Warm-hearted heroes and elaborate cursing (Hungarian Roma folktales 1. - Ferenc Jóni)

This is a spinoff to Following folktales around the world. I have been collecting books of Hungarian Roma folktales, and it is time to start reading them. Hence, this new blog series. The only change is that there will be no Connections section (since most tale types are familiar).

I encountered the tales of Jóni Ferenc in the archives of the Museum of Ethnography, when I was doing research for my "feminist folktales" collection. I selected three of his stories to be included in that book, because I liked his flair for unusual twists and humorous language (e.g. he has a wonderful variant of Love like Salt, where the exiled princess is saved by a wise old witch). I recently discovered that his tales were published in one volume, and I obviously had to read it.

Jóni Ferenc (1899-1972) was a romungro (Hungarian Roma) storyteller from Ramocsaháza (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county). His folktales were collected by Erdész Sándor in 1960. His repertoire numbered an impressive 163 stories, and his brother and sister (Mihály and Anna) were also accomplished storytellers. This book contains 97 of his tales; the editors only selected one of several variants of each tale type. Not always the ones I liked best, but it was still a fascinating read. Since Jóni Ferenc told to adults (as the majority of traditional tellers did), and Erdész Sándor transcribed his stories literally (luckily), the texts contain a whole lot of adult language and elaborate cursing.

Highlights

One of my favorite tales in the collection was The three golden apples. The hero born from an apple rescued two cursed princesses with the help of a third, and then saved his own brothers as well. I especially liked that he had to fight the princesses, carefully cutting off layers of their frog skin / armor. I also enjoyed the story of The king who did not suffer snakes in his house. It was about a clever servant, best friend of the king's son, who rescued a small snake and kept it (it turned out to be an enchanted princess, obviously). It was a classic "master maid" story, but I loved the clever, studious, kind protagonist. I was also delighted to find a version of my favorite "man hibernates with dragons over winter" folktale type in the book. Here, the dragons were runaways from a garabonciás wizard's service.

A fun twist on the "seeking immortality" tale type was The king who lived for nine hundred years and only then did he set out to seek immortality (and the storyteller still referred to him as "a handsome kid"). In the end, Death and his wife decided to split him in half, and then the queen regrew him from her half, like a starfish. Another creative take was the tale of The little swineherd, who climbed a sky-high tree and ended up in Fairyland. Fairies there spoke their own language (except for one who'd visited Hungary and knew Hungarian). The wings of the Fairy Queen were stolen not by the hero, but by her maids, who honestly were very much fed up with their mistress. By the end of the tale the queen ended up in jail for having a child out of wedlock - but once she was freed, she managed to get her lover back (despite the swineherd having married a mortal princess in the meantime). Another swineherd ended up working as a gardener in a princess' palace, and since he did not only know magic, but also had great pickup lines, he won the princess as a wife. The flirting scenes were very elaborate, and quite smooth, which is unusual for a folktale.

I was amused by the story of the cemetery guard who trapped his own haunting Misfortune inside a bone during lunch. Even though Misfortune fulfilled all his wishes, in the end he refused to let it go, and burned it to ashes instead. The classic "blacksmith and the devil" tale type ended on a twist as well: it turned out that the protagonist, while a hardened gambler, secretly used all the money he won to help widows and children, and therefore gained entry into Heaven. The most head-spinning twist, however, came in the tale of Twenty-four hairy men. In this tale, 24 brothers encountered an enchanted palace with 24 princesses, but they failed to break the enchantment. The youngest brother then got married, had 24 sons, and when his sons grew up, they managed to rescue the princesses.

I was reminded of the Thousand and One Nights by the tale of Kovács János, which was a "story within a story". The protagonist was transformed into a dog, then a bird, by his promiscuous wife. He went through many adventures (fighting wolves and witches), until a kind maidservant rescued him and helped him take revenge.

There were also several darker tales in the collection. One of my favorite tale types, "the princess in the shroud" was represented by The soldier who wanted his pay. Here, the cursed princess crawled out of her coffin every night and scorched whatever he touched. Lame and One-hand was a tale from a type I never liked much, but this version was memorable: two princes were crippled by a witch, and a kind princess decided to take care of them. When in turn a witch abused her in secret, the princes came to her rescue. In the end, they even got their limbs back. In the story of Bogdán the fisherman, the hero was ordered by a king to go visit God and invite him to dinner. His magical wife killed Bogdán, and once he was done with the otherwordly visit, she revived him. A dark realistic tale told about a woman beaten to death by her jealous abusive husband, but a series of heavenly miracles, and the scent of incense, proved that she had always been innocent. He ended up in hell.

There was a fascinating, unusual tale about a princess turned into a wolf. She tried to trap and eat a prince, but he decided to try and save her anyway (along with her people, who were all turned into wolves). He had to fight her first husband, a fearsome wolf, and defeat him to break the curse. The curse, by the way, had been placed on them by the princess' "treacherous, vile father", because she chose to marry without permission. At the end of the tale, since the king showed no remorse, the young couple told him off and cut ties with the royal family. Interestingly, this tale appeared in two different versions in the book, once as a fairy tale and once as a legend. It was also not the only fascinating animal story. In another one, a hunter found a boy raised by bears. When he grew up, the boy won a princess through several tasks set for him by her twelve giant brothers. She tied strands of her hair around his body to make him stronger. There was a lovely moment where the boy encountered a bear again, and cried, reminded of his foster-mother.

Among the more "adult" themed stories, the ones I enjoyed the most featured soldiers. In one of them, a poor man's son wandered into the lair of robbers at night, and encountered another traveler (the king in disguise). They managed to overcome the robbers, with a lot of heavy cursing as encouregement on the poor boy's part; later on, he found out in an unexpected twist who the other traveler really was. Another amusing and uncensored tale was that of King Matthias and the soldier - the king in disguise encountered a veteran, who spoke in a very rough way, but had a kind heart, and ended up saving the king's life.

The Flame-Red Fairy King: a short and weird Hungarian folktale translation

I was commissioned to translate another Hungarian folktale text, so I'm putting it up as a resource too.

