How the Killing of the Old Men Was Stopped
How the Killing of the Old Men Was Stopped is a Serbian fairy tale that first appeared in Kazadzic, a journal of Serbian folklore, having been submitted by Mr. I. L. Szeckovic from Paracin.[1] It is Aarne-Thompson type 981, "Wisdom of Hidden Old Man Saves Kingdom."[2]
Synopsis[edit]
A man hid his father in a land where everyone was supposed to be put to death at fifty. He won a bet about first seeing the sunrise by following his father's advice and looking west, so he saw it on a mountaintop. People concluded that the old should no longer be put to death.
Motifs[edit]
This story type is known the world over, and although the precise problem solved by the old man differs, the lesson is invariably the same: to cherish the old as a source of wisdom.[3]
Variants[edit]
Antiquity[edit]
Justin's Historia Philippicae contains a variant in chapter XVIII,3,1.[4]
Europe[edit]
A Maltese variant titled "The Kaukama and the Kaukam" was included by Margaret Murray and L. Galea in Maltese Folk-Tales.[5]
Africa[edit]
A variant was collected from the Wala people of Ghana by Mona Fikry-Atallah.[6]
"Impossible Against Impossible" is a Liberian variant.[7]
Asia[edit]
In Japan, there is a legend called Ubasute or Ubasute-yama. Uba means old woman. However, in the story, sometimes be an old father type. There are two types of stories: The unreasonable question type and the branch-and-fold type.
Keigo Seki's Folktales of Japan includes a variant, "The Mountain Where Old People Were Abandoned".[8]
References[edit]
- ^ D. L. Ashliman, "Killing of Old Men: folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 981 and other legends about geronticide"
- ^ Uther, Hans-Jorg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 612.
- ^ D. L. Ashliman, Why old people are no longer put to death
- ^ Uther, Hans-Jorg (2004). The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia Academia Scientiarum Fennica. p. 612.
- ^ Murray, Margaret; Galea, L. (1932). Maltese Folk-Tales. Empire Press.
- ^ Dorson, Richard (1972). African Folklore. New York: Anchor Books. pp. 403–404.
- ^ Bundy, Richard (1919). "Folk-Tales from Liberia (In Abstract)". Journal of American Folk-Lore. 32 (125): 415. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
- ^ Seki, Keigo (1963). Folktales of Japan. University of Chicago Press. pp. 183–186.