The Magician's Horse

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.[3] This narrative is called by scholarship Goldenermärchen, after its main feature: the protagonist acquires golden hair early in the story.[4]

The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 314, "The Goldener": 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.[5]

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.[6] Reseacher Genevieve Massignon, on the other hand, stated that the hero hides his golden appearance under the pretense of having ringworm.[7]

Scholars Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana noted the core narrative sequence of the tale type involves the hero riding three horse 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.[8]

Scholaship 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' inferfility problem.[9][10]

The motifs are found in many more tales. While getting a horse is a frequent quest object, it is usually the side effect of needing it for something else, as in The Death of Koschei the Deathless or The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples. It is generally a gift of the donor, as in Făt-Frumos with the Golden Hair.

When the hero is working for the villain, the usual aid comes from a woman who is the heroine -- The Battle of the Birds, The White Dove, or The Master Maid—and therefore does not end as this one does, with an additional adventure to gain a bride, as in The Hairy Man.

Compare Prince Ring.

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".[11]

A less common variant, found only in Europe - according to Stith Thompson[12][13] - , opens with the hero rescuing a wild man, as in Iron John, Guerrino and the Savage Man, and The Hairy Man - tales classified as ATU 502, "The Wild Man as Helper".[14] 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.[15]

Another related set of stories was former tale type[lower-alpha 2] AT 532, "I Don't Know" or Neznaïko (fr) (a sapient horse instructs the hero to play dumb),[16] a tale type that, according to Linda Dégh, is "particularly widespread" in the Central and Eastern regions of Europe.[17] This type happens in Hungarian tale Nemtutka[18] and Russian tale Story of Ivan, the Peasant's Son.[19][lower-alpha 3]

Author Bozena Nemcova wrote down a version named Prince Bayaya, which Parker Fillmore commented that it is "a mosaic of two or three simpler stories". In the story, twin princes are born to a king and queen. The king asks the queen for his favourite son to inherit the throne. Owing to that, the other brother journeys on his own, in the company of his faithful horse. The horse speaks to him and recommends his prince disguises himself as a peasant with a speech impediment (he should only respond with "I don't know" when asked).[21]

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.[22]

This particular type of tale is well known, being particularly found in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Baltic, but also throughout Europe,[23][24][25][26] and appears in Asia down to Indonesia and also in Africa.[27][28]

Hasan El-Shamy indicated that the tale type is "widely spread" in North Africa.[29]

Lithuanian folklorist Jonas Balys, in his analysis of Lithuanian folktales (published in 1936), listed 37 Lithuanian variants of type 314, Magiškas bėgimas arkliui padedant ("Magical Escape with the Help of a Horse").[30]

Native American variants of this type were assumed by Stith Thompson to have originated from French-Canadian sources.[31]

In an Egyptian tale collected by Guillaume Spitta-Bey with the title Histoire du prince et de son cheval ("The Story of the prince and his horse"), a sultan's son and a mare's foal are born at the same time, so they give the foal to the prince. The sultan's wife dies and he remarries. One day, the prince's horse cries and confesses to the prince the his stepmother and her lover, a Jew, plan to poison. The prince, named Mohammed L'Avisé ("Clever Mohammed") escapes with the horse far from the kingdom. The horse gives him a hair of its mane and a firestone to summon him. Mohammed L'Avisé finds work with the king's gardener, as the one operating a water wheel to water the gardens. One day, the king's seven daughters throw objects to choose their husband, except the seventh and youngest. She ends up married to the gardener's servant. Eventually, Mohammed L'Avisé proves his worth to his father-in-law by getting him milk from an old she-bear as medicine for him.[32]

In a tale collected by Yacoub Artin Pacha in the Nile Valley with the title Le Cheval Enchanté ("The Enchanted Horse"), a widowed king remarries. His new wife hates her stepson, the prince, and tries to poison him, but thanks to his horse's warning, he avoids eating the poisoned food. The stepmother convinces her husband to sacrifice the horse, but the prince begs for one last ride with him. The prince seizes the opportunity to escape with the horse to another kingdom. At a safe distance, the horse gives the prince some tufts of his hair to summon him and vanishes. The prince finds work as the second king's gardener. The king's third daughter, a princess, likes to peer out of her window, and sees a mysterious man on a horse in the garden. On one moonlit night, she discovers that the rider is the gardener and wants to marry him. Much to her father's disgust, he marries his third daughter to the gardenr, but expels her from the palace to live in the gardener's hut. Later, war breaks out, and the gardener, joined by his faithful horse, helps his father-in-law and brothers-in-law.[33]

Scholar Hasan El-Shamy collected a tale from a 16-year old Bedouin in 1969 and published it in 1980 with the title The Magic Filly. In this tale, a king remarries. His new wife hates her stepson, nmed Clever Muhammed, and tries to poison him twice: in his food and in his clothes dye, but twice she is thwarted by the warnings of his magic filly.[34]

