Csenge Virág Zalka's Blog, page 10

K is for Knees (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!(Learn more about painted knees here)How Sosruquo was born (Abaza legend)One of the most famous heroes of the Caucasian Nart sagas is Sosruquo (Soslan), who is born from a stone and burns so hot that the blacksmith god has to temper him. The smith grabs the red-hot baby with tongs around his knees and plunges him in water/milk

J is for Joints (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!(Image from here)The adventures of the twins (Congo)Twin brothers set out to find their father who had gotten lost on a trading voyage. They travel through a strange country where people can do whatever they want with their bodies. Some take out their bones before climbing a tree so they don't break in the event of a fall. Some turn

I is for Incisors (Body Folktales)

 This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!The wonderful brocade (Zhuang people, China)A beautiful story about a poor woman who weaves her dreams into a brocade. When the brocade is stolen, her youngest son sets out to find it. However, he needs a magic horse for the voyage, that only comes alive when he takes out his own two front teeth and puts them in its mouth. The boy

H is for Hands, Hair, Hips, Heels (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!(Yes, I am aware it's Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels, but it was low hanging fruit.)HANDSThere were some obvious choices here that I'm omitting, such as Beaumains from Arthurian legends, or the folktale type of the Handless Maiden (which I really hate, except for one Hungarian variant).Invisible Grandfather (Italy)A girl sets out to seek her

G is for Genitalia (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!CW: Adult themes incoming! Obviously.You didn't really think I was going to do a theme like this without addressing the obvious, did you?(Note: Some of these tales say 'vagina' instead of 'vulva'. It may be factually incorrect, but I didn't want to mess with the translations.)Wandering genitalia (Saora people, India)This story claims

F is for Fingers (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!(Sorry, this image was low hanging fruit. Explanation here.)Fingers, surprisingly, play a very dominant role in folktales. I had an abundance of stories to choose from, so here is a selection of the most interesting ones:The Finger (Jewish tale)If you have seen Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, this story will be familiar to you. You might

E is for Elbows (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!I could have done Eyes or Ears for this one, but I accidentally ran into a folktale type that I really wanted to explore, so I went with Elbows instead.Turns out that there are several variants of a story about villains who have sharp elbows in North American indigenous cultures (the motif number is G341). It sounded fascinating, so I

D is for the Digestive System (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!For today's topic, I researched folktales that feature the stomach, intestines, and the digestive system in general. Things, as expected, did get delightfully weird.CW: intestines and bowels and whatnotHair's Revenge (Nigeria)Back in the beginning of time, Hair and Stomach lived in the same town. However, while Hair went on a business

C is for Cheeks (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!(Image from here.)Today we are talking about the other kind of cheeks.Atdlarneq the Great Glutton (Greenland Inuit)This story is about a hunter who keeps taking more food from the sea than he needs. One day he ends up in a house with three beautiful women. Soon the master of the house comes home: a man-like monster whose cheeks are

B is for Beards and some Buttocks (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy!There are actually quite a few body parts that start with B, so I had a great time picking through some of the most interesting stories. I decided to delve into tales about two things: Beards, and Buttocks. Because I couldn't resist. Here we go.How the White Man got his beard (Cheyenne)A white man travels without food and, seeing rich