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Overview
The Devil leaves hell, assumes the appearance of a handsome young man and builds a fashionable house before marrying the eldest of three sisters. He gives his bride flowers and forbids a particular door. Behind it is a fiery abyss whose flames singe her bouquet when she opens it. Recognizing the damaged flowers when he returns, he pushes her into hell. He repeats the courtship and punishment with the second sister. The youngest accepts him despite suspecting the deaths of her sisters, then puts her flowers in water before investigating. She discovers the two women and pulls them out of the abyss. The fresh bouquet conceals her disobedience.
She then persuades her husband to carry three chests to her parents without resting. The first two contain her sisters, who call out from inside whenever he tries to put his load down. He mistakes their voices for proof that his wife can see around corners and through walls. For the last journey, the youngest hides herself in a chest and places a dressed dummy on the balcony. Strong but lazy, he delivers all three loads without discovering the deception. At home he angrily strikes the dummy and finds its milliner’s head and rag body. When he reaches the parents’ house, the three escaped wives mock him from the balcony. Their simultaneous survival terrifies him into flight, and the narrator ends by saying he lost his appetite for marriage. The women’s supposed all-seeing power is his mistaken inference, not an ability the tale grants them.
Origins & earliest records
Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), XVI: How the Devil married Three Sisters, pp. 78–81; selected source: Widter and Wolf, no. 11, Der Teufel heirathet drei Schwestern.
Records & interpretation
The located account describes disguise, punishment, magical tests and the eventual escape. The Venetian complete tale and the separately labelled Sicilian comparative summary are distinct witnesses.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Italian Popular Tales: XVI: How the Devil married Three Sisters, pp. 78–81
Complete selected Venetian tale.
Family, evolution & connections
Three sisters married successively to the Devil
The selected Venetian telling ends with all three sisters alive and identified as his wives. The youngest’s rescue reverses their confinement in hell; these are not three unrelated demons or the separate Sicilian magician’s brides.
The sisters’ unnamed mother and father
The brides belong to one household of three daughters. The Devil carries the concealed sisters back to their mother’s house. His belief that his wife sees through walls is a mistaken inference, not an inherited family ability.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textCrane 1885: XVI: How the Devil married Three Sisters, pp. 78–81Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.