Week 5 Storytelling: Grammy Ronni Strikes Again

Grammy Ronni had just sat down for the evening, when Jonathon called from his bedroom,

“Grammy! I can’t get to sleep, can you tell me a story?” 

Grammy sighed and walked to Jonathon’s room. She opened the door and saw that Jonathon was under the covers, with his light turned on.

“Hi, sweetie, what was the nightmare about this time?” She sat down on the side of Jonathon’s bed.

“There was a giant fish! And it tried to eat me. I couldn’t swim or get away, so it swallowed me whole. It was horrible!” Jonathon shuddered at the recollection of his nightmare.

“Okay, well, I will tell you a story about a fish then! But this fish will be a friendly, helpful fish. Does that sound okay?” 

“Yea!” Jonathon snuggled under his blankets and prepared to imagine Grammy Ronni’s world.

“There once was a young man named John. He loved to be outside and hiking all around the town he lived in. Soon, he discovered an ocean not too far from town. John had never seen so much water in one place before. It was a beautiful sight! And there were fish jumping up out of the water, and when the sun hit their scales they glistened all over. John decided he would become a fisherman right then. He went home and found an old fishing pole and told his mother that he was going to fish for food to help feed them. She was happy about the idea and made a net for him to help catch large amounts of fish.

John’s first day of fishing went well. He caught three big fish. When he brought them home, he decided to sell one for more fishing supplies and keep the other two to eat for dinner. The next day John decided to go to a new spot to fish from. As he walked along the shore he saw a large fish in the water swimming around. John had never seen a fish so beautiful and decided he had to catch it. After several hours of reeling in empty fish hooks, John finally caught the fish! It had pink, orange, and blue scales all over and John decided he could not part with the fish. He quickly collected water in a bag and placed the fish within it so he could keep it alive. After catching more fish for dinner, John left to go home and placed the fish in a home-made pond."

“Wait a minute, why would John’s mom let him keep the fish? Dad doesn’t let me keep things I catch…” Jonathon always had many questions for Grammy Ronni. 

“Well, you catch frogs and dead animals. I don’t think you would want those things after you brought them inside, now would you?” Grammy Ronni had seen many of Jonathon’s catches and unfortunately had smelled them as well.

“No… probably not.” Jonathon shook his head.

“Now, on with the story! John’s mother had to visit relatives for the next two weeks. John continued fishing during the days, but when he came home the house was always cleaned and one time food had even been prepared! One day John finally waited to see who came and cleaned his home. 

John pretended to leave in the morning and then hid himself in a closet to watch. Suddenly the fish from his pond shed its skin and transformed into a woman! As the woman was cleaning, John took the fish skin and burned it so that she would stay a woman. For she was a very beautiful woman and he wanted to marry her! The woman quickly realized what had happened and told John that he should not have done that, but what was done was done. 

They fell in love and tales of the woman’s beauty were spread throughout the town. Soon the town’s king decided he would like to marry the woman himself and had her kidnapped while John was out fishing. John was very upset when he came home and saw that she was gone. He immediately ran to the king’s mansion and begged to have the woman back, for they had planned to be married in three days! 

The king laughed and told John that if he could find a pig that could fly, he would give the woman back. John cried when he returned home for how could he find a pig that could fly? That evening the woman snuck out to John’s home and told him to return to the spot where he caught her. There a wizard would appear and if he told him that the woman of the ocean sent her condolences he would give John an egg. She also warned John to make sure to guard the egg.

John went and just as the woman said, the wizard appeared! After an exchange of words the wizard gave him an egg. The next morning John awoke and the egg hatched. Within was a little pig with wings! John scooped up the piglet and took him to the king. The king was flabbergasted that John had found a pig with wings. So he sent John on another quest. This time John had to find a blue mushroom the glowed in the dark! 

Again John went home and cried because he did not know where he could possible find a blue, glowing mushroom. The woman snuck back out of the mansion and told John to go back to the wizard in the ocean. The wizard would give John three seeds and if he planted them by the pond in his backyard, they would bloom into blue, glowing mushrooms!

John did as she said and in the morning there were three blue, glowing mushrooms. John was so excited he rushed to the mansion to show the king. The king could not deny John a second time and so John and the woman got married!”

Grammy Ronni looked down at Jonathon and he was fast asleep. Another successful story!

One of the may beautiful Turkish illustrations from sacred text

Author's Note:

 I really loved reading all of the different Turkish Fairy Tales, but my favorite was the Fish-Peri story. I tried to include as many different elements of the original story as possible. I had a man become a fisherman, a fish that transformed into a woman, the trials the king puts the man through, and a happy marriage at the end! Many of the Turkish Fairy Tales included elements of transformation, magic, and the hero being tested by a king, or Padishah. I also wanted to revisit Grammy Ronni and Jonathon for this story. I thought it would be the perfect story to ease Jonathon after a big scary nightmare of a fish. I really like writing 'bed time stories' for Jonathon and enjoy imagining how he would interject himself into the story. Of course young kids always have so many questions and are curious, so I tried to show that as best I could. I also thought about when I was young and always wanted to bring animals I found home. My mom wasn't happy about it, so I figured Jonathon and his dad would have similar experiences. The word count is definitely become more and more a limiting factor for my imagination, but I am doing the best I can! 

Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos