"The Eight-headed Serpent.” Japanese fairy tales, Teresa Peirce Williston, Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co, 1904, pp. 35-41.

Tale Summary

For five days, the god Susano walked by the river Hi. When he went to sleep he had an unusual dream of a beautiful maiden floating down the river whom he saved from a monster. The next day, he was exploring the area and found a chop-stick floating downstream, and so set out to find whoever was living nearby. He met an old woman, her husband, and their young daughter by the edge of the water, and all were weeping. Susano asked the family what the trouble was, and the old woman told him that there was a great serpent which was two miles long and had eight heads, and that he would come and carry away their daughter. He recognized the girl as the maiden in his dream, and learned that her seven sisters had been taken by the beast over the previous seven years. Susano sat all day and the next by the river bank until he came up with a plan, which they set to work on the next morning. The old woman prepared a delicious soup in eight large kettles while Susano and the old man made a great wall with eight gates in it. Before each gate they set a kettle of soup, which Susano seasoned to be very fragrant. Soon, the serpent arrived and was hungry for the soup, and so stuck his eight heads through the eight gates and began to eat. Susano took his sword and began to cut off each head, and the serpent stayed because it could not bear the thought of not finishing the soup. He cut off the final head when the serpent lunged at him and the beast was killed. The maiden and Susano went to the Land of the Smiling Heaven, where they lived together and looked upon earth to help troubled people.