Two Sisters and an Old Man

Probably take this one.

Hello, reader. This week, our tale comes from West Africa. Two Sisters and an Old Man has some familiar elements to it, but is still an intriguing tale. Follow the link above to read the story and then ponder it with me below.

To begin with, we have the "good sister" Ranti and the "bad sister" Bisi. Ranti is bullied every day and her mother tells her to return bad behavior with kindness, so Ranti does nothing back. I have to wonder about what else was going on in this house. Did the girls' father not care that one of them was bullying the other? Did Ranti's mother tell her daughter to put up with it because she knew her husband wouldn't do anything to stop it? I wonder what Ranti's mother and Bisi's mother's relationship was like. Obviously it wasn't good if they didn't work together to stop the bullying. In any case, Ranti is building lots of character and muscles by doing the work of two people while Bisi does whatever she wants.

The test was a little different than I expected. I knew Ranti would pass, because she's the good sister and that Bisi would fail because she's the bad sister, but it wasn't quite how I thought. Ranti stopped to give the old man water and washed his sores. Bisi just asked him where the garden was and didn't do anything for him. I had thought that Bisi would be punished for her rudeness and wouldn't get to go the garden, but he still told her where it was. What really interested me was the fruit of this garden. Ranti, following directions, takes one of the rotten fruits with her and gets expensive presents from it. Bisi, not following directions, takes several of the golden fruits and gets all manner of creepy-crawlies from it. The fruits match the girls. Ranti takes the fruit that looks rotten on the outside and is golden and precious inside. Doing that much hard work would probably take away from her looks. I don't think Ranti looked "rotten" but she would have been in the sun much more than her sister, with rough hands, and no real time to take care of herself or her appearance. Bisi, on the other hand, had plenty of time to make herself look pretty, or "golden" but was mean and poisonous on the inside. The girls chose themselves from this garden and had to live with the consequences.

The only thing I wonder is if this adventure changed Bisi at all. Did she learn her lesson, or did she drown in snakes and spiders? Eeeww.

The moral of this story is, if you're following a magic man's advice to get to a magic garden, you should do what he tells you to do once you're there. Alternatively, make sure you open up your treasure outside so if it's bad, you can get away from it.

Have a different moral? Want to see a different story? Comment below!

Bluebeard

Don't use this unique and alluring key. Don't do it.

Hello, reader. This week's tale comes to us from France. Charles Perrault has written many of the versions of fairy tales that are common today and his telling of Bluebeard is probably the most common for that story. Click the link to read Bluebeard, and then continue below to think about it in depth with me.

It bothers me that this tale is often used as a warning about "women's curiosity". If the wife hadn't been so curious about that closet, Bluebeard wouldn't have tried to kill her, after all. There's one flaw with this theory, and that is Bluebeard himself. We don't know why he killed his first wife. Obviously, it wasn't finding the bodies of the other wives. Maybe it was over something petty, or maybe it was something serious. Either way, Bluebeard is a murderer and, apparently, killed his other wives to cover it up. Putting the murder of the first wife aside, there are many ways Bluebeard could have hidden these bodies, but he chose to leave them rotting in his house instead. He wanted his next wife to find the bodies so he could kill her, too. He didn't have to give her the magic key, after all. Furthermore, if the key is magic, maybe it let him know to return home the same night his newest wife failed her test. Otherwise, that timing is a little too coincidental. So, this woman married a serial murder who's had plenty of time to hone his craft and his timing.

I think it's a good thing the wife found that room. If she had passed that test, there would have been another and he would have set her up to go into that room against his orders again and again until she did. Bluebeard wants to kill his wives. However he got started down this path, he clearly will not change his ways. Imagine if our heroine hadn't looked in that closet when she did. Her brothers would have come to visit and she would have thought nothing of them leaving her alone with Bluebeard afterwards to be tested again and again until she failed. If she hadn't looked in that closet when she did, he would have ended up trying to kill her later, probably when help wasn't so conveniently close. In the long run, her curiosity saved her life.

The moral of this story is either: feed your curiosity at the right moment so you aren't murdered, or don't marry a man whose previous wives all mysteriously vanished.

Like this story? Have a different moral? Want to talk about this woman's friends and family who paid her no attention when she found a closet of bodies? Comment below!

The Tongue-Cut Sparrow

Like this, only magic.

Hello, reader. This week, we look to Japan for our story. The Tongue-Cut Sparrow is a story about learning to not be a jerk, but only to a point. Follow the link in the previous sentence to read the story, and then continue below to look past the surface with me.

