Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Reading notes week 5: 22 goblins

There was a farmer and his daughter living on the coutry side. The daughter was very lovely and beautiful. One day 3 young men came and asked her father for her hand in marriage. She could not decide which of the men to pick so they waited. But one day the girl grew sick and died, they burned her body.
            One of the men built a hut there and slept on a bed of her ashes, another took her bones and dipped them in a sacred river and the other became a monk and wandered the countryside.
            The monk found his way to the village of thunderbolt and found shelter in a house. There as he was eating a child began to cry and would not stop, so the mother threw him into the fire and he turned to ash.
            The monk was outraged but soon learned the man of the house had special powers, to bring people back from the dead. He read a spell, sprinkled water on the ashes and they boy came back.
            The monk stole the book and ran back to the cemetery to save his beloved. There he met the other men who had also wanted the girl. They said the spell, sprinkled the water and the girl came back to life, more beautiful than ever. The three men argued of which should possess her. They went to the king to decide
            The king said the man who found the magic did what a father would do, not a husband, and they man that dipped the bones did what a brother would do not a husband but the man who stayed by the ashes and lived a hard life in the cemetery did what a lover would do so he deserved her.

Great-minded people do not waver until they have kept their promises, even at the cost of life.

bib: Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder
http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/goblins-three-lovers.html

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