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| The Ziz Illustration from "The Princess of the Tower," Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, by Aunt Naomi (Gertrude Landa) http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jftl/index.htm (Public domain ) |
When I was writing The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, (see the
Prologue and first six chapters here),
I made Capt. Robbin Nikalishin a birder. What better qualification for the man
who will head up the mission that encountered the first intelligent lifeform
known to humanity -- and who happened to be big birds? During the mission out,
there was a lot of boring downtime and one way the crew entertained itself was
by telling bird myths, each crewmember telling tales from his or her own
culture. Now, this section will be cut or drastically emended if I ever get
that monster ready for publication, but I did too much research and had too much
fun writing it to let it all disappear, so what better place to display it than
on a blog devoted partially to myth in literature?
This passage is a continuance of the previous post in this series, so to get an explanation of the characters and circumstances, go to that post. The following is adapted from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, by Aunt Naomi (pseud. of Gertrude Landa), New York, Bloch Pub. Co., 1919. The footnote to this effect is meant to have been supplied in the 28th century by the person who is writing Capt. Nikalishin's fictionalized biography.
THE PRINCESS OF THE TOWER
Avi continued, "But that’s not the whole story of
the Ziz. He appears in several later tales
meant especially for children. I’ll tell
just one of them. And I’ll abbreviate it, because when Uncle Ely would
tell tales to Ziv and Daniel and me after school, he would stretch them out so they
usually went two or three sessions. He’d
turn them into cliffhangers and use the installments as a reward for buckling
down to our lessons.”[1]
“Once there was a princess who was very
beautiful and accomplished and smart and well-educated, but suddenly she got very
depressed. Her father the King sent for
all kinds of experts to try to figure out what was wrong with her, and finally
one who was a bit more savvy than the others decided that the only thing wrong
with her was that she was pining for someone to fall in love with.
“So the King brought all the
princes and nobles of his realm to court her, but she rejected every one of
them, saying they were all self-centered botbrains … well, I doubt she used
that word, but you know what I mean … and she would never marry any prince who
thought himself to be the only person in the world who mattered, or who loved
himself more than the people that he ruled.
The King could grasp the wisdom of that, but when the wise men told him that
it was obvious the princess would never fall in love with anybody but a commoner,
he lost patience and imprisoned his daughter in a fortress tower by the
sea.
“The people missed their kind
princess, although the King took a funny turn.
It seems that, annoyed as he was with his obstinate daughter, he took
what she had said to heart and began to take more of an interest in the welfare
of his people. So it happened that they
began to hope for better things and that included a certain young cowherd.
“One day he was out in the field
watching his cattle. As he was pondering
the state of the world, he fell asleep and was awakened by the piteous
bellowing of an ox in pain. He jumped up
to see that an enormous bird had seized the ox in its talons and was trying to
lift it from the ground! He realized
that it could only be the Ziz, and yet, with no thought for his own safety, the
cowherd rushed to seize the ox by the forelegs at it was rising into the air. He wound his own legs around a tree to try to
hold the bird back, but to no avail. The
Ziz, its huge eyes glowing with rage, struck at the cowherd, but fortunately its
wicked beak sliced the tree in two instead.
Then, freed from any restraint, it rose up from with ground with the ox
dangling beneath him and the young man dangling from the ox!
“He clung on for dear life as the
bird rose higher and higher above the trees and then soared away over the
ocean. It soon became night, with a
great moon glimmering on the water below, and the cowherd was about to give up
in despair and let go and accept his death, when the bird reached a tower on
the seacoast and swooped down to drop both the dead ox and the cowherd in a
nest at the top. Above them towered the
Ziz, glaring ferociously as it prepared to strike the young man with a death
blow.” Again Avi grinned broadly, surely
remembering the antics with which his beloved mentor must have illustrated this
tale.
“But the resourceful cowherd pulled
out his field knife and struck at the tongue in the gaping beak just as it was darting
down. A pierced tongue can’t feel so
good even if you are as big as an elephant, and the Ziz gave a shriek, leaped
out of the nest, and flew off. The exhausted
young man soon fell asleep, and when he awakened it was morning and a beautiful
young woman was standing before him.
Naturally, she asked him how he had gotten there and he related his
astonishing tale. So the princess – for
that was who it was, of course – took him down into her tower and gave him food
and clothing and a place to rest and bathe, all the while not telling him her
identity. She found him very attractive
and he was likewise smitten, but he felt that only members of royalty could be
so beautiful, and here he was nothing but a common peasant.
“The princess told him that every
morning she went to the top of the tower and looked forth to see if her future
husband might to coming to rescue her, and the cowherd in his naïveté asked her
who that might be. And she said that she
didn’t know – in fact, she had often felt moved to make a vow to marry the
first man who came to her.
“Emboldened, the cowherd said, ‘I
believe I am that man, then, and certainly in my heart I knew it was love at
first sight. I would be honored if you
would allow me to marry you.' And she
agreed without the slightest hesitation.
“But she said, ‘I will happily
marry you, but first you must think of a way for us to escape from this place.’ And so he devised an ingenious plan.
“In the evening the Ziz returned to
feast on the remains of the ox, and while it was thus occupied, the cowherd and
his princess attached to its legs ropes and a large basket. They provisioned the basket with a supply of
food and water and then climbed in. They
had no idea where the bird would carry them, but their hope was that it would
come to ground in occupied lands and they would be able to escape.
“But what happened was better than
that – it flew across the sea to the capital city of the realm! Then, seeming to notice for the first time
the extra weight on its legs, it dashed the basket against a tower of the King’s
very palace, and the princess and her lover tumbled out. Only when guards appeared and recognized the
princess did the cowherd discover the true identity of his intended bride. The King was overjoyed – it was surely fate
that this handsome prince among commoners had found his daughter. He gave his consent to their marriage, and …
Captain, you knew how this kind of old tale is supposed to end! So I’ll say, they all lived happily ever
after – even the Ziz, I presume!” And
Avi bobbed a comically childish bow and sat down, suddenly going red in the
face. Vigorous clapping and a spurt of
animated conversation followed.
Robbie stood up, still applauding. “That was a highly entertaining tale,
Lieutenant! And I would love to hear
Rabbi Kohn tell it! Now, who wants to go
next?”
[1] Rabbi Kohn appears to have drawn this tale from a 20th-century children’s narrative (Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, by Aunt Naomi [pseud. of one Gertrude Landa]) that is known to exist in only two copies, one in the Bodley Library in the Historical Preserve of Oxferd and one in the Ostrailien Archives. One suspects that a third copy might be held somewhere in the IJE.
Coming Next ...
Mythical Birds from Greece and the Middle East
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