threatened to take the throne, and the king sentenced him to be hanged. The boy played the zither, and the hangman had to dance all day. The next day, everyone came to see him hanged, the boy played the fiddle, and the whole crowd danced. The third day, the king wanted to refuse to let him play the flute, but the crowd persuaded him. The king insisted on being tied to a tree first, but he still danced, until his back was raw, and then the magician appeared. He destroyed the gallows and killed the king. The people chose the boy for their king, and the old groom drowned himself, because the boy might have been poor all his life without his interference. Translations William Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf gave an abridged summary of the tale, translating the instruments as a kantele, a fiddle, and a flute. French author Eugéne Beauvois translated the tale as Les dons du Diable ("The gifts from the Devil"), where the instruments are a harpe, a violon and a flûte. Analysis Eero Salmelainen compared the tale with Norwegian tale Grimsborken ("Dapplegrim") and French literary fairy tale The Story of Pretty Goldilocks. Other tales of this type include The Magician's Horse and Little Johnny Sheep-Dung. Similar motifs are found in Iron John, Guerrino and the Savage Man, and The Hairy Man. The dispossessing of the king is found in The Grateful Beasts, Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful, The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa, and King Fortunatus's Golden Wig. Footnotes References Finnish fairy tales Fiction about shapeshifting Fictional horses