Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

The Story Behind Chinese Valentine’s Day

Nationality: Arab American
Age: 22
Occupation: Law student
Residence: Silver Spring, MD
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic, Turkish

The story is as follows: On the 7th Day of the 7th Lunar Year, two lovers, who can only see each other on that day (once a year), meet through the help of magpie pigeons. The pigeons form a bridge across the skies, heavens, and earth to enable the man and woman to meet and spend the day together in-love. The woman lived in the heavens and the man was a cowherd. They could only meet once a year because the woman’s father, an emperor, did not approve of the relationship. Magpies made it possible for them to meet once a year, a condition that the emperor father agreed to. Legend has it that you don’t see magpies in China on this day because they would be too busy building, or acting, as the bridge between the emperor’s daughter and the cowherd.

Background information: “I heard this story while I was in Beijing. It interested me because I heard the story during the actual Chinese Valentine’s Day itself, and I saw quite a few couples on the streets that day (more so than on Valentine’s Day anywhere else). My Chinese colleagues teased with me and asked if I had a girlfriend to go on a date with in China, and whether or not she was Chinese. It was a fun day with lots of learning and lots of laughs.

“At that day’s evening, my Chinese teacher, named Boya Lin, shared the story with me and my classmates. It was by far one of the most entrancing and beautiful tales I had ever listened to, though it might be thanks to Boya’s great storytelling skills.”

Context: The informant told me this story in a conversation about folklore.

Thoughts: It is interesting to see a story that connects to a legend – two categories of folklore helping to create one piece of folklore. It is a sad, romantic story, one of two lovers who cannot be together all the time due to parental interference. I especially like how it connects itself to the present with the legend about the magpies.

Kolobok: The Little Round Bun

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tumbridge, Vermont
Performance Date: 04/19/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

Main piece: Once upon a time there was an old man and an old housewife. The man demanded his wife to make him a bun from the flour box. And so, she swept out the bin and made some dough in the shape of a little round bun. She put in the oven for it to bake and then next to the window for it to cool. The bun jumped out the window and rolled along the road until he met with a Rabbit coming towards him. The Rabbit told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and in response the the bun sang him a song:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

So the bun rolled away, until he saw a wolf coming at him. The wolf told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and so he sang again:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

So the bun rolled away, until he met with a fox in front of him. The fox told him “I’m going to eat you little bun”, and so he sang to the fox:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin
And baked in the oven
And cooled on the sill.
I ran away from Grandpa,
I ran away from Grandma,
And I’ll run away from you, this minute I will!”

The fox told him “Sing some more, please don’t stop! Hop onto my mouth so I can hear you better”. And so the bun jumped into the fox’s mouth and sang:

“I was scraped from the flour-box
And swept from the bin-

But before he could go on the fox closed his mouth and he gobbled up the little bun.

Background information about the piece by the informant: William Murawski is an American from Polish and Russian decent. His grandparents from Russia used to tell him tales and nursery rhymes from their hometown as a child. William is an aficionado of Russian folk tales and likes to tell preform them the same way as his grandparents performed them for him when he was a child.

Context on the performance: The tale is usually told to children. The song sang by the bun is told with a melody, which is why it is easy to remember verbatim.

Thoughts on piece: The seems more nonsensical than classic western European tales, as they usually have anthropomorphic animals, but rarely a simple object like a bun acting with human characteristics. The resolution of the story is also anti-climatic and dower, but it does provide children with a lesson, which is that one must not be overconfident on a victory like the bun did in the end, as well as the power of wit, as the fox showed. This shows that Russian folk tales are concerned with providing life lessons rather than having feel-good endings.

I Love You Like Salt

Nationality: Bangladeshi-American
Age: 19
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Atlanta, GA
Performance Date: April 20, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Bengali

My informant is the daughter of immigrants from Bangladesh. She told me about a phrase that her mother would often text to her as a gesture of affection:

লবণের মতো আমি তোমাকে ভালোবাসি

Labaṇēra matō āmi tōmākē bhālōbāsi

The phrase translates into “I love you like salt”. This phrase references the fact that food is flavorless and drastically less appetizing without salt, meaning that the recipient brings joy and meaning (aka “flavor”) to the expresser’s life. This phrase actually originates from an old Bengali folk tale, which my informant described to me:

