Fitcher's Bird
In the fairytale Fitcher’s Bird, a sorcerer disguises himself as an old beggar and kidnaps beautiful girls. One day, the sorcerer discovers a house with a man who has three beautiful daughters. After kidnapping the eldest daughter, the sorcerer tests her fidelity and obedience by handing her an egg and a set of keys. The daughter is allowed to explore the house, but she is forbidden to enter one room of the house or lose the egg. The eldest daughter succumbs to her curiosity and enters the room that she is prohibited from. In this room she discovers a bloody basin filled with dead people, and in her surprise she drops the egg into the blood. The sorcerer soon learns of the first daughter’s disobedience and murders her in the room. The second daughter is then kidnapped by the sorcerer and suffers a similar fate. However, when the third and youngest daughter is kidnapped, she uses her smarts to break the pattern and put the egg in a safe place before entering the forbidden chamber. In the chamber, the youngest daughter exhibits remembrance and rescues her sisters. She eventually is able to trick the sorcerer into bringing her sisters back home while she disguises herself as a bird and is able to escape from the sorcerer’s house, where the sorcerer and his friends are burned to death. Throughout the fairytale, many different symbols and themes arise. From the use of disguise to the fate of the sorcerer, various messages are presented to the audience by the fairytale. In order to interpret the principle message of Fitcher’s Bird, an analysis of the symbols and themes, in addition to an analysis of the structure of the fairytale, is necessary. The fairytale’s plotline follows the basic structural framework of a fairytale with a female protagonist and is a story about deliverance or salvation. The protagonist, who is the youngest of 3 daughters, is set apart from her 2 elder sisters by her cleverness. Like many stories with female protagonists, there is originally