The Bird of Truth

The Bird of Truth is a fairytale collected by Cecilia Böhl de Faber and published in her Cuentos de Encantamiento (Stories of Enchantment).

One day, as he was packing up to go home, a fisherman spotted two beautiful babies, a girl and a boy, floating in a crystal cradle on the river. Unable to leave the pair to fend for themselves, of course, the fisherman takes the babies home to his wife to care for and bring up.

Unfortunately, the fisherman and his wife already had a number of other children and the older boys were often cruel to the young twins. Whenever this happened, the little girl and her brother would run off and go to play on the river bank, where they would feed bread crumbs to the birds. Naturally, the birds were very grateful and, in return, they taught the young twins how to speak their language.

But things didn’t improve at all at home for the pair of them and one day, the eldest of the boys teased and taunted them mercilessly about their having no real parents. It was too much for the twins to bear, so the two of them decided to run away for good and to go and seek their fortunes. They had not travelled very far when they sat down to rest and they overheard the birds gossiping in the language they had learned.

According to the tale told by one of the birds, the king of the region had not many years ago married the youngest daughter of a poor tailor, much to the disgust and opposition of the royal court. Soon after the marriage, the king had to go away to do battle and it was then that his disgruntled nobles hatched a plan to get their own back for the king’s poor marriage. On the king’s return from battle, his court told him that while he was away his wife had given birth to twins, who had sadly died. The mother was so distraught, she had gone mad and had had to be locked away in a royal lodge high in the mountains, where it was hoped the fresh air would restore her to good health again.

The truth of the matter, explained the bird, was that the baby twins had been hidden away in the gardener’s shack, but that night the Lord High Chamberlain had gone to the shack, put the twins in a crystal cradle and thrown it into the river.

At this, the twins at once pricked up their ears, because they recognised themselves immediately from the bird’s telling of the tale and realised how it was that the fisherman came to find them floating on the river.

The bird’s tale became more mysterious still as it went on to explain that only the Bird of Truth would be able to successfully convince the king that the children who had been found afloat on the river were indeed his own children. But the Bird of Truth was kept in a cage guarded by an ogre of a giant who slept only 15 minutes each day, in the castle of Arrive-and-never-Depart. The way to this castle was also a carefully guarded secret, known only by a witch, who would divulge the secret road to the castle only on receipt of a chalice of water from the fountain of many colours. To make matters even more complicated and challenging, anyone searching for the Bird of Truth would discover that it was surrounded by identical-looking Birds of Ill Faith, and only an owl could tell which one was which.

Thoroughly baffled and bemused by this strange tale, the twins set off once again towards the city and when they arrived, begged shelter for the night. Over one night, then two, the children made themselves so helpful that they were asked to stay. While the little girl decided to stay, her brother instead left on his great quest.

Along his way, the boy was directed by a dove just to go with the wind, and by following the wind, he eventually reached the witch’s house, where he asked her for directions to the castle of Arrive-and-never-Depart. The witch tried to persuade the young boy to stay for the night and, when he refused, she demanded he give her to drink from a chalice of the many-coloured waters, or she would turn him into a lizard. Fortunately, a friendly raven was able to show the boy the way to the fountain of many colours and he returned with a chalice full of water for the witch to drink. Reluctantly, therefore, the witch ordered her dog to lead the boy and together they set off for the castle.

When they reached the castle of Arrive-and-never-Depart, the boy heard the owl’s cry and he asked it for its advice. The owl told him to fill a jug of water from a fountain nearby and then to find the room where the birds were kept while the giant took his 15 minutes of sleep. Look for a white bird in the corner, advised the owl, and disregard the brightly-coloured birds. The boy did as he was told and returned with the jug of water. But the witch snatched it from him and threw the water over him, casting a spell to turn the boy into a parrot. But the boy instead turned into a very handsome young man, all the creatures in the castle threw themselves into the fountain and became human again, and the witch flew away on her broomstick.

Fearing that the truth would soon come out, all the courtiers who had arranged for the baby twins to be cast on the river and abandoned tried to make plans to keep the story from the king. But they chattered so much about their plans that the king overheard them and became curious. So when the Bird of Truth flew to the king, he stopped to listen and believed every word of the bird’s story.

Straight away, the king went to find his children, embraced them heartily and set off with them into the mountains, where they immediately set free his wife and their mother from the lodge.

The wicked courtiers all had their heads cut off, the fisherman and his wife who had rescued and raised the twins were rewarded with riches and honours and everyone else, as they say, lived happily ever after.