The Flame-Red Fairy King 

Once upon a time there was a fairy king, who, for being completely red all over, was called Flame-Red Fairy King, and whomever he touched, he immediately burned. Once upon a time he had a daughter named Tündér Ilona (Fairy Ilona). Once, the devil in the disguise of a merchant asked for Ilona's hand in marriage, and having won her, he took her on his ship to a forest castle by the water, where he had four other ladies locked up in a room. To the same place he invited all the other fairies along with the Fairy King, claiming that he wanted them to visit his wife, but when they arrived, he attempted to murder the Fairy King. However, when he touched the king, he was immediately burned, and the fairies killed him. They kept the castle to themselves, but that magic building collapsed on them, killing all the fairies.

From Ipolyi Arnold's collection.

Text collected by Károly Weber in Szeged, Hungary, in 1835.

Someone needs to turn it into... dunno. A novel, or a movie, or something. Fill in the blanks. :)

Miska and Juliska (Hungarian folktale translation)

I was asked to do a full translation of a Hungarian folktale, and since I already have it, I am putting it on the blog as a public resource. Original text here.

CW: abuse

There was and there wasn’t, far-far away, a king who had three sons. They shared their bread, they loved each other, and they would have lived in peace – except they could not deal with the middle son, who was a rascal [never obeyed directions]. One day the old king grew bored of dealing with him, and told his other two sons: "Listen, my children! Get rid of this middle child of mine, Miska, because if he stays home, he will drive me insane!"  

The two older sons pondered about what to do with their brother. They can’t kill him, or get him killed! What should they do? At last, the eldest had an idea. They wrote a letter to Rút [Foul, Hideous], king of the devils, saying they have a brother who would like to be in his service. Then they worked on running their sibling out of the home. They berated him, abused him, they even blamed him for what he ate, until he couldn’t listen to all their cruel words anymore. He went into the stables, saddled the worst horse, and traveled to Rút, his majesty the kind of the devils. 

When he got there, he rested for three days, and got to know everything around the house – including Juliska, the devil’s daughter. They didn’t admit it to each other, but they fell in love. When the three days were up, the devil tells Miska: "Now, my lad! You shall start your service today. One year is three days. If you can fulfill your tasks as I say, I’ll be satisfied. Here is today’s task: there is a fishpond behind the house. If you do not drain it by tomorrow morning, dig it up, sow it with millet, and bring me a bowl of that milled with grease and sugar for breakfast, you’ll be finished! Do you understand?"

Miska nodded like he understood, but he didn’t understand at all! He went to the stables, sat behind the horse, and pondered. As he was sitting there thinking, Juliska was looking for him inside the house, and didn’t know where Miska had gone. After a lot of searching, she found him sitting on the plank that covered the stable drains [hídlás]. "Dear beloved of my heart! I will love you till we die! [Only spades and hoes shall divide us]. What ails you?"  

"Don’t even ask, Juliska dear!" said Miska. "You can’t help either way!" 

"I can’t? How do you know? Tell me, maybe I can fix things!"  

Miska then told her all of what his majesty Rút had ordered him to do. 

"Well, if that is all" said Juliska "then we can deal with that!"  

She went inside the house, took out the big book, and for every page she turned, a devil jumped in front of her. When she had enough of them waiting, she ordered them to do what Miska was told, and finish it all by morning. All the devils ran like hell, got to work right away, and by the next morning his majesty Rút had on his breakfast table a nice bowl of steaming porridge, with grease and sugar. He had a hearty meal of it, filling his stomach till it was almost bursting. When he finished, his wife came to him and said: "Listen! You know one thing, this lad knows two! [for every one thing you know]" 

"He does, the rascal!" said the devil, licking his lips. 

 By then Miska knew that all had been resolved; he did not need to worry, as long as he kept carrying on. Once the devil was done with breakfast, he came out of the house to see Miska. "Now, my lad! You are a man. So far, I am satisfied with you. Now I shall give you a new order, and if you fulfill it, you won’t be harmed. There is a great forest here. If by tomorrow morning you don’t tear it all up by the roots, plant a vineyard, and bring me a plate of grapes and a bottle of wine from it for breakfast, you’ll be finished! Count on that, and remember it!"  

This time, Miska did not ponder much; he knew Juliska would help him [pull him out of the mud.] And so it happened. Miska was sitting in the doorway, smoking a pipe, when Juliska came to him and asked what news he had. Miska told her everything in detail. Juliska went and picked up the big book, turning pages and summoning a devil with every turn. Then she stood in front of them and strictly ordered them what to do. They were happy they were not in trouble, and went and did what they were told. By the next morning there was a plane of grapes and a bottle of wine on his majesty Rút’s breakfast table. In the place of the forest there was a vineyard, with vines heavy with ripe grapes. Rút’s wife said to him: "Well! You know one, he knows two!"  

When the devil swallowed the last gulp from the bottle, he went outside to see Miska. "Well, my lad! You have fulfilled two of my orders; if you fulfill the third, you will be a real man. Across seven times seven kingdoms, even across the Óperenciás sea, I have a very good friend. If you don’t take this letter to him, and return by morning, you’ll be finished!"  

And with that, Rút handed him a letter. Miska was shocked; he thought not even Juliska could do this. He paced up and down, waiting for Juliska. She arrived soon enough. 

"Hey! What’s wrong?" 

"Hey! I am in serious trouble. Not even you can fix it!" 

"Tell me anyway! Maybe I can."  

Miska told her, but he was on the verge of tears. She said: "That’s nothing! You know what? Let your horse out to pasture outside the village, and I shall turn into a golden haired mare. You can ride me, we’ll go."  

So it happened. The girl turned into a golden haired mare, and rode with Miska, flying like the wind [through bushes and thickets]. When they came near the palace, the golden haired mare said: "When you go in, only say: May God grant you a good evening, I brought a letter! And then come out, not through the gates, but over them."  

Miska did what he was told. When he handed the letter over, he said no more, and when he came out, he vaulted over the top of the gates. They could hear applaouse behind them, and someone yelling after them: “You did well! Otherwise you would have been turned into tar!” 

 When they reached Juliska’s house, dawn was breaking. His majesty Rút and the old lady were still fast asleep. Juliska turned back into a girl, and Miska went in to announce that he’d returned. The devil shook his head, and his wife said once again: "You know one, he knows two!"  

And with that, Miska’s year of three days was up. But on the way home the lovers had decided to escape, any way they could. They wanted to leave the devil’s lair. Juliska went inside the house, spat on the table three times, and at the break of dawn they both fled. The wife woke up in the morning, called into her daughter’s room: "Wake up, daughter! The sun is up!"  

