Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Week 5 Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins Part B

The Girl and the Thief

  • Jewel (a merchant), his wife Pleasing, and daughter Pearl lived in Ayodhya

  • Pearl was very beautiful; many people wanted to marry her (even kings), but she did not want to get married whatsoever

  • Ayodhya’s people are worried about a bunch of thieving; King Hero-Banner goes out at night with a sword to catch them

  • Meets a thief, and goes to a hidden house with him

  • Maid tells king it’s dangerous in the house, so king runs away; king gets soldiers to surround the house

  • Thief fights the soldiers, destroys the king’s army with his sword

  • King fights the thief himself, and captures him

  • Thief goes to be executed next morning; Pearl begs Jewel to save the thief because she loves him

  • Jewel asks for King for the thief’s release in exchange for everything he has

  • King refuses, Pearl bathes and goes to the thief’s death scene to die w/ him

  • Pearl and her family watch the thief get impaled and die

  • Pearl removes thief’s body from stake and wanted to burn herself

  • Shiva (god) rewards Pearl for being faithful to the thief

  • Pearl asks for Jewel to have 100 sons

  • Shiva tells Pearl to wish for more

  • Pearl wishes for thief to live and be a good man

  • Thief is revived; Jewel/Pearl/Thief family go home to celebrate

  • Thief/Pearl marry, happily ever after

  • Goblin asks King if the Thief cried or laughed when he saw the merchant/his daughter approach?

  • King says Thief wept with grief, and laughed in astonishment


The Four Brothers

  • King named Earth-boar rules Flower-city

  • Vishnuswami, a brahman, lives with wife Swaha and four sons

  • Vishnuswami dies, sons take some money and go see Grandfather in Sacrifice village

  • Grandfather is dead; they live with their uncles, uncles make fun of sons’ clothing/food

  • Eldest saw a corpse, saw that the corpse seemed happy, tried to hang himself

  • Someone frees the eldest from hanging and comforts him, Eldest tells this story to his siblings

  • Eldest says he will now burn himself at a Holy Place so he won’t feel the woes of poverty

  • Younger brothers tell him that money doesn’t buy happiness; Eldest needs to find something that makes him happy

  • Brothers agree to wander Earth; each will learn a different science

  • #1 learns to properly put flesh on any animal skeleton

  • #2 learns to put  hair and skin on a fleshed skeleton

  • #3 learns to put eyes and other organs into the skeleton

  • #4 learns to give the creature the breath of life

  • They decide to test their skills with a lion skeleton

  • They make a lion, lion kills them and runs into the forest (SHOCKER)

  • Goblin asks King who is most at fault for creating the lion

  • King says #4; he gave the breath of life, even after seeing that the supposed creature would be dangerous


Father and Son, Daughter and Mother

  • A king named Virtue lived in southern country

  • Moonlight, his wife, came from Malwa

  • Daughter named Beauty

  • Relatives planned to overthrow King when Beauty was grown up

  • Family flees kingdom, heading for FIL’s house in Malwa; spend night in Vindhya forest

  • Family comes for fortified village, full of robbers/murderers

  • King sees robbers coming for them, tells Moonlight/Beauty to run into the forest

  • King fought robbers, eventually dies; Robbers take jewels from him

  • Moonlight/Beauty run long way; rest by ashoka tree/lotus-pond

  • Father/Son (Fierce-lion/Strong-lion) are hunters; see the ladies’ footprints and follow them

  • Father tells Son he should marry one of the two

  • Son tells Father: “Son will marry the one with smaller feet. Father should marry the one with bigger feet” (Son’s Mom passed away)

  • Father/Son find Mother/Daughter at pond; girls almost run away in fear

  • Son marries Mother bc she has smaller feet; Father marries Daughter

  • Goblin asks King what relation Mother/Son’s children and Father/Daughter’s children would be

  • King cannot answer and walks away

  • Goblin is pleased by his character of walking away; Goblin tells King that Patience (a monk) he will soon encounter will try to kill the King

  • Goblin tells King to trick the monk into bowing, so King can cut off his head and claim magic power/fairies


Story Source: Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder



Lion chasing after the four brothers, via the Untextbook

 

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