Extra Reading Diary: Turkish Fairy Tales

Myth-Folklore Unit: Turkish Fairy Tales

 

While reading this unit I noticed that in a few of the stories, the main character who is usually a male receives help from a female character who then in turn agrees to become the main character’s wife.  I know that fairy tales usually involve love, marriage, and a happy ending but, there is no romance. The romantic plot is just boy needs girl’s help, girl marries boy. At least in other fairy tales the boy has to fight for the girl’s hand in marriage or at the very least he has to dance with her a some sort of ball. I guess they just like to move fast in Turkish fairy tales.

 

Fear

I really enjoyed this story. The name was the thing that drew me to this story. When I was younger, I remember reading an excerpt of the Grimm brothers’ version of this story. As the main character of this story went through his journey without fear or anything he encountered, I had a feeling that the one thing that would end up scaring him would be the least scary thing he faces. Sure enough, the thing that causes him fear is the bird that the Sultana hides in his soup. Could it be that what the youth felt when he discovered the bird was surprise and not actually fear?

The Fish-Peri

I absolutely love fairies! This story reminded me a lot of the fairy tale The Elves and the Shoemaker. Just like the fish fairy that cleaned the son’s house without his knowledge, the elves in The Elves and the Shoemaker finished the shoemaker’s work while he and his wife slept.

(The Fish-Peri illustrated by Willy Pogany 1913)

 

 

Storytelling Week 4: Aladdin's Genie

Aladdin's Genie

 

The life of a genie is a boring yet hectic one. Every day, I sit in my prison or lamp as you mortals like to call it, and slowly rot. Hour after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year, I sit and wait for my lamp to be discovered only to then become a slave to the one who finds me; my master. Just as I was about to give up on being found, the lesser of the two evils, I feel the magic of the lamp alerting me that my new master is summoning me. My first task was to deliver my new master, Aladdin, from the cave that held both of us captive.

                As I spent my first days with Aladdin, I quickly found out that he was quite a foolish boy. While idle in my prison, I overheard him telling his mother that he has fallen in love with the princess. Silly boy! Did he not know that the princess was promised to the grand-vizir’s son? There is no way he would allow Aladdin to marry his daughter! But alas, for almost three months I listened to Aladdin prepare for the moment when he would earn the princess’ hand in marriage. Once he heard the news of the Sultan’s betrayal, he once again summoned me to do his bidding. My newest task was to bring the bride and bridegroom to him and throw the young man out into the cold. As crazy as this stunt was, it did successfully lured the grand-vizir’s son away from the princess’ hand and made her fall in love with my master. After the three months were up, I was summoned again to provide Aladdin with a scented bath, a horse that was grander than the sultan’s, twenty slaves for him, six slaves for his mother, and ten thousand pieces of gold.

                Once promised by the sultan to be married to the princess, he summoned me yet again to build a grand palace for the princess. Although I have only been with Aladdin for a short time, I am beginning to grow tired of his constant demands. Genie build me this, Genie give me that! All of this fuss over a woman who already possesses more riches than all of the people of China! Humans constantly long for more riches, more possessions while I only long for freedom.

                I have noticed that it has been days since Aladdin has last summoned me and I am beginning to become weary. I know that he has the genie of the ring at his beck and call but, it is not like him to not rub my lamp at all. After a few more days of waiting, I feel myself being summoned. Once I am out of the lamp, I see that it is not Aladdin who has summoned me but the magician from the far west. Somehow I have ended up in his hands and I do not know how. I know that I have spoken ill of Aladdin before but, I much rather him to be my master than this magician. Another day passes and I am summoned again. This time, it is by Aladdin. He has told me that he and the princess have poisoned and killed the magician and he wishes me to carry his palace that the magician had stolen back to China. Days pass and Aladdin once again calls upon my name and requested that I bring him a roc’s egg for his wife. How could he ask me this!? I have done everything for him and yet he still wants more. Aladdin and his precious wife get everything while I, a creature more powerful than him, sit alone in a lamp wishing for freedom that will never come.

(Aladdin and the Magician illustrated by H.J. Ford)



 

Author's Note: I chose to reimagine the story of  Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). I was not sure about how to retell this story so I tried to retell the story of Aladdin from the Genie in the lamp's point of view. The story ends very abruptly because the tale of Aladdin is a long one and I was not sure about how to condense the story without leaving out important aspects of the story. 

 

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights-Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

I went in to this story expecting something similar to Disney’s version of Aladdin(even though the notes about the story said not to). I have to say that although I do love Abu very much, I enjoyed this version of the story more than I thought I would once I found out how different it was. I thought it was cool that in this story Aladdin had two genies! I had to go back and reread one part of this story because when I first read it, I didn’t realize that he possessed two genies. I think this is because I was still expecting this version to the Disney one.

 Besides the two genies, another thing that I found interesting was the fact that this version took place in China. It was kind of strange that the characters still had Arabic names even though the story was set in China. It was also weird that what would be called an emperor in China was still called a Sultan as if they were in the Middle East. Another thing that confused me was how Aladdin and his mother easily believed that the magician was Aladdin’s uncle. I’m not an expert but I know that people from Africa and people from China have very different features. Maybe the magician transformed himself to look like he was from China.

Overall, I think that I enjoyed this version of Aladdin because of the amount of the magic that was involved. This version was basically one huge magic fight with the princess’s hand as the prize.  

(Aladdin and the Princess illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898))

 

 

Reading Diary A: Myth-Folklore Unit: Arabian Nights

Myth-Folklore Unit: Arabian Nights

I think that Scheherazade is a great character! She is very clever and obviously very strong minded. I love how she saw an awful thing happening to the women of her country and instead of sitting around doing nothing and waiting for her own time to come, she decided to stand up to the Sultan in the cleverest of ways.

The Story of the First Old Man and of the Hind

I liked this part of the story because the first old man’s wife was a witch. I am thinking about making my storybook project about witches in fairytales from different countries. I don’t think I have ever heard a witch story from the Middle East before; except for the witch in the Aladdin part of the show Once Upon a Time. It would be interesting if I could use this story as one of my witch examples.

The Story of the Fisherman

I really enjoyed this section of the story. Although it was a little bit confusing trying to sort through everything, I thought it was cool that this story is a story within a story within a story! It feels a lot like the movie Inception (Story-ception!). I also like the switch of storytellers at the end. This section is so much fun to read. The stories are simple but the ways that they are presented are fun, unique, and very clever. I don’t think I have ever read a story in this form before but I really enjoyed it. I completely understand why the Sultan was sucked in to these stories told by Scheherazade and her younger sister; they are very entertaining.

(illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898)