The Horse-Devil and the Witch

The Horse-Devil and the Witch or The Horse-Dew and the Witch^[1] is a Turkish fairy tale about a horse that is an enchanted prince who marries a human maiden.

Source[]

The story was first published by folklorist Ignác Kúnos in Hungarian as A ló-ördög és a boszorkány^[2] and in German as Der Ross-Dew und die Hexe.^[3]

Translations[]

The tale also appears in German as Der Dew in Rossgestalt ("The Horse-Shaped Dev").^[4]

The tale was also translated as The Horse and the She-Devil.^[5]

Summary[]

Before he travels afar, the padishah orders his daughters to groom his favorite horse. The eldest daughters are rebuffed by the animal, and only the third daughter of a padishah grooms and feeds it. Her father notices their approximation and marries her to the animal. She discovers the horse is actually a human at night and is promised to be quiet about it.

When her father organizes a tournament, the horse husband takes off his horse skin and joins it, eventually defeating and unhorsing his brothers-in-law. This repeats for the second day of the tournament. On the third day, the horse husband gives her three strands of his hair to his wife to summon him whenever she may need help. He goes to the tournament. Proud of his deed and cajoled by her sisters's endeless mockery, the princess betrays his secret and he disappears.

She seeks him out and reaches a mountain. She burns one of the hairs he gave her and he appears. They embrace and he tells her this mountain is the abode of his witch mother and she may kill her. So she transforms her into an apple to hide her inside his mother's house.

The ogress mother finds her and she is forced to do some tasks for her: to sweep and not sweep, and to fill 3 vases with her tears - which she accomplishes with her husband's guidance. The princess and her husband at last escape from the witch by transforming into objects, their last transformation a tree (the princess) and a serpent coiled around it (the horse prince).^[6][7]

Analysis[]

The tale belongs to the cycle of stories classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", and subtypes related to the Animal as Bridegroom cycle.^[8]

According to Christine Goldberg, some variants of the type show as a closing episode "The Magic Flight" sequence, a combination that appears "sporadically in Europe", but "traditionally in Turkey".^[9] As their final transformation to deceive the ogress mother, the princess becomes a tree and her supernatural husband becomes a snake coiled around it.^[10]

According to Richard McGillivray Dawkins, variants with the horse as the animal husband were found in the Balkans, in Turkey and among the Romani from Bulgaria.^[11] Likewise, scholar  [sv] asserted that the animal or supernatural husband appears as a horse in tale type 425A (see footnote "a") "in the Orient".^[12]

Turkologist Iya Stebleva Vasilyevna, by comparing Turkish tales Çember-Tiyar and Bileiz, suggests a mythic approximation between the horse and the deva (Turkish: div).^[13]

Variants[]

Turkey[]

In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, both scholars listed the variants with the horse husband under one type: TTV 98, "Der Pferdemann" ("The Horse Man"),^[a] which corresponded in the international classification to tale type AaTh 425.^[15][b] In a later book, Boratav stated that the Catalogue registered 25 variants, but six more had been collected since its publication.^[16]

In most of the variants collected, the supernatural husband is a horse, followed by a man with a donkey's head and a camel. In other tales, he may be a snake, a frog or even Turkish hero Kaloghlan.^[17]

Shah Bender[]

In a variant collected by Ignác Kúnos and translated as Shah Bender, three princesses cast their lot with apples, in a contest to find their husbands. The youngest throws hers and it lands near a donkey. They marry and the donkey reveals he is a prince named Shah Bender, and warns his wife that she must not share their secret. The next day, he takes part in his father-in-law's tournament as a mysterious knight and defeats his opponents. Out of pride, the princess tells her family it is her husband. He vanishes. She seeks him out and finds an ogress, who gives her a walnut and sends her on her way. The event happens twice more, and she gains a lemon and a pomegranate. One day, the princess reaches a kingdom with three castles, a servant comes out of each of them and she bribes them with the fruits to spend a night at the castle. She also cleans a bloodied shirt. Her mother-in-law begins to mistreat her: she forces the girl to sweep the floor on penalty of death, and to fill a kettle with her tears. Finally, Shah Bender's mother betrothes him to another girl and forces the princess to bear ten candles tied to her fingers. Shah Bender notices her fingers are burning, but she answers it is her heart that is. Shah Bender tosses the candles on the false bride, rescues his princess and both escape in a transformation sequence. The third and final form they shapeshift into is a cypress (the princess) and a seven-headed monster (Shah Bender).^[18]

