Reading Notes: Arabian Nights, Part A

For this week's reading, I chose Arabian Nights. I have wanted to read it for a while and I am glad I am finally getting a chance to start it.

Arabian Nights retold by Andrew Lang

In this story, a Sultan, Schahriar, is betrayed by his wife. Because of this, he hates women and marries one each day and has her killed in the morning. His grand-vizir is in charge of providing the women, against his will. One of his daughters, Scheherazade, vows to put an end to this and has her father choose her as the Sultan's next bride.
That night, she begins a story and ensures to leave it unfinished in the morning so that the Sultan will spare her in order to hear the rest of the story the next night. However, whenever she finishes one story, she starts another so that he continues to spare her in order to hear her stories.
One thing I noticed was that often times, Scheherazade's stories have something to do with someone being treated unfairly or being threatened with death, as she is. Her first story is about a merchant who is threatened with death by a genie. We see in her story that the merchant is a good man, however, the genie is still going to kill him if not for three men who come and tell stories, much like Scheherazade is doing to save the other women.
Next, we see a fisherman also threatened unfairly by a genie until he tricks it and then tells it a story, which includes another story. Each one keeping Scheherazade alive longer and keeping the theme of unfair death and punishment.

Here is a picture of Scheherazade telling her stories to Schahriar with the help of her sister:

Photo Credit: flickr

Comments

Week 14 Story: Jason and the Giant's Gold

Jason and the Giant's Gold Jason had always been a poor peasant, unknown by most. He had a job as a shepherd for the Lord of the lands and it provided for himself, his mothers, and his sisters and he was grateful for it. However, he was with the sheep night and day and was unable to do little else. If he didn't have this job, his family would have starved when his father died some years back and so Jason worked hard, both to support his family and from the gratitude he felt toward the Lord for trusting him with his flocks. However, some days back, he had left the sheep, for a little while, when he had come across a giant. He thought that would be the end of him and he briefly wondered who would take care of his family when he died but the giant hadn't killed him. It had needed his help and as a reward, it had taken him to a giant celebration. It had given him a belt of invisibility so he would be safe from the other giants and in this way, Jason had been able to witness...

Week 3 Wikipedia Trail

For this assignment, I started with the article about the Canterbury Tales, since that is what I am working on for my project. First article: The_Canterbury_Tales This one is very intensive and covers not only a premise of the story but also a historical context, the themes, and the style of the writing. I imagine I am going to use this article a lot when I begin working on my project. From this article, there are links to all the other sections and a bunch of pictures of the different pilgrims. Second article: General_Prologue This is the prologue and the beginning of the story. It not only gives a premise to the storytelling competition, it gives a background of the pilgrims and their destination. I am going to use a similar premise in my project and will refer to this article when I am working on my introduction. One thing I am debating is whether I will have a "Geoffrey Chaucer" character in my story. In the original, the author inserted himself into the tale, I d...

Week 13 Story: Lady Bridget

Lady Bridget Lady Bridget, sister of Sir Percivale of King Arthur's round table, stood at the railing of the ship and looked out over the waves. She'd been on board the vessel for weeks now but still, she marveled at how all this came to be. She had been at her manor, following her ordinary habits when a shining knight, fully equipped in all white armor approached. Normally, she would have been frightened at such a sudden appearance, however, all she felt was peace and knew immediately this knight was not of this world. So she stood and waited until he neared and then he hailed her. "Lady Bridget, sister of Sir Percivale, I have a request to make of you. You have heard, I am certain, how one hundred and fifty knights left the round table in order to search for the Holy Graal, despite Arthur's sorrow and protests. They seek something many are not worthy of finding and they will die for it. But, three knights are worthy. Sir Galahad, the best and most virtuous of t...

My Blog for Myth and Folklore

Search This Blog