Mongolian Animal
Tales
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And now we've come to my favourite group of
Mongolian folktales. The Mongolian people seem to know an infinite number of
animal tales and fables though the destinction between the two is pretty hard to
make. A fable distuingish itself by its obvious moral. But the Mongolian tales in general are not so obvious in
imparting a moral.
In my work about the
animal tales I discovered that all of them seem to follow two basic
rules:
1. The smaller, weaker
animal always beats the bigger, stronger one.
2. A herbivore will
always defeat a carnivore.
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Rabbit
by Hideo Komatsu |
According to these rules the animals, acting
as protagonists in the tales, can be devided into "culprit/ aggressor"
on the one hand and "victim/ defender" on the other hand. These two
groups of animals clash in specific scenarios sometimes meeting an animal of a
third group, the "rescuers". These are most often especially small -
and therefore especially clever - herbivores rescuing the endangered animal
through cleverness and cunning. Sometimes the rescuer is a stronger carnivore,
mainly the bear who, after all, eats more berries than meat anyway.
Of course, these
respective roles reflect the desire of the people to be able to beat their
oppressors as easy as that. It is interesting, I think, that violence is not the way
to defend oneself. Instead, cleverness is the wappon of choice.
The Dumb Wolf
or how a black pudding, a mare
and a calf trick a wolf
The
Fox And the Wolf
or why lying does pay after
all
The
Khulan, the Crow And the Wolf
or how you distinguish
between real friends and false ones
The Story of the Lame Magpie Who
Has Got Seven Green Eggs
or how at the end the clever
fox is the one being tricked
The Cat Who Pretended to
Be a Lama
or why cats do bury their
excrements
I hope to add more animal tales in the near future. :)