Essay: Brer Rabbit- Southern Trickster Stories

I really enjoyed reading about Brer Rabbit this week. I had heard of the stories plenty of times in my life, but I had never read them before so I was excited to finally get the chance this week. What I liked about them was the central character of Brer Rabbit who I find to be one of the only American tricksters I know of from our storytelling tradition. Unlike the coyote or Loki, this trickster usually only unleashes his talents on the deserving Brer Fox who is always scheming to eat him or his children or other family members. Most of the time, he's just pulling a fast one on the fox to try to get out of whatever plan he's cooked up this time and doing so in a clever, humorous way.

However, there was one story in which the rabbit was a pure trickster without regard to right or wrong: Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear. In this tale, Brer Rabbit gets caught in a trap when trying to steal peanuts from Brer Fox's garden and is helped out of the trap by Brer Bear. That was nice of him right? Well, Brer Rabbit decides to trick Brer Bear into putting himself in the trap (he told the bear he was acting as a scarecrow) and then tells Brer Fox it was Brer Bear who had been stealing the peanuts, suggesting that he beat him with a stick (especially in the mouth to keep him from spilling the beans about what really happened). While this makes Brer Rabbit more of a true trickster because he doesn't care that Brer Bear did nothing to him to deserve such treatment, it did nothing to endear the character to me. Mischievous tricksters can have their funny moments, but I prefer that justice and fairness always prevail whenever possible. The fact that Brer Rabbit gets away with hurting a person who only ever helped him really damaged his reputation in my eyes. However, it must be taken into account that, in the rest of the stories, he only uses his cunning to escape the clutches of Brer Fox. Even when he goes out of his way just to mess with Brer Fox, he never steps over the boundary between good, clean fun and outright mean-spirited pranks. But, as the old saying goes, nobody's perfect.

Depiction of Brer Rabbit
(Wikimedia Commons)

Week 7 Storytelling: Have Some Integrity

One day, Brer Fox decided he was going to grow himself a peanut garden. He did all the hard labor, clearing the field behind his house, preparing the soil, planting the seeds, and tending the plants. His mouth watered as his plants greened, thinking of crunchy, salty peanuts and slick peanut oil. It wasn't long before someone else took notice of his growing garden: Brer Rabbit.

Now Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox have been in a feud of sorts, what with Brer Fox trying to eat the sly rabbit all the time. Why not too long ago, the scheming fox, with the help of Brer Wolf, had pretended to be dead in an attempt to get Brer Rabbit close enough that he could snatch him up. Even more recently than that, Brer Fox had been skulking around the rabbit's home, trying to find some grievance to lay against his children so he could gobble them up "with just cause." Well, you can imagine how Brer Rabbit's mind went to thinking up a plan to spoil the fox's botanical plans.

Every day, when Brer Fox was not attending to his peanuts, Brer Rabbit would sneak in and take his pick of peanuts before scampering out, just like he took food from other people's gardens. It didn't take that old fox long to realize his peanut plants where looking a little bare and even less time to suspect his cotton-tailed foe. So he devised a trap at the broken part of the fence Brer Rabbit was using to get into the garden, and left to run errands, allowing the rabbit time to get himself caught. And get caught he did.

Not five minutes after Brer Fox had disappeared over the hill, Brer Rabbit could be seen sneaking through the opening in the fence and... SNAP! The rope got caught up under his arms and Brer Rabbit was left hanging there, helpless as a fly in a spider web. Now this could have spelled disaster for our furry hero, if not for the appearance of Brer Bear. Brer Rabbit saw him ambling around the edge of the woods behind the garden and he called out to the bear.

Brer Rabbit caught in the trap (illustration by A. B. Frost)

"Hey there, Brer B'ar," he shouted, "Won't you come over here and help me down."

"Sure thing, Brer Rabbit." It was easy work for the large bear to yank the rope down far enough for the rabbit's feet to touch the ground so he could slip out.

"I just came in here to help my dear friend, Brer Fox, with his lovely peanut garden and I found myself hanging like a shirt on a line. Won't you help me surprise my good friend?" Brer Rabbit pleaded. Of course, kind Brer Bear obliged. "Alright, we'll help him pick all his peanuts before he gets back and we'll have a big neighborhood party to shell them all and share them all."

So the two of them got to work and by noon they had every basket full and every plant picked cleaned. They got Brer Rabbit's children to help them carry baskets up the road where they then rounded up everyone in the neighborhood to start shelling. By the time Brer Fox came back over the hill (expecting to find a humbled Brer Rabbit hanging in his tree), he was greeted by the sight of all his neighbors clustered in the road, snacking on some delicious-looking peanuts. He stopped dead in his tracks and his mouth popped wide open.

"Hi, there, Brer Fox," Brer Rabbit called to him with a wide grin. "We're all mighty thankful you decided to share your peanuts with your good friends here in the neighborhood." Not wanting to look mean-spirited, there was nothing Brer Fox could do but give a half-hearted "you're welcome," grab a big handful of what was left of his own peanuts, and plop down amongst the congregation.

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Author's Note: This story is based on the tale "Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear" from Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881). In the original story, Brer Fox plants his garden and Brer Rabbit steals from it on a regular basis. However, it ended much differently and not to my liking at all. Brer Bear does help Brer Rabbit down from the trap, but he also convinces the bear to get into the trap himself, pretending like he had been acting as a scarecrow to keep critters out of the garden. Then, Brer Rabbit runs to Brer Fox and tells him that his peanut thief had been caught and was hanging up in his garden, suggesting he beat him with a stick (especially in the mouth so Brer Bear can't explain what really happened). The rabbit then runs off and hides in the mud, knowing the bear will be out to get his revenge. Mistaking Brer Rabbit for a frog, he takes false directions from the rabbit himself and Brer Rabbit hops on home, happy as a clam. The original story was also told in a much different manner, in a very rough, phonetic language. Here's an example (explaining that Brer Fox thinks he knows who the peanut-stealing culprit is): "He sorter speck who de somebody is, but ole Brer Rabbit he cover his tracks so cute dat Brer Fox dunner how ter ketch 'im."