This story really just has three characters: the old man, the old woman, and the sparrow. I'm not sure why the old man didn't realize his sparrow was a fairy when she started talking to him, but maybe he thought that was normal for pet sparrows. The sparrow really does act as a fairy godmother in this story. She takes on a mortal to take care of, and rewards him for his good deeds. Then she punishes another mortal for that woman's wicked deeds. What intrigues me is that the sparrow only uses her fairy powers after her tongue is cut. Clearly, she's been a fairy this whole time, and she's had time to raise daughters as fairy sparrows as well. However, not once did this fairy reward the old man until after her tongue was cut out. It almost seems like she was going to pretend to be a regular talking sparrow until the old woman forced her hand, so to speak.

As for the old woman, I have to wonder why the old man married her in the first place. She's always been like that, so why does such a nice, spineless man still live with someone who's so mean? I'm going to have to assume they didn't meet until they were married. However much we might dislike the old woman for being so mean and awful, she is the only reason this story even happens. Otherwise, it's the story of a man with an awesome pet sparrow. Because of her, the sparrow is revealed as a fairy and the old man and the old woman benefit from it. Only from this brutal, over-the-top punishment do good things come into both of their lives. In a similar fashion, it's only because the old woman got a box of demons that she finally mended her ways and stopped being so cross all the time. Good things only come after bad in this story.

I really feel sorry for the old man. He's pretty much just blown around by others in his life. His wife's and sparrow's actions are what drive him, not his own actions. He has a bond with this sparrow, so after his wife attacks the sparrow, he goes to find her. He doesn't stay with the sparrow too long because he wants to get home to his wife. He only gets gold because the sparrow decides to give it to him. He actually comes into his own at the very end of the story in the paragraph where he convinces his wife not to be so mean anymore. This gets much less time than the sparrow's or old woman's actions. While the old man may be what moves the plot along, this story only happens because of the old woman and the sparrow.

The moral of this story would have to be: be just the right amount of rude and life will be great.

Want a pet sparrow now? Have another moral for this story? Want me to look at a different tale? Comment below!

The Red Slipper

Like these, only magic.

Hello reader. This week's story is Jewish. The Red Slipper looks like it's going to be a Cinderella look-alike, but twists to avoid doing that in just the right ways. Follow the link to read the story and keep reading here to look beneath the surface with me.

I have to wonder about the girl's father in this story. His only job in this story is to raise Rosy-red until he remarries a terrible woman, and then he disappears. Does Rosy-red's stepmother have some kind of magic at her disposal to make this happen? Is she just really good at playing people so she made this man love her enough to marry her, and then hate her enough to leave home constantly? Whatever the answer, Rosy-red's father is not really a character in this story. He and the chieftain's son are the only men in this story, and they don't really do much. I guess the chieftain's son gets to speak, at least. One man sets Rosy-red up for a terrible life and the other brings her into a splendid life. While we're on the subject, there's something a little strange about the chieftain's son.

The chieftain's son finds a shoe in the woods and decides he has to marry the girl who belongs to it. This makes even less sense than Cinderella's story. At least in Cinderella, the prince actually meets the girl he vows to marry. The chieftain's son has no idea what this girl is like, but because of one shoe, he comes back to a cave in the forest to talk to an old woman day after day and has his servants comb the forest to find the shoe's owner. At last, when he is completely convinced that the owner of the shoe is actually living in this cave, he meets Rosy-red and they have their happily ever after. At least this obsessive man could give her a happy ending.

I also wonder about the jinn in this story. I suppose the jinn is referred to as a male, but he is not human, and he has a bit more impact on the story than the human men who set up and end Rosy-red's tale. The jinn rewards good singing and punishes bad singing. I have to wonder about the jewels he's guarding, though. He was willing to give some of them away for a sweet song. I guess it would be pretty lonely hanging out at the bottom of a well, but he must be guarding those jewels for someone. From the phrasing in the story, it sounds like the gems aren't his. This jinn seems to have a terrible effect on Rosy-red's life by setting in motion getting her kicked out of her house, but that ends up being an excellent thing. It's only because Rosy-red got kicked out of her abusive home that she ended up living happily ever after. I like this because it's the opposite of how jinns usually interact with people in stories. Typically, jinns are mean and mess everything up for their master. So, in more ways than one, this story strays from the typical path, and it's better for it.

The moral of this story is either: "Keep the gems you find in a bucket for yourself," or, "If you're going to get lost in the woods, make sure to lose one of your magical shoes so a crazy prince will find you."

