Sleepy John

You can't see them, but she's wearing dancing shoes. Twelve pairs.

This week, we turn to the Czech Republic for our tale. Sleepy John is a variant on the Twelve Dancing Princesses tale. In this story, there's just one queen dancing, but she wears out twelve pairs of shoes each night.

This whole tale was possible because of two very rude farmers. It was not wise of Sleepy John to fall asleep in a cart, but there was no reason the farmers had to leave him in the forest, inside of a beer cask. More than anything else, this story happens through Sleepy John being lucky. If he hadn't been left to die in the forest (and survived it), he wouldn't have met the hermit and gotten his wonders, which let him track the queen. Why was that man a poor hermit in the forest? He had three magical items and he even knew which day he was going to die, so he was clearly not an ordinary man. My assumption is that the hermit was actually a fairy who was trying to help Sleepy John for some reason. That's usually how these things work in fairy tales.

In any case, Sleepy John finds himself at the castle where they truly have a Dancing Queen. He decides that he will not be sleepy on this particular night and that he will stay awake to follow the queen and find out what she's been doing. So, forsaking his name, John stays awake, even though he pretends to be asleep, to follow the queen. I guess he was just lazy to earn his nickname since he could stay awake when he wanted to. Also, I'm not sure what kind of people the queen has been around, but I would wake up from a solid sleep if someone scorched the soles of my feet.

With the magic of his hat and stick, John manages to follow the queen without being found. The queen definitely noticed when he broke off a branch from each forest they went through, but was unable to find him. At the time, it seems like a dangerous gamble, but it proves to be the reason his story is believed. That makes me wonder how many others have successfully followed the queen, but were not believed. The king doesn't seem to really want to know what his wife has been up to every night, and the penalty for not finding out is to lose your head. It seems like the king was actually trying to hide what his wife was doing, even though he said he wanted someone to find out. Interesting. That makes me wonder what was going on in their marriage.

The moral of this story is that if you're going to be the main character in a fairy tale, you'd better hope you're lucky so that everything turns out well for you.

Jirtdan-The Little Boy Who Fought Monsters

Nothing bad will happen if we're stuck here overnight.

Today, by request, we're looking at a fairytale from Azerbaijan. Jirtdan-The Little Boy Who Fought Monsters is about a tiny boy who has a lot of cunning.

I have to admit, at the beginning of this story, I was not a fan of Jirtdan. He makes his friends do all of the work when they're cutting wood and he won't even walk home! It's possible that Jirtdan was too little, but I think he's getting all he can out of his friends. In any case, the boys are caught in the forest in the dark and they end up at a human-eating giant's house. As one does.

It made me laugh every time the div came into the room and asked if everyone were asleep. Jirtdan got himself dinner out of the deal instead of being dinner. Then Jirtdan asked the div to bring him water in a sieve from the river. The div must have been incredibly tired, hungry, or dumb to even try this. However, he wanted all of those boys to fall asleep so he could eat them, gosh darn it. So, he went to the river to try to bring back some water in a sieve.

The boys make it across the river, but Jirtdan is not done besting the div. The div asks how he can get across the river, and Jirtdan gives him deadly advice. I'm not sure why the div listened to advice from someone who wanted water in a sieve, but he was probably too out of sorts at this point to question it. It was the last mistake the div would make. By this point, I kind of feel bad for him. All he wanted was to eat these children and instead he has to be a servant for them and then ends up drowning. And he never got his dinner!

Throughout the story, Jirtdan is clever and ruthless. Not only did he use his friends when it didn't really matter when they were cutting wood, but even after he knew the div was going to eat them, he made sure that he got something out of the giant first before escaping with his friends. He didn't share his eggs either. What a jerk.

The moral of this story would have to be to make sure you're either not good enough friends with the clever kid in town to get dragged into these messes, or that you're such good friends that he won't possibly leave you behind.

Baba-Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair

Doesn't everyone use a skull as a lantern?

Greetings, readers. This week, we take a trip to Russia to read one of Baba Yaga's stories. Baba Yaga is a fixture in Russian myths, but she is always the villain. She fascinates me, partially because her house runs around on chicken legs. This week, we'll be looking at Baba-Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair.

I have truly started to wonder why the only good mothers in fairy tales are the dead ones. Vasilisa's mother loved her so much that her blessing served Vasilisa until the day she died. So, of course, this woman died when Vasilisa was young, and of no particular illness. Vasilisa's stepmother, however, had two healthy daughters, and none of them had any sickness worth mentioning. This makes me wonder about if Vasilisa had any children and how long she lived after delivering them.

In any event, Vasilisa's last keepsake from her mother was a doll which helped her do all of the ridiculous tasks that her stepmother set her to. Her father is essentially not in this story. Eventually, the stepmother finds a reason to send Vasilisa to Baba Yaga's house, in the hope that the girl would be eaten. Her excuse of needing a light was pretty flimsy, though. It would be one thing if Baba Yaga's house were nearby, but it took Vasilisa a full day to walk there. By then they obviously had lit a fire and gotten the candles burning again. It's sad that Vasilisa was so desperate to please her stepmother that she walked into almost certain death, armed with only a doll possessed by her mother's blessing. Not only does Vasilisa, or the doll, complete Baba Yaga's tasks, but then Baba Yaga gives her a light, which kills Vasilisa's evil stepfamily. It's almost like Baba Yaga was trying to help the girl, in her own extreme way. Afterwards, Vasilisa found an old woman to share a house with and managed to keep them both alive.

This bears some examination. If Vasilisa was able to find somewhere to live and a way to eat without a family, truly a feat for a single woman in this time, why did she even go to Baba Yaga's house in the first place? The only reason I can imagine that she didn't abandon her stepfamily is that she was afraid to make her own way in the world. Look at what it got her when she did: she made incredibly fine clothes, she got to marry a man she loved, and she was taken care of for the rest of her life. Again, for this time, that's a big deal. I suppose Baba Yaga is actually a hero in this story, however unwillingly.

The moral of this story would have to be either that you can find goodness in unexpected situations, or that if you're crazy talented at something, you should probably do that before you're cast adrift and save yourself some trouble. Just think, Vasilisa could have met the tsar paragraphs earlier!