Articulating the Arts:
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World Folklore
NOTES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS: Due to the nature of folklore, many of these stories have unknown or multiple artists attached to them. We've tried to list the names of the artists that were associated with them, but there's no reason you can't learn about the other artists/versions and use that in your scenes. For more background info on the stories and artists, check out links provided. Note that because of limited space, the extra info won't constitute ALL the info available on the stories. Please feel free to do more of your own research - there's just no telling what kind of inspiration you might uncover!
- Remember to keep the members of the company in mind when you write your scene, as we will be casting primarily from the membership.
- Also keep production values in mind as well - elaborate costumes, set pieces and lighting needs will be hampered by our small budget.
- Submissions are now closed for this production.
NOTE #1: If you'd like to see some additional information about these story titles and their artists, see below.
NOTE #2: Story titles with an asterisk next to them have been selected by submitters as the inspiration for their play. This is for your information only and does NOT mean you can't also write about that story.
NOTE #2: Story titles with an asterisk next to them have been selected by submitters as the inspiration for their play. This is for your information only and does NOT mean you can't also write about that story.
PLEASE NOTE: Plays MUST be in reaction to one of the stories listed below. Also, it is worth noting that Articulate is not a children's theatre company, so the audience you are writing for will be adults.
STORY |
LIST |
*The Golden Key, Brothers Grimm, German *Apollo & Daphne, Greek *Arkansas Traveler - S.E. Schlosser, Arkansas *Enchanted, S.E. Schlosser, New Jersey *Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, Georgia The King of Sharks, Hawaii *The Devil as Partner, Switzerland *Jamie Freel and the Young Lady - Ireland The Battle of the Wind and the Rain-Philippines *Rainbow Bird (An Aboriginal Folktale from Northern Australia) *Old Rinkrank, Brothers Grimm *The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Aesop's Fables, Greek *The Emperor's New Clothes, Hans Christian Andersen, Danish *Sun, Moon, & Talia/Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose - Europe *Odin and the Mead of Inspiration - Norway *The Wolf of Zhongshan (or Mr. Dongguo and the Wolf) - China |
*Too Many Captain Cooks - Australia *Sedna - Eskimo/Inuit *One Thousand and One Nights - Persian/Arabic *The Smith and the Devil - Indo-European *The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress - Nigerian *The Boy who Drew Cats - Japanese Vasilisa the Beautiful - Russian, *The Stone by the Door - Morocco *The Mango Teacher - Thailand Secrets of the River - Persia *How Snakes got their Poison - Zora Neale Hurston, African American *No Mockingbirds on Fridays - Zora Neale Hurston, African American *Pecos Bill - Cowboy tales *Division of Two Tribes - Comanche Shoshone Nihts'iil - Alaska *First Salmon Story - Alaska |
Vasilisa the Beautiful
Origin: Russian, collected by Post Wheeler in Russian Wonder Tales
Vasilisa the Beautiful features two of the most common stock characters in Russian fairy tales: Vasilisa and Baba Yaga, and could be considered the archetypal story for each. Vasilisa is the name of a beautiful heroine or princess in many stories. Sometimes she is a peasant girl who undergoes adventures and rises through fortunes to marry a tsar or prince; sometimes she is a princess of legendary beauty who marries a hero after a series of adventures. Baba Yaga is an even more popular character in Russian lore: a legendary witch of immense power who lives in a hut in the woods which stands on chicken legs. She flies through the air in a giant mortar and pestle, and eats people the way we eat chickens.
Synopsis: In Vasilisa the Beautiful, young Vasilisa’s mother dies and leaves her a tiny wooden doll, who will help her in times of need if she gives it food and drink. Her father remarries to an evil stepmother with two homely daughters, all of whom are jealous of Vasilisa’s beauty. They give her arduous tasks, hoping it will dull her beauty, but she remains the most beautiful girl in the village. The little doll is Vasilisa’s only comfort. Vasilisa’s father goes away on a long journey to a distant tsardom, and the stepmother sells his house and moves them to a hut on the edge of the village near a dark forest, where Baba Yaga lives. The stepmother sends Vasilisa on errands in the forest in the hope that Baba Yaga will eat her, but with the help of her doll she performs the tasks safely. Finally the stepmother and stepsisters contrive a plot to put out all the fires in the house, and they send Vasilisa to fetch fire from Baba Yaga’s house. Under the doll’s counsel, Vasilisa ventures to Baba Yaga’s house and sees many strange things, finally being taken into Baba Yaga’s domain. Day after day, Baba Yaga demands that she perform an impossible number of daunting household tasks or be eaten. The doll advises her to rest, and when she wakes up all tasks are done but the simple task of cooking Baba Yaga’s dinner. Baba Yaga asks her how she did it, and (to protect the doll), responds “with my mother’s blessing.” Baba Yaga throws her out, unable to abide a blessing in her house, and throws a skull candle after her. Vasilisa brings the skull candle back to her house, where it incinerates her stepmother and stepsisters, leaving Vasilisa unharmed. Later, Vasilisa goes to live with a nice lonely old woman, and sews some amazing linen that impresses the tsar. The tsar demands to see who sewed it, and upon seeing Vasilisa falls madly in love with her. Vasilisa marries the tsar, and lives happily ever after with her returned father and the old woman at the castle.
Full story:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/russianwondertales/vasilissa.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/babayaga/index.html
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasilisa_the_Beautiful
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasilisa_(name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Fairy_Tales
Other reference:
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins117-baba-yaga-and-vasilisa-the-fair.html
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*The Boy who Drew Cats
Origin: Japanese, collected by Lafcadio Hearn in Japanese Fairy Tales
Lafcadio Hearn was known for bringing Japanese folklore to the West in the 1850s. Four tales from Hearn were adapted by master director Masaki Kobayashi into the classic film Kwaidan.
Synopsis: A farmer had many hardworking children, but one son was unfit for hard work. He was very clever, but too weak and small to be of any help in the fields. The farmer thought he would make a good priest, so he took the boy to the local priest and arranged for him to be his acolyte. The boy was a good student and very obedient, but he had one fault: he drew cats everywhere. Walls, floors, book margins, everywhere. He wouldn’t stop no matter how many times he was told. Eventually the priest decided the boy was an artist, not a priest, and sent him on his way with the advice “Avoid large places at night – keep to small.” The boy didn’t understand, but went on his way. Many miles on, he came across a large temple. The boy didn’t know it, but a goblin had scared off the priests and taken possession of the place, killing any warriors who showed up. The boy entered the temple and it seemed empty. He couldn’t resist painting cats all over the place. Before he went to sleep, he remembered the priest’s advice and slept in a small cabinet. During the night, he heard monstrous screams. He hid til morning, and eventually came out. The goblin lay dead in the middle of the floor, and the painted cats’ mouths were now red with blood. He realized the goblin had been killed by his cats. He went on to become a famous artist.
Full story:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/japan/hearn/boydrewcats.html
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Drew_Cats
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The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress
Origin: Nigerian, collected by Elphinstone Dayrell in Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria
This story includes the common fairy tale trope of the heroic bride of legendary beauty. Of interest here, however, is the element of the “fatting-house.” In the Efik culture of Nigeria, female beauty is defined by large size and plump roundness. Brides-to-be are secluded in a room for several months, where they sleep long and eat fatty foods. Thinness is considered sickly and unattractive. Obesity is seen as a sign of wealth and prosperity. In this story, the change of appearance caused by the fatting-room plays a key role.
Synopsis:
A young wealthy man named Akpan admired a beautiful girl named Emme and paid a large dowry for her. (At the time, the tradition was to pay a large dowry. If the wife and husband did not get along, the wife could be sold as a slave to recoup the investment.) Seven years later, Emme was ready to wed and emerged from the fatting house. Emme’s father also saw an attractive slave girl emerge from the fatting house, and bought her as a handmaiden for Emme. Emme’s young sister begged to go with her to live with Akpan, and was allowed to go. Along the way, they washed at a spring. The slave girl pushed Emme into a hole where a Water Juju lived, left her for dead, and threatened to kill the little sister if she told what happened. They went on to Akbar’s village, and the slave girl posed as Emme upon arrival. Akpan was disappointed that she was not as beautiful as he remembered, but since he hadn’t seen Emme in 7 years, he had no reason to doubt it was her. The slave girl lived in Emme’s place, frequently torturing the little sister horribly. The sister began going to the spring and calling for Emme. The Water Juju held her prisoner, but began allowing her brief visits with her sister. A hunter saw this occur and told Akpan, who arranged with a wise old woman to offer a sacrifice to the Water Juju (killing a slave, a goat, and a chicken) to release Emme. Akpan, Emme, and the little sister then caught the slave woman and tortured her the way she had tortured Emme’s sister, until she died.
Full Story:
http://www.worldoftales.com/African_folktales/Nigerian_folktale_34.html
More Nigerian stories:
http://www.worldoftales.com/Nigerian_folktales.html
Info on fatting-rooms:
http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2007/07/calabar-fattening-rooms.html
http://www.nairaland.com/2097222/fattening-rooms-efik
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*The Smith and the Devil
Origin: Ancient Indo-European, collected by the Brothers Grimm in first edition of Children’s and Household Tales, removed from later editions. The story of The Smith and the Devil is thought to be one of the oldest European folk tales, dating back 6000 years. It is the inspiration for a wide variety of deal-with-the-devil stories.
Synopsis: After losing all his money, a blacksmith decides to hang himself in the woods. The devil appears and offers a deal: a good life for 10 years in exchange for his soul. The blacksmith asks for proof that he’s the devil, and the devil changes into a fir tree and then a mouse to prove it. Satisfied, the blacksmith agrees and signs his name to the devil’s book. The devil gives him untold riches and a sack that can hold anything until the owner releases it. For 10 years, he lives a fun life, but eventually time runs out and the devil comes to collect. The smith goes with the devil back to the spot in the woods where they met. Before he hangs himself, he asks the devil to prove himself again. When the devil changes into a mouse, the smith grabs him and throws him in the sack, then beats him with a branch until he agrees to remove the smith’s name from the book. The devil is released and sent back to hell, and the blacksmith lives a long life. Upon his death, he asks for a hammer and two long nails to be placed in his coffin. He dies and goes to Heaven, but St. Peter won’t admit him due to his dealings with the devil. He goes to hell, lures out two demons, and nails them to the gate. They howl loud enough to get the devil’s attention. The devil goes up to Heaven and demands that they take the smith, who is causing a nuisance in Hell. The angels accept the deal to get rid of the devil, and the Smith lives happily in Heaven.
In many variants of the story, the blacksmith (or other deal-maker) is rejected from both Heaven and Hell, and is forced to wander the earth until Doomsday. These variants include legends of Jack o’ the Lantern and Will o’ the Wisp, doomed souls wandering the world carrying a torch lit with Hell-embers.
Full story: https://books.google.com/books?id=qr3BAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA248#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Schmidt_und_der_Teufel_(1812)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smith_and_the_Devil
Ancient Fairy Tales: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/20/fairytales-much-older-than-previously-thought-say-researchers?CMP=fb_gu
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One Thousand and One Nights Origin: Persian/Arabic
One Thousand and One Nights is a large collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales. All stories are told within a larger framing story, in which the brave and clever Scheherazade avoids execution day after day by telling the king stories and leaving him eager to know what happens next. The text includes some early use of several complex storytelling themes including cliffhangers, embedded narrative (stories within stories, sometimes several levels deep), foreshadowing, unreliable narrator, and science fiction. Some of the most famous stories associated with the 1001 Nights, including Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, were not included in the original Arabic collection, but were added later by European translators to create a more comprehensive grouping of notable Arabic lore.
Synopsis:
King Shehriyar and his brother King Shahzeman ruled nearby kingdoms. While preparing to visit his brother, Shahzeman caught his wife in bed with a slave and killed them both. Upon reaching his brother’s kingdom, he spied Shehriyar’s wife in an orgy with 20 women and 20 slaves. Shahzeman told his brother everything and showed him the next day’s orgy. Distraught, they left the castle and wandered into the wilderness, where they came upon a genie who kept a beautiful kidnapped damsel in a box. When the genie fell asleep, the woman beckoned to the two kings and commanded them to sleep with her, or she’d wake the genie. They did, and she revealed that she’d slept with 570 men behind the genie’s back despite his power. The two kings decided that all women are unfaithful and too crafty to be stopped. Shahzeman went home, vowing to never marry again. Shehriyar ordered his Vizier to kill the unfaithful queen. Every night for the next 3 years, Shehriyar took a new wife and had the Vizier kill her the next morning. The Vizier had two daughters, Scheherazade and Dinarzade. Scheherazade, hatching a clever plan, begged her father to let her wed the king. Reluctantly, he agreed. Every night from then on (with Dinarzade’s help), Scheherazade would tell the king most of a story, and every morning the king spared her life so he could hear the rest the next night. At last, after 1001 nights had passed and she had borne him 3 children, the king officially declared that her life was spared for good.
Full Story: http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Payne/tnon/tnon01.htm
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights
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Sedna Origin: Eskimo/Inuit
Inuit folk tales often present warnings against dangers posed by the harsh Arctic environment. When folklore collector Knud Rasmussen asked his Inuit guide about Inuit religious beliefs, he was told: "We don't believe. We fear." Indeed, the creatures and deities of Inuit folklore are the stuff of nightmares. According to Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Canadian writer and collector of Inuit mythology: “The Inuit cosmos is ruled by no one. There are no divine mother and father figures. There are no wind gods and solar creators. There are no eternal punishments in the hereafter, as there are no punishments for children or adults in the here and now.”
Sedna is a legendary figure in Inuit lore who rules the underworld at the bottom of the sea. There are many, many variations of her story, but in all she loses her fingers and is cast into the sea, becoming the mother of all sea animals and ruler of the sea and the dead. Modern astronomers applied her name to the dwarf planet Sedna, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. This dwarf planet has the longest orbit of any known object in the solar system (about 11,400 years) and is one of the most distant known objects orbiting our sun. Some scientists speculate that it was captured by our sun from another planetary system.
Synopsis: Sedna’s story takes many forms, but the typical version of the tale runs something like this:
Sedna was a beautiful young woman who rejected the many suitors offered by her father. A handsome man from a far-off land finally arrived and won her hand, but he turned out to be a bird in disguise. Upon arriving at his home, the bird treated her terribly. Sedna begged her father to come rescue her. Her father came, but as they rode back in their kayak, the birds beat their wings and stirred up a terrible storm which tossed the kayak to and fro. Fearing for his life, Sedna’s father threw her into the sea to appease the birds. Sedna clung to the side of the boat, so her father cut off her fingers, joint by joint. The joints fell into the sea and became seals, walruses, fish, and whales. Sedna sank to the bottom of the sea and down to the land of the dead, which she now rules. When hunting sea animals, one must follow Sedna’s rules. If you break them, she will call away all the sea creatures, and a shaman must make a perilous journey to the land of the dead to comb her hair. When she is appeased, the animals will be returned to the hunters’ seas.
Full story: http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/Inuit-goddess-Sedna.htm
http://www.polarlife.ca/traditional/myth/sedna.htm
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Sedna-Eskimo.html
http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/sedna.php
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedna_(mythology)
Wiki on Inuit folklore and religion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_religion
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Too Many Captain Cooks Origin: Australia
The Australian Aboriginal people have occupied the same territory longer than any other human population. They are the direct descendants of the ancient prehistoric people who made the first ocean crossing in human history. Australian lore is some of the oldest – and most well-preserved over deep stretches of time – in the world. Flood legends are widespread in world folklore, but Australian Aboriginal folklore accurately maps the changes to the continent wrought by rising sea levels at the end of the Ice Age. Many of their legendary creatures are thought to have their origins with prehistoric now-extinct Australian megafauna (thought to be driven to extinction by the early human settlers). Australian folklore takes place in the Dreamtime, a legendary time and place outside of time and space, harkening to man’s prehistoric origins. All people come from the Dreaming before birth and return to it after death.
In the eighteenth century, a new legendary figure entered Aboriginal mythology: Captain Cook. While Captain James Cook did travel the east coast of Australia in 1770 and meet some Aboriginal people, the Captain Cook legends are not an oral history of this meeting, but rather true folk tales, taking many forms across the various tribes of the continent, about a symbolic foreign figure whose coming signals a major break to the world order.
The real Captain Cook lived millions of years ago, and is known by the ancient people and beasts of Australia. The historical Captain Cook of 200 years ago is just a descendant and a pale copy. The real Captain Cook was a lawman and one of the first people. He came from Mosquito Island with his two wives, bringing strange new objects: food, tobacco, clothes. His boat had black paddles like sting rays. Paddles did not exist before; Captain Cook made them. Aboriginal people had no possessions, but Captain Cook brought things they’d never seen: axes, steel knives, blankets, flags. Captain Cook was always working on his boat with his hammer, forever building it. One day, Satan (who lived with Captain Cook long ago) came to try to steal Captain Cook’s two wives for himself. He convinced the wives to help him hide under a heap of dirt, then jumped up behind Captain Cook when he passed and stabbed him with a devil’s bone. Captain Cook convinced him to fight hand-to-hand, since Captain Cook had no magic. They fought, and Captain Cook choked the devil to death. Captain Cook returned home with his two wives, but was stabbed with a spear by his own relatives. After Captain Cook’s death, his sons became new Captain Cooks. The first Captain Cook never made war, but the new Captain Cooks brought guns and made war, shooting and killing the Aboriginal people. These bad Captain Cooks kept coming, and took over everything. But the Aboriginal people still remember the first Captain Cook, and have respect only for him.
Full story (video of Paddy Wainburranga of the Mirraitja clan telling, singing, and painting the story): https://www.aftrs.edu.au/showcase/students-and-films/video/0_r9tt9kdv
More on Captain Cook in Aboriginal folklore: http://www.asfpg.de/17303/Jahrbuecher/JB08/jb08-ramsay.pdf
Aboriginal folklore Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_mythology
Dreamtime Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime
Several older, more traditional Aboriginal folk tales: http://www.worldoftales.com/Australian_folktales.html
Accuracy of Aboriginal folklore: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2929775/Aboriginal-folklore-oldest-accurate-oral-history-world-Stories-ancient-sea-level-rise-survived-10-000-years.html
More about Australian Aborigines:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Australians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians
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*The Wolf of Zhongshan (or Mr. Dongguo and the Wolf) Origin: China
A very popular Chinese fairy tale warning of the risks of helping the ungrateful. In modern China, “Mr. Dongguo” has become an idiom for a naïve person who gets into trouble by helping evil people. Similarly, “Wolf of Zhongshan” is an idiom for an ingrate.
Many Chinese fairy tales have common roots to the most ancient fairy tales of other regions. This story is similar in nature to Aesop’s story of The Farmer and the Viper, and the Arabian Nights story of The Fisherman and the Jinni. Many Chinese folktales have similar shared roots, such as Ye Xian, one of the oldest known variants of the Cinderella story.
Several versions of The Wolf of Zhongshan omit the judgments of the tree and the water buffalo. This very interesting element of the story critique’s man’s relationship with nature, while providing additional weight to the third judgment of the farmer.
Synopsis: A wolf fleeing the king’s hunting party came upon the Mohist scholar Mr. Dongguo. He begged Mr. Dongguo to protect him, appealing to the scholar’s belief in the principal of universal love. Dongguo agreed and hid the wolf in his bag. The king’s hunting party arrived and asked Mr. Dongguo if he had seen the wolf; Mr. Dongguo lied and said he had not. Once the hunting party was gone, the wolf came out and said he was starving, and that Mr. Dongguo must save his life by feeding him. Mr. Dongguo offered him pastries, but the wolf insisted on human flesh. He argued that it is the same principle: his life is in danger, and Mr. Dongguo is obliged to save it. Besides, the sack was tight and he almost suffocated, so the scholar now owes him a favor. After debating the point, they agreed to bring the argument to three elders to decide the case. The first elder was an old apricot tree. The tree told how it had given its fruit to humans all its life, and they now intended to chop it down for firewood. The tree sided with the wolf. The next elder was a water buffalo, who said that it had given milk and plowed fields for its master all its life, and would soon be butchered for meat. The water buffalo sided with the wolf. The third elder was a human farmer, who considered the story, then said he didn’t understand how the wolf could fit in the bag. The wolf crawled into the bag to demonstrate, and the farmer quickly sealed up the bag and beat the wolf with a hoe to within an inch of its life. Mr. Dongguo pitied the dying wolf, but a village woman came by and identified it as the wolf who dragged off her son. Finally done with pity, Mr. Dongguo took the hoe and delivered the final blow to the wolf’s head.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_of_Zhongshan
Versions of the story:
http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/etbp/files/2015/05/Dong-Guo-and-the-Wolf.pdf
http://www.sino-impression.com/History2008416111429.html
http://www.dtes.tc.edu.tw/6_Learn_Resource/English2/t29.htm
https://www.k-state.edu/elp/lab/fables_web_version.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=UBHQC_Iz6OMC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=dongguo+wolf&source=bl&ots=gxyx7MZiiL&sig=iX_9giYUbjTztyC3tXiCAJlXvDk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6sJ2MyLrPAhUDFT4KHel6B9YQ6AEIZTAO#v=onepage&q=dongguo%20wolf&f=false
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*Sun, Moon, and Talia/Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose
Origin: European.
The oldest known version of the story was in a French volume called Perceforest. The tale was popularized in the Italian story Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile. The story was later rewritten and sanitized in the French story Sleeping Beauty (La Belle au bois Dormant) by Charles Perrault, and later retold in Grimm’s Fairy Tales called Briar Rose.
The Sleeping Beauty story went through an interesting evolution into the form we know today. In Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia, the full arc of the story makes sense; a king rapes and impregnates Talia in her enchanted sleep, and his wife the queen learns of his infidelity and seeks revenge. In subsequent sanitized adaptations for children, the rape and adultery were glossed over and removed, and the angry wife became a wicked step-mother who is irrationally hostile to Talia and her children out of pure evil. By the time of Perrault’s telling, the tale had become a disjointed two-part story: first a tale of an enchanted sleeping beauty awakened with a Prince’s innocent kiss, followed by a barely-connected story of the Prince’s ogress mother later seeking to eat the beauty and her children. By the time the Brothers Grimm told the story as Briar Rose, the second half was omitted entirely, and the story ended with the Prince awakening the Princess.
