J is for Joints (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!

(Image from here)

The adventures of the twins (Congo)

Twin brothers set out to find their father who had gotten lost on a trading voyage. They travel through a strange country where people can do whatever they want with their bodies. Some take out their bones before climbing a tree so they don't break in the event of a fall. Some turn their feet backwards at the ankle so they don't stub their toes. Some turn their knees backwards so they don't scrape them if they trip, or their arms so they can fall backwards without harm. At a marketplace, everyone is missing their jaw - it later turns out they made it a rule to avoid quarreling.

Sana (Zarma people, Niger)

A beautiful girl vows to only marry a man who has no joints in his body. A snake turns himself into a man with no joints, and proposes to her, spiriting her away from her family. By the time she realizes who her husband is, it is too late. After many troubles and adventures, her outcast brother rescues her.

How people got joints (Dogon people, Mali)

Dogon mythology is full of fascinating imagery and symbolism. Among them, there is a story about an ancestor who was a heavenly smith, who decided to come down to earth on a granary full of plants, animals, and people. He made the journey down the rainbow, defending the granary from the attacks of the Nummo spirits who had no joints in their limbs. Neither did the smith, but the impact of his landing broke his arms and legs, creating the joints that he then passed on to humans, making their limbs capable of working.

Ha! Managed to sneak another body part that starts with J into this post :) Did you see it?

Folktales about women who slay monsters (International Women's Day)

It has become tradition on the blog to post a collection of folktales for International Women's Day. I've had a different theme every year: Women in war, Woman healers, Women helping women, and Badass Grandmas.

This year, I decided to collect stories about women slaying monsters. Many people cling to the belief in traditional stories monster-killing is a man's job, while women wait around helpless to be rescued. Often, this is raised as the main critique of telling folktales in "modern times" - "outdated values" and whatnot. And yet, people who complain the loudest tend to have no idea how many monster-slaying women exist in traditions around the world.

So, on this International Women's Day, let's hear it for them!

(You know the drill. Links in the titles. Image from here.)

Margaret the Giant-slayer (Ireland)

A prince sets out on his ship to seek adventure, and a girl named Margaret asks to join him. As they sail, a sea monster threatens the ship, and Margaret sacrifices herself for the crew. She manages to get away from the serpent, however, and reaches a land threatened by giants. Margaret accompanies her (returned) prince to the giants' castle, and while the prince is asleep at night, she battles the giants and kills them.

Rebeka (Transylvanian Roma tale)

There are several variants of the "Treasures of the Giant" folktale type (a.k.a. Jack and the Beanstalk) with women as protagonists. One of my favorites is the story of Rebeka, which I published on this blog in full English translation (see link). It's about a girl who rescues her sisters from a dragon, and then keeps returning to trick the monster out of various treasures. In the end, she even captures the dragon, although she doesn't kill it. (See also: Molly Whuppie)

The Ginkgo Fairy (China)

In this beautiful story a young man falls in love with a mysterious woman who turns out to be a ginkgo fairy (an old tree whose spirit took on human form). When her husband is kidnapped by evil serpents, the fairy takes up her father's sword, battles the serpents, and rescues her beloved.

The giant caterpillar (Ivory Coast)

A caterpillar as large as an elephant blocks a village road and swallows a little boy. The men of the village set out to fight the monster, but they get scared and run away. Then the women take up various household instruments and attack the caterpillar together, beating it until it's dead, and rescue the boy from its stomach.

The girl made of mud (Transylvanian Roma tale)

An old, childless couple fashions a girl from mud, and their devotion brings her to life. She soon turns out to have magic powers. First, she battles a cursed knight, then a dragon; she even follows the monster into the Underworld, fighting devils and serpents with an ax, and eventually manages to slay the dragon in a shamanistic duel of shapeshifting. (The book linked is in Hungarian).

Li Ji slays the serpent (China)

When a giant serpent threatens Fujian Province and demands maidens to devour, a brave girl named Li Ji volunteers to be sacrificed to it. She asks for a sword and a snake-hunting dog. She lures the serpent out of its cave with sweets, and kills it with the help of the dog. Then she buries the remains of the previous victims. (I blogged about this tale here.)

Durdana Chelmard (Pakistan)

Durdana is a famously clever girl; after a game of riddles, a king decides to marry her. His other wives, however, are jealous of the newcomer, and they convince their husband to abandon Durdana in the wilderness. Alone, she puts on her husband's clothes, and begins a new life as a warrior. She fights and defeats various monsters, goes on a quest, and even saves a princess. Eventually her husband shows up again, but she refuses to go back to him, returning to her parents with all he treasures instead.