I really disliked the original ending. I thought it was very uncalled for that Brer Rabbit hung Brer Bear out to dry (pretty literally) when he hadn't done anything wrong. So I fixed the story to be more like the other ones, where Brer Rabbit is a clever, comical, good character who sticks it to Brer Fox (who actually deserves to be pranked for trying to eat Brer Rabbit all the time).

Reading Diary B: Brer Rabbit

Here are my favorites from the Brer Rabbit unit:

A Story about the Little Rabbits: This story reminded me of an Aesop fable that I read the first week of school. In the fable, a wolf tries to find (i.e. makes up) supposed slights made against him by a sheep so that he could eat him. In "A Story about the Little Rabbits," Brer Wolf tries to get Brer Rabbit's children to fail at tasks he asks them to complete so that he can have a "valid" reason to eat them. Thankfully, a little bird tells them how to complete the feats and then their father comes home. I like when I find similar stories throughout the different units that I read so it was awesome to find this connection between two very distant units (in terms of when and where they originated from).

Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear: This story should actually be called an UN-favorite because it made me really mad, but I wanted to rant about it. Brer Rabbit is a tricky character; he usually outsmarts the scheming Brer Fox in a comical way. However, this time I think he took it way too far. He was stealing peanuts from Brer Fox's garden and, when he gots caught, he tricks Brer B'ar into getting him out of the trap and putting himself in it. Not only that, then he brings Brer Fox to the trapped bear, tells him he was the one stealing from his garden, and then suggests he beat the bear with a stick. Not cool at all, Brer Rabbit. You could have just had Brer B'ar take you down and then run off. What did he ever do to you to deserve this fate? Nothing. Shame on you.

Brer Rabbit caught in Brer Fox's trap
(Illustration by A. B. Frost)

The Story of the Deluge: This story was very different from most of the other stories. It's not actually a Brer Rabbit story because the titular character doesn't make an appearance in it. Instead, it appears to take place somewhere in Africa. The big message I took away from it was "Don't step on those beneath you, just because they're beneath you. If they band together, they can be a force to reckon with." The elephant sees no problem with smashing the crawfish with his big feet. They eventually get fed up with it, so they and some other small, water animals make the place flood to show the big animal bullies that they're not going to take it anymore.

Plantation Proverbs: This was just a long list of proverbs, but I found a few that I thought were very thoughtful or funny. The first one was "Looks won't do ter split rails with." Basically, it's saying that good looks aren't very useful. Attractiveness is nice and all, but there are more important things. The second one was "Licker (liquor) talks mighty loud w'en it get loose fum (from) de jug." This is just a pretty accurate statement. Most people know what drunk calling and drunk texting is; you tend to say things you don't mean to when you've had too much to drink. The last one I really enjoyed was "Watch out w'en you'er (you're) gittin all you want. Fattenin' hogs ain't in luck." This is basically saying to beware of things that seem too good to be true because they probably are.

Reading Diary A: Brer Rabbit

Here are my favorites from the Brer Rabbit unit:

The Calamus Foot: This is the first story in the unit and it really sets the tone for how the rest of the first half plays out. Brer Fox tries his hardest to catch Brer Rabbit so that he can eat him, but Brer Rabbit outsmarts him like he always does. Brer Fox tries to cook up plans to trick Brer Rabbit, but they hardly ever work. And even when they do work, he still manages to let Brer Rabbit get away. I like Brer Rabbit because he's clever and he's self-described as sassy. I also think it's interesting how, in these stories, the fox is the one who is always outwitted whereas in most other storytelling traditions, the fox is usually the clever, sly one.

How Mr. Rabbit for too Smart for Mr. Fox: Remember how I said Brer Fox's plans don't work out even when they do? This is what I was talking about. He manages to get Brer Rabbit caught on a "tar-baby" (basically a doll covered in tar). This should be the end of Brer Rabbit, right? He should just stick him over the fire and be done with it. But Brer Rabbit is very clever. He convinces Brer Fox to throw him into the brier patch by asking him to do anything but that, using a bit of reverse psychology. Of course, Brer Fox wants to stick it to Brer Rabbit real good for all the trouble he caused him so he does what he thinks is the worse thing he could do to him. Brer Rabbit ends up getting away and Brer Fox is left empty-handed and disappointed like always. The picture below is from this story, but this is how I imagine Brer Fox looks at the end of most of the stories.

Mr. Fox outwitted again
(Illustration by A.B. Frost)

How Mr. Fox is Outdone by Mr. Buzzard: It's not just Brer Rabbit who gets the best of Brer Fox in these stories. Brer Fox had enlisted Brer Buzzard's help in catching Brer Rabbit, thinking he had caught him sleeping in a tree trunk. When it turns out he isn't there, Brer Fox turns on Brer Buzzard and catches him by the neck. It seems like it should be another easy win for Brer Fox; he just needs to take the ax he was using to fell the tree to chop Brer Buzzard's neck (I know that's violent, but this is something a typical villain would do). But, of course, that's not what Brer Fox does. After Brer Buzzard begs for a while, Brer Fox decides to grab him by the tail feathers before finishing him off. The tail feathers come right off and Brer Fox can't do anything but watch as another one gets away.

Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure: In this story, Brer Fox gets some help from Brer Wolf. The wolf in literature is another character that is often portrayed as clever or cunning. Two heads are supposed to be better than one, but Brer Rabbit still manages to outsmart both the antagonists in this tale. Really, it's mostly Brer Fox's fault. Brer Wolf's plan had worked perfectly: Brer Rabbit went to Brer Fox's house to see if he was really dead or not. Brer Wolf had told Brer Fox not to move at all until Brer Rabbit came up to put a hand on him, but the rabbit tricked him into moving by saying that real dead people kick their foot and make a noise. Brer Fox does exactly what Brer Rabbit says and the rabbit gets his tail out of there as fast as he can. If he had just followed Brer Wolfs's instructions, Brer Rabbit might have really believed the fox was dead and might have been caught for good. Not that I'm rooting for Brer Fox, it just seems to me that the title is incorrect; the fox was the one who failed, not the wolf.

Essay: Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Happy Endings?

It's true that most fairy tales end with good triumphing over evil and the hero or heroine getting their happily ever after. However, I feel like every story in the Japanese Fairy Tale unit ended on a positive note (except for the very last story and the ending of that one was almost tragic enough to make up for all the other happy endings). It's not that bad things don't happen in these stories. In one, a man's wife is killed and then fed to him. In another, a husband allows his wife to be killed and then starves their son. While there is no shortage of fairy tale tragedy, the endings see basically every problem solved or wrong righted or desire met. Nearly every story ended by saying, "So the main person was very happy and lived the rest of his/her life getting everything he/she ever desired until he/she died a peaceful death."

Now, I'm all for happy endings and justice being served, but I feel like these stories ended in unrealistically positive manners, even for fairy tales. This could be a conscious convention of Japanese fairy tales. Perhaps it is a universal rule that good always triumph over evil, no matter what, and that good people are heavily rewarded. It's an admirable endeavor. Too often in today's movies and TV shows do we see perpetrators of crime and evil go unpunished or even rewarded. I have often found myself rooting for people who would normally be labeled "bad guys" simply because they are presented as the "hero." Do we root for bank robbers or car thieves in the real world? Most likely, no. But do we cheer for Vin Diesel and his crew in the Fast and Furious franchise or Danny Ocean and his in the Ocean's Trilogy? Of course we do (if you have watched these series, at least). So I can understand not wanting to glorify being a villain or being a bad person.

However, I feel like the endings to most of these tales were just too happy. Nobody really get everything they ever wanted and live their lives as happy as possible. People go through good periods and bad periods in their lives; that's just life. I especially feel like some of the characters would have had a hard time living such happy lives considering the tragedies that befell them during the story, like the guy who unknowingly ate his wife or the son whose father killed his mother and then starved him. People in the real world tend to continue to deal with the emotional effects from tragic events for a long time after they happen. More importantly, in the real world sometimes the good guy looses and the bad guy gets away with it. Good things don't always happen to good people. Justice isn't always served. Maybe I'm just thinking or asking too much of fairy tales, but this is my opinion.

Super positive quote
(Flickr)

Week 6 Storytelling: Romeow and Juliet

When I was a little girl, I lived in a neighborhood that was home to two beloved cats. The male, a pure white American short-hair with bright blue eyes, was named Maximus and he was as sweet as he was handsome. Every day when I came home from school, Max would be waiting at the top of the street to walk with me to my door. His owner, Mr. Farrow, was the music teacher at my school and he loved Max very much.

Max, the handsome cat with white fur and blue eyes
(Wikimedia Commons)

The other cat was a beautiful female named Sweetie, with jet black fur as soft as silk and glowing green eyes that shimmered in the sun. Sweetie was hardly ever let outside because her owner, Mrs. Hamlin, was a lonely old woman and her cat was the only friend or family she had left in the world. On one of the rare occasions that Sweetie made it out of the big empty house, I happened to pass by her with Max on our daily walk home. The two felines paused when they caught sight of each other and if cats could blush, I'm sure the ebony cat would have. They sniffed around for a bit, but were soon rubbing whiskers and purring loudly. It was kitty love!

Sweetie (personal photo February 2015)

"Sweetie!" Mrs. Hamlin's voice came calling from down the road, "Sweetie Pie, come home." With a deep look of sadness on her face, Sweetie uttered one soft meow of farewell and returned home. For several days after that, Max didn't meet me at the top of the street like he always did. When I got to my front porch, I saw him in Mrs. Hamlin's yard with his front paws on the bay window from which Sweetie was peering out. The two of them would sit there like that all day, longing to be reunited. Although Sweetie cried and cried to be let outside again, Mrs. Hamlin would not hear of it.

Then, when I reached the porch after school one day, I was greeted by the sight of two felines, one jet black and the other snow white, perched on the bottom step. I was very happy to see the two together again, but something in there faces was not entirely happy. Max mewed and rubbed himself against my leg, then raised his face so that I could pet his head. It was then that I realized what was happening: the two were eloping and this would be goodbye. After amply petting both of my furry friends, I said a bittersweet goodbye and watched as they disappeared around the wooden fence framing our backyard.

It was dinnertime when I heard the soft scratches at the back door. When I opened it, I found a very distraught looking Sweetie but no Max anywhere. I took the poor thing in and cared for her as best I could. Though she ate and drank plenty, Sweetie was understandably in low spirits. I wondered what had happened to Max and wished that cats could talk so that I could figure out how to help. Day after day, Sweetie lay down on a comfy pillow and didn't stir except to eat and drink.

But one day when I came home from school, she was nowhere to be found. I searched all around my house and the neighborhood without a seeing any trace of her. Then I heard the yowling coming from the alley. I hurried around the corner just in time to see a white mass launching itself at a large orange alley cat hissing at poor Sweetie. The blur knocked the big cat sideways and continued to scratch and hiss until the brute was chased away. It was Max! He looked well-fed and taken care of so he must have been taken in by a caring person after he and Sweetie had gotten separated. The two lovebirds were happy as could be and purring loud as freight trains. They gave me a grateful glance goodbye and the two felines headed down the ally their new joyful life together at last.