Also notable is the change in attitude toward rape over the centuries. In Basile’s version of the story, where Talia is raped and impregnated in her sleep by the king but ends up married to him, the moral of the story is given as: “The person who is favored by fortune has good luck even while sleeping.”
Synopsis (Sun, Moon, and Talia):
On the birth of Princess Talia, wise men foretold that she would be endangered by a splinter of flax. The king banned all flax, but one day when Talia was a young woman, she saw an old woman spinning flax and asked to see it. A splinter went under her nail and she dropped down, apparently dead. In his grief, the king could not bear to bury Talia in the ground. Instead he locked her up in an abandoned castle. Years later, another king came upon the castle while falconing. He found no one in the castle but the beautiful sleeping princess who would not waken when he shook her. Overcome with lust, he took her to a bed and slept with her, then returned home to his wife the queen, forgetting about Talia. Talia, still asleep, became pregnant and gave birth to two children. They sucked on her fingers and sucked the splinter out of her finger. Talia awoke. Not knowing where the babies came from, she raised them in the castle with love, naming the children Sun and Moon. The king remembered Talia and returned to the castle. He told her what had happened, and they grew fond of each other. The king returned home, obsessed with Talia. The queen became suspicious when she heard the king murmuring in his sleep “Talia, Sun, and Moon.” She compelled the king’s secretary to give up the king’s secret on pain of death. Furious at the adultery, the queen sent a message for Talia’s children to be sent to the castle. She ordered the children to be cooked, but the cook took pity on the children and hid them with his wife, cooking two lambs in their place. The queen fed the lambs to the king, telling him “You are eating what is your own.” She then sent for Talia, and confronted her, vowing to kill her. Talia explained that she was asleep for the sex, but the queen did not believe her. Talia’s screams alerted the king, who had just returned home. The queen told the king that she knew everything and that she’d fed him his children. Enraged, the king ordered the queen, his secretary, and the cook boiled in Talia’s place. The cook protested that he’d saved the children, and the king spared him and rewarded him greatly. The king married Talia, and they lived happily, knowing that “The person who is favored by fortune has good luck even while sleeping.”
Full Story (Sun, Moon, and Talia): https://web.archive.org/web/20110607231806/http://www.public.iastate.edu/~lhagge/sun,moon.htm
Sanitized Sun, Moon, and Talia: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/29sunmoontalia1911.html
Full story (Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Old_time_stories_(Perrault,_Robinson)/The_Sleeping_Beauty_in_the_Wood
https://archive.org/stream/sleepingbeautyin00perriala#page/n0/mode/2up
Other variants: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun,_Moon,_and_Talia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty
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*The Emperor's New Clothes (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) Hans Christian Andersen
A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two weavers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid." The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothes themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. Finally the weavers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor suspects the assertion is true, but continues the procession.
This tale has been translated into over 100 languages. "The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837 as the third and final installment of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tale has been adapted to various media, including the musical stage and animated film.
Andersen's manuscript was at the printer's when he was suddenly inspired to change the original climax of the tale from the emperor's subjects admiring his invisible clothes to that of the child's cry. There are many theories about why he made this change. Most scholars agree that from his earliest years in Copenhagen, Andersen presented himself to the Danish bourgeoisie as the naïvely precocious child not usually admitted to the adult salon. "The Emperor's New Clothes" became his expose of the hypocrisy and snobbery he found there when he finally gained admission. Andersen's decision to change the ending may have occurred after he read the manuscript tale to a child, or had its source in a childhood incident similar to that in the tale. He later recalled standing in a crowd with his mother waiting to see KingFrederick VI. When the king made his appearance, Andersen cried out, "Oh, he's nothing more than a human being!" His mother tried to silence him by crying, "Have you gone mad, child?" Whatever the reason, Andersen thought the change would prove more satirical.
Traditional Danish tales as well as German and French folktales were regarded as a form of exotica in nineteenth century Denmark and were read aloud to select gatherings by celebrated actors of the day. Andersen's tales eventually became a part of the repertoire and readings of "The Emperor's New Clothes" became a specialty of and a big hit for the popular Danish actor Ludvig Phister.
Jack Zipes, in Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller, suggests that seeing is presented in the tale as the courage of one's convictions; Zipes believe this is the reason the story is popular with children. Sight becomes insight, which, in turn, prompts action.
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*The Boy Who Cried Wolf
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, "Wolf! Wolf!" and when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains. The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror: "Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep"; but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock. There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
The tale concerns a shepherd boy who repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock. When one actually does appear and the boy again calls for help, the villagers believe that it is another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf. In later English-language poetic versions of the fable, the wolf also eats the boy. This happens in Fables for five year olds (1830) by John Hookham Frere, in William Ellery Leonard's Aesop & Hyssop (1912), and in his interpretation of Aesop's Fables (1965) by Louis Untermeyer. The moral stated at the end of the Greek version is, "this shows how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them." It echoes a statement attributed to Aristotle by Diogenes Laërtius in his The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, where the sage was asked what those who tell lies gain by it and he answered "that when they speak truth they are not believed."
The story dates from Classical times, but, since it was recorded only in Greek and not translated into Latin until the 15th century, it only began to gain currency after it appeared in Heinrich Steinhöwel's collection of the fables and so spread through the rest of Europe. For this reason, there was no agreed title for the story. Caxton titles it "Of the child whiche kepte the sheep" (1484), Hieronymus Osius "The boy who lied" ("De mendace puero", 1574), Francis Barlow "Of the herd boy and the farmers" ("De pastoris puero et agricolis", 1687), Roger L'Estrange "A boy and false alarms" (1692), and George Fyler Townsend "The shepherd boy and the wolf" (1867). It was under the final title that Edward Hughes set it as the first of ten "Songs from Aesop's fables" for children's voices and piano, in a poetic version by Peter Westmore (1965).
Teachers have used the fable as a cautionary tale about telling the truth but a recent educational experiment suggested that reading "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" increased children's likelihood of lying. On the other hand, reading a book on George Washington and the cherry tree decreased this likelihood dramatically. The suggestibility and favourable outcome of the behaviour described, therefore, seems the key to moral instruction of the young. However, when dealing with the moral behaviour of adults, Samuel Croxall asks, referencing political alarmism, "when we are alarmed with imaginary dangers in respect of the public, till the cry grows quite stale and threadbare, how can it be expected we should know when to guard ourselves against real ones?"
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*Old Rinkrank
A king promises that anyone who can walk to the other side of the glass mountain without falling will be allowed to marry his daughter. One suitor decides to try the feat and the princess goes with him. It is she who falls. The mountain opens up and swallows her. Neither the king nor anyone else is able to rescue her. While in the mountain, the girl falls into the charge of a man named Rinkrank, who forces her to be his servant. She cleans his house while he climbs a ladder out of the mountain, then comes back with silver and gold. One day she tricks Rinkrank into giving her the ladder so she can leave the mountain. She goes back to her father's kingdom where she marries her suitor who is waiting for her. The king kills Rinkrank. Read the full story at the link below.
https://americanliterature.com/author/the-brothers-grimm/fairy-tale/old-rinkrank
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Rainbow Bird (An Aboriginal Folktale from Northern Australia)
A very long time ago, there was Crocodile, who lived on a big island called Australia. He was not so nice and not so courteous. He had the control of fire. Fire was a very important component of life. It was giving you light during the night and keeping you warm, when you were cold. What can you do when you deal with a mean, ill-mannered crocodile? Many animals pleaded with Crocodile, but the more they begged, the meaner Crocodile would get. One day even a little kangaroo pleaded with Crocodile “Please give us some fire.” You know what was Crocodile’s response? He exhaled some fire from his throat, scaring little kangaroo.
High up on a tree, there was a very nice Bird, who was observing everything. The bird also suffered from the lack of fire. She didn’t like eating her food raw. So, Bird also pleaded with Crocodile to give some light not only to the animals, but also to the people. “Please share some light with others” begged Bird on many occasions. Once, Crocodile blew some fire at Bird, almost burning her feathers. Another time, it snapped “What do you need the fire for?” “Well, for example, to cook our food” Bird was nicely explaining to Crocodile. “Eat it raw” retorted Crocodile. “Well, it tastes so much better, when it’s cooked” continued Bird. “I will cook you with my fire, if you don’t disappear right night” Crocodile replied angrily. So she flew away not to anger Crocodile even more.
However, Bird continued to observe Crocodile from her house in the tree. She was patiently watching and waiting. Then, one early morning, Crocodile was still half asleep, stretching and yawning. At his last yawn, he opened his jaws so wild that it took him quite some time to close them. During that time, Bird quickly flew down, snatching the fire-stick. Before Crocodile realized what has just happened, Bird was already flying up with the fire-stick.
Bird flew around each tree putting fire into tree’s core. This way a tree could be used as wood to create fire. So people could cook their food, stay warm, and light their way through darkness. This creation was very magical. It looked as Bird was creating a rainbow with the yellow fire flying around green trees and with the blue sky shining on her. “Now, the people can have fire” said Bird proudly.
Bird flew back to Crocodile and warned it “From now on, you need to stay in the swamps. Don’t you dare to come out on land or I will light you up.” The scared Crocodile now stays deep in the swamp. From time to time, he only ventures with his eyes above the water curious what is going on with the other animals on the land.
So now you know why crocodiles live in the swamps and why the hero bird was called Rainbow Bird
http://geowonderland.blogspot.com/2012/06/rainbow-bird-aboriginal-folktale.html?m=1
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The Battle of the Wind and the Rain, Philippines Folktale
One sunny day, there were some harmless clouds dotting the sky. But what you don’t know is that on those harmless clouds were resting four natural forces named Thunder, Lightning, Rain and Wind.
It didn’t take long for Wind to say “Guys are you as bored as I am?” “No” the other free forces answered immediately. “Oh, come on” said Wind “Little storm won’t harm anybody.” “I feel so fluffy on this cloud” said Lightning “Leave me alone.” Wind couldn’t stand still and stirred the pot by blowing some wind at Thunder’s cloud. “Stop it” yelled Thunder. “Ha ha ha” laughed Wind. “Hey Rain” said Wind “Do you want me to blow some wind your way, too?” “No” snapped Rain.
“Oh, come on” continued Wind “Let’s have some fun.” “Can’t you be still at least for a second?” Rain was getting more and more irritated. Wind sensing it, persisted “Let’s play a game, who is more powerful.” “Under one condition” retorted Rain, “If I win, you will never get in my way. It will mean rainy days without wind.” Wind with a smirk on his face said “But if I win, you will never ever drop another tear on this earth.” Earth without rain means nothing would survive on earth. That’s not a good promise to make. But Rain was getting so annoyed by Wind “Fine. You asked for it. I’ll show you who is more powerful.”
So Rain and Wind looked for a place to start their battle. Rain very quickly spotted a monkey on a bamboo tree. Rain knowing that a bamboo tree is very flexible; it can bend instead of breaking as other trees. She just wasn’t sure if the monkey could hold on to the tree. But this was her best chance. So she challenged Wind “If you can knock down that monkey, then you win.” “As you wish” Wind answered boldly.
Not wasting any time, Wind started blowing heavy winds. With every breath he took in, his cheeks were getting bigger and bigger, as they were about to explode. Wind was getting more and more agitated as he was realizing that he can’t break the bamboo tree. Out of exhaustion he gave up and turned to Rain “Let’s see how smart you can get.”
“No problem” answered Rain and started her magic with dark sky and grey clouds creating a heavy rain. Monkey, with her flexible arms and legs, was still holding on to the bamboo tree. It made Wind very happy, because none of them was winning. “Let’s call it even” Wind said hastily. “Not so fast” answered Rain and swiftly changed the rain into big drops that were hitting the wet monkey very hard. Exhausted monkey climbed down to look for a place she could hide from rain.
“Does it make me a winner?” asked Rain with a big smile on her face. But Wind was already gone, too upset to face Rain. Orrrr maybe he was already showing the first signs of keeping the promise that he wouldn’t get in Rain’s way, what do you think?
Now you know when strong winds come in and they are so strong that they are taking people’s houses with them, this is why people hope for rain. When Rain comes in, the Wind should go away.
http://geowonderland.blogspot.com/2012/06/battle-of-wind-and-rain-philippines.html
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Jamie Freel and the Young Lady: A Donegal Tale
Ireland
Down in Fannet, in times gone by, lived Jamie Freel and his mother. Jamie was the widow's sole support; his strong arm worked for her untiringly, and as each Saturday night came round, he poured his wages into her lap, thanking her dutifully for the halfpence which she returned him for tobacco.
He was extolled by his neighbours as the best son ever known or heard of. But he had neighbours, of whose opinion he was ignorant, neighbours who lived pretty close to him, whom he had never seen, who are, indeed, rarely seen by mortals, except on May eves and Halloweens.
An old ruined castle, about a quarter of a mile from his cabin, was said to be the abode of the "wee folk." Every Halloween were the ancient windows lighted up, and passers-by saw little figures flitting to and fro inside the building, while they heard the music of pipes and flutes. It was well known that fairy revels took place; but nobody had the courage to intrude on them.
Jamie had often watched the little figures from a distance, and listened to the charming music, wondering what the inside of the castle was like; but one Halloween he got up and took his cap, saying to his mother, "I'm awa' to the castle to seek my fortune." "What!" cried she, "would you venture there? you that's the poor widow's one son! Dinna be sae venturesome an' foolitch, Jamie! They'll kill you, an' then what'll come o' me?" "Never fear, mother; nae harm 'ill happen me, but I maun gae."
He set out, and as he crossed the potato field, came in sight of the castle, whose windows were ablaze with light, that seemed to turn the russet leaves, still clinging to the crab tree branches, into gold. Halting in the grove at one side of the ruin, he listened to the elfin revelry, and the laughter and singing made him all the more determined to proceed. Numbers of little people, the largest about the size of a child of five years old, were dancing to the music of flutes and fiddles, while others drank and feasted.
"Welcome, Jamie Freel! Welcome, welcome, Jamie!" cried the company, perceiving their visitor. The word "Welcome" was caught up and repeated by every voice in the castle. Time flew, and Jamie was enjoying himself very much, when his hosts said, "We're going to ride to Dublin tonight to steal a young lady. Will you come too, Jamie Freel?" "Ay, that will I!" cried the rash youth, thirsting for adventure.
A troop of horses stood at the door. Jamie mounted, and his steed rose with him into the air. He was presently flying over his mother's cottage, surrounded by the elfin troop, and on and on they went, over bold mountains, over little hills, over the deep Lough Swilley, over towns and cottages, when people were burning nuts, and eating apples, and keeping merry Halloween. It seemed to Jamie that they flew all round Ireland before they got to Dublin.
"This is Derry," said the fairies, flying over the cathedral spire; and what was said by one voice was repeated by all the rest, till fifty little voices were crying out, "Deny! Derry! Derry!" In like manner was Jamie informed as they passed over each town on the rout, and at length he heard the silvery voices cry, "Dublin! Dublin!" It was no mean dwelling that was to be honoured by the fairy visit, but one of the finest houses in Stephen's Green.
The troop dismounted near a window, and Jamie saw a beautiful face, on a pillow in a splendid bed. He saw the young lady lifted and carried away, while the stick which was dropped in her place on the bed took her exact form. The lady was placed before one rider and carried a short way, then given another, and the names of the towns were cried out as before.
They were approaching home. Jamie heard "Rathmullan," "Milford," "Tamney," and then he knew they were near his own house. "You've all had your turn at carrying the young lady," said he. "Why wouldn't I get her for a wee piece?"
"Ay, Jamie," replied they, pleasantly, "you may take your turn at carrying her, to be sure."
Holding his prize very tightly, he dropped down near his mother's door. "Jamie Freel, Jamie Freel! is that the way you treat us?" cried they, and they too dropped down near the door. Jamie held fast, though he knew not what he was holding, for the little folk turned the lady into all sorts of strange shapes. At one moment she was a black dog, barking and trying to bite; at another, a glowing bar of iron, which yet had no heat; then, again, a sack of wool.
But still Jamie held her, and the baffled elves were turning away, when a tiny woman, the smallest of the party, exclaimed, "Jamie Freel has her awa' frae us, but he sall hae nae gude o' her, for I'll mak' her deaf and dumb," and she threw something over the young girl. While they rode off disappointed, Jamie lifted the latch and went in.
"Jamie, man!" cried "his mother, "you've been awa' all night; what have they done on you?" "Naething bad, mother; I ha' the very best of gude luck. Here's a beautiful young lady I ha' brought you for company. "Bless us an' save us!" exclaimed the mother, and for some minutes she was so astonished that she could not think of anything else to say.
Jamie told his story of the night's adventure, ending, by saying, "Surely you wouldna have allowed me to let her gang with them to be lost forever?"
"But a lady, Jamie! How can a lady eat we'er poor diet, and live in we'er poor way? I ax you that, you foolitch fellow?"
"Weel, mother, sure it's better for her to be here nor over yonder," and he pointed in the direction of the castle.
Meanwhile, the deaf and dumb girl shivered in her light clothing, stepping close to the humble turf fire. "Poor crathur, she's quare and handsome! Nae wonder they set their hearts on her," said the old woman, gazing at her guest with pity and admiration. "We maun dress her first; but what, in the name o' fortune, hae I fit for the likes o' her to wear?"
She went to her press in "the room," and took out her Sunday gown of brown drugget; she then opened a drawer, and drew forth a pair of white stockings, a long snowy garment of fine linen, and a cap, her "dead dress," as she called it.
These articles of attire had long been ready for a certain triste ceremony, in which she would some day fill the chief part, and only saw the light occasionally, when they were hung out to air; but she was willing to give even these to the fair trembling visitor, who was turning in dumb sorrow and wonder from her to Jamie, and from Jamie back to her.
The poor girl suffered herself to be dressed, and then sat down on a "creepie" in the chimney corner, and buried her face in her hands.
"What'll we do to keep up a lady like thou?" cried the old woman. "I'll work for you both, mother," replied the son.
"An' how could a lady live on we'er poor diet?" she repeated. "I'll work for her," was all Jamie's answer. He kept his word. The young lady was very sad for a long time, and tears stole down her cheeks many an evening while the old woman spun by the fire, and Jamie made salmon nets, an accomplishment lately acquired by him, in hopes of adding to the comfort of his guest.
But she was always gentle, and tried to smile when she perceived them looking at her; and by degrees she adapted herself to their ways and mode of life. It was not very long before she began to feed the pig, mash potatoes and meal for the fowls, and knit blue worsted socks. So a year passed, and Halloween came round again. "Mother," said Jamie, taking down his cap, "I'm off to the ould castle to seek my fortune." "Are you mad, Jamie?" cried his mother, in terror; "sure they'll kill you this time for what you done on them last year." Jamie made light of her fears and went his way.
As he reached the crab tree grove, he saw bright lights in the castle windows as before, and heard loud talking. Creeping under the window, he heard the wee folk say, "That was a poor trick Jamie Freel played us this night last year, when he stole the nice young lady from us." "Ay," said the tiny woman, "an' I punished him for it, for there she sits, a dumb image by his hearth; but he does na' know that three drops out o' this glass I hold in my hand wad gie her her hearing and her speeches back again."
Jamie's heart beat fast as he entered the hall. Again he was greeted by a chorus of welcomes from the company: "Here comes Jamie Freel! welcome, welcome, Jamie!" As soon as the tumult subsided, the little woman said, "You be to drink our health, Jamie, out o' this glass in my hand." Jamie snatched the glass from her and darted to the door. He never knew how he reached his cabin, but he arrived there breathless, and sank on a stove by the fire.
"You're kilt surely this time, my poor boy," said his mother. "No, indeed, better luck than ever this time!" and he gave the lady three drops of the liquid that still remained at the bottom of the glass, notwithstanding his mad race over the potato field. The lady began to speak, and her first words were words of thanks to Jamie. The three inmates of the cabin had so much to say to one another, that long after cock-crow, when the fairy music had quite ceased, they were talking round the fire.
"Jamie," said the lady, "be pleased to get me paper and pen and ink, that I may write to my father, and tell him what has become of me." She wrote, but weeks passed, and she received no answer. Again and again she wrote, and still no answer. At length she said, "You must come with me to Dublin, Jamie, to find my father." "I ha' no money to hire a car for you," he replied, "an' how can you travel to Dublin on your foot?"
But she implored him so much that he consented to set out with her, and walk all the way from Fannet to Dublin. It was not as easy as the fairy journey; but at last they rang the bell at the door of the house in Stephen's Green. "Tell my father that his daughter is here," said she to the servant who opened the door. "The gentleman that lives here has no daughter, my girl. He had one, but she died better nor a year ago."
"Do you not know me, Sullivan?" "No, poor girl, I do not." "Let me see the gentleman. I only ask to see him." "Well, that's not much to ax; we'll see what can be done." In a few moments the lady's father came to the door. "Dear father," said she, "don't you know me?" "How dare you call me your father?" cried the old gentleman, angrily. "You are an impostor. I have no daughter."
"Look in my face, father, and surely you'll remember me." "My daughter is dead and buried. She died a long, long time ago." The old gentleman's voice changed from anger to sorrow. "You can go," he concluded. "Stop, dear father, till you look at this ring on my finger. Look at your name and mine engraved on it." "It certainly is my daughter's ring; but I do not know how you came by it. I fear in no honest way." "Call my mother, she will be sure to know me," said the poor girl, who, by this time, was crying bitterly.
"My poor wife is beginning to forget her sorrow. She seldom speaks of her daughter now. Why should I renew her grief by reminding her of her loss?" But the young lady persevered, till at last the mother was sent for. "Mother," she began, when the old lady came to the door, "don't you know your daughter?" "I have no daughter; my daughter died and was buried a long, long time ago." "Only look in my face, and surely you'll know me." The old lady shook her head. "You have all forgotten me; but look at this mole on my neck. Surely, mother, you know me now?" "Yes, yes," said the mother, " my Gracie had a mole on her neck like that; but then I saw her in her coffin, and saw the lid shut down upon her."
It became Jamie's turn to speak, and he gave the history of the fairy journey, of the theft of the young lady, of the figure he had seen laid in its place, of her life with his mother in Fannet, of last Halloween, and of the three drops that had released her from her enchantment. She took up the story when he paused, and told how kind the mother and son had been to her. The parents could not make enough of Jamie. They treated him with every distinction, and when he expressed his wish to return to Fannet, said they did not know what to do to show their gratitude.
