Reading Notes: Turkish Fairytales, Part B

 

 

Storyteller
Source: blackgoldsun

Title: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales
Author: Ignacz Kunos
Link: Here

Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife - The girl's fate is with a dead person. The bird kept threatening her fate, and her mother kept demanding escalating protection.

There's the 40 day importance again. Weight of prayer and dedication.

This story confused me a bit. Two women, two wives, then the journey to be worthy of one.

Then as the story progressed it quickly became clear that the "Arab woman" tricked the cook who made the effort to soothe the prince when he was a boy.

The gifts he gave her revealed her self-introspective truth. The false woman was killed and they were married.

The Imp of the Well - there is so much empathis on the cat.

The cat — oh, its eyes! The cat — oh, its nose! The cat — oh, its mouth! The cat — oh, its forelegs! The cat oh, its hind-legs! The cat — oh, its throat! The cat — oh, its ears! The cat — oh, its whiskers! The cat — oh, its long tail!

Oof. The woodcutter selected the imp's promise of a princess over his wife.

Then the imp tortured another princess --- and the woodcutter was faced with repercussion and love.

Until he brought up the idea of his ex-wife.

The imp escaped in fear.

The Soothsayer - This one is all about a wife who demanded more. Wanted to climb the ladder. But he who is simple can manipulate events.

Goose. Ring. Broken leg. Fame.

The Wizard and his Pupil - This one was also a bit hard to follow. 

Wizard and his pupil who sold him completely, then the pupil wanted to be sold as a bath  house as long as his mother kept the key? There's a lot of symbolism. Also, I feel the story being unfamiliar to me as a child who would have been more accepting of idea, Then it being presented to me as an adult who is less accepting of the whimsical has some part in the "hard to swallow" part of mysticism. Solidifies that children accept fantasy more than jaded adults who are more guarded.