A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

A white snake pursued by a black one is accidentally wounded when the hunter Adagar tries to defend her: his arrow severs her tail. She is the daughter of the peri king. Her father tells her to observe the hunter, harming him only if he is cheerful about the injury. Finding him deeply distressed, she returns without biting him.

The peri king summons Adagar, hears his explanation and rewards his compassion with understanding of animal speech, subject to a secrecy condition. The narrator explicitly says these beings are peris who have taken snake form. The white princess is therefore recorded as this particular transformed being, without treating every white snake in Persian tradition as a peri.

The princess’s inspection takes place from inside Adagar’s shoe, where she observes that he is too distressed to eat. Her father subsequently sends a messenger in human likeness to bring the hunter before him. At the royal gathering, Adagar identifies the black assailant hiding among the other snakes; the king hands it over to them, and they rip open its body. No restoration of the princess’s severed tail is narrated. The language-gift continues through the later story, enabling Adagar to understand dogs and sheep. Its threatened penalty is never tested: when his wife demands the secret, he divorces her instead of disclosing it, then later remarries her. The tale therefore ends with the hunter alive, rather than with a fatal revelation or a marriage to the peri princess.

Serpent-form peri princessNamed textual version
01

Origins & earliest records

Bakhtiari storytelling, Iran

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale and all continuation pages directly read; original edition contents checked for regional division and locators.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Persian Tales

    D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer, collectors/translators · 1919

    Bakhtiari tales; XXXIV, pp. 225–231

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Direct primary record

D. L. R. Lorimer and E. O. Lorimer, Persian Tales (London: Macmillan, 1919)

Bakhtiari tales. Tale XXXIV, pp. 225–231

Complete narrative, including every continuation page, read; historical scan OCR contents confirms regional ordering. Individual narrator not supplied. Modern site presentation is not treated as a new authored tale. Full XXXIV reread in lorimer-34.txt incl all five notes; retained existing paragraphs and added shoe observation, messenger, black assailant fate, no tail-regrowth claim, and untested secrecy penalty/full divorce-remarriage ending.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical translated folktaleD. L. R. and E. O. Lorimer, Persian Tales (1919), tale XXXIV, pp. 225–231Research access: 2026-10-05
  2. Historical editionOriginal 1919 scan: Internet Archive persiantales00loriialaResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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