Have another moral? Annoyed I didn't talk about the women in this story? Have a story you want me to analyze? Comment below!

Snaring the Sun

Did I say you could set this quickly?

Hello, reader. This week, we turn toward Hawaii for our tale. Snaring the Sun is the Hawaiian story behind why the sun is in the sky longer in some seasons that others. I was only familiar with the story about Hades and Persephone, so it's nice to read how another culture handles this. Click on the link above and then read below to think a bit more deeply about it.

Maui is spurred into action because he feels bad for his mother. While I almost wish his mother had snared the sun herself, it is a good reason for him to change something so drastic. I mean, if you're a god it is. Maui studies the problem before rushing into it and decides that the best way to grab the sun is to make a strong rope out of coconut husks. I can't really fault the Moemoe for saying he couldn't do it. I didn't think Maui would be able to grab the sun, either. Of course, it is a legend so science is a little...different.

Once Maui gets the sun, he violently breaks off its strongest legs and then declares he's going to kill it for going too quickly. I'm going to assume that he was bluffing because that would be the opposite of what he wanted to happen. Either way, I'm a little startled by the violence of this story. Not only can Maui lasso the sun, but then he breaks it apart with his bare hands. Remind me not to anger any Hawaiian gods. Or demigods. ...or in some stories Maui is just a human.

Anyway, Maui is not done. Once he gets the sun to agree to go more slowly, he hunts down the Moemoe who said he couldn't do it, and kills him. To be fair, Maui did tell this critter that he would kill it for doubting him. Once the Moemoe died, it became a long rock beside a road somewhere. So I guess this is an origin myth for two things: the difference in time the sun is above the horizon during different seasons, and a long rock. I have to admit I didn't see that one coming.

Keeping in mind that this story has the filter of not only the person who verbally told it, but also the person who wrote it down and published it, there's a bit more to Maui than meets the eye. Yes, he is violent and impulsive, but he is also devoted and persistent. He went to great lengths and did something impossible just to make his mother's life easier. That's love. Maui is kind of a great guy, just a little impulsive and violent.

The moral of this story would either be: if you are Maui's mother, he will change the world to make your life easier, or even if you doubt someone, don't tell them, or they might kill you after they succeed at their impossible task.

Disagree with my morals? Have some of your own? Have a story you want me to write about? Have an opinion about Hawaii versus Hawai'i? Comment below!

Pied Piper of Hameln

Nothing to see here, just a man leading children away with his music.

Hello again, reader. This week, by request, we'll be looking at the Pied Piper of Hameln, from Germany. This is a story the brothers Grimm collected, but it looks like at least part of it was based on real events. Follow the link to the story above and then let's take a look at it below.

Firstly, the moral question of the tale is whether or not the townsfolk deserved to have their children taken from them. They agreed to pay this man a sum of money and, after he did the job, they decided not to pay him. Obviously, the townsfolk are not the best people. They should have paid what they agreed to, so, I understand why the piper would be angry. However, that does not mean that he can kidnap the town's children. Children are, obviously, very different from money, so he wasn't taking what was owed him. I'm sure the townsfolk would argue that the piper took more than he was owed. All of the moral arguments aside, it would be far more expensive to feed and care for those children than whatever the townsfolk had promised the piper.

This leads me to my next point: why did the piper want these children? Obviously he wanted to hurt the townsfolk, but did he have a plan after the door in the mountain shut behind the last child? I'm sure the children almost immediately started crying, once the spell wore off. I would like to be charitable and think he got these children other loving homes, however, I think the truth is much more sinister. After all, we have a town that was suddenly and inexplicably overrun by rats and the man who, with just his music, can miraculously lead them out of town. Then he can do the same thing with the children. Yes, I'm saying he turned those children into rats. Then he can set them loose on another town and try to collect his payment from those folks instead. It's smart, if terrifying. On the other hand, maybe the whole thing was a metaphor for a disease, brought by the rats, that hit the children the hardest. Who knows?

As far as a moral for this story, I would say, make sure you pay your debts, especially if they're to a magic man with crazy powers.

Want me to write about a folktale you find interesting? Have a different moral? Or a different argument about this tale? Comment below!

Old Mother Frost

Seconds before the tar was dumped all over that girl.

This week's story comes to us from Eastern Europe. Old Mother Frost is a story about two sisters and, of course, Old Mother Frost.

