A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
A large white drake repeatedly descends to a lake and swims three circuits each way. Caught by a young herdsman, it speaks and identifies itself as a fairy king from the gods’ region. To obtain release it offers riches, then agrees to give the boy his middle daughter as wife for nine years. Back in the sky it changes into royal humanlike form.
The king returns with his daughter in white-duck form, and both resume their other shapes on landing. He compels her to marry despite her distress. After the nine-year term he initially maintains the separation, but a heavenly council eventually permits her freely chosen return as a mortal. No personal name or Tibetan divine identification is given, and the narrator’s English fairy-king label is retained without equating him to a named Buddhist deity.
Origins & earliest records
Tibet; collected historical narrative
Records & interpretation
Full relevant tale and collection preface directly read.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Folk Tales from Tibet
XV, The Story of the Boy with the Deformed Head, pp. 92–102
Family, evolution & connections
The white-drake king’s three daughters in O’Connor StoryXV
StoryXV, pp94–96, in O’Connor’s1906 English collection; no universal Tibetan fairy genealogy is implied.
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- Unnamed eldest daughter
- Unnamed youngest daughter
Explicit king’s statement and subsequent appearance with his middle daughter. Mother and other daughters’ names are unstated. Bird and fairy forms are identities of the same characters. The collector’s historical translation is the witness; no Tibetan-language original or individual narrator is independently checked.
White-duck fairy princess
The fairy king explicitly offers his three daughters; the boy chooses the middle daughter. Drake and duck appearances are their forms, not successive generations or real bird species.
Unnamed eldest and youngest daughters (O’Connor StoryXV)
The king states that he has three daughters and summons all three. The eldest and youngest remain unnamed; the account does not identify their mother.
Primary records and illustrations
W. F. O’Connor, Folk Tales from Tibet (1906)
XV, The Story of the Boy with the Deformed Head. pp. 92–102
Complete tale and preface read. English fairy/Gryphon labels not given invented Tibetan equivalents. No lion-bodied anatomy inferred. Daughter’s initially coerced and later voluntary choices distinguished.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical tale collectionO’Connor, Folk Tales from Tibet, XV, The Story of the Boy with the Deformed Head, pp. 92–102Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
