"Cut my head off and throw it in the fire!"

Layla Nahar · Apr 21, 2017

or maybe it's my head & tail...

But - there's a bunch of fairy tales where the main character is asked by another character (usualy and animal - a cat, is the one I think I remember) to 'cut of my head (or head and tail) and throw it into the fire' and some kind of magic happens. If it's not a cat, it might be a monster, & usually part of the magic is that the side-kick gets transformed usually into a human being.

I'm wondering if anybody can think of any stories like this?

LN

ETA: my googlefu failed me on this one...

Marlys · Apr 21, 2017

Google turned up several for me. Here are three:

"Queen Cat" is one: she tells the prince to cut off her head and tail and throw them into the fire, and then turns into 'an exquisite girl.' From The Golden Book of Fairy Tales.

In another one, the hero, Frederick, is asked to twist the head off a bird. He's told when he does that, the bird will turn into a man, and then he has to cut the man's head off, and when that's done, the man will turn into a beautiful virgin. But Frederick messes it up. From Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales.

From Fairy Tales in Other Lands: Magnus meets a white bear named Polarelle, and she tells him to cut off her head. When he does, she turns into a woman named Princess Ingeborg.

Layla Nahar · Apr 21, 2017

Marlys, you're a star!

just curious, how did you google it?

Marlys · Apr 21, 2017

Used this:

fairy tale "cut off my head"

MAS · Apr 22, 2017

There are a few more examples here:

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2007/jun2007/beheading.html

"Cut my head off and throw it in the fire!"

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.

MAS