The stepsister is, of course, the good, hardworking sister. However, she has her problems too. She lets herself be bullied and doesn't say anything about it. She's treated terribly at home, but after she leaves, this girl gets home sick. I'm a little confused and worried about her. She had a good situation with Old Mother Frost, but she wanted to leave anyway. I understand that a girl alone didn't typically have options, but this girl did and she chose to go back to the abuse.

Old Mother Frost is a bit of a puzzle in herself. She seems to be able to do her own work, but drops it without question to let someone else do it. I'm not faulting her for that. However, I wonder why she's testing those girls and how many girls she's tested. If she gave all of the good ones bags of gold, it would seriously mess up the economy, so I'm assuming she doesn't do that every time, or they're small bags of gold. Is that her way of making a difference? She puts snow on the world every day, and winnows out the industrious from the lazy. Old Mother Frost has a lot going on, and I honestly want to know more about her than the good or lazy girls. Reader, let me know if you see more stories about Old Mother Frost.

The moral of this story is either to be incredibly hardworking, especially if you're working for a stranger, or not to let magical old women pour anything on you. Because that tar will not wash out.

What do you think? What moral would you give this story? Comment below, and let me know if there's any stories you'd like to see.

Anansi and Brother Death

It's Anansi. Just hanging out.

By request, this week, we are looking at a story about Anansi. Anansi is a character in West African and Caribbean folktales. He is also a spider. (I'm sorry for those of you who are freaked out by spiders. Maybe go back and reread last week's tale instead.) This version of the story seems to come from Jamaica. Anasi and Brother Death is a story about how lazy Death is. Read the story and turn it on its head with me below.

When the story opens, we have Anansi walking for a long time and in need of some water. When he meets a silent and apparently deaf old man, Anasi walks into his house and takes whatever he wants. The old man doesn't stop him, so Anasi feels like he can come back again and do the same thing. Not once does the old man, Death, move or say anything to stop him. On the third day, Anansi brings his oldest daughter and decides that she will be Death's wife as repayment. A person/spider as repayment for three large meals doesn't seem like a fair trade, but I've never liked the idea of trading people for things. Even after Anansi presents Death with a bride, Death still doesn't say or do anything. Is it that hard to say you're not interested? Apparently it was easier for Death to kill her and eat her than to tell her father that he didn't want her.

I can't understand Death's motivation, but I suppose that if he made a meal out of Anansi's daughter and another meal out of Anansi, then he would have made up two of the meals he lost. These must be very large spiders, or Death is very small. In either case, it's good to know that Death can't climb or throw things. Although, on the off chance that he's improved in these two areas, you might not want to stake your bid on immortality just by staying up somewhere high. I was intrigued that the vision of Death was so limited. He had trouble talking and he can't throw things or climb. I wonder what else this version of Death can't do. Are there more ways to cheat Death than just a chess? That will probably have to be an ongoing topic of discussion. At least in Anansi's case, running and building webs are good enough.

The moral of this story is either: don't take things from people without asking, or if you're going to steal from Death, don't try to marry one of your children to him.

The Loyal Sweetheart

No, not this kind of blue flower.

By request, this week's tale comes from the Native Americans. I selected a story from the Passamaquoddy tribe, specifically. The story is called The Loyal Sweetheart and the title is very descriptive. Read the story at the link above, and then analyze it with me below.

In a story with a title like this, we almost have to have a beautiful woman who doesn't want to marry anyone except the man who doesn't feel he's got a reason to think they can marry. That's a pretty standard beginning. However, one of the first things that caught my attention about this story was actually the love song. Often, characters will use a love song to convey their feelings to that special person, but very rarely do I see the lyrics written out. The imagery in the love song actually works perfectly with the story, which must have been planned. The women are taken hostage in the autumn and are held for weeks, which of course takes them into winter. The spring was the warriors coming to rescue the women, and then Blue Flower and her warrior could be together again. The spring was probably only metaphorical at this point, instead of the actual season, but it's close enough to work with the song.

I was also surprised at the threatened violence in this story. Blue Flower could have been burned at the stake for not wanting to marry any of the men who kidnapped her. Obviously she wouldn't have wanted to marry them, but refusing even with the threat of death is very brave. The chief convinced his warriors to give her more time, which ended up saving their lives. It's only because they didn't do the things they threatened to do to Blue Flower that she convinced her warrior not to torture them. She is brave, stubborn, and merciful. I do love finding heroines like this.

As far as a moral for this story, it's either got to be: treat people well, because you never know when your places with change, or be true to your heart. That's when the heavens will part and show the world what you believe in. ...or maybe that's a pop song.

What would you put as the moral for this story? Comment below!

