The Prince Who Worked as Satan's Servant and Saved the King from Hell (Lithuanian: Apė karaliūnaitį, kur pas šėtoną slūžyjo ir karalių išgelbėjo iš peklos; German: Von dem Prinzen der bei dem Satan in Diensten stand und den König aus der Hölle befreite) is a Lithuanian fairy tale collected by German linguists August Leskien and Karl Brugmann. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book under the title The Magician's Horse.
The story is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 314, "Goldener" (previously, "The Youth Transformed to a Horse"), in a cycle that begins with the protagonist working for the antagonist and escaping from him on a talking horse.
Synopsis A king's three sons went hunting, and the youngest got lost. He arrived at a great hall, ate there and found an old man. After explaining his predicament, the prince offered to enter his service. The old man assigned him to keep the stove lit, fetch firewood from the forest, and care for a black horse in the stables.
The old man was a magician and the fire was the source of his power, though he did not tell the prince.
One day, the prince nearly let the fire go out and the old man stormed in. Frightened, the prince threw another log on it and nursed it back.
The black horse told him to saddle and bridle it, to use an ointment that made his hair like gold, and to pile all the wood he could on the fire. This set the hall on fire. The black horse then told him to take a looking-glass, a brush and a riding-whip, and ride off on him. The magician chased on a roan horse, but the prince threw down the looking glass, the roan horse cut its feet on it, and the magician had to go back to put new shoes on him, but then he chased the prince again. The black horse had the prince throw the brush on the ground. This produced a thick wood and the magician had to go back and get an axe to cut through it, but then he chased the prince again. The prince threw down the whip; it became a river. When the magician tried to cross it, it put out his magical fire and killed him.
The black horse told the prince to strike the ground with a willow wand. A door opened, making a hall in which the black horse stayed, but he sent the prince through the fields to take service with a king. He wore a scarf to hide his golden hair. He worked as a gardener and every day brought half his food to the horse.
One day, the black horse told him that the king's three daughters would choose their husbands: a great company of lords would gather, and they would throw their diamond apples into the air. The man at whose feet the apple stopped would be the bridegroom. He should be in the garden, nearby, and the youngest's would roll to him; he should take it up at once.
He did. The scarf slipped a little, the princess saw his hair and fell in love at once, and the king, though reluctant, let them marry.
Soon after, the king had to go to war. He gave the prince a broken-down nag. The prince went to the black horse where it gave him arms and armor and he rode it to battle and won the battle, but fled before he could be clearly seen. Twice more, he went to war, but the third time, he was wounded, and the king bound his wound with his own handkerchief. The princess, his wife, recognized it and revealed it to her father. There was great rejoicing and the king gave him half his kingdom.
Analysis Tale type The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 314, "The Goldener" (previously, "The Youth Transformed to a Horse"): a youth with golden hair works as the king's gardener. The type may also open with the prince for some reason being the servant of an evil being, where he gains the same gifts, and the tale proceeds as in this variant.Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1977. pp. 59-60.Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961. pp. 108-109.
The tale's collectors, August Leskien and Karl Brugman noted that it belonged to a cycle of stories wherein the hero works for a magician (or the devil) and finds a horse. The horse becomes his companion and helps him flee from the magician's clutches until they reach another kingdom, where the hero works in a menial position and the princess falls in love with him.Leskien, August; Brugman, K. Litauische Volkslieder und Märchen. Straßburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1882. p. 537. This narrative is called by scholarship Goldenermärchen, after its main feature: the protagonist acquires golden hair early in the story.Jones, H. S. V. "The Cléomadès and Related Folk-Tales". In: PMLA 23, no. 4 (1908): 564. Accessed August 30, 2021. doi:10.2307/456771.
Another name for the tale type ATU 314 is "The Man with Scurvy" (Le Teigneux, in French), because the hero hides his golden hair under a pig's bladder, which, according to Paul Delarue, gives him an appearance of a person with scurvy.Delarue, Paul Delarue. The Borzoi Book of French Folk-Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1956. p. 370. Researcher Genevieve Massignon, on the other hand, stated that the hero hides his golden appearance under the pretense of having ringworm.Massignon, Genevieve. Folktales of France. University of Chicago Press. 1968. p. 251.
Motifs According to Stith Thompson, "a standard part" of tale type ATU 314 is motif D672, "The Obstacle Flight", in the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: the hero escapes on the horse and both delay the villain's pursuit by throwing objects behind them to create obstacles. Usually, they throw a stone (which becomes a mountain), a comb (which becomes a forest) and a flint (which produces a great fire).
Scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana noted the core narrative sequence of the tale type involves the hero riding three horses to either save the kingdom, or to obtain a certain remedy. Either way, he gains his father-in-law's favour and is crowned king after him.Muhawi, Ibrahim, and Sharif Kanaana. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1989. p. 353. .
Alternate openings Scholarship notes three different opening episodes to the tale type: (1) the hero becomes a magician's servant and is forbidden to open a certain door, but he does and dips his hair in a pool of gold; (2) the hero is persecuted by his stepmother, but his loyal horse warns him and later they both flee; (3) the hero is given to the magician as payment for the magician's help with his parents' infertility problem.Uther, Hans-Jörg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 198. .Dammann, Günter. "Goldener (AaTh 314)". In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Band 5: Fortuna – Gott ist auferstanden. Edited by Rudolf Wilhelm Brednich; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Helge Gerndt; Lutz Röhrich; Klaus Roth. De Gruyter, 2016 . pp. 1373-1374. .
Related types These three tale types (ATU 502, ATU 314 and AaTh 532), which refer to a male protagonist expelled from home, are said to be "widespread in Europe".
ATU 502: The Wild Man as a Helper A less common variant, found only in Europe - according to Stith ThompsonCosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome I. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 138-154."Das treue Füllchen". In: Wolf, Johann Wilhelm. Deutsche Hausmärchen. Göttingen/Leipzig: 1851. pp. 268-285. - opens with the hero rescuing a wild man, as in Iron John, Guerrino and the Savage Man, The Hairy Man, The Gold-bearded Man, The Iron Man, The King's Trophy, The Wild Man of the Marsh, The Tsarevich and the Dyad'ka, Story of Bulat the Brave Companion, One Good Turn Deserves Another, and The Wild Man - tales classified as ATU 502, "The Wild Man as a Helper".Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p 60-1, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977 However, professor Jack Haney stated that the tale type is said to be common in Russian and Ukraine, but "disseminated" in Western Europe. The type can also be found in India, Indonesia and Turkey.
AaTh 532: "I Don't Know" Another related set of stories was former tale type AT 532, "I Don't Know" or Neznaïko (fr) (a sapient horse instructs the hero to play dumb),Cooper, David L. (editor/translator); Dobšinský, Pavol (collector). Traditional Slovak Folktales. Armonk, New York; London, England: M. E. Sharpe. 2001. p. 274. a tale type that, according to Linda Dégh, is "particularly widespread" in the Central and Eastern regions of Europe.Dégh, Linda (1996). Hungarian Folktales: The Art of Zsuzsanna Palkó. New York and London: Garland Publishing. p. 3. . This type happens in Hungarian tale NemtutkaArnold Ipolyi. Ipolyi Arnold népmesegyüjteménye (Népköltési gyüjtemény 13. kötet). Budapest: Az Athenaeum Részvénytársualt Tulajdona. 1914. pp. 196-202. and Russian tale Story of Ivan, the Peasant's Son.Steele, Robert. The Russian garland: being Russian folk tales. London: A.M. Philpot. [1916?] pp. 39-49.
Other tales A similar tale is found in Thailand, as one of its most popular: Sangthong or Phra Sangthong ("Prince of the Golden Conch"). In this tale, prince Sangthong, born with a shell, is expelled from the kingdom with his mother and take refuge with an old couple. His mother breaks his shell. He departs and is taken in by a giantess. One day, he jumps into a golden well and his body acquires a gilded appearance. He disguises himself with "an ugly mask", calls himself Chao Ngo and goes to the Samon Kingdom. He marries the seventh daughter of King Samon, named Rodjana, who sees his through the disguise, but everyone else sees him as an ugly person. The king banishes his daughter after their marriage. At the end, prince Sangthong saves the Samon Kingdom.
Variants Distribution This particular type of tale is well known, being particularly found in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Baltic, but also throughout Europe,"Der starke Franz". In: Müllenhoff, Karl. Sagen, Märchen und Lieder der Herzogthümer Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg. Kiel: 1845. pp. 438-444."Le Prince et son cheval". In: Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome I. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 133-137."Þorsteinn mit dem Goldhaar". In: Rittershaus, Adeline. Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen. Halle: Max Niemeyer. 1902. pp. 96-102."The Widow's Son (A Scandinavian Tale)". Pyle, Katherine. Tales of folk and fairies. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1919. pp. 35-60."Friedrich Goldhaar". In: Busch, Wilhelm Busch. Ut ôler Welt. München: 1910. pp. 96-104. and appears in Asia down to Indonesia and also in Africa.Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p 59-60, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977.
Hasan El-Shamy indicated that the tale type is "widely spread" in North Africa.El-Shamy, Hasan M. Folktales of Egypt. University of Chicago Press. 1980. p. 313. .
Europe Baltic region Lithuania