Reading Notes: Week 5 Turkish Fairy Tales-Part A

Story Sources: Fourty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos. Unit: Turkish Fairy Tales
image from the Crow-peri cont. page

Fear Notes Cont.

• this story starts with a mother telling her son to go shut the door because she has fear. fear of what we do not know
• the boy ask what is fear? and goes out looking for this fear to understand what it is. 
• first he goes into the mountains and finds forty robbers and asked them what fear is. 
• they said fear is where they are, the boy asked where?
• they send the boy into the cemetery to cook helwa, a skeleton hand comes out of the ground asking for food. the boy smacks it with his wooden spoon then goes back to the robbers. 
•  the robbers ask if he found fear, he said no. but saw a hand and demanded helwa but he hit it with the spoon 
• the robbers then send him to a house not far where he could find fear
• at this house was there was a child crying and a girl running. 
• she ask if she could climb upon his shoulders to quieten it. as she is on hos shoulders she began to strangle him with her feet
• with a jerk that threw them down the girl jumped from his shoulders and ran away
• gets into a quarrel with a Jew about a bracelet 
• when he reached the coast he saw a ship tossing to and fro at sea
• he ask them if they found fear, and they say no we are sinking
• the boy swims out to the ship, wraps a rope around his waist and swims to the ocean floor. finding that the Daughter of the Sea was shaking the vessel. he fell upon her and flogged her soundly and drove her away
• he swam back to the shore, and started walking again until coming to a garden
• here he saw 3 pigeons, they each dove into the water and was transformed into a maiden. 
• they each toasted to the boy in his search for fear since they were each of the "fears" that he encountered
• the boy shouted "I am that youth."
• the maidens embraced him. he told them of the bracelet that had fell from one of their arms and how the Cadi is would not let him have it until he brought it fellow. they took the boy into a cave where they gave him the second bracelet. which he went straight to the Cadi received the first and returned
• the maidens did not want him to leave, as nice as that would be he was still on a quest for fear
• in a crowd of people he was told that the Shah of the country was no more. and that a pigeon was to decide the fate of the next Shah. 3 pigeons landed on his head to be the next Shah. 
• he resisted efforts of the crowd to carry him off because he was still on a quest to find fear
• he Shah's last words were let him accept the dignity for tonight at least; tomorrow I will show him fear
• the slaves built his coffin for the next morning, but found him in perfect health. 
• the slaves hurried him the Sultana with glad tidings. The Sultana told the cook to put a live sparrow in the soup-dish. the young boy did not want soup and had to be persuaded to open the lid. 
• when he opened the lid the sparrow flew out, giving the boy a momentary shock of fear.
• then a marriage feast was ordered and lasted forty days and forty nights. he had his mother brought to the palace were they lived.

The Wizard-Dervish Cont.

• the Padishah (king) had no heir and was walking with his lala when they stopped at a wishing well
• the dervish appeared, the king asked him the cause of his sorrow. the dervish gave the king an apple and told them each (king and queen) to eat half of the apple and in no time they will have a son. he will belong to them for 20 years, after that he would belong to the dervish
• upon his 20th year the king found the boy a bride. on the wedding day the dervish appeared and kidnapped the bridegroom and took him to the mountains and told him remain in peace and left
• the young prince was scared for he was alone. he saw three doves near the river. they all transformed into maidens and when 2 were done they turned back into doves and flew away. the 3rd noticed the prince
• the girls father was the dervish, and told the prince that he will come and hang him by his hair on a tree, flog him with a whip, and ask dost know.
• his happened for 3 days, the prince was beaten black and blue until the dervish was satisfied that his victim understood nothing at all and set him free
• one day a dove came to the prince and told him to hide this bird, when my father ask which of the 3 maiden you desire point to me, if you do not recognize me produce the bird and tell it to fly the maiden
• the next day the dervish asked him which maiden he would desire. he released the bird and went to its owner. the maiden was given in marriage to the youth but w/out the concent of her mother who was a witch
• they saw the mother walking towards them. the maiden knocked the youth into a garden and her into a gardener. the woman asked the gardener if they had seen the youth and maiden walk by. the gardener rambled about tulips and spinach
• the woman left and the two were turned back into their selves
• . this happened several times, baker and an oven, duck and a pond. 
• the couple came to an inn at the youths home and the dervish took the youth to the palace where all the guest was still waiting for the wedding. the dove came to the youths shoulder asking why he did not wait for her but here being merry. the youth realized that it was not a dream and went for the maiden and returned to the palace. they were married and the festivities lasted 40 days and 40 nights. 

The Fish-Peri Cont.

• fisherman named Mahomet, he became ill. 
• he asked his wife to never tell their son that he had earned their living by fishing
• both the parents die. and the son is all alone. 
• the son found his fathers fishing net. caught to fish. sold one for bread and coal
• he caught a fish that was to beautiful to eat, put it in his well to keep
• several days he would leave to go fish and come home to his house cleaned and in order. 
• one day he pretended to leave when the fish jumped out of the well and a beautiful maiden appeared. he grabbed the fish skin, and the maiden told him he should not have done that
• being set free the maiden agreed to be his wife, all who saw her beauty said she was worthy to become the bride of a Padishah 
• when the Padishah heard this he ordered for her to be brought to her. he fell in love with her at one look and was determined to marry her
• the Padishah tells the youth that he will not take his wife if he can build a palace in the middle of the sea of diamonds and gold
• the maiden tells him how they can manage this
• the youth followed the instructions. the king now wanted a crystal bridge. 
• the maiden again tells the youth how to manage this 
• now the king wanted a massive feast for all the people of the land, with left overs. again the maiden told the youth how to manage this. 
• lastly the king wanted him to produce a baby a day old that could walk and talk. the maiden told him how to accomplish this. and brought her nephew to the king. with each sentence the baby would slap the king asking why he would ask for so many things.
• the youth and the maiden was married with a party lasting 40 days and 40 nights

The Crow-Peri Cont.

the crow-peri

• a man who had a son spent his time in the woods catching birds and selling them
• the dad died
• the boy found his fathers bird trap, and caught a crow. the crow begged to be let go in promise for a more beautiful bird
• the boy let him go, and set the trap again and caught a beautiful bird. caressed it and carried it home. the crow came by and told him to take it to the Padishah and he would buy ir
• the kings lala was envious of the boys fortune and thought of a way to deprive the boy of it. he told the king how nice the bird would look in an ivory kiosk and said that the boy could procure it for them
• the king gave him 40 days or he will lose his head if he could not procure enough ivory t fir the kiosk
• the boy told the crow. the crow told him to ask the king for 40 wagons of wine. the boy obtained it
• he crow then told the boy of a trough where elephants come and drink, pour the wine in, and when the elephants are asleep cut off their tusk to take to the king
• the bird didn't sing. they didn't know who the owner could be found. lala told the king the boy should know since he sold you the bird
• the boy cried to the crow. told him to request a large ship enough to accommodate 40 maidens with a garden and a beautiful bath. crow told him to always sail to the right
• was told to only let the queen by the high mountains on to inspect to ship because she was the birds owner
• the boy kidnapped that queen. back at the palace passing the bird it started to sing. 
• the fairy queen was not at ease and the king wanted to marry her. 
• the fairy queen became sick and the only medicine that could save her was at her home
• by the time the boy returned with the medicine the queen had nearly died. 
• the crow use to be a servant to the fairy queen that she had changed into a crow as a punishment for her negligence. seeing how she still loved the queen she changed her back into a lovely maiden. 
• the bird catcher and the maiden was married. the false lala was dismissed from his post and the boy was made vezir.