Week 5 Essay: Women in Persian Fiary Tales

One of the Essay topics to choose from was the role of women in the stories. In some of the past tales, women have important roles and even are the main characters, such as the Arabian Nights unit. But, this unit did not have strong female characters, or paint women in the most flattering light. In the Persian Tales unit, there were women who turned into wolves and killed their innocent husbands, such as in the tale The Wolf-Bride. And there were wives who manipulated their husbands and other family members into doing terrible things. 

            One of the most interesting cases I read was in the story The Wolf-Aunt. In the background information provided, it mentioned that in Persian culture, the sister of the husband is viewed as somewhat evil. The children are taught not to like their aunt on their father’s side. The author’s note states there are two types of aunts, “the mother's sister (khala) whom he is taught to love, and the father's sister (amma) who spoils him and who is kind to him, but whom his mother tries to teach him to hate and fear.” The tale is told to children for the specific purpose of teaching them to be fearful and distrust their amma (father’s sister). It was so strange to me to think that children are taught to dislike one of their family members, because I have always been taught that your love for your family should be unconditional. They are family.

            One of the other stories that really stuck out to me where the women’s role stuck out to me was in The Boy WhoBecame a Bulbul. The woman in this story said "You two ought to lay a wager to-day and agree that whichever of you collects the more firewood should cut off the other one's head." This seems ludicrous for a mother to say that her husband and son should make a somewhat friendly wager in which one will have to kill the other. I could not believe a mother would do that! But, there is an important detail that I believe makes a significant point. She is a stepmother. In many fairy tales I am familiar with, such as Cinderella, the stepmother is not described in a favorable way; although usually not to this extent. I thought it was interesting to draw the similarities of how stepmothers are often portrayed negatively in fairy tales. 

Cinderella was forced to live in unbearable conditions by her stepmother, image source: wikimedia

Week 5 Storytelling: Margie and Frank

The old weeping willow, image

There once was a pair of cats, Margie and Frank, who had fallen in love just when they were young kittens. They loved spending time together curled up by the window soaking up the sun. They would take walks together in the meadow down by the stream. Sometimes they would gently wade in the water just up to the tips of their paws and enjoy the refreshing feeling of the warm water on their fur. They would rub up against the trees and get a nice massage from the bark. Sometimes they would stop and visit with their friends in the meadow like the mouse couple who lived in the sunflower fields or the brother and sister sparrows that made the old willow tree their home.

One sunny day, the cat couple decided to take a walk down by the stream. Frank had gone over to the willow to rub up against the trunk and scratch his back. The water was warm and Margie decided she wanted to dip her paws in to clean them of the dirt. Just as she was dipping her front paw in, she thought she saw the evil dogs from across the stream, which startled her, and she lost her balance. Margie tumbled whiskers first into the stream and was immediately taken down shore by the running waters. She did not know how to swim, and as she meowed and meowed for Frank to come help, she struggled to stay above water and drowned.

           

Frank was so upset and began to meow low he was so distraught. He could not bear the thought of living without his true love. The evil dogs were still across the stream and Frank decided he would sacrifice himself so he could be with his wife in kitty heaven.

The dogs were now full and began to walk back towards their home. The sparrows stopped them and asked what had become of Margie and Frank.

“Haven’t you heard?” asked the dogs.

Margie fell into the stream and drowned

Frank sacrificed himself to the dogs

“Oh no, that is terrible!” cried the sparrows. And they began shedding their feathers in distress. The willow tree nearby saw the feathers falling and asked the sparrows why they were shedding their feathers.

“Haven’t you heard, old willow tree?”

Margie fell into the stream and drowned

Frank sacrificed himself to the dogs

The sparrows shed their feathers

At this news the old willow tree began to droop his branches even lower to the ground. The mouse couple from the sunflower fields saw the drooping weeping willow and asked why his branches were so low.

“Haven’t you heard?”

Margie fell into the stream and drowned

Frank sacrificed himself to the dogs

The sparrows shed their feathers

The willow tree drooped its branches

The mice were so sad to hear the news they immediately started crying and ran home to their sunflower patch. The sunflowers turned their petals to ask why they were crying so hysterically.

“Haven’t you heard, my sunflowers?”

Margie fell into the stream and drowned

Frank sacrificed himself to the dogs

The sparrows shed their feathers

The willow tree drooped its branches

The mice cried all the way home

At this news the sunflowers were so upset and began to lose all their petals, leaving them with just a black round center on a stem.

And now my story has come to an end. 

Author's Note: This is a retelling of the story Susku and Mushu from the Persian Tales unit. In the original story, there is a husband and wife mice and one of the mice comes to drown in a pot of stew. The rest of the story continues with other animals and farmers killing themselves at hearing the news. It is an accumulation story, which I really enjoyed the style, and decided to write a story in similar fashion. My story does not include more deaths than just the first because I tried to keep my fairy tale a little less gruesome than the original.

Bibliography: Susku and Mushu. Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer, illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).

