The Golden Root (Italian fairy tale)

Her sisters often force Parmetella to drive the pigs in another part of the meadow, where she eventually finds a fountain and a tree with golden leaves beside it.

She instructs her to keep walking, passing by a straight bridge, narrow as a strand of hair, and until she meets seven bone-eating ogresses who are spinning on a bone on the balcony of a house.

Following the fairy's instructions, Parmetella gives them the honey-smeared spindle and figs, and waits until they swear on Truone-e-lampe's name not to harm her.

The ogress mother then orders Parmetella, as a first task, to separate twelve sacks of grains that have been mixed into a single heap.

The last task given to her is to go to the ogress' sister's house and fetch a box of instruments from her, to be used in the future wedding of Truone-e-lampe with another bride.

Following her husband's advice, she enters the sister's house, gives food to the horse and the dog, and compliments the door hinges.

She then tricks the ogress's niece who goes with her into the oven instead of her, takes the box of instruments before the witch commands the door hinges, the horse and the dog to stop her.

At a safe distance from the witch, curiosity takes the best of her again as she opens the box; causing musical instruments to fly out in process.

Philologist Gianfranco D'Aronco [it] classified the tale as Italian type 425, Lo sposo scomparso ("The Lost Husband").

[9] Scholars have called attention to structural similarities between the tale and the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, as related by Apuleius in the 2nd century AD.

[11][12][13] Folklorist Joseph Jacobs stated that The Golden Root is the first appearance in modern times of the "Cupid and Psyche story" (invisible husband, breaking a taboo, heroine's tasks for mother-in-law).

[15] Catalan scholarship located the motif of the box of musical instruments in Greek, Turkish and South Italian variants.

[16] In that regard, Swahn, in his study on Cupid and Psyche, remarked that the instruments as the contents of the box are "common" to Mediterranean tradition.

[19] In a Sicilian tale collected by Giuseppe Pitrè with the title Marvizia, a prince's daughter owns a potted plant that produces a rose with good seeds to eat.

The next day, the mammadraga turns the green bird into a man, and sets her giant servant Ali to take Marvizia to be devoured by goats.

The green bird agrees to the mammadraga's decision, but secretly, uses the Ring of Command to materialize a torch with gunpowder and pellets inside.

Marvizia, the now human green bird and the giant soon attempt to escape from the mammadraga with the Ring and the Book of Command, with the villainess hot in pursuit.

[20] Author Woldemar Kaden [sv] translated the tale as Pappelröschen ("Poplar Rose"),[21] and commented that this was another variant of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

[23] Author Heinrich Zschalig published a tale from the island of Capri with the title Blitz und Donner ("Thunder and Lightning"): a girl named Rosinella lives with her poor father.

He explains that the figs are for his sisters, and that, if she suffers for a year, three months and three weeks, the man, named Thunder and Lightning, will marry her.

The sisters welcome her, but warn that their mother, Luisa, is a cannibal and may devour her, but the girl can gain her favour by pulling her hair and forcing her to swear on her son's name.

Luisa forces the human girl on difficult tasks: to fill two sacks with feathers and to separate a large heap of mixed seeds.

The magician answers that her fate will be the most fortunate of the three sisters, and suggests to take Cristina for a stroll in the mountains, lace her food with opium and, after the girl falls asleep, leave her there and return home which she follows soon after.

Cristina's mother consults with the magician and learns her daughter is living a life of luxury in the palace of a prince named Cupido, changed into a monster by the work of a Maga (sorceress).

Cristina breaks the voice's trust: she lights a candle at night and sees not a monstrous form, but a handsome youth with wings on his shoulders.

Ermengilda follows the instructions to the letter, gets the box and hurries back to her mother-in-law's house, but, en route, she becomes curious and opens it: little men and little women escape from it and begin to dance, sing and play.

Cupido wakes up with a startle and laments Nina's deed, since he would have married her and made her his queen, but now she must die at his mother's hands.

One day, the woman sends her step-daughter to get the scàttele de le sunarjielle, and Ggijje-me’-bbèlle advises the girl on how to reach it.

Eventually, the woman marries her son to another bride, and forces the step-daughter to hold ten candles on her fingers during the wedding night.

Ggijje-me’-bbèlle's bride mocks the girl's suffering and confesses that she kissed the hands of the milkman for some figs and a glass of milk.