Note 23 — Chapter IV · The Grateful Dead and The Poison Maiden.

The Finnish variant23 presents difficulties of a somewhat different sort. A merchant’s son, to whom it has been foretold that he will marry a three-horned maiden, goes abroad to escape this fate. There he sees the corpse of a debtor hanging nailed to a church wall, and insulted by the passers-by. He expends all but nine silver kopecks in rescuing the body, and turns homeward. He is joined by a companion, who makes the money last three days, and on the fourth arranges for him to marry the three-horned daughter of a king. On the wedding night the helper brings the hero fresh-cut twigs. By beating the maiden with these her blood is purified, the horns drop off, and she becomes very beautiful.