Kat's Myth-Folklore 2018 Blog

We find ourselves back at Hogwarts this week, checking in on the Golden Trio and their adventures.  As we look for them, we can see into the Dark Forest.  We see Harry & Ron trying desperately hard to sneak something out of the forest while also trying to avoid being seen and caught.  But where is Hermione?  Upon further searching, we find her talking to a centaur, trying very hard to keep him distracted.  "But sir, I swear if you'll just listen to me a bit longer, you'll find it's a very interesting story" exclaims Hermione. "I will listen to your story," replies the centaur thoughtfully, "but it better be very interesting or I shall have to go and examine whatever was making that racket farther into the forest."  So Hermione begins to tell him the tale of the "Merchant and the Genie" which soon morphs into telling the tales of three old men travelling along the same road, trying to also distract the genie and save the merchant...

This is another of Scheherazade's stories:  Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp There was a boy named Aladdin, the son of a poor tailor.  The boy wouldn't find a trade & it disheartened his father so that he died.  The boy was playing in town when a stranger asked if he was the son of Mustapha.  The boy said he was & the man said that he was his uncle.  Aladdin ran home & his mother said that he did have an uncle, but she thought he was dead.  The stranger was actually an African magician.  He set Aladdin up in a shop & bought him fine clothes.  Then he took Aladdin up on a mountain & opened up the entrance to a cave, telling Aladdin how to go in & get a treasure out for him.  The magician gave Aladdin a ring & told him how to retrieve the lamp.  Aladdin refused to give the magician the lamp until he was out of the cave, so the magician closed the cave entrance up, leaving Aladdin for dead in the cave.  Alad...

( Arabian Nights from the Untextbook) Sultan Schahriar had a wife he loved more than anything & he lavished her with things.  He later found out she had deceived him so completely that he had to obey the law of the land & have the grand-vizir put her to death.  He was so upset that he thought all women must be the same, so he would rid the land of as many of them as possible.  Every evening he would marry a new wife & every morning he would have the grand-vizir put them to death.  There was so much sorrow on the land that no one knew how to cope.  The grand-vizir had two daughters himself.  The oldest was Scheherazade and she was very beautiful but also very clever.  Scheherazade went to her father & said that she hoped to end the curse that was on the land and begged her father to let her marry the Sultan.  He was very distraught at this because if she failed, he would have to kill his own daughter.  But she begged ...