The Padlock[1] (Italian: Lo catenaccio) is a literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone, as the ninth story of the second day.
At the fountain, she meets a "handsome slave", who makes a proposition for her: if she comes to live with him in a nearby cave, the man will wash her in pretty things.
Heavily pregnant and abandoned by her husband, Luciella wanders to the city of Torre-Longa, where she takes shelter with the local queen and gives birth to a beautiful baby in the stables.
[2] 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.
[16] Scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn [sv], in his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, remarked that the heroine's pregnancy was an "essential" trait of subtype AaTh 425L.
[17] In his 1955 monograph, Swahn noted that the husband's lullaby to his child was "rather uniformly formed", containing instructions to extinguish "the cocks [galli] and the clocks [campane]".
[18] Similarly, according to Italian literary critic Mario Lavagetto [it] and Anna Buia, the prince's lullaby from Basile's tale is "preserved" in most of the subsequent variants.
[19] In the same vein, professor Michael Merakles argued that the prince's lullaby "dissolved" in Greek variants, but its existence can be gleamed by fragmentary references present in the texts.
[20] Although they acknowledged that the crowing of the rooster marks type AaTh 425E, Mario Lavagetto and Anna Buia, as well as folklorist Letterio Di Francia, remarked that the motif is "widespread" in Italian tradition.
In 1975 the Institute published a catalog edited by Alberto Maria Cirese [it] and Liliana Serafini reported 4 variants of subtype 425E, under the banner Il marito incantato canta la ninna nanna ("The Enchanted Husband Sings Lullaby").
Meanwhile, back to the underground palace, the fairies inform King Animmulu that Nunzia gave birth to his son, and suggest they pay them a visit.
The somber creature asks the man the purpose of his visit, and demands one of his daughters be delivered to him, unless he wishes to forfeit his life.
She leaves the door and her husband, the youth, banishes her from his palace, but advises her to go to the king's court, where she will be given lodge and whose royal family is searching for him.
[29] Austrian philologist Christian Schneller [de] collected and translated a tale from Wälschtirol with the title Der Selleri (Lo sellem; The Celery).
One day, however, while the small man is away, the girl opens the forbidden room and discovers women preparing linen clothes, and sees a cradle of pure gold.
[30] Italian anthropologist Antonio De Nino [it] collected a tale from Abruzzo with the title Il Cavolo d'Oro ("The Golden Cabbage").
The girl shouts for the washerwoman to mind her clothes, and her screams wake up the prince, who laments that she betrayed his trust, for the fairies will banish her.
Oimè discovers the man is his salad thief, and demands one of his three daughters in payment, saying he will pay him a visit and choose his bride in person.
Two nursemaids see the youth talking to a magic lantern, and rocking the baby with a song that laments that if the roosters never crowed and the bells never rang, he would be happy.
On the following nights, the queen is informed about the youth's visit and stays awake to see him: she recognizes it is her own son, and goes to embrace him before he vanishes with the dawn.
He finds the wildflowers in the garden and goes to pluck some, when suddenly a snake springs up from the fountain and coils around the miller's arm, demanding the man's daughter in exchange for the flowers.
In the tale, which Bošković-Stulli noted to "resemble" Basile's story, three sisters go to fetch firewood, when the heroine is brought to a castle where the cursed bridegroom lives.
At night, someone comes to rock the son with a song, saying that if the roosters do not sing, the bells do not sound, and the dawn does not break, the little prince can return home and people will know the identity of the mysterious singer.
In time, Anna's son is born, and his father, the human fish, comes to rock him with a song, asking for the bells not to ring, the light not to illuminate, and the cocks not to crow, then vanishes with the dawn.
[37] In an Italian-Albanian tale collected by linguist Martin Camaj from a source in Greci and translated to Italian as Il figlio del re, falco ("The Son of the King, Falcon"), and to German as Der Sohn des Königs, der ein Falke war ("The King's Son who was a Falcon"), a girl works as a spinner, while her sisters and mother toil in the fields.
One day, a bearded old man appears underground and advises the girl to leave for the upper world, then gives her three golden eggs.
Soon, the girl tells the queen and the king need to tie every church bell, leaving only one to ring on Easter in order to break the curse for good.
[43] Brazilian author Marco Haurélio collected and published a Portuguese language tale from Bahia with the title Angélica Mais Afortunada (O Príncipe Teiú).
That same night, the teiú creeps into the room to see his wife and newborn son, and sings a song to the boy about he, the father, would be with him, had the rooster not crowed, the donkey not whinnied, and the bell not rung, and disappears.
Some time later, a man, the boy's father, appears in the room and sings a song to rock the baby, saying that, his child would be in a golden cradle if the rooster never crowed.