Horse-Devil in Kúnos and Bain

Overview

In “The Horse-Devil and the Witch,” a ruler gives his youngest daughter to a favourite horse after she alone succeeds in feeding it. By night their stable becomes a rose garden and the horse becomes a handsome husband. He can also assume human form by day: he secretly wins three tournaments against his brothers-in-law. Before the last, he gives his wife three wisps of hair that will summon help when burned. Her disclosure of his identity makes him disappear.

After searching, she burns one hair and finds him at his mountain home. Identified here as a devil’s son, he conceals her as an apple until his man-eating mother swears not to harm the visitor. The remaining hairs summon him to explain two hostile tasks: sweeping one room but leaving another, and filling vessels with salted water as a substitute for tears. When a further task follows and no hair remains, he returns on his own initiative and decides they must flee.

He confounds two pursuing aunts by changing his wife first into a bath-house and then into a spring, while taking the corresponding roles of keeper and water-drawer. When his mother follows, he makes his wife a tree and himself a serpent coiled around it. She recognises them but fears harming her son. He finally exposes one of his wife’s little fingers, which his mother tears off before abandoning the pursuit.

The couple resume human shapes and return to her father. The final passage says the husband remains mortal because his talisman has been destroyed, while his diabolical part stays with his mother’s family. It does not separately identify the talisman or explain precisely how its destruction occurred. They later inherit the kingdom; the text does not explicitly restore the wife’s lost finger.

Origins & earliest records

Turkish storytelling collected in Anatolia, through Hungarian and English publication

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale including transformations, pursuit and unresolved talisman wording read.

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 Horse-Devil and the Witch,” pp. 74–83. London: A. H. Bullen. Preface dated July1896 explicitly credits the Hungarian1889 intermediary.

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

References

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

1. Historical English folktale translation through HungarianKúnos/Bain1901, The Horse-Devil and the WitchResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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