Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

Woodcutter and Angel

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

Main Piece:

 

나무꾼이 나무를 하다가 숲 속에서 도망치는 사슴을 만나게 된다. 사슴은 사냥꾼이 쫓아오고 있으니 자신을 숨겨달라고 말한다. 말하는 사슴을 신기하게 여긴 나무꾼은 사슴을 숨겨주고 뒤쫓아 온 사냥꾼은 다른 곳으로 보내서 구해준다.

 

사슴은 은혜를 갚겠다고 하면서, 나무꾼에게 선녀들이 하늘에서 내려와서 목욕하는 선녀탕이라는 샘을 가르쳐준 다음 선녀를 아내로 삼는 법을 나무꾼에게 알려준다. 나무꾼은 사슴이 가르쳐준 때에 선녀들이 목욕을 하고 있는 샘으로 갔더니 과연, 선녀들이 하늘에서 내려와 날개옷을 벗고 선녀탕에서 목욕을 하자 나무꾼은 사슴이 가르쳐준 대로 날개옷을 하나 훔쳤다.

 

날개옷이 없어진 탓에 한 명의 선녀는 하늘로 올라가지 못했으며 다른 선녀들은 날개옷이 없는 선녀를 내버려두고 간다. 나무꾼이 선녀에게 자신의 부인이 되어달라고 하자 하늘나라로 올라가지 못하게 된 선녀는 할 수 없이 나무꾼의 아내가 된다.

 

사슴이 ‘아이 셋 낳을 때까지는 결코 날개옷을 돌려주면 안 된다’고 경고했었는데 아이가 둘 뿐인 상황에서 애원을 못 이기고 날개옷을 돌려줬다가 선녀가 아이 둘을 양팔에 한 명씩 끼고 그대로 하늘로 날아올라가 버렸다

 

A woodcutter meets a deer who runs away in the woods. The deer tells that a hunter is chasing him. The woodcutter who wondered about the talking deer hides the deer, and tells the hunter who comes after him that the deer has gone to another place.

 

The deer tells the woodcutter that the female angels come down from heaven and bathe in the spring, and how to make one of them his wife. The woodcutter went to the spring and when the women from heaven were having a bath, he hid clothes of one of the women.

 

One woman could not go up to heaven because her wing clothes were gone, and the other women left. She marries the woodcutter.

 

The deer warned, ‘You should never give the wings back until you have 3 children’ When he had only two children, the wife begged for the wing clothes and he gave them to her and she went away with children to heaven leaving the woodcutter.

Background Information:

This story is widespread throughout East Asia. There are different versions with a similar structure. Unlike other stories, it is hard to find any special lessons from this story.

 

Context:

This story is performed as many different forms like puppet animation, song or TV comedy.

 

Personal Analysis:

This is a tragic love story. It’s told to kids but it’s not really about romance. The woodcutter was deceiving to be lying to his wife about the clothes for a long time, but it is sad that she leaves him so suddenly. Her eagerness to leave makes it seem like there was no love to begin with. It might teach a lesson to follow instructions to live a good life, because the woodcutter didn’t listen to the deer.

Pakistani Romeo and Juliet

Nationality: Pakistani
Age: 20
Occupation: undergraduate student
Residence: Pakistan
Performance Date: 2017-3-18
Primary Language: English
Language: Urdu

Main piece:

A boy and girl fall in love, but there’s a river between them. The woman knows pottery and they were going to elope together. The girl decides to run away from home because her parents want to have her marry someone else but the girl escapes but doesn’t know how to swim. She decides to use her pottery as a float to help her cross the river to be with her lover but as she floats across the water the pottery dissolves away because it’s made of clay.  

Background information (Why does the informant know or like this piece? Where or who did they learn it from? What does it mean to them?):

Informant heard it from school by a teacher in a literature class when he was learning back at home in Pakistan. It is just a story to him that he knew as a young boy.

Context (When or where would this be performed? Under what circumstance?):

This story is the Pakistani version of Romeo and Juliet. It is told to children as fiction.

Personal Analysis:

It’s somewhat similar to Romeo and Juliet but it has hints of a culture different from American culture. For instance, the use of pottery as a major item in the story shows that it was a much more common practice and custom. I’m not surprised they have a traditional story like this. Star crossed lovers seems to be common not just in the U.S. but around the world. Kids find these stories entertaining anyway.

