Television Folklore: King Midas

One of the more recent television series to utilize folk tales as a vehicle for the plotline is the ABC series Once Upon a Time that first aired in 2011. It brings in a variety of fairytale and folktale characters in an interesting story where fantasy characters are somehow transported into the real world and how the interact with normal society. Its main characters are often from more recent fairy tales, such as the ones that the Disney corporation has remade, but there are some more obscure and odd characters of folk tales that do find their way into some episodes.

What I want to enter into the collection here is the character of King Midas, who appears in episode six of season 1 of the show. Portrayed by Alex Zahara, the character represents the figure of King Midas in Greek mythology, whose touch would turn objects—and people—into gold. There are various forms of the legend that claim Midas was from different areas all over Greece, but they all have common patterns. King Midas was a greedy king who loved gold, but was still kind and hospitable. When a sick and old satyr was taken to his palace for refuge, the satyr offered to grant King Midas one gift, which Midas quickly responded with the desire to have a touch that turned things to gold. As amazing as this was at first, it soon becomes a burden, as he cannot eat or embrace his loved ones. It is meant to be a cautionary tale about the negative effects of blind greed.

The television show gives greater depth to the character of Midas and reveals just how miserable life is after he is cursed. Not only can he not eat his favorite foods the way he used to or embrace his friends and family, he is constantly the target for kidnappers and robbers who want to exploit his curse for their own profit. Still he has to govern over his kingdom and so wears a massive glove so that he can touch things without turning them into gold. The episode has King Midas throwing an engagement party for his daughter, when the evil queen makes a surprise entrance. Once it is realized that his daughter has helped Snow White escape, the queen arrests King Midas’ daughter. Interestingly, Midas does little to stop the queen, which reflects on the image of the folk character as a weak-minded king. In fact, he even bows to the queen as his daughter is led out by the queen’s guards. His portrayal as a small, weak character that does not effectively govern over his palace reaffirms the image of King Midas as a flawed character. He is weakened by the curse, not enriched by it the way that he would think. The episode thus furthers the moral of the original folk tale by demonstrating greed as a weakness.

Source: “Snow Drifts.” Once Upon A Time. ABC. 2011.

Soft vs. Hard Rice

I wanted to expand on the folklore explored in this collection beyond just American into other cultures. So, I asked one of my friends who is part Thai if she knew of any old folk tales that were from Thailand. Her mother was actually born in Thailand, and so my friend asked her about any folk tales she might know about. Her mother also provided a much shorter folk story about a rather slow man and his attempt to find subsidence for his family.

            As my friend recounted the tale to me, “there was a very dumb man who had trouble providing for his family. His wife was more intelligent than he was but trusted in her husband and did not want to always make him look like a fool. So, she sent him on a mission.” Apparently, that mission was to try to get rice grains from their helpful neighbors so they could plant for the next harvest. The wife told her husband to specifically puck up “the soft rice,” because that is what she knew how to farm the best. So, he went off to go buy “soft rice.” After he had made his purchase, he was on his way back home when he tripped over an uplifted blank on a bridge. My friend laughed and said, “when he tipped over, he dumped all of the rice in the river!” He was desperate to not let his family down, so he scooped up the rice that was still floating on the top of the water quickly before it got too wet and began to sink with the rice he had already lost to the depths of the river. When he returned home, his wife asked him if he was certain he got soft rice. He said, “yes! I even tested it when I fell and dumped it into the river! All of the hard rice sank, so there is only soft rice left!”

I have to admit, although shorter and with less of a moral lesson, this tale was quite funny. Both my friend and I started laughing on the phone together when she finished. I think because this tale was shorter and more comedic than the first she recounted from her mother, there was a bit more performance elements. She tended to slow her voice down when she was speaking for the dumb husband, as if she was mocking him. The tale to me seems like more of a Southern Thai joke, but apparently it is a folk tale that is told throughout the region her mother was raised in. It does have some interesting commentary on gender roles, however, as it is the husband who is dim-witted and makes poor decisions for the family. The wife is forced to accept her husband’s slow nature and has to work overtime in order to make up for his mistakes.

Source: Tian Reynolds

Thai Folk Legend: Prince Sang Thong

I wanted to expand on the folklore explored in this collection beyond just American into other cultures. So, I asked one of my friends who is part Thai if she knew of any old folk tales that were from Thailand. Her mother was actually born in Thailand, and so my friend asked her about any folk tales she might know about. Her mother remembered the tale of the Prince named Sang Thong.

The folktale begins with a king who had two wives. One gave birth to a baby that lived inside of a crab shell, which prompted the King to banish his wife and their baby because of the child’s deformity. Interestingly, when the baby emerged from the shell he was a handsome boy with a golden body. Still, he was banished and worked as a servant after his mother smashed his shell “because of the jealousy of the other wife….she still wanted the prince dead because she had no son herself and his existence threatened her power.” My friend then explained how this went on for several years, and “Prince Sang Thong nearly forgot about his true status as a prince […] until one day the other wife tried to kill him after finding where he was.” This prompted he prince to leave his home and take shelter with a woman my friend called “the big lady.” When I asked her about this, she did not have much of an explanation because her mother did not go into detail about this “big lady.” Apparently, the lady had a magic well that she forbade the prince to go near. His curiosity was too strong, so he went to go into it, but decided to disguise himself by wearing ratty old clothes and an ugly mask. He found inside the well a magic kingdom and a princess who saw past his mask and wanted to marry him. Her father “said absolutely not because he is poor and hideous looking.” But the disguised Sang Thong continued to pass every test her father gave him, no matter how impossible. Eventually, the King reluctantly approved the marriage, and Sang Thong removed his mask and revealed his royal status as a prince without a kingdom. He was then embraced by the King and finally accepted.

