Here are my reading notes for Part A of the Jewish Fairy Tale readings. I am going to attempt a different approach, and rather than writing a small portion of notes about each story, I am going to write notes about all of them together! Edit: Just kidding, I ended up writing notes about each story again because I found myself struggling to remember some of the details.
The Giant of the Flood: I find it interesting that this fairy tale follows the story of Noah and the Ark, but it includes giants and unicorns. Quite honestly, this seems kind of plausible to me. I actually do believe giants once roamed the earth, so I see the possibility! So the story goes that when the flood hit the earth, the giants were afraid that they would not survive due to the lack of food, aka the animals. He asked Noah if he could ride alongside the ark if he brought him a unicorn.Essentially Noah agreed so long as the giant served him afterwords. So he did, and then he was greedy and got drunk on wine and was eventually killed by Moses.
The Beggar King: King Hagag scoffed at the words of the bible. He then went to hunt for deer on his horse, when he was close to killing the deer, it suddenly turned into a person and explained he was a genie and would be teaching the king a lesson. He then morphed into the king and rode away, with the town accepting him as the king. The real king spent years as a beggar and learned how to work and he learned humility. The genie king hosted a meal for all the poor and Hagag was able to speak with him. The king said he saw he had changed the Hagag retook his thrown and ruled as a good king after that.
The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog: This is a pretty funny story of how cats and dogs became enemies. I love dogs, and I am not the biggest fan of cats. I love how their personalities came through in the story. I also felt really sad for the sweet dog the majority of the time.
The Water-Babe: A princess found baby Moses floating on the river. The king even took a liking to him. At his 3rd birthday party, he playfully took the king's crown and the king was warned that the baby was plotting to steal the kingdom... ridiculous. They put him on trial and put two bowls in front of him, one of burning coals and one of jewels. If he grabbed the jewels, he was to be killed. His adoptive mother's friend gave her a magic staff which she used to get Moses to grab the coals. The owner of the staff said the staff would be Moses' when he grew up. Moses grew up and used the staff for good.
From Shepherd-Boy to King: David mistook a sleeping unicorn for a mountain. When the unicorn stood, he was near the clouds. Then a lion commanded the unicorn to bow to him, so the unicorn did. David slipped off and was standing eye to eye with the lion. A deer came and saved him and ran him back to civilization.
The Magic Palace: A father felt burdened with the guilt of not providing for his five sons and wife. He set out to find work. He came upon an architect who said he needed materials for a castle. The poor father found the materials, and the castle was completed the next day.
A modern day quarrel between a cat and dog, a friendship forever ruined! Photo by
Alexis Chloe on
Unsplash
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