Jewish Fairy Tales Reading Notes Part A

 

Moses as a young boy after he was rescued from the riverbed. All of the Pharaoh's women were fascinated by him.

Image from The Water-babe.

Two stories truly captured my attention out of the Jewish Fairy Tales readings. The first story was The Water-Babe. It is a story that follows Moses through his first few years of life. He was found by the river by the Princess in the story and was brought back to the Pharaoh's home even though he was a Hebrew child. While Moses was just trying to play, the Pharaoh's advisors and magicians kept saying that Moses was a threat to the Pharaoh and would try to overthrow him. While sitting at dinner one night, Moses was playing around on the Pharaoh's lap and he ended up taking off his crown and putting it on his own head. It was a very bad situation.The Pharaoh demanded he be tested to see if he was truly evil by choosing between gold (evil) and hot coals (good). After borrowing the magician's staff, the Princess wished for Moses to choose the coals. When he did, all was well within the Pharaoh's home once again. I want to keep the gist of this story but change what his end decision would be or something along those lines. This is a story I have never heard before, so it was pretty exciting for me to read about.

The second story that I really liked was the Giant of the Flood. This story mainly focuses on Noah, who built the ark and saves all types of animals from the Great Flood, and Og, a giant who basically forces himself onto the ark that Noah is using to escape the flood. Og rides the unicorn that Noah wanted to save so that he can also be saved from the flood. He threatens to starve the unicorn unless Noah feeds him as well and Og is just overall a really big pain. Noah makes him a deal agreeing to feed him; however, Og would forever be a slave to humankind for receiving Noah's food. He agreed, not realizing what he had done. When the water receded and the ark had made landfall, Noah made Og keep his promise to be a slave to mankind. As years passed and generations went on, Og finally betrayed Noah and made himself a king. Og is the main character of this story and he has a very arrogant personality. He seems to always get what he wants whether that means hurting someone or something else. I could use this personality trait to alter what happens within this story in the future.

Bibliography: Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa (1919).