One day, he told his mother that he wished to marry and persisted until the queen persuaded a poor woman to give her oldest daughter to him.
But finally, the princess revealed the secret to the king and queen and told them to come to the bedchamber at night.
The king is anxious that the third fairy meant ill, but the queen is convinced her desire for a child made her dream it.
She is persuaded to marry him as her sister was, and on the wedding day, she conspires to kill him, but she does not check her confidante, and he is the prince.
There Marthesie meets Marcassin, who falls in love with her but laments to her that his having caused so much evil to her family will make it impossible.
She wakes him, and he tells her that the third fairy had wished him to be a wild boar until he had married three times, and his third wife had found his pigskin.
French author Henriette-Julie de Murat also delved in the theme of a swine suitor with her literary fairy tale Le Roy Porc, published in 1699.
[7][8][9][10][11] In de Murat's version, seventeen-year-old princess Ondine is the object of amorous intentions of the titular Pig King and of Pactole, a riff on the river-god Pactolus.
[17] Also, according to Swedish folklorist Waldemar Liungman [sv], in type ATU 441 the animal husband may be a hedgehog, a wild boar or a porcupine.
[18] The Grimms' notes state that in these fairy tales, "Hedgehog, porcupine, and pig are here synonymous, like Porc and Porcaril".
[19] Italian writer Italo Calvino noted that "the folktale about the swine king is one of the most widespread in Italy".
[20] A similar opinion was given by Letterio di Francia: he concluded that in many Italian variants the prince is either transformed into a serpent or is an enchanted pig.