I saw this folk tale has having two morals built within its framework. On the one hand, it describes the benefits of persistence and having faith in oneself. Despite the prince’s deformity at birth, he did not let it hold him back. This is primarily because of his mother helping him by smashing the shell and allowing her son to have to learn how to live without hiding. The next moral is similar to the idea of don’t judge a book by its cover. The King and his servants discriminated against Sang Thong because of his looks, but in reality, he was a handsome and magical prince with a royal lineage. Thus, it aims to discuss how people should not judge others on their looks or first impressions. Unfortunately, I felt that some of the performance aspect was removed because it was filtered through a third-party. I tried to hear the tale from my friend’s mother, but our schedules never worked out for a meeting. Moreover, my friend recounted the tale over the phone to me, which I also feel took out some of the performance aspect to it.

Source: Tian Reynolds

 

Persian Proverb: Karmas

My grandmother used to have a wealth of Persian proverbs that she would tell me and my other cousins in both Farsi and in English. It was a way for her to help instill within us moral and social lessons but also a way to facilitate language learning; for her she was practicing her English, while for my cousins and I, it was a way for use to get more exposure listening and speaking Farsi. There were seemingly endless proverbs that she would have on hand at any given moment to meet the unique circumstances of a situation, which I thought was quite comedic. Still, there is one that I would like to include in this collection because it is the only one I can remember that relates back to ancient folktales, one about the richness of the Tigris River.

The proverb my grandmother would say is, “give charity to the river Tigris, God will return that charity in the barren desert.” Essentially it is stating that one when puts effort or kindness into certain situations, that effort and kindness is likely to return to them at another time, kind of like the idea of karma coming back to return the energy one puts out into the universe through one’s deeds. In English, it is typically states as “what goes around comes around.” I wanted to find the actual translation of this into Farsai and found a site that had a similar one. It reads to niki mikon o dar dejle andāz ke izad dar biyābānat dahad bāz, or the literal translation of “you toss charity in the Tigris, and God shall return it in the desert.”

Although the proverb itself speaks of a monotheist God, for my family we assumed it was the Hebrew God, but it is also interpreted as the Christian God or Allah in Islam. However, the mentioning of the divine origins of the Tigris River actually harkens back to ancient Sumerian and Hittite folktales and mythology. The Tigris River is supposed to be an extension of the early pagan gods, with the Hittite culture believing it was actually a god in and of itself. Through good acts that pleased the god, the river would provide enough water for good farming seasons. Yet, if the people displeased the god, the river would enter into a period of drought or flooding, either one would bring destruction and instability to the population. This folktale does border on more of religious mythology, but I find that its survival through the ages has allowed it to transcend the dogma of a single religion. Instead, it has entered into the realm of folk mythology because even as the ancient religions faded away, there was still a connection to pleasing some force in order to receive positive results from the river.

Source: University of Texas at Austin. “Proverbs & Maxims.” https://sites.la.utexas.edu/persian_online_resources/proverbs/

Song: “Johnny Appleseed”

In my search for music that connected with American folk stories, I found a 2001 song written and recorded by Joe Strummer called “Johnny Appleseed.” The song was recorded by Sony Music and released by Universal on the album Global a Go-Go. It is a pretty catchy song that uses a guitar riff and keyboard as its main instruments to set the melody. Then, Strummer comes in with an acoustic guitar, which makes it feel much more authentic as a folk song because it is reminiscent of earlier blue grass music that often-used themes associated with folk tales. The lyrics are as follows:

Lord, there goes Johnny Appleseed/

He might pass by in the hour of need/

There’s a lot of souls/

Ain’t drinking from the well locked in a factory.

 

Chorus:

Hey, look there goes/

Hey, look there goes/

If you’re after getting the honey, hey/

Then you don’t go killing all the bees.

 

Lord, there goes Martin Luther King/

Notice how the door closes when the chimes of freedom ring/

I hear what you’re saying, I hear what he’s saying/

Is what was true now no longer so.

 

Chorus

 

What the people are saying/

And we know every road, go, go/

What the people are saying/

There ain’t no berries on the trees/

Let the summertime sun/

(Fall on the apple) Fall on the apple.

 

Lord, there goes a Buick forty-nine/

Black sheep of the angels riding, riding down the line/

We think there is a soul, we don’t know/

That soul is hard to find.

 

Chorus

 

Hey, it’s what the people are saying/

It’s what the people are saying/

Hey, there ain’t no berries on the trees/

Hey, that’s what the people are saying, no berries on the trees/

You’re checking out the honey, baby/

You had to go killin’ all the bees.

 

Johnny Appleseed is only mentioned in the first stanza of the song, but it aims to set a foundation for discussing other major figures that are associated with kindness and giving, like Martin Luther King. Overall, the song clearly uses the Johnny Appleseed reference as a way to comment against global warming and the polluting the environment. Appleseed is a figure who brought apple seeds to the Northeast, therefore helping provide a source of food and livelihood to poor farmers. He represents an agricultural entrepreneurship that was more in-tune and respectful of nature. Strummer contrasts this myth with the modern state of American society and its destructive forces on nature, like “killing all the bees.” It exposes how American society has changed for the worse and is polluting the natural environment that once served as a source of national pride.

Source: Strummer, Joe, “Johnny Appleseed.” Global a Go-Go. Sony Music. 2001.