Çember-Tiyar[]

In another variant, published by folklorist Pertev Boratav (fr) with the title Çember-Tiyar (Tschember-Tiyar), a sultan with three daughters marries the two elders to human princes. As the youngest is still single, she is the only one to give grapes to their favorite horse and the only one he responds to affectionately. The sultan marries his third daughter to the horse, who is an enchanted prince. She promises to keep his secret. On a tournament, the horse prince appears in red vestments on a red horse and defeats his brothers-in-law, and on the next day on white garments. She betrays the secret and burns the horse skin. The enchanted prince becomes a dove and flies away. The princess follows after him and reaches the house of an ogress (a dev), his mother, who orders her to perform difficult tasks for her, including sweeping and not sweeping the floor, getting a sieve from a distant neighbour, filling a teapot with her tears and filling mattresses with bird feathers. Finally, Çember-Tiyar's mother betrothes him to another girl; on the wedding day the ogress mother ties the princess to a pole and places ten wax candles on her fingers and one on her head. As she begins to be set on fire, Çember-Tiyar replaces her for his bride and the couple escape in a "Magic Flight"-type sequence, by throwing objects behind them, and lastly, by turning the princess into a tree and Çember-Tiyar into a snake coiled around it.^[19][20][21]

At Koca[]

In another variant, published by folklorist Naki Tezel (tr) with the title At Koca ("The Horse who was in Love"), a judge with three daughters has a horse that looks emaciated and sick. A doctor states that it is in love, so the remedy is to find him a bride. The horse chooses no human maiden, but the judge's youngest daughter. They marry and she discovers he is a human prince named Tahir Bey. Her sisters and friends mock her for marrying an animal, but one day she decides to tell them he is an enchanted prince, and to see with their own eyes. When she returns home, her husband has disappeared. She goes on a quest for him, first accompanied by a retinue, then on her own. She reaches the a place with two houses, one of gold and the other of silver. She talks to a coming servant who is getting water for master (Tahir), and the judge's daughter drops her ring in the water jug. Tahir notices the ring and brings his wife to his house, and presents her to his mother, an ogress. Wanting to get rid of his daughter-in-law, the ogress sends the girl to the ogress's sister to retrieve a flute and a drum - a trap set to kill the maiden. She leaves unscathed due to a magical ring his husband gave her. Finally, noticing his mother will not rest until she kills her daughter-in-law, Tahir Bey escapes with his wife by transforming themselves in objects.^[22][23]

The Princess and the Red Horse Husband[]

