Friday, February 7, 2020

Reading Notes, Part A: Week 6 - Master and Pupil

Master and Pupil 

I found this story from the Georgian Folktales unit very interesting. In this story, a peasant gives his son to a "master" this master ends up being the devil. A year later the peasant came back to retrieve his son but did not recognize him, however, the son recognized his father and came up to him to tell him the plans the devil had to trick him. They peasant succeeded in retrieving his son, but what occurred after was a lot of shapeshifting in order for the peasant and his son to earn money. An example of this is when the son turned into a hunting dog and captured an animal in front of some nobles. The peasant then sold the dog for a large sum of money, but soon after the son/dog escaped and returned to his father. This continues until the son changes into a horse and the father accidentally sells him back to the devil.

This is where I thought the story was going to end. But the son was able to escape by changing himself into a needle. I thought the moral of the story was going to be don't get greedy. Which I guess it still kind of is. However, the ending which is like they, "lived happily ever after" was surprising, I just did not expect this story to end happily. So I guess if I were to rewrite this story I would write it with a less happy ending. Maybe the son would die or maybe the son could become the devil or get stuck as a needle with no ability to change again.

(Trotting Horse: Image by Floortje Walraven)

Bibliography. "Master and Pupil" from Georgian Folk Tales by Marjory Wardrop (1894). Web Source.

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