Drakestail

Drakestail
Originally Bout-d'-Canard
Inspiration
Earliest appearance	1888
Original author	Charles Marelle
Country of origin	France

Drakestail (French: Bout-d'-Canard, lit. Duck Butt) is a French fairy tale about a duck who confronts a king to get the money back he was promised, originally written by Charles Marelle. This story was adapted by Annet Kossen and Herman van Veen into the original 1978 Alfred J Kwak theater play. The theater play was later adapted into Alfred J. Kwak Episode 21. The character Drakestail is also known as Quackling or Drakesbill.

Summary

Drakestail and the four friends he meets as illustrated by either Henry Justice Ford or Lancelot Speed (1890)

Drakestail is a fable about a frugal duck who saves a hundred gold coins. The king borrows the money from Drakestail, promising to repay him. After three years without any word from the king, Drakestail decides to visit the king to reclaim his debt.

On his journey, Drakestail meets four companions: a fox, a ladder, a river, and a bees' nest. Each asks to accompany him, and he agrees.

Upon reaching the castle, Drakestail and his companions are thrown into the poultry-yard, where chickens and turkeys attack him. The fox intervenes and kills them. Drakestail is then cast into a well, but the ladder rescues him. When he is subsequently thrown into a furnace, the river extinguishes it and saves him.

The king uses a bladed weapon against Drakesbill, as illustrated by Lucy Fitch Perkins (1920)

Finally, the king attempts to sit on Drakestail, but the bees emerge and sting the king to death. Drakestail searches for his money, only to discover that the king has spent it all. The people of the country find Drakestail resting on the throne and crown him king.

History

The original version of this story, Bout-d'-Canard , was written by Charles Marelle in 1888, published in the book Affenschwanz et Cetera, and later translated into English in Red Fairy Book as Drakestail by Andrew Lang in 1890. Other notable translations/adaptions were in 1920 by Edgar Shimer into Drakesbill and his friends', published in the compilation Fairy stories my children love best of all, and the picture book Quackling: A Not-Too-Grimm Fairy Tale by Aaron Shepard in 2018.

Between 1970 and 1976 Herman van Veen met the illustrator Annet Kossen. Van Veen was interested in making a children's book together with Kossen and asked her to suggest a suitable topic. Kossen then finds, translates and adapts Andrew Lang's adaptation of the story into Dutch and shows it to van Veen. In 1976, a friend of a Harlekijn Holland employee requested a theater play for her birthday. Within a few hours, van Veen, Erik van der Wurff, Harry Sacksioni, Hans Koppes and Ger Smit conceptualized and wrote the first theatrical version, which premiered on August 29, 1976. In 1977, the director of the Residentie Orkest asked van Veen to create a musical play for children, he further adapted the story into a production that premiered in February 1978..

Comparisons to the 1978 theater play

The plot of the theatrical play closely resembles Andrew Lang's version of Drakestail. Likely the most significant change in the 1976 performance was the renaming of the main character to Alfred Jodocus Kwak. Part of the profits for the 1978 version would be donated to Unicef. For the 1978 production, a portion of the proceeds was donated to UNICEF. This, along with the droughts in the Sahel region, likely inspired van Veen to incorporate additional story elements where the protagonist engages in charitable acts. For example, Alfred seeks advice from a new character, Henk de Mol, on creating a pond in an unnamed land without bodies of water.

Other modifications include the introduction of additional names and characters. The king, now called King Bosbol, lives in Rumpelburg and has a squire named Koen van Kale Poen. Additionally, instead of entering the protagonist's stomach, the four friends now reside under Alfred’s wings.

One main theme of the original story is musicality and repeating of rhymes. Below is the evolution of the main rhyme as translated through the different languages.

French: Quand, quand, quand! me rendrez-vous mon bel argent? (lit. When! When! When! Will you give me back my beautiful money?)

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English: Quack! Quack! Quack! When shall I get my money back?

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Dutch: Kwek, Kwek, Kwek! Ik ben wel goed, maar ik ben niet gek. (lit. Quack, quack, quack! I am definitely good, but I'm not crazy.)

The Dutch version would in the end be expanded into a longer rhyme that would turn into the song Kwek Kwek Kwek.

Kwek kwek kwek, ik ben wel goed maar ik ben niet gek.
Kwek kwek kwek, ik ben wel goed maar ik ben niet gek.
Eens gegeven blijft gegeven, opgeteld en weggebleven.
Als jij iets van me leent, moet je het weer teruggeven.
Over een week, over een maand, over een jaar...
Altijd, immer, ooit, maar niet nooit.
Kwek kwek kwek, ik ben wel goed maar ik ben niet gek.
Kwek kwek kwek, ik ben wel goed maar ik ben niet gek.

This adaption also added numerous songs like De Rivier, Wij Bijen and what would eventually become the title song for Alfred J. Kwak; Spetter Pieter Pater.

External Links

• Read Fairy stories my children love best of all: Drakesbill and his friends (1920) on archive.org
• Read Quackling: A Not-Too-Grimm Fairy Tale (2018) on Aaron Shephard's website