"One Thousand and One Nights“ and Georgian Folklore (One tale)

Abstract

Dalila Bedianidze’s paper, “A Tale from The One Thousand and One Nights and Georgian Folklore” discusses The One Thousand and One Nights tale “The Story of the Donkey, the Ox, and the Farmer,” the Georgian (Adjara region) folktale “The King Who Never Laughed,” and other Georgian narratives such as “The Serpent’s Brother,” “The Man Who Understood the Language of Birds,” “The Poor Man Who Understood the Language of Birds,” “The Serpent and the Man,” “The Wicked Old Woman,” “The Man with a Quarrelsome Wife,” Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani’s fable “The Man with the Shrewish Wife,” as well as the legends “The Daughter of Fuldu Qaldan” and “Khogais Mindia.” In both The One Thousand and One Nights and the aforementioned Georgian works, the story of a man taming his capricious wife is told vividly and with gentle humor. In The One Thousand and One Nights, the tale is narrated by the father to Shahrazad as a moral lesson. The paper outlines the similarities and differences among these stories. Their resemblance is attributed to the use of an internationally disseminated narrative pattern, while the differences arise from the storytellers’ imagination — each narrator seeks to reflect the unique characteristics, color, and social reality of their own country. Georgia has historically served as a bridge between Eastern and Western civilizations. Its culture and history have been closely intertwined with both worlds — a synthesis clearly manifested in the examples of Georgian folklore.