The Love for Three Oranges (fairy tale)

The Love for Three Oranges
The prince releases the fairy woman from the fruit. Illustration by Edward G. McCandlish for Édouard René de Laboulaye's Fairy Book (1920).
Folk tale
NameThe Love for Three Oranges
Also known asThe Three Citrons
Aarne–Thompson groupingATU 408 (The Three Oranges)
RegionItaly
Published inPentamerone, by Giambattista Basile
Related

"The Love for the Three Oranges" or "The Three Citrons" (Neapolitan: Le Tre Cetre) is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone in the 17th century. It is the concluding tale, and the one the heroine of the frame story uses to reveal that an imposter has taken her place.

The literary tale by Basile is considered to be the oldest attestation of tale type ATU 408, "The Three Oranges", of the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index. Variants are recorded from oral tradition among European Mediterranean countries, in the Middle East and Turkey, as well as across Iran and India.