Roses, dervishes, warrior women (Following folktales around the world 167. - Azerbaijan)

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!

Százegy azerbajdzsáni népmese I-III.

Abdullájeva Szvetlána

Magyar-Azerbajdzsán Baráti Társaság, 2014.

An amazing and unique book even on an international level (I was having a hard time locating an Azerbaijani collection in English). It contains 101 folktales translated from a five-volume publication from 2005 (the tales were originally collected at the beginning of the 20th century). The introduction talks about how the book came to be, and how selections were made - with an eye to parallels in Hungarian folklore. Regardless of this, however, I found many of the tales unique, and many variants fun and unexpected; it is a true journey into Azerbaijani culture and tradition, and a great read. Stories come with footnotes that explain cultural elements, and there is a glossary at the end of each volume. The book has gorgeous illustrations, and cover art by Arif Huseynov (see some of his work below). There seem to be an English series with some of the tales and the same illustrations: try here.

Highlights

I especially liked this collection because it had so many tales about brave, clever, independent women. My favorite was the tale of Lady Nardan - I blogged about that one in detail here. In the story of Lala and Nergiz twins, a boy and a girl ran away from their stepmother and were separated. The girl, Nergiz, killed a giant, a dragon, and a sea monster before she was reunited with her brother and found happiness. In the legend of Ibrahim, son of Adjem, the hero's mother, Lady Dostu put on armor and protected her daughter-in-law from an invading army. She killed a lot of soldiers before she was defeated with a trick. She did survive, however, and got to live happily with her family. In the story of the Apple of Seven Mountains a princess named Perinous chose her own husband, a gardener, and through various clever tricks managed to convince her father to let them get married (among other things, the young man had to bring an enchanted apple, and burning mummies from the Nile, to prove his worthiness). Lady Gülnar fought giants and read spells in forty different languages to save a kidnapped prince. In the story of Gara Hasan a padisah wanted to kill all women because one had been unfaithful, but the hero convinced him with a story that there are just as many heroic and honest women in the world.

The most complex and intriguing story in the book was that of the hero Tapdig, who, however, was kind of a side character in his own adventure. The main story revolved around a cosmic family feud between the Sun and her daughter. The Sun fell in love with the King of the Underworld, but her daughter disapproved of the match, and the two women fought tooth and nail, involving bystanders like a djinn prince, a kidnapped princess, and Tapdig himself. At the end of the story heroes and anti-heroes all got to live, and the sun princess had to accept that her mother was happy with her underworld lover.

 Another adventurous story was that of Semi, about a traveling prince who first became a pastry maker and then fell in love with a princess who loved his pastries. His boss, however, wanted the girl for himself, and the prince had to weather many challenges with the help of a friendly shepherd before he could get married.

The qadi of Shirvan was a tale of a young and innocent padisah who was taken advantage of by criminals (pretending to be family). Eventually he set out into the world, and having learned from his mistakes he helped uncover conspiracies and rescue kidnapped maidens. Similarly, the tale of Dasdemir was a full on multi-generational murder mystery, where the hero uncovered corruption inside the padisah's court.

I liked reading about Logman, the famous doctor and historical person who performed all kinds of tricky healing procedures (even brain surgery). On the other hand, I was also greatly amused by the simple little story of Jirtan, a small boy who rescued his friends from giants with a trick known to many parents the world over: he refused to go to sleep...

There were interesting smaller moments and motifs in some of the tales. For example, I learned from The snake and the girl how long it takes for a snake to evolve into a dragon, and from the dragon into an evil human being. The tale of Ohaj and Ahmed was a magician's apprentice story, where the palace of the evil magician was literally built from the pain and suffering of his victims; it was described in amazing detail. In the second half of the story the magician's daughter, who helped the hero escape, gave him a quest of her own to see "how far you'd go for my sake."

Connections

It is not very surprising that the collection had a lot of familiar tale types, some of them in more than one version. An incomplete list would include: Silent princess (Melik Mehmed; Jagub and the Fish Padisah), three fastidious men (The three princes;The ruby), various Three Kidnapped Princesses tales, sometimes with stolen golden apples (Südemen; Melikmemmed; The little prince), ebony horse (Nazik Beden), cursed brothers (The seven brothers), clever girl and a king learning a trade (Sah Abbas the weaver), grumpy wife and fake fortune-teller (God save us from Hamperi), secret dream (The tailor's apprentice), puss in boots, or rather fox (Mr. Pear), a hero collecting stories from people (The tale of Hatem), various glass mountain princesses and animal in-laws (Kösa Three-Moustaches; The tale of Melik Jamil), all-kinds-of-fur (Hosgedem), girl rescuing her sisters from a murderous husband (The story of the three sisters), Gemstone Mountain (The tale of Telet története; also featuring a Simurgh bird), golden-haired gardener (The boy on the white horse), various Aladdin / magic ring tales (Janig; The magic ring), a firebird-type tale with a series of challenges (The white bird, named after the helper), trickster maiden (Haji's daughter), clever wife who seduces his own husband three times (Pour water on my hands!), ungrateful animal (Good for good), Magical helpers (The six companions), Fortunatus (Emir and the shah's daughter; The useless boy), three oranges (Pomegranate girl), the hunter's son (Hunter Pirim; Jusif and Senuber), princess who turned into a prince (The secret of Benidas), cannibal girl defeated by her own brother (Iron-tooth girl), and the tale about why elders are not executed anymore (The tyrant padisah). 

