The Calf's Skin
The Calf's Skin (Krówska skóra) is a Polish folk tale from Silesia about a girl who marries a creature in a cow’s skin to save her father. It belongs to a world-wide story cycle about the Animal as Bridegroom: a woman marries an animal who is really a prince, a secret is revealed, and she must go on a long search to find him again.
Plot:
A father falls ill and only water from the village well can heal him. The elder two daughters try to fetch it but nothing works. The youngest daughter goes to the well, promises to marry the owner of the voice in exchange for the water, and brings home the healing water.
That night, a man in cow skin comes to her door and sings to be let in. She lets him in, feeds him, and he removes the skin to become a handsome prince. He spends the nights with her, always putting the skin back on by morning.
On the third night, the mother steals and burns the cow skin. The prince leaves, telling her he will go to the Red Sea and that she will only find him again if she wears out iron shoes, walks with an iron staff, and fills an iron jug with her tears.
She begins a long journey, passing the Moon, the Sun, and the Wind, who each give her help. The Wind’s wife tells her the prince is in a distant castle with another woman.
In that castle she works as a goose herder. She uses three magical nuts to create three dresses—silver, then gold, then diamonds—and trades each dress for a night with the prince. The first two nights he falls asleep because of a potion; on the third night he stays awake, recognizes her, and they marry. The other woman is defeated, and the goose herder becomes the prince’s wife.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:27 (CET).