The sorceress offers a card game; her appearance, dress and palace room are imagined.
Original narrative illustration; detailed appearance and staging imagined, not an authenticated cultural record.
Overview
The sorceress inhabits a palace whose distant light draws travellers inside. Stumme describes her as a remarkably beautiful young woman. When Tillu rests in one of its luxurious rooms, she proposes a card game to pass the time. She wins his fine clothing, bills of exchange and horse, leaving him dependent on service in the palace for food. Guttu follows his missing brother and loses everything in the same way. The brothers eventually recognize one another in the kitchen, where their poor and torn clothing conceals the princely status with which each began his journey.
Giuseppe reaches the palace after paying for the burial of a neglected dead man. The grateful spirit warns him about the enchantress and tells him to refuse her cards: he must play with his own instead. Giuseppe follows that advice, wins her wealth together with the possessions taken from earlier victims, and drives her out of the palace. He gives the establishment to his brothers before continuing the separate quest for the rejuvenating bird. The narrative does not describe the sorceress’s later fate, a monstrous transformation or a final death. Her power operates through the inviting palace and the unequal game; the decisive reversal comes from the warned traveller’s choice of cards.
Origins & earliest records
Hans Stumme’s 1904 German translation of Maltese narratives dictated in spring 1903. His introduction attributes tales XII–XXII to an unnamed forty-year-old woman of rural origin who had moved frequently and spoke a mixed rural and urban dialect. Her precise village is not supplied. The companion Maltese-language edition has not been independently collated here; the complete German tale and the translator’s introduction are the retained witnesses.
Records & interpretation
Complete tale XII, printed pp. 39–45; the card encounters and reversal occupy printed pp. 40–42. Complete introductory attribution retained; original selected pages visually inspected.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
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Maltesische Märchen, Gedichte und Rätsel in deutscher Übersetzung
Complete tale XII, printed pp. 39–45; complete introductory remarks retained.
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.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Original historical German translation of a collected Maltese narrativeStumme 1904, complete tale XII and introductory attributionResearch access: 2026-10-18
Image credits
AI-generatedThe sorceress offers a card game; her appearance, dress and palace room are imagined.
Original narrative illustration; detailed appearance and staging imagined, not an authenticated cultural record.