In a tale from the Swahili titled The Wonderful Warrior, Abdallah, the Vizir's son, becomes the sultan's son's playmate, until the latter gets bored with him. Abdallah is expelled from the palace and wanders the desert. A Magician finds him and takes him in as his apprentice. One day, the Magician explains he will go on a journey, gives him the keys to his house, and warns him not to open a certain door. While the Magician is away, Abdallah open every door, and sees a leopard, a lion and a talking sword. He opens the last door and finds a horse. The horse tells him that the Magician lured and devoured its previous owner, and that the same fate may befall Abdallah if they do not escape. The horse tells him to make preparations: take a saddle, the sword and seven bottles from a chest, and release the lion and the leopard. Abdallah escapes on the horse and sees a cloud of smoke coming after them: its the Magician and some friends. The horse tells its rider to throw behind them one of the bottles to create obstacles: a forest of thorns, a mountain of stones, a wall of fire, and lastly a large sea-wave. Abdallah and the horse reach a kingdom, and the horse advises him to dress in poor and ragged clothes. Abdallah goes to the city to a crowd that gathered to see the princesses' husband selection by throwing lemons. The seventh princess throws her lemon and it lands near Abdallah. Her father, the sultan, marries them to each other and places her in a poor hut. Some times later, war breaks out thee times, and three times Abdallah rides into battle to defend her father-in-law's kingdom: he rides the leopard on the first battle, the leopard on the second and the horse on the third.[35]

In a tale from Zanzibar translated by George Bateman as The Magician and the Sultan’s Son, a sultan with three sons laments the fact that no one seems to be able to teach them anything. A magician named Mchaa′wee appears and asks to take one of the sultan's sons as a companion, and chooes the youngest, called Keejaa′naa. One day, the magician gives Keejaa′naa the keys to his house, and says he will away for a while. Keejaa′naa opens a door with a golden pool and dips his finger into it. The next time, the boy opens the remaining doors: he sees piles of animal bones and humans skulls, and finds a horse named Faraasee.[36]

In a Yemeni tale translated into German as Eselsfell ("[The One With A] Donkeyskin"), a sultan's son is victim of a ploy by his stepmother, and is expelled from home with his horse. He stops to rest in the desert for the night, when the daughter of the King of the Djinns appears to him intent on helping him as his adoptive sister. She gives him a long strand of her hair to summon her help, and vanishes. The youth rides some more into a wadi and sees a dead donkey. He skins the donkey and makes a garment out of its hide. He then reaches a kingdom, ruled by a Sultan with seven daughters. Because of his strange vestments, the youth is mockingly called "Donkeyskin". One day, at the cistern, the boy waits for everyone to leave, before he takes off the donkey hide and bathe in the water. The sultan's seventh daughter sees him and falls in love with him. At the ceremony of selecting a husband, each of the princesses throws an apple to their suitors, the youngest and seventh princess throws her to Donkeyskin. Her father questions her choice, but she remains steadfast, so he marries her off to the lowly boy and banishes her from the palace to the stables. When a neighbouring Sultan threatens the kingdom, the Sultan's six sons-in-law rush to defend it, but Donkeyskin departs first, summons the Daughter of the King of the Djinns and asks her for a strong horse. He defeats the enemies, and goes back to his lowly disguise.[37]

Professor Ulrich Marzolph, in his catalogue of Persian folktales, named type 314 in Iranian sources as Das Zauberfohlen ("The Magic Foal"): the horse saves the protagonist from jealous relatives and takes him to another kingdom; in this kingdom, the protagonist is advised by the horse to dress in shabby garments (as a "Kačal") and work as the king's gardener; a princess falls in love with him. Marzolph listed 17 variants of this type across Persian sources.[38]

In a Persian tale collected by Emily Lorimer and David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer from Kermānī with the title The Story of the Colt Qéytās or Qéytās the Colt, a king's son is friends with a colt named Qéytās. His father remarries. One day, the colt cries to the boy an confesses that his stepmother plans kill him: on her first attempt, she tries to poison the boy; on the second, she digs a well and places blades inside. After both attempts are thwarted, the stepmother convinces her husband to kill the horse. The boy and the colt escape to another kingdom. Now at a safe distance, Qéytās advises the boy to wear a sheepskin on his head and to seek employment with the king's gardener, and gives him one hair of its mane. The boy is hired as the king's gardener. One day, feeling lonely, he summons the horse to ride around the garden. The king's youngest daughter, a princess, from her window, sees the boy and falls in love with him. The princess goes to the gardens to question his identity, and the boy answers her that he is a "scald-headed". Some time later, the king's three daughters reach marriageable age (by comparing the ripeness of three melons) and take part in a husband selection contest by throwing oranges to their suitors. The elder princesses throw theirs to the Wizir's two sons, while the third princess throws hers to the gardener. Some time later, the king becomes ill and only the bird found in a distant desert can cure him. The boy, riding on Qéytās, gets the bird. Before he returns to the kingdom, he meets his brothers-in-law, who do not recognize him.[39] Marzolph classified this tale as his type 314.[40]