Reading Notes Week 14: Lang's European Fairy Tales, Part B, "Seven-Headed Serpent"

"Seven-Headed Serpent"

a modern Greek tale
reminiscent of Greek mythology

Hydra (multi-headed dragon)
Minotaur (sending young people to be eaten)

a king sets out on an adventure finds a land inhabited by animals

also, rivers flowing with precious stones
kills the lions resting near these rivers
push inland and come to a talking lake
the lake warns them that their king will soon awake and instructs the men to take off their clothes and lay it on a path so that the king may walk on a soft surface
the men do so because the lake claims it will save their lives
the king awakes and exists his castle with an entourage of animals, walks on the soft surface, demands to know where the clothes came from
the men came forward and told their story
the king (seven-headed serpent) said that they must send 24 youths from their homeland every year for him to eat as a punishment for daring to set foot on his land
men return to their land and bring youths as promised for years

in the second part of the story, the prince of the land decides to kill the serpent so that they no longer have to send the tributes

is told how to kills the serpent by a nun who resides in a cave full of wool spinning nuns
the nun tells the prince how he has to go about getting to the serpents kingdom and into where the serpent sleeps
the prince follows the instructions and is successful at killing the king serpent

(Seven-Headed Dragon by Nicolas Peña)

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