Do you have a story, character, or part of the world you want me to cover? Comment below for that as well.

The Twelve Brothers

Just spinning wool in a tree. Like you do.

This week, we go back to the familiar territory of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales, but with a tale that is not as widely known as many of their others. The Twelve Brothers is a story about a crazy king, a crazy good princess, and ravens. Click on the link above to read the story, and then let's dive into the nitty gritty.

First of all, why was this king insane? Has he never heard of rewriting his will? If he really didn't want to leave his sons anything, he didn't have to. There are many ways around this without killing them. Apparently, none of them were certain enough for this crazed monarch. So, the queen is left with a terrible dilemma. I'm glad she doesn't decide to try to kill her husband to stop him from killing their sons, because that would be a completely different kind of story. In this case, the mother tells her sons to run, and run far. I'm not sure if they didn't think they were really in trouble, or were just lazy, but the brothers didn't go very far away. It has barely a test of her princess-ly might for their sister to find them.

The boys may not have been worried about getting far away from their father, but they were worried about going back. As soon as they reunited with their sister, I thought they would go home and she would defend them to her father until he agreed that they could live. Instead, she just started living with them. Then again, she is only 10 and facing her father down might have been a little bit too much for her.

Speeding ahead, after she'd been living with the boys for some time, the princess picks twelve white lilies and accidentally turns them into ravens. I actually had to stop here and reread the paragraph. Excuse me? How did picking flowers turn her brothers into ravens? Was there a curse on the house? Did something happen to all of the boys when they were born? Is there a curse on the king's family, passed down to the males, and that's why he wanted to kill his sons? What I think actually happened was that at some point, the teller of this story decided they also wanted to tell the story of twelve boys turning into ravens and picking flowers seemed as good as any reason to mix that story in with this one.

In any case, the boys are now ravens and a helpful woman appears out of nowhere to explain why to the princess. If she's a fairy, which she seems to be, why did she leave that spell on the lilies? Or, better yet, why didn't she tell the princes and princess about it so they left the flowers alone? Maybe the fairy is related to the queen who never set off herself to find her kids or let them know if she was successful in changing her husband's mind about murder.

Speaking of questionable decisions, why did this new king want to marry a woman he just met sitting in a tree spinning? Add her muteness to that and you've got a pile of strange that the new king didn't hesitate to pick up and take home with him. I can't blame the new king's mother for being suspicious, but she went overboard. It's a good thing the princes' time was up before the princess burned to death. I'm not sure her silence would have counted if she were dead.

The moral of this story is either to make sure mental illness treatment is available and free of stigma so that all can easily get the care they need, or not to pick any flowers in case they turn your family members into birds. One or the other.

Do you have a different moral? Or want to talk about something I missed in this story? Comment below!

If you give me a folktale, fairy tale, legend, etc, I will write a post about it. Just let me know if there's any you would like to hear.

The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese

This. Looks. Delicious.

Hello again, reader. This week, I have a Dutch tale for you. I chose The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese because I always want more cheese, so I had to see what happened to this boy. Don't worry, it's not a dark fairy tale, so he survives. Follow the link above to read the story before we dive below the surface of it. There's quite a bit of detail at the beginning, but they do get to the plot after that.

Firstly, we've all known those people who are about as big around as a stick, but who seem to have bottomless stomachs. Klaas is one such person. He must be kind of a trial to his parents. They want to be able to feed all of their children enough, but Klaas can never get enough. He seems to be a good child in everything else, but I wonder if his parents feel a bit inadequate that they aren't able to feed him until he's full. Hopefully they just accept his hunger along with his more pleasing traits. After all, this isn't Hansel and Gretel where the kids are abandoned in the forest because they're eating more than the parents can afford.

As soon as Klaas knew that fairies were calling him and he decided to answer their call, I thought he would either never go home again, or it would be about 50 years later when he got there. Fairy time runs differently than human time. Then, with all of this unknown risk, he gets to their fairy ring and there's no cheese! I was a little outraged for him. He's throwing away everything to get some more cheese and when he gets there, the fairies just want to dance with him. However, Klaas doesn't seem to mind working up an appetite and the fairies don't dance him to death, which was also a possibility I was wondering about. Then, and only then, does Klaas get the lesson of being careful what he wishes for.

