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Overview
A priest’s ten-year-old son sees a princess remove her head, wash it, comb and braid its hair, then replace it. After he tells people, she becomes gravely ill and instructs her father to have the boy read the psalter over her corpse for three nights. At midnight during each vigil she rises from her coffin and threatens revenge for his looking through her window and reporting what he saw.
The boy’s elderly teacher prepares him to withstand the encounters, and he continues reading while the princess conjures frightening sights. On the third night the church seems engulfed in fire, but the illusion vanishes when she returns to her coffin before dawn. The king finds her lying facedown and hears the boy’s explanation; he orders an aspen stake driven through her breast and burial in a hole, rewarding the survivor with money and land. The narrative presents a supernatural revenant, not evidence about a real accused woman. Ralston’s footnote says that the underlying Afanasief story had no special title; the English heading is not a separately attested personal name.
Origins & earliest records
W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Fairy Tales, hosted Hurst edition: The Headless Princess, pp. 276–279; note 364. Footnote source: Afanasief VII, 36b; original untitled.
Records & interpretation
The complete English narrative and its numbered source note identify these actions. The hosted Hurst title page is undated; no physical-copy date is inferred from modern catalogue metadata.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Russian Fairy Tales: The Headless Princess, pp. 276–279; note 364
Complete English narrative; source note: Afanasief VII, 36b; original untitled. Original Russian not independently collated.
Family, evolution & connections
The head-removing princess and king — Ralston’s account
Complete Headless Princess narrative, pp.276–279, in the hosted Hurst edition.
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- Unnamed king, the princess’s father
Narrator’s explicit king and daughter designations. No mother, siblings, spouse or children of the princess are stated. The priest’s son and advising old woman are unrelated participants; granny address is not a genealogical proof. Original Russian source not independently collated.
Her unnamed king father
The king is repeatedly identified as the princess’s father. The priest’s son is an unrelated witness and vigil reader; the old woman’s granny address does not supply a shared biological grandmother.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical translationRalston, hosted Hurst edition: The Headless Princess, pp. 276–279; note 364Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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