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Author's Note: This is a story loosely based on the Japanese fairy tale "The Cat's Elopement" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901). In the original story, the two cats, Gon and Koma, fall in love with each other and try to get one of their masters to buy the other's cat. However, neither wants to part with their beloved pet, so the two lovers are forced to elope. Unfortunately, it's not long before they get separated when a dog tries to attack them and Gon is taken in by a caring princess. The two felines are reunited when Gon saves a smaller cat, who turns out to be Koma, from being attacked by a much bigger cat and the two tell their tale to the princess, who takes Koma in as well. They all live happily ever after together.

I wanted to make my story more realistic and modern than the original, so I set it in an average neighborhood and the cats no longer talked (although, they can express emotions somewhat). I also changed the narrator from a removed third person to a more involved first person. I felt this kind of narrator would be a logical and a simple way to tell the story in a realistic manner. While the original version focused on the male cat's experience, I decided to focus more on the female cat's experience and modeled her after my own cat, Sweetie. I chose to retell "The Cat's Elopement" because I liked that the main romantic pair were not humans for once and I imagine a fairy tale would be like if cats could make their own. I chose the title because I thought it was a cute play on words that just popped into my head while I was trying to think of an original title.

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Here are my favorites from the second half of the Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) unit:

Schippeitaro: This was a nice story with a happy ending. It features a dog as the minor hero who lends his name to the title. He defeats the evil cat mountain spirit, who has been eating the village girls, with the help of the nameless main character. Although, he saves some poor girl from being eaten by the giant cat spirit, the girl mor her parents do not offer her to the man as a reward for his help. I liked this part of the story because, while I appreciate what the heroes in tales like this do, I don't think they need to be compensated with a wife. What if they don't get along? Sure, he was heroic, but what do you really know about the guy? Not much. 

The Crab and the Monkey: I liked this story because the crab's friends help right the injustice wrought upon her by the monkey. She was nice enough to share with him, but then he goes and takes advantage of her generosity and then nearly beats her to death when she tricks him into giving her some of the good fruit from her own tree. Thankfully, the egg (who makes friends with an egg, by the way?) shatters and pokes him in the eye, the wasp stings him on the nose, and the mortar falls on top of his head, a just reward (at least to me) for the monkey's foul treatment of the crab. The recurring theme of "greed leads to bad consequences" is carried out again in this Japanese fairy tale, but this time in animal form.

The Magic Kettle: This was such a sweet story where good things happen to good people and no one is greedy (and, therefore, needing to be punished). One man's neighbor tells him how to get rich off of the kettle he just bought which turns out to be a shape-shifting tanuki (the cute little creature in the picture below; however, a quite different version of the tanuki is featured in later stories), instead of taking the kettle for himself to get rich. Then, after the man does what his neighbor says and gets rich, the man feels like he should give some kind of compensation to the guy who gave him the means to his riches, so he gives him back the kettle with 100 gold pieces in it. How nice of him! It's refreshing to read such a positive fairy tale.

Cute Tanuki from The Magic Kettle
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)

The Slaying of the Tanuki: Unfortunately, the other tanuki tales are not nearly so positive. As you can see in the picture below, this version of the tanuki isn't quite so cute as the kettle one and he's not a very nice guy either. In this story, he steals food a man leaves out for his hare friend. When the man gets angry and captures the mischievous creature, the tanuki attacks the mans wife, puts her in a pot, changes himself to look like her, and then feeds the wife to the man. Yeah, very dark stuff. The man is obviously distraught at this and his friend, the hare, helps him get back at the tanuki by setting a pile of sticks on his back on fire and applying a stinging oil to the burn. Something I noticed about most of these stories is that they end by basically saying "everyone was happy and everything was good for the rest of their lives until they died." I like these kinds of endings much more than the very dark endings, like the one story where the guy realizes his parents have been dead for 300 years and he basically turns into a mummy and dies. Yikes.

Creepy tanuki from The Slaying of the Tanuki
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Here are my favorite stories from the Japanese Fairy Tale (Lang) unit:

The Stonecutter: I liked this story because it had a good moral: be happy with what you have. This is a very relevant message even today. Our society is all about buying the newest TV, phone, car, clothes, shoes, basically everything. We can't be happy with what we have; we just bought the iPhone 6 but we're already getting ready for the iPhone 7. We need a bigger house, a bigger car, a bigger TV. The stonecutter is envious of what others have, but once he gets exactly what they have, he realizes that he still isn't happy. He keeps asking for more and more, but he still isn't happy, just like how buying more things doesn't make us happier (that's actually been scientifically proven). The ills of greed are actually a theme that ran through most of the stories in this first half of the unit.

The Envious Neighbor: This story was actually kind of sad but also continues the theme about what happens to greedy people. The neighbor kills the old couple's really sweet dog with an ax. Yes, you read that right. He chopped up a cute little dog with an ax!! Because the dog didn't lead the greedy neighbor to any gold in his garden. This guy is messed up. Thankfully, these Japanese fairy tales don't let evil doers get away with their evil deeds. While we don't get the details of what happens, we do get the satisfaction of knowing his life ends miserably because of his greed. The nice elderly couple lives happily ever after, although they did lose their beloved pet who was basically like a child to them.

The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue: This story also features a sadistic bad guy (or woman, in this case) who mutilates a loved pet (I'm realizing these stories are actually kind of dark). This time, it is a greedy wife that meets a much deserved end. She is an obnoxious person in general, but then she attacks her husband's pet bird and slits its tongue. The bird then escapes into the woods and the husband is heartbroken until he finds it again, but now it's a woman. This part reminds me of the Turkish fairy tales I read last week which included a lot of shape-shifting bird-ladies. Like the greedy neighbor in the previous story, the wife gets what's coming to her but we get the satisfaction of knowing the details this time. She manages to a get a large chest from the bird-woman, expecting it to be full of jewels, but is greeted instead by two snakes that bite her and poison her until she dies. Harsh? Maybe. But she did cut a harmless bird's tongue because she was jealous of it.

