Sea-Horse

Sea-Horse (German: Seepferd) is a folktale from Syria, published by author Uwe Kuhr in his book Syrische Märchen ("Syrian Tales"). It deals with the marriage between a human maiden and a bridegroom of supernatural origin who hides under an equine disguise; she betrays his trust, and has to search for him. It belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human princess marries a supernatural husband, loses him, and goes on a quest to find him. It mostly follows subtype ATU 425D, "The Vanished Husband", which segues into tale type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch", thus distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch or her mother-in-law.