The first spittle called out: "Coming, mother! Coming right away!"  

After a while, the wife called out again: "Wake up already, daughter! Sweep the house!"  

The second spittle called out: "In a moment!"  

Finally the wife was out of patience, and yelled in very angrily: "Come on already, and start the fire!"

The third spittle only answered: "I’ll be right there!"  

The young lovers were far away by now. The wife called out a fourth time, but no voice answered her. She looked in, and saw no one in the room, except for the three spittles on the table. She grew furious. She grabbed an iron shovel from the corner. "Now, shivel-shovel, iron shovel, we’ll catch up to that pretty girl!"  She sat on the shovel and went after them. When she was high up, she turned into storm clouds dark as soot. She was flying after them like a bird! 

As they were fleeing, suddenly Juliska says to Miska: "Whoa! One of my cheeks is burning, Miska! My mother is after us! I’ll turn into a mill, and you turn into a miller. Take an ax in your hand and work on whittling something. But take care that when my mother comes in a dark storm with a whirlwind she doesn’t pick up a splinter of wood, otherwise I’ll die. Understand?"  

Juliska turned into a mill and Miska into a miller. He picked up an ax and started whittling. Suddenly the dark storm clouds reached them with a great whirlwind that almost swept the mill up. Miska stepped on the splinters to make sure the wind did not move them. The storm saw it couldn’t succeed, so it descended on the mill. Miska took up the ax and slashed at it. Blood fell from the clouds like rain [as if from a rain bag]. The storm saw it couldn’t do anything, and turned back. The mill transformed back into Juliska, and the miller into Miska. 

 The old lady got home, and her husband asked: "Did you see them?"

"I didn’t! I saw someone else." 

"Who did you see?"

"A mill and an old miller whittling something. The miller slashed my arm with his ax so bad, it’s still bleeding." 

"You ass! [donkey, idiot]. It was them!" said his majesty Rút furiously. 

The young lovers continued on their journey. They barely made it half a day’s distance, before Juliska’s cheek started burning again. The woman was flying after them again. Juliska says to Miska: "You turn into a dry weed, and I’ll be a little bird."  They immediately transformed. The old lady goes to them: "Listen, you tweeting little bird! Have you seen such and such young people passing by?" 

"I have, but back then this dry weed was still green." 

"Ooh! That must have been a long time ago! Not recently…"  The old lady turned the shovel around, and shoveled home. There, her husband got started again: "Have you seen them now?" 

"I have seen nothing except a dry weed and a tweeting little bird. I don’t know where they have gone."

"You ass! It was them!" said the devil, and he was so furious he almost knocked his wife over. "Go after them right away, and bring them both back to me!" 

The old woman set out again. She sat on the iron shovel. "Shivel-shovel, iron shovel, we shall catch up to the pretty girl!" and she set off. Juliska sensed her again. She immediately turned into a golden duck, and Miska into a lake. The woman came, stripped off, put her clothes on the shore, pulled off her ring and placed it on her underskirt. When she was up to her neck in the water to catch the duck, the duck flew up, picked up the ring from her clothes (because all the devil’s power was in it), and the lake went dry. The devil’s wife was left standing. No Juliska, no Miska, no ring! Well, her husband will take it out on her! When she got home, his majesty Rút asked her. "So, you are not bringing them after all? Didn’t you hear what I ordered you to do?" 

"I did! But they even took my ring!"  That was all the devil needed to hear. He lunged at his wife. He became like a lion. If you ever wanted to see a beating, you should have been there! The kind of beating the woman got, I wouldn’t take for a hundred forints [that was a lot back then]. She roared desperately like a cow after its calf. But now that they had lost trace of the young lovers, there was nothing to do but accept that they were gone. 

 Miska and Juliska traveled on, more calmly now that no one was pursuing them. They reached the edge of the village were Miska’s father and mother lived. There Juliska told Miska: "Now, I can’t go in with you. Promise that you won’t kiss anyone, and won’t let anyone kiss you. If you do you will forget me, and marry someone else!"  

Miska promised, and said “What are you thinking, my dear Juliska! How could I forget you?” But when he walked through the door, someone ran up to him and kissed his hand. He immediately forgot Juliska.

Everyone rejoiced at home at Miska’s return. He was a changed man, a better person, obedient and tame like a lamb. His father found him a nice girl from the village and announced the engagement; all that was missing was the wedding. Gifts were brought to the house, there was so much kalács [sweet bread] that there wasn’t more space for them even on the benches; many chickens, roosters running around the courtyard, tripping everyone up. Juliska heard the news that Miska was getting married, and grew very sad. She took a pair of doves, male and female [a goose and a hen], put them under a sieve, and brought them to Miska’s. Miska happened to be home. When she handed the gift over, she set the male dove free from under the sieve and only said: "The same thing happened to us, Miska, as to these doves. One of them was left alone."  

Miska immediately remembered his promise. He returned the engagement handkerchief to the other girl, and kissed Juliska. They got married, and they are still living happily today if they haven’t died yet.

Mese, mese, mátka, 

Fekete madárka. 

Uj mente, kopott róka, 

Vesd a vigyorgódra! 

[This is a folktale closing rhyming formula, app. Story story, black little bird, new coat, old fox fur, put it on your face] 

Collected in Besenyőtelek, Heves county. Storyteller: Ragó Lajos, 32 year old peasant, former soldier. Recorded in November, 1903.

Tarot Tales: Y is for Youth (the Pages)

Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

For the last time this month, I am doing court cards, four instead of one. We have already met the Kings, Queens, and Knights - it is time to meet the Pages! They are all about youthfulness, new beginnings, and potential. 

Page of Cups

This Page is full on unbridled creativity. They are open to new possibilities, follow their intuition and their feelings, they are curious about everything, and they love surprise discoveries. This card is about new creative endeavors, and seeing the beauty in new things around you. 

Windbird and the Sun (Khoi)

From a very old book, but it's a beautiful story. Thashira, daughter of the Queen of Fountains, is in love with colors. She collects flowers, berries, different kinds of dyes, and paints her own skin as well as the rocks around her home. She admires anything colorful. The Sun falls in love with her and creates colorful sunsets. The Wind also falls in love and brings rain to make colorful flowers. Thashira chooses the Sun, and as she rises into the sky to meet him, she becomes the rainbow.