But an awkward complication arose. The daughter would not let him go without her. "If Jamie goes, I'll go too," she said. "He saved me from the fairies, and has worked for me ever since. If it had not been for him, dear father and mother, you would never have seen me again. If he goes, I'll go too." This being her resolution, the old gentleman said that Jamie should become his son-in-law. The mother was brought from Fannet in a coach and four, and there was a splendid wedding. They all lived together in the grand Dublin house, and Jamie was heir to untold wealth at his father-in-law's death.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/abduct.html#recovered
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The Devil as Partner (Switzerland)
One evening a traveling journeyman came to an inn, and because he had been strenuously walking for several days in a row, he decided to rest a few days. It didn't bother him that his purse would not cover his costs. The innkeeper got wind of this, and one evening he said, "My good friend, you are now well rested. Be so good as to be on your way early in the morning. Here is the bill for what you owe me."
This brought both chills and fever to journeyman, who asked the innkeeper if he at least could not wait until tomorrow to be paid. "Tomorrow," he said, "is one more day." "Good," said the innkeeper, "but be careful that you don't end up in the Black Tower Inn. Around here that's where folks stay who eat and drink more than their purses will cover." As soon as the innkeeper had left, the journeyman threw himself onto his bed, but fear and worry kept him awake the entire night.
Then suddenly a black figure approached his bed, and the journeyman recognized him as the devil for sure. He said, "Fear not, my dear companion, if you'll provide the sausage, I'll bring the drinks. Lend me a hand, and I'll help you out of your predicament." "Doing what?" asked the journeyman. "Just stay here in this inn for seven years," said the devil. "I'll keep you out of debt and provide you with everything you need. Afterward you'll be even better off, and you'll have money like the leaves on trees. In return for this you must neither wash yourself, nor comb your hair, nor cut your hair or nails."
"That job is worth the pay," thought the journeyman, and he entered the agreement without further hesitation.
When the innkeeper appeared the next morning, the journeyman paid him every last penny that was due, and he still had a good surplus for future bills. The journeyman stayed at the inn for years and days, spending money as though it were sand on the beach. But he became as wild as the night, and no one wanted to look at him. One fine morning a merchant who lived nearby came to the inn. He had three strikingly beautiful daughters. He had come to tell his sorrows to the innkeeper, for he had badly miscalculated in a business deal and did not know how he was going to get out of the difficulty.
"Listen," said the innkeeper. "There's help for you here. A strange fellow has been living upstairs in my rented room for more than six years now. He lets himself go completely, and looks as bad as sin, but he has money like hay, and is a free-spender. Give him a try. Anyway, I've long noticed that he often stares at your house. Who knows, perhaps he's got his eye on one of your daughters.
This advice made good sense to the merchant. He went upstairs to the journeyman, and the two of them soon struck a deal. The journeyman would pay the merchant's debts, and the merchant would give one of his daughters to the journeyman in marriage. However, when they went to the three daughters, and the father explained the situation to them, the oldest one ran away, crying out, "Phooey, father! What sort of a monster is this that you've brought home? I'd sooner jump into water than to marry him." The second daughter did no better. She cried out, "Phooey, father! What sort of a creature is this that you've brought home? I'd sooner hang myself than to marry him."
But the third and youngest daughter said, "He must be a good man, father, if he wants to rescue you. I'll take him."
She turned her eyes to the floor and did not look at him, but he took a great liking to her, and the wedding was set.
The seven years that the devil had demanded were now past. On the morning of the wedding day a splendid coach, sparkling with gold and precious stones, drove up to the merchant's house. Out jumped the journeyman, who had now become a fine young nobleman.
The bride breathed a sigh of relief, and there was endless rejoicing. The wedding party went to the church in a long procession, for the merchant and the innkeeper had invited all their relatives. Only the happy bride's two older sisters did not participate. They angrily took their own lives, the one at the end of a rope, the other in water. And as the bridegroom was leaving the church, he saw the devil again, the first time in seven years. He was sitting on a roof, laughing with satisfaction, and saying: Partner, I did better than you,You got one, and I got two.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0361.html#sutermeister
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The King of Sharks
A Native American Myth from Hawaii
One day, the King of Sharks saw a beautiful girl swimming near the shore. He immediately fell in love with the girl. Transforming himself into a handsome man, he dressed himself in the feathered cape of a chief and followed her to her village.The villagers were thrilled by the visit of a foreign chief. They made a great luau, with feasting and games. The King of Sharks won every game, and the girl was delighted when he asked to marry with her.
The King of Sharks lived happily with his bride in a house near a waterfall. The King of Sharks, in his human form, would swim daily in the pool of water beneath the falls. Sometimes he would stay underneath the water so long that his bride would grow frightened. But the King of Sharks reassured her, telling her that he was making a place at the bottom of the pool for their son.
Before the birth of the child, the King of Sharks returned to his people. He made his wife swear that she would always keep his feathered cape about the shoulders of their son. When the child was born, his mother saw a mark upon his back which looked like the mouth of a shark. It was then she realized who her husband had been.
The child's name was Nanave. As he grew towards manhood, Nanave would swim daily in the pool beside the house. Sometimes, his mother would gaze into the pool and see a shark swimming beneath the water. Each morning, Nanave would stand beside the pool, the feathered cloak about his shoulders, and would ask the passing fishermen where they were going to fish that day. The fisherman always told the friendly youth where they intended to go. Then Nanave would dive into the pool and disappear for hours.
The fishermen soon noticed that they were catching fewer and fewer fish. The people of their village were growing hungry. The chief of the village called the people to the temple. "There is a bad god among us," the chief told the people. "He prevents our fishermen from catching fish. I will use my magic to find him." The chief laid out a bed of leaves. He instructed all the men and boys to walk among the leaves. A human's feet would bruise the tender leaves, but the feet of a god would leave no mark.
Nanave's mother was frightened. She knew her son was the child of a god, and he would be killed if the people discovered his identity. When it came turn for the youth to walk across the leaves, he ran fast, and slipped. A man caught at the feathered cape Nanave always wore to prevent him from being hurt. But the cape fell from the youth's shoulders, and all the people could see the shark's mouth upon his back.
The people chased Nanave out of the village, but he slipped away from them and dived into the pool. The people threw big rocks into the pool, filling it up. They thought they had killed Nanave. But his mother remembered that the King of Sharks had made a place for her son at the bottom of the pool, a passage that led to the ocean. Nanave had taken the form of a shark and had swum out to join his father, the King of Sharks, in the sea. But since then, the fishermen have never told anyone where they go to fish, for fear the sharks will hear and chase the fish away.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/the_king_of_sharks.html
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Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby
A Georgia Folktale
Well now, that rascal Brer Fox hated Brer Rabbit on account of he was always cutting capers and bossing everyone around. So Brer Fox decided to capture and kill Brer Rabbit if it was the last thing he ever did! He thought and he thought until he came up with a plan. He would make a tar baby! Brer Fox went and got some tar and he mixed it with some turpentine and he sculpted it into the figure of a cute little baby. Then he stuck a hat on the Tar Baby and sat her in the middle of the road.
Brer Fox hid himself in the bushes near the road and he waited and waited for Brer Rabbit to come along. At long last, he heard someone whistling and chuckling to himself, and he knew that Brer Rabbit was coming up over the hill. As he reached the top, Brer Rabbit spotted the cute little Tar Baby. Brer Rabbit was surprised. He stopped and stared at this strange creature. He had never seen anything like it before!
"Good Morning," said Brer Rabbit, doffing his hat. "Nice weather we're having."
The Tar Baby said nothing. Brer Fox laid low and grinned an evil grin.
Brer Rabbit tried again. "And how are you feeling this fine day?"
The Tar Baby, she said nothing. Brer Fox grinned an evil grin and lay low in the bushes.
Brer Rabbit frowned. This strange creature was not very polite. It was beginning to make him mad.
"Ahem!" said Brer Rabbit loudly, wondering if the Tar Baby were deaf. "I said 'HOW ARE YOU THIS MORNING?"
The Tar Baby said nothing. Brer Fox curled up into a ball to hide his laugher. His plan was working perfectly!
"Are you deaf or just rude?" demanded Brer Rabbit, losing his temper. "I can't stand folks that are stuck up! You take off that hat and say 'Howdy-do' or I'm going to give you such a lickin'!"
The Tar Baby just sat in the middle of the road looking as cute as a button and saying nothing at all. Brer Fox rolled over and over under the bushes, fit to bust because he didn't dare laugh out loud.
"I'll learn ya!" Brer Rabbit yelled. He took a swing at the cute little Tar Baby and his paw got stuck in the tar.
"Lemme go or I'll hit you again," shouted Brer Rabbit. The Tar Baby, she said nothing.
"Fine! Be that way," said Brer Rabbit, swinging at the Tar Baby with his free paw. Now both his paws were stuck in the tar, and Brer Fox danced with glee behind the bushes.
"I'm gonna kick the stuffin' out of you," Brer Rabbit said and pounced on the Tar Baby with both feet. They sank deep into the Tar Baby. Brer Rabbit was so furious he head-butted the cute little creature until he was completely covered with tar and unable to move.
Brer Fox leapt out of the bushes and strolled over to Brer Rabbit. "Well, well, what have we here?" he asked, grinning an evil grin. Brer Rabbit gulped. He was stuck fast. He did some fast thinking while Brer Fox rolled about on the road, laughing himself sick over Brer Rabbit's dilemma.
"I've got you this time, Brer Rabbit," said Brer Fox, jumping up and shaking off the dust. "You've sassed me for the very last time. Now I wonder what I should do with you?"
Brer Rabbit's eyes got very large. "Oh please Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
"Maybe I should roast you over a fire and eat you," mused Brer Fox. "No, that's too much trouble. Maybe I'll hang you instead."
"Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
"If I'm going to hang you, I'll need some string," said Brer Fox. "And I don't have any string handy. But the stream's not far away, so maybe I'll drown you instead."
"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
"The briar patch, eh?" said Brer Fox. "What a wonderful idea! You'll be torn into little pieces!"
Grabbing up the tar-covered rabbit, Brer Fox swung him around and around and then flung him head over heels into the briar patch. Brer Rabbit let out such a scream as he fell that all of Brer Fox's fur stood straight up. Brer Rabbit fell into the briar bushes with a crash and a mighty thump. Then there was silence.
Brer Fox cocked one ear toward the briar patch, listening for whimpers of pain. But he heard nothing. Brer Fox cocked the other ear toward the briar patch, listening for Brer Rabbit's death rattle. He heard nothing.
Then Brer Fox heard someone calling his name. He turned around and looked up the hill. Brer Rabbit was sitting on a log combing the tar out of his fur with a wood chip and looking smug.
"I was bred and born in the briar patch, Brer Fox," he called. "Born and bred in the briar patch."
And Brer Rabbit skipped away as merry as a cricket while Brer Fox ground his teeth in rage and went home.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/brer_rabbit_meets_a_tar_baby.html
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Enchanted - A New Jersey Ghost Story
retold by S.E. Schlosser
I roam alone in the woods, listening to the enchanted children's voices calling to me. "Little girl, come and play," they sing over and over in my ears. Sometimes I hear them from the window of my room. They giggle and whisper words that I cannot make out. They sound like so much fun that I run outside my house as fast as I can to try to catch them. I plunge into the woods, calling back to the children, but no one answers. So I stand still as a mouse, trying to hear where they are hiding.
I find it odd that no one else can hear the children. I tell my mother about the game of hide-and-seek that they play with me, but I know she doesn't believe me. She just ruffles my hair and chuckles about my bright imagination. Papa can't hear them because he is too busy reading the paper and going to work. He says I will grow up to be a writer.
One morning, I hear the enchanted children calling to me from my porch. "Sara, come out and play." I finish my breakfast so fast that the milk spills from my cereal bowl and run outside with my blue smock still dripping wet.
"Where are you?" I call as I run into the woods. I can hear them giggling, and footsteps scampering first here, then there. I laugh aloud and follow them up hill and then down. Only my foot slips in the damp leaves and I slide too fast, too fast. I fall backward, wind-milling my arms. Then a terrible pain shoots through my head and is strikes against a rock. I see a blinding light, and then nothing. I hear my name called from very far away: "Sara, Sara!" I open my eyes and sit up, rubbing my hair.
Something isn't right, but I cannot tell at first what it is. Then I look at my hand, and realize I can see the ground right through it. That's strange, I think, standing up and brushing dead leaves from my blue smock. I look around to see who was calling my name, but I see no one in the woods with me. I notice that the trees look taller than I remember them, and the pathway is overgrown with weeds.
I make my way home slowly, hoping Mother can explain to me why I can see through my hands; why the trees are so tall. But someone else is staying at my house. Mother and Papa must have gone away on vacation. I climb up into my favorite tree to wait for their return.
After a few minutes, a lady comes outside and calls up to me. She is dressed strangely in a man's long pants and a rough work shirt. I feel shy, so I pretend to be invisible. I see the lady blink a few times and rub at her eyes, as if she can no longer see me. She goes back into the house, muttering to herself and pours herself a cup of water.
Then I hear the enchanted children calling out to me again from the woods. I slid out of the branches of the tree and run to answer them. At least they haven't changed. I can see the children clearly now, as they play hide and seek in the woods. I join their games, laughing sometimes when one of the boys tweaks me on the ear or when one of the girls compliments me on my dress and blue smock. This is fun!
But sometimes the enchanted children go away to another place, a place I can't follow. When they vanish, I wander back to my house, wondering when Mother and Papa will come home. Or I play in the alley by the woods, though I don't like it when strangers try to talk to me.
One day when the children go away, I follow my nose to the door of a pretty lady who is baking cookies. I peek into the kitchen window and smile at her. How I want one of those cookies! The lady looks out the window and sees me. She smiles and then comes to the front door. I know she is going to offer me a cookie, so I scamper to the door and wait eagerly for it to open. When it does, I grin at the pretty lady, but she looks right through me, a puzzled frown on her face. Maybe she is blind, I think and so I say politely: "May I come in?" right into her ear. The lady gives a start, backs hastily inside the house and shuts the door in my face. No cookies for me then. I sigh and go back into the woods to wait for the enchanted children.
When the children come to the woods, I am happy again and we play for days and days. We sing and we dance and the boys play tricks and we climb all the trees and fall out of them. But they only come during the day. The nights are lonely, and sometimes I wait for hours and hours during the day before they come. I like to go to the pretty lady's house and sit on the half-wall while I wait. Maybe one day she will offer me a cookie. The lady's grown-up daughter passes me sometimes on her way in and out of the house. Once the daughter asked me where I lived, but I was too shy to speak to her. The daughter put some pretty metal cats near the wall where I like to sit. I play with them when I feel lonely and no one else is around.
It is beautiful here in the woods, and I like playing with the enchanted children. But often I wish Mother and Papa would come home. I miss them so much. But they never do.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/enchanted.html
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Arkansas Traveler - An Arkansas Tall Tale
retold by S. E. Schlosser
One rainy autumn, a traveler got lost in the mountains of Arkansas. He was tired and hungry, and so was his horse. Night was approaching. All at once, he saw a cabin. A squatter sat on the porch fiddling the same tune over and over.
The traveler asked the squatter for food and water for himself and his horse. The squatter replied: "Ain't got a thing in the house."
The traveler asked where the next house was. The squatter said: "Dunno. I ain't never been there."
The frustrated traveler asked if he could spend the night. The squatter replied: "House leaks. My wife and me sleep on the only dry spot."
"Why don't you mend the roof?" asked the traveler.
"Can't mend the roof on a rainy day."
The whole time, the squatter continued to fiddle the same tune, over and over.
The traveler snapped: "Why don't you finish that tune?"
"Can't get the turn of the tune."
The traveler took the fiddle, played the turn of the tune and finished it.
"Stranger," said the squatter, "Grab yerself a chair and set down. Sal, cut a hunk outta that deer and cook it. Son, get the whisky and put the horse in the shed. You jest play away, stranger. Tonight, you can sleep on the dry spot!"
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/arkansas_traveler.html
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Apollo and Daphne
Daphne was a beautiful nymph and the daughter of the river god, Peneus. She longed to remain free and unmarried and prayed to her father to help her remain so. Apollo was the God of sun, music and knowledge. One day, he foolishly mocked Cupid for playing with bows and arrows - weapons which he believed should only be handled by experienced warriors like himself.
Cupid took revenge upon Apollo by striking him with one of his arrows the moment Apollo feasted his eyes upon the nubile and beautiful Daphne. This made him fall in love with her instantly. Apollo went into pursuit mode immediately, not realizing that he just fell in love with a girl who wanted to remain free forever. This was Cupid's cruel revenge.
Apollo chased after Daphne relentlessly. She teased him by flirting with him, only adding more fuel to his fire. One day, Apollo began running after Daphne and while running away, Daphne prayed to her father to turn her into a laurel tree. Just as Apollo caught up with her, her lower body began transforming into the bark and her arms into the branches. The story goes on to say that Apollo worshiped the laurel tree for the rest of his life.
The moral of the story is a commentary on pursuing pleasure for its own sake: "Those who love to pursue fleeting forms of pleasure, in the end find only leaves and bitter berries in their hands."
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THE GOLDEN KEY By the BROTHERS GRIMM
One winter when a deep snow lay upon the ground, a poor boy had to go out to fetch wood with his sled. Once he’d gathered the wood and loaded it up, he was so frozen with cold that he decided to make a fire to warm himself a little before going home.
He began to scrape away the snow, and as he cleared a patch of earth he found a little golden key. He thought for a moment, and figured that where there’s a key there must also be a lock. So he dug around in the hard soil until he found a little iron box. “If only the key fits!” he thought. “There are sure to be precious treasures inside the box. “ He looked and looked, but couldn’t fine a keyhole. At last he found one so small he could hardly see it. He tried the key, and luckily it fit. He began turning it in the keyhole.
And now we’ll just have to wait until he has unlocked it all the way and raised the lid. Then we’ll discover what wonderful things are tucked away inside.
Wikipedia: Since the second part of the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1815, The Golden Key was always in the last place; since the edition before the last one, in 1850, it was in place 200. According to their notes, the Brothers Grimm got it from Hessen (probably from Marie Hassenpflug). They mention a "similar fairy tale in the Deutsches Sprachbuch von Adolf Gutbier" (German Language Book by Adolf Gutbier), about two chickens who find a little key and a little box in the dung. The box contains a short piece of fur made of red silk, and "if it had been longer, the fairy tale would have become longer, too."
A quote by Noel Daniel, Editor of “The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm”: The ending of the final tale seems to say, “You too, are a part of the process. Take it from here. “
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Odin and the Mead of Inspiration (Norway)
At the end of the war between the Æsir and the Vanir, all of the gods and goddesses sealed their truce by spitting into a great jar. Rather than letting this spittle be wasted, the gods decided to fashion a man from the spittle. His name was Kvasir, and he was so steeped in the knowledge of the nine worlds that he became renowned for his ability to answer people's questions. No one could ask him a question to which he did not know the answer.Kvasir traveled widely teaching people his knowledge. He came to be the guest of two dwarves, Fjalar and Galar. Seeking a word in private with Kvasir, they brought him to a room and killed him. The dwarves drained out all his blood, catching it into two large jars and a cauldron. To the blood, they added honey, which formed a divine mead. Anyone who drank it became a wise man or a poet.
Fjalar and Galar kept the mead for themselves. When the Æsir sent a messenger asking about Kvasir, he was told that the wise man had choked on his own learning and died. Later, when the giant Gilling and his wife visited the dwarves, the brothers drowned Gilling and crushed his wife under a millstone.
When Gilling and his wife failed to return home, their son Suttung went in search of them. Suttung seized Fjalar and Galar and carried them far out into the ocean to a small rock rising just above the waves. Suttung pointed out that the rising tide would soon cover the rock, and that it was much too far back to the shore for the dwarves to swim.
Fjalar and Gilling begged for quarter. In exchange for their lives, they gave Suttung the three containers of mead. Suttung took the precious liquid directly to his home near the mountain Hnitbjörg. Here, he created a chamber deep within the mountain, and into it, he placed the two jars and the cauldron of mead for safekeeping. Suttung instructed his daughter Gunnloð to guard the mead by day and by night.
Word got back to the Æsir about what had happened to Kvasir and about the treasure of the mead. Óðin decided that he would journey to Jötenheim to recover the mead. He disguised himself as a man, and called himself Bölverkr (grief worker).
Bölverkr traveled to Jötenheim and eventually came to a valley where nine men were working in a field, scything grass. Bölverkr could see that the work was slow going because the scythes were not sharp. Striking up a conversation, Bölverkr learned that the men worked for Baugi, the brother of Suttung. Bölverkr then offered to sharpen their scythes. They gratefully accepted and were amazed to find how much quicker the work went after Bölverkr had finished his sharpening. They offered to buy Bölverk's whetstone from him.
Bölverkr responded by throwing the whetstone high into the air. The men all jostled for position to catch the whetstone and, turning as one, they all cut each other's throats with their scythes and fell dead. Bölverkr caught the whetstone as it fell, and continued on his journey.
That evening, Bölverkr made an appearance at the farm of Baugi, the giant, and asked for hospitality. Baugi was not in a pleasant mood, describing how his nine workmen had killed each other, and he despaired of finding replacements that late in the season. Bölverkr offered to do the work of all nine men for the rest of the season, providing that Baugi helped him obtain a drink of the mead of poetry from his brother, Suttung. Baugi said that he was not in a position to grant such a request. In the end, Bölverkr agreed to work for Baugi for the rest of the season, for which Baugi would ask his brother for a drink of mead for Bölverkr.
Bölverkr did the work of nine men and more for the rest of the summer. At the end of the summer, Bölverkr and Baugi approached Suttung and asked for a drink of mead. Suttung refused outright.
Bölverkr went to work on Baugi to enlist his help in tricking Suttung out of the mead. Eventually, Baugi agreed to help. Together, they went to the mountain Hnitbjörg. Bölverkr pulled out an auger and directed Baugi to use it to drill through the side of the mountain into the chamber where the mead was stored. Eventually, Baugi announced that he had broken through into the chamber. Bölverkr went up to the hole, and blew into it. Stone chips blew back into his face, proving that the hole didn't penetrate the stone. Realizing that Baugi had lied to him and was trying to cheat him, Bölverkr harshly set Baugi back to work.
