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El tipo 425B - Son of the Witch (previously The Disenchanted Husband: the Witch's Tasks). (Cupid and Psyche.) (Including the previous Types 425J, 425N, and 428.) se ha identificado en los siguientes relatos:

Daria, por Agustina Gómez, de Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco

 

 

Información sobre este tipo cuentístico: Description: This type combines various introductory episodes with a common main part. Cf. Type 425A. Introductory episodes: A young woman marries a supernatural bridegroom: (1) She is given to her bridegroom because of a present that she has asked her father to bring back from a journey [5228]. (2) The bridegroom performs a set of difficult tasks. (3) She pulls up an herb and discovers the bridegroom's subterranean castle (a wind carries her there). (4) She finds him in another way. The bridegroom is the son of a witch (ogress) or he is (during the day) an animal [D621.1]. Main part: The young woman breaks the bridegroom's prohibition (cf. Type 425A), and he goes away [C932]. (Before he leaves, he gives her a token, e.g. ring, feather.) (In iron shoes) she sets out to find him [H1385.4, H1125]. The bride comes to the house of her bridegroom's mother, a witch, who swears by her son's name not to devour her. The witch imposes difficult tasks on the young woman, which she performs (with the help of her bridegroom): to sort a large quantity of grain [H1122], to fill mattresses with the feathers of all kinds of birds, to wash the black wool white and the white black [H1023.6, cf. Type 1183], to sweep a house but leave it unswept [H1066], etc. In some variants she enchants (three) suitors and makes them fight (part of previous Type 425N). Cf. Types 313, 875. The young woman is sent on a dangerous journey to bring a casket from the sister of the witch. Having passed obstacles (with the advice from her bridegroom) and obtained the casket, she is forbidden to open it. (Cf. Types 408, 480.) When the bride acts against the prohibition, her husband helps her. At the wedding of the bridegroom and the witch's daughter, the young woman has to hold ten burning candles (torches). Her bridegroom saves her from being burned. The young woman remarries her bridegroom, or both escape by a magic (transformation) flight [D671, D672]. In some variants a female demon (witch) demands that a young woman accomplish impossible tasks [G204, H1010, H931]. Among other things, the girl has to bring a letter to another demon telling her to kill the girl [K978] (cf. Type 930). A wolf helps the girl to escape the danger [B435.3]. As a reward, the wolf is disenchanted. He turns to a prince [D113.1] and marries the young woman. (Previously Type 428.)

Combinations: 425A, 425C, 425E, 433B, and 857.

Remarks:The earliest literary version is by Apuleius, Cupid and Psyche, in Metamorphoses (IV; 28-VI, 24), ca. 100 C.E. Many structural similarities exist between Types 425A and 425B, and often the variants are not clearly identified as belonging to one type or the other. The essential feature of this type is the quest for the casket, which entails the visit to the second witch's house. Usually the supernatural bridegroom is the witch's son, and he helps his wife perform the tasks. According to Swahn (1955), the previous Type 428 is a fragment of Type 425B.

(Hans-Jörg Uther. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004.)