Page of Swords

This Page is looking for knowledge. They want to learn new things, come up with new ideas, explore new theories, and find new ways to express all these. Since Swords are related to intellect and communication, this Page also has an affinity for wording or explaining things in innovative ways.

The two brothers and the magistrate (Korea)

This story features two very clever brothers who understand the language of birds and are "clever at drawing deductions from the smallest signs" (hmm, where have I heard this before?). They set out to see the world and exercise their skills. They solve a mystery about a lost cow, get framed for murder, and then dazzle a magistrate with all kinds of clever observations and deductions - including the one when they tell him who his biological father is.

Page of Wands

This Page is about restless energy. They are ready to go, starting out on a journey, full of inspiration and creativity. They want to discover the world, find new things, and go places.

The Ocean-Jumping Shoes (Hungarian folktale)

One of my favorite Hungarian tales. It's about a girl who wishes for ocean-jumping shoes so she can travel the world and see all there is to see. When her father finds her the shoes, she sets out on all kinds of adventures, including a visit to the Glass Mountains and an encounter with an evil witch. The brave and clever girl rescues a prince and his sisters, and goes on to many other adventures in her magic shoes.

Page of Pentacles

This page is about material, practical things: learning new skills, starting new business opportunities, finding a new profession, a source of income or wealth. They are actively beginning to turn ideas into tangible things, practicing, learning, exploring.

Archie's besom (Scottish Traveller tale)

One of my favorite tales from legendary Traveller storyteller Duncan Williamson. Archie is a poor boy who makes a living from doing odd jobs with his brother. One day they meet an old Traveller who makes brooms from heather, and Archie decides he wants to learn his craft. He gets to work with great determination and enthusiasm, asking questions and experimenting with making his first broom. The end result is a bit strange: Archie's besom is huge, much bigger than any broom should be. But Archie doesn't despair, rather he cheerfully sets out to sell it. As luck would have it, he meets a very strong-boned witch who has been looking for a broom big enough to carry her. She happily buys the broom, and pays Archie with a magic coin.

Which Page do you feel closest to? Have you started any new things lately?

Tarot Tales: X is for X of...

Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

Today I once again post about four cards instead of one: the Tens (X's) of the Minor Arcana. Tens are the highest non-court cards, and thus they represent the completion or fulfillment of the symbolism of their entire suit.

Ten of Cups

This one is a lovely card (although I struggle to differentiate if from the Nine of Cups...). It is about joy, happiness, love - living a whole and harmonious life filled with nurturing and meaningful relationships. Cups represent water and emotion, therefore this is all about nice warm and fuzzy emotions.

The Bird of Happiness (Tibet)

A young man sets our from a cold and desolate village to bring the Bird of Happiness to his people. As he climbs higher and higher in the mountains he encounters various monsters that threaten him, and demand payment for letting him pass. The payment is always killing or hurting someone else from the village, so the young man repeatedly refuses, and suffers the consequences instead. Finally, blinded, starved, and bruised, he finds the Bird of Happiness. The bird heals him and carries him down to the village, singing a beautiful song that makes the sun shine, the fields bloom, and everyone's heart fill up with joy.

Ten of Swords

This is a baaad card. It is about deep pain, grief, loss, and despair. It is about hitting rock bottom, going through your darkest hour, being betrayed, hurt, abandoned. Lots of hard, painful feelings. The silver lining of this card is the proverbial "nowhere to go from here but up." 

The Nameless Son of Urizhmag (Ossetian Nart saga)

One of the most heartbreaking stories I know. The great hero Urizhmag kills his own child in a freak household accident. The child's spirit begs the ruler of the Underworld to let him return to the land of the living, to go on one adventure with his grieving father. He receives permission, and returns to his father's village. Urizhmag does not recognize him, but he decides to go on an adventure with the brave young warrior anyway. When they return, the boy has to go back to the Underworld; his mother realizes too late who he was. She runs after him, begging the sun to stand still on the horizon, giving her a few precious moments to catch a glimpse of her child before he disappears again.

Ten of Wands

As an overachiever, I relate to this card a lot. It is about taking on too much, and struggling to carry all the responsibility. It is about things weighing you down. This card usually signals that you have to learn to say no, and choose your battles carefully. The workload is too much, and something's gotta give.

The Magic Hen (Hungary)

There are many legends in Hungary about a creature called a lidérc, a kind of spirit that can be both helpful and dangerous. In one story, the lidérc takes the shape of a black hen that never stops working. It brings its owner whatever she desires - gold, silver, diamonds, food, etc. - and keeps bringing more and more of it until it is told to stop (or until the house fills up). If it doesn't get a new task, it takes the owner's soul to Hell. It is very hard to get rid of: the only way to kill a lidérc is to give it a task it cannot fulfill.

Ten of Pentacles

Another nice card. It is about long-term wealth, success, and financial security. Basically it represents achieving a place in life where you can provide safety and comfort to your own family - whether they are blood relations or otherwise. It is about an abundance of material resources that create a secure and nurturing environment. 

The Pasha's Only Daughter (Arab folktale)

A version of the King Thrushbeard tale, but with a better outcome. A pasha's wise and clever daughter refuses to marry anyone she doesn't love. When she rejects a very high ranking suitor, her father grows furious and orders her to be married to the most wretched man in the city. Such a man (a fire stoker from a public bath) is selected, and married to the girl, then they are both kicked out of the palace to fend for themselves. However, the young woman, Uns-ul-Juloos, does not panic. She starts befriending her new husband, little by little, and he turns out to be a kind, trustworthy man. She sells her jewelry and begins renovating the small hovel they live in. She also helps her husband find a new job, and slowly but surely their lives turn for the better. By the end of the tale, with the help of a friendly jinn, they become a wealthy and respected couple. They live in their own palace comfortably, and even manage to make peace with the girl's parents and family.

These cards all represent great highs and lows. How are you feeling about them? 

Tarot Tales: U is for the Universe (The World)

Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

The card: The World

Meanings: The World is pretty much what is sounds like. It's an all-encompassing card. It's about completing something, arriving to a destination, achieving an accomplishment. It is a view of a whole, an understanding of how things fit and work together. It also stands for travel, because the more one travels the world, the more they see the bigger picture.

Selection process: This is one of those abstract cards that was hard to find a tale for at first. I wanted the story to have to do with travel, but also achieving something universal and infinite. Then, it clicked. 

