Keloglan and the Golden-Haired Girl

Once upon a time, in a sultan's palace, there lived a girl with golden hair. Her hair sparkled in the sun and lit up her room even at night. One night black smoke drifted in through the palace window; the smoke turned into a witch, who carried the girl off to her castle beyond seven mountains. The witch wanted to spin golden thread from the girl's hair and become rich.

The sultan's grief was great. He proclaimed: "Whoever brings back my daughter shall marry her." Princes and wrestlers set out, but none of them came back. The news reached Keloglan's village too. Keloglan asked his mother's permission, and she gave him a comb, a mirror and a pinch of salt: "If you get into trouble on the way, use these."

Keloglan walked and walked, until at a spring he met an old man with a white beard. "My boy, where are you going?" asked the old man. Keloglan told him his errand. "The road to the witch's castle takes forty days," said the old man. "On the way there are three tests. One asks for mercy, one for patience and one for courage." And he showed him the way.

On the tenth day Keloglan saw a wolf cub caught in a trap, with its mother howling beside it. Keloglan went up without fear and opened the trap. The mother wolf looked at him, then ran ahead and showed him a shortcut. This was the test of mercy.

On the twentieth day Keloglan reached the edge of a desert. To cross it he had to walk for seven days and seven nights, and he had little water. Each day he drank one sip and did not complain. On the way he even gave one sip to a thirsty traveller. At last he found an oasis in the middle of the desert. This was the test of patience.

On the thirtieth day he came to a mountain where a giant eagle had its nest. The eagle let no one pass. Keloglan saw that the eagle's chicks were frightened of a snake, and he drove the snake away with his stick. The eagle took him on its back and set him down in front of the witch's castle. And this was the test of courage.

Keloglan crept into the castle. The golden-haired girl was crying at a spinning wheel in one of the rooms. "I've come to rescue you," said Keloglan. "If the witch wakes up, she'll turn us both to stone," said the girl. "Don't be afraid, I have the things my mother gave me," said Keloglan. He took the girl's hand and they began to run.

The witch woke up, climbed onto her broom and came after them. First Keloglan threw the comb behind him, and the comb became a thick forest. By the time the witch got through the forest, they were far away. Then he threw the mirror, and the mirror became a huge lake. While the witch went around the lake, they crossed the mountains. When the witch caught up with them again, Keloglan threw the salt; the salt became a snow-white mountain that rose up to the sky. The witch tried to climb the salt mountain, slipped, fell, and could not get up again. She turned into black smoke and the wind blew her away.

On the way home the mother wolf, the eagle and the traveller from the oasis all helped Keloglan. Forty days later they reached the palace gate, and when the sultan saw his daughter he wept with joy. The wedding lasted forty days and forty nights. Keloglan brought his mother to the palace, and not a single strand of the girl's golden hair was ever sold, because Keloglan said, "Beauty is not for selling; it is for protecting."

They had their wish come true; may we have ours too. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told this tale, one for the one who listened, and one for merciful, patient and brave Keloglan.