Ancilotto, King of Provino

"Ancilotto, King of Provino"
Author	Giovanni Francesco Straparola
Country	Italy
Language	Italian
Genre(s)	Fairy tale
Published in	The Facetious Nights of Straparola

Ancilotto, King of Provino is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.

It is Aarne-Thompson type 707: the dancing water, the singing apple, and the speaking bird. It is the oldest known variant of this tale, and influenced Madame d'Aulnoy's Princess Belle-Etoile. A variant of this tale appears in Antoine Galland's Arabian Nights collection, but no Arab manuscript exists, and Galland, reporting an oral source, may also have been influenced by this version. It spread to appear as The Three Little Birds in the Brothers Grimm's collection.

Ancilotto, the king, heard three sisters talking: Brunora, the eldest sister, said if she married the king's majordomo, she could give the entire court a drink from one glass of water; Lionella, the second, said if she married the king's chamberlain, she could turn one spindle of linen to give fine shifts to the entire court; Chiaretta, the youngest said if she married the king, she would give him triplets who would have fine hair with gold, a gold necklace, and a star on their forehead. The king married them off as they had said. The Queen mother was angry to have such a daughter-in-law. The king had to leave, and while he was gone, Chiaretta gave birth to two sons and a daughter, as she had described. Three black puppies with white stars had been born, and Chiaretta's sisters brought them to the queen. The queen substituted them for the babies, and the babies were put in a box and thrown into the river. A miller, Marmiato, found them. His wife, Gordiana, named the boys Acquirino and Fluvio, and the girl Serena.

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