A second time, Baugi announced he had breached the mountain. This time, Bölverk's breath of air blew the stone chips into the mountain, so he knew Baugi was right. Immediately, Bölverkr turned himself into the shape of a snake, and slithered into the hole. Baugi tried to skewer the snake with the auger, but he was too late.
Once inside the chamber, Bölverkr returned his shape to that of a man. He presented himself to Gunnloð, Suttung's daughter, who guarded the mead while sitting on a stool of solid gold. But at the sight of Bölverkr, Suttung's warnings to guard the mead left Gunnloð's head. Bölverk's beguiled her, and for three days, they lay together in the chamber in the heart of the mountain.
At the end of the three days, Gunnloð was ready to give Bölverk anything he desired. He asked for three drinks of the precious mead. In his first swallow, he emptied the first big jar. The second swallow emptied the second jar. And Bölverk's last swallow emptied the cauldron.
With all of the divine mead held in his mouth, Óðin changed himself into an eagle and flew away, heading for Ásgarð. When Suttung saw him, he, too, changed himself into an eagle and gave chase. They flew across Jötenheim, across the mountains, towards Ásgarð. When the Æsir saw them, they put out containers in the courtyard. As Óðin flew over the courtyard, he spat the mead out into the containers. Suttung's mead was safely stored away. Óðin gave it to the Æsir, and occasionally he gives it to those men who are skilled at composing poetry.
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Nihts'iil - Alaska
During the spring, Upper Tanana Athabascans used to gather nihts'iil, which are little roots that muskrats find and hide in their caches. One day a little girl found one of these caches on a lake and took out all the nihts'iil to take home to her family. She was very excited and very proud of herself when she got home with the tasty food.
"Mom!" she said, "I found a muskrat cache! Here's some nihts'iil."
"You've got to pay for the nihts'iil, " her mother said when she saw the pile of roots. "Don't forget to leave something in the cache for the muskrat."
"Oh, Mom," her daughter answered, "who would ever know! The muskrat wouldn't know that I was the one that took the nihts'iil. What does it matter?"
"Yes," her mother answered. "The muskrat will know. You've got to pay for what you take. The muskrat worked hard to fill his cache, and you shouldn't empty it without paying for it."
The daughter still wasn't convinced. "What happens if I don't pay for it?" she asked. The mother answered, "If you don't pay, the muskrat will go into our cache, and take out all our meat."
The little girl went back to the cache and left a bit of cloth for the muskrat.
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First Salmon Story - Alaska
The Tanaina Athabascans used to tell a story about a salmon. It goes something like this:
One spring day when it was just about time for the salmon run to begin, a rich Tanaina man put out his fish trap as he always did at that time of year. He hoped to catch enough salmon to last his family for the whole year. The man told his daughter not to go near the fish trap.
His daughter was curious. She wondered why her father did not want her to see the trap. So, instead of obeying him, she walked down to the river toward the trap. "Ill be back in a little while," she called to her father as she walked away.
When the girl got down to the river, she went straight to the trap. A big king salmon was swimming around in the water, and she started talking to him.
They talked and talked, and before she knew what was happening, she had turned into a salmon herself! She slid into the water and disappeared with the big king salmon.
The girl's father looked everywhere for his daughter. He could not find her. Every day he called her and searched for her, but she never returned.
The next year, when the salmon run was about to start again, the rich man set out his fish trap as usual. The first time he checked it, he saw that it was fill with many beautiful salmon. The man threw them all out on the grass, and began cleaning them. He left the smallest fish for last.
Finally, all but the last small fish had been cleaned. The man turned to pick up the little salmon --and saw that, where the fish had been, there was now a little boy!
The man walked around the boy, staring at him. He walked around him three times. And finally, the third time, he knew why the boy looked familiar. He looked just like the man's lost daughter. The man suddenly knew that this young boy was his grandson, the son of his missing daughter.
The boy finally spoke to his grandfather. He told him all the things he should do to show his respect for the salmon. He told the man how to cut the sticks to dry the salmon, and how to be careful not to drop the salmon on the ground while they were being dried. And he told the man that each year, when the first salmon of the year was caught, the people should hold a ceremony for that salmon. They must wash themselves, and dress up in their finest clothes. They must find a weed near timberline, and burn it. And they must clean and cook the first fish without breaking its backbone. The insides must be thrown back into the water.
The boy explained that if the man and his people did all these things, they would have a good year, and would catch many salmon. But if they did not follow the rules, the salmon would never return to them.
The Tanaina used this story to explain to their children how the First Salmon Ceremony got started and why it was performed each year in the springtime. The people did everything the young salmon-boy had told his grandfather to do.
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*The Stone by the Door - Morocco
Once upon a time, there was a man who made so much money that he could not even count it. He wanted only to protect himself and his beloved son. But alas, all his money could not stave off mortality. The man grew gravely ill, and when he understood that he would die, he called his son to his side.
"I am leaving you a fortune," he told the boy, "and you must guard against those who are untrue. When you decide it is time to marry, go to my oldest friend and ask him to find you a bride. He will find you the bride God has chosen." The young man promised he would do as his father requested.
Soon after this, his father died. Time passed, and as it did, the young man began to long for love. And when he decided he wished to marry, he fulfilled his promise and visited his father's friend to seek his advice. The friend told him he would find the perfect bride. A few weeks passed until the friend at last found a beautiful, wise and trustworthy woman. The young man was very happy to hear this, and so they began to make arrangements for a grand wedding.
The day before the wedding, the father's friend said to the young man, "In order to discover whether God has chosen this woman for you, you must go to her room tonight. You will find a stone outside her door. If you can move the stone, you'll know that she is the chosen one. If you fail to move the stone, you must send her back home."
That night, the young man went to the young woman's door, and from inside he heard a voice singing a beautiful song. Right away he knew this must be the woman for him, for the song sounded like one he remembered from his childhood. His heart raced with excitement as he peered through the half-opened door and saw a lovely woman dressed in silk robes. She was elegant and reminded him of his late mother. As he recalled the tenderness he had felt in his mother's arms, he reached down to move the stone. The stone was not too large, but when he tried to move it from the door, he could not budge it, not even an inch. He understood that this bride would have to return to her family. He was sad because he was so sure she was the one for him.
And so the father's friend arranged a new match. Once again a wedding date was set, and the second bride came to the house. Once more the father's friend told the young man what he had to do: "There will be a stone outside her door. If you can move it, you will know this is the wife God has chosen for you." As the young man approached the door, once again he heard the familiar song, but this time it was a harp playing it. When he peered into the room, he saw a woman just as beautiful as the one who came before her. Her fingers danced across the harp strings, and when she began to dance, he knew she had to be the bride for him. He reached down to move the stone. Once again, he could not move it even an inch. His heart grew heavy with sadness, and again the bride returned to her family.
For a third time, the father's friend arranged a bride, though by now the young man was feeling discouraged. He knew this woman would be beautiful, of course, and naturally she would be wise and kind. Of that he was certain. But what if he could not move the stone again? Must he live forever alone?
Thinking these sad thoughts, he moved slowly toward the bride's room. And for a third time, he heard that song of his childhood, the song that reminded him of all the friends he had ever known, of days playing in sunny fields, of nights dreaming under the stars, of climbing trees and swimming rivers and dancing among friends. How much he had enjoyed those days of childhood. How much he had loved his friends.
And this time when he looked into the room, he saw a woman dressed in peasant clothing, her hair long and dark and soft as silk. Her eyes were alight with playfulness, and she was sewing a beautiful quilt as she sang. As he listened, the young man realized that all three brides could have been the same woman -- beautiful, wise, enticing and gentle, someone to love and someone who would be a friend. But when he reached down to move the stone, once again he could not budge it even an inch.
He was about to weep when suddenly he saw a shadow slip through the door, and he heard a gentle voice saying, "Let me help you." The woman reached down, and he reached too, and together they easily moved the stone aside.
The young man knew he had found the bride God intended, and she knew, too, that this was the man God intended her to love. But they understood something else: Finding a loved one was not enough. They realized that they must always work together to move the stones that blocked the doorways leading to a rich and happy life.
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The Mango Teacher - Thailand
Once upon a time, a young man named Sunan was traveling aimlessly when he came upon an old beggar at the side of a lonely road. Sunan's heart went out to the man. He stopped and said, "Sir, I have little, but I wish to share my bread and water with you. Eat heartily."
The beggar ate, and when he was finished, Sunan bowed and prepared to leave, but the man seized his hand. "Wait, I wish to thank you properly for your generosity. I offer you a magic spell that will be useful to you." Sunan was skeptical, but he could not say no, and so the beggar gave him the magic words. "Say these words and you will grow any kind of fruit you wish at any time. But take care to follow all my directions."
He went on to explain that Sunan must be sure to carry a bowl of water when he recited the spell, and he must blow on it afterward and pour the water on the root of the tree. "If you know this spell, why are you starving?" Sunan asked, but the man simply closed his eyes and said this: "Please, just listen. Respect my wishes for the rest of your life, or the spell will be broken." "I will," Sunan said, and he went on his way.
A few days passed when Sunan entered a great city, and as he was walking down the main street, he heard trumpets sounding and men shouting, "The king is making an announcement today!" He hurried to follow the crowd to the steps and found the king's wise men standing there. "The king wishes to give a reward to anyone who can bring the queen a mango."
This was late autumn, and everyone knew there were no mangos growing anywhere, but when Sunan heard these words, he thought of the beggar and his magic spell. "I will find a mango for the queen!" he cried. The wise men smiled. "Very well," they said. "And where will you find this mango?"
Sunan said, very calmly, "Take me to the palace garden, and bring me a bowl of water, and I shall have a mango for the queen." The wise men shook their heads, but what could they do? They led Sunan to the palace garden, and there they gave him a bowl of water. Sunan recited the spell, and just as the beggar had instructed him, he blew on the water.
A moment later, a mango tree in the garden began to bloom with fresh, ripe fruit. Sunan was careful to pour the water over the roots.
The wise men were amazed, the queen was overjoyed, and she and the king handsomely rewarded Sunan. Delighted, he no longer needed to wander, and so he settled in the city and was frequently a guest at the palace. Whenever the queen wanted a mango, she turned to Sunan, and always he was able to recite his spell and satisfy the queen's desire.
One day the king said to Sunan, "Who taught you this spell?"
Sunan felt suddenly shy; he did not want to confess that he had learned from a poor beggar. It seemed beneath him. And so he said, "My teacher was a holy man who lives deep in the forest. He taught me many things."
A few days later the king's servants came to see Sunan. "The queen requests more mangos," they said, and Sunan hurried to the palace.
As always, he walked to the garden, lifted his bowl of water, and recited the magical spell. The queen eagerly waited for the fruit to appear on the tree, but nothing happened. "Why are there no mangos growing?" the king shouted at Sunan.
Sunan looked at the ground, ashamed to admit the truth to the king. Now he understood that he had not kept his promise to his teacher. He had neglected to honor and respect him, and he would pay for it. "I lied to you," he told the king. "It wasn't a holy man who taught me the spell. It was only an old beggar, and he has taken my power from me because of my lie." "No one lies to me!" the king cried. He ordered Sunan to return all the gifts he and the queen had bestowed on him and commanded him to leave the city.
Once again Sunan was only a poor wanderer, but he had learned a lesson he would never forget. Now as he traveled, he looked for teachers in everyone and found wisdom in the most surprising people. After that day he remembered, always, to honor every teacher he met.
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Secrets of the River - A Persian LegendOnce upon a time, the three princes of Serendip told their father that they wished to travel. They sought wisdom in the world, but they also wished to travel like ordinary men.
"We want to see the world as it is," they told the king, "without all of our privileges."
They set off astride three old horses, taking only a sack of clothing, a pouch of water and a basket of bread. On their travels they encountered many troubles, but they always found their way back to the road.
One day, they heard the sound of roaring water, and wondered if that was the ocean. They headed toward the sound and soon came to a wild river overflowing its banks. Standing there was a man dressed in rich, flowing silks, and he was raising his hands to the heavens, cursing and weeping at the top of his lungs.
The princes called out to the man. "What happened, sir? Can we help you?"
The man turned and the princes saw that his face was streaked with tears. He was so full of sorrow that they felt their own hearts break. They almost wept as he wailed, "It is a disaster! I am ruined. I am cursed!"
The brothers dismounted and came closer. "What happened?" the eldest asked.
"We may be able to help," said the second prince.
"We will do all we can," said the youngest.
"No one can help me!" the man cried as he cast his gaze upon the river. He pointed at the whitecaps on the water and said, "There lies my fortune. I am a merchant, and I have traveled all over the world collecting treasures. I built my palace on the riverbank and planned to live in peace, but the river has destroyed all that! Once upon a time, I loved this river, but it has turned into my enemy."
The eldest prince smiled. "Sir, this might be a blessing."
The merchant looked at the prince as if he were a madman and asked, "What can you mean? I've lost everything I owned!"
The second prince smiled and said, "We have been learning to seek the good in misfortune, sir. Often if you can do that, you will find even greater fortune."
"Yes," said the youngest. "Trust us, we are certain your good fortune will exceed your wildest dreams if you pay close attention."
And with that they rode off again.
They had traveled for many years when one day, as they were heading back toward home, they happened past the same river. The eldest prince said, "Isn't this the place where we met the sad merchant and the raging river?"
"It is," said the second prince, and the youngest agreed. Just at that moment a man ran up to them and called, "Sirs, please come to my master's home. He wishes to offer you a place to rest and take refreshment. He looks after everyone who passes by."
The princes agreed and followed the man to a palace atop a high cliff overlooking the river. There at the palace door was the very man they had met so many years before. This time his smile was radiant and his eyes were as bright as the stars.
"Come in, fellows!" he said as he immediately recognized the three princes. "I have prepared a dinner for you, and I have a story to tell you."
He showed them to their quarters with lovely beds and baths. After they had washed, he invited them to sit with him over a glorious meal, and there he told the tale.
"I have you to thank for this good fortune," he explained to the princes.
The day they had left the riverbank, the merchant thought about all they had said. After he had stopped wailing, he began to think about how much he had always loved the river. He remembered swimming and fishing and whispering his secrets to the water when he was just a boy. Back then, the river had been his best friend. When the river spoke to him, he always listened.
But as he grew older, he forgot how to quiet his mind and heart. He forgot to ask the river what it needed and wanted. He forgot to listen to what the river had to say.
So when the princes were gone, he sat down and he began to listen. After some time, he began to hear the river speaking again.
"Lift up your eyes and you will see," the river said.
The man looked up, and there it was: This cliff with the beautiful view. He knew that was where he would build his home.
He and his workers climbed to the top of the cliff to prepare the ground. But as they were digging, they came across a field of gems -- rubies, amethysts, diamonds and sapphires all glittering under the sun.
The merchant nodded as he remembered. "The river brought me even greater wealth," he told the brothers. "Just as you promised, I found even greater fortune."
"Ever since that day, I invite everyone who travels through this kingdom to stay in my home. I offer food and clothing. I help everyone feel renewed and refreshed, and everyone brings a treasure. Some people bring objects. But most of all, people bring wisdom and company and stories, the most precious treasures of all."
The brothers of Serendip nodded. They were not surprised to hear this happy tale.
"I am blessed," the merchant said, "and now I know how true your words were. Misfortune brought me my greatest fortune."
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Division of Two Tribes - Shoshone and Comanche Legend
When white men first penetrated the Western wilderness of America they found the tribes of Shoshone and Comanche at odds, and it is a legend of the springs of Manitou that their differences began there. This "Saratoga of the West," nestling in a hollow of the foot-hills in the shadow of the noble peak of Pike, was in old days common meeting-ground for several families of red men. Councils were held in safety there, for no Indian dared provoke the wrath of the Manitou whose breath sparkled in the "medicine waters." None? Yes, one. For, centuries ago a Shoshone and a Comanche stopped here on their return from a hunt to drink.
The Shoshone had been successful; the Comanche was empty handed and ill tempered, jealous of the other's skill and fortune. Flinging down the fat deer that he was bearing homeward on his shoulders, the Shoshone bent over the spring of sweet water, and, after pouring a handful of it on the ground, as a libation to the spirit of the place, he put his lips to the surface.
It needed but faint pretext for his companion to begin a quarrel, and he did so in this fashion: "Why does a stranger drink the water at the spring that his children may drink it undefiled. I am Ausaqua, chief of Shoshone, and I drink at the head-water. Shoshone and Comanche are brothers. Let them drink together."
"No. The Shoshone pays tribute to the Comanche, and Wacomish leads that nation to war. He is chief of the Shoshone as he is of his own people."
"Wacomish lies. His tongue is forked, like the snake's. His heart is black. When the Great Spirit made his children he said not to one, 'Drink here,' and to another, 'Drink there,' but gave water that all might drink."
The other made no answer, but as Ausaqua stooped toward the bubbling surface Wacomish crept behind him, flung himself against the hunter, forced his head beneath the water, and held him there until he was drowned. As he pulled the dead body from the spring the water became agitated, and from the bubbles arose a vapor that gradually assumed the form of a venerable Indian, with long white locks, in whom the murderer recognized Waukauga, father of the Shoshone and Comanche nation, and a man whose heroism and goodness made his name revered in both these tribes. The face of the patriarch was dark with wrath, and he cried, in terrible tones, "Accursed of my race! This day thou hast severed the mightiest nation in the world. The blood of the brave Shoshone appeals for vengeance. May the water of thy tribe be rank and bitter in their throats."
Then, whirling up an elk-horn club, he brought it full on the head of the wretched man, who cringed before him. The murderer's head was burst open and he tumbled lifeless into the spring, that to this day is nauseous, while, to perpetuate the memory of Ausaqua, the Manitou smote a neighboring rock, and from it gushed a fountain of delicious water. The bodies were found, and the partisans of both the hunters began on that day a long and destructive warfare, in which other tribes became involved until mountaineers were arrayed against plainsmen through all that region.
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*Pecos Bill - A Legend of Frontier Spirit
Growing out of the imagination of southwestern cowboys during America's westward expansion, Pecos Bill personifies the frontier virtues of courage, strength, and humor. The mythical folk hero, first written about in 1917 by Edward O’Reilly, is said to have been based on tales told by range hands at the end of a long day of tending cattle, and is in the same spirit of other "Big" characters like Paul Bunyan or John Henry. O'Reilly would publish these writings in the 1923 book "Saga of Pecos Bill". Personifying the frontier spirit of the American West, the legendary "man” displayed superhuman feats that grew with each telling as more writers would add their own embellishments in later writings. Ol' Bill even made it to the big screen in Disney movies, including 1995's "Tall Tale" with Patrick Swayze.
As the legend goes, Born in the 1830’s, Pecos Bill was the youngest of eighteen children of a Texas pioneer, and was so tough even as a baby, that he used a bowie knife as a teething ring and made wild animals his playmates as a toddler. When the boy was very young, he fell out of his parents’ wagon as they were crossing the Pecos River and was swept away by the current. Rescued by coyotes, the boy was raised by the wild animals.
Years later when he was found by his brother, living with the coyotes, his sibling had to convince him that he wasn’t a coyote himself. When Bill returned to civilization he became an excellent cowhand, credited with inventing the branding iron, the lasso, cowboy songs to soothe the cattle, and many other tips and tricks. He also appeared in other tales as a railroad man, a buffalo hunter, and an oilfield worker.
But bigger than his work ethic and skills were the tales of phenomenal feats such as riding a cyclone, roping an entire herd at one time, using a rattlesnake as a whip, and harnessing the Rio Grande River to water his ranch. He was so tough that he often rode a mountain lion rather than his favorite horse, the Widow-Maker, whose favorite food was Dynamite.
Somewhere along the line, ole’ Pecos Bill met and courted a woman named Slue-Foot Sue, who he found riding down the Rio Grande River on a catfish as large as a whale. During their courtship, Pecos Bill did his legendary best to impress her by shooting out all the stars from the sky except one, the Lone Star. He wins her over, but Slue-Foot insisted on riding Widow Maker, who didn't like the fact he had to compete with her for Bill's attention. Widow Maker bounces her so hard she keeps bouncing to the moon. Depends on the story you're reading as to whether Slue-Foot Sue ever stopped bouncing.
There are many more tall tales of Pecos Bill, including one version of his ultimate demise. Story goes that as Bill was getting older, a man from Boston came down to New Mexico for a visit. The Yankee thought himself a bit of a cowboy, so he gussied up in a mail order suit that included lizard skin boots, new pair of blue jeans, shiny brass belt buckle and a clean as a whistle 10 gallon hat. When Pecos Bill saw the Yankee swagger into a bar, ol' Bill laid down on the sidewalk and laughed himself to death.
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No Mockingbirds on Fridays - African American Folktales (Zora Neale Hurston)
"Well," said Big Sweet. "Nobody never sees no mockin' bird on Friday. They ain't on earth dat day."
"Well, if they ain't on earth, where is they?"
"They's all gone to hell on Friday with a grain of sand in they mouth to help out they friend." She continued:
Once There was a man and he was very wicked. He useter rob and steal and he was always in a fight and killin' up people. But he was awful good to birds and mockin' birds was his favorite. This was a long time ago before de man first started to buildin' de Rocky Mountains. Well, ' way after while somebody kilt him, and being he had done lived so bad, when he died he went straight to hell. De birds all hated it mighty bad when they seen him in hell, so they tried to git him out. But the fire was too hot so they give up--all but de mockin' birds. They come together and decided to tote sand until they squenwhiched de fire in hell. So they set a day and they all agreed on it. Every Friday they,totes sand to hell. And that's how come nobody don't never see no mockin' bird5 on Friday.
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How Snakes got their Poison, and their Tail - African American Folktales (Zora Neale Hurston)
Well, when God made de snake he put him in de bushes to ornament de ground. But things didn't suit de snake so one day he got on de ladder and went up to see God. "Good mawnin', God." "How do you do, Snake?" "Ah ain't so many, God, you put me down there on my belly in de dust and everything trods upon me and kills off my generations. Ah ain't got no kind of protection at all." God looked off towards immensity and thought about de subject for awhile, then he said, "Ah didn't mean for nothin' to be stompin' you snakes lak dat. You got to have some kind of a protection. Here, take dis poison and put it in yo' mouf and when they tromps on you, protect yo' self. "
So de snake took de poison in his mouf and went on back. So after awhile all de other varmints went up to God.
"Good evenin', God." "How you makin' it, varmints?"
"God, please do somethin' 'bout dat snake. He' layin' in de bushes there wid poison in his mouf and he's strikin' everything dat shakes de bush. He's killin' up our generations. Wese skeered to walk de earth."
