The Creation of the Violin

Painting of a boy sitting on a haystack and playing a violin
Hegedűs Cigány Fiú (Gypsy Boy Fiddler) by György Vastagh

"The Creation of the Violin" (German: Die Erschaffung der Geige) is a Transylvanian/South Hungarian Roma (gypsy) fairy tale.

There are two such tales by the same title. In the tale mainly discussed here, a boy is born to a mother, who dies in childbirth, having conceived the baby by consuming the hag-witch's prescription of milk inside a pumpkin. The boy wins the king's daughter by succeeding in performing an unprecedented feat: with the help of the fairy queen Matuya/Matuja, he creates the world's first violin and bow, and plays it to his audience who laugh and cry to the tune, under the influence of the fairy.

The other tale of this same title is recognized as an analogue of the Grimm tale "The Singing Bone".