Champalak

Overview

Champalak is the named third dragon in Kúnos and Bain’s “The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed Dragon.” The youngest prince first kills two other seven-headed dragons during his brothers’ forbidden overnight halts. Each loses six heads to one blow, requests another blow that the youth refuses, and has its remaining head roll into a well concealing a palace. The first palace contains forty kidnapped sisters. Champalak identifies the dead monsters as his brothers. His tremendous roar brings mountains down, and he approaches breathing venomous fire; those details are stated for this third opponent, not automatically for all three.

Neither Champalak nor the prince can defeat the other. The dragon instead demands the daughter of the ruler of Chin-i-Machin, glossed by the translator as the Chinese Empire, and supplies a bridle for a flying golden-maned horse. The prince finds a land oppressed by the dragon’s long pursuit of its princess. He and the princess agree to deceive Champalak: she accompanies the prince back, then coaxes from the dragon the location of his talisman. In a guarded palace the youth kills a lion and cuts out a golden cage containing three doves. The horse catches and kills the first dove after it escapes his hand.

The prince kills the second at Champalak’s gate and finds the dragon helpless. Champalak asks to stroke the last bird; the youth almost agrees, but the princess seizes and kills it, and the dragon dies. The horse explains that possession of the dove would have restored his life. The story ends with the treasures recovered and the prince’s marriages to this princess and the fortieth rescued sister. This is an external-life episode, not evidence for regrowing severed heads; neither the second-blow requests of his brothers nor the final plea to touch the dove is actually granted.

Origins & earliest records

Turkish storytelling collected in Anatolia, through Hungarian and English publication

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale and ending read, with its attached footnote where present.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

   Ignácz Kúnos (collector); R. Nisbet Bain (translator from Hungarian) · 1901

   “The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed Dragon,” pp. 143–153. London: A. H. Bullen, 1901; English through the Hungarian collection, not direct source-language collation.

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

References

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

1. Historical English folktale translation through HungarianKúnos/Bain 1901, The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed DragonResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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