King of Love, Pitrè’s Green-Bird Husband

Overview

A herb-gatherer’s daughter pulls a radish that opens an underground dwelling. Inside, a green bird bathes in milk, dries itself and becomes a handsome young man. He takes Rosella, also printed Rusidda, as his wife and gives her father gold. Her sisters persuade her to demand his forbidden name. As she insists, he becomes a bird in a golden basin and identifies himself as the King of Love; bird, basins and palace disappear, leaving her pregnant and alone. This specific disappearance differs from the lamp-and-spilled-wax episode in Crane’s following Crystal King summary.

During her search, his six ogress aunts give Rosella shelter. His sisters help her approach their dangerous mother. The King of Love appears when Rosella laments and tells her how to survive a journey to another ogress: kindness to dogs, giants, tools and other household features makes them refuse their mistress’s orders to harm her. He also restores escaped dancing and singing puppets to their box, and summons the King of the Birds to supply feathers for six mattresses.

His mother arranges another marriage and makes Rosella hold torches beside the wedding bed. The King of Love persuades the new bride to take her place; the earth swallows that bride, while he remains with Rosella. When his mother prevents childbirth by clasping her hands, he feigns death on a funeral platform. Her grief makes her release the gesture, allowing the child’s birth. The mother then dies, and he remains with Rosella and his sisters. The narrative supplies neither the child’s name nor a later succession.

Origins & earliest records

Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), I, The King of Love, pp.1–6; the list of stories identifies Pitrè, Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti, No.18, Lu Re d’Amuri. Crane marks this as translated from Sicilian dialect. The bibliography dates Pitrè’s collection to Palermo, 1875. No individual oral narrator is named in the selected English presentation.

Records & interpretation

The complete numbered tale preserves bird transformation, family relationships, tasks and its closing birth/death sequence. Crane’s preface acknowledges tense changes and omitted repetitions; his English version is the selected witness, not an independently collated Sicilian manuscript or recording.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Italian Popular Tales, I: The King of Love, pp.1–6

   Thomas Frederick Crane, translator/compiler; source Giuseppe Pitrè, No.18, Lu Re d’Amuri · 1885 English edition; Pitrè collection 1875

   Complete numbered tale read through Rosella’s child’s birth and mother-in-law’s death. Following summaries of Crystal King and Peppino are separate witnesses, not added to this plot.

Family, evolution & connections

The King of Love and his ogress mother — Crane I

The complete King of Love narrative, pp. 1–6; not the following Crystal King summary.

Explicit mother connected to her son and separate unnamed daughters. The King’s father and the number of daughters are unstated. Bird and human appearances are one character. Rosella’s newborn has no supplied name or sex; this graph does not infer additional parents. The seven ogresses are a sibling set, while the letter recipient is separately a friend. No identity with Classical Eros is asserted.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textCrane, Italian Popular Tales (1885): I, preface, story list and bibliographyResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.