Devil with Three Golden Hairs

Overview

A king demands three hairs from the devil’s head as an apparently impossible condition for keeping his daughter as wife. On the journey, the young man is asked why a wine fountain has stopped, why an apple tree has withered and how a ferryman can leave his post. The devil’s grandmother shelters the visitor by changing him into an ant hidden in her clothes.

She plucks the hairs while the devil sleeps and presents each question as a dream when he wakes. His answers supply practical remedies and the way to transfer the ferryman’s duty. The creature’s knowledge therefore becomes useful through a helper’s deception, despite his threat to human intruders. This is the devil’s particular fairy-tale portrayal, not an account that resolves Christian theological understandings of Satan.

The answers name specific hidden causes. A toad beneath a stone has stopped the fountain; a mouse gnaws the apple tree’s root. Removing each creature restores the threatened resource. The ferryman’s remedy is different: he must place his oar in a passenger’s hand to transfer the compulsory work. The young man carefully waits until he has crossed before passing on that advice. The repaired towns each reward him with two asses laden with gold. When the king demands to know where this wealth came from, the young man directs him toward the river; the ferryman then gives the king the oar, making him the new captive worker.

Origins & earliest records

This entry follows tale 29 in the Grimm brothers’ Household Tales, using Margaret Hunt’s 1884 English translation. The collection was repeatedly revised during the nineteenth century and mediates material from storytellers and earlier literature. Its publication and translation dates identify the selected witness, not the beginning of every related oral narrative.

Records & interpretation

The numbered tale supplies the being’s appearance, speech and actions in a collected literary narrative. It documents storytelling and editorial transmission, rather than biological existence or actual animal behaviour. Different editions and related oral tales may alter transformations, endings or motives; the selected passage is identified so those differences can be compared.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Household Tales, tale 29: The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs

   Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; translated by Margaret Hunt · English translation 1884

   Specific public-domain collected tale inspected. The selected English edition is a literary witness, not a transcript of a universal oral version.

2. 02

   Household Tales: 29 The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs

   Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm · 1884

   Margaret Hunt’s English translation, London: George Bell and Sons, 1884; Gutenberg e-text identifies Hunt. Translation date corroborated by the Wikisource scanned title page and National Library of New Zealand catalogue.

Family, evolution & connections

The devil and his stated grandmother - Hunt 29

The explicitly stated grandparent relationship in Hunt’s complete English tale 29.

The branch directly represents grandmother-to-grandson kinship; it skips an unspecified intermediate generation. No intervening parent, other ancestor or personal name for the grandmother is supplied. The visitor’s temporary ant appearance is a disguise, not descent from either figure.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

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

1. Primary textGrimm/Hunt, Household Tales, tale 29Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Devil with Three Golden Hairs

Image associated with the exact linked encyclopedia article; consult credited file description for its interpretation.