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Overview

The queen rules a palace beside a well whose water restores youth, and she commands a court of beautiful fairy attendants. The Green Prince reaches her palace wearing an invisibility plaid and eats there unseen. She feels a man's touch but cannot see him. The tale does not present this intimate contact as something she consented to. She orders her fairies to keep bellows working beneath a vessel of molten lead.

A magic ring wakes the prince in time, and he takes water from the well and leaves. A child is born from the encounter. The queen's fairies then go in search of the father.

At the Green King's town the fairies test men who claim to be the father by making them leap into boiling lead. Two elder princes are burned and shrivel. The youngest dives in on his piebald horse and comes out unharmed. The fairies dress him in royal clothes, and he marries the queen.

Human-like sovereign with fairy attendants; the tale gives her no wings and no small statureHolds a well of rejuvenating water at her palaceHer court uses a molten-lead ordeal, first as a guard and later as a paternity test
01

Origins & earliest records

Known here from tale LI of the 1889 Jones and Kropf translation. The collection names several Magyar compilers, but the teller of this tale is not identified.

02

Records & interpretation

Tale LI, The Fairies' Well, pp. 288–297, with selected notes beginning on p. 418.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    The Folk-Tales of the Magyars

    Collected by Kriza, Erdélyi, Pap and others; translated and edited by W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf · 1889

    Selected bibliography; primary English translation (tale LI, The Fairies' Well) with editors' notes.

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.

  1. Public-domain primary translationThe Folk-Tales of the Magyars (Project Gutenberg plain text)Research access: 2026-10-07
  2. Catalogue recordThe Folk-Tales of the Magyars (Project Gutenberg catalogue record)Research access: 2026-10-07

Image credits

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