“There is a pretty popular folk tale in Bengali tradition, and from that folktale this phrase, um, ‘I love you like salt/āmi tōmākē bhālōbāsi’. And it comes from this tale where, um, a king didn’t appreciate his daughter enough and his daughter always cooked his food for him. So, his daughter stopped putting salt into his food. And then he realized, ‘Oh God, why is my food not tasting good anymore? What is this?’ and she was like ‘I took away the salt’ and her dad was like ‘You did what now, my daughter?’ and she was like ‘you haven’t appreciated me enough so I can’t- I’m not putting in enough effort into seasoning your food correctly.’ *laughs* And he said ‘I’m sorry. I love you… um… I hope we can reconciliate[sic]’ and then she started putting salt back into his food, and they lived happily ever after *laughs*”

I personally find this expression to be rather beautiful and I love that it comes attached to a narrative.

Heungbu and Nolbu

Nationality: Korean
Age: 47
Occupation: computer programmer
Residence: LA
Performance Date: 2017-4-25
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

옛날 어느 마을에 흥부와 놀부라는 형제가 있었다. 못된 놀부는 착한 흥부를 돈 한푼 안 줘서 쫓아내고, 흥부는 찢어질 정도로 가난하고 힘들게 살아간다.

 

이 도중에 흥부가 놀부네 집에 밥을 얻어먹으러 갔다가 인심사나운 놀부 형수 주걱으로 싸다귀를 맞고 밥풀이라도 더 얻기 위해 구걸하다가 풀이 죽어 되돌아온다.

 

어느 봄날 흥부는 제비가 구렁이에게 공격당하는 것을 보고 도와주는데 새끼 제비의 다리가 부러져 있었다. 흥부는 다리가 부러진 제비를 치료해준다.

 

이듬해 봄, 제비가 박씨를 떨어뜨리자 흥부네는 그 박씨를 심는다. 박은 놀랄 정도로 거대하게 자라는데, 흥부 가족은 먹을 것이 없어 박이라도 먹기 위해 박을 꺼내서 박을 탄다. 그러자 박 안에서 온갖 곡물과 금은보화, 심지어 일곱난쟁이들까지 쏟아져 나와 흥부네는 하루아침에 부자가 되어 풍요롭게 잘 산다.

 

이 소식을 들은 놀부는 흥부에게 그 비결을 듣고 더 큰 부자가 되기 위해 당장 제비를 잡아 강제로 다리를 부러뜨린 다음, 다시 고쳐준다. 이듬해 봄 제비가 박씨를 가져왔으며, 놀부는 그것을 심어 박을 키워 탔는데, 박 안에서 나온건 곡물과 금은보화가 아닌 40명의 도둑들과 도깨비, 똥물등이 쏟아져 나와 도둑맞고 마구 두들겨 패고 집까지 덮치면서 놀부네는 하루아침에 거지 신세가 되고 만다. 그후 착한 흥부네의 도움을 받게 되면서, 자신의 잘못을 깨달은 놀부는 개과천선하면서 우애롭게 살게 된다는 이야기.

 

In the old town, there were brothers named Heungbu and Nolbu. The naughty Nolbu did not pay the good Heungbu for a penny, and Heungbu lived a poor life.

 

In the meantime, Heungbu went to Nolbu’s house to beg for food but Nolbu’s wife hit him with scoop.

 

One spring day, Heungbu broke the leg of a swallow, helping the swallow avoid from being attacked by a serpent. Heungbu treated the swallow’s broken leg.

 

The next spring, when the swallow dropped a seed, Heungbu sowed it. The seed grew surprisingly large and bore a big fruit, and the Heungbu family opened the fruit. Then all the grain, gold, and even the seven dwarfs are poured out in the fruit. Heungbu became rich and rich every morning.

 

Nolbu, who heard this news, listened to his secret and immediately took a swallow to become richer, then broke his leg and healed it again. Nolbu brought it in the spring of the following year, and Nolbu planted the seed that the swallow dropped and it bore a fruit, but the inside of the fruit did not have grains and gold, but thieves, goblins, and poops poured out of it. Nolbane became poor overnight. Nolbu realized his bad deeds. Heungbu helped him and they both had happy lives.

Background Information:

This is one of the most famous stories in Korea. The lesson from the story is that a good person will get rewarded and a bad person will get punished. Everybody learns it at elementary school.

Context:

It is performed to teach young generation to be a good person.

Usually the performance is a form of puppet animation.

Personal Analysis:

This story is good for teaching kids to be selfless, while warning them not to deceive others. It’s good that it’s a part of school curriculum so that morals and ethics are incorporated at an early age. I’m not sure of an American equivalent. The end of the story is the best because Heungbu helped his brother instead of keeping his riches to himself, which could ultimately be just as bad as tricking a swallow. It teaches grace, giving something that wasn’t deserved.

Rabbit and Turtle

Nationality: Korean
Age: 47
Occupation: computer programmer
Residence: LA
Performance Date: 2017-4-25
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Main Piece:

 

큰 병을 얻어 임종을 눈앞에 둔 물 속 나라 용궁의 용왕이 병을 낫기 위한 방법을 수소문 한 결과 토끼의 간을 먹으면 낫는다는 이야기를 듣게 된다.

 

하지만 물 속 나라의 백성들은 전부 물고기인지라 뭍에 사는 토끼를 잡아올 방법이 없지 않은가. 그 때, 용왕의 신하인 자라가 자신만만하게 나서며, 손바닥 뒤집듯 쉽게 토끼를 잡아올 수 있을거라 말한다. 자라는 물과 뭍을 오갈 수 있기 때문에 뭍으로 올라와 토끼를 찾아 간다.

 

토끼를 만난 별주부는 달리기 경주에서 승리하여 온갖 아양과 아부를 떨어 토끼를 설득하며, 결국 토끼는 별주부의 등에 타고 용궁으로 가게 된다.

 

토끼를 본 용왕이 대뜸 “내가 살기 위해서는 니가 죽어야 한다.” 라고 말한다. 이에 토끼는 잠깐 당황하지만, 기지를 발휘하여 “안타깝지만 지금은 나에게 간이 없다. 나만 아는 곳에 몰래 감춰두고 왔다.” 라고 말한다. 토끼는 잔꾀로 용왕을 속이고 무사히 탈출한다.

 

토끼의 배웅 겸, 몰래 감춰놓았다던 간을 받아올 겸 해서 별주부가 다시 토끼를 데리고 육지로 올라가나, 토끼는 “거짓말이야”를 외쳐주고는 산속으로 도망가버린다.

 

이에 허탈한 별주부가 자살을 결심하려고 할 때 지나가던 도인이 “그대의 정성에 하늘이 감동했다” 라며 신선들이 사용하는 약을 건네준다. 별주부가 “어르신의 존함은 뭡니까?”라고 묻자 도인이 “나는 패국 사람 화타다”라고 자신의 이름을 밝히고 이야기는 끝난다.

The King of the country in the water got very sick and heard that only the liver of a rabbit can cure it.

 

But all the people of the country in the water are fish, so there is no way to bring the rabbit. At that time, Yongwang(The King)’s servant, the turtle says that he is able to grab the rabbit easily. Because he can go to water and land, the turtle went up to the land to visit the rabbit.

 

The turtle that meets the rabbit wins the running race and eventually the rabbit rides on the back of the turtle and goes to the palace.

 

“You have to die for me to live.” the king says. The rabbit panicked for a moment, but said, “Unfortunately, I have no liver now.” The king is suspicious, but let the rabbit go to get the liver.

 

The rabbit shouted to the turtle, “It was a lie” and run away into the mountains.

 

Disappointed, the turtle tried to commit suicide, a stranger gave him a medicine from heaven that can cure the king’s illness. The turtle asked “What is your name?” and the stranger answered “I am Hwata from China”.

 

Background Information:

This is a very old Korean novel. It figuratively shows how Choonchoo Kim of Shilla escaped from Kokuryeo.

Interestingly, this story can be viewed from the rabbit or from the tortoise.

 

Context:

This is performed as puppet animation or graphic animation for children.

Personal Analysis:

The ending is a bit of a plot twist and also a bit random. The rabbit is very sneaky, and the turtle is a faithful servant. From the rabbit’s point of view, he was just trying to protect himself and did what it takes to survive. He became a victim at one point because the king asked for his life to keep his own. On the other hand, from the turtle’s point of view, the rabbit is the bad guy for running away with a lie. We want to pity the turtle and side with him especially when he wants to die, but he was given the task to kill a rabbit which is cruel. It is an interesting story because it correlates with history. These animals are a popular choice in lead characters in children’s stories, because they contradict each other.