The Cat's Elopement: This story was so cute!! It's about kitty love, and I couldn't help imagining my cat, Sweetie, being the female cat. While the two kitty lovers do get separated at one point after being threatened by a dog, this story is actually a happy one for the most part, especially the ending which is basically "they all lived happily ever after." It's sort of like a cat version of Romeo and Juliet (but with a much happier ending) or Lady and the Tramp. I'd love to rewrite this story in a modern setting (maybe starring Sweetie!). Maybe she falls in love with another cat in the neighborhood, although I would hate for her to run away because they couldn't be together. I sympathize with the owners who won't sell their cats to each other (because they love their cats) so they could be together; I wouldn't sell Sweetie if someone offered. I don't think the cats needed to elope, though. The owners could have set up play dates for them so they could see each other, but I also understand that the two cats wanted to be together all the time. All in all, the two end up together in a nice palace with a caring princess owner. If cats could write fairy tales, I imagine they would write something like this.

The two cats explaining their story to the male cat's new princess owner

The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897)

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Essay: The Significance of Shape-Shifting Women in Turkish Fairy Tales

In this week's reading unit, Turkish Fairy Tales, I noticed the recurring motif of shape-shifting women (usually in the form of birds) who usually become the love interests of the main characters. This pattern is seen in The Wizard-Dervish, The Fish-Peri, and The Crow-Peri. Once I recognized the similarities, I couldn't help wondering what the reason was behind them. Why was it pleasing to spin tales about coming across a magical bird-woman creature and then marrying it?

I think the story that holds the answer to that question is The Imp of the Well. In this narrative, a man is burdened with a nagging, overbearing, obnoxious woman as his wife (the narrator describes her as cantankerous). She spends all the money he makes and if he keeps any back for himself, he gets berated for it. If he makes a negative comment about a dinner she has prepared for him (e.g. it is too salty), she makes it badly the next night but in the complete opposite way from the previous night (e.g. not enough salt), and when he complains about this too she goes back to making it badly the other way. With help from a magical imp (as well as letting the woman's faults get her trapped in a well), the woodcutter is able to marry the daughter of a Sultan and live out his life much happier than he was before.

The woman, the imp, and the woodcutter from The Imp of the Well
Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos and illustrated by Willy Pogany (1913)

Just look at that illustration! This is how people literally picture marriage to a typical Turkish woman based on the detailed description of such a marriage in The Imp of the Well. The magical bird-women are always beautiful, usually intelligent, and help the man obtain his fortune, not spend all of it. In a way, I think shape-shifting bird-women are much like the charming princes from the fairy tales we grew up with. When our dating pool is not stocked with quality, we imagine some sort of magical intervention affording us the opportunity to obtain a better quality (and usually the best possible) mate. In our popular fairy tales, this usually means a woman finds her Prince Charming; in Turkish fairy tales, it can happen in the form of an animal that a man has recently come to possess actually being a beautiful shape-shifting woman.

Week 5 Storytelling: Motley

We were three baseball players, but none of us had a bat. So we went to the guitar store and bought three ukuleles, but only one had all its strings.

We came across a leafless tree with three birds in it who didn't have any wings. One of us grabbed the big one with his hook but we decided to walk to China for authentic Chinese food. We climbed a couple of hills and I fell down a really deep valley one time right into a river on stones.

We came to a village with no houses and all the people were zombies. The last living people took us to their house without a floor so we could eat. We asked for some stuff to cook with and they gave us spoons without handles and a pot with no sides. So we baked the bird we caught in the oven and I went to set the table with no top with the plates with no bottoms.

When we were done, we had to let everyone know. I said I was full, the pitcher said he was finished, and the catcher said he didn't want anymore. The pitcher had eaten all the feathers, the catcher all the gravy, and that made me mad so I left to go to a corn field.

I took my blade and cut down some ears of corn. Then a guy with a wagon went through the corn field and I asked him where my blade went. He told me he had been looking for his ten daughters he lost 20 years ago. "How am I supposed to find your blade?" he asked.

So I left again because I was mad and I found the tree with the birds in it again. Someone had killed another one, though, and left it in a box. When I went to look at it, I saw one hundred marauders on motorcycles coming for me so I ran for my life.

I ran to the other side of town and stopped in a church yard to catch my breath. But the motorcycle guys came bursting through the gate and chased me around. I was running as fast as I could but my legs wouldn't move fast at all. So I started climbing a wall to get on the roof, but one of the guys came after me with a metal pipe. My hand slipped trying to grab the roof and I screamed while I fell back to the ground, but before I could reach it-- I woke up.

Big bed, little kid (Wikimedia Commons)

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Author's Note: The source of this story is a tale called Kunterbunt from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos (1913). The title is actually a German word meaning motley, which is why I chose this word for the title of my retelling. Yes, this is a very weird story and it doesn't make any sense until the end, hopefully. This was all just a dream. It's hard to summarize the original plot because it is very nonsensical. Basically, there are three brothers that go on a very strange adventure. They buy broken bows, kill an already dead duck in a stream without water,  and cook and eat with plates full of holes or without bottoms. Then the narrator leaves because one brother ate all the meat and the other all the bones, meets some guy looking for 12 lost camels for 40 years, sees a dead body in a basket, runs from 40 thieves, tries to hide but fails, and eventually falls while trying to climb to safety and wakes up, realizing it was all a dream. I wanted to retell this story because it was different from any other story I had read for this class and I thought it would be a challenge. How do you tell a story that's not supposed to make any sense? I tried to make things my own by changing characters and objects but without straying too far from the general idea of the original plot. I hope that the story makes sense once you get to the last sentence, like the original story where the realization that it was all a dream just made everything click.