So God sent for de snake and tole him:
"Snake, when Ah give you dat poison, Ah didn't mean for you to be hittin' and killin' everything dat shake de bush. I give you dat poison and tole you to protect yo'self when they tromples on you. But you killin' everything dat moves. Ah didn't mean for you to do dat."
De snake say, "Lawd, you know Ah'm down here in de dust. Ah ain't got no claws to fight wid, and Ah ain't got no feets to git me out de way. All Ah kin see is feets comin' to tromple me. Ah can't tell who my enemy is and who is my friend. You gimme dis protection in my mouf and Ah uses it."
God thought it over for a while then he says:
"Well, snake, I don't want yo' generations all stomped out and I don't want you killin' everything else dat moves. Here take dis bell and tie it to yo' tail. When you hear feets comin' you ring yo' bell and if it's yo' friend, he'll be keerful. If it's yo' enemy, it's you and him."
So dat's how de snake got his poison and dat's how come he got rattles.
Biddy, biddy, bend my story is end. Turn loose de rooster and hold de hen.
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Origin: Russian, collected by Post Wheeler in Russian Wonder Tales
Vasilisa the Beautiful features two of the most common stock characters in Russian fairy tales: Vasilisa and Baba Yaga, and could be considered the archetypal story for each. Vasilisa is the name of a beautiful heroine or princess in many stories. Sometimes she is a peasant girl who undergoes adventures and rises through fortunes to marry a tsar or prince; sometimes she is a princess of legendary beauty who marries a hero after a series of adventures. Baba Yaga is an even more popular character in Russian lore: a legendary witch of immense power who lives in a hut in the woods which stands on chicken legs. She flies through the air in a giant mortar and pestle, and eats people the way we eat chickens.
Synopsis: In Vasilisa the Beautiful, young Vasilisa’s mother dies and leaves her a tiny wooden doll, who will help her in times of need if she gives it food and drink. Her father remarries to an evil stepmother with two homely daughters, all of whom are jealous of Vasilisa’s beauty. They give her arduous tasks, hoping it will dull her beauty, but she remains the most beautiful girl in the village. The little doll is Vasilisa’s only comfort. Vasilisa’s father goes away on a long journey to a distant tsardom, and the stepmother sells his house and moves them to a hut on the edge of the village near a dark forest, where Baba Yaga lives. The stepmother sends Vasilisa on errands in the forest in the hope that Baba Yaga will eat her, but with the help of her doll she performs the tasks safely. Finally the stepmother and stepsisters contrive a plot to put out all the fires in the house, and they send Vasilisa to fetch fire from Baba Yaga’s house. Under the doll’s counsel, Vasilisa ventures to Baba Yaga’s house and sees many strange things, finally being taken into Baba Yaga’s domain. Day after day, Baba Yaga demands that she perform an impossible number of daunting household tasks or be eaten. The doll advises her to rest, and when she wakes up all tasks are done but the simple task of cooking Baba Yaga’s dinner. Baba Yaga asks her how she did it, and (to protect the doll), responds “with my mother’s blessing.” Baba Yaga throws her out, unable to abide a blessing in her house, and throws a skull candle after her. Vasilisa brings the skull candle back to her house, where it incinerates her stepmother and stepsisters, leaving Vasilisa unharmed. Later, Vasilisa goes to live with a nice lonely old woman, and sews some amazing linen that impresses the tsar. The tsar demands to see who sewed it, and upon seeing Vasilisa falls madly in love with her. Vasilisa marries the tsar, and lives happily ever after with her returned father and the old woman at the castle.
Full story:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/russian/russianwondertales/vasilissa.html
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/babayaga/index.html
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasilisa_the_Beautiful
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasilisa_(name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Fairy_Tales
Other reference:
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins117-baba-yaga-and-vasilisa-the-fair.html
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*The Boy who Drew Cats
Origin: Japanese, collected by Lafcadio Hearn in Japanese Fairy Tales
Lafcadio Hearn was known for bringing Japanese folklore to the West in the 1850s. Four tales from Hearn were adapted by master director Masaki Kobayashi into the classic film Kwaidan.
Synopsis: A farmer had many hardworking children, but one son was unfit for hard work. He was very clever, but too weak and small to be of any help in the fields. The farmer thought he would make a good priest, so he took the boy to the local priest and arranged for him to be his acolyte. The boy was a good student and very obedient, but he had one fault: he drew cats everywhere. Walls, floors, book margins, everywhere. He wouldn’t stop no matter how many times he was told. Eventually the priest decided the boy was an artist, not a priest, and sent him on his way with the advice “Avoid large places at night – keep to small.” The boy didn’t understand, but went on his way. Many miles on, he came across a large temple. The boy didn’t know it, but a goblin had scared off the priests and taken possession of the place, killing any warriors who showed up. The boy entered the temple and it seemed empty. He couldn’t resist painting cats all over the place. Before he went to sleep, he remembered the priest’s advice and slept in a small cabinet. During the night, he heard monstrous screams. He hid til morning, and eventually came out. The goblin lay dead in the middle of the floor, and the painted cats’ mouths were now red with blood. He realized the goblin had been killed by his cats. He went on to become a famous artist.
Full story:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/japan/hearn/boydrewcats.html
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Drew_Cats
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The Slave Girl who tried to Kill her Mistress
Origin: Nigerian, collected by Elphinstone Dayrell in Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria
This story includes the common fairy tale trope of the heroic bride of legendary beauty. Of interest here, however, is the element of the “fatting-house.” In the Efik culture of Nigeria, female beauty is defined by large size and plump roundness. Brides-to-be are secluded in a room for several months, where they sleep long and eat fatty foods. Thinness is considered sickly and unattractive. Obesity is seen as a sign of wealth and prosperity. In this story, the change of appearance caused by the fatting-room plays a key role.
Synopsis:
A young wealthy man named Akpan admired a beautiful girl named Emme and paid a large dowry for her. (At the time, the tradition was to pay a large dowry. If the wife and husband did not get along, the wife could be sold as a slave to recoup the investment.) Seven years later, Emme was ready to wed and emerged from the fatting house. Emme’s father also saw an attractive slave girl emerge from the fatting house, and bought her as a handmaiden for Emme. Emme’s young sister begged to go with her to live with Akpan, and was allowed to go. Along the way, they washed at a spring. The slave girl pushed Emme into a hole where a Water Juju lived, left her for dead, and threatened to kill the little sister if she told what happened. They went on to Akbar’s village, and the slave girl posed as Emme upon arrival. Akpan was disappointed that she was not as beautiful as he remembered, but since he hadn’t seen Emme in 7 years, he had no reason to doubt it was her. The slave girl lived in Emme’s place, frequently torturing the little sister horribly. The sister began going to the spring and calling for Emme. The Water Juju held her prisoner, but began allowing her brief visits with her sister. A hunter saw this occur and told Akpan, who arranged with a wise old woman to offer a sacrifice to the Water Juju (killing a slave, a goat, and a chicken) to release Emme. Akpan, Emme, and the little sister then caught the slave woman and tortured her the way she had tortured Emme’s sister, until she died.
Full Story:
http://www.worldoftales.com/African_folktales/Nigerian_folktale_34.html
More Nigerian stories:
http://www.worldoftales.com/Nigerian_folktales.html
Info on fatting-rooms:
http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2007/07/calabar-fattening-rooms.html
http://www.nairaland.com/2097222/fattening-rooms-efik
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*The Smith and the Devil
Origin: Ancient Indo-European, collected by the Brothers Grimm in first edition of Children’s and Household Tales, removed from later editions. The story of The Smith and the Devil is thought to be one of the oldest European folk tales, dating back 6000 years. It is the inspiration for a wide variety of deal-with-the-devil stories.
Synopsis: After losing all his money, a blacksmith decides to hang himself in the woods. The devil appears and offers a deal: a good life for 10 years in exchange for his soul. The blacksmith asks for proof that he’s the devil, and the devil changes into a fir tree and then a mouse to prove it. Satisfied, the blacksmith agrees and signs his name to the devil’s book. The devil gives him untold riches and a sack that can hold anything until the owner releases it. For 10 years, he lives a fun life, but eventually time runs out and the devil comes to collect. The smith goes with the devil back to the spot in the woods where they met. Before he hangs himself, he asks the devil to prove himself again. When the devil changes into a mouse, the smith grabs him and throws him in the sack, then beats him with a branch until he agrees to remove the smith’s name from the book. The devil is released and sent back to hell, and the blacksmith lives a long life. Upon his death, he asks for a hammer and two long nails to be placed in his coffin. He dies and goes to Heaven, but St. Peter won’t admit him due to his dealings with the devil. He goes to hell, lures out two demons, and nails them to the gate. They howl loud enough to get the devil’s attention. The devil goes up to Heaven and demands that they take the smith, who is causing a nuisance in Hell. The angels accept the deal to get rid of the devil, and the Smith lives happily in Heaven.
In many variants of the story, the blacksmith (or other deal-maker) is rejected from both Heaven and Hell, and is forced to wander the earth until Doomsday. These variants include legends of Jack o’ the Lantern and Will o’ the Wisp, doomed souls wandering the world carrying a torch lit with Hell-embers.
Full story: https://books.google.com/books?id=qr3BAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA248#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Schmidt_und_der_Teufel_(1812)
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smith_and_the_Devil
Ancient Fairy Tales: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/20/fairytales-much-older-than-previously-thought-say-researchers?CMP=fb_gu
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One Thousand and One Nights Origin: Persian/Arabic
One Thousand and One Nights is a large collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales. All stories are told within a larger framing story, in which the brave and clever Scheherazade avoids execution day after day by telling the king stories and leaving him eager to know what happens next. The text includes some early use of several complex storytelling themes including cliffhangers, embedded narrative (stories within stories, sometimes several levels deep), foreshadowing, unreliable narrator, and science fiction. Some of the most famous stories associated with the 1001 Nights, including Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, were not included in the original Arabic collection, but were added later by European translators to create a more comprehensive grouping of notable Arabic lore.
Synopsis:
King Shehriyar and his brother King Shahzeman ruled nearby kingdoms. While preparing to visit his brother, Shahzeman caught his wife in bed with a slave and killed them both. Upon reaching his brother’s kingdom, he spied Shehriyar’s wife in an orgy with 20 women and 20 slaves. Shahzeman told his brother everything and showed him the next day’s orgy. Distraught, they left the castle and wandered into the wilderness, where they came upon a genie who kept a beautiful kidnapped damsel in a box. When the genie fell asleep, the woman beckoned to the two kings and commanded them to sleep with her, or she’d wake the genie. They did, and she revealed that she’d slept with 570 men behind the genie’s back despite his power. The two kings decided that all women are unfaithful and too crafty to be stopped. Shahzeman went home, vowing to never marry again. Shehriyar ordered his Vizier to kill the unfaithful queen. Every night for the next 3 years, Shehriyar took a new wife and had the Vizier kill her the next morning. The Vizier had two daughters, Scheherazade and Dinarzade. Scheherazade, hatching a clever plan, begged her father to let her wed the king. Reluctantly, he agreed. Every night from then on (with Dinarzade’s help), Scheherazade would tell the king most of a story, and every morning the king spared her life so he could hear the rest the next night. At last, after 1001 nights had passed and she had borne him 3 children, the king officially declared that her life was spared for good.
Full Story: http://www.wollamshram.ca/1001/Payne/tnon/tnon01.htm
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights
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Sedna Origin: Eskimo/Inuit
Inuit folk tales often present warnings against dangers posed by the harsh Arctic environment. When folklore collector Knud Rasmussen asked his Inuit guide about Inuit religious beliefs, he was told: "We don't believe. We fear." Indeed, the creatures and deities of Inuit folklore are the stuff of nightmares. According to Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Canadian writer and collector of Inuit mythology: “The Inuit cosmos is ruled by no one. There are no divine mother and father figures. There are no wind gods and solar creators. There are no eternal punishments in the hereafter, as there are no punishments for children or adults in the here and now.”
Sedna is a legendary figure in Inuit lore who rules the underworld at the bottom of the sea. There are many, many variations of her story, but in all she loses her fingers and is cast into the sea, becoming the mother of all sea animals and ruler of the sea and the dead. Modern astronomers applied her name to the dwarf planet Sedna, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. This dwarf planet has the longest orbit of any known object in the solar system (about 11,400 years) and is one of the most distant known objects orbiting our sun. Some scientists speculate that it was captured by our sun from another planetary system.
Synopsis: Sedna’s story takes many forms, but the typical version of the tale runs something like this:
Sedna was a beautiful young woman who rejected the many suitors offered by her father. A handsome man from a far-off land finally arrived and won her hand, but he turned out to be a bird in disguise. Upon arriving at his home, the bird treated her terribly. Sedna begged her father to come rescue her. Her father came, but as they rode back in their kayak, the birds beat their wings and stirred up a terrible storm which tossed the kayak to and fro. Fearing for his life, Sedna’s father threw her into the sea to appease the birds. Sedna clung to the side of the boat, so her father cut off her fingers, joint by joint. The joints fell into the sea and became seals, walruses, fish, and whales. Sedna sank to the bottom of the sea and down to the land of the dead, which she now rules. When hunting sea animals, one must follow Sedna’s rules. If you break them, she will call away all the sea creatures, and a shaman must make a perilous journey to the land of the dead to comb her hair. When she is appeased, the animals will be returned to the hunters’ seas.
Full story: http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/Inuit-goddess-Sedna.htm
http://www.polarlife.ca/traditional/myth/sedna.htm
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Sedna-Eskimo.html
http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/sedna.php
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedna_(mythology)
Wiki on Inuit folklore and religion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_religion
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Too Many Captain Cooks Origin: Australia
The Australian Aboriginal people have occupied the same territory longer than any other human population. They are the direct descendants of the ancient prehistoric people who made the first ocean crossing in human history. Australian lore is some of the oldest – and most well-preserved over deep stretches of time – in the world. Flood legends are widespread in world folklore, but Australian Aboriginal folklore accurately maps the changes to the continent wrought by rising sea levels at the end of the Ice Age. Many of their legendary creatures are thought to have their origins with prehistoric now-extinct Australian megafauna (thought to be driven to extinction by the early human settlers). Australian folklore takes place in the Dreamtime, a legendary time and place outside of time and space, harkening to man’s prehistoric origins. All people come from the Dreaming before birth and return to it after death.
In the eighteenth century, a new legendary figure entered Aboriginal mythology: Captain Cook. While Captain James Cook did travel the east coast of Australia in 1770 and meet some Aboriginal people, the Captain Cook legends are not an oral history of this meeting, but rather true folk tales, taking many forms across the various tribes of the continent, about a symbolic foreign figure whose coming signals a major break to the world order.
The real Captain Cook lived millions of years ago, and is known by the ancient people and beasts of Australia. The historical Captain Cook of 200 years ago is just a descendant and a pale copy. The real Captain Cook was a lawman and one of the first people. He came from Mosquito Island with his two wives, bringing strange new objects: food, tobacco, clothes. His boat had black paddles like sting rays. Paddles did not exist before; Captain Cook made them. Aboriginal people had no possessions, but Captain Cook brought things they’d never seen: axes, steel knives, blankets, flags. Captain Cook was always working on his boat with his hammer, forever building it. One day, Satan (who lived with Captain Cook long ago) came to try to steal Captain Cook’s two wives for himself. He convinced the wives to help him hide under a heap of dirt, then jumped up behind Captain Cook when he passed and stabbed him with a devil’s bone. Captain Cook convinced him to fight hand-to-hand, since Captain Cook had no magic. They fought, and Captain Cook choked the devil to death. Captain Cook returned home with his two wives, but was stabbed with a spear by his own relatives. After Captain Cook’s death, his sons became new Captain Cooks. The first Captain Cook never made war, but the new Captain Cooks brought guns and made war, shooting and killing the Aboriginal people. These bad Captain Cooks kept coming, and took over everything. But the Aboriginal people still remember the first Captain Cook, and have respect only for him.
Full story (video of Paddy Wainburranga of the Mirraitja clan telling, singing, and painting the story): https://www.aftrs.edu.au/showcase/students-and-films/video/0_r9tt9kdv
More on Captain Cook in Aboriginal folklore: http://www.asfpg.de/17303/Jahrbuecher/JB08/jb08-ramsay.pdf
Aboriginal folklore Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_mythology
Dreamtime Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime
Several older, more traditional Aboriginal folk tales: http://www.worldoftales.com/Australian_folktales.html
Accuracy of Aboriginal folklore: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2929775/Aboriginal-folklore-oldest-accurate-oral-history-world-Stories-ancient-sea-level-rise-survived-10-000-years.html
More about Australian Aborigines:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Australians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians
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*The Wolf of Zhongshan (or Mr. Dongguo and the Wolf) Origin: China
A very popular Chinese fairy tale warning of the risks of helping the ungrateful. In modern China, “Mr. Dongguo” has become an idiom for a naïve person who gets into trouble by helping evil people. Similarly, “Wolf of Zhongshan” is an idiom for an ingrate.
Many Chinese fairy tales have common roots to the most ancient fairy tales of other regions. This story is similar in nature to Aesop’s story of The Farmer and the Viper, and the Arabian Nights story of The Fisherman and the Jinni. Many Chinese folktales have similar shared roots, such as Ye Xian, one of the oldest known variants of the Cinderella story.
Several versions of The Wolf of Zhongshan omit the judgments of the tree and the water buffalo. This very interesting element of the story critique’s man’s relationship with nature, while providing additional weight to the third judgment of the farmer.
Synopsis: A wolf fleeing the king’s hunting party came upon the Mohist scholar Mr. Dongguo. He begged Mr. Dongguo to protect him, appealing to the scholar’s belief in the principal of universal love. Dongguo agreed and hid the wolf in his bag. The king’s hunting party arrived and asked Mr. Dongguo if he had seen the wolf; Mr. Dongguo lied and said he had not. Once the hunting party was gone, the wolf came out and said he was starving, and that Mr. Dongguo must save his life by feeding him. Mr. Dongguo offered him pastries, but the wolf insisted on human flesh. He argued that it is the same principle: his life is in danger, and Mr. Dongguo is obliged to save it. Besides, the sack was tight and he almost suffocated, so the scholar now owes him a favor. After debating the point, they agreed to bring the argument to three elders to decide the case. The first elder was an old apricot tree. The tree told how it had given its fruit to humans all its life, and they now intended to chop it down for firewood. The tree sided with the wolf. The next elder was a water buffalo, who said that it had given milk and plowed fields for its master all its life, and would soon be butchered for meat. The water buffalo sided with the wolf. The third elder was a human farmer, who considered the story, then said he didn’t understand how the wolf could fit in the bag. The wolf crawled into the bag to demonstrate, and the farmer quickly sealed up the bag and beat the wolf with a hoe to within an inch of its life. Mr. Dongguo pitied the dying wolf, but a village woman came by and identified it as the wolf who dragged off her son. Finally done with pity, Mr. Dongguo took the hoe and delivered the final blow to the wolf’s head.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_of_Zhongshan
Versions of the story:
http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/etbp/files/2015/05/Dong-Guo-and-the-Wolf.pdf
http://www.sino-impression.com/History2008416111429.html
http://www.dtes.tc.edu.tw/6_Learn_Resource/English2/t29.htm
https://www.k-state.edu/elp/lab/fables_web_version.pdf
https://books.google.com/books?id=UBHQC_Iz6OMC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=dongguo+wolf&source=bl&ots=gxyx7MZiiL&sig=iX_9giYUbjTztyC3tXiCAJlXvDk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6sJ2MyLrPAhUDFT4KHel6B9YQ6AEIZTAO#v=onepage&q=dongguo%20wolf&f=false
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*Sun, Moon, and Talia/Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose
Origin: European.
The oldest known version of the story was in a French volume called Perceforest. The tale was popularized in the Italian story Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile. The story was later rewritten and sanitized in the French story Sleeping Beauty (La Belle au bois Dormant) by Charles Perrault, and later retold in Grimm’s Fairy Tales called Briar Rose.
The Sleeping Beauty story went through an interesting evolution into the form we know today. In Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia, the full arc of the story makes sense; a king rapes and impregnates Talia in her enchanted sleep, and his wife the queen learns of his infidelity and seeks revenge. In subsequent sanitized adaptations for children, the rape and adultery were glossed over and removed, and the angry wife became a wicked step-mother who is irrationally hostile to Talia and her children out of pure evil. By the time of Perrault’s telling, the tale had become a disjointed two-part story: first a tale of an enchanted sleeping beauty awakened with a Prince’s innocent kiss, followed by a barely-connected story of the Prince’s ogress mother later seeking to eat the beauty and her children. By the time the Brothers Grimm told the story as Briar Rose, the second half was omitted entirely, and the story ended with the Prince awakening the Princess.
Also notable is the change in attitude toward rape over the centuries. In Basile’s version of the story, where Talia is raped and impregnated in her sleep by the king but ends up married to him, the moral of the story is given as: “The person who is favored by fortune has good luck even while sleeping.”
Synopsis (Sun, Moon, and Talia):
On the birth of Princess Talia, wise men foretold that she would be endangered by a splinter of flax. The king banned all flax, but one day when Talia was a young woman, she saw an old woman spinning flax and asked to see it. A splinter went under her nail and she dropped down, apparently dead. In his grief, the king could not bear to bury Talia in the ground. Instead he locked her up in an abandoned castle. Years later, another king came upon the castle while falconing. He found no one in the castle but the beautiful sleeping princess who would not waken when he shook her. Overcome with lust, he took her to a bed and slept with her, then returned home to his wife the queen, forgetting about Talia. Talia, still asleep, became pregnant and gave birth to two children. They sucked on her fingers and sucked the splinter out of her finger. Talia awoke. Not knowing where the babies came from, she raised them in the castle with love, naming the children Sun and Moon. The king remembered Talia and returned to the castle. He told her what had happened, and they grew fond of each other. The king returned home, obsessed with Talia. The queen became suspicious when she heard the king murmuring in his sleep “Talia, Sun, and Moon.” She compelled the king’s secretary to give up the king’s secret on pain of death. Furious at the adultery, the queen sent a message for Talia’s children to be sent to the castle. She ordered the children to be cooked, but the cook took pity on the children and hid them with his wife, cooking two lambs in their place. The queen fed the lambs to the king, telling him “You are eating what is your own.” She then sent for Talia, and confronted her, vowing to kill her. Talia explained that she was asleep for the sex, but the queen did not believe her. Talia’s screams alerted the king, who had just returned home. The queen told the king that she knew everything and that she’d fed him his children. Enraged, the king ordered the queen, his secretary, and the cook boiled in Talia’s place. The cook protested that he’d saved the children, and the king spared him and rewarded him greatly. The king married Talia, and they lived happily, knowing that “The person who is favored by fortune has good luck even while sleeping.”
