{{for|the 10th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, first wife of King Edgar of England|Æthelflæd Eneda}} {{Short description|Russian fairy tale}}{{Infobox Folk tale |Folk_Tale_Name = The White Duck |Image_Name = The Yellow Fairy Book (1894) - p.159.png |Image_Caption = The tsar captures the white duck in his hands. Illustration from ''The Yellow Fairy Book'' (1894). |AKA = |Aarne-Thompson Grouping = ATU 403 (The White and the Black Bride) |Mythology = |Country = [[Russia]] |Region = |Origin_Date = 1858 |Published_In = ''Narodnye russkie skazki'' by [[Alexander Afanasyev]] |Related = }}
'''The White Duck''' ({{langx|ru|Белая уточка}}) is a Russian [[fairy tale]] collected by [[Alexander Afanasyev]] in ''[[Narodnye russkie skazki]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Афанасьев |first1=Александр Николаевич |authorlink1=Alexander Afanasyev |title=Народныя русскія сказки |title-link=Russian Fairy Tales |series=Narodnye russkie skazki |date=1873 |trans-title=Russian folk tales |language=ru |volume=4 |pages=140–143 |publisher=Izd. K. Soldatenkova |oclc=844585712 |hdl=2027/coo.31924087972000?urlappend=%3Bseq=148%3Bownerid=13510798902525509-152 }}</ref> [[Andrew Lang]] included it in ''[[The Yellow Fairy Book]]''.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120512023132/http://www.rickwalton.com/folktale/yellow25.htm The White Duck] from ''[[The Yellow Fairy Book]]''.</ref>
==Synopsis== A king had to leave his newly-wed wife for a journey. He sternly warned her against leaving the women's quarters and listening to bad advice. But an envious wicked [[witchcraft|witch]] lured her into the garden and into a pool, and [[Shapeshifting#Usurpation|turned]] her into a white duck, herself [[False hero|taking]] the queen's own form and place.
[[File:Ivan Bilibin 011.jpg|thumb|Illustration by [[Ivan Bilibin]]]]
Meanwhile, the white duck built a nest, laid [[Rule of three (writing)|three]] eggs, and hatched two fluffy ducklings and one little drake. She warned them against the castle, because an evil witch lived there, but one day the witch saw them and lured them inside. The ducklings slept but the drake stayed awake, and when the witch called if they were asleep, the drake answered. But after two answers, the witch went in to see, and saw the ducklings were asleep, so she killed them.
The white duck found the bodies and lamented over them. The king wondered at it, and although the witch tried to persuade him it was nothing but quacking, he ordered that the duck be captured. His servants could not, but he went himself, and she flew to his hands and became a woman. She told of a bottle in the nest in the garden—or, they sent a magpie for magic water—which, sprinkled on the ducklings and drake, turned them into three lovely children. The witch was then put to death through [[dismemberment]] and nothing remained of her.
==Translations== The tale was also translated "from the Skazki" of Petr Polevoi by [[Robert Nisbet Bain]];<ref>Polevoi, Petr. ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34705/34705-h/34705-h.htm#ch15 Russian fairy tales from the Russian of Polevoi]''. Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.. 1915. pp. 159-165.</ref> as ''The White Duckling'' by [[Nathan Haskell Dole]],<ref>Dole, Nathan Haskell. ''[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Russian_Fairy_Book/The_White_Duckling The Russian Fairy Book]''. Cambridge, the University Press, 1907. pp. 81-90.</ref> and as ''The Little White Duck'' by professor Jack V. Haney.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Haney |first1=Jack V. |title=The Complete Folktales of A. N. Afanas'ev, Volume II: Black Art and the Neo-Ancestral Impulse |date=2015 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |id={{Project MUSE|42506|type=book}} |isbn=978-1-4968-0278-1 |pages=356–358 }}</ref>
==Analysis== === Tale type === Soon after he developed his classification of folktales, Finnish folklorist [[Antti Aarne]] published, in 1912, a study on the collections of the [[Brothers Grimm]], Austrian consul [[Johann Georg von Hahn]], Danish folklorist [[Svend Grundtvig]], Swiss scholar [[Laura Gonzenbach]] and Afanasyev. According to this primary system, developed in 1910, the tale fits type 403, "The White and the Black Bride": the antagonist throws the maiden in the water and [[False bride|takes her place as the hero's bride]]; the maiden transforms into a dove or a type of water fowl (duck, goose).<ref>Aarne, Antti. ''Übersicht der mit dem Verzeichnis der Märchentypen in den Sammlungen Grimms, Grundtvigs, Afanasjews, Gonzenbachs und Hahns übereinstimmenden Märchen''. FFC 10. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian Kustantama, 1912. p. 9. [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbersicht_der_mit_dem_Verzeichnis_der_M%C3%A4rchentypen_in_den_Sammlungen_Grimms,_Grundtvigs,_Afanasjews,_Gonzenbachs_und_Hahns_%C3%BCbereinstimmenden_M%C3%A4rchen]</ref>
Russian scholarship classifies the tale as type 403, "Подмененная жена" ("The Transformed Wife"), of the [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]] Folktale Classification ({{langx|ru|СУС|translit=SUS}}): the heroine is enchanted into duck form by her stepmother and replaced by the witch.<ref>Barag, Lev. "Сравнительный указатель сюжетов. Восточнославянская сказка". Leningrad: НАУКА, 1979. p. 129.</ref>
==See also== {{Portal |Children's literature}} *[[The Three Little Men in the Wood]] *[[The White and the Black Bride]] *[[The Witch in the Stone Boat]] *[[The Wonderful Birch]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://russian-crafts.com/tales/whiteduck.html The White Duck] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070609111927/http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/03-2/extra_credit/samuels-rachael_paper.pdf "Proppian Analysis of The White Duck"] *{{wikisource-inline|Белая уточка|single=true}}
{{Russian fairy tales}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:White Duck}} [[Category:Russian fairy tales]] [[Category:Ducks in literature]] [[Category:Fictional queens|White Duck]] [[Category:Fairy tales collected by Alexander Afanasyev|White Duck]] [[Category:Fairy tales about shapeshifting|White Duck]] [[Category:Fairy tales about talking animals|White Duck]] [[Category:Witchcraft in fairy tales|White Duck]] [[Category:Female characters in fairy tales]] [[Category:ATU 400-459]]