Klaas seems to eat an impressive amount of cheese, but even he has a limit. I have to take a minute here and marvel that he ate the cheese straight. There is no mention of crackers, bread, or anything else. We've all eaten cheese straight, but it is more enjoyable with something else to go with it. Oh, you haven't eaten cheese by itself? I do recommend it, just not to the extent that Klaas does it. When he wakes up and Klaas realizes he's eating grass, I have to wonder about the rest of the cheese. Was some of it real, but the fairies switched out for grass at the end? It makes more sense that all of it was grass, but as a fellow cheese lover, I hope Klaas at least got some of the cheese he was wanting.

The moral I found for this story is to make sure you specify that you only want real cheese when you're accepting unlimited amounts of it from fairies. What do you think? Did Klaas get what was coming to him for messing with the fairies? Or is he to be pitied for being lied to?

Do you have a fairy tale or legend you want me to read? Comment below and I'll write a post about it!

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Because who would be afraid to ride a bear?

Hello, reader! This week's story comes to us from Norway. East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a story about a man who's a real bear, and the woman who loves him. Follow the link above to read the story before we start dissecting it.

I like the heroine of this story right off the bat. Her father is essentially trying to sell her into marriage to a bear and she says no. This girl knows her own mind. Of course, her family is starving, so she eventually decides that she will marry the bear after all and off they go. In several places throughout the story, the heroine is asked if she is afraid, and she always truthfully replies, "No." You have to admire that kind of courage. This woman isn't afraid to do anything to get her love back. Either that, or she just doesn't realize how many things could go wrong in her adventure.

I also want to look at the bear's stepmother for a moment. What kind of stepmother bewitches her stepson to be a bear during the day and a man at night? I am also confused about the princess in this story. The princess and the stepmother live in the same castle. Is the princess from a previous marriage of the stepmother's? That would be pretty messed up to try to make half-siblings get married. Or, maybe the princess is from somewhere else and the stepmother is so determined to marry the girl to her stepson that she invited the princess to live with her. Either way, it's strange. We also never hear about the prince's father, which makes me wonder about his stepmother. And any woman this stepmother wants her stepson to marry.

But I digress. We know this stepmother has quite a bit of magic at her disposal, yet she never interferes with the heroine's journey to win back her man. The heroine is doing quite a bit of running around and you would think there would be plenty of opportunity for the stepmother to foul up the heroine's quest. Maybe the stepmother is too focused on what's happening in her own castle, or she doesn't think the heroine will be able to get to the castle East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Either way, she seriously underestimates the heroine and pays the price for it. By exploding. Maybe her heart just failed her, but the story seems to paint a picture of troll pieces all over the castle. No wonder the reunited couple left it behind.

As far as the moral of this story, I would say it's either not to drip burning wax on the person you love, or to understand that you either have to put your patient pants on or undergo a dangerous and long quest if you want to be happily married to a bear.

What about you? What sort of moral would you give this story? Comment below!

Is there a story you want to see me take apart? Put it in the comments, and I'll write a post about it.

Simorgh; An Ancient Persian Fairytale

Simorgh looks like a good friend to have.

Hello, dear reader. This week, our tale comes to us from Iran. Simorgh is a story about a too-trusting prince, and the women who help him.

I was a little surprised at the emphasis on God in this story, but once you get past that, this fairy tale is very similar to some others I've discussed. The brothers staying awake to find the thief in the night is just like The Firebird. We also have the jealous brothers who leave the youngest for dead. That's in too many fairy tales to count. However, there are many things that make this tale interesting, and I'll focus on those.

Jumping right in, this prince is noble, as all youngest princes in fairy tales are, but I was surprised that Prince Khorshid wouldn't kill the deav (a demon) in his sleep. It would have been the easy road, but it's not the way this prince wanted to go, and he defeated two other deavs because this woman he rescued wanted her sisters freed as well. There's one thing that bothers me about this woman, whom he instantly fell in love with, and her two sisters. These women are the same ones who were the pomegranates on the tree in the beginning, right? Let's go with that. Otherwise Price Khorshid failed at his quest and those three women/fruit are wasting away somewhere.

This woman who Khorshid loves is very wise. It makes me wonder why she wasn't able to rescue herself from the deav. Then again, if she is a pomegranate woman, she wouldn't have been there very long, so she might not have had time. In any case, she saves Khorshid's life several times over with her wisdom. Firstly, she doesn't trust his brothers, even though she's never met them. Secondly, she tells him what secrets she knows about how to get him out of that place and help him find her once he does. Thirdly, she uses what she told him to stall so she didn't have to marry some random guy, but could hold off on marrying anyone until he found her again. If only Khorshid hadn't jumped on the wrong bull.