Week 5 Reading Diary: Persian Fairy Tales

These are some of my favorites or most interesting tales from the Persian Tales Unit: 

The Wolf and the Goat: I found this story very interesting… The point I got from it was that you should not take the easy way out or cheat people as the wolf did to the tooth-puller. However, I was very confused by the ending which reads “
And now my story has come to an end, but the sparrow never got home.” I do not remember the mention of a sparrow and cannot find the meaning to the ending.  The opening “Once upon a time there was a time when there was no one but God.” Also struck me as somewhat strange. Another thought I had while reading was how much more gruesome this fairy tale is compared to the fairy tales I am used to hearing.

The City of Nothing-in-the-World: The title had me intrigued what the story would be about, and I can see now how it fits. The story had me very confused and I had no clue what was going on, but I also believe that was the point of it. I also realized that the intro and ending of the story was the same as the first and must be a standard part of Persian fairy tales.

Susku and Mushu: This tale took an unsuspected turn with all the drownings and deaths of the people and animals involved. Again, it is not what I think of when I think of a typical fairy tale. I did like how the story was an “accumulation story” and may play with using that in one of my storytelling posts.

The Boy Who Became a Bulbul: I enjoyed this story more than the others, although the beginning was very gruesome and I did not like the father. I enjoyed the song the bulbul sang and thought it very clever. I thought the son would try to get revenge on his father too because he did not hesitate in killing his own son. I am glad the sister got a treat for her loyalty and the step-mom got what she deserved as well.

The Wolf-Aunt: I found it so strange that this is a tale meant to teach children not to like their father’s sister (aunt/amma) because we are taught to love everyone in our family unconditionally. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending though: “if he had listened to his wife this would never have happened.” I found it light-hearted and humorous compared to the rest of the tale.

Muhammad Tirandaz, The Archer: I enjoyed this fairy tale because of the description and detail. I could imagine the scene as Muhammad rode with the tree branch flailing about, as he was strapped to the horse and screaming. It was also entertaining without the usual horror and deaths in the fairy tale.

The Praying Baker: This is my favorite story from this unit so far! I loved a particular part of this story where the King says “If he is praying only with his lips I shall put him to death, but if he is sincere I shall give him a robe of honour."Many times we speak without meaning or emotion, just to speak and I think it is important that whatever we say, pray, or do be done with meaning and sincerity. It also shows that the Baker gave all his troubles and trust to God and full-heartedly believe in his plan, which spared him his life. 

 

Fayiz and the Peri Wife: I knew from the beginning, that trouble was going to come to the man when they described him as a true and honest man. I have picked up on the idea that in these Persian tales nothing good happens to those who seem innocent. The women in the tale are constantly making threats, which seems to be found throughout many of the tales.

Hemp Smoker’s Dream: This reminded me of the story from the first unit, The City of Nothing-in-the-World. It was very abstract and dream-like. It gave me the sense of an Alice in Wonderland type feeling where the hemp made him intoxicated and created this whole new story and land.

The Story of the Wolf-Bride: Although, this was another gruesome tale between men and women, I enjoyed the message presented in the tale. I strongly believe in fate. In this tale, the man relies on the fate as told by the akhund and the horoscope based on astrology and tried to change fate’s plan. I strongly believe in fate from God’s plan and know that whatever God has in store for me is my fate and I cannot change that. The last line was a perfect ending for the tale: "Whatever is willed by fate, that verily comes to pass."

The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck: This story ended with a grim ending but I really enjoyed it! I thought it was interesting he went looking for his Luck and was asked by all these others for advise on why their life was not going as planned. It made me wonder if they could not find their own Luck. As soon as the poor brother’s Luck told him to tell the wolf that he will eat a foolish man, I knew that the poor brother would be the one the wolf killed. This tale did not have a significant deeper meaning as the last one did, but I enjoyed it for the simplicity of the storytelling and the rather ironic/funny ending.

Tortoise Bowl-On-The-Back and the Fox: I enjoyed this story so much and the trickiness of the tortoise. I have heard variations of this story before because it is a very common tale. I enjoyed this version and how the ending is blunt in explaining that “every one who is greedy is put to shame.”

The Merchant and the Saffron: I found this tale interesting for the idea that they seemed to be “testing the merchant’s Luck.” The host gave the merchant many sheep to see if they would survive the winter, and when they did not he gave him more sheep to see if his Luck would awaken. Finally the third time around, the sheep survived to produce ewe and they had seen his Luck had awakened and he could be sent on his way to become wealthy. In this way, I felt that they were seeing when his Luck would awaken and can be likened to the idea that we “test our luck.”

The Apparition of the Prophet Khizr: I enjoyed this tale the most from this second half of the unit. I enjoyed that the old man who ended up being Khizr explained why the Wazirs had chosen the specific punishment for the poor man. I was confused by what was meant by “every man speaks according to his own intelligence” but understood after Khizr explained how the tailor, baker, barber and loyal Wazir had picked their punishments based on their background. I think the phrase "Every man speaks according to his own intelligence" is a powerful one and explains how our experiences shape our perceptions.