I was happy to read another version of the tale about the kind man who wanted to be a robbers' apprentice, but kept messing up the jobs with his kindness (Mehemmed). There was also a tale about the unjust king who hung the person who fit the noose best, not the actual criminals (Logman and his servant). Iskender Zülkarnejn was an Alexander-legend, combining the parts about the king with the horse's ears and the Land of Darkness where the king sought the Water of Life. I also once again encountered the motif of a king checking his daughter's readiness to marry by cutting open watermelons (Semsi Gemer).

I especially liked it when well-known tale types had unexpected twists. There was a creepy version of the "laughing fish" tale, by the way, where the hero was born because his mother ate a powdered mummy head (yup). He then revealed to the padisah his wife's unfaithfulness. At the end of the story he turned back into a mummy head and rolled away, looking for his next victim... The tale of Rejhan was a version of the "kidnapped princesses in the underworld" type, but here we got to find out where the little man with the long beard (a staple character in these tales) actually came from. In the story of The prince and the frog it was the princes who tossed golden apples to girls they wanted to marry (not the other way around). By the way this was a Frog Bride story, where the frog befriended a bunch of other animals, and in the end they summoned an animal army and defeated a tyrant.

However, my very favorite was a Cinderella variant (Beautiful Fatma) where a clever old woman helped the girl with sorting out mixed seeds: she brought her three bowls of new seeds, and tossed the mixed pile out to the chickens. Work smarter, not harder.

Where to next?

Georgia!

Lady Nardan (Feminist Folktales 21.)

Another Thursday, another post for Feminist Folktales! It's a series of traditional stories from around the world that display motifs that reflect feminist values. I am not changing any of the stories, merely researching and compiling them, and posting them here as food for thought. You can find the list of posts here.

Origin: Azerbaijan

The story

A cruel padisah named Goguz has a dream that foretells that his reign will be ended by a 14 year old girl. He orders in secret that all girl children should be kidnapped and killed, all the while pretending to be furiously investigating the kidnappings. Meanwhile, his vizier buys a box from a mysterious stranger, and finds a pomegranate in it. Out of the pomegranate springs a 10 year old girl named Nardan. She had been transformed into a fruit by her father to keep her safe from another cruel padisah. News of the vizier's beautiful daughter eventually reach Goguz, who wants her as his wife. She refuses, and the padisah has the vizier killed in revenge. At this, Nardan disguises herself as a boy, and starts to investigate the disappearances in the city. She discovers details about the cruelty of the padisah, and eventually catches Goguz in the act of kidnapping a baby. She confronts him, but his guards capture her, and they burn the building that houses the kidnapped girls. Goguz announces that they caught the evil kidnapper, and publicly sentences Nardan to death. However, on the day of the execution a sand storm blows in, and Nardan escapes.

Dressed as a man, she ventures into another kingdom, where she meets a princess who's so far refused to marry anyone who isn't her choice. The princess falls in love with the mysterious stranger... and Nardan falls in love with the princess' gardener. She splits her time between the princess and the gardener, changing between male and female appearance. Eventually the princess' father sees her as a girl, and wants her as his wife. Nardan reject him, and when he tries to rape her she punches his face bloody. The padisah throws her and he gardener into prison, but with the help of the princess they escape. Nardan duels the padisah and kills him, then sets out to return to Goguz's kingdom. The princess and the gardener accompany her. Nardan defeats Goguz's soldiers, then duels the padisah and kills him too. From there, she travels back home to her birth family, and duels and kills the third evil padisah (the one because of whom she had been turned into fruit). After all that, she marries the gardener, and lives happily ever after.

What makes it a feminist story?

What doesn't? This story could be the textbook example of "strong female hero" anywhere. Nardan ends the reign of not one, but three cruel kings, as she is prophesied to do so (a favorite trope of YA novels). She is brave, clever, persistent, a good investigator and a great warrior. She faces many challenges, occasionally fails, and has to deal with loss and grief (when her foster father dies, or when she can't stop the killing of the girls), but she picks herself up again and again, and keeps fighting. I especially like that she is not simply fighting for herself, or for a romantic partner - she is fighting for her city and her people. She is a female hero who is trying to protect the girls of the next generation, and save people from tyranny. And all this while her origins are also not privileged: Her father, a shepherd, gave her to a childless padisah, hoping she'd be raised as a princess. Instead, the padisah wanted her as a wife by the time she was ten, which is why she was rescued by being turned into a pomegranate.

We should also talk about the cast of supporting characters. Zernigar, the princess who thinks Nardan is a man, is a lady who knows her own mind (and extracted a promise from her father that she can choose her own husband). When she finds out the truth, she doesn't only not get upset, but also faithfully accompanies Nardan on her quest. Another interesting character is an old man whose bride had been stolen by Goguz once upon a time; his legs don't work anymore, but he is raising two children, a boy and a girl, to take revenge for him one day. They both grow up to be formidable warriors. And the girl is the better wrestler.

Things to consider

I personally think that Nardan, the princess, and the gardener should have ended up as a throuple. Just sayin'. 

Sources

Százegy azerbajdzsáni népmese II. (Magyar-Azerbajdzsán Baráti Társaság, 2014.)

Notes

I can't find this tale in English anywhere online. If you have any leads, do share in the comments, so that English-speaking readers can find it too!