Tradition / Region: Romanian Mythology
Alternate Names: The Money Chicken; The Hearth Chicken; Black Familiar Chicken
Category: Chicken
The Myth
A man from Pretai was once returning home from the mill when he noticed something small and black lying by the roadside. When he bent down to look, he saw it was a chicken, entirely black. He picked it up and carried it home, placing it beneath the hearth and feeding it.
After some time, one night he heard a voice coming from the hearth. It was the chicken speaking.
“What should I bring you?” it asked.
Startled, the man muttered, “Be quiet! What could you possibly bring me?”
The following night, the chicken spoke again.
“What should I bring you?”
This time the man answered, “If you truly want to bring me something, then bring me plenty of money.”
From that night on, the chicken did exactly that, and the man soon became rich.
Gallery
Sources
sagen.at contributors. (n.d.). Das schwarze Huhn. In sagen.at, from https://www.sagen.at/texte/sagen/rumaenien/siebenbuergen/dasschwarzehuhn.html
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive