Turkish Folktales

Description

Turkish tales bring the stories of Asia, Europe and Arabia into a unique melting pot of fables, fairy tales and folklore. With a new introduction to the Turkish folk tales in this collection are curious and bizarre, beautiful and delightful, combining elements of ancient Anatolian folk lore with Slavonic, Scandinavian and Arabian influences. Entertaining and exuberant they shame the more prosaic fairy stories of other traditions with contains stories such as 'How Cobbler Ahmet Became the Chief Astrologer', 'The Horse-Devil and the Witch', 'How the Devil lost his Wager', 'The Prayer Rug and the Dishonest Steward', 'Paradise Sold by the Yard', 'The Cinder-Youth', 'The Metamorphosis' and 'The Forty Princes and the Seven-Headed Dragon'.

Nathan Young (introduction) completed his master's degree in Turkish Folklore at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey (2014) and his PhD in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the Ohio State University (2020). Based on ethnographic fieldwork at several locations in Turkey, his dissertation evaluated how notions of the 'Turkish village' shape personal and national identity. His current research considers nostalgic visions of Turkish history that will accompany Turkey's 2023 centennial celebrations. He is presently a lecturer at the Ohio State University. Jackson is General Editor of The World's Greatest Myths and Legends series, with titles including 'Myths of Babylon', 'Indian Myth', 'Egyptian Myth', 'Norse Myth' and 'Polynesian Island Myth'. He is editor of 'Myths and Legends' and foreword writer for 'Celtic Myths and Tales'. Other related work includes articles on the Philosophy of Time, 'Macbeth, A Gothic Chaos' and William Blake's use of mythology in his visionary literature.