Storytelling for Week 4: Half-boy

There once was a man who had many wives. His wives were unable to get pregnant and this made the man very sad. One day he was walking in his yard, doing his yard work all by himself when he came upon a strange item. It was a lamp. The kind that legends say genies reside in. He shrugged and thought genies don't exist. Just for fun though, he rubbed the lamp and out pops a genie!

"What are you?" asked the man in surprise.

"I am a genie. I have been trapped in that lamp for so long. Why is it that you are doing all the work yourself? Do you not have children that will do it for you?" the genie asked.

"I'm afraid not. I have three wives, but none of which are able to give me children." the man responded.

The genie thought of a way that he could help the man. He had been trapped for oh so long. It would be nice if he were able to repay the man what freeing him. The genie thought long and hard.

"I have a solution to your problem. I will give you three apples. You must give them to each of your wives and they will be able to give you a child. They have to eat them now though and they must eat every last bite," the genie warned him.

The genie then handed him the apples and disappeared. The man ran back to his house and gave his wives the apples. The first wife ate hers right away. The second wife, however, only ate half of hers. The third wife decided that she wasn't hungry, she didn't eat it until the next day.

Months later, the man had three new children. The first child was perfect. The other two were a bit odd. The child born to the second woman was only half-boy. The third child seemed to be perfect, but little did they know, this child was evil. His mother had consumed the rotten apple.

Many years later, when all the children had grown into men, the third child began to show his true side.One night, he snuck into his father's room and killed his father! He planned to take out the rest of the family next and then the kingdom would be his. He didn't realize that someone had been watching him. His brother, the half-boy, knew that it was finally his time to do something. He jumped on his brother and a fight broke out!

"You can't defeat me!" yelled the evil one, "You are nothing more than a half-boy!"

He did defeat him and everyone in the kingdom was so happy. They decided that the half-boy would become the new full King. He showed everyone that you can be a hero even if nobody else believes you can be.

Castle

Author's note: I based this story on one of the stories in the Persian Fairy Tales Unit called Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy. The original story is about a king whose wives were infertile. He was given apples to give each of them that would help them become fertile, but they had to eat all of the apple. In the story, all but one wife ate all of the apple. The last wife only ate half and she gave birth to the half-boy. The half-boy's sister is taken by a Div and the two "normal" brothers try to save her but are defeated. The half-boy then goes to save the sister and saves his brothers too.
I decided to change the story a bit. I decided that it would be interesting if the apples were eaten all at different stages, so the rotten apple led to an evil son, the whole apple led to a normal son, and the half apple led to the half-son. I also thought it would make a good story if I had the evil brother try to take over the kingdom and decide that he wanted to be the king. He then became the one whom the half-boy had to defeat. I also thought that the half-boy deserved to be king since he did defeat the brother.
Bibliography: Story source: Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).

Reading Diary A: Persian Fairy Tales

I chose to read Persian Fairy Tales. These are a few of the stories that I liked the most.

The City of Nothing-in-the-World: This story was fascinating to me. It starts off with a girl who shins her knee and goes to look for cooling ointment but her aunt does not have any. Her aunt tells her to take two eggs and to go trade it for the ointment. On the way she loses the eggs and then ends up doing a sort of exchange with everything that she ends up with. It was a creative story but it was hard to follow at times. I liked it though because everything was so unexpected in every part of the story.

Susku and Mushu: This story caught my attention because of the flow that it had. It started when the beetle falls into a pot. Then her husband, Mushu, pours ashes on his head. The story adds animals which add their part to the story and it repeats itself over and over again. It made it fun to read because I felt like I could read the stories faster and faster each time.

Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy: This is a story about a half-boy. His father had been given 4 apples to give to his infertile wives to each have one and they will be able to get pregnant. One wife only ate half of the apple and therefore gave birth to the half-boy. The half-boy is disowned but at the end of the story he is able to rescue his siblings and gain his father's love. I like stories where the person that nobody put any thought into, is the one that saves everyone in the end. I like when the hero of a story is the one that nobody would suspect.

The Half-Boy