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

Overview

A magician abandons a hired youth atop a treasure-covered mountain after using an emptied horse carcass as an enchanted carrier. Looking for food, the youth uncovers an iron ring and staircase leading to a splendid underground palace. After eating there, he encounters a reclining giant who challenges his unauthorized arrival. On hearing his story, the giant identifies the magician as the cause of his enchantment: while that man lives, he cannot escape.

The giant directs the youth to a tank visited before dawn by white, grey and cinnamon-colored doves. Capturing the white one reveals a maiden, and servants with rich clothing appear when she reaches the giant. This does not yet free the palace. Meanwhile the youth’s youngest brother enters the magician’s service, recognizes the dangerous mountain scheme and attacks him with a stone instead of sending treasure down.

As the magician dies, the giant rejoices and the buried palace progressively rises until it stands near the brothers’ mother’s house. The ending identifies the disenchanted giant as a prince. He marries the white-dove maiden, while the two other dove-maidens marry the brothers. The text supplies no personal names, additional heads or other monstrous anatomy. His initially frightening appearance belongs to an imposed condition, not an intrinsically hostile giant species.

Enchanted giant formUnderground palaceMagician-dependent releaseDisenchanted prince
01

Origins & earliest records

Consiglieri Pedroso, Portuguese Folk-Tales, translated from the original manuscript by Henriqueta Monteiro, London: Elliot Stock for the Folk-Lore Society, 1882; VIII, pp. 33–37. This selected tale does not name its narrator or local collecting site.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete tale VIII read through the giant’s disenchantment and the dove-maidens’ marriages. Collector’s introductory pp. 1–2 distinguish the selected thirty tales from his larger unpublished collection.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Portuguese Folk-Tales VIII: The Spell-bound Giant, pp. 33–37

    Collected by Consiglieri Pedroso; translated by Henriqueta Monteiro · 1882

    Complete tale VIII; giant’s release depends on the magician’s death, not merely on the dove capture.

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 textPortuguese Folk-Tales, original 1882 edition scan/OCRResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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