Full Story (Sun, Moon, and Talia): https://web.archive.org/web/20110607231806/http://www.public.iastate.edu/~lhagge/sun,moon.htm
Sanitized Sun, Moon, and Talia: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/29sunmoontalia1911.html
Full story (Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Old_time_stories_(Perrault,_Robinson)/The_Sleeping_Beauty_in_the_Wood
https://archive.org/stream/sleepingbeautyin00perriala#page/n0/mode/2up
Other variants: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun,_Moon,_and_Talia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty
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*The Emperor's New Clothes (Danish: Kejserens nye Klæder) Hans Christian Andersen
A vain Emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two weavers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid." The Emperor's ministers cannot see the clothes themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. Finally the weavers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor suspects the assertion is true, but continues the procession.
This tale has been translated into over 100 languages. "The Emperor’s New Clothes" was first published with "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen by C. A. Reitzel on 7 April 1837 as the third and final installment of Andersen's Fairy Tales Told for Children. The tale has been adapted to various media, including the musical stage and animated film.
Andersen's manuscript was at the printer's when he was suddenly inspired to change the original climax of the tale from the emperor's subjects admiring his invisible clothes to that of the child's cry. There are many theories about why he made this change. Most scholars agree that from his earliest years in Copenhagen, Andersen presented himself to the Danish bourgeoisie as the naïvely precocious child not usually admitted to the adult salon. "The Emperor's New Clothes" became his expose of the hypocrisy and snobbery he found there when he finally gained admission. Andersen's decision to change the ending may have occurred after he read the manuscript tale to a child, or had its source in a childhood incident similar to that in the tale. He later recalled standing in a crowd with his mother waiting to see KingFrederick VI. When the king made his appearance, Andersen cried out, "Oh, he's nothing more than a human being!" His mother tried to silence him by crying, "Have you gone mad, child?" Whatever the reason, Andersen thought the change would prove more satirical.
Traditional Danish tales as well as German and French folktales were regarded as a form of exotica in nineteenth century Denmark and were read aloud to select gatherings by celebrated actors of the day. Andersen's tales eventually became a part of the repertoire and readings of "The Emperor's New Clothes" became a specialty of and a big hit for the popular Danish actor Ludvig Phister.
Jack Zipes, in Hans Christian Andersen: The Misunderstood Storyteller, suggests that seeing is presented in the tale as the courage of one's convictions; Zipes believe this is the reason the story is popular with children. Sight becomes insight, which, in turn, prompts action.
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*The Boy Who Cried Wolf
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, "Wolf! Wolf!" and when his neighbors came to help him, laughed at them for their pains. The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror: "Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the sheep"; but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock. There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
The tale concerns a shepherd boy who repeatedly tricks nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock. When one actually does appear and the boy again calls for help, the villagers believe that it is another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf. In later English-language poetic versions of the fable, the wolf also eats the boy. This happens in Fables for five year olds (1830) by John Hookham Frere, in William Ellery Leonard's Aesop & Hyssop (1912), and in his interpretation of Aesop's Fables (1965) by Louis Untermeyer. The moral stated at the end of the Greek version is, "this shows how liars are rewarded: even if they tell the truth, no one believes them." It echoes a statement attributed to Aristotle by Diogenes Laërtius in his The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, where the sage was asked what those who tell lies gain by it and he answered "that when they speak truth they are not believed."
The story dates from Classical times, but, since it was recorded only in Greek and not translated into Latin until the 15th century, it only began to gain currency after it appeared in Heinrich Steinhöwel's collection of the fables and so spread through the rest of Europe. For this reason, there was no agreed title for the story. Caxton titles it "Of the child whiche kepte the sheep" (1484), Hieronymus Osius "The boy who lied" ("De mendace puero", 1574), Francis Barlow "Of the herd boy and the farmers" ("De pastoris puero et agricolis", 1687), Roger L'Estrange "A boy and false alarms" (1692), and George Fyler Townsend "The shepherd boy and the wolf" (1867). It was under the final title that Edward Hughes set it as the first of ten "Songs from Aesop's fables" for children's voices and piano, in a poetic version by Peter Westmore (1965).
Teachers have used the fable as a cautionary tale about telling the truth but a recent educational experiment suggested that reading "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" increased children's likelihood of lying. On the other hand, reading a book on George Washington and the cherry tree decreased this likelihood dramatically. The suggestibility and favourable outcome of the behaviour described, therefore, seems the key to moral instruction of the young. However, when dealing with the moral behaviour of adults, Samuel Croxall asks, referencing political alarmism, "when we are alarmed with imaginary dangers in respect of the public, till the cry grows quite stale and threadbare, how can it be expected we should know when to guard ourselves against real ones?"
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*Old Rinkrank
A king promises that anyone who can walk to the other side of the glass mountain without falling will be allowed to marry his daughter. One suitor decides to try the feat and the princess goes with him. It is she who falls. The mountain opens up and swallows her. Neither the king nor anyone else is able to rescue her. While in the mountain, the girl falls into the charge of a man named Rinkrank, who forces her to be his servant. She cleans his house while he climbs a ladder out of the mountain, then comes back with silver and gold. One day she tricks Rinkrank into giving her the ladder so she can leave the mountain. She goes back to her father's kingdom where she marries her suitor who is waiting for her. The king kills Rinkrank. Read the full story at the link below.
https://americanliterature.com/author/the-brothers-grimm/fairy-tale/old-rinkrank
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Rainbow Bird (An Aboriginal Folktale from Northern Australia)
A very long time ago, there was Crocodile, who lived on a big island called Australia. He was not so nice and not so courteous. He had the control of fire. Fire was a very important component of life. It was giving you light during the night and keeping you warm, when you were cold. What can you do when you deal with a mean, ill-mannered crocodile? Many animals pleaded with Crocodile, but the more they begged, the meaner Crocodile would get. One day even a little kangaroo pleaded with Crocodile “Please give us some fire.” You know what was Crocodile’s response? He exhaled some fire from his throat, scaring little kangaroo.
High up on a tree, there was a very nice Bird, who was observing everything. The bird also suffered from the lack of fire. She didn’t like eating her food raw. So, Bird also pleaded with Crocodile to give some light not only to the animals, but also to the people. “Please share some light with others” begged Bird on many occasions. Once, Crocodile blew some fire at Bird, almost burning her feathers. Another time, it snapped “What do you need the fire for?” “Well, for example, to cook our food” Bird was nicely explaining to Crocodile. “Eat it raw” retorted Crocodile. “Well, it tastes so much better, when it’s cooked” continued Bird. “I will cook you with my fire, if you don’t disappear right night” Crocodile replied angrily. So she flew away not to anger Crocodile even more.
However, Bird continued to observe Crocodile from her house in the tree. She was patiently watching and waiting. Then, one early morning, Crocodile was still half asleep, stretching and yawning. At his last yawn, he opened his jaws so wild that it took him quite some time to close them. During that time, Bird quickly flew down, snatching the fire-stick. Before Crocodile realized what has just happened, Bird was already flying up with the fire-stick.
Bird flew around each tree putting fire into tree’s core. This way a tree could be used as wood to create fire. So people could cook their food, stay warm, and light their way through darkness. This creation was very magical. It looked as Bird was creating a rainbow with the yellow fire flying around green trees and with the blue sky shining on her. “Now, the people can have fire” said Bird proudly.
Bird flew back to Crocodile and warned it “From now on, you need to stay in the swamps. Don’t you dare to come out on land or I will light you up.” The scared Crocodile now stays deep in the swamp. From time to time, he only ventures with his eyes above the water curious what is going on with the other animals on the land.
So now you know why crocodiles live in the swamps and why the hero bird was called Rainbow Bird
http://geowonderland.blogspot.com/2012/06/rainbow-bird-aboriginal-folktale.html?m=1
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The Battle of the Wind and the Rain, Philippines Folktale
One sunny day, there were some harmless clouds dotting the sky. But what you don’t know is that on those harmless clouds were resting four natural forces named Thunder, Lightning, Rain and Wind.
It didn’t take long for Wind to say “Guys are you as bored as I am?” “No” the other free forces answered immediately. “Oh, come on” said Wind “Little storm won’t harm anybody.” “I feel so fluffy on this cloud” said Lightning “Leave me alone.” Wind couldn’t stand still and stirred the pot by blowing some wind at Thunder’s cloud. “Stop it” yelled Thunder. “Ha ha ha” laughed Wind. “Hey Rain” said Wind “Do you want me to blow some wind your way, too?” “No” snapped Rain.
“Oh, come on” continued Wind “Let’s have some fun.” “Can’t you be still at least for a second?” Rain was getting more and more irritated. Wind sensing it, persisted “Let’s play a game, who is more powerful.” “Under one condition” retorted Rain, “If I win, you will never get in my way. It will mean rainy days without wind.” Wind with a smirk on his face said “But if I win, you will never ever drop another tear on this earth.” Earth without rain means nothing would survive on earth. That’s not a good promise to make. But Rain was getting so annoyed by Wind “Fine. You asked for it. I’ll show you who is more powerful.”
So Rain and Wind looked for a place to start their battle. Rain very quickly spotted a monkey on a bamboo tree. Rain knowing that a bamboo tree is very flexible; it can bend instead of breaking as other trees. She just wasn’t sure if the monkey could hold on to the tree. But this was her best chance. So she challenged Wind “If you can knock down that monkey, then you win.” “As you wish” Wind answered boldly.
Not wasting any time, Wind started blowing heavy winds. With every breath he took in, his cheeks were getting bigger and bigger, as they were about to explode. Wind was getting more and more agitated as he was realizing that he can’t break the bamboo tree. Out of exhaustion he gave up and turned to Rain “Let’s see how smart you can get.”
“No problem” answered Rain and started her magic with dark sky and grey clouds creating a heavy rain. Monkey, with her flexible arms and legs, was still holding on to the bamboo tree. It made Wind very happy, because none of them was winning. “Let’s call it even” Wind said hastily. “Not so fast” answered Rain and swiftly changed the rain into big drops that were hitting the wet monkey very hard. Exhausted monkey climbed down to look for a place she could hide from rain.
“Does it make me a winner?” asked Rain with a big smile on her face. But Wind was already gone, too upset to face Rain. Orrrr maybe he was already showing the first signs of keeping the promise that he wouldn’t get in Rain’s way, what do you think?
Now you know when strong winds come in and they are so strong that they are taking people’s houses with them, this is why people hope for rain. When Rain comes in, the Wind should go away.
http://geowonderland.blogspot.com/2012/06/battle-of-wind-and-rain-philippines.html
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Jamie Freel and the Young Lady: A Donegal Tale
Ireland
Down in Fannet, in times gone by, lived Jamie Freel and his mother. Jamie was the widow's sole support; his strong arm worked for her untiringly, and as each Saturday night came round, he poured his wages into her lap, thanking her dutifully for the halfpence which she returned him for tobacco.
He was extolled by his neighbours as the best son ever known or heard of. But he had neighbours, of whose opinion he was ignorant, neighbours who lived pretty close to him, whom he had never seen, who are, indeed, rarely seen by mortals, except on May eves and Halloweens.
An old ruined castle, about a quarter of a mile from his cabin, was said to be the abode of the "wee folk." Every Halloween were the ancient windows lighted up, and passers-by saw little figures flitting to and fro inside the building, while they heard the music of pipes and flutes. It was well known that fairy revels took place; but nobody had the courage to intrude on them.
Jamie had often watched the little figures from a distance, and listened to the charming music, wondering what the inside of the castle was like; but one Halloween he got up and took his cap, saying to his mother, "I'm awa' to the castle to seek my fortune." "What!" cried she, "would you venture there? you that's the poor widow's one son! Dinna be sae venturesome an' foolitch, Jamie! They'll kill you, an' then what'll come o' me?" "Never fear, mother; nae harm 'ill happen me, but I maun gae."
He set out, and as he crossed the potato field, came in sight of the castle, whose windows were ablaze with light, that seemed to turn the russet leaves, still clinging to the crab tree branches, into gold. Halting in the grove at one side of the ruin, he listened to the elfin revelry, and the laughter and singing made him all the more determined to proceed. Numbers of little people, the largest about the size of a child of five years old, were dancing to the music of flutes and fiddles, while others drank and feasted.
"Welcome, Jamie Freel! Welcome, welcome, Jamie!" cried the company, perceiving their visitor. The word "Welcome" was caught up and repeated by every voice in the castle. Time flew, and Jamie was enjoying himself very much, when his hosts said, "We're going to ride to Dublin tonight to steal a young lady. Will you come too, Jamie Freel?" "Ay, that will I!" cried the rash youth, thirsting for adventure.
A troop of horses stood at the door. Jamie mounted, and his steed rose with him into the air. He was presently flying over his mother's cottage, surrounded by the elfin troop, and on and on they went, over bold mountains, over little hills, over the deep Lough Swilley, over towns and cottages, when people were burning nuts, and eating apples, and keeping merry Halloween. It seemed to Jamie that they flew all round Ireland before they got to Dublin.
"This is Derry," said the fairies, flying over the cathedral spire; and what was said by one voice was repeated by all the rest, till fifty little voices were crying out, "Deny! Derry! Derry!" In like manner was Jamie informed as they passed over each town on the rout, and at length he heard the silvery voices cry, "Dublin! Dublin!" It was no mean dwelling that was to be honoured by the fairy visit, but one of the finest houses in Stephen's Green.
The troop dismounted near a window, and Jamie saw a beautiful face, on a pillow in a splendid bed. He saw the young lady lifted and carried away, while the stick which was dropped in her place on the bed took her exact form. The lady was placed before one rider and carried a short way, then given another, and the names of the towns were cried out as before.
They were approaching home. Jamie heard "Rathmullan," "Milford," "Tamney," and then he knew they were near his own house. "You've all had your turn at carrying the young lady," said he. "Why wouldn't I get her for a wee piece?"
"Ay, Jamie," replied they, pleasantly, "you may take your turn at carrying her, to be sure."
Holding his prize very tightly, he dropped down near his mother's door. "Jamie Freel, Jamie Freel! is that the way you treat us?" cried they, and they too dropped down near the door. Jamie held fast, though he knew not what he was holding, for the little folk turned the lady into all sorts of strange shapes. At one moment she was a black dog, barking and trying to bite; at another, a glowing bar of iron, which yet had no heat; then, again, a sack of wool.
But still Jamie held her, and the baffled elves were turning away, when a tiny woman, the smallest of the party, exclaimed, "Jamie Freel has her awa' frae us, but he sall hae nae gude o' her, for I'll mak' her deaf and dumb," and she threw something over the young girl. While they rode off disappointed, Jamie lifted the latch and went in.
"Jamie, man!" cried "his mother, "you've been awa' all night; what have they done on you?" "Naething bad, mother; I ha' the very best of gude luck. Here's a beautiful young lady I ha' brought you for company. "Bless us an' save us!" exclaimed the mother, and for some minutes she was so astonished that she could not think of anything else to say.
Jamie told his story of the night's adventure, ending, by saying, "Surely you wouldna have allowed me to let her gang with them to be lost forever?"
"But a lady, Jamie! How can a lady eat we'er poor diet, and live in we'er poor way? I ax you that, you foolitch fellow?"
"Weel, mother, sure it's better for her to be here nor over yonder," and he pointed in the direction of the castle.
Meanwhile, the deaf and dumb girl shivered in her light clothing, stepping close to the humble turf fire. "Poor crathur, she's quare and handsome! Nae wonder they set their hearts on her," said the old woman, gazing at her guest with pity and admiration. "We maun dress her first; but what, in the name o' fortune, hae I fit for the likes o' her to wear?"
She went to her press in "the room," and took out her Sunday gown of brown drugget; she then opened a drawer, and drew forth a pair of white stockings, a long snowy garment of fine linen, and a cap, her "dead dress," as she called it.
These articles of attire had long been ready for a certain triste ceremony, in which she would some day fill the chief part, and only saw the light occasionally, when they were hung out to air; but she was willing to give even these to the fair trembling visitor, who was turning in dumb sorrow and wonder from her to Jamie, and from Jamie back to her.
The poor girl suffered herself to be dressed, and then sat down on a "creepie" in the chimney corner, and buried her face in her hands.
"What'll we do to keep up a lady like thou?" cried the old woman. "I'll work for you both, mother," replied the son.
"An' how could a lady live on we'er poor diet?" she repeated. "I'll work for her," was all Jamie's answer. He kept his word. The young lady was very sad for a long time, and tears stole down her cheeks many an evening while the old woman spun by the fire, and Jamie made salmon nets, an accomplishment lately acquired by him, in hopes of adding to the comfort of his guest.
But she was always gentle, and tried to smile when she perceived them looking at her; and by degrees she adapted herself to their ways and mode of life. It was not very long before she began to feed the pig, mash potatoes and meal for the fowls, and knit blue worsted socks. So a year passed, and Halloween came round again. "Mother," said Jamie, taking down his cap, "I'm off to the ould castle to seek my fortune." "Are you mad, Jamie?" cried his mother, in terror; "sure they'll kill you this time for what you done on them last year." Jamie made light of her fears and went his way.
As he reached the crab tree grove, he saw bright lights in the castle windows as before, and heard loud talking. Creeping under the window, he heard the wee folk say, "That was a poor trick Jamie Freel played us this night last year, when he stole the nice young lady from us." "Ay," said the tiny woman, "an' I punished him for it, for there she sits, a dumb image by his hearth; but he does na' know that three drops out o' this glass I hold in my hand wad gie her her hearing and her speeches back again."
Jamie's heart beat fast as he entered the hall. Again he was greeted by a chorus of welcomes from the company: "Here comes Jamie Freel! welcome, welcome, Jamie!" As soon as the tumult subsided, the little woman said, "You be to drink our health, Jamie, out o' this glass in my hand." Jamie snatched the glass from her and darted to the door. He never knew how he reached his cabin, but he arrived there breathless, and sank on a stove by the fire.
"You're kilt surely this time, my poor boy," said his mother. "No, indeed, better luck than ever this time!" and he gave the lady three drops of the liquid that still remained at the bottom of the glass, notwithstanding his mad race over the potato field. The lady began to speak, and her first words were words of thanks to Jamie. The three inmates of the cabin had so much to say to one another, that long after cock-crow, when the fairy music had quite ceased, they were talking round the fire.
"Jamie," said the lady, "be pleased to get me paper and pen and ink, that I may write to my father, and tell him what has become of me." She wrote, but weeks passed, and she received no answer. Again and again she wrote, and still no answer. At length she said, "You must come with me to Dublin, Jamie, to find my father." "I ha' no money to hire a car for you," he replied, "an' how can you travel to Dublin on your foot?"
But she implored him so much that he consented to set out with her, and walk all the way from Fannet to Dublin. It was not as easy as the fairy journey; but at last they rang the bell at the door of the house in Stephen's Green. "Tell my father that his daughter is here," said she to the servant who opened the door. "The gentleman that lives here has no daughter, my girl. He had one, but she died better nor a year ago."
"Do you not know me, Sullivan?" "No, poor girl, I do not." "Let me see the gentleman. I only ask to see him." "Well, that's not much to ax; we'll see what can be done." In a few moments the lady's father came to the door. "Dear father," said she, "don't you know me?" "How dare you call me your father?" cried the old gentleman, angrily. "You are an impostor. I have no daughter."
"Look in my face, father, and surely you'll remember me." "My daughter is dead and buried. She died a long, long time ago." The old gentleman's voice changed from anger to sorrow. "You can go," he concluded. "Stop, dear father, till you look at this ring on my finger. Look at your name and mine engraved on it." "It certainly is my daughter's ring; but I do not know how you came by it. I fear in no honest way." "Call my mother, she will be sure to know me," said the poor girl, who, by this time, was crying bitterly.
"My poor wife is beginning to forget her sorrow. She seldom speaks of her daughter now. Why should I renew her grief by reminding her of her loss?" But the young lady persevered, till at last the mother was sent for. "Mother," she began, when the old lady came to the door, "don't you know your daughter?" "I have no daughter; my daughter died and was buried a long, long time ago." "Only look in my face, and surely you'll know me." The old lady shook her head. "You have all forgotten me; but look at this mole on my neck. Surely, mother, you know me now?" "Yes, yes," said the mother, " my Gracie had a mole on her neck like that; but then I saw her in her coffin, and saw the lid shut down upon her."
It became Jamie's turn to speak, and he gave the history of the fairy journey, of the theft of the young lady, of the figure he had seen laid in its place, of her life with his mother in Fannet, of last Halloween, and of the three drops that had released her from her enchantment. She took up the story when he paused, and told how kind the mother and son had been to her. The parents could not make enough of Jamie. They treated him with every distinction, and when he expressed his wish to return to Fannet, said they did not know what to do to show their gratitude.
But an awkward complication arose. The daughter would not let him go without her. "If Jamie goes, I'll go too," she said. "He saved me from the fairies, and has worked for me ever since. If it had not been for him, dear father and mother, you would never have seen me again. If he goes, I'll go too." This being her resolution, the old gentleman said that Jamie should become his son-in-law. The mother was brought from Fannet in a coach and four, and there was a splendid wedding. They all lived together in the grand Dublin house, and Jamie was heir to untold wealth at his father-in-law's death.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/abduct.html#recovered
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The Devil as Partner (Switzerland)
One evening a traveling journeyman came to an inn, and because he had been strenuously walking for several days in a row, he decided to rest a few days. It didn't bother him that his purse would not cover his costs. The innkeeper got wind of this, and one evening he said, "My good friend, you are now well rested. Be so good as to be on your way early in the morning. Here is the bill for what you owe me."
This brought both chills and fever to journeyman, who asked the innkeeper if he at least could not wait until tomorrow to be paid. "Tomorrow," he said, "is one more day." "Good," said the innkeeper, "but be careful that you don't end up in the Black Tower Inn. Around here that's where folks stay who eat and drink more than their purses will cover." As soon as the innkeeper had left, the journeyman threw himself onto his bed, but fear and worry kept him awake the entire night.
