The Three Enchanted Princes is an Italian literary "Fairy Tale", first published in Pentamerone.
It is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 552, "The Animal Brothers-in-Law".
Compare "The Death of Koschei the Deathless", for a similar narrative.
This tale contains examples of:
- Forced Transformation: The titular enchanted princes are, in fact, three human princes, respectively transformed into a falcon, a stag and a dolphin.
- Land, Sea, Sky: The three enchanted princes each represent an element: the falcon, the air; the stag, the forest (land); the dolphin, the sea. In other variants, the falcon is replaced by an eagle, the stag by a bear, and the dolphin becomes a generic giant fish.
- The Marvelous Deer: One of the princes is transformed into a stag. The stag acts as the ruler of the creatures of the forest and summons them to help his human brother-in-law.
- No Ontological Inertia: The titular enchanted princes help their human brother-in-law to destroy the evil wizard who cursed them into their animal states. After the wizard is killed and his tower fortress destroyed, the spell is lifted and the prince regain human form.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Averted. The hero visits each of his three sisters, and his three brothers-in-law greet him like a brother. At the end of the tale, the hero summons the three of them to kill a dragon.
- Rule of Three: There are three princes, and three sisters that marry them.
