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Folk tales from Holland

Professor Sunanda MAHENDRA

It is accepted by literary critics that though folk tales and other legends connected with folklore are as ancient as the human beings; they are in turn some of the most modern creative genres of understanding the wisdom of the people.

In many ways, they represent the folk mind or folk conscience despite the changes brought about by some of the modern living trends and the changes brought about by the technological means. In this manner the study of folktales may from time to time depend on how we look at them from various points of view.

Folktale

In order to study the folk tale, the collections should be available. Quite a number of folktales from various parts of the world have to be compiled and be printed and published in the form that they were handed down the centuries orally.

The latest volume of folktales which I happened to read comes from Holland or more known as Netherlands and the people who live there are called Dutch.

They have imparted a strong influence over our country, as they were rulers. Though they ruled our country, we have no way of tracing the folk ways of the Dutch or Hollanders as they are commonly called.

In this respect the present volume titled as Olandaye Janakatha Saha Janapravada (Folktales and Folkways of Holland) translated into Sinhala by professor Rohini Paranavitana of the Sinhala Department, University of Colombo, traces, in its introduction, a resourceful amount of factors related to the subject.

Paranavitana had the chance of being in Holland to get the necessary guidance from the experts and common dwellers in the compilation of the volume.

Interesting

The introduction contains basically the significant background details relating to the creative flux of the folktales embedded there. The collection has many human factors common to the cultures of many a land in the world.

Basically the tales are interesting from the point of view of storytelling patterns retaining a page moving nature which will equally satisfy the readers of all ages from children to the adults.

There is a story of a disastrous dragon and how he was killed by a funny young man who was seemingly more intelligent than the others (Makara Vinasa Kirima 23-28pp).

The dragon, one of the fictitious animals, mainly known via legends and tales in many parts of the world, appears as a dangerous creature frightening people and they in turn try to get rid of him.

In this tale the young man in the event uses a square board hung on his body where some letters are shown as ‘I am going to kill the dragon’. When the common people see this board hung on his chest, they feel that the man is either stupid or funny. What happens is quite interesting.

He approaches the dragon blindfolded and when he gets nearer he turns the other side of the board hung on his chest. On this side is a mirror that shines and reflects the face of the dragon. When the dragon sees his own face he too is frightened.

The dragon fights with himself and perhaps it is suggestive of the creature out of self fear, killing himself. In the close examination, the reader may see that the intelligence of the folk overshadowing the body skills.

Then comes another interesting and brain teasing narrative (Rajakiya Prasna 29-36pp) where three questions raised by a king is resolved by a common shepherd living by the side of a hermitage. The particular king who passes by the side of the hermitage sees a board which reads ‘the person who lives here is trouble free and lives in peace’.

The king could not understand this. He summoned the person concerned and raised three questions: ‘how very deep is the ocean?’, ‘how many tails of cows are needed to reach the sun from the earth?’ and ‘what am I thinking right now?’ If these questions are answered, the hermit can rescue but if he fails to do so, he will have a tough time.

Peace

This actually gave way to a trouble of his own mind, and he was thinking as to what the possible answers he should give the king. While he was pondering over the questions and the possible answers. There comes a shepherd who undertakes the mission and he wants a robe to wear before the king to pose himself not as a shepherd but as a monk.

So the following day the shepherd meets the king and answers the three questions. To measure the depth of the ocean one has to throw a pebble into the ocean bed, and the depth is the distance the pebble travels.

If you want to measure the distance of the earth to the sun with the cow tails it is necessary to get a cow tail of that length. At this juncture a smile appeared on the face of the king.

‘Oh great king, the answer to the final question is right now understood, as you are thinking of what I have said and also that our great king, are you not thinking of who I am and whether the person you met yesterday had come before you.

No, great king, it is the poor shepherd who lives by the side of the hermitage that had come to answer your questions.

So you can fathom the nature of a peaceful mind and understand that most questions could be answered via that state of mind. Some of the hermits live in peace and they are trouble free.

Mermaid

One of the finest and sensitive narratives is about a mermaid who is brought to the land from the sea and made to suffer on the part of the fisherfolk, and while this happens the husband of the mermaid comes with the children and lament and request them to send back the mermaid in order to live peacefully.

As the fisher folk disobey the verdict is that the sea is made to surge with rough waves destroying the fisher village This looks like the curse of the mermaid family (Kindurage Paliganima 47-51pp).

In this manner the reader gets into a world of either fantasy and/ or reality or whatever you may call it, either modern or ancient is immaterial they are fascinating narratives embedded with wit and wisdom.

The good doer is welcome and entered into sane society and the evil or the bad are made to be got rid of as unwanted for the living conditions. In a synoptic view these creations are exercises in the understanding of human nature.

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