he brings back with him to the castle. The king, pleased by the boy's return with such wealth, allows him to live in peace with his wife. He inquires on the source of the wealth he acquired, hoping to find some for himself. The boy tells him the gold was found across the river. The story ends with the king crossing the river with the ferryman, who hands him the oar upon reaching the other side, condemning him to a life of ferrying travellers back and forth forever. Analysis Tale types Folklorist Stith Thompson commented that the first part of the tale (birth of boy predestined to marry princess/rich girl), classified as ATU 930, is often found coupled together with the second part, the impossible task of getting the hair from the Devil (or giant, ogre, etc.). Scholar Kurt Ranke stated that the tale type was a European combination of "two very old stories": the "child of fate" that appears as early as the 3rd century CE in Indian and Chinese literature, associated with the motif K978 ("Uriah letter"); and the hero's journey to the other world bearing questions, a narrative contained in the Avadana and in the Tutinama. Scholars Antti Aarne and Václav Tille, as cited by Thompson, concluded that both stories were separate tales that combined into one narrative in Europe - a similar assessment made by folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polívka, in their notes to the Grimm's tales. ATU 930: The Prophecy According to Thompson and Tille, tale type 930 shows 4 literary redactions: Indic (the oldest), Ethiopic, Western European and Turkish. In European tradition, the theme appears in the Middle Ages: in Godfrey of Viterbo (12th century); in Gesta Romanorum, with the story of the king and the forester's son; and in Le dit de l'empereur Constant (13th century). Professor Dov Noy stated that type 930 is "well known" in Eastern Europe. ATU 461: Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard Thompson stated that the tale type appears "all over Europe" and in Asia (China). Willem de Blécourt registers that the tale Li sette palommelle ("The Seven Doves"), on the Pentamerone, shows as its second part the heroine's quest to a creature named Chronos, the one who can give her the answers to rescue her brothers. He states that this sequence, "The Three Questions", was "incorporated" into the tale type "in late 18th century". In this