- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- enchanted bridle, Šatrija, human and horse, reversed spell, revenge
The story
A farmhand worked for a farmer whose wife was a witch. He laboured in the fields by day and had no rest at night. His mistress put a bridle on him, turned him into a horse and rode to Šatrija. There she left him tied to a fence all night. Back home she removed the bridle, restoring his human shape, and sent him to work again.
Exhausted, he told others what was happening. Someone advised him to rub against the fence until the bridle came off, then put it on his mistress when she approached.
On the next visit to the hill he did just that. He freed himself and became human. When his mistress came to replace the bridle, he refused to release it. During their struggle he slipped it over her head. She became a handsome grey mare, and he rode her home.
Now he left the mare tied up while he slept, then worked her hard by day. He fed her poorly, sometimes withholding even straw. By autumn she was terribly thin, but he kept the bridle on her.
In winter he took her to a blacksmith and demanded red-hot horseshoes. In pain, she spoke with a human voice, addressing the smith as a fellow godparent. The farmhand stopped the shoeing and finally removed the bridle. His mistress became human again, so weakened that she was scarcely recognisable.
Reading the story
The bridle controls the change between human and animal. The story includes both escape from exploitation and prolonged cruelty in revenge; this uncomfortable outcome is retained without endorsing it.
Told by Kazimieras Bakšys in Žalakiškiai, Šiluva district; recorded by P. Šivickis in 1905. LMD I 144(18).
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 407, p. 462–463: „Arkliu paverstas bernas“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.