Then suddenly a black figure approached his bed, and the journeyman recognized him as the devil for sure. He said, "Fear not, my dear companion, if you'll provide the sausage, I'll bring the drinks. Lend me a hand, and I'll help you out of your predicament." "Doing what?" asked the journeyman. "Just stay here in this inn for seven years," said the devil. "I'll keep you out of debt and provide you with everything you need. Afterward you'll be even better off, and you'll have money like the leaves on trees. In return for this you must neither wash yourself, nor comb your hair, nor cut your hair or nails."
"That job is worth the pay," thought the journeyman, and he entered the agreement without further hesitation.
When the innkeeper appeared the next morning, the journeyman paid him every last penny that was due, and he still had a good surplus for future bills. The journeyman stayed at the inn for years and days, spending money as though it were sand on the beach. But he became as wild as the night, and no one wanted to look at him. One fine morning a merchant who lived nearby came to the inn. He had three strikingly beautiful daughters. He had come to tell his sorrows to the innkeeper, for he had badly miscalculated in a business deal and did not know how he was going to get out of the difficulty.
"Listen," said the innkeeper. "There's help for you here. A strange fellow has been living upstairs in my rented room for more than six years now. He lets himself go completely, and looks as bad as sin, but he has money like hay, and is a free-spender. Give him a try. Anyway, I've long noticed that he often stares at your house. Who knows, perhaps he's got his eye on one of your daughters.
This advice made good sense to the merchant. He went upstairs to the journeyman, and the two of them soon struck a deal. The journeyman would pay the merchant's debts, and the merchant would give one of his daughters to the journeyman in marriage. However, when they went to the three daughters, and the father explained the situation to them, the oldest one ran away, crying out, "Phooey, father! What sort of a monster is this that you've brought home? I'd sooner jump into water than to marry him." The second daughter did no better. She cried out, "Phooey, father! What sort of a creature is this that you've brought home? I'd sooner hang myself than to marry him."
But the third and youngest daughter said, "He must be a good man, father, if he wants to rescue you. I'll take him."
She turned her eyes to the floor and did not look at him, but he took a great liking to her, and the wedding was set.
The seven years that the devil had demanded were now past. On the morning of the wedding day a splendid coach, sparkling with gold and precious stones, drove up to the merchant's house. Out jumped the journeyman, who had now become a fine young nobleman.
The bride breathed a sigh of relief, and there was endless rejoicing. The wedding party went to the church in a long procession, for the merchant and the innkeeper had invited all their relatives. Only the happy bride's two older sisters did not participate. They angrily took their own lives, the one at the end of a rope, the other in water. And as the bridegroom was leaving the church, he saw the devil again, the first time in seven years. He was sitting on a roof, laughing with satisfaction, and saying: Partner, I did better than you,You got one, and I got two.
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0361.html#sutermeister
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The King of Sharks
A Native American Myth from Hawaii
One day, the King of Sharks saw a beautiful girl swimming near the shore. He immediately fell in love with the girl. Transforming himself into a handsome man, he dressed himself in the feathered cape of a chief and followed her to her village.The villagers were thrilled by the visit of a foreign chief. They made a great luau, with feasting and games. The King of Sharks won every game, and the girl was delighted when he asked to marry with her.
The King of Sharks lived happily with his bride in a house near a waterfall. The King of Sharks, in his human form, would swim daily in the pool of water beneath the falls. Sometimes he would stay underneath the water so long that his bride would grow frightened. But the King of Sharks reassured her, telling her that he was making a place at the bottom of the pool for their son.
Before the birth of the child, the King of Sharks returned to his people. He made his wife swear that she would always keep his feathered cape about the shoulders of their son. When the child was born, his mother saw a mark upon his back which looked like the mouth of a shark. It was then she realized who her husband had been.
The child's name was Nanave. As he grew towards manhood, Nanave would swim daily in the pool beside the house. Sometimes, his mother would gaze into the pool and see a shark swimming beneath the water. Each morning, Nanave would stand beside the pool, the feathered cloak about his shoulders, and would ask the passing fishermen where they were going to fish that day. The fisherman always told the friendly youth where they intended to go. Then Nanave would dive into the pool and disappear for hours.
The fishermen soon noticed that they were catching fewer and fewer fish. The people of their village were growing hungry. The chief of the village called the people to the temple. "There is a bad god among us," the chief told the people. "He prevents our fishermen from catching fish. I will use my magic to find him." The chief laid out a bed of leaves. He instructed all the men and boys to walk among the leaves. A human's feet would bruise the tender leaves, but the feet of a god would leave no mark.
Nanave's mother was frightened. She knew her son was the child of a god, and he would be killed if the people discovered his identity. When it came turn for the youth to walk across the leaves, he ran fast, and slipped. A man caught at the feathered cape Nanave always wore to prevent him from being hurt. But the cape fell from the youth's shoulders, and all the people could see the shark's mouth upon his back.
The people chased Nanave out of the village, but he slipped away from them and dived into the pool. The people threw big rocks into the pool, filling it up. They thought they had killed Nanave. But his mother remembered that the King of Sharks had made a place for her son at the bottom of the pool, a passage that led to the ocean. Nanave had taken the form of a shark and had swum out to join his father, the King of Sharks, in the sea. But since then, the fishermen have never told anyone where they go to fish, for fear the sharks will hear and chase the fish away.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/the_king_of_sharks.html
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Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby
A Georgia Folktale
Well now, that rascal Brer Fox hated Brer Rabbit on account of he was always cutting capers and bossing everyone around. So Brer Fox decided to capture and kill Brer Rabbit if it was the last thing he ever did! He thought and he thought until he came up with a plan. He would make a tar baby! Brer Fox went and got some tar and he mixed it with some turpentine and he sculpted it into the figure of a cute little baby. Then he stuck a hat on the Tar Baby and sat her in the middle of the road.
Brer Fox hid himself in the bushes near the road and he waited and waited for Brer Rabbit to come along. At long last, he heard someone whistling and chuckling to himself, and he knew that Brer Rabbit was coming up over the hill. As he reached the top, Brer Rabbit spotted the cute little Tar Baby. Brer Rabbit was surprised. He stopped and stared at this strange creature. He had never seen anything like it before!
"Good Morning," said Brer Rabbit, doffing his hat. "Nice weather we're having."
The Tar Baby said nothing. Brer Fox laid low and grinned an evil grin.
Brer Rabbit tried again. "And how are you feeling this fine day?"
The Tar Baby, she said nothing. Brer Fox grinned an evil grin and lay low in the bushes.
Brer Rabbit frowned. This strange creature was not very polite. It was beginning to make him mad.
"Ahem!" said Brer Rabbit loudly, wondering if the Tar Baby were deaf. "I said 'HOW ARE YOU THIS MORNING?"
The Tar Baby said nothing. Brer Fox curled up into a ball to hide his laugher. His plan was working perfectly!
"Are you deaf or just rude?" demanded Brer Rabbit, losing his temper. "I can't stand folks that are stuck up! You take off that hat and say 'Howdy-do' or I'm going to give you such a lickin'!"
The Tar Baby just sat in the middle of the road looking as cute as a button and saying nothing at all. Brer Fox rolled over and over under the bushes, fit to bust because he didn't dare laugh out loud.
"I'll learn ya!" Brer Rabbit yelled. He took a swing at the cute little Tar Baby and his paw got stuck in the tar.
"Lemme go or I'll hit you again," shouted Brer Rabbit. The Tar Baby, she said nothing.
"Fine! Be that way," said Brer Rabbit, swinging at the Tar Baby with his free paw. Now both his paws were stuck in the tar, and Brer Fox danced with glee behind the bushes.
"I'm gonna kick the stuffin' out of you," Brer Rabbit said and pounced on the Tar Baby with both feet. They sank deep into the Tar Baby. Brer Rabbit was so furious he head-butted the cute little creature until he was completely covered with tar and unable to move.
Brer Fox leapt out of the bushes and strolled over to Brer Rabbit. "Well, well, what have we here?" he asked, grinning an evil grin. Brer Rabbit gulped. He was stuck fast. He did some fast thinking while Brer Fox rolled about on the road, laughing himself sick over Brer Rabbit's dilemma.
"I've got you this time, Brer Rabbit," said Brer Fox, jumping up and shaking off the dust. "You've sassed me for the very last time. Now I wonder what I should do with you?"
Brer Rabbit's eyes got very large. "Oh please Brer Fox, whatever you do, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
"Maybe I should roast you over a fire and eat you," mused Brer Fox. "No, that's too much trouble. Maybe I'll hang you instead."
"Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
"If I'm going to hang you, I'll need some string," said Brer Fox. "And I don't have any string handy. But the stream's not far away, so maybe I'll drown you instead."
"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
"The briar patch, eh?" said Brer Fox. "What a wonderful idea! You'll be torn into little pieces!"
Grabbing up the tar-covered rabbit, Brer Fox swung him around and around and then flung him head over heels into the briar patch. Brer Rabbit let out such a scream as he fell that all of Brer Fox's fur stood straight up. Brer Rabbit fell into the briar bushes with a crash and a mighty thump. Then there was silence.
Brer Fox cocked one ear toward the briar patch, listening for whimpers of pain. But he heard nothing. Brer Fox cocked the other ear toward the briar patch, listening for Brer Rabbit's death rattle. He heard nothing.
Then Brer Fox heard someone calling his name. He turned around and looked up the hill. Brer Rabbit was sitting on a log combing the tar out of his fur with a wood chip and looking smug.
"I was bred and born in the briar patch, Brer Fox," he called. "Born and bred in the briar patch."
And Brer Rabbit skipped away as merry as a cricket while Brer Fox ground his teeth in rage and went home.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/brer_rabbit_meets_a_tar_baby.html
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Enchanted - A New Jersey Ghost Story
retold by S.E. Schlosser
I roam alone in the woods, listening to the enchanted children's voices calling to me. "Little girl, come and play," they sing over and over in my ears. Sometimes I hear them from the window of my room. They giggle and whisper words that I cannot make out. They sound like so much fun that I run outside my house as fast as I can to try to catch them. I plunge into the woods, calling back to the children, but no one answers. So I stand still as a mouse, trying to hear where they are hiding.
I find it odd that no one else can hear the children. I tell my mother about the game of hide-and-seek that they play with me, but I know she doesn't believe me. She just ruffles my hair and chuckles about my bright imagination. Papa can't hear them because he is too busy reading the paper and going to work. He says I will grow up to be a writer.
One morning, I hear the enchanted children calling to me from my porch. "Sara, come out and play." I finish my breakfast so fast that the milk spills from my cereal bowl and run outside with my blue smock still dripping wet.
"Where are you?" I call as I run into the woods. I can hear them giggling, and footsteps scampering first here, then there. I laugh aloud and follow them up hill and then down. Only my foot slips in the damp leaves and I slide too fast, too fast. I fall backward, wind-milling my arms. Then a terrible pain shoots through my head and is strikes against a rock. I see a blinding light, and then nothing. I hear my name called from very far away: "Sara, Sara!" I open my eyes and sit up, rubbing my hair.
Something isn't right, but I cannot tell at first what it is. Then I look at my hand, and realize I can see the ground right through it. That's strange, I think, standing up and brushing dead leaves from my blue smock. I look around to see who was calling my name, but I see no one in the woods with me. I notice that the trees look taller than I remember them, and the pathway is overgrown with weeds.
I make my way home slowly, hoping Mother can explain to me why I can see through my hands; why the trees are so tall. But someone else is staying at my house. Mother and Papa must have gone away on vacation. I climb up into my favorite tree to wait for their return.
After a few minutes, a lady comes outside and calls up to me. She is dressed strangely in a man's long pants and a rough work shirt. I feel shy, so I pretend to be invisible. I see the lady blink a few times and rub at her eyes, as if she can no longer see me. She goes back into the house, muttering to herself and pours herself a cup of water.
Then I hear the enchanted children calling out to me again from the woods. I slid out of the branches of the tree and run to answer them. At least they haven't changed. I can see the children clearly now, as they play hide and seek in the woods. I join their games, laughing sometimes when one of the boys tweaks me on the ear or when one of the girls compliments me on my dress and blue smock. This is fun!
But sometimes the enchanted children go away to another place, a place I can't follow. When they vanish, I wander back to my house, wondering when Mother and Papa will come home. Or I play in the alley by the woods, though I don't like it when strangers try to talk to me.
One day when the children go away, I follow my nose to the door of a pretty lady who is baking cookies. I peek into the kitchen window and smile at her. How I want one of those cookies! The lady looks out the window and sees me. She smiles and then comes to the front door. I know she is going to offer me a cookie, so I scamper to the door and wait eagerly for it to open. When it does, I grin at the pretty lady, but she looks right through me, a puzzled frown on her face. Maybe she is blind, I think and so I say politely: "May I come in?" right into her ear. The lady gives a start, backs hastily inside the house and shuts the door in my face. No cookies for me then. I sigh and go back into the woods to wait for the enchanted children.
When the children come to the woods, I am happy again and we play for days and days. We sing and we dance and the boys play tricks and we climb all the trees and fall out of them. But they only come during the day. The nights are lonely, and sometimes I wait for hours and hours during the day before they come. I like to go to the pretty lady's house and sit on the half-wall while I wait. Maybe one day she will offer me a cookie. The lady's grown-up daughter passes me sometimes on her way in and out of the house. Once the daughter asked me where I lived, but I was too shy to speak to her. The daughter put some pretty metal cats near the wall where I like to sit. I play with them when I feel lonely and no one else is around.
It is beautiful here in the woods, and I like playing with the enchanted children. But often I wish Mother and Papa would come home. I miss them so much. But they never do.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/enchanted.html
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Arkansas Traveler - An Arkansas Tall Tale
retold by S. E. Schlosser
One rainy autumn, a traveler got lost in the mountains of Arkansas. He was tired and hungry, and so was his horse. Night was approaching. All at once, he saw a cabin. A squatter sat on the porch fiddling the same tune over and over.
The traveler asked the squatter for food and water for himself and his horse. The squatter replied: "Ain't got a thing in the house."
The traveler asked where the next house was. The squatter said: "Dunno. I ain't never been there."
The frustrated traveler asked if he could spend the night. The squatter replied: "House leaks. My wife and me sleep on the only dry spot."
"Why don't you mend the roof?" asked the traveler.
"Can't mend the roof on a rainy day."
The whole time, the squatter continued to fiddle the same tune, over and over.
The traveler snapped: "Why don't you finish that tune?"
"Can't get the turn of the tune."
The traveler took the fiddle, played the turn of the tune and finished it.
"Stranger," said the squatter, "Grab yerself a chair and set down. Sal, cut a hunk outta that deer and cook it. Son, get the whisky and put the horse in the shed. You jest play away, stranger. Tonight, you can sleep on the dry spot!"
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/arkansas_traveler.html
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Apollo and Daphne
Daphne was a beautiful nymph and the daughter of the river god, Peneus. She longed to remain free and unmarried and prayed to her father to help her remain so. Apollo was the God of sun, music and knowledge. One day, he foolishly mocked Cupid for playing with bows and arrows - weapons which he believed should only be handled by experienced warriors like himself.
Cupid took revenge upon Apollo by striking him with one of his arrows the moment Apollo feasted his eyes upon the nubile and beautiful Daphne. This made him fall in love with her instantly. Apollo went into pursuit mode immediately, not realizing that he just fell in love with a girl who wanted to remain free forever. This was Cupid's cruel revenge.
Apollo chased after Daphne relentlessly. She teased him by flirting with him, only adding more fuel to his fire. One day, Apollo began running after Daphne and while running away, Daphne prayed to her father to turn her into a laurel tree. Just as Apollo caught up with her, her lower body began transforming into the bark and her arms into the branches. The story goes on to say that Apollo worshiped the laurel tree for the rest of his life.
The moral of the story is a commentary on pursuing pleasure for its own sake: "Those who love to pursue fleeting forms of pleasure, in the end find only leaves and bitter berries in their hands."
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THE GOLDEN KEY By the BROTHERS GRIMM
One winter when a deep snow lay upon the ground, a poor boy had to go out to fetch wood with his sled. Once he’d gathered the wood and loaded it up, he was so frozen with cold that he decided to make a fire to warm himself a little before going home.
He began to scrape away the snow, and as he cleared a patch of earth he found a little golden key. He thought for a moment, and figured that where there’s a key there must also be a lock. So he dug around in the hard soil until he found a little iron box. “If only the key fits!” he thought. “There are sure to be precious treasures inside the box. “ He looked and looked, but couldn’t fine a keyhole. At last he found one so small he could hardly see it. He tried the key, and luckily it fit. He began turning it in the keyhole.
And now we’ll just have to wait until he has unlocked it all the way and raised the lid. Then we’ll discover what wonderful things are tucked away inside.
Wikipedia: Since the second part of the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1815, The Golden Key was always in the last place; since the edition before the last one, in 1850, it was in place 200. According to their notes, the Brothers Grimm got it from Hessen (probably from Marie Hassenpflug). They mention a "similar fairy tale in the Deutsches Sprachbuch von Adolf Gutbier" (German Language Book by Adolf Gutbier), about two chickens who find a little key and a little box in the dung. The box contains a short piece of fur made of red silk, and "if it had been longer, the fairy tale would have become longer, too."
A quote by Noel Daniel, Editor of “The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm”: The ending of the final tale seems to say, “You too, are a part of the process. Take it from here. “
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Odin and the Mead of Inspiration (Norway)
At the end of the war between the Æsir and the Vanir, all of the gods and goddesses sealed their truce by spitting into a great jar. Rather than letting this spittle be wasted, the gods decided to fashion a man from the spittle. His name was Kvasir, and he was so steeped in the knowledge of the nine worlds that he became renowned for his ability to answer people's questions. No one could ask him a question to which he did not know the answer.Kvasir traveled widely teaching people his knowledge. He came to be the guest of two dwarves, Fjalar and Galar. Seeking a word in private with Kvasir, they brought him to a room and killed him. The dwarves drained out all his blood, catching it into two large jars and a cauldron. To the blood, they added honey, which formed a divine mead. Anyone who drank it became a wise man or a poet.
Fjalar and Galar kept the mead for themselves. When the Æsir sent a messenger asking about Kvasir, he was told that the wise man had choked on his own learning and died. Later, when the giant Gilling and his wife visited the dwarves, the brothers drowned Gilling and crushed his wife under a millstone.
When Gilling and his wife failed to return home, their son Suttung went in search of them. Suttung seized Fjalar and Galar and carried them far out into the ocean to a small rock rising just above the waves. Suttung pointed out that the rising tide would soon cover the rock, and that it was much too far back to the shore for the dwarves to swim.
Fjalar and Gilling begged for quarter. In exchange for their lives, they gave Suttung the three containers of mead. Suttung took the precious liquid directly to his home near the mountain Hnitbjörg. Here, he created a chamber deep within the mountain, and into it, he placed the two jars and the cauldron of mead for safekeeping. Suttung instructed his daughter Gunnloð to guard the mead by day and by night.
Word got back to the Æsir about what had happened to Kvasir and about the treasure of the mead. Óðin decided that he would journey to Jötenheim to recover the mead. He disguised himself as a man, and called himself Bölverkr (grief worker).
Bölverkr traveled to Jötenheim and eventually came to a valley where nine men were working in a field, scything grass. Bölverkr could see that the work was slow going because the scythes were not sharp. Striking up a conversation, Bölverkr learned that the men worked for Baugi, the brother of Suttung. Bölverkr then offered to sharpen their scythes. They gratefully accepted and were amazed to find how much quicker the work went after Bölverkr had finished his sharpening. They offered to buy Bölverk's whetstone from him.
Bölverkr responded by throwing the whetstone high into the air. The men all jostled for position to catch the whetstone and, turning as one, they all cut each other's throats with their scythes and fell dead. Bölverkr caught the whetstone as it fell, and continued on his journey.
That evening, Bölverkr made an appearance at the farm of Baugi, the giant, and asked for hospitality. Baugi was not in a pleasant mood, describing how his nine workmen had killed each other, and he despaired of finding replacements that late in the season. Bölverkr offered to do the work of all nine men for the rest of the season, providing that Baugi helped him obtain a drink of the mead of poetry from his brother, Suttung. Baugi said that he was not in a position to grant such a request. In the end, Bölverkr agreed to work for Baugi for the rest of the season, for which Baugi would ask his brother for a drink of mead for Bölverkr.
Bölverkr did the work of nine men and more for the rest of the summer. At the end of the summer, Bölverkr and Baugi approached Suttung and asked for a drink of mead. Suttung refused outright.
Bölverkr went to work on Baugi to enlist his help in tricking Suttung out of the mead. Eventually, Baugi agreed to help. Together, they went to the mountain Hnitbjörg. Bölverkr pulled out an auger and directed Baugi to use it to drill through the side of the mountain into the chamber where the mead was stored. Eventually, Baugi announced that he had broken through into the chamber. Bölverkr went up to the hole, and blew into it. Stone chips blew back into his face, proving that the hole didn't penetrate the stone. Realizing that Baugi had lied to him and was trying to cheat him, Bölverkr harshly set Baugi back to work.
A second time, Baugi announced he had breached the mountain. This time, Bölverk's breath of air blew the stone chips into the mountain, so he knew Baugi was right. Immediately, Bölverkr turned himself into the shape of a snake, and slithered into the hole. Baugi tried to skewer the snake with the auger, but he was too late.
Once inside the chamber, Bölverkr returned his shape to that of a man. He presented himself to Gunnloð, Suttung's daughter, who guarded the mead while sitting on a stool of solid gold. But at the sight of Bölverkr, Suttung's warnings to guard the mead left Gunnloð's head. Bölverk's beguiled her, and for three days, they lay together in the chamber in the heart of the mountain.
At the end of the three days, Gunnloð was ready to give Bölverk anything he desired. He asked for three drinks of the precious mead. In his first swallow, he emptied the first big jar. The second swallow emptied the second jar. And Bölverk's last swallow emptied the cauldron.
With all of the divine mead held in his mouth, Óðin changed himself into an eagle and flew away, heading for Ásgarð. When Suttung saw him, he, too, changed himself into an eagle and gave chase. They flew across Jötenheim, across the mountains, towards Ásgarð. When the Æsir saw them, they put out containers in the courtyard. As Óðin flew over the courtyard, he spat the mead out into the containers. Suttung's mead was safely stored away. Óðin gave it to the Æsir, and occasionally he gives it to those men who are skilled at composing poetry.
