Grammy Ronni had just sat down for the evening, when
Jonathon called from his bedroom,
“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!
Grammy Ronni looked down at Jonathon and he was fast asleep.
Another successful story!
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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
