The talking horse in the Grimm fairy tale “The Goose Girl” is named Falada. Falada belongs to a princess who is travelling to a distant kingdom to marry a prince, accompanied by a waiting maid.
During the journey, the maid betrays the princess and forces her to exchange clothing, horses, and identities. The maid rides Falada into the royal court while the true princess is reduced to tending geese. Afraid that the horse might reveal the deception, the false bride orders Falada killed.
The princess asks for Falada’s head to be hung above a gateway. Each morning, as she passes with the geese, she speaks to the severed head, and Falada answers her. These supernatural conversations help expose the false bride’s crime to the king.
“The Goose Girl” was collected by the Brothers Grimm from the storyteller Dorothea Viehmann and first published in 1815. It is classified as folktale type ATU 533, the “false bride” story. Falada is sometimes confused with famous horses from later literature, but Shadowfax, Bucephalus, and Rocinante belong to different traditions.