Invisible-voice Prince in Pedroso’s Wind Tale

Overview

A princess repeatedly hears an unseen voice asking whether she would rather suffer her troubles while young or old. Choosing youth, she is carried through the air to successive places where she is falsely blamed for missing flour, washing and fruit. Eventually she reaches a palace, and its prince explains that the voice was his: her earlier wish that he vanish like wind had made him endure troubles and become enchanted.

He insists on a twenty-year delay before marriage and gives her a pin that must not be lost or surrendered. During a visit to her family, invoking the pin brings his voice and enables another aerial departure. The account later reports her father’s death but brings him back as a wedding guest without explaining that contradiction; no resurrection spell is supplied.

After the marriage, the father’s walnut gift falls and sets their former palace alight. The couple’s son is born, and a later servant admits being sent to kill him. The prince kills the servant after a threatening statement during the family’s journey. These later household dangers follow the invisible-voice episode rather than revealing a bird or animal identity for the enchanted lover.

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 V, pp. 20–24. The selected account does not identify an individual narrator or collecting locality.

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 V: May You Vanish Like the Wind, pp. 20–24

   Collected by Consiglieri Pedroso; translated by Henriqueta Monteiro · 1882

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

Family & connections

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References

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

Image credits

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