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

Overview

In “The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed Dragon,” Champalak gives his opponent a bridle for the golden-maned charger that regularly comes to feed. The horse flies through the air, submits when bridled and asks the prince for orders, carrying him almost instantly to Chin-i-Machin. Later the prince summons it at the seashore for the journey to the dragon’s talisman. At the guarded palace it instructs him to fasten the bridle to two iron gates: its neigh and striking iron hoofs will open the door, and he must kill the lion within at one stroke or flee.

After the prince removes three doves from the lion’s belly, one escapes. The horse pursues it, catches it and wrings its neck. It then carries the prince back to Champalak, where the other two birds are killed. The mount warns that returning the final dove to the dragon would have restored him, and disappears together with the bridle. The narrator does not explain why an animal introduced through the dragon helps to destroy him or identify it as a transformed human. Its golden mane, iron hoofs, advice and disappearance are specific to this witness; it is not silently equated with the sea-horse of the preceding Wind-Demon tale.

Golden maneIron hoofsFlight and speechLife-dove capture
01

Origins & earliest records

Turkish storytelling collected in Anatolia, through Hungarian and English publication

02

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale and ending read, with its attached footnote where present.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

    Ignácz Kúnos (collector); R. Nisbet Bain (translator from Hungarian) · 1901

    “The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed Dragon,” pp. 143–153. London: A. H. Bullen, 1901; English through the Hungarian collection, not direct source-language collation.

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.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete English narrative and ending read

Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

Ignácz Kúnos / R. Nisbet Bain; London: A. H. Bullen, 1901. The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed Dragon, pp. 143–153

Complete cache kunos-bain-12.txt (13894 characters), with footnote12 identifying Chin-i-Machin as the Chinese Empire. Full second marriage ending read.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical English folktale translation through HungarianKúnos/Bain 1901, The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed DragonResearch 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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