The Princess Who Could Not Keep a Secret

The Princess Who Could Not Keep a Secret (Turkish: Sır Saklamayan Padişah Kızı) is a Turkish fairy tale published by Turkish folklorist Saim Sakaoğlu, about a princess who marries a youth in snakeskin, loses him due to her breaking his trust, and goes after him at his mother's home, where she is forced to perform hard tasks for her.

The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human princess marries a supernatural husband, loses him, and goes on a quest to find him. It is also distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch or her mother-in-law.

The tale was originally collected from an informant named Fazıl Mağa, from the region of Gümüşhane, and published by Turkish folklorist Saim Sakaoğlu [tr].^[1] It was translated to German by Adelheid Uzunoğlu-Ocherbauer as Die Prinzessin, die kein Geheimnis für sich behalten konnte ("The Princess who could not Keep a Secret").

A poor couple have no children, and the old woman asks her husband to bring them a son, even if it is a snake. The old man earns their living by gathering firewood and selling it in the market. One day, the man brings home a bundle of firewood with a snake inside. Thanking God for having a son, the old couple feed and take care of the animal, and wherever the snake sleeps, a gold bar appears. Time passes, and the snake tells his father to go to the Sultan and ask for his eldest daughter in marriage with Mindilhava (the snake's name). The old man goes to the sultan's palace and sits on a stone reserved for suitors. The sultan takes the old man in and agrees with the proposal, but sets as a condition that a certain mountain must be moved next to the castle. Mindilhava fulfills the task; the sultan's eldest daughter is guided to a room, where she waits for her bridegroom: a snake comes into the room, but she returns to her father's palace. The sultan then says she should have waited a bit more. The snake then asks his father to go for the sultan's middle daughter; this time, the sultan orders that the river Tschoruh must flow next to his palace. The snake fulfills the second task; but the middle daughter also rejects her snake bridegroom. Finally, the snake asks for the sultan's youngest daughter, and this time he has to provide seven camels carrying loads of gold. The snake does and the third princess is guided to the room. She accepts the snake as her destiny, and shares the bed with the snake for three nights. On the fourth night, the snake takes off its skin and becomes a handsome youth, so handsome the sultan's daughter passes out.

After six months, her elder sister suggests they invite their sister to see if she is still alive. The princess goes, and her father summons a jirit tournament, to which his snake son-in-law is invited. The snake, in human form, tells his wife he will take part in the festivities, but she must not tell anyone about his true identity. On the first day, he rides a fiery red horse with red clothes; on the second day, a black horse with black clothes; and on the third a white horse on white clothes. The princess's sisters mock her for her snake husband and admire the jirit rider, but on the third day she reveals the secret; a sudden storm rages and her husband disappears. She wears iron shoes and walks with an iron cane. On her journey, she meets a dervish who tells her she will reach a spring at the end of the way, where her husband's sister will come fetch water, and she must drop his ring on the water jug. It happens as the dervish advises: her husband recognizes the ring and goes to the fountain to get his wife. He explains that his mother is a Dev, with breasts fallen over her shoulders, so she should suckle his mother's breasts to avoid being devoured.

His dev-mother believes the princess is just a girl who lost her way, and suggests to her son they should take her a goose-herd. Meanwhile, Mindilhava (the man) has been betrothed to his cousin, and the Dev-mother orders the princess to go to his aunt to fetch instruments for the upcoming wedding. Mindilhava advises his human wife to go there and fetch a sooty box over the stove, and flee as quickly as she can. The princess gets the box, but, on the way, she opens the box and the instruments escape. Mindilhava comes and orders the instruments to return to the box. Next, the Dev-mother orders the princess to fetch bird feathers for a blanket. Mindilhava takes the princess to the top of a mountain and summons all the birds for them to give their feathers. Lastly, during the wedding, the Dev-mother dips the princess's body in wax and places ten candles on her fingers, and takes her to Mindilhava's room. The princess utters to herself for her fingers to "burn with love" for Mindilhava, and he hears it. He takes the candles and places them in his cousin's fingers, then takes the princess, two razors and flees with her on a horse.

