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

Overview

After a poor young man says he would accept even a bride offered by the devil, an elderly stranger appears and offers to find him a wife. At a lake he directs the youth backwards into the water, where a furnished white-stone palace and twelve beautiful maidens await. One maiden privately identifies the host as a fiend and tells the guest how to recognise her when all twelve appear exactly alike the following morning.

The chosen woman had been taken at nine years old after her father angrily consigned her to devils. A fly above her right eye lets the suitor identify her across three rounds of choosing. The host reluctantly releases the pair to shore, and their backward walking makes the later pursuing devils misread the tracks as leading into the water. They reach the woman’s father, where stolen silver and gold dishes establish a parallel case of property disappearing after another angry invocation.

The couple marry and the young man returns to his own parents. His stay had seemed no longer than a day, but three years passed at home. The fiend’s apparent generosity therefore combines captivity, deceptive selection and altered experienced time. The tale does not identify all twelve women as the fiend’s daughters, or the lake palace as the separate Water King’s home. The father’s abusive words are the narrative’s premise, not a factual claim that speaking them summons demons.

Aged human guiseWhite-stone underwater palaceTwelve lookalike captivesPursuit fooled by backward tracksThree years seem one day
01

Origins & earliest records

Ralston, Russian Fairy Tales, hosted Hurst edition: The Hasty Word, pp. 370–374; note 470; source: Afanasief V, No. 48.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete translated narrative and numbered source attribution. Character identities and actions are distinguished from Ralston’s comparative theories and ordinary human imitation.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Russian Fairy Tales: The Hasty Word, pp. 370–374; note 470

    W. R. S. Ralston, translator · Historical Hurst edition; printed title page undated

    Source: Afanasief V, No. 48. Complete English story; original-language text not independently collated.

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.

References

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

  1. Primary historical translationRalston: The Hasty Word, pp. 370–374; note 470Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

FT·801 · RESEARCH EDITION 01Back to top ↑