The First Old Man’s Tale

Notable Characters

  • The old man
  • The deer/his cousin
  • The mistress
  • The son
  • The shepherd’s daughter

Plot Summary

The old man tells the demon about the deer with him, who is his cousin and wife. She never bore him any children, so he took a mistress, who gave him a son. Jealous of the mistress, the man’s wife cast a spell on the mistress and the son, turning them into cows. She delivered them to the shepherd and told the old man that his mistress had died and his son ran away.

When it came time to slaughter cows for a feast, the man’s wife brought the mistress and then the son to him, and he was unaware who they really were. He killed the mistress disguised as a cow, but he could not kill his son.

The shepherd’s daughter told the man that the cow was his son, and that the cow he had already killed had been his mistress. She could see past the disguise, and she offered to reverse the spell with two conditions. One, she could turn the wife into a deer as punishment, and two, she could marry his son.

The man agreed, and his son married the shepherd’s daughter. They remained together until she died, and then the old man decided to visit his son, who had traveled on a journey. That is why the old man is traveling, when he stopped to see what would happen with the merchant and the demon.