Welcome to the 2022 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Gemstone Folklore. Because I love stories about shiny things. Read the introduction to the project here.
DIAMOND
Diamonds are probably the most well-known gemstone in the world (although they have not always been the most precious). There are thousands of tales and legends that feature them, so it was hard to choose just one. In the end, I picked a story that I find both wise and amusing. Because diamonds have never been my favorite.
Diamonds for Onions
Jewish folktale
A young man (a prince or a merchant) is shipwrecked on an island with a cargo of onions. The shores of the island are covered with diamonds, as abundant as pebbles. Coming to a city, the young man discovers that diamonds have no value to the locals, being so common. On the other hand, they have no idea what onions are. Our hero cooks some onion dishes for the king, and he is so impressed that he rewards his guest with a ship full of diamonds in exchange for the onions.
Someone else (a sibling or a jealous rival) decides to pull the same trick. He packs his ship with garlic, and sails for the distant island. He offers garlic dishes to the king, who is very impressed, and praises the new flavor. The merchant asks for diamonds as payment, but the king offers to pay in something even more precious instead... And the man gets to sail home with the most precious cargo the island has ever known. Onions.
(I love this story, because the price of diamonds has been artificially kept high for decades, and they are not even that uncommon, geologically speaking...)
Sources:
The Jewish Story Finder lists a bunch of variants for this tale. You can read a popular retelling here, and another one here.
Do you like diamonds? How about onions and garlic?
Posts
Haha loved the title of this post, very intriguing, and did not disappoint! The tale is great, reaching that value is in the eyes of the beholder, not a fixed one. Thank you for the story!
ReplyDeleteGreat story! I don't care about diamonds. I love onions and garlic.
ReplyDeleteI must admit, I do like the rainbowy sparkle of diamonds. And this story is a delight.
ReplyDeleteI love your story!
ReplyDeletewww.thisnanorebel.blogspot.com
Interesting folk tale.
ReplyDeleteYeah diamonds are overrated... they don't even have a colour... I loved this tale though ♡
ReplyDeleteDiamonds and onions - not a combination I would ever have thought of. Love the story. I watched a Mission Impossible episode yesterday while eating my lunch, all about diamonds and how much they are worth - they were pretending to be able to copy diamonds to fool a dictator :).
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings: YouTube - What They Don't Tell You (and free fiction)
Love this tale, it made me laugh. I agree diamonds are overrated.
ReplyDeleteHa, I adore that twist ending. Though now I'm hungry for some odd reason...
ReplyDeleteThat's a fun story!
ReplyDeleteI never liked diamonds and refused the engagement ring tradition because of it. Then, when I inherited my mother's diamond ring and wore it on my right hand, I discovered the attraction. So sparkly!
I'd take the onions any day :-)
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for the A-Z Challenge My Languishing TBR: D
Ha ha! Diamonds are pretty and sparkly, but their real value is in how many onions they can buy. (But to be fair, onions do go bad, while to quote Lorelei Lee, "these rocks don't lose their shape.")
ReplyDeleteD is for Demonic
I do love this story! Diamonds are certainly pretty, but with their brutal history, I quit wearing even my wedding ring (although I am now a widow anyway). I do have an antique one of my grandmothers that was pre-conflict. I prefer colorful gems, although they don't come without moral issues either.
ReplyDeleteI do love this story so much. I wrote about diamonds today, too. Value (especially for diamonds) has always been measured by what someone will pay. It is so true with diamonds and the monopolies and marketing in the industry.
ReplyDeleteI love thes
ReplyDeleteIt is all about perception. What we value rarely matches what others value. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThat was a wise king!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great tale - you can't eat precious stones.
Discovery
I love this tale! Diamonds are definitely not my thing, but I do like that they were once thought to be shards of the stars or tears of the gods.
ReplyDeleteOnce again the greedy are punished. I Do like the idea of diamonds being star tears.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, that was a great ending! Too bad for the jealous guy.
ReplyDeletehttps://steampunkcowunicorn.wordpress.com/2022/04/05/d-is-for-dandelion/
LOL!!!! That was priceless!!!!
ReplyDelete@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter - Enter the New Woman
This is a wonderful story to put diamonds in their place. Lovely 'D' post.
ReplyDeleteI don't like onions or garlic, though I can tolerate pickled onions and onion jam. Diamonds have never appealed to me either, since they're so cliché. Though I love my black diamond ring, which also has four small clear diamonds. My ex made me buy it for myself and then kept it at "his" house for a whole year, until our pathetic so-called engagement. Since I bought it, I got to keep it after I finally ended that relationship.
ReplyDeleteGreat tale! Diamonds are beautiful, but not the prettier stones. I prefer rich colors like yellow, green, red ;)
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