Week Five Storytelling: The Liver

There was a young girl, named Alex, who wanted a pair of shoes very badly. She knew they would look perfect with her new dress and every day asked her mother for money to buy them. Her mother, not having a ton of money, and wanting to make sure her daughter worked for it, told her she would give her money for the shoes if she first got her a dozen apples to eat. Satisfied, Alex went to the local market to buy apples.

"Please, let me have a dozen apples for my mother so she can give me money to buy some shoes," she pleaded to the apple farmer.

"Fair enough, you can have a dozen apples if you give me a large basket to put my apples in." So Alex set off to a basket weaver to ask for a basket.

"Basket weaver, please weave me a basket so I can give it to the apple farmer so he will give me a dozen apples for my mother and she will give me money for the shoes." The basket weaver thought for a minute and replied, "You can have your basket when you bring me some twine."

Alex went next to a yarn maker, in search of twine. "Can I have some twine to give to the basket weaver, who will give me a basket to give to the apple farmer, who will give me a dozen apples to give to my mother, who will give me money to buy some shoes?"

"I will give you twine, if you will give me a handmade blanket made of yarn." So next, Alex went to the sewing shop down the street and asked for their finest made blanket to give to the yarn maker, who would give her some twine to give to the basket weaver, who would give her a basket to give to the apple farmer, who would give her a dozen apples to give to her mother.

The sewing shop owner said, "I will give you this blanket when you return with a belt of fabric." Alex now went to a fabric store and asked for a belt of fabric to give to the sewing shop owner, who would give her a blanket to give to the yarn maker, who would give her twine to give to the basket weaver, who would give her a basket to give to the apple farmer, who would give her a dozen apples to give to her mother.

The fabric store owner heard her plea and replied, "You can have the fabric, if you bring me back some buttons." So Alex, now tired, set off to find some buttons. She met a small child in the street carrying a small bag of buttons he found from his travels. She pleaded, "Please can I have that bag of buttons to give to the fabric store, who will give me some fabric to give to the sewing shop, who will give me a blanket to give to the yarn maker, who will give me some twine to give to the basket weaver, who will give me a basket to give to the apple farmer, who will give me a dozen apples for my mother, who will buy me some shoes."

The young boy agreed, "I will give you these buttons for some ice cream." Alex, who had a few dollars agreed and bought the boy an ice cream cone. She then gave the buttons to the fabric store, the fabric to the sewing shop, the blanket to the yarn maker, the twine to the basket weaver, the basket to the apple farmer and the apples to her mother. The next day Alex's mother gave her some money and she went out and bought her the shoes.

(Source)

Author's Note. This story is based off of The Liver, which tells a similar story of a young girl trying to get liver back for her mother to eat. It gets really long and complicated towards the end, which is something I wanted to maintain in my story. I changed it to a pair of shoes and made the other people she encountered anything I could think of, but the original theme and plot remains the same.

Bibliography. "The Liver" from Turkish Fairytales by Ignacz Kunos (1913).

Week Five Essay: Role of Women in The Turkish Fairytales

I think what's most interesting to me is how similar the plots in the stories are. Even though there were around 17 different tales, many had similar plots and characters. Most started with a son, or poor man, who runs across a beautiful fish, bird or other animal. The animal then turns into a beautiful maiden (either immediately or eventually) and the King wishes to marry or take the maiden for himself. The King then puts impossible tasks before the young man, who finds help from his magical animal-maiden and completes them. In The Fish-Peri, he has to build a beautiful palace, a crystal bridge, hold a huge feast and find a talking infant. All of these he finds and helps him win back his beautiful maiden, who he promptly marries. In The Crown-Peri, the young man must win back his fish-maiden by bringing in ivory trunks and the bird's fairy-Queen owner. After satisfying the King he gets to marry the bid, who has turned into a woman. The Wizard-Dervish details the story of a young man who finds himself captured by a Dervish and three doves (who, naturally, are women). One dove-woman in particular helps him choose a wife (her) and escape the Dervish's beatings.

These themes are present in many of the stories in this unit and give insight into how the Turkish cultural values and history. The female always acts as an advice-giver. helping the man through his troubles. I'm not exactly sure why she doesn't start in human form, always as an animal, but maybe it contributes to the magical theme of the tales. Maybe, the male characters need to get to know the female characters (as animals) first to get the help they need, before they marry them. I found these stories interesting and entertaining to read. The magical and mythical aspects made the stories more dynamic, however, I noticed that many did not have an overall theme or moral at the end, like some fairytales do.

Week Five: Reading Diary Turkish Fairytales

Part A: This unit was really interesting and entertaining to read. It was full of mythical talking creatures, changing shape and magical events. In Fear, a young boy is looking for what it's like to feel fear. Through his journey, he encounters three pigeons, who transform into maidens and help him  become a Shah and finally feel fear. The The Fish-Peri, a fisherman caught a beautiful fish, who turned out to be a maiden and helped him complete impossible tasks assigned by Pardishah like building a palace, a crystal bridge, a talking infant and a huge feast. The Crown-Peri is similar in that a woman helps him complete impossible tasks and ends with him getting married and being rewarded. In the end of most of these stories, the male main character marries a princess and lives happily ever after. The female characters usually start out as animals and the male characters think they are beautiful, they usually transform and help the main character and in reward they get to marry each other. This timeline is constant through most of the stories.

Part B: Some of these stories had similar plots as the ones in Part A. However, some got even more strange. Kunterbunt seemed be to the most random set of events and circumstances, it was hard to follow and then at the end it was actually just a dream. Other complicated plot lines included The Wizard and his Pupil, where towards the end each transformed into many things and tried to catch each other, changing so many times resulting in the pupil killing his teacher. The Liver was another that grew more and more complicated as the story went on. In an effort to get back the liver a stork stole from her, the maiden had to get barely from a farmer for the stork, incense from a merchant for the farmer, shoes from a shoemaker for the merchant, leather from a tanner for the shoemaker, an ox for the tanner, straw for the ox and a kiss from a peasant for the ox. Whew, what a long set of tasks for just a liver!