girl did, but her brother left on his quest. A dove directed him to go with the wind, and by following it, he reached the witch's home and asked the way to the catel of Come-and-never-go. She tried to get him to stay the night, but when he refused, demanded a jug of the many-colored waters, or she would turn him into a lizard. Then she directed a dog to lead him.

At the castle, he heard the owl's cry and asked its advice. It told him to fill the jug from another fountain and then find the white bird in the corner, not the brightly colored birds. He had a quarter of an hour to do it, and did it. When he brought back the water, the witch threw it over him and told him to become a parrot, but he became more handsome, and all the creatures about the hut threw themselves into the water and became human again. The witch fled on her broomstick.

The courtiers who had had the children abandoned set about preparing to keep it from the king, but they talked so much of it that he became curious. When the bird flew to him, he listened. He at once went to embrace his children, and then all three of them freed his wife and their mother from the tower. The wicked courtiers had their heads cut off, and the couple who had raised them were given riches and honor.