The next morning, Mindilhava's mother opens the room and discovers her niece has burnt to death. His aunt chases after them, and the pair throws behind the razors to delay her. Next, his sister comes after them, and Mindilhava shapeshifts the princess into a tree and himself into a dervish to trick her. Lastly, his own Dev-mother goes after them; Mindilhava creates a lake and turns himself and the princess into ducks. The Dev-mother comes and asks the ducks how they got there, and the ducks answer that she should tie two millstones around her neck and swim. The Dev-mother does that and drowns. The princess and Mindilhava go back to the Sultan's realm.^[2]

Sakaoglu classified the tale, according to the Turkish Folktale Catalogue (TTV), as Turkish type TTV 98.^[3] In the Typen türkischer Volksmärchen ("Turkish Folktale Catalogue"), by Wolfram Eberhard and Pertev Naili Boratav, type TTV 98, "Der Pferdemann" ("The Horse Man"), corresponds in the international classification to tale type AaTh 425.^[4][a] In a later book, Boratav stated that the Catalogue registered 25 variants, but six more had been collected since its publication.^[5]

In his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, Jan-Öjvind Swahn [sv] acknowledged that Turkish type 98 was subtype 425A of his analysis, that is, "Cupid and Psyche", being the "oldest" and containing the episode of the witch's tasks.^[6] In the international index, however, Swahn's typing is indexed as type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch".^[7][8]

In most of the variants collected, the supernatural husband is a horse, followed by a man with a donkey's head and a camel. In other tales, he may be a snake, a frog, or even Turkish hero Kaloghlan.^[9]

Another motif that appears in the tale type is that the heroine must travel to another witch's house and fetch from there a box or casket she must not open.^[10][11] German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther remarked that these motives ("the quest for the casket" and the visit to the second witch) are "the essential feature" of the subtype.^[12]

According to Christine Goldberg, some variants of the type show as a closing episode "The Magic Flight" sequence, a combination that appears "sporadically in Europe", but "traditionally in Turkey".^[13] As their final transformation to deceive the ogress mother, the princess becomes a tree and her supernatural husband becomes a snake coiled around it.^[14] Although this episode is more characteristic of tale type ATU 313, "The Magic Flight", some variants of type ATU 425B also show it as a closing episode.^[15] German literary critic Walter Puchner argues that the motif attached itself to type 425B, as a Wandermotiv ("Wandering motif").^[16]

In a Turkish tale collected from an informant in Kahramanmaraş with the title Leylahar ile Gülbahar ("Leylahar and Gülbahar"), a woodcutter and his wife pray to Allah to have a son, even if he is a snake, thus a snake is born to the them. Some time later, the snake son falls in love with the princess and asks his mother to court her on his behalf, but his mother is worried that they are poor and she will be dismissed as just a beggar. Still, the snake son produces some jewels for his mother and sends her to the palace. The guards mistake her for a beggar at first, but is brought to the padishah's presence, who agrees to their children's marriage, but first asks her to produce a palace and a garden more beautiful than the monarch's. The snake son fulfills the padishah's task and builds a shining golden palace. The padishah's daughter is brought to the wedding and is shocked at the sight of the snake. The snake's mother comforts her by saying her bridegroom is a handsome youth, and she enters the wedding chambers. The snake appears again and she screams, but he reveals his true form as a normal human named Leylahar, asking the princess, called Gülbahar, to keep his secret, lest he vanishes and she has to seek him out until she wears out golden shoes and a golden belt. Some time later, the princess is invited to a wedding and is endlessly mocked by the women at the party, while they watch a mysterious knight throw javelins in the games. Days into the celebration, after enduring the mockery thus far, Gülbahar reveals the knight is her snake husband, and he gallops away, never to be seen again. The princess asks her father for the golden apparel and begins a journey after him.

