story name, any clues? — OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists

OZONE

story name, any clues?

This page's ID: 29674

Edit Post

Who can edit a post?	The poster and administrators may edit a post. The poster can only edit it for a short while after the initial post.

Your User Name:
Your Password:
Login Options:	Remember Me On This Computer

Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	This is actually an extremely common motif in fairy tales. I don't know the exact Aarne-Thompson name for it, but it boils down to "the broken promise." An example from Korean folklore is the tale of the fairy and the woodcutter. A woodcutter chases a deer deep into the mountains and finally catches it. The deer begs the woodcutter to spare its life, promising to tell him how to gain a fairy (seonnyeo) as his wife. Following the deer's instructions, the woodcutter goes to a secluded pond and sees a group of fairies bathing in the water. He steals the winged clothes of one of the fairies, and she is left behind when the rest of the fairies fly back up to heaven. The woodcutter approaches the fairy and leads her to his home, and she becomes his wife (which is, of course, a euphemistic way of saying that they did the nasty and she agrees to live with him). The deer had warned the woodcutter not to show the fairy her winged clothes until she had borne him three children, but after their second child he can stand it no longer and confesses, showing her the clothes he had stolen. The fairy immediately puts on the clothes and, taking her two children, flies back up to heaven. The tale has a happy ending, of course--the woodcutter recaptures the deer and learns how to ascend to heaven to join his family--but the broken promise part ends here. (There are a number of other motifs present at the beginning as well, such as "the grateful animal" and a trick revealed to the protagonist by a sage or supernatural individual.) So it comes as no surprise to me that the story you mention would sound familiar--most likely everyone has heard some form of it no matter what culture they may come from. For that reason, I can't really help you locate a specific version of it. As for the moral of this type of story, if we break it down to its basics we can see that the protagonist gains some fortune in one way or another, but this fortune comes with a condition, and when the protagonist transgresses this condition he loses the fortune. So what's the moral? Well, I guess it depends on what the condition is. If the condition is external, as in the case of the fairy and the woodcutter, I suppose the moral might be to listen to those who give sage advice or counsel and heed their words. If the condition is internal--for example, a promise made by the protagonist--the moral might be to always keep your word, as misfortune might befall you if you are untrue. I don't know how much this helps, lallous, but it's the best I can do at the moment. If you have any questions or want to talk about this further, I'd be happy to continue the discussion. [img]http://www.liminality.org/asylum/sigs/suho_taegeuk_sig2.gif[/img] ___________________________ Suho: [url=http://www.liminality.org]www.liminality.org[/url] \| [url=http://www.ozoneasylum.com/4837]Cell 270[/url] \| [url=http://www.ozoneasylum.com/5689]Sig Rotator[/url] \| [url=http://www.ozoneasylum.com/22173]the Fellowship of Sup[/url] Loading...
Options:	Enable Slimies Enable Linkwords

« Backwards — Onwards »

Show Forum Drop Down Menu