Csenge Virág Zalka's Blog, page 46

I is for Indian Almonds and Idepeluochel Bats (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

It is not exactly easy to find a fruit that starts with I (I wonder why), but I managed to track one down: The Indian almond (Terminalia catappa), known by various names such as "sea almond" or "tropical almond" has edible fruit, and it figures into some stories of south and east Asia, as well as Oceania.


A legend from Babeldaob (the largest island of the Republic of Palau) says there once

H is for Huckleberry Picking (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Huckleberry is a term applied to several different kinds of berries in North America. Once you rule Mark twain out of the Google search, the stories that remain are mostly from Native American traditions - and they tend to describe the things that can happen when one goes picking huckleberries...

The Lytton girls who were stolen by giants
Salish




Two girls go out playing, wander too far from

G is for the Grapefruit Guys (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

I only recently learned that grapefruit is not a naturally occurring citrus, but rather, an accidental hybrid of sweet orange and pomelo, originating from Barbados. Which is neat, because here is a grapefruit folktale from another Caribbean country, the Dominican Republic.




The story begins with a man and his only daughter, Siriaca, whom he sends to the Mountain of Three Grapefruits. On the

F is for the Fig Fiend (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Quick: How many figs can you eat in one sitting?



A folktale from Italy tells us about a princess who loves figs more than anything. So much, in fact, that her father announces that she will be given as a bride to the man who can provide her with more figs than she can eat. Suitors line up for the challenge, but no matter how many figs they bring, the princess devours them all in the blink of

E is for Eggplants vs Ghosts (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

No, this is not the sequel to Plants vs Zombies, but it's close.
Also, yes, eggplant is technically a fruit.

Among many, many folktales collected from Japan's Niigata Prefecture, and compiled by Fanny Hagin Mayer, there is an especially fun story about mushroom ghosts.



Story goes that behind a certain village shrine, every midnight the sounds of music and singing could be heard. No one was

D is for Daterella (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

I have mentioned before that I have a thing for little-known variants of well-known classic folktales. One of them is Cinderella. I never particularly liked Cinderella, even when I was a kid (and yes, I grew up on the unabridged, cut-the-toes-off, blood-in-the-shoes, eyes-pecked-out Grimm version, but that was not why I didn't like it... I just thought it was boring). It took me more than three

C is for Currant Girl (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Everyone knows the Frog Bride (okay, almost everyone). But have you heard about the Redcurrant Lizard Bride yet?



This folktale from the southern part of Hungary (Somogy county) begins with a widow who has a very peculiar daughter: She only ever eats currants (ribizke), and nothing else. For this, she is named Ribike. Once the currant bushes dry up in the garden, she becomes sick, dying from,

B is for Blackberries vs. Winter (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Blackberries have a thing with seasons. In English folklore, people say you shouldn't pick them after Michaelmas (September 29), because the Devil spits on them, tramples them, or pees on them. The Old Guy hates the little fruit so much because when he fell from Heaven he landed on a blackberry bramble. Ouch.

But that's not the story I wanted to write about today. Rather, I have been reading

A is for the Apricot Fairy (A to Z Challenge 2019: Fruit Folktales)

Here we go! Happy A to Z!


Surprise! This year, A is not for apples. It's for apricots.



In a story from the shores of West Lake in Hangzhou, China, everything pretty much revolves around apricots: Our heroine, Beautiful Apricot, lives in Apricot Blossom Village, near a forest of apricot trees. One day, while taking her cow out to graze in the apricot forest, she encounters the Apricot Fairy,

MythOff Athens: Mythical Firsts

The theme for this year's World Storytelling Day was "Myths, legends, and epics" - and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to organize a MythOff! With the support of the Federation for European Storytelling, six international storytellers and three artists banded together to bring my favorite myth-telling event to a new country: Greece! You can't even wish for a better setting to tell some