Reading Diary B: Turkish Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the second half of the Turkish Fairy Tale unit:

The Imp of the Well: This was probably my favorite story of the unit because of how comical it was. The unpleasant, nagging wife is the biggest fiend in this tale, so much so that the mere idea of her being behind a nearby door is enough to scare away the other villain, the imp. She gets what she deserves for being so overbearing and rude to her husband in the beginning of the story, being left down a well without a second thought (this may sound harsh, but trust me, everyone is better off). The hardworking woodcutter is able to find a much more suitable bride and even protects another woman from unwanted intrusion by the imp that helped him (by scaring him off with a suggestion of his ex-wife being near).

The wife scares away husband and imp
Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos and illustrated byWilly Pogany (1913)

The Soothesayer: This story reminded me a little bit of a story from the Indian Fairy Tales unit called Harisarman. Both of the main characters are men pretending to be something they're not and a confession from a thief allows them to continue the charade without losing their lives. However, Harisarman was a greedy, jealous man and I wasn't happy he succeeded in fooling everyone. The soothesayer was pressured into pretending to be something he wasn't because his wife was petty and jealous of the treatment a real soothesayer's wife received in the local bath house. He was originally a hardworking man at his own craft and was only trying to please his ungrateful wife.

The Wizard and his Pupil: I feel bad for the wizard in this story because he didn't bring the trouble he receives upon himself. He was the one who was approached by the boy and his mother to take the lad as his apprentice. He taught the boy everything he knew. Then, the ungrateful apprentice abandons the wizard to seek his own fortune. I don't think the wizard should have tried to kill the boy, but he certainly didn't deserve to die either. In the end, the boy gets magic, money, and lives happily with his mom, but the wizard who made it all possible died after being betrayed by him. That doesn't seem like a fair outcome to me at all.

Kunterbunt: This story was so weird! At first it made no sense whatsoever, and I seriously questioned the literary significance of the tale. However, making one simple fact known not only makes sense of the plot but proves how brilliant of a story it actually is: it was all a dream! Real dreams can be very strange at times and make little or no sense once you wake up and recall what happened. Knowing this piece of information, I realized that the whole confusing first scenes really do read just like a retelling of a strange dream someone had. I like stories that keep you guessing and reading so you can find out what in the world is going on until you come across the one missing piece to the puzzle that makes everything clear, so I really enjoyed this tale.

Reading Diary A: Turkish Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the first half of the Turkish Fairy Tales reading unit:

Fear: After I got into the story a little bit, I realized this was very similar to a story that I'd read before written by the brothers Grimm, something about a boy who goes searching to figure out what fear is. I don't remember the Grimm version very well, but this version of the tale is creepy yet funny. This guy really isn't afraid of anything at first. An arm grabs him in a graveyard asking for the food he's making and he's just like, "Get your hand away from my food." I would have freaked out! Then a creepy ghost girl stands on his shoulders to try to make some other creepy ghost kid stop crying and almost strangles him with her feet, but the hero just falls over and takes her bracelet that fell on the floor. Then he jumps into the sea and beats up a sea witch terrorizing a ship with no qualms. And what ends up scaring this guy? A bird flying out into his face! Seriously?!

The Wizard-Dervish: This story also reminded me of something I had previously read, a story from the Indian Fairy Tales unit I read last week called The Prince and the Fakir. Both stories involve a king making a deal with a man who can do magic so that he can have a son (or two). The magic man helps the king but says he'll be back to take the son when he is a certain age. The magic man makes good on his promise and the boy is taken away. However, I found The Wizard-Dervish to be funnier and more of a kids story. I can just imagine a group of kids giggling each time the dervish's daughter changes herself and the prince into different things, people, or animals and tricking her mom (a witch who wasn't asked her permission for the two to get married). I also noticed a similarity between the first two stories of the unit that would actually show up in all the readings: shape-shifting bird-ladies. In all the stories, there is at least one woman who shape-shifts from some kind of animal into a woman, and in the last 3 stories she ends up marrying the main character.

The Fish-Peri: This time the shape-shifting woman takes the form of a fish. She is caught by the hero, put in a well he made, and turns into a woman while he is gone fishing to take care of his house. He catches her in her human form and burns the fish skin she shed so she can't transform back. Though she says he shouldn't have done that, she doesn't seem upset at all. In fact, the careless boy does several things she tells him not to do, but each time there really aren't any consequences for his actions. In most fairy tales, the inability to follow instructions leads to the failure of a character's task or the breaking of some sort of spell or agreement, ending with the main character being sad. Overall, this story was a little odd or different, but in a good way. The main guy marries a fish lady, there are donkeys hatching from eggs, a talking baby slapping a king, and an Arab who lives in the ocean, seems like a genie, and provides the talking baby as well as other impossible, magical feats.

Baby slapping the padishah (great king) from
Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos and illustrated byWilly Pogany (1913)

The Crow-Peri: This story and The Fish-Peri have a few similarities. The main characters are both males, have a shape-shifting guide that they end up marrying, and must complete impossible tasks (which they do successfully thanks to their guides). In this story, we have another shape-shifting bird-lady; what is it with Turkish fairy tales and shape-shifting bird-ladies? Also, what's with the 40 day time limit on impossible tasks? (The shah sets the same kind of time limit for some of the tasks in The Fish-Peri, too.) This one was probably my favorite story of all because more than one person gets a happy ending. The hero marries his bird-lady, the shah marries the peri queen, and the queen is reunited with her pet bird and ex-servant. Everybody wins, except for the greedy lala (court official). Just the way things should be!

