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

Overview

The youngest princess in Malbrouk is held in a tightly closed house on an island beyond the Red Sea. She calls her keeper a horrible body without a soul and warns the visiting rescuer of its imminent return. The monster supplies partridges and pigeons for her but eats serpents and vermin itself. It complains of headache and asks her to strike it with a hammer so large that she can scarcely lift it. These details establish unusual endurance and diet without specifying its head count, wings or exact bodily shape.

Feigning concern that his death would leave her helpless, the princess persuades it to disclose its protection. A terrible wolf in the forest contains a fox; the fox contains a pigeon; an egg in the pigeon’s head can kill him if struck against his forehead. Malbrouk’s acquired animal forms overcome the successive guardians. The keeper already feels danger when the wolf dies and later knows the egg has been taken. Yet it demonstrates the fatal placement when asked, and the princess uses the retrieved egg accordingly. It falls dead, freeing her to leave with the rescuer.

The egg is not described as containing a needle or located in a duck, and the death is a blow to the forehead, not merely breaking the shell at a distance. Those differences matter beside other external-life stories. Nor does the narrative identify the island monster with old Malbrouk, the hero’s godfather: the latter remains active in the subsequent gift-theft episodes after this monster’s death. The title here is the captive’s descriptive phrase, not an invented personal name.

External fatal eggWolf–fox–pigeon nestingKnowledge of guardian deathsHammer enduranceForehead blow killsDifferent from hero’s godfather
01

Origins & earliest records

Webster’s Basque Legends, second edition (London, 1879), prints Malbrouk under Laurentine’s name, adding that she was about thirty-five and had learned it from her mother. This preserves a named transmission context without dating the tale’s origin.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete Malbrouk, pp. 77–87, supplies the successive rescues, external-death mechanism, transformations and later godfather episode. Different figures share a tale without being assumed to be the same monster.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Basque Legends: Malbrouk

    Wentworth Webster, collector and translator; narrator Laurentine, learned from her mother · 1879

    Second edition, pp. 77–87. Entire ending includes return to godfather, stolen gifts, last escape and brothers’ kingships.

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 collected translationWebster 1879: complete MalbroukResearch 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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