Khorshid's indebtedness to women doesn't stop there. Once Khorshid does several Herculean tasks, he wins the friendship of Simorgh, the bird/perfect human being/etc. and she agrees to carry him back to his world and even gives him three chances to call on her again, should he need her.

Prince Khorshid is brave, strong, and good-hearted, but he wouldn't have gotten anywhere without the women in this tale. I suppose the moral is to be the best that you can be, but to make friends with those who make up for what you lack. Either that, or to get a better security system for your pomegranate tree that sometimes has women on it.

The Witch in the Stone Boat

It's really rude to climb aboard someone's boat without permission.

This week's tale comes to us from Iceland. They have some unusual and wonderful stories and The Witch in the Stone Boat is no exception. This story, like so many others, only happens because the king doesn't pay any attention.

We start off commonly enough with royal families not caring that much about family. The king tells his song to go marry a faraway princess because she's pretty and the prince agrees. That's quite the recommendation. Then, once the princes gets there and marries the princess, he agrees not to leave this kingdom until he gets word that his father has died. Wow. It's a shame that both the prince and this princess have such frail fathers. As is typical in fairy tales, their mothers are either dead, or so unimportant that we never hear of them. I have one more complaint about the prince, who becomes a king. He is supposedly very in love with his wife, but doesn't notice when she's replaced. When the witch walks over to him, instead of saying, "Who are you and why are you holding my child?" the king goes along with it and only wonders why his wife has become so mean.

The queen, on the other hand, is doing what she can to save herself. Although she was unable to do anything against the witch in the stone boat, she was able to bargain with the witch's brother. I wonder if the witch was just trying to get herself and her brother married. I could understand that would be an important goal in this time, but she's going about it in the most ridiculous way. In any event, it is only because the queen negotiates to come to the surface world three nights before marrying the three headed giant that the king even notices that anything is wrong. It is the king who cuts the queen's chain, which causes the death of the giant, but that is only after he had no way to misunderstand what was happening. It's a good thing for him that he married her. I'm not so sure about the reverse, but at least they love each other.

The moral of this story is to either keep witch repellent on you when you're going sailing, or to marry an observant man.

Penta With Maimed Hands

Just because you wear this, doesn't mean you're wise.

 
This week's fairy tale comes to us from Italy. Penta With Maimed Hands is a story about one woman's determination not to marry her brother.

I'm not sure who advised the king to marry his sister, but clearly that person and the king needed to be relieved from their duties for awhile. Penta, who was not crazy, refused her brother's advances. While it is incredible that she had her hands cut off to try to get her brother to stop wooing her, I always get stuck on that. Why did her brother think her hands were her best feature? I don't think I've ever heard a guy say that about a woman. Maybe I'm just not talking to the right guys.

Whatever the reason for the king's fixation, once Penta had her hands cut off, her brother threw her out to sea. Can you imagine how much it must have hurt when salt water got in the wounds on her wrists? This poor woman goes through all kinds of suffering because her brother wants to commit incest.

This story, like many other fairy tales, can be seen as two women pitted against each other. Nuccia is convinced that her husband is going to cheat on her with this beautiful, handless woman. Because of this initial distrust, Nuccia goes on to try to get Penta killed, even after Penta is married to someone else far away from the fisherman. Penta, of course, doesn't know that she got a false message from her husband, or that Nuccia was the one who sent it, so it's not a very fair contest. Fortunately for Penta, she is good and pretty so she wins out in the end.

Throughout this story, the only good woman is dead or maimed. Penta, obviously, is good. The king's first wife, who ordered her husband to marry this strange woman without hands, was good. All the better for the story because she died, I suppose. Otherwise, Penta couldn't have been a queen. Nuccia is the only woman we see who is physically whole and she is unnecessarily vicious.

The moral of this story would have to be either to be able to learn to do everything with your feet after you've had to order your own hands cut off, or to have your brother's mental health checked regularly.

How the Monkey Got a Drink When He was Thristy

Devious little critter.

Hello, reader. This week, we go to Brazil for our story. How the Monkey Got a Drink When He was Thirsty is a tale with a very descriptive title.

Of course we all know that monkeys can play the guitar, but I had not realized that monkeys were tricksters as well. This monkey gets in trouble for a pretty silly reason. Obviously, his guitar wouldn't sound right if there were tiger bones inside of it, so his song was fake. I am surprised the tiger got so angry about the monkey's song the first time, but the monkey did keep repeating it. Poor tiger. It makes me wonder why the monkey was so set on bothering the tiger, even after the tiger grabbed him. I think this monkey may have some issues.

