Dawn, Midnight and Twilight

Russian variants of the tale fall under the banner The Realms of Copper, Silver and Gold.[10]

Variants of the tale type are also attested with Selkup storytellers. These variants show the presence of character Koschei, the Deathless, the sorcerer of Slavic folklore, and are also classified as type ATU 302, "Devil's (Ogre's) Heart in the Egg" or ATU 313, "The Magic Flight".[11]

In Romanian variants, the three heroes are born in the same day, at different times, which gives them their names: Serilă, Mezilă and Zorilă. In these tales, the youngest brother is named Dawn and appears to be the most heroic of the three brothers.[12]

Elisabeth Rona-Sklárek commented that the tale about a youth who rescues three maidens from the underground prison was sehr verbreitetes ("very prevalent") in Hungary.[13]

In the Hungarian tale Este, Éjfél mëg Hajnal[14] or Abend, Mitternacht und Morgendämmerung ("Evening, Midnight and Daybreak"), a childless couple pray for a son. An old lady instructs the wife to eat however many beans she can find in her house. The woman finds three beans and eats them, giving birth to three boys: one at night, the second at midnight and the third at the break of dawn. The three brothers grow up very quickly and seek a job opportunity with the king, who sends them to rescue his three daughters. When the brothers camp out in the woods, a small creature defeats the two older brothers but is defeated by Daybreak. The usual story follows: Daybreak rescues the three princesses, is betrayed by his brothers, escapes to the upper world on the back of an eagle. At the end of the tale, he forgives his older brothers.[15]

In the tale Hajnal, Vacsora és Éjféle ("Dawn, Night and Midnight"), an old woman gives birth to three boys, each named after the time of the day they were born. When they are of age, the king orders the youths to rescue his three daughters, otherwise they may lose their heads. The three brothers traverse a silver forest and a diamond forest until they reach a hole in the ground. The two brothers, with the help of a gypsy boy, begin to descend but feel afraid and climb back. Hajnal descends the rope and reaches three castles: the first guarded by an iron gate and two lions; the second by a stone walls and a pair of bears, and the third made entirely of marble and guarded by two elephants. After he is abandoned by his brothers and a gypsy boy, Hajnal has further adventures in the underworld and gains a three-legged horse. With the horse, he manages to reach the surface and the king's city.[16]

In a variant by Gyorgy Gaal, Három Királyleány ("The Three Princesses"), the titular three princesses ask their father to stroll in the garden. When they are exposed, a dragon comes out of the water and takes them. Meanwhile, three brothers, Estve ("Night"), Éjfél ("Midnight") and Hajnal ("Dawn") comment with their mother the occurrence. Hajnal asks his mother to go to king and convince him to construct a large chain, which the youth intends to use to reach the princesses in their underground prison. Hajnal climbs down the chain and arrives at three palaces, one of copper, the second of silver and the third of gold, each housing one of the princesses and her serpentine captor. After Hajnal defeats the monsters, each princess transforms her respective palace into an apple, and follows Hajnal back to the surface.[17]