"The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs" () 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. Synopsis A poor woman gave birth to a son with a caul (where the amniotic sac is still intact at birth), which was interpreted to mean that he would marry the king's daughter at fourteen years of age. The wicked king, hearing of it, visited the family and persuaded them to allow him to bring the boy back and raise him in the castle. Instead, he put the boy in a box and threw the box into the water, so that he would drown and not grow up to marry his daughter. But rather than sink, it drifted down to a mill, where it was found by the miller and his wife. The two decided to raise the boy on their own. Fourteen years later, the king happened to visit the mill inadvertently. Upon seeing the boy, the king asked the miller if he was his father, who then explained the story of how he and his wife had come to raise the boy. Shocked, the king devised a way to rid himself of the boy once and for all. He gave the young man a sealed letter and instructed him to deliver it to the queen. Inside, the letter commanded that the boy be killed and buried once he arrived. On his way to deliver the letter, the boy sought shelter in an old woman's house for the night. Despite her warnings that robbers frequented the house, the boy fell asleep, claiming he could walk no further. When the bandits arrived, they read the letter and took pity on the boy. Without waking him, they put a new letter in its place, dictating that the boy should marry the king's daughter upon his arrival. When the morning came, they pointed him in the direction of the castle and he went on his way.