Graveyard
Image by Hege
Notes on Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur W. Ryder.
Introduction
King receives fruits with gemstones inside from monk. What a reward! However, the monk asks to meet the king in the graveyard. The monk wants the king to bring him a hanging body. Already, this story is sounding a little creepy. I wonder why the monk needs the body. The body becomes possessed by a goblin that tells him the first story.
First Goblin
A prince sees a beautiful girl and falls in love with her. However, she only speaks to him through signs that only the prince's counselor can understand. When the prince sends am old woman to ask of the girl, the girl rejects the price, but the signs say he must wait for several days. Already this sounds like a complicated relationship. I don't understand why the girl only uses signs. Then, when she weds the prince and finds that the counselor is the one who interpreted the signs, she tries to have him killed. The counselor and prince execute a plan to get the girl banished from the city, and her parents die from grief. Seems like all this trouble could have been spared.
Second Goblin
Mother threw son into fire for crying. How harsh! She sounds like a terrible mother. But he was brought back to life by a spell. The man who witnessed this used the magic to bring a dead girl to life.
Third Goblin
A parrot and thrush get into an argument over whether men or women are worse. The King decides that "women are usually bad." What a terrible statement! Saying this would get many people's blood to boil in today's Western society.
No comments:
Post a Comment