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

Overview

The Tower of Death is controlled by an old woman who requires visitors to wrestle her. Claiming fear of lions, she asks each man to restrain his guardian with one of her hairs. When the first two brothers call for help, she commands the hair to thicken into a chain, overpowers them and leaves their remains below the tower.

The youngest secretly discards the hair. His lion holds her down while he finds three enchanted princesses. Forced to reveal the underground victims, she identifies an ointment that restores severed heads and bodies when joined. She demands that only the brothers be revived, but he insists on releasing everyone. When she refuses, he kills her and uses the ointment himself, restoring the victims and eventually marrying one of the freed princesses.

The separately printed Tower of Ill Luck offers a closely related captor episode with different details. There the witch runs an inn and binds both horse and lion with a hair before wrestling each brother. The youngest cuts it into fragments and discards them in the sea. Forced to reveal the victims, she supplies both ointment and a scent held to their noses; the brothers revive and bury her alive. Unlike The Slices of Fish, this version does not begin with magical fish portions, describe decapitation and head rejoining, or release three captive princesses. Its narrative parallels are retained without making the two anonymous witches one continuous biography.

Wrestling challengeHair becomes chainTower prisonersReviving ointmentDefeat by unbound lion
01

Origins & earliest records

Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese Folk-Tales, translated from the original manuscript by Henriqueta Monteiro, London: Elliot Stock for the Folk-Lore Society, 1882; tale XXV, pp. 100–105. The selected account does not identify an individual narrator or collecting locality.

02

Records & interpretation

The located 1882 English translation presents this figure within a complete collected narrative. Pedroso’s introductory pp. 1–2 describe the thirty published selections from his larger collection.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Portuguese Folk-Tales XXV: The Slices of Fish, pp. 100–105

    Collected by Consiglieri Pedroso; translated by Henriqueta Monteiro · 1882

    Located complete narrative in the original London edition; Ralston’s comparative introduction is separate commentary.

  2. 02

    Portuguese Folk-Tales XI: The Tower of Ill Luck, pp. 45–49

    Collected by Consiglieri Pedroso; translated by Henriqueta Monteiro · 1882

    Separate complete parallel account: hair binds horse and lion; ointment plus scent restores brothers. Edition footnote distinguishes its Tower of Babylon reference from an identical story.

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. Primary textPortuguese Folk-Tales, original 1882 edition scan and transcriptionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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