The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs
| The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs | |
|---|---|
The grandmother plucks the hairs from the devil's head. Illustration by Otto Ubbelohde. | |
| Folk tale | |
| Name | The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs |
| Aarne–Thompson grouping |
|
| Region | Germany |
| Published in | Kinder- und Hausmärchen, by the Brothers Grimm |
| Related | The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate |
"The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" (German: Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 29). It falls under Aarne–Thompson classification types 461 ("three hairs from the devil"), and 930 ("prophecy that a poor boy will marry a rich girl").
The story was first translated into English as "The Giant and the Three Golden Hairs" to avoid offense, but the devil in the story does indeed act like a folklore giant. Ruth Manning-Sanders included it, as "The Three Golden Hairs of the King of the Cave Giants", in A Book of Giants.