Essay: Evaluating the Indian Fairy Tales Reading Unit

I had the pleasure of reading another wonderful unit this week: Indian Fairy Tales. I was a little apprehensive at first because I don't know a lot about Indian culture or storytelling traditions, but I successfully made it through this unit without needing much foreknowledge about the subject. However, there were a few things I would have liked to have had clarification on. They are mostly small things that didn't really detract from the reading or make it more difficult to complete. For one thing, I didn't know what some of the professional titles of certain characters meant. There were several men called Brahmans (Brahmen?). Even after reading the stories, I don't know what they are, but not knowing didn't really factor into how well I understood the stories. Since information can't be added into the stories themselves, I would suggest adding just quick notes before the stories to let unfamiliar readers know a little bit about culture-specific characters before they encounter them in the tales.

While being unfamiliar with the Indian stories was a small snag, it actually played a part in why I enjoyed this unit. I like discovering new stories and types of literature that I like to read. I haven't had a lot of experience with Indian mythology or fairy tales, but my first encounter with them has been a positive one. There were stories that made me laugh, stories that made me upset (the big fake Harisarman gets away with everything!), and stories that might just become some of my favorites from the whole course.

Another thing I liked about this unit was the fact that it included stories from the Panchatantra and Jatakas. When I was trying to decide which units I would be reading for weeks 4 and 5, I had a tough decision to make because I wanted to read Panchatantra and Jataka stories but I was also interested in the different fairy tale units. This unit proved to be a happy compromise; I got to experience all three kinds of stories.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading and learning about Indian fairy tales and I would definitely recommend the unit to anyone who is interested in it. If I had an extra semester (I graduate in May), I would have loved to have been able to take the Indian Epics course.

Cover of Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, with illustrations by John D. Batten, (1912)

Week 4 Storytelling: The Considerate Child

Luna arrived at the restaurant early, put her name on the waiting list, and sat on the polyester bench to wait for her siblings to arrive. The first to do so was Apollo, looking just as he always did: cellphone attached to his ear, impeccable suit and tie, and dark, expensive sunglasses that he likely would not take off until they reached the table. He greeted his sister with a swift peck to the cheek, never ceasing his conversation with whatever important person on the other end of the line. Wendy showed up just before they were seated, her cool, grey dress drawing appreciative stares from all the men in the room. She didn't seem to know they even existed. Luna had long gotten past her insecurity about her appearance compared to her siblings'. She was a pale, full-figured, plain girl, but her kind heart made her more beautiful than either her handsome brother or stunning sister.

The hostess called for Luna's party and they followed her to a secluded booth at the back of the restaurant. They gave their drink orders to the tiny waitress and silence descended upon them once they were alone. Finally ditching his phone and glasses, Apollo took it upon himself to get the conversation started.

A fancy and very kitsch dinner table
(Wikimedia Commons)

"Well, how are my favorite sisters doing?" he asked, although he hardly seemed interested.

"I just got in from Paris," Wendy offered. She was always traveling, ever since her mother and father had decided she was old enough to go on her own. Once they had set her free, she blew from one place to another, never staying anywhere for long. She was only here, in their hometown, for the same reason the other two were: to see their mother, Estelle, on her birthday. If Estelle weren't so old, she would be here having dinner with them and moderating the conversation much more effectively, but she insisted her children continue the family tradition of eating at her favorite restaurant even though she hardly ever left her bed anymore and their father had died five years before.

"I've just been working, as usual," Luna explained, keeping the conversation going. "We're doing Carmen this season." Luna, like her mother, was an accomplished opera soprano. She didn't even need the immense trust fund her parents had established for her when she was born, as they had for her siblings as well.

"Fascinating," Apollo commented, clearly feeling the farthest thing from fascinated a person could be. He had always been a selfish, shallow person. His concern with outer beauty had made him one of the most sought after fashion photographers in the world and whenever he did manage to come home, he was usually accompanied by a wafer thin model he had done a shoot with recently. None of them came with him more than once.

They continued to make small talk all through their meal, seeming more like business associates than bother and sisters. When Luna ordered a whole meal to go when they had finished, Apollo and Wendy shot each other a knowing glance. She was always the plump one the look said. To-go box in tow, the three siblings donned their coats and once outside, hailed a taxi to take them to their family estate.

Victorian house
(Pixabay)

The ride there was silent, having spent all their filler conversation at dinner. When the yellow car stopped in front of the wrought iron gates of the Nox estate (5 miles outside the city), they filed out of the car, up the winding lawn path, and into the ancient house. After hanging their coats, they wordlessly ascended the stairs and paused before the floor-to-ceiling wooden door on the third floor. This time all three of the siblings shared a silent look, an awkward and uncomfortable one. Behind the door, buried under the covers of an immense bed was their mother, living out the rest of what few days or weeks she might have left. The question of their inheritance sat thick in the air, for though they assumed it would be an equal, three way split, their mother had revealed nothing about the subject. Least concerned and most at ease, Luna raised her hand to knock on the thick wooden door and the three of them entered together when a quite voice behind it told them to.

The frail woman on the bed smiled up at her three children, resting on a mound of plush pillows. They each came up, kissed her on the cheek, and wished her a happy birthday. Luna's kiss was full of warmth and love, and Estelle's eyes shone when her daughter presented her with the to-go box containing her favorite dish from her favorite restaurant. She called the other two forward indicating they should sit on her bed.

"I know what you wish to know," their mother told them. "On the matter of your inheritance, I have thought long and hard. Apollo, my son, you shall receive the summer house in India and enough money to maintain the property for as long as you live. Wendy, you shall receive the house on the plains and the money to maintain it as well. You both will still have your trust funds, of course." She paused to let the message sink in, neither child looking particularly pleased. Clearly they had expected more.

"And you, Luna, my youngest, I leave you the Nox estate and the remainder of the family fortune to do with what you please. You have always been the kindest, most caring, and most selfless of my children. I'm sure that amount of money in the right hands can do wonders for this world."

