What I love about this very
satisfying Armenian fairy tale is that the heroine is an ugly old witch. Not
a beautiful maiden - not even a maiden enchanted to seem old and ugly, like Sophie in Diana Wynne Jones’s ‘Howl’s
Moving Castle’. No! She is what she is. And although she can use her magic to make
herself seem young and pretty, she doesn’t want to. She knows her true self and has the strength and self-knowledge to prefer
her real appearance to any illusion, and to ignore jeers and laughter. In the
end, though, the continued mockery stings – and she decides to do something
about it.
You may also enjoy the snappish exchange, around the mid-point of the story, between the Queen and the rather useless King.
You may also enjoy the snappish exchange, around the mid-point of the story, between the Queen and the rather useless King.
The tale was told c. 1900 "by the
illiterate labourer Manuk Avdalian in the village of Koph, province of Taron", collected by I. Orbeli and S. Taronian. It was translated into
English and published as 'The Mocker Mocked' in ‘Armenian Folk-tales and Fables’ by Charles Downing,
OUP 1972. The illustration is by William Papas.
I don’t know who and where and when exactly, but once upon a
time there was a King of a land in the East who, when he had finished his work
for the day, was in the habit of sitting at the window of his pavilion to watch
the people passing by. One day he looked out and caught sight of the most weird
and fantastical little old woman scurrying by under his window. So comical
indeed was she that he burst into gales of loud laughter, almost strong enough
to split his sides.
“Never have
I seen such a ridiculously hideous old crone!” he declared. “She must be some
sort of she-devil, one that haunts the bottom of a well!”
The poor old
woman heard all this, but paid no attention to it and went on her way.
Well! One
day, one week, one month later, when the King was again seated in his window,
he caught sight of the old woman once more. As soon as he clapped eyes on her,
up went the loud hoots and guffaws, and he laughed and laughed until the old
woman finally lost patience. She came to a halt beneath his window.
“Laugh away,
go on! Laugh!” she cried. “We’ll soon see which of the two of us laughs last!”
So saying,
off she went.
Now don’t
say a word to anyone, but between you and me this old woman was a sort of
witch, able to take on any shape or form she wished. One day she might appear
as a fine-grained angel, the next as some monstrous devil; she could turn the
ugly into the beautiful and the fair into the repulsive; she could make the
brainless clever and the intelligent stupid.
Well, that’s everything you need to
know about the old woman, I don’t need to go on about it. Enough is enough. So
this silly King just can’t give up his bad habit; the more he sees the old
woman, the louder he laughs, until one day he goes too far and touches her to
the quick. Unable to bear the ridicule any longer, she changes her shape and
form, turns herself into a pretty young woman and goes to see the Queen.
“Your majesty,” she says, “I am as
dust beneath your feet. My husband has died, leaving me with many little ones.
Will you not hire me, as your maid, perhaps? I should come early in the morning,
see to everything and go home in the evenings. That way I could earn enough to
keep my children.”
“Well why not?” said the Queen. “You
seem a pleasant, well-favoured body. You may bathe me and comb my hair. It’s my
day of the week for a bath, so let us go now.”
They went to the bath-house, where
the Queen had a good wash and then came out of the water. The witch took her
comb and began to comb her hair – and no sooner did her hand touch her, than
the Queen turned into a hideous old woman, so hideous indeed that the devil
himself would have blanched to look at her! When the Queen saw herself in the
mirror she had such a fright that she screamed out loud.
“King! King!” she yelled. “Come
quickly!” And at the sound of her voice, the witch vanished.
The King ran up – looked – and saw
that his wife’s nose had grown to an enormous length, her lips hung down to her
bosom, her hair was as tangled as tree-roots, and as for her face, it was so
grey you might have supposed someone had flung a shovelful of ashes over her.
“Wife, what has happened to you?”
cried the King. And the Queen explained as best she could.
“A pretty young woman came along and
begged me to employ her as a maid. When I had taken my bath, as soon as her
hand touched me I was changed into the hideous monster you see. Do something!”
“What can I do, wife?” asked the
King.
“Find that woman!” snapped the Queen.
Now the King was completely at a
loss, not knowing which way to turn. Among a million women in the city, how
could he find the one who had acted as the Queen’s maid? Ah well, to work! Let
him get on with it, while we return to the witch.
As soon as the witch got home, she
changed shape again and resumed her true, fantastical guise. Her conscience
began to prick her, though, and in the end she got up and went to see the King.
But when she arrived at the door of the pavilion, the guards wouldn’t let her
in.
“Be off, you horrid old creature!”
they cried. “The royal pavilion is no place for the likes of you!” And so
saying, they thumped and shoved her, and shouted so loud that the noise of it
reached the King.
He looked out. “What is it, my lads?”
said he.
The guards pointed at the old woman,
and stupid he may have been, but a glimmer of sense passed for once through the
King’s head.
“Leave her alone!” he said. “Let her
come in!”
He led her into the pavilion, sat on
his throne and beckoned the old woman to stand before him. “What is your
wish?” he asked.
“Your majesty,” said the witch, “I am
the old woman you are always laughing at. Now do you see how your mockery has
rebounded on your own head? If you want to know, I am the one who turned your
wife into an ugly old woman. Are you still laughing?”
“Ah, woman!” said the King. “Now is a
chance to make your fortune! Turn my
wife back to what she was before, and I shall give you your weight in gold!”
The witch laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” said the
King.
“What then? Why shouldn’t I laugh,
now it is my turn?” mocked the witch. “Listen to me, King! When you laughed at
me, I thought to myself that there could be no one more stupid in all the lands
of the East. What you do to others shall fall on your own head. I am sorry for
your wife, not you. Call her, and I shall turn her back into the pretty woman
she was before. And from now on, perhaps a little good sense shall dwell in
your head, and you will not be so ready to laugh at people in future!”
The witch reached out her hand, and
the hideous Queen turned back into a beautiful lady. And before the King could
say a word, the witch vanished. From that day forth, they say, the King never
again made fun of the faults of others.
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