The Three Princes of Serendip

This isn't exactly a Western Tale with Eastern Roots, but the "three brothers" concept is universal and this one is the story behind our word Serendipity. It's also special to me because, as you see, it's the name of my blog.

Interesting note: Serendip is the old name for Sri Lanka.

The story goes like this...

A wise king schools his three sons, but decides they need some exposure to the world so he casts them out. As soon as they arrive on foreign shores, they're met with a puzzle. They collect the clues of The Lost Camel and, with great concern, inquire at the camel merchant. The merchant is indeed missing a camel and he accuses the three brothers of stealing it, for how could they know all the unique details otherwise?

The details:

The camel is lame, blind in one eye, missing a tooth, carrying a pregnant woman, and bearing honey on one side and butter on the other.

The three brothers are brought before the Emperor and their story is put to the test.

• The camel only ate from one side of the road -the side he could see!
• Lumps of half-chewed grass at the side of the road fell through the gap in the camel's teeth.
• Footprints of the woman were found and handprints nearby suggested that she needed to push herself up, because of her large stomach.
• Because the camel was lame, it dropped a trail of it's load, melted butter, on one side of the road.
• Flies came to the honey trail on the other.

In the end, the three banished princes are lavished with riches and appointed to be the emperor's advisors.

Wikipedia defines serendipity as a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated. Discovering Penicillin, for example, was serendipitous. Some people point out that the sagacity of the person making an observation is the important factor, though. Another scientist might have thrown out the petri dish. Another traveller wouldn't have guessed what the three princes did.

So...revisions, betas, revisions, revisions, more critiques, revisions...maybe at the end of my trail of revisions, I'll be rewarded with a published book. Because as the Roman philosopher Seneca said, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

Related articles

• Backwards, towards serendipity (ethanzuckerman.com)
• James Burke, Prince of Serendip (gearfuse.com)

Next month's series is International Romance. I'll be hosting some fabulous women with firsthand knowledge of the subject: Nicole Ducleroir, Katie Mills, Jessica Bell, and Joanna St. James ! Stay tuned for their posts on Tuesdays in January.

Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo!



via Goodreads.com

 Of course, The Magic Song comes from Cinderella!

I was working in the elementary school library last week when I came across Glass Slipper Gold Sandal by Paul Fleischman and Julie Paschkis. (A perk of volunteering.) It's a beautiful compilation of the Cinderella story as it crosses the globe. Here's the authors note:

A chameleon changes color to match its surroundings. Stories do the same. The earliest recorded Cinderella tale is thought to date from ninth-century China. Traveling across the globe, it changed its clothes but not its essence. Rivalry, injustice, and the dream of wrongs righted are universal, no matter our garments. When the story reached France, it acquired the glass slippers and coachmen-mice familiar to Western readers. More than a thousand other versions are known.

Actually, Strabo recorded a tale of Thracian courtesan Rhodopis and Pharoah Ahmose II in the 1st Century BC, but try explaining what a courtesan is to your kid....(NOT a good idea.) The Iraqi Cinderella story, while different from the Western version, bears a stronger resemblance to the French tale told by Charles Perrault. No fairy godmother looks out for our heroine, instead a little Red Fish takes up the role and "Cinderella" wears sandals of gold. Here's a line from that version:

Cock-doodle-dow
Let the king's wife know
They put the ugly one on show
And hide the beauty down below!

So no tower for this Cinderella either, but there's definitely a wicked stepmother!

Related Articles:

Iraqi Cinderella Story

Dark Original Version of Classic Fairytale: Cinderella - The Gruesome Ending (socyberty.com)

Romeo & Juliet aka Layla & Majnun

Image via WikipediaFirst, I want to say I'm so PSYCHED that my blog was pulled by Turkish National Newspaper Milliyet blogger, Volkan Abur. Çok teşekkür ederim! His post is in Turkish, but it basically summarized who I am and what I write. Then it directs people to my Notable Eastern Women post on Tansu Çiller.

Makes me want to continue the series, but it's December and I promised to discuss some Western Tales with Eastern Roots.

I thought I'd start with one that many of you might already know. The classical 7th century Arabic tale of Layla & Majnun goes something like the story of Romeo & Juliet, except it's in the desert and surprisingly, it's (mostly) true.

Qays ibn al-Mulawwah was his name, but we know him as Majnun. (Remember that means crazy or possessed by djinn.) He's a poet. She's his muse and her father doesn't approve. She gets married off to some other guy. Unlike the story of Romeo & Juliet, Majnun withers away, wandering and going mad in the desert. Layla moves to another village, but dies of a broken heart. Majnun's body is found near her grave, with three last verses carved into the stone. Haunting isn't it?

Shakespeare wasn't the only that got inspired. There are countless versions in many languages. People even named a town after her in Saudi Arabia. Then there's a pretty famous guy who used Nizami's Persian epic version, verbatim, as the lyrics for a song not too long ago.

There blows no wind but wafts your scent to me,
There sings no bird but calls your name to me.
Each memory that has left its trace with me
Lingers forever as a part of me.

Sound familiar? How about if we add some guitar in the background? OK. One more clue. He sings another song about her. (Come on now...Layla)

So when a Turkish guy tells you he feels like Majnun (it's an idiom), he means he's possessed, as in madly in love with you. Stranger things have happened ;)

Related articles

• The greatest rock song of all time (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)