The Girl Soka and her Kind Horse
A Tibetan tale of a maiden, a demon suitor, and a horse's sacrifice.
The Girl Soka and her Kind Horse is a Tibetan tale from the compilation The Golden Corpse (Mi ro gser sgrung). It concerns a human maiden who marries a demon in disguise, escapes to another kingdom, and later benefits from the sacrifice of her horse.
Quick Facts
- Compilation
- The Golden Corpse (Mi ro gser sgrung)
- Region
- Tibet
- Related collections
- Vetala Pañcaviṃśati (India)
- Ro-sgrung (Tibet)
- Siditü kegür (Mongolia)
- Siddhi kǖr (Oirat)
- Tibetologist
- Françoise Robin
Facts from the source article.
Origin
The Golden Corpse is a set of Indo-Tibetan tales that later traveled to Mongolia and was rendered into Mongolic languages. Its Indian title is Vetala Pañcaviṃśati, while Tibetans call it Ro-sgrung, Mongolians know it as Siditü kegür, and the Oirat people refer to it as Siddhi kǖr. The Mongolian scholar Tsendiin Damdinsüren pointed out that two Tibetan versions of these Vetala stories exist, one with 13 chapters and another with 21, both recorded in the 11th-century work The Book of the Son. He proposed that the differences between the Indian and Tibetan collections might mean the Tibetan ones are original creations rather than translations. Tibetologist Françoise Robin observed that over 20 versions circulate in Tibetan-speaking areas, with common editions holding between thirteen and twenty-five stories, and some containing as many as 75.
Summary
An elderly couple and their daughter, Soka, who was known for her beauty and kindness, lived together. A demon, taking the form of a prince, arrived to court Soka. The parents recognized the demon and devised a challenge: the suitor must learn Soka’s true name. To discover it, the demon promised food to a starving fox in exchange for spying. The fox crept to the house twice, overheard the name, but forgot it both times. On the third morning, the fox finally remembered Soka’s name and told the demon. The demon then revealed the name to Soka’s parents, who, bound by their promise, agreed to give her away. The next day, Soka’s parents gave her a wise, talking horse as a traveling companion. Soka confessed her unease about the demon, yet she mounted the horse and followed him. Before they departed, the horse handed her a cloth containing seven seeds for later use. They arrived at the demon’s iron castle, where Soka took up residence. The demon handed her a set of keys and left.
Analysis
Yolando Pino Saavedra noted that in some variants the heroine is betrothed or married to a gentleman who is a devil in disguise, and escapes in a Magical Flight sequence, though these tales are not classified as type ATU 313. Ines Köhler-Zülch stated the narrative may also start as tale type AaTh 621, where a king fattens a louse and uses its hide as a suitor's riddle, which a demonic bridegroom guesses correctly. Sebastian Lo Nigro observed that the motif of falsified letters harks back to tale type ATU 706.
Variants
László L. Lőrincz noted that Tsendiin Damdinsüren published a Tibetan translation of The Bewitched Corpse titled Ro-sgruṅ, whose tenth tale is Bu-mo So-kha 'di-li sman-čaṅ šes rtas srin-mo'i lag-nas bral-te rgyal-srid sprad-pa'i le'u žugs. Lörincz summarized that a demon guesses the girl's name with a fox's help, she marries him, rides her magical horse away, marries a human king, gives birth to a son, writes letters that are intercepted and falsified by the demon, and the horse saves her and her son. Yuri Parfionovich published a similar tale titled The Three Demon Brothers, sourced from Tibet, where three demon brothers guess the heroine's name (Paradise Flower) using a hare, a fox, and a magpie. The girl escapes to another kingdom, marries a king, and after the king leaves, the demon brothers intercept and falsify her letters. She flees with her son and a horse, and the horse instructs her to sacrifice it and spread its body parts, after which a castle appears. Parfionovitch later republished the tale as The Girl and the Demon Brothers. James Riordan translated the tale to English as Lotus Blossom, also sourced from Tibet.
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