She passes by a spring where a maidservant is fetching water in a brass jug and asks for some, then reaches a second spring where another girl is fetching water with a golden jug for her master Leylahar. Gülbahar drops her ring into the jug, which Leylahar recognizes and goes to meet his wife outside. He turns her into a pin and brings it with him. The Devs can smell a human scent, so he turns his wife into an apple. However, the creatures still sense a foreign smell, and Leylahar turns Gülbahar back into human form and introduces has as his sister, threating the Dev matriarch not to marry her daughter if they devour the human. Reluctantly, the dev woman makes a vow. Still, she soon forces her to fetch bird feathers for a mattress by going up the mountain - Leylahar tells her to summon the birds by saying he sends his regards. It happens thus and Gülhabar fulfills the task. Next, the dev woman gives the princess a "darbuka" and a box ("kutu", in the original), and orders her to deliver them to her sister. Leylahar intercepts his wife, warns her the box must not be opened, for it contains three devs that will jump out and devour her, and advises her how to proceed: pass by a fountain of pus and blood and compliment them, open a closed door and shut an open one, exchange the fodder between two animals (grass for a horse, meat for a dog), leave the box and darbuka only if the dev's sister is sleeping with her eyes open. Gülbahar follows the instructions to the letter, delivers the box and rushes back, the dev's sister commanding her servants to stop her, to no avail.

Finally, the dev woman celebrates her daughter's wedding to Leylahar, and both enter the wedding chambers. Leylahar kills his bride, turns into a fly and flees through a keyhole to meet his human wife near the fountain, and both escape. The next morning, the dev woman discovers her daughter is dead and sends her relatives after the runaway couple. On the road, in order to trick their pursuers, Leylahar transforms himself and the princess into other objects: first, into a poplar (the princess) and a snake coiled around it (him) to fool the dev's sister; next, into a fountain (her) and a stone (him) to trick the dev's brother; thirdly, into an orchard (her) and a seller (him) to deceive the dev's brother-in-law. The dev woman herself goes after them and they take refuge in a mosque. She asks for a last memento, and cuts off a finger from the dev's son. Leylahar and Gülbahar return home and celebrate a new wedding.^[17]

In a Turkish tale collected from an informant from Çankiri with the title Şık Battal, a childless couple wishes for a son, and the woman prays to Allah for a son, even if he is a snake, thus one is born to them. One day, the snake son asks his mother to let him graze the cattle of the their village. Despite some reservations, the woman allows it. The snake son takes the cattle far from the village, where he takes off the snakeskin to become a human youth, then puts on the snakeskin again when he returns home. He explains to his mother he will only be a snake until he marries, for it is God's command that he lives like this. It happens thus and he marries a human maiden. The next day, her aunt comes and looks at folded snakeskin, which she mistakes for rubbish and burns it. Şık Battal vanishes. His wife remembers that he asked her to look after his snakeskin, lest he becomes a bird, and she will only be able to find him after she wears down an iron stick and iron shoes. The girl walks for years on end, until she reaches a fountain, where she meets an Arab girl. The Arab girl is fetching water for Şık Battal's wedding, who is to be married to the daughter of a seven-headed dev. The girl asks the woman to call for Şık Battal. The Arab servant tells Şık Battal someone is outside looking for him, and he exits the dev's house to reunite with his wife.

In order to placate him, Şık Battal advises his wife to suckle on the dev's wife's breasts until he tells her to "make her teeth bone". His wife does as he says and is begrudginly welcomed into the devs' midst. The next day, the dev-wife orders the girl to fetch bird feathers to make a mattress for her daughter - Şık Battal reveals the snakes, centipedes, wolves and birds are his friends and they will help her: they should go up a mountain, she should cover his face with a shroud and shout that Şık Battal is dead, and the birds will offer their feathers. It happens thus, and the dev-woman suspects the girl had help. Still, for the next task, the dev woman orders the girl to go to a relative of hers and fetch a quilt adorned with bells - a trap, since the other relative did not do the same vow. For this one, Şık Battal gives his wife a ring for her to use when she goes there to fetch the object. Failing twice to kill the human, the devs light four candles on each hand and forces the girl to illuminate the wedding couple for the whole night. It happens thus, and the girl cries to Şık Battal her fingers are burning. Thus, Şık Battal beheads the dev bride, puts out the candles and escapes with his human wife. The next morning, the dev sends his brothers after them. On the road, in order to elude their pursuers, Şık Battal and his wife turn themselves into objects: first, into a gargoyle (him) and a spring (his wife); then, into a maiden (him) and another spring (his wife); lastly, into a thorny branch (her) and a snake coiled around it (him). The dev himself comes to the pair and recognizes this transformation as them. Şık Battal then kills the seven-headed dev and returns home with his human wife.^[18]

