Extra Credit Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part B

The Wizard and His Apprentice

• A boy ran away every time his mother took him to school.  Unsure what to do with her son, the boy asks for an apprenticeship with a wizard, and the mother agrees.
• This wizard is a con man.  He turns into animals, has the boy take him to the market to sell him, and then turns back into human form and escapes.  He is not a very good role model.
• The boy has to keep the rope so that the wizard can come back.
• The boy returns home to try the con with mother, to which the wizard is furious when he returns and the boy isn't there.  So the next day, when the mother is auctioning off her son as a bathroom unit, the wizard is the highest bidder.
• She is supposed to keep the key so that the boy can come back, but the wizard convinces her to give it to him.
• The boy then turns into a bird and flies away. The wizard turns into a falcon and chases him.
• The boy turns into a rose and falls into the hands of a Padishah.  The wizard turns into a minnesinger and tells the Padishah a sob story so that he'll give him the rose. 
• The boy turns in millet pulp and falls to the ground.  The wizard turns into a cock and eats it, but misses one grain.
• The grain turns into the boy, who then picks up to cock and wrings its neck, killing the wizard.
• The Padishah is fascinated by his magic, makes the boy Grand Vezir, gives him his daughter in marriage, and the boy can now provide for his mother.

Illustration by Willy Pogany from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales. 

Source: Turkish Fairy Tales

Bibliography: "The Wizard and his Apprentice" from Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos.  Source: The Wizard and his Pupil