In a tale collected by Barbara K. Walker with the title The Princess and the Red Horse Husband, a padishah summons his three daughters to plan their marriage: they should stay at the palace's balcony and throw a golden apple at her prospective husbands. The elder sisters are betrothed to humans; the youngest throws a ball and hits a red horse. She repeats the action, with the same results. She marries the red horse. That night, he reveals he is human, after all, but begs her to stay as a horse during the day and not to reveal anything to her sisters, for he is "the fairy giant king's son". One day, her sister mock her again for her strange choice of husband, and she, fed up, decides to show them the truth, by having them spy on him through a keyhole. The sisters convince her to burn his horse skin; he becomes a dove and flies away. She asks her father to fashion a pair of iron shoes and decides to go after him. After a hole is made in her iron shoes, her husband appears and turns her into a apple, to bring it to his mother's house. He hides her for some time, but one time advises her to nurse from his giant mother's breasts when she is kneading dough. She does and his mother warms up to her. Her son (Shah Selim) comes up with a false story that the princess is their maid, now that he is to be married to his cousin. The giant mother orders her to fill mattresses with feathers, and to go to the aunt's house to get the bread griddle. Her husband, Shah Selim, advises her on both occasions: in his aunt's house, she must open a closed door, feed correctly a horse and a dog, take the griddle and escape from the house. At last, the Shah Selim's wedding comes, and, after the ceremony, his giant mother forces the princess to bear ten candles, one on each finger, for the whole night near the married couple. Shah Selim advises her to wait until the candles have melted enough and to smear it on the bride's face. She does and the couple escape on a pair of horses. His father notices his son's absence and chases after the couple; Shah Selim and the princess transform into things to trick the pursuer. Finally, they turn into a stick and a snake coiled aroung it. This time, Shah Selim's mother arrives and, seeing the objects, hesitates, for she might hurt her son. So she returns home and lets them be.^[24]

The Girl and the Horse[]

In a Turkish tale collected by Russian philologist Nikolai K. Dimitriev (ru) with the title "Девушка и конь" ("The Girl and the Horse"), a padishah asks his daughters to look after his favourite horse. Only the youngest is able to give water and food to the animal. Seeing the relationship between both, he decides to marry one to the other. The girl comes to live in the stable with the horse, who is the son of a deva. At night, the stable becomes a palace for them. One day, the horse assumes human shape and joins his brothers-in-law in a game of throwing darts. The princess's sisters mock her for her animal husband and praise their human spouses. On the next day, the horse prince gives three tufts of hair to his wife. On the third day, fed up with the incessant mockery, she reveals the truth about him and he disappears. The princess decides to go after him. One day, she reaches the foot of a mountain, burns one of the hairs and summons her husband. He comes to her and tells her his deva family lives in that mountain. He turns her into an apple and takes her into their home. He makes his mother promise not to harm her and shows her his wife. The deva mother forces the girl to do chores: to sweep and not sweep, and to fill two vases with her tears. The last task for her is to bake a pie, even though she cannot find any ingredient in the house. They decide to escape and his family pursues them. The princess and her husband disguise themselves as different objects to elude them.^[25] The tale was also classified as Turkish type TTV 98 (see above), with the episode of "The Magic Flight" (ATU 313).^[26]

Other tales[]

The Uysal–Walker Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative also collected two other variants with the horse husband. In one, The Padisah's Youngest Daughter and Her Donkey-Skull Husband, collected in 1970 from teller Niyâzi Çam, from Bursa Province, the padishah assembles everyone in the palace courtyard for his three daughters to toss their apples to choose their husbands. The third daughter tosses hers and it lands near a donkey skull. She marries the donkey skull and, inside the nuptial chambers, her husband reveals he is a handsome youth, but asks her never to spill the secret, lest he disappears and she has to quest for him. Life goes on for both, and the princess visits the public bath for women. There, she is mocked for marrying a donkey skull. One day, fed up with the mockery, reveals to the other women the true nature of her husband, who knocked on the door to the bath house to reprimand his wife. He tells her she may never find him again, even if she walks with an iron cane and wearing a pair of iron shoes, and vanishes. She decides to seek him out, and wears a pair of iron shoes. She reaches the Pearl Mountain, the Gold Fountain and the Diamond Fountain, where her husband lives in a mansion. They reunite, but he warns her that his mother is a giant that may devour her, so he changes her into a broom to hide her from his mother. The next day, he asks his mother not to hurt a padishah's daughter if she comes by; his mother agrees and he changes the broom back into his human wife. The giantess forces the human princess to sweep or not sweep her house, to fill 40 cauldrons with her tears, and to climb the mountain, enter another mansion and get her a closed box. The husband advises the princess to drink from a fountain of bitter liquid and compliment it, to eat a sour pear from a tree and compliment it, close an open door and shut an open one, change the food of two animals for the correct ones (meat for a lion, grass for a horse), get the box and escape. She does all that and climbs down the mountain, but curiosity gets the better of her and she opens the box; "wild music" starts to leak from the box, until her husband appears to close it again. The princess delivers he box to the giantess mother. That night, the couple decide to escape from the mansion, while his family follows them. First, they transform into a minaret and a mosque, then a sheep and a flock of sheep, and lastly a poplar tree (the princess) and a snake atop the tree (the prince). His mother comes to the tree; the snake asks her for a kiss and spits venom into her mouth. The princess and her husband return to her kingdom.^[27]

In a second tale, The Trials of the Padişah's Youngest Daughter, collected in 1976 from teller Mehmet Karakaş, from the Urfa Province, the padishah's three daughters buy watermelons that represent their marriageability: the first melon is overripe, the second half-overripe and half-edible, and the third just right. Seeing this, their father arranges for them to throw apples at their prospective suitors from a balcony. The third does not toss hers, and tells her father her suitor stationed his horse near the palace. They take the horse to the stables. A parade of young men passes in front of the palace, but her suitor apparently isn't there. She goes to the stables and pets the horse, who tells her that she must hide him for three Fridays, otherwise he will disappear. Her sisters' weddings occur on the next two Fridays, and during the festivities a mysterious young man appears and wins the games, who the princess recognizes as the horse. On the second occasion, the princess tells her sisters the young man is the horse, then cries over her decision. The next day, the horse vanishes, and a little bird lands on her shoulder, telling her shell will find him after she wears down a pair of slippers and an iron cane. She wanders through a copper well house, a silver fortress and a gold fortress. In the gold fortress, she sees a girl fetching water from the well and begs for a drink, in the name of Emirilâm. The servant gives her the jug and the princess drops her ring inside it. Her groom recognizes the ring and brings the princess in, but he warns his is a family of giants, and shrinks her size to hide her from them. The youth hides her for three days and on the fourth she appears, since the giants cannot harm her after three days. Now at a normal size, the giantess mother forces the girl to do some chores in preparation for her son's wedding to his cousin: to gather downy feathers for the marital bed; and to bring her "the song and the word". The youth advises her on both occasions: to get the song and the word, she must enter the forest and give the correct food for two animals (meat to the dog, and grass for the horse), switch the positions of two carpets (one hanging on the wall, the other lying on the ground); enter a palace, get the box and do not open it. She follows his instructions, but she opens the box: violin players and tambourine players leap out of it, but the horse youth, Emirilâm, locks them inside the box. Finally, Emirilâm's wedding is here: his giant mother ties the princess to a tree in the courtyard and sets a fire at the foot of the tree. Emirilâm finds and unties the princess, and both escape in a cloud of smoke. His giantess mother pursues the couple, who disguise themselves as a pool and a fish. The giantess mother fails in finding them, and explodes in anger. Emirilâm and the princess reach her father's kingdom and marry.^[28]

Other regions[]

Europe[]

Greece[]

Richard McGillivray Dawkins reported a Greek variant from Calabria wherein the girl is married to an enchanted prince named Handsome Horse, who disappears "after the Cupid and Psyche manner". Afterwards, the girl finds him again, in his mother's house, an ogress. The ogress betrothes her son to a witch's daughter, and forces the girl to do impossible tasks.^[29] The tale was originally published by Italian author Luigi Bruzzano (it) with the title Il bel Cavallo, in journal La Calabria – Rivista di Letteratura Popolare: at the end of the tale, Handsome Horse's mother, a draga, forces her true daughter-in-law to hold two candles at the foot of the bridal bed.^[30] The original name in Greek is To máñon álogo.^[31]

Bulgaria[]

The horse-prince as the enchanted husband also appears in the Bulgarian tale corpus, under tale type 425B, "Момъкът с конската глава" ("Boy With the Horse's Head").^[32]

In a Bulgarian Romani variant, E Batiméskeri Paramísi ("The History of Batim"), a king owns a horse, which is the son of an ogre. One day, the servant who grooms it notices that when the horse saw the eldest daughter of the king, it became enamoured, and it won't eat its rations. The king orders his daughters to line up in a queue, to be given leblebi with nuts and to feed the horse with it; the animal only eats from the eldest's apron. They marry. The princess is despondent at first, but the horse takes off his equine disguise and becomes a man. He tells her that he will appear the next day as a fine knight with green garments and horses, and that she must not tell her sisters anything; otherwise, she will have to search for him in the land of Čine-ma-čine-džéza-davúlja. She obeys at first. The day after, he appears on a white horse and she lets her family in on the secret. He disappears, and she goes after him with shoes of iron and a staff of iron. She arrives at the land of Čine-ma-čine-džéza-davúlja, and stops by a fountain. She sees a servant fetching water and asks her to whom it is the jug; she answers it is for Batim (the horse's name). She drops her ring inside the jug and the servant brings the jug to Batim, who recognizes the ring. The princess meets him again, but he warns that his mother will eat her, and turns her into a pin to protect her. Batim asks his ogress mother to swear on his name not to harm her, and he shows her his human wife. The ogress mother forces her to do difficult tasks: to fill a tank with tears, to fill 41 rooms with feathers and let half remain over, to invite the ogress's sister and her brothers for a wedding feast - all accomplished with her husband's guidance. Lastly, Batim and his wife escape from the ogress by turning into objects to fool her. The third time, Batim turns into a flower and the wife into a rose-bush. The ogress comes to the rosebush and hesitates, for she might pick one or the other and hurt her son. She concedes defeat and lets her son live with his human wife.^[33]

In a tale from the Turkish population of Vidin, Bulgaria, "Дочь падишаха и Билеиз" ("The Padishah's Daughter and Bileiz"), a padishah is going on a trip, and asks his daughters to look after his horse and feed him dry oats. The horse only responds to the youngest. When the padishah returns, he learns of the horse's affectionate treatment of his third daughter and marries them. After the wedding, the girl begins to cry, but the horse takes off the horse skin and reveals he is a human named Bileiz. The next day, he appears as a knight in red garments on the padishah's tournament, and on the day after in black clothes. In case anything happens to him, he gives his wife a signet ring as a token. She tells to her family the knight is the horse, and he disappears. She then decides to go after him, by wearing an iron amulet and using an iron cane. She reaches a fountain, with a inscription nearby: "Bileiz". She sees a servant girl fetching water and begs for some to drink. She drops the signet ring on the servant's jar. Bileiz finds his wife, takes her home and explains his mother is a seven-headed deva and might devour her. His mother appears and smells human flesh, but Bileiz spins a story about hiring the girl as another maid. So, the deva mother forces her to sweep half of the floor and not sweep the other half, to cook half of the meat and not cook the other half, and go to a relative of the deva to get a plank and some bread dough. Finally, the deva mother orders her to carry ten candles on her fingers during Bileiz's marriage to another bride. The padishah's daughter vents to her husband about his mother, and he tells her he planned their escape: when she is holding the ten candles, she must drop them and jump on a winged horse, while he rides a normal one. It happens as he describes. While on the run, his deva relatives come after them in the shape of a fog. They transform into a minaret and a muezim, a watermelon and a gardener, a snake and a rosebush. Bileiz's sister hesitates in cutting either the snake or the rosebush, and returns home.^[34]

In a Bulgarian tale translated into Hungarian with the title A vasruhás cárkisasszony ("The Tsar's Daughter with Iron Garments"), an old woman takes a czar's son as companion. One day, the youth wants her to ask for the tsar's daughter's hand in marriage. However, the tsar wants the youth to perform some tasks first: to erect a crystal palace that opens and closes on its own; a garden where it is raining, it is sunny, the birds sing and the trees bloom by themselves, and to build bridges across all lakes and rivers overnight. The tsar consents to their marriage. They marry and live with the old woman. One day, the tsar invites his daughter and son-in-law to his palace. The son-in-law takes with him a giant horse's head that he carelessly deposits somewhere in the palace. The servants, who were baking bread, see the horse's head and throw it in the oven. The prince warns his wife that the horse's head should not have been burnt, and that he will disappear; if she ever wants to find him again, she must wait 9 years, then ask for iron garments, iron shoes and an iron cane to be made; finally, she must always journey towards the sunrise, and look for him, "Öreg". Time passes and she goes on a journey: she visits three old women with giant spinning apparatuses and their cannibal sons, who direct the princess to Öreg. She reaches a well, where Öreg's nine servants and nine slaves come to fetch water. The princess begs for a drink and drops her ring in a jug. Öreg recognizes the ring and takes the princess into his castle as a servant. His mother suspects something amiss between her son and the girl. One day, Öreg is to be married to another woman; the man and the princess conspire to torch the bride's veil to cause a distraction during the wedding. The princess becomes a bridesmaid; when everyone is kissing the bride's veil, she asks to kiss it too, and torches the veil with a candle. Öreg and the princess escape from the wedding, but his family comes after them. The pair transforms into a lake (the princess) and a duck (him); a melon orchard (the princess) and a park-keeper (him), and finally a blackthorn bush with a thorny branch (the princess) and a giant grass snake wrapped around it (him). His mother ceases her pursuit and lets them be.^[35]

Asia[]

Syria[]

In a variant collected from a Syrian refugee and published in 2015 with the title The Bewitched Camel, a woodcutter finds a camel in the forest and brings it home. He discovers that the camel produces golden eggs. One day, he takes the camel to the market. While he is selling wood, the king's daughter passes by his shop and inspects the merchandise, and the camel falls in love with her. Back home, the woodcutter's wife is told by the camel he wants to marry the princess, and the woodcutter goes to the court to convince the king. The king rebuffs the proposal, but his minister suggests he puts his prospective son-in-law to the test: to bring extraordinary things and to build a castle overnight. The camel does and marries the princess. On the wedding night, the camel reveals he is a bewitched prince, and that his secret must stay between them. One day, war comes to the kingdom and the camel-prince says he will fight as a champion wearing mustard-coloured garments. He returns home with an injury. The princess's sisters mock her marriage and she tells them the truth. The camel-prince disappears. She is advised by the minister to build a hammam (a public bathhouse), where everyone shall share stories. One day, a poor widow comes to the bathhouse and tells a story about a man coming out of the earth near a tree at night with three apples, lamenting over a lover who betrayed him. The princess notices it is her husband and goes to the place the widow described. She sees the earth cracking open and a prince comes out of it. She embraces him and he tells her that the witch cursed him to live underground. He takes her to the witch and she pretends to be a maid. The witch orders her to sweep her house with a beaded broom and not lose any bead, and to carry a heavy closed box to her sister's house in another country. The camel-prince helps his wife in both tasks: in the latter, while the wife rests a bit, the box opens on its own and snakes and monkeys leap out of it; her husband comes, draws the animals back into the box and closes it. Lastly, the witch decides to marry the camel-prince and orders the maid to dance at their wedding. The camel-prince advises his wife to ask for a lantern and a wick. The next day, during the wedding, the princess dances with the torch and the wick. The camel-prince takes the lantern and throws it at the witch. They vanquish her and return to the princess's castle.^[36]

India[]

In a variant collected by M. N. Venkataswami, Jambhu Raja, a king has a dream about a horse - a good omen, he believes. Intent on making it a reality, he goes to the marketplace and buys a spirited horse. He brings it to his stable, but the animal refuses to eat his fodder, except in the presence of the king's daughter. The king consults the dice, and marries her to the horse. At night, the horse, named Jambhu Raja, takes off his horse-covering and becomes a man. His wife notices his transformation and one day burns his horse skin. He passes his days doing good deeds. One day, his wife is visited by her sisters (in disguise), who tell her to ask her husband his name. He warns her not to do so, but she insists. He goes to the margin of a river, tells his name and disappears back to his parents' kingdom, and suffers an intense burning sensation. The princess goes on a quest for him. One day, she rests by a tree, and overhears two chakwi chakwa birds conversing about a cure for Jambhu Raja: get their dung and grind it to powder. Next, she reaches a fountain where waterbearers are fetching water and taking it to Jambhu Raja to cool him down. The princess puts her ring into a jug that is taken to the prince, enters the palace and cures her husband. However, his mother forces the princess on dangerous tasks: to plaster with cow dung their dwelling place (made to bristle with sharp needles and conjuring by magic scorpions and centipedes); to wash a dirty sari; to winnow three khandis of grain (done with the help of ants); and give a letter to the house of the prince's new bride (with a command to kill the girl). Jambhu Raja foils his mother's every attempt on his wife. The day comes when his mother prepares his wedding to another wife, and the princess is made into a torch-bearer. She complains to Jambhu Raja that her cloth is on fire, and he rescues her back to their palace.^[37] This story was also classified as a Horse-Husband type of tale.^[38]

Iran[]

In an Iranian tale collected by Arthur Christensen with the title Grünkappe ("Green Cap"), the heroine, called Herzveloren, burns her husband's horseskin (since he appears to her at first as a Seepferde, or horse that comes from the sea). Her father, the king, notices that the animal form of Grünkappe is no ordinary animal, but, since he knows the language of men, he must belong to the Peri race. Herzveloren marries him, breaks his trust by breaking a prohibition set by him and must seek him out with seven pairs of iron shoes. She reaches her mother-in-law's house, in the land of the divs, and, drained by the long journey, rests by a spring. Grünkappe is informed about the woman at the spring and goes to check on her; his wife Herzveloren sees him and embraces him, her journey ending. However, her husband takes her in to his mother and his wife is forced to perform chores for her. Grünkappe's mother sends Herzveloren, her true daughter-in-law, to her sister under false pretences: to get a pair of scissors for the upcoming wedding, but she is sending the human to be devoured by the aunt. Herzveloren goes to the Dev's sister to get the scissors. Once there, the Div-aunt goes to another room to sharpen her teeth. The Div-aunt's child, from her cradle, advises Herzveloren to get the scissors and escape, for its mother is preparing to eat the human. Later, Grünkappe is forced to marry another woman, and complains that his heart is burning also. At the end of the tale, the pair escapes from his mother and, as a last trick on her, turn into grains of corn, while the witch becomes a chicken.^[39][40][41] Eberhard and Boratav noted, in the introduction to their book, that the tale Grünkappe was parallel to the Turkish type 98 (see above).^[42]

Uzbekistan[]

Author Gabriele Keller collected an Uzbek variant titled Chötiktscha, with the Eselkind ("donkey-child"). In this tale, the titular Chötiktscha is no normal animal: he falls in love with the daughter of the padischah, but he must first perform some suitor's tasks. He does and marries the princess. One night, he takes off the donkey skin and shows his wife a normal human form. She burns his donkey skin some time later, as per the insistence of her family, and he disappears. She then journeys far and wide to get him back, and reaches the house of her in-laws, a family of dews that threaten the couple. At last, Chötiktscha and his wife escape from there and live happily ever after.^[43] Keller classified the tale as type AaTh 425B, "Die Aufgaben der Hexe (Hexensohn)" ("The Witch's Tasks (Son of the Witch)"), and Turkish Type TTV (EB) 98, "Pferdemann" ("Horse as Husband"), with elements of type AaTh 480 (helping and complimenting inanimate things on the way to the second witch) and conclusion as type AaTh 313, "The Magic Flight".^[44]

