its lustre in contact with virgins, turned black, the princess knew that, without fault of her own, she was pregnant (compare the Annunciation motive with the dove).
The faithful servant now helped her in her need, helped to conceal her pregnancy, held her own hands over that of the princess that contained the tell-tale gold, and passed herself as the mother of the child.
After some time the prince arrives who had been transformed into that bird by the wicked stepmother, but could be delivered by a princess risking her life for him, and wishes to marry his rescuer. The princess is required to show her gold but affirms that the servant Sesselja has stolen it and drives her away. Everything is revealed, however, and the prince marries the servant, poorly rewarded for her faithfulness, who was indeed also a princess.
The motive of the sexual persecution by the father is the same as in the previous examples.
That the mother must always die first means, as in the language of dreams, that the mother (in the wish dream of the daughter) is the sexual rival of the daughter and must yield to her (infantilism).
The bird-prince and the narration of how princess Sesselja became pregnant is another striking example of sexual fairy-tale symbolism that further completes our deductions regarding the "Lark."
Sesselja, who is followed by her father, is depressed and gets the bird as a wish complement and becomes pregnant through it. It becomes indeed later also her mate. Through that, that the haughty princess Sesselja, as rival, who must be overcome, is taken up in the structure, there is brought about the somewhat characteristic transference.[1] Pride, unapproachableness, combined with cruelty, as sexual characteristics of fairy-tale heroines, or much more of the woman whom the fairy prince is to conquer, is a frequently used chief motive in fairy tales.
Of the Peasant's Son Who Marries the Queen (Rittershaus, XLVIII, p. 201).—The peasant's son Finnur in his childhood often played with two princes. He was, however, stronger in every way than they, so they enviously ignored him. They undertook a journey into the world, well endowed, but in contrast to
- ↑ Perhaps it is not a transference; such errors also occur in nature.