And she was right. When the fortune passed to Luna, she donated a set amount annually to several charity organizations. In memory of Estelle, she also set up a scholarship in her mother's name for a talented soprano opera student at their alma mater, Julliard.

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Author's Note: This story is based on How the Sun, the Moon, and the Wind Went Out to Dinner from the book Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1912). I changed the celestial bodies to actual people with names indicating the character they're based off of (Luna is the moon, Apollo the sun, Wendy the wind, and Estelle is mother star). The punishments given in the original story were hot rays for the sun and to blow in hot dry weather for the wind. Both sentences ensure that the two will be despised by those who are subjected to their powers. The moon is rewarded by being kept "ever cool, and calm, and bright." Unlike her siblings, the moon is to be beloved by all.

Reading Diary B: Indian Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the second half of the Indian Fairy Tales reading unit:

The Talkative Tortoise: I thought this story was very funny. The main conflict of the plot is humorous: the king talks too much and his adviser doesn't know how to tell him so or teach him a lesson. Thankfully (and comically), a tortoise who also talks too much lands dead in the courtyard of the palace, a victim of his own inability to stop talking. And ta-da! Lesson learned for the king, the lesson being "if you talk too much, bad things will happen to you!" Besides the death of the tortoise, this seems very much like a children's cautionary tale: "Don't bother your mom by talking too much all the time or you might end up like the tortoise."

The Gold-Giving Serpent: This story reminds me of an Aesop tale, The Man and the Serpent. In both stories, a man wishes to reconcile with a snake after his son has done the snake harm and the snake killed the man's son. The man comes to the snake to try to make amends, but the snake says that they can't be friends anymore. I can't decide if the snake is showing wisdom or stubbornness. It is true that it is hard to forgive and forget, but the man seems to have done so and when, I believe, he was the more injured party (the snake killed his son!). While you probably can't go back to the way things were before you hurt each other, you could at least be able to be civil to one another.

Why the Fish Laughed: This story was a bit long but actually quite interesting. At first, you don't really understand what is going on. You don't know why the fish laughed and you don't really understand the vazier's son's odd sayings either. However, once you meet the farmer's daughter and she explains everything, things begin to make sense. I think the test to figure out which maid is actually a man is a tad sexist. "Men are better athletes so if a maid can jump over this ditch then she must actually be a man." So because women are weaker than men, they aren't as good of athletes? Why didn't they just check each one for, you know, sings of being a man? What if they killed an innocent women simply because she could jump really far??

How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner: I liked this story because it was very different from all the others. However, I'm not so sure I agree with its logic. Mother Star punishes the (son?) Sun by making its rays hot and people dislike it. I, personally, like the sun even when it is unbelievably hot outside. I'd much rather be really hot than freezing cold (like it is now), but this is just my personal preference. I don't live in Indian where the sun might be a good deal more punishing than it is even here in Oklahoma. She punishes the Wind by making it blow while it's hot and making people dislike it, too. Where we live, though, the wind is greatly appreciated in the summer because it usually provides a cool reprieve from the hot sun (but sometimes blows waaay too hard). Again, the conditions may be different in Indian where the wind might not be a cool breeze. Finally, Mother Star rewards the Moon (who brought her back food unlike the other two selfish beings) by putting her in the night sky to be "beloved." I don't really like nor dislike the moon. It is nice that it keeps the world from being totally dark at night, though.

The sun, the moon, and the wind at dinner
(John Batten)

Reading Diary A: Indian Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the first half of the Indian Fairy Tales unit:

The Lion and the Crane: This story reminds me very much of an Aesop fable that I read in my week 2 reading unit, The Wolf and the Crane. In both stories a crane removes a bone lodged in a predator's throat and asks for a reward for his good deed. Both predators reply that the cranes should be grateful that they stuck their heads in the mouths of predators and were able to bring them back out again without being devoured.While I understand the "be grateful" message, I feel like you deserve at least a "thank you" for helping someone out, especially if the one being helped is an enemy because the helper could have let their enemy suffer but chose to help them instead. I think the lion and the wolf are both very ungrateful themselves for the crane's help.

The Broken Pot: This story also reminds me of another Aesop fable called The Milkmaid and Her Pail. In both stories the main character is daydreaming about what they will do and buy once they sell their sole resource (i.e. a pail of milk in Aesop and a pot full of rice). However, while daydreaming, the two main characters accidentally lose their resource by spilling or breaking it. These stories seek to teach the reader not to count their chickens before they hatch. While you're busy dreaming about the future, you may overlook important details or be careless with your actions. However, it is best to stay focused on the task ahead and not rely too heavily on a certain resource for the root of future success; you never know what might happen. I wonder which of these stories came first. 

The Cruel Crane Outwitted: I'm glad the crane in this story gets a taste of his own medicine. His fatal flaw was his greed; if he had quit while he was ahead, he would have had a happy ending. However, he coveted the crab in the water and it is this crab that ends up taking his life. I think he deserves this fate, though, for tricking the fish and eating them all (although, I don't like the graphic mental imagery of a crab decapitating a crane. Yeesh).  BUT the fish should have known better than to trust the crane. One fish made it back to safety, one time. If it were me, I would have wanted some kind of proof that the previous fish had made it to the pond alive and were still alive there.

The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal: Dr. Gibbs was right! This is a wonderful fairy tale! I love that the jackal tricked the tiger into going back into the cage trap. I couldn't understand what the jackal was trying to accomplish by pretending to be confused but his plan worked perfectly. What I like about this story is that the trickster used his cunning to save an innocent person, in this case the Brahman. Usually, tricksters use their cunning to trick innocent people into making themselves vulnerable so that they may be devoured or taken advantage of. This is a great story and I would highly recommend that everyone read it, even if you don't read the whole unit. Just take a minute to read the one story and you won't regret it.

The Jackal tricks the Tiger into going back into the cage
(John D. Batten)