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

Overview

The Scorpion Witch is explicitly the Woodpecker Fairy’s sister. Their parents’ curse made both into monsters, and their hostility prevents them from living together. They contest each other’s territories. Her anger produces fire and pitch from her mouth, and scorched grass marks her attempts to drive her sister away. The horse describes her as still more dangerous than the woodpecker.

She approaches with one jaw reaching towards the sky and the other towards the earth. As the four-winged horse carries its rider above and beside her, his arrow removes one of her three heads. She asks forgiveness and guarantees safety in her own blood. Hospitality follows the confrontation; when the prince returns the head, it grows on again. After three days he continues his journey. On the eventual homeward passage centuries later, her territory has become towns and fields, and the inhabitants dismiss her as an ancestral story. The text does not narrate her being killed by the lost head or identify her with the separate healing-blood scorpion of The Wonderful Bird.

Explicit Woodpecker Fairy sisterThree headsSpits fire and pitchBlood-written promiseReturned head regrows
01

Origins & earliest records

Roumanian Fairy Tales, collected by Mite Kremnitz, adapted and arranged by J. M. Percival (New York: Henry Holt, 1885), Youth Without Age and Life Without Death, pp. 42–55.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected English narrative and ending. The preface assigns tale 4 to P. Ispirescu’s collection; original Romanian and intermediate editions remain uncollated.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Roumanian Fairy Tales: Youth Without Age and Life Without Death, pp. 42–55

    Mite Kremnitz, collector; J. M. Percival, adapter and arranger · 1885

    Preface assigns tale 4 to P. Ispirescu. Complete English journey, return and fatal ending read.

Family, evolution & connections

Woodpecker Fairy and Scorpion Witch — cursed sisters

Complete English adaptation, pp. 42–55; sisters and daughters described on pp. 46–49.

Horse’s explicit sibling identification and narrator-stated daughters. Parents are unnamed and no parent is linked to an unrelated tale. The daughters’ father is unstated, and the prince declines the proposed marriage. No natural bird/scorpion evolutionary relationship is implied. Romanian originals have not been collated.

Kremnitz/Percival, Roumanian Fairy Tales (1885), Youth Without Age and Life Without Death, pp. 42–55

References

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

  1. Primary historical English adaptationKremnitz/Percival 1885: Youth Without Age and Life Without DeathResearch 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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