Prominent in the action of a very large number of folk stories is the performance of difficult, and sometimes impossible, tasks and quests. Frequently such compulsory labors form only a subordinate part of the story, [116] the principal interest of which is an extensive plot in which these tasks are of only incidental importance. In contrast to such tales there are some half a dozen in which the performance of tasks or the accomplishment of quests is the most important event of the entire action.

The quests on which the heroes of folktales set forth are frequently impossible or strange, but none stranger than those undertaken by The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is (Type 326). The hero has heard of fear but does not know what it is. He goes out on a search for it and tries various frightful experiences which have been suggested to him. He plays cards with the devil in a church; he steals clothes from a ghost; he spends the night under a gallows, and another in a cemetery; he stays in a haunted house where dead men's limbs fall down the chimney; he overcomes ghost like cats; he plays ninepins with a dead man whose members have been reassembled; he cuts the devil's fingernails; or, lastly, he has himself shaved by a ghostly barber. In spite of all his efforts he fails to discover fear. Later, after his marriage, he learns what fear is when cold water is thrown on him or when eels are put down his back while he is asleep.

In exactly this form the story does not have any early literary treatments. Straparola in the sixteenth century wrote a story about a boy who went on a [p. 106] quest for death, and one of the Icelandic sagas tells of a similar journey to find out what anger is. [117] As an oral tale in very much the form we have outlined it is present throughout the European continent, in the British Isles, and in Iceland. It seems to be popular in all parts of this area, and only a special investigation could determine the part of Europe where the tale may have originated. For it is certainly European: it does not occur in Asia or Africa, and where it appears in the New World it has obviously been carried by European settlers. [118]

The assignment of tasks to suitors by the father of the prospective bride is a prominent motif in several well-known stories (Motifs H310-H359). Much less usual is the imposition of tasks by the maiden herself, but this is the central motif of Grimm's tale -of The Sea-Hare (Type 329). A princess is possessed of magic windows which give her the power of seeing everything. She assigns her suitors the task of hiding themselves from her. Those who fail have their heads placed on stakes before the palace. [119] After his elder brothers have lost their lives in this attempt, the youngest undertakes the task. He receives the help of grateful animals or, in some versions, of an old man. With their aid he hides himself in a raven's egg and in the belly of a fish, but the princess discovers him even there. As a last resort he has himself transformed into an insect under the princess's hair. In her anger she breaks her magic windows and thus loses her power. The youth is eventually disenchanted and marries the princess.

The tale is made up of a great many motifs which are mere folktale commonplaces: the suitor tasks, the helpful animals, the successful youngest son, transformation and disenchantment, and the final happy marriage. Nevertheless, the outlines of the tale are distinct enough wherever it is known. Nowhere can it be said to be popular, but some versions occur in most countries from Iceland to the Caucasus. It does not seem to have had any literary treatment, nor to have been carried to other continents. Its distribution would suggest that it is essentially eastern European.

Certain elements of the tale just discussed are found in a story which is popular in Norway but is apparently confined to that country. In this tale of The King's Tasks (Type 577) it is the king who imposes tasks on his daughter's suitors. The youngest son, through his kindness to an old woman, receives magic objects and information, and with these succeeds where his elder brothers have failed.

The assigner of tasks in folk narratives is sometimes the hero's father. In a story made popular through its literary handling by Madame d'Aulnoy [p. 107] in 1710 under the title The White Cat (La Chatte Blanche [Type 402]), the youngest of the three brothers succeeds best in the quests set by his father. The youths are sent out to bring back the best of various things—the most beautiful bouquet, the finest of chains, the best of bread, the smallest of dogs, the finest of horses, and finally the most beautiful bride. The hero is helped by an animal, frequently a cat, but sometimes a mouse or frog. She eventually changes herself into a beautiful maiden and marries him.

The Grimms use this plot for two of their stories, one with a frog and the other with a cat as the transformed heroine. Except for this inconsistency in the kind of animal who acts as the hero's helper, the story maintains a clear and vigorous tradition in the folklore of all of Europe. Somewhat more than 300 versions have been recorded. Two variants are known from Armenia and one from North Africa; otherwise it seems to have remained in Europe.

Two tales of quests are so much alike that it is convenient to consider them at the same time. In both stories a king sends his sons out on a quest; in both the youngest succeeds and eventually overcomes the treachery of his elder brothers. The first of these tales is The Bird, the Horse, and the Princess (Type 550). At night a bird steals golden apples from the king's orchard, but while doing so drops a golden feather. The king orders his sons to find the bird. As in so many tales of this kind, the two elder boys are discourteous to animals or to an old woman and fail, but the youngest, because of his kindness, receives their help. As the brothers leave, they find a place where three roads part and where inscriptions on each tell what will happen if that road is chosen. Each brother chooses a different road. The hero reaches the tree of the golden bird, but he finds that he may not have the bird until he undertakes further quests. He succeeds in accomplishing these, receives a magic horse, wins a princess, and, along with the magic bird, reaches home. His elder brothers rob him and throw him into a well or a den. He is helped out by a friendly fox or wolf to which he feeds meat. The fox is decapitated and becomes a prince. The hero is restored to his wife and possessions.

This story has a considerable literary history. With slight variations it is known in the Thousand and One Nights and has appeared since that time frequently in literary reworkings. [120] The story is, however, so well established in the oral repertory of taletellers in practically every country of Europe, and fits in so well with the general spirit of many other common oral tales that its essentially popular nature seems unmistakable. It is quite as well known in Scandinavia as it is in Italy and Russia and the Baltic states, and, indeed, all the rest of Europe. It is almost equally popular in western and southern Asia, where it appears in a number of versions in Armenia, India, Indonesia, and central Africa, and is told by the French in Missouri. With so many Asiatic versions balanced against so many European, it is quite impossible, [p. 108] without exhaustive study, to hazard a guess as to where this tale may have originated.

From the general likeness of plot, the identity of many details, and the similarity of the geographical pattern of their occurrences in folklore, it seems reasonable to suppose that this tale and that one which the Grimms called The Water of Life (Type 551) have had much the same history. A mere hasty comparison of the several hundred versions of each of the tales is not sufficient to determine which of these gave rise to the other or whether two stories with the same basic outline have, in the course of time, converged into something like twin types. Future research will doubtless clarify the mutual relation of these stories. It would seem that the first has much the older literary history and is known in Asia. The second has no Asiatic distribution, but has been carried to both North and South American continents.

The plot of The Water of Life, as its name indicates, concerns a quest for a magic healing water or for some other marvelous remedy. The sick or blind king sends his three sons out on this quest. As in the other tale, the two elder brothers are unkind and the youngest kind to animals or an old person. With their aid he succeeds where his brothers have failed. He not only secures the water of life (or of youth), but he also reaches a magic garden where he sees a princess asleep. He lies by the princess and on his departure, writes his name, leaves it with her, and returns home. [121] As in the other tale, his treacherous brothers rob him and throw him into a well or den and he is helped by the fox or wolf. The princess comes seeking the father of her child. After overcoming the treachery of the elder brothers she finds the hero and marries him.