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Overview
The Three-Headed Serpent is one of Suyettar’s three offspring in Fillmore’s Log. An old woman explains that the Evil One cursed the Dawn because it disturbed his sleep and placed it in this serpent’s keeping. The creature spends one day out at sea and returns at night. It demands the eldest princess as food, threatening otherwise to consume half the kingdom, castle and shining stones. Three Bottles frees the princess from the sack prepared for her sacrifice and waits for the creature.
Three scaly heads rise from the water as the serpent approaches. It proposes a red-copper fighting platform, but its opponent demands black iron, which the creature produces with its breath. During combat it strikes with its heads and emits fire and smoke from its mouths. Three Bottles cuts off two heads and summons his dog to help dispatch the last. The following Dawn marks the captive’s release. The severed heads are subsequently brought to the king with those of the other two brothers as proof of the heroes’ deeds.
Origins & earliest records
Parker Fillmore, Mighty Mikko (1922), Log, printed pp. 69–98; author’s note vii–xi.
Records & interpretation
Complete English retelling, with separate three-, six- and nine-headed brothers and the hero’s final fate. Fillmore’s version is not presented as a literal translation of an independently read Finnish text.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Mighty Mikko: Log, pp. 69–98
Complete selected chapter through blue-cross ending and widow’s remarriage. Three serpent brothers explicitly sons of Suyettar; head counts and captive luminaries remain distinct.
Family, evolution & connections
Suyettar’s three serpent sons — Fillmore’s Log retelling
Complete Log literary retelling, pp.69–98; separate from The True Bride.
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- Suyettar in Log, explicit mother
Repeated explicit Suyettar mother/sons statements and serpent brotherhood. No father is supplied. The retelling’s ordinal descriptions vary, so head counts identify the sons without establishing birth order. Suyettar’s companions are not assigned biological sisterhood merely from address, and the false-bride profile from another tale is not used as the mother endpoint.
Suyettar in Fillmore’s Log retelling
The narrative explicitly identifies this serpent as Suyettar’s son. This mother belongs to the Log retelling; shared naming does not automatically merge her biography with the false bride in The True Bride. No father is supplied.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary historical literary retelling of folkloreFillmore1922: LogResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
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