Monday, September 17, 2018 <p><img alt="resized bbe49ec5d28e2469fc7277d70b2060e5.png" data-entity-type="" data-entity-uuid="" height="359" src="/sites/default/files/2018-09/resized%20bbe49ec5d28e2469fc7277d70b2060e5.png" width="403" /></p> <p style="margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt">&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>A brief outline of plot elements found in a number of Kerasountine tales</strong></p> <ul> <li>"Giannitsis":&nbsp;a boy's betrays&nbsp;his parents' trust (in the cause of holiness) to run away to a monastery, but then suffers an&nbsp;inescapable nostalgia for home.</li> <li>"Huff the Serpent": the serpent's daughter betrays her father for the sake of love; a boy struggles to do right by his father and his father by him; an amiable king rules them all;&nbsp;a clever villain is defeated by an even&nbsp;cleverer apprentice.</li> <li>"The Bear and the Fox":&nbsp;one animal defeats&nbsp;another: a bear irritates the fox, the fox irritates the bear, which ultimately leads to the bear's literal downfall when an old lady&nbsp;tricks him to his death.</li> <li>"The Cat and the Fox":&nbsp;a small, weak person's ability to defeats a much better-armed foe&nbsp;with guile and boldness.</li> <li>"The Devil and the Princes":&nbsp;the danger&nbsp;of making a bargain with a devil, and the usefulness of cleverness and resolve (and trusting one's horses).</li> <li>"The Donkey and His Friends": a villain allows&nbsp;his own gullibility to defeat&nbsp;him as much as the abilities of the relatively weak protagonist(s) do--five domesticated animals team&nbsp;up to survive.</li> <li>"The Donkey": the gullibility of people who believe a bird can see into their cupboards, or that a donkey could be a ferocious lion.</li> <li>"The Cyclops": the need to keep one's wits sharp in a foreign land; even giant foes have&nbsp;vulnerabilities, either physical or mental.</li> <li>"The Liar's Son":&nbsp;a contestant psyches himself out.</li> <li>"The Man Who Caught the Ogre": a clever man defeats a much larger, wily foe.</li> <li>"The One Who Blinded the Ogre":a clever man defeat a much larger, wily foe.</li> <li>"The Princess and the Five Brothers":&nbsp;five brothers need almost to be tricked into helping the king find his kidnapped daughter;&nbsp;a clever mother gets them to agree; the five brothers cooperate to save her.</li> <li>"The Snake Prince and His Wife": a girl tricks&nbsp;a snake into doffing his skin after their wedding, then has to search for&nbsp;him for seven years after his snakeskin is destroyed.</li> <li>"The Son of the Hunter": covers what happens if you fall afoul of a powerful, petty man, a king's being swayed by poor advice, a man's being ordered to fulfill a king's whims with no reward offered. &nbsp;This lack of reward for helping a king seems unique (so far) to Kerasunda.</li> <li>"The Son of the Widow":&nbsp;a mother isn't wise enough to wean her son, her betrayal of him, his becoming brothers with two other strongmen and their betrayal of him over a beautiful woman, another king giving no rewards to people who do his will.&nbsp;</li> <li>"The Bird Heart and the Magical Fruit": has&nbsp;two betrayals of a man by a woman (the father by the mother and the boy by the girl he kidnaps), a woman by a man the girl by the boy she has hired to tailor a gown(), theft by cleverness, and revenge satisfied.</li> </ul>