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Overview
At the eastern ends of the earth the ferryman finds a golden palace with an amber roof and diamond openings. The Sun’s mother spins from a golden distaff. She fears her returning son will burn a human visitor, but helps because the ferryman buried victims of a dragon. She transforms him into a ladybird and conceals him at the window. Her son crosses heaven daily in a diamond car drawn by twelve grey, golden-maned horses, then rests upon a coral bed.
The returning Sun smells a human, while his mother denies that one could have reached the palace. Her questioning reveals the eclipse’s cause: a dragon from the abyss attacked him, and a mermaid’s distracting song let him burn it and cast its ashes into the sea. Once he sleeps, she touches the ferryman with her spindle to restore his human form and lets him depart. The account keeps mother and son distinct, and attributes the visitor’s temporary animal transformation to her. It does not identify this household with named classical solar deities or say the twelve horses are the previously encountered Grey Seer-Horse.
Origins & earliest records
Polish Fairy Tales, translated from A. J. Gliński by Maude Ashurst Biggs (1920), The Good Ferryman and the Water Nymphs, pp. 53–68.
Records & interpretation
The selected English tale supplies the transformation, actions and ending. Biggs’s preface explicitly acknowledges considerable shortening of her source.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Polish Fairy Tales: The Good Ferryman and the Water Nymphs, pp. 53–68
Complete selected English narrative and translator’s preface. No individually named oral contributor provided; original Polish text not collated.
Family, evolution & connections
The Sun and his mother — Biggs
Complete pp. 53–68 narrative; mother–son episode pp. 58–60.
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- Unnamed Mother of the Sun
- Her son, the Sun
Narrator and household conversation identify mother and son. Father, siblings, spouse and children of the Sun unstated. The ferryman is a visitor; sea maiden’s help and beloved label do not establish a completed wedding.
The unnamed mother and her son the Sun
The palace’s old woman is identified as Mother of the Sun. Their conversation confirms the relationship; the ferryman’s temporary ladybird form does not make him another child.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical shortened literary translationGliński/Biggs 1920: The Good Ferryman and the Water NymphsResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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