In a Turkish tale collected from a source in Kilis with the title Şah Mehemet, a padishah has an only daughter. One day, an old woman comes to sit before the padishah and propose on her son's behalf for three days. The padishah tries to get rid of her by ordering her son to provide forty camels loaded with gold, wheat, barley, and poultry. The prospective suitor provides his future father-in-law with 800 camels loaded with the requested gifts. He also builds a palace overnight, more beautiful than the padishah's. The monarch gives his daughter to be married to the snake, and she moves out to the snake's palace and finds the animal on their bed. Some days later, the snake husband reveals himself out of the snakeskin to the princess as a handsome human youth, and asks her not to reveal the secret. Later, the padishah organizes an equestrian tournament, which the snake husband competes in human form. The attendees mock the princess for her snake husband, and she eventually says the mysterious rider is her snake husband. The snake husband admonishes her for her betrayal, says she can find him when her iron shoes are worn out, her iron staff is bent and pigeons have made a nest on her head, then vanishes.

The princess mourns for her loss, then commissions the iron garments and goes in search for him. She wanders off in her metal shoes for years on end, until she stops to rest, thinking her journey is fruitless. However, she notices that the shoes are worn out, her iron staff is bent, and a pigeon's nest is on her head, which indicates she is near. Her husband appears to her and reveals his mother is a Dev (giant), but his human wife can gain her favour by suckling on her breasts. After the princess does this, the dev-mother suspects that this is her son's, Şah Mehemet, doing, then asks her son who is the newcomer. Şah Mehemet lies to his mother that she is a guest from God. Şah Mehemet is being forced to marry his aunt's daughter, and they are arranging the wedding. Şah Mehemet's dev-mother gives a letter to the princess and orders her to visit her dev-sister behind such and such a mountain, deliver her the letter, and fetch a ringing and singing "genni" - a trap, since the letter contains a command to devour the girl. Without knowing where to go, the princess sits down and cry, when her husband Şah Mehemet intercepts her. She gives him the letter, who reads the command and modifies its contents, then advises her how to proceed: pass by a river of blood and say it contains oil and honey; pass by a river of pus and say it contains butter and honey, walk over a thorny path and say the thorns are roses; exchange the fodder between two animals (meat for the dog, grass for a horse), deliver the letter to his dev-aunt, steal the ringing and singint box ("kutu") from a ledge while his aunt goes to sharpen her teeth and flee as soon as she can. The princess follows his instructions to the letter, delivers the letter to his aunt, steals the box and rushes back. The dev-aunt commands the animals, the thorns and the rivers to stop her, to no avail. Back home, the princess marvels at the object and presses a button, like a "televizyon", and accidentally releases something. Her husband appears to her, presses the same button and gives the box back to his wife to be delivered to his dev-mother.

Finally, Şah Mehemet is married to his cousin and both enter their chambers. After the bride falls asleep, he takes his human wife and both escape from his mother's house. On the road, Şah Mehemet's aunt and mother are coming after them in the shape of clouds, and Şah Mehemet and the princess turn into objects to trick their pursuers: first, into a well (the princess) and a bowl (Şah Mehemet); next, into a garden (her) and a gardener (him); lastly, into a tree (her) and snake coiled around it (him). Şah Mehemet's dev-mother reaches the tree and snake and goes to threaten them. Şah Mehemet asks for a kiss, and bites his mother's tongue, killing her. Şah Mehemet and the princess return home and live happily.^[19]