The story: The prince who sought immortality

Origin: Hungary

Summary: A prince, terrified of dying, sets out on a journey to find a land where people never die. He travels far, and encounters interesting places of long-lived people. One is ruled by an Eagle King, who is slowly picking apart a giant tree; until he is finished, no one dies in his kingdom. Another king is moving a mountain basket by basket, and until he is done, no one dies in his kingdom. Finally at the end of the world he arrives to the Blue Kingdom, ruled by a queen who has to wear out a roomful of embroidery needles before anyone in her kingdom can die. Still, none of these are enough for the prince, who truly wants to be immortal, forever. 

So, he keeps going. Eventually he finds the floating palace of the Queen of Immortality. He happily moves in and marries her, and forgets all about the outside world. Eventually, however, he becomes homesick and wants to visit his family (against his wife's warning). He sets out on the journey, only to find out that thousands of years have passed unnoticed. All the kingdoms he'd visited are deserted. He uses magic water to bring them back to life. Eventually, he arrives to the ruins of his former home - and there, waiting for him, is Death.

Death begins to chase the prince, who flees back towards the floating castle. The people he'd helped try to slow Death down, but they don't succeed. Just when the prince reaches the castle, Death grabs him by the ankle, and the queen grabs him by the hand. A tug-o-war ensues. Eventually they agree to throw the prince up in the air, and see whose side he lands on. Luckily, he lands inside the castle. He lives with his wife in blissful immortality ever after.

Sources & notes: You can read the story here.

What are your thoughts on immortality? Would you have stopped in any of those kingdoms?

Tarot Tales: N is for Nine of...

Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

This is once again an unconventional Minor Arcana post. I am picking four tales for the four Nine cards in the tarot deck. I have struggled with the Nines, because they are not easy for me to grasp in concrete terms, but I am trying my best.

Nine of Wands

Nine of Wands is exhausted but not broken. It is a card about still standing after going through a lot. It is about resilience, overcoming obstacles, standing your ground and not giving up. It is also about boundaries - the boundaries that protect you, that you have fought hard for. They keep others from bringing you down, even when it feels like everything is testing your resilience.

Trouble when one's young (Azores)

In this tale, a girl's Destiny appears to her in the shape of an eagle, and asks her if she wants to be fortunate when she is young, or when she is old. She chooses fortune for her old age - which means misfortune plagues her while she is young. The eagle follows her everywhere, and messes up whatever she tries to achieve. She goes through a lot, gets kicked out of all her jobs, until finally she manages to find a place as a servant in a king's palace. In her most desperate moment, her misfortune finally breaks, and she ends up marrying a prince.

This tale type has many other variants. You can read one here, or here, or here. It's tale type ATU 938A.

Nine of Swords

This is not a nice card. It is about anxiety, fears, worries, and all those other dark things that literally keep you up at night. It is despair, lack of self-confidence, and haunting thoughts. 

The Princess in the Shroud (Hungary)

A princess dies of a broken heart, and demands that someone should guard her crypt every night. However, each guard is found dead in the morning. Turns out the princess transformed into a monster who crawls out of her coffin at night to eat people. One brave man volunteers to spend three nights in the cathedral where she is buried. On the first two, he hides in various places, terrified she'd find him; on the third, he jumps into her coffin and locks himself in. She screams and scratches the lid all night, but he holds out. By morning, the curse is broken.

Yes, you know this one from The Witcher. I always thought this folktale is about anxiety. Folktale type ATU 307.

Nine of Cups

This one is also known as the wish card. It is about wishes coming true. It is about satisfaction, blessings, happiness, gratitude, living your best life, having it all. I wanted to find a story that has a water element (Cups), a wish, and a content happy ending.

Search for the Magic Lake (Ecuador)

A king is searching for someone who would bring water from a magic lake to cure his sick son. Two young men set out but they fail. Eventually, their little sister sets out on a journey too, and with the help of her pet llama and some grateful birds, she manages to find a lake. The birds make her a magic fan from their feathers, a fan that fulfills her every which. At the lake, she uses it to defeat a giant crab, an alligator, and a flying serpent. She takes the water to the king in a golden jar. In return, the king grats her three wishes. She receives a large farm for her family, and lives happily ever after. The ever-full golden jar keeps the royals healthy and safe.

(You can also read the story here or here, or find a lovely Spanish telling here.

Nine of Pentacles

If Cups is about wishes, this one is about wealth. It is about having financial security, the ability to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. It is a card for luxury and comfort. It also usually depicts a woman surrounded by nature, enjoying her life. It's the treat yourself card.

The magic brocade (Zhuang)

A poor widow supports herself and her three sons from her weaving. One day she sees a beautiful painting of a palace with gardens, and she decides to weave it into a brocade, escaping into the beautiful imaginary world while she works. When the brocade is finally finished, the winds picks it up and carries it away, and the widow, after so much work, falls ill from disappointment. Her sons set out to find the brocade, but only the youngest succeeds; he finds it in a palace of fairies, where they are busy copying it. He takes the brocade home - and when he unfolds it, it comes to life, providing a gorgeous garden and a palace for the widow (and a fairy wife for her son). They live happily ever after.

If you could have a wish, what would you wish for? If you had the resources, what would you treat yourself to? What keeps you going when times are hard?

Tarot Tales: G is for the Green Goddess ( The Empress)

Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!

The card: The Empress

Meanings: The Empress is a card about fertility and femininity. It is about nature, nurture, beauty, abundance, creativity, birth, and motherhood. It also has connection to comfort, pleasure, sensuality, health, love, and romance. It is an all-around lovely card.

Selection process: Obviously, this story had to be about a woman. Preferably one who is also royalty or divinity. World lore is full of mother and fertility goddesses, so there was a lot to choose from. The easy route would have been to pick one of the big names, such as Demeter, but I wanted to dig a little deeper, and shine a light on less well-known stories.

The story: The princess who made the forests green and the meadows bloom

Origin: Hungary 

Summary: A young prince decides that he will only marry the Princess Who Makes the Forests Green and the Meadows Bloom (Erdőzöldítő és Mezővirágoztató Királykisasszony). His parents try to hold him back, since no one actually knows if such a princess exists, but he sets out on a quest anyway. On his way he arrives to a dying kingdom where nothing grows. He finds out that the king had unwittingly promised his child to the Devil, but the refused to give the baby up, and in revenge the Devil turned the whole kingdom into a desert. The only way to break the curse is for the PWMFGMB to find her true husband, and travel across the land.

