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

Overview

The rescued princess summons this bird by prayer when she and her twelve restored brothers are stranded below immense precipices. It descends on a sunbeam, with rainbow wings, a sparkling crest, peacock-like eyes across its body, a golden tail and a silver breast. Its back accommodates all thirteen travellers. The text names it only through the princess’s appeal to heavenly pity; it does not identify it as a phoenix or roc.

The bird warns that the ascent takes three days and nights and that it needs food or all will fall. The princess supplies pieces of her inexhaustible loaf whenever it turns its head. On the third day a violent gust blows the loaf away. She twice cuts flesh from herself to replace the lost food, enabling the bird to reach the summit. Once it learns what she has fed it, it breathes upon her wounds, which heal and regain their flesh. It then returns to heaven. Its strength depends on feeding during this journey, whereas its breath performs the final healing.

Rainbow wingsThirteen passengersFood-dependent ascentHealing breath
01

Origins & earliest records

Polish Fairy Tales, translated from A. J. Gliński by Maude Ashurst Biggs (1920), The Eagles, pp. 29–36.

02

Records & interpretation

The selected English tale supplies the transformation, actions and ending. Biggs’s preface explicitly acknowledges considerable shortening of her source.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Polish Fairy Tales: The Eagles, pp. 29–36

    A. J. Gliński; Maude Ashurst Biggs, translator; Cecile Walton, illustrator · 1920

    Complete selected English narrative and translator’s preface. No individually named oral contributor provided; original Polish text not collated.

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 historical shortened literary translationGliński/Biggs 1920: The EaglesResearch 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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