The tale of bamboo cutter

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: China
Performance Date: March 15, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese

A friend of mine, who’s an international exchange student from Japan now currently studying in China, contributes this story, one of the most famous tales in Japan. According to her, this is like the most common bedtime story for kids in Japan. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story: 

”

A long long time ago, there were an old man and his wife. They were poor and childless, and the husband cut bamboo to make a living. One day, he found a beautiful shining bamboo in the forest, and when he cut it open, there’s a small baby inside. The baby was a beautiful girl. The old man took her home and raised her like his own. Ever since the bamboo cutter found this baby, every bamboo he cut he would found gold in it. The couple became rich soon after.

The baby grew among great love and care, and she grew as fast as the bamboo. As she became more and more beautiful, she would shine the night like it was day. The old man named her Kaguya-hime, meaning “The Shining Princess”. Three months past, she became the fairest lady in the country. The old couple cared for her a lot and did not let her go out, fearing she would be taken. The news of her extraordinary beauty spread fast nevertheless. Countless people came, hoping to witness her beauty but only failed and gave up. However, five royals (two Princes and three governors) stuck around years after years, wanting to marry her. Finally, the old man was moved and went to Kaguya-hime, said she should get married one day and those five royals did not seem to be a bad choice. Although Kaguya-hime did not want to get married, she also didn’t want to disappoint the old man, so she agreed with one condition – She’s gonna assign each five of them a task, only the one who accomplishes the task can marry her. The five tasks were: Retrieving the stone begging bowl of Buddha from India, a jeweled branch from island Horai, a robe made of fire-rat from China, a five-colored jewel from a dragon’s head, and the delivery shell of swallows. All of these five items were from legends and were impossible to get, and of course the five royals failed.

The Emperor of Japan heard of Kaguya-hime‘s beauty and also wanted her. He called in the bamboo cutter to have him to bring Kaguya-hime to the palace. The old man brought back the message but Kaguya-hime refused so, saying if the old man want to exchange her for the good fortune the Emperor promised, she’d rather die. Since the old man loved her so much, he then returned to the palace and explained that Kaguya-hime was not this actual child so he couldn’t arrange a marriage for her. However, the Emperor came up with the idea of going to the bamboo cutter’s house and having a peep of Kaguya-hime during the royal hunt.

During the hunt, the Emperor saw Kaguya-hime in her room and was mesmerized by her beauty. He broke in and wanted to bring her back with him, but the Kaguya-hime disappeared in the air suddenly. The Emperor panicked and promised her not to touch her again, only begging her to show herself to let him have a final look at her. Kaguya-hime showed herself, and the Emperor left reluctantly. Ever since the Emperor saw Kaguya-hime‘s beauty with his own eyes, he could not think of anyone else. He started to write to Kaguya-hime, and Kaguya-hime wrote back out of politeness. They exchanged letters for years and actually became friends.

One day at night, Kaguya-hime looked at the moon and suddenly started to cry violently. She told the worried couple that she in fact was not from earth but was sent from the moon, and it was time for her to go back. The moon people were gonna come and to ensure she comes back. The old man was distressed and went to the Emperor for help, so the Emperor sent an army to guard Kaguya-hime‘s place. The army of course, by the time moon people came, was useless against them. The leader of the moon people declared that Kaguya-hime was sent to earth as a punishment and now it was time for her to go home. Kaguya-hime had no choice but obey. The moon people then gave her some immortal pills for her to take so she could be cleaned from “living in filthy earth”. Kaguya-hime took some, and left the rest to the old couple and the Emperor. She also wrote a letter to the Emperor saying that she only turned him down because she knew this was gonna happen and didn’t want to upset him. During the whole time Kaguya-hime was sobbing, but as soon as she put on the feather coat the moon people brought, she became emotionless and left without hesitation.

The army brought back the pills and the letter, and the Emperor was in deep sorrow. He sent a messenger to bring the letter the pills to the top of the highest mountain – the place that is the nearest to the moon – and burn them there. Both the Emperor and the old couple thought that if they could not see Kaguya-hime again, immortal would mean nothing. They soon died out of grief. The mountain the pills were burnt was then called the Mountain Fuji, meaning “never die/end”. The smoke from the burnt pills ascends to sky to reach Kaguya-hime till today.

