The “magical conflict” motif

Note: this text is extracted from Book VII, chapter 37.

The “Magical Conflict” or “Transformation Combat” motif dates from very early times, and in an ancient Egyptian tale, “The Veritable History of Satni-Khamoîs” (Maspero, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt, p. 166 et seq.), we find a long series of amazing transformations closely resembling those occurring in subsequent collections.

In most examples of the motif there are two distinct transformation incidents. Firstly, someone is turned—or learns how to turn himself—into some kind of animal, and as such is sold to the highest bidder. The seller, usually the man’s father, must on no account sell the halter or string round the animal’s neck. It is a kind of “External Soul” and its surrender condemns the man to remain in his animal shape. And secondly, events lead to a “Magical Conflict” either between the hero and a magician (in many tales his former teacher), or the hero’s rescuer and the magician.

It will be seen that in our present text the string turned Bhavaśarman into an ox which it was necessary to remove before he could recover his pristine shape. The conflict is only very short, but in most versions becomes long and complicated. In several cases one of the combatants takes the form of a pomegranate, a heap of grain, or a rose, and in each case the object becomes divided into a large number of separate parts, and it is not until each seed, stone, grain, leaf, or whatever it is, has been devoured by the adversary (usually in the form of a cock at this stage of the proceedings) that the other can be destroyed.

One good example of this will suffice. I choose “The Second Kalendar’s Tale” from the Nights (Burton, vol. i, pp. 134-135):

“. . . whereupon he changed to the form of a lion, and said, ‘ O traitress, how is it thou hast broken the oath we sware that neither should contraire other!’ ‘O accursed one,’ answered she, ‘ how could there be a compact between me and the like of thee?’ Then said he, ‘Táke what thou hast brought on thyself’; and the lion opened his jaws and rushed upon her; but she was too quick for him; and, plucking a hair from her head, waved it in the air muttering over it the while; and the hair straightway became a trenchant sword-blade, wherewith she smote the lion and cut him in twain. Then the two halves flew away in air and the head changed to a scorpion and the Princess became a huge serpent and set upon the accursed scorpion, and the two fought, coiling and uncoiling, a stiff fight for an hour at least. Then the scorpion changed to a vulture, and the serpent became an eagle which set upon the vulture, and hunted him for an hour’s time, till he became a black tom-cat, which miauled and grinned and spat. Thereupon the eagle changed into a piebald wolf, and these two battled in the palace for a long time, when the cat, seeing himself overcome, changed into a worm and crept into a huge red pomegranate, which lay beside the jetting fountain in the midst of the palace hall. Whereupon the pomegranate swelled to the size of a water-melon in air; and, falling upon the marble pavement of the palace, broke to pieces, and all the grains fell out and were scattered about till they covered the whole floor. Then the wolf shook himself and became a snow-white cock, which fell to picking up the grains, purposing not to leave one; but by doom of destiny one seed rolled to the fountain-edge and there lay hid. The cock fell to crowing and clapping his wings and signing to us with his beak as if to ask, ‘Are any grains left?’ But we understood not what he meant, and he cried to us with so loud a cry that we thought the palace would fall upon us. Then he ran over all the floor till he saw the grain which had rolled to the fountain-edge, and rushed eagerly to pick it up, when behold, it sprang into the midst of the water and became a fish and dived to the bottom of the basin. Thereupon the cock changed to a big fish and plunged in after the other, and the two disappeared for a while, and lo! we heard loud shrieks and cries of pain which made us tremble. After this the I frit rose out of the water, and he was as a burning flame; casting fire and smoke from his mouth and eyes and nostrils. And immediately the Princess likewise came forth from the basin and she was one live coal of flaming lowe; and these two, she and he, battled for the space of an hour, until their fires entirely compassed them about and their thick smoke filled the palace.”

After a final terrific struggle the Ifrit is killed, but his adversary succumbs to her wounds.

The motif has been discussed by several writers. See, for instance, Hartland, Legend of Perseus, vol. ii, pp. 56, 57; Crooke, Some Notes on Homeric Folk-Lore,” Folk-Lore, vol. xix, 1908, p. 167; Clouston, Popular Tales and Fictions, vol. i, p. 413 et seq.; W. R. Halliday, “The Force of Initiative in Magical Conflict,” Folk-Lore, vol. xxi, 1910, p. 147 et seq.; Keightley, Tales and Popular Fictions, 1834, p. 123; Macculloch, Childhood of Fiction, pp. 164-166; Chauvin, op. cit., v, p. 1 99; viii, p. 149; Bolte, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 60 et seq.; and Cosquin, “Les Mongols et leur Prétendu Rôle dans la Transmission des contes Indiens vers L’Occident Européen,” Études Folkloriques, pp. 497-612.

The following references will show how widely diffused is the motif under consideration, both in Europe and the East:—

• N. Sāstrī, Dravidian Nights, pp. 8-18;
• Oesterley, Baitāl Pachīsī, 174-175;
• Swynnerton, Indian Nights’ Entertainments, No. 57;
• Jülg, Die Märchen des Siddhi-Kür, p. 51 et seq.;
• Gibb, The History of the Forty Vezirs, pp. 253-256;
• Busk, Sagas from the Far East, p. 4;
• Spitta-Bey, Contes Arabes Modemes, pp. 1-11;
• A. Dozon, Contes Albanais, 1881, p. 135;
• Hahn, Griechische und Albanesische Märchen, 1864, No. 68;
• Mijatovic, Serbian Folk-Lore, 1874, p. 211 et seq.;
• Wardrop, Georgian Folk-Tales, p. 1;
• Ralston, Russian Folk-Tales, p. 229;
• A. and W. Schott, Wallachian Stories, No. 18, p. 198;
• Straparola, The Nights, trans. Waters, vol. ii, p. 109;
• Lady Charlotte Guest, The Mabinogion,” from the Welsh of Llyfr Cock O Hergest (The Red Book of Hergest), 1877, pp. 471-473;
• Campbell, Tales of the West Highlands, vol. ii, p. 423;
• Thorpe, Yule-tide Stories, 1853, p. 364;
• Dasent, Popular Tales from the Norse, 1859, pp. 335-339;
• Grundtvig, Dänische Volksmärchen, 1878-1879, vol. i, p. 248;
• Petitôt, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, 1886, p. 223.

—n.m.p.