The prince meets an old beggar, who tells him that the princess can only marry a man who was a late child, and who wanted to marry her even before he knew she existed. When he finds out that the prince fulfills both, he grants him a magic wand that summons anything one draws with it. Using the magic wand the prince travels to the PWMFGMB's lush, thriving kingdom, and attends the royal ball two nights in a row. The princess falls in love with him, they get married, and on their way home they cross the desert kingdom. Wherever the princess passes, everything turns green, flowers bloom, vegetation grows, and nature comes to life.

Sources & notes: Hungarian text online here.

Runner-ups: A similar fertility blessing appears in the Indian tale of A story in search of an audience, where a newborn girl is blessed with magic nature powers. I also considered including the Lady Tree of the Narts, an actual world tree goddess from the Caucasus who holds magical knowledge (and has a baby with a hero).

Do you like green things? Are you a gardener? What are your favorite plats?

F is for Falcons (Folktales of Endangered Species)

Welcome to the 2020 A to Z blogging challenge! This year my theme is Folktales of Endangered Species. I am researching cool traditional stories about rare, fascinating animals - to raise awareness of what we might lose if we don't get our collective shit together. Enjoy!

Species: Saker falcon (Falco cherrug)

Status: Endangered

The great Turul bird

Hungarian legend

According to Hungarian tradition, our nomadic tribes were led into what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD by seven chiefs. Their leader was named Álmos ('of a dream') for a dream his mother Emese saw when she was pregnant: she dreamed that a legendary Turul bird descended to her as her protector, and a spring welled up from her womb, symbolizing a line of great kings. Álmos' son, Árpád, founded the first Hungarian royal dynasty. The Turul is seen in Hungary as our collective mythical protector.

Legend also says that when the Hungarian tribes began migrating west to the Carpathians, they were led by the Turul bird to their new home. The Turul protected them and their livestock from eagles and vultures on the way.

(No one is entirely sure what kind of bird the Turul was, but most archaeological and folklore sources point to the saker falcon as the most likely candidate.)

Sources: Read the legend in English here.

How can I help?

Read about conservation efforts here, here and here.

If your family had a mythical protector bird, what would it be?

C is for Currant Girl (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Everyone knows the Frog Bride (okay, almost everyone). But have you heard about the Redcurrant Lizard Bride yet?

This folktale from the southern part of Hungary (Somogy county) begins with a widow who has a very peculiar daughter: She only ever eats currants (ribizke), and nothing else. For this, she is named Ribike. Once the currant bushes dry up in the garden, she becomes sick, dying from, apparently, currant withdrawal. Her mother, desperate to save her daughter, sneaks into the nearby convent to steal currants, but is caught by the abbess. The matron at first doesn't believe a girl can die from currant withdrawal, but when she sees Ribike with her own eyes, she has to agree the situation is dire. As a solution, she accepts the girl into the convent, where she can eat as much of her favorite fruit as she wants.

Viviparous lizard, Reptile of the Year
in Hungary, 2018.

Ribike, incidentally, is not cut out for nun life. One day, as she is gazing out a window, she is spotted by the three sons of the king, who promptly get into a fist fight with each other over who gets to court the beautiful girl. When the abbess finds out, she follows prime medieval moral logic: She punishes Ribike for "seducing" the princes. She turns the girl into a lizard, and exiles her to the end of the world.
(As nuns do)

In the meantime, the king sends out his three sons to complete three challenges, to decide who inherits the kingdom. First, they have to bring a length of linen so fine it can be pulled through a ring. The youngest prince wanders all the way to the end of the world, where he finds a bridge (to where?...), and on the bridge he encounters the golden lizard. They become friends, and the lizard (Ribike) talks her friends, the spiders living under the bridge, into making the fine cloth. The second time, the king wants a dog so small it can fit into a nutshell, but with a bark so loud it can be heard all over the kingdom. This time, Ribike descends into the Kingdom of the Dwarves, and gets such a pup from her friend the king (the tale explains that Ribike is friends with the spiders and the Dwarves because she visits them often and tells them stories about the world). Last but not least, each prince has to bring home a bride. This time, Ribike asks the prince to smash her against the bridge - and turns back into a beautiful girl. Obviously, the youngest prince wins the kingdom.

Fun fact: The currant fruit is known in Hungarian as "ribizli" or "ribizke." In some slang, however, "ribi" or "ribike" is short for "ribanc", which is a none-too-kind word for a promiscuous woman. Probably a coincidence, but it does fit the abbess' false accusations about the girl being "too seductive" (this is why when I tell the story, I call her Ribizli, to avoid confusion and snickering).

Do you like currants? My grandparents grow a lot of them in their garden.

If you had to live on one kind of fruit for the rest of your life, what would it be?

The Badass Grandmas of Hungarian Folktales (a #FolkloreThursday special)

Tomorrow is International Women's Day. I have been working on a Feminist Hungarian Folktales collection, and the deeper I dug into out folklore archives, the more often I encountered old women who were smart, active, and all-around badass. I decided that I would like to highlight them in this year's post. So, without further ado:

BADASS GRANDMAS (AND AUNTIES) OF HUNGARIAN FOLKTALES

The ex-princess

In a folktale by a traditional teller from Rozsály, a young Scythian king makes a name for himself by rescuing a cursed princess. Her father had punished her because she fell in love with the wrong person; when the Scythian prince sets her free, she promises to repay his kindness one day. Time flies, the king has sons, the sons grow up, and set out to seek their fortune. On the way, an old woman joins them, not-so-subtly helping them along. She rescues them from bandits, and packs the bandit chief's head away in her purse. Later on, when a king promises his daughter to whoever can rid the woods of bandits, Granny pulls out the severed head, and demands the princess for one of the lads. The king is not too enthusiastic about the match, and orders his servants to toss the prince out of the highest tower at night... but luckily, the prince falls right into the arms of the old woman, who has been waiting around below the tower, with her back to the wall. To catch him. As the story progresses, she blinds an entire army, secures the match for one brother, and finds another princess for the other, until all is well in the end. Once a double wedding is celebrated, the cursed-princess-turned-badass-grandma turns into a dove, and flies away.

