Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part A

Turkish Fairy Tales

Fear: Story source: Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).

• A long time ago, a mother and his son were eating dinner and she told her son to shut the door because she was fearful
• When the boy asked his mother what fear was, she told him that it was when someone is afraid
• Curious about this, he went out to seek fear
• He went to robbers on a mountain and didn't find fear with them
• They told him to go to the cemetery and make a sweet dish there
• When he was at the cemetery, a hand came out of the grave and a voice asked him if they could have any of the sweet dish
• He was un-phased and struck the hand away
• He then returned to the robbers and told them of this
• They next told him to go to a lonely building where he could find fear there
• When he entered the building he found a child weeping on a swing and a girl running back and forth
• The maiden stood on his shoulders and almost suffocated him, and she suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a bracelet
• He took the bracelet and left the house
• When he was walking, he saw a Jew who claimed that the bracelet was his
• They went to the judge to determine whose bracelet it was and the judge told them that kept it until the person who it actually belonged to produced its fellow...
• They next day, the boy saw a ship rocking in the waves and swam down to see what was happening
• The boy discovered that the Daughter of the Sea was shaking the boat and he drove her away from it
• Then he went to a fountain where he saw three pigeons transform into maidens, who sat together to drink and asked about the boy who was not fearful of anything that they ahd done
• The boy overheard this and told them who he was and told them about the bracelet
• They took him to a cave and showed him many rooms of gold and another bracelet that looked similar to the one he found
• He took the bracelet and brought it to the judge who gave him the first
• Then the king died and the pigeon landed on his head, declaring him the next king
• He still hadn't found fear and wanted to seek it 
• The queen asked to put a bird in the soup, and the next day he opened the serving dish and a bird flew out 
• This startled him and finally showed him fear
• I appreciate how the boy wasn't startled by the actually scary things in my opinion, however was scared by the bird flying from the soup.
• I also like that the boy was brave and did not take things to be scary, and ended up seeking a great reward because of it. 

(Workers making the coffin for the king. Source: Turkish Fear)