The second part of the tale belongs to the cycle of the Calumniated Wife and is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 707, "The Three Golden Children".
After five days trying and failing to find a way out, he utters out loud a promise to marry one of his three daughters to anyone that can help him out of the woods, as well as three sacks of coin as a wedding gift.
Next, a king also loses his way in the same woods, and, after five days, makes the same promise to marry one of his daughters to his possible saviour, and to give three sacks of coin as reward.
The next morning, the family eats breakfast together, and the hedgehog asks his adoptive father to buy him a black rooster from an old woman and a ragged, torn saddle from a saddler, for the bird will be animal's mount.
The king calls his three daughters, explaining the situation to them, and the elder two refuse to marry the animal, save for the youngest, who agrees to keep her father's promise.
After the fortunate marriage, two of the merchant's daughters, save for the middle one, and the elder princess kill themselves by jumping into a well, in a hemp-pond, or in the river Tisza.
[3][4] The first part of the tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 441, "Hans My Hedgehog", a cycle of stories where the animal bridegroom is a porcupine, a pig or a hog.
[5] Variants collected in Hungary and Hungarian-language territories show parallels with similar tales from nearby regions, like Grimm's The Three Little Birds.
[11] In the same vein, professor Linda Dégh stated that the national Hungarian Catalogue of Folktales (MNK) listed 28 variants of the tale type and 7 deviations.
[13] In a Hungarian tale published by author Val Biro with the title The Hedgehog, a poor couple wish to have a son, but as the years pass by, they have no luck.
[14] In a tale collected by author György Gaal [hu] with the title Könykeresztség, a couple has no children, and the wife prays to God to have a child, even if he is a pig ("malac", in the original).
The following year, the hedgehog son asks his father to prepare some carriages and his rooster mount, for he intends to cash in the deals he made with each king.
Ludinca trades it for a night in Rudolf's chambers and asks him to touch her, but he lies asleep on his bed due to some morphine the fairy put in his coffee.
Failing the first time, the old woman gives Ludinca a golden kettle, which she trades with the fairy maiden for a second night in Rudolf's chambers.
The Iron-Nosed Witch begs for the fairy to be spared, and Rudolf takes his wife and children back to his parents' castle, then invites the Turkish king.
[24] In the tale A tengeri kisasszony ("The Maiden of the Sea"), the youngest sister promises to give birth to an only child with golden hair, a star on his forehead and a moon on his chest.
When the prince comes to court, the cook convinces the boy to search for "the bird that drinks from the golden and silver water, and whose singing can be heard from miles", the mirror that can see the whole world and the Maiden of the Sea.
[25] Another version, Az aranyhajú gyermekek ("The Golden-Haired Children"), skips the introduction about the three sisters: the queen gives birth to a boy with a golden star on the forehead and a girl with a small flower on her arm.
They end up adopted by a neighbouring king and an old woman threatens the girl with a cruel punishment if the twins do not retrieve the bird from a cursed castle.
[31] Bishop János Kriza (hu) collected another version, Aranyhajú Kálmán ("Golden-Haired Kálman"), wherein the youngest sister promises the king an only son with golden hair.
Years later, the boy, Kalman, quests for a magical tree branch, a mirror that can see the whole world and Világlátó, the world-famed beauty.
[33] The tale was translated into French by Michel Klimo with the title Les Deux Princes aux Cheveux d'Or, albeit with some differences: the twins are already born by the time the king goes to war and has to leave his wife.
[34] In a tale collected by Gyula Ortutay from storyteller Mihály Fedics, and published in 1940, Az aranyhajú két testvér ("The Two Siblings with Golden Hair"), a prince and a servant take a journey through distant lands and pass by three women, who express their wishes to marry the king based on their great skills in weaving and cooking.
[37] In the tale Az aranyhajú gyermekek ("The Golden-Haired Children"), collected from Hungarian-Romani teller János Cifra, a king dies and orders a nurse to take care of the prince.
They are expelled from home, but meet a friendly old man on their way, who gives them means to build a castle and a black-coloured helper named Vasbug.
[38][39] In the tale Világvámosa ("The Toll-Keeper of the World"), collected from teller János Puji, in Marosszentkirály (Sâncraiu de Mureș) by ethnographer Olga Nagy (hu) and published in 1978, a prince that is single wishes to marry a girl that can give him two golden-haired children.
A jealous witch puts the woman's head in a chimney to cloud her vision while she takes the twins and casts them in the sea in a box.
[42] Hungarian compilations also attest two other narratives of type ATU 707: a set of stories where the king's wife bears twins who are buried in the ground and go through a cycle of transformations (akin to Romanian The Boys with the Golden Stars); and another cycle, wherein mother and son are thrown in the sea in a barrel (akin to Russian The Tale of Tsar Saltan).
The king marries her and she gives birth to her children, a boy and a girl, but an iron-nosed witch takes the babies and buries them in the garden.
His father agrees and lets him go; on the way, three princesses from another kingdom see the prince and express their wishes to marry him, the youngest saying that if she becomes his wife, she will bear him 12 golden-haired sons.