”

Thoughts: 

I googled the tale after the interview and realized this is actually one of the earliest tales that survived in Japanese literature. The earliest transcript of the tale could be dated back to almost a thousand years ago. Though there were some different versions of the tale but they do not differ from each others much. This tale is particularly interesting because it is not a typical tale where a male hero fights against villain and such such. The tale focused on the only protagonist – a female who resists the tradition of getting married. This piece of tale carries hints of feminism that I see precious considering it is thousand year old. In addition, the end of the tale explained the natural phenomenon of where the smoke of volcano Mountain Fuji comes from.

 

For another version of this story, see:

Kawabata, Yasunari, Donald Keene, and Masayuki Miyata. The tale of the bamboo cutter. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1998. Print.

Butterfly Lovers

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 51
Occupation: Banker
Residence: China
Performance Date: May 16, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese

My mom shared the story of Butterfly Lovers, which is actually a well-known folktale in China. There is a beautiful violin concerto composed based on this story and that’s one of my mom’s favorite — hence why my mom sent me to learn to play violin. My mom says she always kinda knew what happened in the story but was never entirely sure until she watched a movie based on it. We interviewed in Chinese so the following is only rough translation of what she shared.

Story:

”

During the Jin Dynasty, there were two youngsters Liang and Zhu. Liang and Zhu were classmates, while Zhu disguised herself as a man. Zhu secretly loved Liang deeply, but for years, Liang never realized Zhu was a woman, and only viewed her as a best friend but nothing more. The day Zhu went back home, Liang was so reluctant to leave her that he walked her home for eighteen miles. On the way home, Zhu vaguely hinted her feelings to Liang, but Liang was too oblivious to understand. Defeated, Zhu told Liang that she had a sister who looked exactly alike, and encouraged him to visit and marry her. Liang said yes and they parted.

Liang went back and tried to gather the money for the proposal and wedding, but since he’s only a poor student, it took him a long time. By the time he finally came to visit Zhu, Zhu’s parent had already promised her to the governor’s son, Wencai Ma. Only by then he realized Zhu had no sister and Zhu was actually a girl. Liang and Zhu confessed their feelings to each other, cried and said goodbye. When they parted, they made a promise that even though they could not be married in this life, they shall be buried together after they die.

Soon after, Liang was appointed to be the mayor but died shortly out of sorrow. On the wedding day of Zhu, as a part of Chinese wedding tradition, Zhu got on the carriage and off to her husband’s place. However, when they passed by the grave of Liang, a storm came and they could not move any further. Zhu got off the carriage and came to the grave to mourn her love. Suddenly, the ground split in half. Zhu jumped into the ground to be buried with Liang together, and then the ground repaired. The storm stopped and rainbow appeared. Liang and Zhu turned into two butterflies, flew out from the grave and flew into the sky.

”

Thoughts:

This folktale is one of the most famous tales in China. I’d say its popularity would be like SnowWhite in Western countries. Since it’s such a wide spread story, there are countless TV shows and movies made out of it. Those versions did not differ much except there are always some original plot added. What my mom shared are majorly the plots that most version agreed. This is one of a few Chinese folklores that the story is evolved around the female protagonist instead of male — a story of how how the female making choices for her own life.

Sea Salt

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Somewhere near campus
Performance Date: 4/24/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Informant SW is a USC student who went to high school in Hong Kong but his nationality is Korean, so he grew up hearing a lot of Korean folk stories and doing a lot of Korean traditions.

Just tell me the first story that comes to your mind

SW: “Once upon a time the Emperor of Korea had a mill that would spin anything you want. If you asked it to spin gold, it would spin it, basically just say it and it will come out. Anyways, there was a thief that wanted to steal this mill, so one day he dressed up as a government official and started talking to another government official. The thief told the other guy that the King buried the mill so that no one could steal it. The other guy says ‘nah man, the mill is in the garden and is un-stealable because theres people walking around all the time’. So the thief waits until its nightfall and then steals the mill and gets on a boat to get out of the kingdom. While on the boat the thief thinks about what he’s going to ask the mill to make. Eventually he thinks ‘I’ll make salt because everyone wants talk!’. So he tells the mill to make salt, and since he was so happy he didn’t tell it to stop. Eventually the salt got so heavy that the boat sank. Since the mill was never told to stop it continues to make salt and that is why the sea is salty.”

I’ve never heard this story and never heard anything similar to it. In fact I’ve never heard a story explaining why the sea was salty, which is why I found this story really interesting. For some reason this story reminds me of Rumpelstiltskin because they both of the element of the spinning wheel. I like how a lot of folklore stories involve a thief and a magical item and the thief uses the item wrong which explains some natural phenomenon. Very interesting.