The Battle of the Birds

FolktaleScotland · Western EuropeFolktaleFear 8/10

Description

A folktale from the folklore of Scotland. The Battle of the Birds (Scottish Gaelic: Cath Nan Eun) is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John…

Origin & Background

The Battle of the Birds (Scottish Gaelic: Cath Nan Eun) is a Scottish folktale collected by John Francis Campbell in his book 'Popular Tales of the West Highlands'. This story was recorded in 1859 from a fisherman named John Mackenzie near Inverary, who was then building a dyke at the Ardglen Farm.

The Legend

The story begins with the son of a prince setting out to witness a battle among all the animals. He promises his father that he will report who will be the king of the animals that year. As the battle is nearing its end, he witnesses a snake and a crow fighting, and he beheads the snake. In gratitude, the crow takes him to the castle where his sister lives. The prince then goes through various adventures and eventually marries the daughter of a giant. However, the prince escapes from the giant and, with various magical aids, defeats the giant. The story concludes with the prince finding his forgotten wife again.

Variants

British scholar William Ralston Shedden-Ralston noted that this Scottish tale is very similar to the Russian folktale 'Tsar of the Sea and Wise Vasilisa'. Additionally, Russian folklorist Lev Barag stated that the ATU 313B type, which includes episodes of disputes among animals and the hero's father saving a bird, appears only in variants from the East Slavic, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, French, Scottish, and Irish traditions.

In Popular Culture

Irish folklorist Seamus O Duilearga mentioned that the ATU 313 type is one of the most popular stories in Irish folklore. He noted that the Irish Folklore Commission had classified 66 manuscripts by 1943, and he speculated that a complete archive would include 'hundreds of variants'.

This article is based on the Wikipedia article "The Battle of the Birds" (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikipedia