The Horse Devil And The Witch
- ️Tue Nov 12 2024
"The Horse Devil and the Witch" is a Turkish Fairy Tale collected by Ignác Kúnos in the 19th century.
The padishah asked his three daughters to take care of his horse while he was away, the horse rebuffed the two eldest girls and only the youngest was able to do her work. When the father heard about this after returning home, he gave the horse the youngest's hand in marriage. What they did not know however was that the horse was actually a man in disguise, and his wife promised him to keep his secret when she discovered him taking his horse skin off one night. The padishah held a tournament one day where the husbands of the two eldest daughters triumphed until the horse-husband outmacthed them in his human form. After the horse-husband gave his wife three wisps of his hair and told her she can burn one whenever she needed his help, her sisters teased her about how their spouses are better than her horse; not enduring them anymore, the youngest bursted her horse's secret out, causing the horse-husband vanish out of thin air.
The youngest searched for him for days and days until she reached a mountain, then she remembered the wisps, and burned one of them. Right then her spouse manifested in front of her, he warned her about his mother was a demon who hated humans, so he turned his wife into an apple and hid her in the home. When the mother arrived and smelled human flesh, her son made her promise not to harm his wife after being introduced as long as she helped in the house. At first the mother assigned her to simple tasks, but then decided to torment her a bit and ordered her to sweep and not sweep when her son went out to work elsewhere. The youngest not understanding the command, she burned another hair and asked her spouse for help, he told her to sweep the chamber but not the antechamber. When the mother returned, she saw the job has been done, then ordered the princess to fill the vases with tears. The girl burned the final hair, and after explaining her dilemma, her spouse told her to fill the vases with salted water. After that, the mother ordered her to make pancakes, but the girl did not find ingredients, since she had no more hair to burn, she weeped.
Suspecting his wife was in trouble, the horse-husband returned home by himself and told her they were gonna escape. The mother called her sister and ordered her to chase her son and his wife. The husband noticed his aunt coming close, so he turned his wife into a bathing house and himself into a bathing man. The aunt did not recognise them, so she returned to the mother and told her what has happened. The mother snarled that the man and the house were her son and his wife, so she sent her second sister. The husband turned his wife into a spring and himself into a man who took water into his pitcher, the second aunt did not recognise them either, so she returned to the mother to tell her about it. The mother again snarled that the man and the spring were her son and his wife, so she went after them herself. The husband turned the girl into a tree and himself into a serpent coiling around her. The mother recognised them and wanted to break the tree, but she feared she might hurt her son, so she asked him to at least show his wife's finger. The son obeyed and the mother cut the finger off, then left them alone. The pair finally returned home to the girl's father, and lived happily ever after.
The tale belongs, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, to tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband". Compare with East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Beauty and the Beast, The Feather of Finist the Falcon, Pintosmalto, The Enchanted Quill, Graciosa and Percinet and Cupid And Psyche.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Species Change: The horse-husband and his mother are called "devs" in the original tale, a kind of monster from mythology. Depending on the translation, both are called devils, or the mother is either called a witch or an ogre.
- Animorphism: When his mother is chasing them, the man turns the princess into a tree and himself into a serpent coiling around her, so the mother would not dare to harm the princess because she fears she could hurt her son in the process.
- Big Damn Reunion: Despite the girl promising to never tell about her horse-husband's secret of him being a man, she slips it out due to her sisters' teasing, causing her spouse to return to his mother. The girl searches for days until she arrives at a mountain, his spouse's home, then she takes one of her spouse's hair he gave her, and burns it as she was told by him previously. So they are happily together again until the man's mother threatens them, so they escape.
- Distressed Dude: The girl breaks her promise about keeping her horse-husband's secret about him being a man, so he is lost to his mother and the girl has to find him and they escape together.
- Fingore: When the evil mother chases her son and his wife, she tells them she will only leave them alone if the wife shows one finger to her, they obey and the mother cuts her finger off.
- Impossible Task: The dev-mother orders the princess to sweep and not sweep; the princess' spouse helps her by telling her she has to clean the chamber but not the antechamber. Then the mother orders her to fill vases with tears, and the husband tells her to fill the vases with salted water.
- Interspecies Romance: Subverted. The padishah makes her daughter marry his horse because she was the only one who was able to take care of it, then it turns out the horse was actually human who was cursed. Depending on the translation, he might be half-demon.
- Objectshifting: When his aunts chase them, the dev-husband turns his wife into a bathing house, and then a spring to hide her.
- Searching for the Lost Relative: The padishah's third daughter marries her father's horse, which is the disguise for a youth son of a dev (a kind of ogre in Turkish folklore). The padishah's daughter betrays his secret, he disappears and she goes after him at his mother's house, the dev-woman (which the translation calls both "devil" and "witch").
- Subverted Trope: With Interspecies Romance. The padishah makes her daughter marry his horse because she was the only one who was able to take care of it, then it turns out the horse was actually human who was cursed. Depending on the translation, he might be half-demon.
- Transflormation: The dev-husband is able to turn his wife into an apple to hide her from his evil mother. When his mother is chasing them, the man turns the princess into a tree and himself into a serpent coiling around her, so the mother would not dare to harm the princess because she fears she could hurt her son in the process.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: When his evil mother is chasing them, the son turns his wife into a tree and himself into a serpent coiling around her. The mother wants to break the princess, but fears she might hurt her son in the process. So she leaves them alone after being allowed to take only a finger from the wife.