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Nihts'iil - Alaska
During the spring, Upper Tanana Athabascans used to gather nihts'iil, which are little roots that muskrats find and hide in their caches. One day a little girl found one of these caches on a lake and took out all the nihts'iil to take home to her family. She was very excited and very proud of herself when she got home with the tasty food.
"Mom!" she said, "I found a muskrat cache! Here's some nihts'iil."
"You've got to pay for the nihts'iil, " her mother said when she saw the pile of roots. "Don't forget to leave something in the cache for the muskrat."
"Oh, Mom," her daughter answered, "who would ever know! The muskrat wouldn't know that I was the one that took the nihts'iil. What does it matter?"
"Yes," her mother answered. "The muskrat will know. You've got to pay for what you take. The muskrat worked hard to fill his cache, and you shouldn't empty it without paying for it."
The daughter still wasn't convinced. "What happens if I don't pay for it?" she asked. The mother answered, "If you don't pay, the muskrat will go into our cache, and take out all our meat."
The little girl went back to the cache and left a bit of cloth for the muskrat.
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First Salmon Story - Alaska
The Tanaina Athabascans used to tell a story about a salmon. It goes something like this:
One spring day when it was just about time for the salmon run to begin, a rich Tanaina man put out his fish trap as he always did at that time of year. He hoped to catch enough salmon to last his family for the whole year. The man told his daughter not to go near the fish trap.
His daughter was curious. She wondered why her father did not want her to see the trap. So, instead of obeying him, she walked down to the river toward the trap. "Ill be back in a little while," she called to her father as she walked away.
When the girl got down to the river, she went straight to the trap. A big king salmon was swimming around in the water, and she started talking to him.
They talked and talked, and before she knew what was happening, she had turned into a salmon herself! She slid into the water and disappeared with the big king salmon.
The girl's father looked everywhere for his daughter. He could not find her. Every day he called her and searched for her, but she never returned.
The next year, when the salmon run was about to start again, the rich man set out his fish trap as usual. The first time he checked it, he saw that it was fill with many beautiful salmon. The man threw them all out on the grass, and began cleaning them. He left the smallest fish for last.
Finally, all but the last small fish had been cleaned. The man turned to pick up the little salmon --and saw that, where the fish had been, there was now a little boy!
The man walked around the boy, staring at him. He walked around him three times. And finally, the third time, he knew why the boy looked familiar. He looked just like the man's lost daughter. The man suddenly knew that this young boy was his grandson, the son of his missing daughter.
The boy finally spoke to his grandfather. He told him all the things he should do to show his respect for the salmon. He told the man how to cut the sticks to dry the salmon, and how to be careful not to drop the salmon on the ground while they were being dried. And he told the man that each year, when the first salmon of the year was caught, the people should hold a ceremony for that salmon. They must wash themselves, and dress up in their finest clothes. They must find a weed near timberline, and burn it. And they must clean and cook the first fish without breaking its backbone. The insides must be thrown back into the water.
The boy explained that if the man and his people did all these things, they would have a good year, and would catch many salmon. But if they did not follow the rules, the salmon would never return to them.
The Tanaina used this story to explain to their children how the First Salmon Ceremony got started and why it was performed each year in the springtime. The people did everything the young salmon-boy had told his grandfather to do.
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*The Stone by the Door - Morocco
Once upon a time, there was a man who made so much money that he could not even count it. He wanted only to protect himself and his beloved son. But alas, all his money could not stave off mortality. The man grew gravely ill, and when he understood that he would die, he called his son to his side.
"I am leaving you a fortune," he told the boy, "and you must guard against those who are untrue. When you decide it is time to marry, go to my oldest friend and ask him to find you a bride. He will find you the bride God has chosen." The young man promised he would do as his father requested.
Soon after this, his father died. Time passed, and as it did, the young man began to long for love. And when he decided he wished to marry, he fulfilled his promise and visited his father's friend to seek his advice. The friend told him he would find the perfect bride. A few weeks passed until the friend at last found a beautiful, wise and trustworthy woman. The young man was very happy to hear this, and so they began to make arrangements for a grand wedding.
The day before the wedding, the father's friend said to the young man, "In order to discover whether God has chosen this woman for you, you must go to her room tonight. You will find a stone outside her door. If you can move the stone, you'll know that she is the chosen one. If you fail to move the stone, you must send her back home."
That night, the young man went to the young woman's door, and from inside he heard a voice singing a beautiful song. Right away he knew this must be the woman for him, for the song sounded like one he remembered from his childhood. His heart raced with excitement as he peered through the half-opened door and saw a lovely woman dressed in silk robes. She was elegant and reminded him of his late mother. As he recalled the tenderness he had felt in his mother's arms, he reached down to move the stone. The stone was not too large, but when he tried to move it from the door, he could not budge it, not even an inch. He understood that this bride would have to return to her family. He was sad because he was so sure she was the one for him.
And so the father's friend arranged a new match. Once again a wedding date was set, and the second bride came to the house. Once more the father's friend told the young man what he had to do: "There will be a stone outside her door. If you can move it, you will know this is the wife God has chosen for you." As the young man approached the door, once again he heard the familiar song, but this time it was a harp playing it. When he peered into the room, he saw a woman just as beautiful as the one who came before her. Her fingers danced across the harp strings, and when she began to dance, he knew she had to be the bride for him. He reached down to move the stone. Once again, he could not move it even an inch. His heart grew heavy with sadness, and again the bride returned to her family.
For a third time, the father's friend arranged a bride, though by now the young man was feeling discouraged. He knew this woman would be beautiful, of course, and naturally she would be wise and kind. Of that he was certain. But what if he could not move the stone again? Must he live forever alone?
Thinking these sad thoughts, he moved slowly toward the bride's room. And for a third time, he heard that song of his childhood, the song that reminded him of all the friends he had ever known, of days playing in sunny fields, of nights dreaming under the stars, of climbing trees and swimming rivers and dancing among friends. How much he had enjoyed those days of childhood. How much he had loved his friends.
And this time when he looked into the room, he saw a woman dressed in peasant clothing, her hair long and dark and soft as silk. Her eyes were alight with playfulness, and she was sewing a beautiful quilt as she sang. As he listened, the young man realized that all three brides could have been the same woman -- beautiful, wise, enticing and gentle, someone to love and someone who would be a friend. But when he reached down to move the stone, once again he could not budge it even an inch.
He was about to weep when suddenly he saw a shadow slip through the door, and he heard a gentle voice saying, "Let me help you." The woman reached down, and he reached too, and together they easily moved the stone aside.
The young man knew he had found the bride God intended, and she knew, too, that this was the man God intended her to love. But they understood something else: Finding a loved one was not enough. They realized that they must always work together to move the stones that blocked the doorways leading to a rich and happy life.
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The Mango Teacher - Thailand
Once upon a time, a young man named Sunan was traveling aimlessly when he came upon an old beggar at the side of a lonely road. Sunan's heart went out to the man. He stopped and said, "Sir, I have little, but I wish to share my bread and water with you. Eat heartily."
The beggar ate, and when he was finished, Sunan bowed and prepared to leave, but the man seized his hand. "Wait, I wish to thank you properly for your generosity. I offer you a magic spell that will be useful to you." Sunan was skeptical, but he could not say no, and so the beggar gave him the magic words. "Say these words and you will grow any kind of fruit you wish at any time. But take care to follow all my directions."
He went on to explain that Sunan must be sure to carry a bowl of water when he recited the spell, and he must blow on it afterward and pour the water on the root of the tree. "If you know this spell, why are you starving?" Sunan asked, but the man simply closed his eyes and said this: "Please, just listen. Respect my wishes for the rest of your life, or the spell will be broken." "I will," Sunan said, and he went on his way.
A few days passed when Sunan entered a great city, and as he was walking down the main street, he heard trumpets sounding and men shouting, "The king is making an announcement today!" He hurried to follow the crowd to the steps and found the king's wise men standing there. "The king wishes to give a reward to anyone who can bring the queen a mango."
This was late autumn, and everyone knew there were no mangos growing anywhere, but when Sunan heard these words, he thought of the beggar and his magic spell. "I will find a mango for the queen!" he cried. The wise men smiled. "Very well," they said. "And where will you find this mango?"
Sunan said, very calmly, "Take me to the palace garden, and bring me a bowl of water, and I shall have a mango for the queen." The wise men shook their heads, but what could they do? They led Sunan to the palace garden, and there they gave him a bowl of water. Sunan recited the spell, and just as the beggar had instructed him, he blew on the water.
A moment later, a mango tree in the garden began to bloom with fresh, ripe fruit. Sunan was careful to pour the water over the roots.
The wise men were amazed, the queen was overjoyed, and she and the king handsomely rewarded Sunan. Delighted, he no longer needed to wander, and so he settled in the city and was frequently a guest at the palace. Whenever the queen wanted a mango, she turned to Sunan, and always he was able to recite his spell and satisfy the queen's desire.
One day the king said to Sunan, "Who taught you this spell?"
Sunan felt suddenly shy; he did not want to confess that he had learned from a poor beggar. It seemed beneath him. And so he said, "My teacher was a holy man who lives deep in the forest. He taught me many things."
A few days later the king's servants came to see Sunan. "The queen requests more mangos," they said, and Sunan hurried to the palace.
As always, he walked to the garden, lifted his bowl of water, and recited the magical spell. The queen eagerly waited for the fruit to appear on the tree, but nothing happened. "Why are there no mangos growing?" the king shouted at Sunan.
Sunan looked at the ground, ashamed to admit the truth to the king. Now he understood that he had not kept his promise to his teacher. He had neglected to honor and respect him, and he would pay for it. "I lied to you," he told the king. "It wasn't a holy man who taught me the spell. It was only an old beggar, and he has taken my power from me because of my lie." "No one lies to me!" the king cried. He ordered Sunan to return all the gifts he and the queen had bestowed on him and commanded him to leave the city.
Once again Sunan was only a poor wanderer, but he had learned a lesson he would never forget. Now as he traveled, he looked for teachers in everyone and found wisdom in the most surprising people. After that day he remembered, always, to honor every teacher he met.
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Secrets of the River - A Persian LegendOnce upon a time, the three princes of Serendip told their father that they wished to travel. They sought wisdom in the world, but they also wished to travel like ordinary men.
"We want to see the world as it is," they told the king, "without all of our privileges."
They set off astride three old horses, taking only a sack of clothing, a pouch of water and a basket of bread. On their travels they encountered many troubles, but they always found their way back to the road.
One day, they heard the sound of roaring water, and wondered if that was the ocean. They headed toward the sound and soon came to a wild river overflowing its banks. Standing there was a man dressed in rich, flowing silks, and he was raising his hands to the heavens, cursing and weeping at the top of his lungs.
The princes called out to the man. "What happened, sir? Can we help you?"
The man turned and the princes saw that his face was streaked with tears. He was so full of sorrow that they felt their own hearts break. They almost wept as he wailed, "It is a disaster! I am ruined. I am cursed!"
The brothers dismounted and came closer. "What happened?" the eldest asked.
"We may be able to help," said the second prince.
"We will do all we can," said the youngest.
"No one can help me!" the man cried as he cast his gaze upon the river. He pointed at the whitecaps on the water and said, "There lies my fortune. I am a merchant, and I have traveled all over the world collecting treasures. I built my palace on the riverbank and planned to live in peace, but the river has destroyed all that! Once upon a time, I loved this river, but it has turned into my enemy."
The eldest prince smiled. "Sir, this might be a blessing."
The merchant looked at the prince as if he were a madman and asked, "What can you mean? I've lost everything I owned!"
The second prince smiled and said, "We have been learning to seek the good in misfortune, sir. Often if you can do that, you will find even greater fortune."
"Yes," said the youngest. "Trust us, we are certain your good fortune will exceed your wildest dreams if you pay close attention."
And with that they rode off again.
They had traveled for many years when one day, as they were heading back toward home, they happened past the same river. The eldest prince said, "Isn't this the place where we met the sad merchant and the raging river?"
"It is," said the second prince, and the youngest agreed. Just at that moment a man ran up to them and called, "Sirs, please come to my master's home. He wishes to offer you a place to rest and take refreshment. He looks after everyone who passes by."
The princes agreed and followed the man to a palace atop a high cliff overlooking the river. There at the palace door was the very man they had met so many years before. This time his smile was radiant and his eyes were as bright as the stars.
"Come in, fellows!" he said as he immediately recognized the three princes. "I have prepared a dinner for you, and I have a story to tell you."
He showed them to their quarters with lovely beds and baths. After they had washed, he invited them to sit with him over a glorious meal, and there he told the tale.
"I have you to thank for this good fortune," he explained to the princes.
The day they had left the riverbank, the merchant thought about all they had said. After he had stopped wailing, he began to think about how much he had always loved the river. He remembered swimming and fishing and whispering his secrets to the water when he was just a boy. Back then, the river had been his best friend. When the river spoke to him, he always listened.
But as he grew older, he forgot how to quiet his mind and heart. He forgot to ask the river what it needed and wanted. He forgot to listen to what the river had to say.
So when the princes were gone, he sat down and he began to listen. After some time, he began to hear the river speaking again.
"Lift up your eyes and you will see," the river said.
The man looked up, and there it was: This cliff with the beautiful view. He knew that was where he would build his home.
He and his workers climbed to the top of the cliff to prepare the ground. But as they were digging, they came across a field of gems -- rubies, amethysts, diamonds and sapphires all glittering under the sun.
The merchant nodded as he remembered. "The river brought me even greater wealth," he told the brothers. "Just as you promised, I found even greater fortune."
"Ever since that day, I invite everyone who travels through this kingdom to stay in my home. I offer food and clothing. I help everyone feel renewed and refreshed, and everyone brings a treasure. Some people bring objects. But most of all, people bring wisdom and company and stories, the most precious treasures of all."
The brothers of Serendip nodded. They were not surprised to hear this happy tale.
"I am blessed," the merchant said, "and now I know how true your words were. Misfortune brought me my greatest fortune."
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Division of Two Tribes - Shoshone and Comanche Legend
When white men first penetrated the Western wilderness of America they found the tribes of Shoshone and Comanche at odds, and it is a legend of the springs of Manitou that their differences began there. This "Saratoga of the West," nestling in a hollow of the foot-hills in the shadow of the noble peak of Pike, was in old days common meeting-ground for several families of red men. Councils were held in safety there, for no Indian dared provoke the wrath of the Manitou whose breath sparkled in the "medicine waters." None? Yes, one. For, centuries ago a Shoshone and a Comanche stopped here on their return from a hunt to drink.
The Shoshone had been successful; the Comanche was empty handed and ill tempered, jealous of the other's skill and fortune. Flinging down the fat deer that he was bearing homeward on his shoulders, the Shoshone bent over the spring of sweet water, and, after pouring a handful of it on the ground, as a libation to the spirit of the place, he put his lips to the surface.
It needed but faint pretext for his companion to begin a quarrel, and he did so in this fashion: "Why does a stranger drink the water at the spring that his children may drink it undefiled. I am Ausaqua, chief of Shoshone, and I drink at the head-water. Shoshone and Comanche are brothers. Let them drink together."
"No. The Shoshone pays tribute to the Comanche, and Wacomish leads that nation to war. He is chief of the Shoshone as he is of his own people."
"Wacomish lies. His tongue is forked, like the snake's. His heart is black. When the Great Spirit made his children he said not to one, 'Drink here,' and to another, 'Drink there,' but gave water that all might drink."
The other made no answer, but as Ausaqua stooped toward the bubbling surface Wacomish crept behind him, flung himself against the hunter, forced his head beneath the water, and held him there until he was drowned. As he pulled the dead body from the spring the water became agitated, and from the bubbles arose a vapor that gradually assumed the form of a venerable Indian, with long white locks, in whom the murderer recognized Waukauga, father of the Shoshone and Comanche nation, and a man whose heroism and goodness made his name revered in both these tribes. The face of the patriarch was dark with wrath, and he cried, in terrible tones, "Accursed of my race! This day thou hast severed the mightiest nation in the world. The blood of the brave Shoshone appeals for vengeance. May the water of thy tribe be rank and bitter in their throats."
Then, whirling up an elk-horn club, he brought it full on the head of the wretched man, who cringed before him. The murderer's head was burst open and he tumbled lifeless into the spring, that to this day is nauseous, while, to perpetuate the memory of Ausaqua, the Manitou smote a neighboring rock, and from it gushed a fountain of delicious water. The bodies were found, and the partisans of both the hunters began on that day a long and destructive warfare, in which other tribes became involved until mountaineers were arrayed against plainsmen through all that region.
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*Pecos Bill - A Legend of Frontier Spirit
Growing out of the imagination of southwestern cowboys during America's westward expansion, Pecos Bill personifies the frontier virtues of courage, strength, and humor. The mythical folk hero, first written about in 1917 by Edward O’Reilly, is said to have been based on tales told by range hands at the end of a long day of tending cattle, and is in the same spirit of other "Big" characters like Paul Bunyan or John Henry. O'Reilly would publish these writings in the 1923 book "Saga of Pecos Bill". Personifying the frontier spirit of the American West, the legendary "man” displayed superhuman feats that grew with each telling as more writers would add their own embellishments in later writings. Ol' Bill even made it to the big screen in Disney movies, including 1995's "Tall Tale" with Patrick Swayze.
As the legend goes, Born in the 1830’s, Pecos Bill was the youngest of eighteen children of a Texas pioneer, and was so tough even as a baby, that he used a bowie knife as a teething ring and made wild animals his playmates as a toddler. When the boy was very young, he fell out of his parents’ wagon as they were crossing the Pecos River and was swept away by the current. Rescued by coyotes, the boy was raised by the wild animals.
Years later when he was found by his brother, living with the coyotes, his sibling had to convince him that he wasn’t a coyote himself. When Bill returned to civilization he became an excellent cowhand, credited with inventing the branding iron, the lasso, cowboy songs to soothe the cattle, and many other tips and tricks. He also appeared in other tales as a railroad man, a buffalo hunter, and an oilfield worker.
But bigger than his work ethic and skills were the tales of phenomenal feats such as riding a cyclone, roping an entire herd at one time, using a rattlesnake as a whip, and harnessing the Rio Grande River to water his ranch. He was so tough that he often rode a mountain lion rather than his favorite horse, the Widow-Maker, whose favorite food was Dynamite.
Somewhere along the line, ole’ Pecos Bill met and courted a woman named Slue-Foot Sue, who he found riding down the Rio Grande River on a catfish as large as a whale. During their courtship, Pecos Bill did his legendary best to impress her by shooting out all the stars from the sky except one, the Lone Star. He wins her over, but Slue-Foot insisted on riding Widow Maker, who didn't like the fact he had to compete with her for Bill's attention. Widow Maker bounces her so hard she keeps bouncing to the moon. Depends on the story you're reading as to whether Slue-Foot Sue ever stopped bouncing.
There are many more tall tales of Pecos Bill, including one version of his ultimate demise. Story goes that as Bill was getting older, a man from Boston came down to New Mexico for a visit. The Yankee thought himself a bit of a cowboy, so he gussied up in a mail order suit that included lizard skin boots, new pair of blue jeans, shiny brass belt buckle and a clean as a whistle 10 gallon hat. When Pecos Bill saw the Yankee swagger into a bar, ol' Bill laid down on the sidewalk and laughed himself to death.
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No Mockingbirds on Fridays - African American Folktales (Zora Neale Hurston)
"Well," said Big Sweet. "Nobody never sees no mockin' bird on Friday. They ain't on earth dat day."
"Well, if they ain't on earth, where is they?"
"They's all gone to hell on Friday with a grain of sand in they mouth to help out they friend." She continued:
Once There was a man and he was very wicked. He useter rob and steal and he was always in a fight and killin' up people. But he was awful good to birds and mockin' birds was his favorite. This was a long time ago before de man first started to buildin' de Rocky Mountains. Well, ' way after while somebody kilt him, and being he had done lived so bad, when he died he went straight to hell. De birds all hated it mighty bad when they seen him in hell, so they tried to git him out. But the fire was too hot so they give up--all but de mockin' birds. They come together and decided to tote sand until they squenwhiched de fire in hell. So they set a day and they all agreed on it. Every Friday they,totes sand to hell. And that's how come nobody don't never see no mockin' bird5 on Friday.
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How Snakes got their Poison, and their Tail - African American Folktales (Zora Neale Hurston)
Well, when God made de snake he put him in de bushes to ornament de ground. But things didn't suit de snake so one day he got on de ladder and went up to see God. "Good mawnin', God." "How do you do, Snake?" "Ah ain't so many, God, you put me down there on my belly in de dust and everything trods upon me and kills off my generations. Ah ain't got no kind of protection at all." God looked off towards immensity and thought about de subject for awhile, then he said, "Ah didn't mean for nothin' to be stompin' you snakes lak dat. You got to have some kind of a protection. Here, take dis poison and put it in yo' mouf and when they tromps on you, protect yo' self. "
So de snake took de poison in his mouf and went on back. So after awhile all de other varmints went up to God.
"Good evenin', God." "How you makin' it, varmints?"
"God, please do somethin' 'bout dat snake. He' layin' in de bushes there wid poison in his mouf and he's strikin' everything dat shakes de bush. He's killin' up our generations. Wese skeered to walk de earth."
So God sent for de snake and tole him:
"Snake, when Ah give you dat poison, Ah didn't mean for you to be hittin' and killin' everything dat shake de bush. I give you dat poison and tole you to protect yo'self when they tromples on you. But you killin' everything dat moves. Ah didn't mean for you to do dat."
De snake say, "Lawd, you know Ah'm down here in de dust. Ah ain't got no claws to fight wid, and Ah ain't got no feets to git me out de way. All Ah kin see is feets comin' to tromple me. Ah can't tell who my enemy is and who is my friend. You gimme dis protection in my mouf and Ah uses it."
God thought it over for a while then he says:
"Well, snake, I don't want yo' generations all stomped out and I don't want you killin' everything else dat moves. Here take dis bell and tie it to yo' tail. When you hear feets comin' you ring yo' bell and if it's yo' friend, he'll be keerful. If it's yo' enemy, it's you and him."
So dat's how de snake got his poison and dat's how come he got rattles.
Biddy, biddy, bend my story is end. Turn loose de rooster and hold de hen.
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