The salty witch

You know that story, right? "I love you like people love salt"? Well, in a Hungarian Roma variant the princess, exiled by her narcissistic father, ends up in the woods, and is found by an old woman everyone in the area is scared of. Granny states that the king is a real piece of work, and adopts the princess. Eventually, a young man joins them as a servant. One day, Granny decides it is time to teach the king a lesson, and takes the princess home to the palace, where they cook an unsalted feast together. The king, of course, learns his lesson about the importance of seasoning - and to drive the point home, Granny starts shaking salt out of a magic bag, filling up the room, yelling "Is that enough salt yet? Is that enough?" When the king begs for forgiveness, the old lady nods: "Good. And don't ever make me save your daughter from you again."
Word.

The dragon slayer

In another Roma folktale, an old man is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, and his wife is left alone. The old woman sets out to rescue her husband, walking through a forest everyone warns her not to enter - it belongs to a dragon. On the way, the old woman meets the dragon (it has 28 heads!). She offers it some milk, and manages to lull and hum and pet it to sleep. While the dragon is sleeping, she cuts off her long hair, and ties the beast up so thoroughly that when it wakes and struggles, it strangles itself. Once people in town hear what she's done, they let her husband go free.

The smart mother-in-law

This Transcarpathian story (included in my book) is a variant of Rumpelstiltskin that is much kinder, and all-around nicer, than the Grimm version. More importantly, it features a dowager queen, the king's mother, who is on her daughter-in-law's side from the first moment. To cover up the lie about spinning gold, day after day she stands in the door of the girl's room, spinning stories about why the gold is not ready. No one dares question her word, so she keeps winning time until the whole situation is resolved.

The demon hunter

Hungarian folklore features a type of demonic being known as a lidérc. Most often it appears as an ugly chicken with magical properties: It can bring you whatever you want, in great quantities, and it will make you rich - but the moment it gets bored, it takes your soul to hell. Owners of lidérc chicken have to continuously keep them busy, because their soul is on the line. In one story, a widow finds such a creature, but soon discovers that it is impossible to coexist with - when it is not piling things into the house, it keeps chirping "What? What? WHAT?" until it is given another task. Eventually, the wise old neighbor woman comes up with a solution for how to get rid of the demon (you have to give it an impossible task). Following the sage advice, the widow frees herself, and splits the spoils with her neighbor.

Bonus: The Virgin Mary

There is a Transylvanian folktale that is very similar to Bluebeard, but has a better ending. In this one, the heroine helps her sisters escape from the murderer's castle, and finds a new life for herself as well. However, her evil ex-husband eventually catches up to her, kidnaps her, and drags her back home by the hair. On the way, the scene is noticed by the Virgin Mary, who stops the man, and demands to know what is going on. When the man claims that he has the right to punish his runaway wife, the Virgin says "No, you don't. You are a devil, and you have no claim on any woman." And with that, she turns the man into stone, and escorts the woman back home.

Happy International Women's Day to all real life badass grandmas, aunties, godmothers, and other legendary elders!

Fairies, giants, flaming chickens and green pigs (Following folktales around the world 73. - Hungary)

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 in the series here, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

Welcome to my home country! It was not easy to pick just one book to represent it...

A tengeri kisasszony
Ipolyi Arnold kéziratos folklórgyűjteménye egész Magyarországról 1846–1858 
Ipolyi Arnold
Balassi Kiadó, 2006.

The collection of Ipolyi Arnold from the 19th century is one of the first, and largest, collections in the history of Hungarian folklore. Ipolyi's aim was to gather information from folktales, legends, beliefs and customs, and reconstruct out lost pre-Christian mythology. He published his massive work, Hungarian Mythology, based on these folk texts, but since the reception of it was mixed, he never actually published any of the hundreds of tales and legends he collected.
Of course the 756 (!!) texts in this book were not all recorded by Ipolyi personally. He had a large network of collectors that wrote down and mailed him the stories from all corners of the country. The manuscript was finally edited and published in 2006, in a volume of more than 1000 pages. It is everything a storyteller or a folklorist could wish for. It has a long introduction, a bibliography, an index, a tale type index, plus each story comes with sources, notes, and the relevant paragraphs from Hungarian Mythology. It is not only an entertaining read, but also a rich mine of information on Hungarian storytelling and folklore.
(For Hungarian folktales published in English, see this list, or my own latest book.)

Highlights

The book contains some rare and beautiful fairy tales (or rather, "fairy legends") that read almost like literary stories. One of them is the tale of Huba and Tünde; Tünde is the daughter of a river fairy and a mortal fisherman, who makes fiends with a boy named Huba after her parents return to the kingdom under the river. The two friends grow up and fall in love, and eventually escape from Tünde's stepmother together. Similarly detailed and exquisite are the stories about Kampó táltos (táltos is our word for shaman), the wise and powerful helper of King Matthias. I included one of these in my book about superpowers in folktales. The other one is a long and elaborate fairy tale that involves Kampó looking for the Moon-horse of the king, stolen by a Turkish shapeshifter. On his way he encounters fairies, witches, and helpful constellations. Fun fact: Kampó was originally a Spanish mercenary captain, maestro de campo, in the Turkish wars...
Also among fairy legends was the Fairy of the River Tisza, which did not only tell of an epic war between fairies and giants, but also about how a fairy helped a mortal woman save her husband. Said epic battles appeared in other tales as well, such as the one about Kóbor Jancsi (Jancsi the Wanderer). In one, the Flame-Red Fairy King used his own powers of fire to rescue his daughters from mortals.
There were multiple legends about the desert Mirage (Délibáb), a fairy maiden who was loved by the Sun and the Wind, and occasionally a mortal shepherd (whom she took to her realm along with his sheep, which is why you can sometimes see people and sheep in the mirage).
I liked the folktale of The old beggar and the kind boy, in which the hero was given the power of shapeshifting, and worked as messenger to a king (and eventually married a widow queen). In terms of the WTF factor, the most interesting tale was definitely the Louse-skin Coat, in which a boy escaped his abusive mother and made friends in the woods. His mother had louse as big as rats growing on her; when a king had a coat made from their skin, the boy was the only one who could correctly guess what the coat was made of, and thus win the princess (symbolism, people).

The story of János, who was looking for the land of immortality, had an unusual ending. He was chased by the Yellow Death, but his fairy wife summoned up the Green Death, which killed the Yellow Death, and thus János got to live. This was not the only tale where Death died, either; in another one, titled Why we can't see Death anymore, he simply fell into a river and drowned. Yup.
I enjoyed the story of the Tailor's Apprentice, who was helped and eventually rescued by a large, shaggy dog he feed from being chained up somewhere.
The book contained a lot of folk beliefs and legends about witches, táltos, garabonciás wizards, and other beings and creatures. I really liked lidérc legends; lidérc is an evil spirit, usually in the form of a flaming chicken, that can bring its owner anything, but has to be constantly kept busy, or it takes your soul to hell... There was a great garabonciás story too, about a strange old man taming the dragons of a lake. Among the legends, the best one was about János the Faithful, where a goatherd was trapped in a cursed underground castle, while his daughter was helped by her stepfather (!) to marry the man she loved (with help of the gold sent by her trapped father from the castle). 

Connections

Mazsola the green pig, protagonist
of a popular Hungarian puppet show

The book has a lot of tales that belong to familiar folktale types; the nearly 800 texts nicely outline which stories were the most popular at the time of their collection. Classics such as the Twin princes, the Golden-haired children, Son of the White Horse, Stolen golden apples, Golden-haired gardener, Princess in the shroud, Dancing Princesses, etc. were all very common. Some were more unusual than others - Beauty and the Beast usually featured a Green Pig (as the Beast, obviously), and Snow White was not only hosted by Twelve robber giants, but she also eventually married one of them, after they revived her.
There were countless versions of the Three Oranges tale. Some fairy maidens were born from reeds, eggs, apples, or oranges, while others came from cantaloupes or even griffin eggs. Of course there was a Hungarian staple, the Bacon Castle, as introduction to the tale type of the Three Kidnapped Princesses; one of these tales ended with the hero being flown up from the Underworld by an ostrich.
Another popular type was the Treasures of the Giant, where brothers or sisters set out, survived an encounter with something evil, and then kept sending the youngest girl/boy back to steal more things. In one case, it was about one hundred sisters... I also found some variants of the Koschei the Deathless tale; the best one was titled The Black Eagle King.
The story of the Clever master was familiar from the 1001 Nights; it's the tale where someone dies accidentally, and someone makes money from passing the body around town, tricking people into thinking they killed it. The story simply titled Fairy legend, on the other hand, was a Queen Fairy Ilona variant of northern Selkie stories (with a fairy dress instead of a seal skin).

Where to next?
Slovakia!

Z is for a Zoo (WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales)

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge titled WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales! You can find all other participating blogs on the A to Z Challenge main blog.

If they ask you if you know a folktale that features a zoo, now you can say yes.

The tale is titled the Frog Brother-in-Law, and it starts out very much like a Frog Prince story. A princess encounters the frog who tells her he is a prince. She insists on marrying him, but her father the king orders them to go live in a pig sty. The frog of course soon turns out to be an enchanted being, capable of all kinds of magic.

One day, the two brothers-in-law (the husbands of the two elder princesses) go out hunting, as a contest against their frog brother-in-law. When they are gone, the frog turns into a diamond prince, and conjures up a zoo full of all kinds of animals. Since the two princes can't hunt anything all day, they decide to stop by at the zoo on the way home, and buy some prey. The diamond prince sells them some rabbits, in exchange for permission to brand the princes with his signet ring. Eventually, it turns out that the frog is a diamond prince, and the two brothers-in-law are useless hunters. Happy end.

Let's be honest: We all know the kind of person that would shop for hunting trophies at a zoo...

Bonus: This folktale was collected from the same woman who brought us The Diamond Prince in the Rubber Suit at the beginning of the month.

THANK YOU all for following all the Hungarian folktale weirdness this month! Your comments were delightful :) For those of you participating, congratulations on reaching the end of A to Z! See you on May 7th for Reflections!

Y is for the Yellow Death (WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales)

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge titled WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales! You can find all other participating blogs on the A to Z Challenge main blog.

Yet another cheerful little folktale for the end of this series...

A man has three daughters, one spinning, one sewing, and one plucking feathers. He asks them to warm water and wash his feet. The first two refuse, but the youngest sets out to get fire from the neighbor (who is a witch). She encounters four knights in a row: A white one (death), a red one (red flame), a blue one (blue flame), and a black one (the devil). They tell her to go or to stay; eventually she makes up her own mind to go, and gets the fire from the witch.
When she gets home, she warms water, and starts washing her father's feet. She notices that they are yellow.

"Father, what yellow feet you have!"
"I have walked in many graveyards with them."

"Father, what yellow hands you have!"
"I have buried many people with them."

"Father, what yellow teeth you have!"
"The better you eat you with!"

And then the yellow death eats the girl.

Nope, I don't know what this is all about either, but Little Red Riding Hood has never been creepier.

X is for Xtreme Pig Herding (WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales)

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge titled WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales! You can find all other participating blogs on the A to Z Challenge main blog.

All the 30 folktales that I translated for Dancing on Blades are stories that I love, and tell a lot. But even among them, The Little Swineherd is one of my ever favorites. When I tour abroad, I tell it often, and it works like a charm with all kinds of audiences.

In this story, three brothers set out, one after another, to make their way in the world. The first two fail, because they fail to offer kindness to the animals (an ant and a lizard) they encounter, but the third one succeeds because of his kind heart. This youngest boy climbs a sky-high tree on the king's order, to guard the king's vineyard from invisible enemies (yes, the vineyard is on top of the tree). After completing this task, he is re-hired as a swineherd, to watch over the king's pigs for the 3 days of the harvest.

On the first day, the pigs run out to the field and burrow into the ground. The swineherd gets them back with the help of the ants.

On the second day, the pigs jump into the river and sink. The boy gets them back with the lizard's help.

On the third day, the pigs fly up into the sky like balloons. A friendly falcon helps herd them back home.

On the last day, the pigs turn out to be the king's enchanted daughters.

I have to admit, that last day was my own addition to the tale. Many of the texts collected from the original storyteller were fragmented, with pieces missing. The first two boys got animals, but the last one didn't. The first two days had difficulties, the last one didn't. We had the elements of earth and water, but no air. Based on many other tales of the same type, I decided that there had to be a third piece missing to round out the story. So this is the way I tell it, and it works. Kids especially love the flying pigs.

People who read the book and want to tell the story can make up their own mind about it. That is the beauty of storytelling.