Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part B

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- The story about the Imp of the Well begins with a woodcutter whose wife is a particularly controlling stereotype of a domineering wife. The woodcutter goes off into the mountains to cut wood, and is followed by his terrible wife. She falls into a well, and the woodcutter chooses to leave her there. He comes back the next day, feeling guilty, and lowers a rope to rescue her. Instead, an imp climbs the rope and tells the woodcutter that his peaceful existence in the well had been interrupted by a terrible woman.
- The story doesn't provide any details about the imp's existence in the well, how he survived and ate down there, or the events that transpired after the woodcutter's wife falls down there.
- I'd like to tell the story of the well and the imp's introduction to the harridan wife. The well would need to be much larger that it appears, furnished and with access to food. This will have the added bonus of giving the angry woman a comfortable life, instead of a slow death by starvation. After falling into the well, the woman and the imp would have a confrontation, which leads to the imp choosing to climb out on the woodcutter's rope.


Bibliography: Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos. Web Source.