Nana Miriam (Songhai, Mali/Niger)

When a monstrous hippo attacks a community, the best warriors and hunters try and fail to defeat it. It is not only ravenous, but it also melts any weapon thrown its way. Finally the chief's daughter, Nana Miriam, goes out to face the beast, and gets into an epic duel of strength and magic. When the hippo, as a last ditch effort, tries to attack her father, Nana Miriam simply grabs its hind legs, and yeets it away so hard that it is never seen again.

Aicha the Demon-hunter (Algeria)

Aicha, the clever youngest daughter of a merchant, traps and kills a man-eating ghoul. However, the ghoul curses her with its last breath, so she can never rest or stay in one place. Turning the curse into a blessing, Aicha sets out on a journey and has several adventures where she defeats sea serpents, ghouls, and werewolves with her expert skills in magic and swordsmanship. Eventually, she manages to get rid of the curse, and becomes a queen.

Hiiaka's battle with demons (Hawaii)

Hiiaka, younger sister of the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, has her own epic story in which she sets out on a quest and faces many obstacles. Among them, she fights Pana-ewa, a reptile-man and his army of creatures. Hiiaka has a magic skirt that summons lightning, and a knife to wield, and she puts up an epic battle against all kinds of monsters and creatures, eventually defeating them all.

Never let anyone tell you that girls can't fight monsters.

Happy International Women's Day!

Good examples, bad examples (Following folktales around the world 105. - Mali)

Today I continue the blog series titled Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts here, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

A madáron vett menyasszony
Bambara mesék Maliból és Szenegálból
Görög-Karády Veronika & Gérard Meyer
Európa Könyvkiadó, 1984.

This book contains 43 Bambara folktales, collected over the course of two expeditions in 1972 and 1975. The stories were recorded first, and then translated to French and Hungarian. Storytelling happened in its natural setting, with local audiences, after sunset. At the end of the book a lengthy Afterword tells us about Bambara history and culture, and the role of folktales in Bambara tradition. There are approximately ten million Bambara living in West Africa, most of them in Mali, but also in the neighboring countries. Among the stories there were some familiar types, but also new ones (for me), and some of them repeated in the collection more than once.

Highlights

In the story of The snake husband, a girl married a snake disguised as a man. Her little sister tried to follow her to her new home, and stuck around even though the bride tried to chase her away multiple times. In the end, it was the clever sister who saved both of them when the husband showed his true nature. I enjoyed the character arc, and the sibling teamwork at the end.

Bambara antelope headdress

I found the story of Siriman the Hunter both exciting and strange. He was a hunter who killed too many animals, and the animals swore revenge against him. In an elaborate plan, they turned an antelope into an attractive young woman, and she lured the hunter away into the wilderness without his weapons. In the end, he had a narrow escape with the help of his hunting dogs, and the moral of the story told us he should have listened to the warning of his mother about the woman. I found myself a little disappointed. Animals had a more helpful role in the Animal companions tale, where a dying father made sure to garner favors with various animals. Later, when his orphan son was persecuted by the village, the animals helped him fulfill all their impossible tasks. Rabbit was the hero of the story of The elephant stomped into the mud, in which an elephant killed everyone who tried to drink from his watering hole, until the brave little rabbit defeated him.
The tale of The farmer and the spirits was both humorous and eerie. Spirits of the land helped a farmer by mimicking everything he did, which was very useful at first (they helped him plough, sow, harvest, etc.)... but when he slapped at a mosquito on his arm, the spirits did the same, and beat him to death. Oops.

The best story of the collection, however, was that of The wicked boy and the griot. Everyone gave up the boy as evil and good for nothing, until a griot began following him around, beating his drum and singing "He is not acting wicked because he is evil" over and over again. At first, the boy only heard the griot calling him wicked, and tried everything to get him to stop... but in the end, the storyteller managed to convince him that he had the capability to change his ways and do good. Lovely story.


Connections

I was reminded of the seven kids story by The beautiful girl who was locked up, and eaten by a hyena. In this one, the girl was hidden in a house by her mother, because she was so beautiful that her father and brothers wanted to marry her. When the hyena got in, mimicking the voice of the mother, and ate her, the story put the blame on the male relatives. On the other hand, there were two stories that I have encountered in other African countries, where a girl abandoned her weak or sick brother, and regretted it later, when their fortunes turned.
There was yet another Kind and Unkind Girls type story (here, the person giving out rewards and punishments was a three-headed old woman), and a race between animals, run by The hedgehog and the heron, who were co-wives, and were racing to get to their hairdresser first.

Where to next?
Mauritania!