In a Turkish tale collected from a source in İbradı, Antalya, with the title Padişahın Kızı ile Yeşil Yakup ("Sultan's Daughter and Yakup the Green"), a padishah has three unmarried daughters. One day, he gives each of them an arrow, for them to throw and marry whoever the arrow lands near to. The elder two throw theirs and theirs land on the rooftops of viziers, to whom they are betrothed. The youngest princess's lands in a pond, she repeats her action and still lands on the pond, where a frog lives. The padishah orders his daugther to bring whatever it is that is in the pond, and she is married to the frog. One night, the princess finds a man in her room, who is the frog, and asks the princess to keep his secret. Later, the padishah organizes a tournament, and the frog husband, Yakup the Green, attends under a human disguise: the first time, as a knight in white, the second time, as a knight in black. The padishah asks his cadette about the mysterious knight, but she does not answer. Some time later, the monarch falls ill and wants some fruits during winter. The princess provides her father with an apple and a pear, and he presses his daughter to tell where she found the fruits. The princess reveals her husband's secret, he turns into a bird and he disappears. The princess cries for his fater, and goes after him in iron shoes and walking with an iron cane. She passes by the mountain of tin, the mountain of silver, and the mountain of gold, where she finds a girl in each of them and asks them about the location of Yakup the Green's house. Only the girl at the gold mountain answers: she warns that Yakup the Green has a Dev (giant) family that will devour her; still, she will pass by a hedge of thorns which she is to compliment and says it contains roses, cover an open gap and uncover a covered one and they will let her through, exchange the fodder between two animals (meat for a lion, grass for camel), pass by a fountain from where honey and water flows, drink from them and compliment it, then reach another fountain where Yakup the Green comes to give water to his horse. The princess does as instructed and reaches the last fountain, where she finds her husband. Yakup the Green reunites with his wife, and places her on his horse to bring him to hus aunt. Yakup asks his aunt not to do any harm, then introduces the princess to her. Yakup the Green's aunt suspects the newcomer is his lover or fiancée, and orders her around: first, she is to fill vases with her tears. Yakup has given his wife some feathers to be burnt to summon him. The princess cannot fill the vases with enough water, and summons her husband. Yakup appears and summons water from the underground. Next, the dev-aunt gives the princess some pillows to be filled with bird feathers. The princess can find only enough feathers, then summons Yakup, who advises her to go to the nature and say that Yakup the Green sends his regards, and the birds will give her their feathers. Thirdly, the dev-aunt sends the princess to get a "galbır" (a type of sieve) from a neighbour. With her husband's help, she prevails. Finally, Yakup the Green takes the princess on his horse and they escape, when his female relatives (mother and aunt) go after them in the form of a white and black clouds. To trick their pursuers, Yakup the Green shapeshifts himself and the princess: an earring (the princess) and a lid (Yakup), then into a well (her) and a bird (him) and lastly into a cypress tree (her) and a dragon ("ejderha", in the original; him) wrapped around it. His dev-mother reaches the tree and dragon and tries to convince him to come back with her, but the dragon does not nudge and their pursuer leaves defeated. Yakup the Green and the princess shapeshift back to their forms and return home.^[20] The tale was classified as Turkish type TTV 98, "At Adam" ("Horse Man").^[21]

• The Green Serpent
• The Horse-Devil and the Witch
• Khastakhumar and Bibinagar
• Yasmin and the Serpent Prince
• The Snake-Prince Sleepy-Head
• The Padisah's Youngest Daughter and Her Donkey-Skull Husband
• The Tale of Aftab

• Orta, N.; Rahavi, M. (2024). "Şekil Değiştirme Motifi Bakımından Bir Türk Masalı ile İran Masalının Karşılaştırılması: Sır Saklamayan Padişah Kızı-Mehrinnegar ile Sultan Mar" [Comparison of a Turkish Folktale and an Iranian Folktale in Terms of the Shape-shifting Motif: Sır Saklamayan Padişah Kızı-Mehrinnegar and Sultan Mar]. Folklor/Edebiyat (in Turkish). 30 (117): 101–124. doi:10.22559/folklor.2582.