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

Overview

In Kúnos and Bain’s “The Cinder-Youth,” the hero reaches the seventh world and saves a nest of birds from a climbing serpent. Their mother, the emerald Anka, initially mistakes the sleeping man for the recurring predator. Her young explain his rescue, and she shelters him with her wings before offering assistance. This English witness calls her both mother of the birds and Padishah of the Peris. The account is kept as a located Turkish tale rather than merged into the existing Persian Simurgh’s biography.

To return him to the surface, she requires forty tons of ox-flesh and forty pitchers of water. A summoned efrit supplies them. The youth feeds or waters the bird at her two different calls as they ascend through the layers of worlds. After reaching the surface, he obtains the three princesses he had rescued earlier and sets out with them on the Anka for their father’s kingdom, again carrying the prescribed provisions.

On this second flight the meat runs short because of the additional passengers. The youth cuts flesh from his own thigh to offer her, but she recognises human flesh and retains it rather than swallowing it. At their destination she discovers his difficulty walking and replaces the piece as though it had never been removed. Her first journey is therefore not the flesh-sacrifice episode. No further fate for her is given after she delivers them; the translator’s note comparing Russian and Cossack bird tales does not make those birds the same individual.

“The Wind-Demon” offers a separate Anka witness, not a continuation of the maternal bird’s family. Here the emerald Anka marries the youngest princess and is called Padishah of the Birds, as well as being introduced as Padishah of the Peris. He welcomes her youngest brother Mehmed because the prince upheld their marriage. After the Wind-Demon dismembers Mehmed, his horse brings the remains to this household. The Anka summons the birds and has an aged owl, carried by another bird, obtain water from the Garden of Paradise. He fits the prince’s bones back into place and sprinkles them with the water, restoring him to life.

This male Anka then advises Mehmed to discover the demon’s talisman and sends five birds to help capture a sea-horse at a mountain spring. That mount obtains the life-dove and saves the couple; they visit the Anka before returning home. The two stories therefore distinguish a maternal nest-rescuer’s beneficiary from a bird husband’s brother-in-law, and restoration of a sacrificed piece of flesh from revival after dismemberment. Their roles are retained as source-specific narratives rather than joined into a single family history.

Nest protectionTravel between worldsTwo distinct journeysRestoration of sacrificed fleshSeparate bird-husband witnessRevival with Paradise water
01

Origins & earliest records

Turkish storytelling collected in Anatolia, through Hungarian and English publication

02

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale and final comparative footnote read, preserving separate opponents and journeys.

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 Cinder-Youth,” pp. 84–96; footnote10 compares the flesh-offering incident with Bird Zhar and Bird Mogol tales. London: A. H. Bullen. English through Hungarian1889, as stated in preface.

  2. 02

    Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

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

    “The Wind-Demon,” pp. 112–133. London: A. H. Bullen. Complete English tale; preface dates July 1896 and identifies the Hungarian 1889 collection. No attached footnote.

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 tale and attached comparison note read

Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

Ignácz Kúnos / R. Nisbet Bain; London: A. H. Bullen, 1901. The Cinder-Youth, pp. 84–96; footnote10

Complete cache kunos-bain-7.txt,16609characters. Full three-faceddevil/wife rescue, separatewelldevil, betrayedbrother, blackramdescent, nestrescue and bothAnkajourneys, restoredthigh/finalkingdommarriage read. Firstflightnohumanflesh; whiteascentonlyprincessprediction. Simurghrawunchanged, regionalbirdnotassertednewuniversalidentity. No original-language/artworkcollation. Additional complete witness: The Wind-Demon, pp.112–133, cache kunos-bain-10.txt. Male royal husband and maternal bird kept distinct; Paradise-water revival and five-bird sea-horse capture are additive comparisons, not imported into the Cinder-Youth episode.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

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

  1. Historical English folktale translation through HungarianKúnos/Bain1901, The Cinder-YouthResearch access: 2026-10-05
  2. Historical English folktale translation through HungarianKúnos/Bain 1901, The Wind-DemonResearch 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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