Thursday, September 18, 2014

Essay for Week 5: Magic and the Supernatural in Twenty-Two Goblins

Magic and the supernatural appear frequently throughout mythological and folkloric tales, and the story Twenty-Two Goblins is no exception. In almost every riddle told by the goblin, there is some element of magic or supernatural beings. Of course, even the goblin himself is a supernatural being! The "goblin" is actually a creature that is possessing a corpse in the graveyard.

In The Three Lovers, a beautiful farmer's daughter has three suitors of whom she cannot choose to marry. Unfortunately, the farmer's daughter becomes ill and passes away. One of her suitors, however, travels far and learns of magic to bring the dead back to life. He gathers her remains and brings her back to the world of the living.

We see both supernatural beings and magic in the tale Brave, Wise, Clever. When Moonlight, the daughter of a king's counsellor, is kidnapped, three men who seek her hand in marriage attempt to rescue her. The clever man builds a magic flying carriage to get the men to where Moonlight was being kept, while the brave man then slays the giant that had taken her.

In the tale The Four Brothers, we hear a story of, as the title suggests, four brothers, each of whom has a different magic skill. Although the brothers in the story refer to their skills as "sciences" that they have learned, these powers are clearly supernatural.The first brother can add flesh to the skeleton of any animal. The second possesses the skill to add skin and hair to any flesh. The third brother says that he can add eyes and other organs to any creature with flesh, skin and hair. The final brother has the most impressive ability; he can bring the creature to life. Unfortunately for these four brothers, they bring a lion to life who promptly kills them all.

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