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

Overview

In “The Wind-Demon,” forty sea-horses come each morning to drink at a mountain spring opposite the emerald Anka’s palace. The demon tells his captive that one can be mastered by catching its leg while it drinks, bridling and saddling it, and mounting. Acting on her information, the Anka sends five birds with Prince Mehmed to perform this capture. The chosen horse speaks, asks for his command, and carries him almost instantaneously to an island on the seventh ocean. It is a rideable, speaking steed; the text does not describe a fish tail or identify it as a zoological seahorse.

Mehmed removes and keeps its bridle while he retrieves the golden cage containing the demon’s life-dove. Striking the sea with that bridle summons the horse again. It carries him first to the captive woman and then away with them both, flying as high as the clouds. When the Wind-Demon almost catches them, the horse tells them to break the dove’s neck, ending the pursuit. At the Anka’s palace they release their helper to go its own way. The other thirty-nine horses remain a group seen at the spring, not thirty-nine separately narrated rescuers.

SpeechFlightBridle summoningDecisive rescue advice
01

Origins & earliest records

Turkish storytelling collected in Anatolia, through Hungarian and English publication

02

Records & interpretation

Complete English tale through the final restoration of the prince’s inheritance read; no attached footnote.

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 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 narrative and ending read

Turkish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

Ignácz Kúnos / R. Nisbet Bain; London: A. H. Bullen, 1901. The Wind-Demon, pp. 112–133

Full cache kunos-bain-10.txt, 28289 characters. Tomb vigil, night keeper, three animal marriages, abduction, failed escape and dismemberment, Anka resurrection, talisman disclosure, sea-horse retrieval, dove death and final kingship all read. No footnotes attached. Wind-Demon’s invisibility coexists with permission to show himself to the woman; no invented permanent visible anatomy.

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/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.

FT·2104 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