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Overview

An older blacksmith commissions a horned, tailed demon image for his workshop and greets it courteously each morning. His son instead strikes and spits at the image. After enduring this for three years, the demon assumes a young man’s form and becomes his apprentice, swiftly surpassing the master’s craft. While the master is absent it offers to rejuvenate an elderly lady, burns her in the forge and restores her as a beautiful young woman through its supernatural skill.

The rejuvenated lady sends her husband for the same treatment, but the apprentice has disappeared. Forced to imitate a process he does not understand, the human smith kills the customer and cannot restore him. When the household takes him to be hanged, the demon returns and offers rescue in exchange for a promise of respectful treatment. It restores the husband alive and young, securing the smith’s release, then vanishes permanently.

The tale distinguishes the painted black, horned and tailed figure from the later youthful disguise; it does not explicitly describe horns on the apprentice. Its magical restoration succeeds where copying the outward procedure fails. Ralston’s note identifies the collection chain through Afanasief and Dahl, while his conjecture about an earlier supernatural prototype remains commentary. No actual forging treatment can be inferred from the story’s impossible restoration of burned people.

Horned and tailed painted representationYoung apprentice disguiseExceptional smithcraftMagical rejuvenationRescue conditional on respect
01

Origins & earliest records

Ralston, Russian Fairy Tales, hosted Hurst edition: The Smith and the Demon, pp. 70–74; note 69; source: Afanasief, Legendui 31, taken from Dahl’s collection.

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 Smith and the Demon, pp. 70–74; note 69

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

    Source: Afanasief, Legendui 31, taken from Dahl’s collection. Complete English story; original-language text not independently collated.

Family & connections

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References

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  1. Primary historical translationRalston: The Smith and the Demon, pp. 70–74; note 69Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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