Central Asia[]

Gabriele Keller argues that type TTV 98, "Pferdemann" (see above), is also "verbreitet" ("widespread") in Central Asia.^[45]

Rutul people[]

In a variant collected from the Rutul people, in Dagestan, a widow prays to God for a son, and she gives birth to a donkey. One day, the donkey son wants to marry the princess, and his human mother convinces the king to accept the proposal. However, the king orders his prospective son-in-law to perform a few tasks first, which he does and marries the princess. On the wedding night, the donkey son reveals his true form to his human wife: he is a human named Rizvan beneath the animal skin. The widow convinces the princess to hid her husband's donkey skin out of his reach, so that the old woman can burn it. She follows through the instructions and her husband loses her donkey skin. He becomes a bird and tells his wife that, if she ever wants to see him again, she must look for him in a distant kingdom. The princess searches for him for years, until she reaches a fountain, where a slave woman is carrying water to Rizvan. The princess begs for some water to drink, and drops her wedding ring inside the jug. When the slave woman takes the water jug to Rizvan, he recognizes his wife's ring and brings her in. Together at last, they decide to escape from the castle in a Magic Flight sequence, with a creature named azhdaha hot in pursuit.^[46]

Literary variants[]

Author Shahriar Nafici published a Persian language tale obtained from his mother. In this tale, Sheep's Head, in the town of Make Believe, a childless couple wants a son, but no such luck. A man gives the woman a remedy and she gives birth to a baby with a sheep's head. The old man tries to get rid of the sheep by dropping it on the well, but it survives and lives with the couple. Years later, the baby with the sheep's head wants to marry, but his parents ask him who could marry a person with his characteristics. He eventually marries a human princess named Maleknâz, the seventh daughter of a king, who has been having dreams about a mysterious and handsome prince. On the wedding night, Sheep's Head takes off his animal disguise and reveals he is a handsome youth named Malek Mohammad, born to the "king of the angels" and cursed by his mother for refusing to marry her sister's daughter. In regards to their marriage and the breaking of the curse, he explains that princess Maleknâz must bear humiliation and mockery from her sisters until forty days have passed, then Malek Mohammad's curse will be broken and he can assume human form permanently, since his "apparent" human parents failed in keeping him inside their house for the same period of time. Maleknâz bears each day their endless mockery, with her husband's support and life lessons, but she ends up breaking his trust. Disappointed, Sheep's Head gives her instructions on how to find him: she shall wear pairs of shoes made of "pure metal" (or iron), walk with seven walking sticks, go through seven cities and learn several important lessons, then she may find him. On her way, she finds Malek Rouh, a blacksmith who claims to be Malek Mohammad's father. She finally reaches the palace of her mother-in-law in the town of demons. Malek Mohammad finds her and explains that his mother is a cannibal and a "demon". He turns her into a brooch to hide from his human-eater mother and makes her promise not to eat Maleknâz. Some time later, his mother sends her to empty a flooded area using only a sieve. Her husband helps her with a magic trick. She continues to force impossible tasks on the princess, like counting stones in the desert or emptying a basin with a thimble. One of the last tasks she forces upon the princess is to be naked, cover herself in candles and dance at the upcoming wedding of Malek Mohammad and his cousin. At the wedding, Maleknâz dances while the wax from the candles melts all over her body. A sudden gust of wind blows open the doors and snuffs out the candles to save Maleknâz. A ball of light comes in and takes the princess away from the demons and into the Town of Knowledge. Maleknâz recognizes her saviour: her father-in-law.^[47]

See also[]

• The King of Love
• Prince Wolf (Danish fairy tale)
• Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter (Indian fairy tale)
• The Golden Root (Italian fairy tale)
• Habrmani (Armenian folk tale)
• Khastakhumar and Bibinagar

Footnotes[]

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