Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part A

One of the creatures that stood out to me from the Jewish Fairy Tales unit were the unicorns, featured in both the "The Giant of the Flood" and "From Shepherd-Boy to King." I never really thought about which story traditions unicorns came from, and I certainly did not associate them with Jewish folktales. I was particularly surprised that they were so large. Just from scanning the Wikipedia page, I learned that some of the oldest images of unicorns are from the Indus Valley seals and that unicorns were originally known for their strength, not their beauty and innocence. This makes more sense with the flood story in particular.

Unicorn. Web Source: Wikipedia.

"The Beggar King" has a pretty similar pattern to most stories of proud kings. particularly reminds me of the story of Nebuchadnezzar. What stood out to me was that Hagag wanted to stay in his humbler role, and I thought his concern for the blind beggars was quite touching. I am confused by the genie, since I thought jinn were from Islamic stories. According to Wikipedia, there are creatures called Shedim that parallel the jinn, however they tend to be demonic, while this genie is benevolent. Is it an angel?

The most curious story to me was "The Magic Palace." First of all, like "The Beggar King" it is called a Jewish fairy tale yet the main character has the Arabic name Ibrahim, and the mysterious guest (who, spoiler alert, is Elijah, who was Jewish) appears as an Arab. Also, when I first read through it, the moral was not clear to me, particularly the magic palace part. However, a second reading clarified that the entire story was really about rescuing the godly and esteemed Ibrahim from his poverty, and the ornate palace built by magic was simply the means, not the end.

As far as retelling goes, I would like to incorporate a unicorn. So I might retell "The Giant of the Flood" from the point of view of the unicorn. I would also be interested in a sequel to "The Beggar King," focusing on the group of beggars that he served as guide.


Bibliography: Gertrude Landa's Jewish Fairy Tales, web source.