The monkey's resin disguise was brilliant. I am a little surprised that the tiger never caught on, but I am more surprised that the tiger stayed at the watering place for so long. He must have been very sensitive about his bones. He also must have gotten very hungry unless he picked off animals who were coming to get a drink. I feel like that behavior is worse than the monkey's little song. I think a parliament of owls would have put the tiger on trial for such behavior. After all, what else is a parliament of owls for?

As for the moral of this story: If you're going to deeply annoy someone dangerous, make sure you're more clever than they are.

The Firebird

Get back here, thief!

This week, we turn to Slavik folklore for The Firebird. In this story, the Firebird and Prince Ivan's stupidity are the driving forces.

Firstly, I need to address the family dynamics in Ivan's house. I understand that he and his brothers might be competitive about catching the thief and then finding the firebird. However, that is no excuse for his brothers to kill Ivan and leave his body for the crows, taking his ill-gotten gains with them. Even their father isn't too grieved about his sons' deaths because Ivan is marrying a pretty girl. What a family.

Next we have the long-suffering gray wolf. While it is true that he killed Ivan's horse, the wolf more than makes up for this theft by helping Ivan commit three more thefts, even though Ivan can't follow directions. I could understand that the first time, Ivan could be tempted by the Firebird's cage. He might have even been worried about being able to carry off the bird without it escaping. However, when he didn't listen about the horse's bridle either, I gave up on Ivan. I also think the wolf was the reason everyone was asleep and it would have been so easy to steal their greatest treasure. The wolf tirelessly works to get Ivan what he wants, even though Ivan seems incapable of helping himself. The wolf is the only hero in this story.

Then we have Ivan himself. This is an unscrupulous, greedy man. He agreed to steal a Firebird, horse, and princess with no second thoughts. He was driven into these thefts, so they are understandable. However, once Ivan has these precious items and the princess, he doesn't want to give them up. The long-suffering gray wolf tricks the tsars so Ivan can keep what, and who, he stole.

The princess, Helen, is essentially an object. Princess Helen is beautiful and walks more slowly than her attendants and her father's name is Dalmat. We know nothing else about her. It's entirely possible she wanted to marry Ivan's brothers more than Ivan. Or even the wolf! We've seen that happen before in fairy tales, and he is the most noble character. The point being that Helen is passed around as easily as the horse or firebird. No one asks her opinion and she never seems to have one. I realize this is part of the time this fairy tale was told, but Ivan is still greedy for treating this beautiful woman like she is another precious thing to be stolen, instead of a person.

The moral of this tale is that if you choose to sacrifice your horse, you will gain an incredibly loyal friend who works to make your whims real, no matter how stupid you are.

I wonder what would have happened if Ivan had gone straight at that pillar instead.

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!

Puppy Love

A puppy, in its natural habitat

This week's story comes to us from South Africa. It caught my eye because, really, who doesn't want to read a story called Puppy Love?

We have all the makings of a standard fairy tale to begin with: the king who only wants a daughter and finally gets one, the daughter who doesn't turn nasty and selfish even though she gets everything she wants, and some jealous girls. Typically in European fairy tales the jealous girls are instead the girl's step-mother, but so far it looks pretty similar. Then the girl rescues a puppy from drowning. He doesn't talk, like he would in some fairy tales, but he follows her everywhere and they're best friends.

I was surprised that this beautiful princess didn't catch some young man's eye. She was saved from certain death by a dog instead of a prince or a man, which takes out the whole idea of her marrying her rescuer and makes it instead about debts being repaid. Her father and the men of the village come along afterward to essentially walk her home, and so the chief could see with his own eyes what had happened to his favorite daughter. To be honest, I'm surprised the girls tried to kill the princess, no matter how much they hated her because it could backfire on them like this.

I was a little worried about the king's wording of his punishment. If all the girls had to do was bring the monster to the chief, then it could destroy the village and they would still have kept their word. However, this is probably something that was changed in translation, so I shouldn't worry about it too much. The girls did as they were told, though. They brought the monster into the village and even managed to cage it, so that the warriors of the village could kill it.

I know this story is about the princess and how much she and her dog loved each other. I am on board with that, truly, but I think these nameless girls are the real heroes. I mean, after they tried to kill their princess. They were the only ones who were able to get rid of the monster in the lake. They did not kill it themselves, but they put themselves in danger to get it out of the lake and into the kraal.

The moral of this story is either to save puppies as often as you can, or to be able to run really fast if you're trying to get rid of a monster.