Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Disturbing Folktales

I think, by now, we've all heard of how certain fairytales were tamed down so that they can be told for children. In the original version of Sleeping Beauty, for instance, the beautiful princess was actually raped by a hunter. She then got pregnant IN HER SLEEP, and so on and so forth.

Recently, I watched a film recount of a folk tale that I used to read when I was younger. Of course, I had no idea what it meant back then. It was just a story, but when i watched it the other day, I was actually surprised at all the elements in the story.

I'm not sure if it's of a certain neighbouring country's or of local origin, but safe to say, it came from the Malay Archipelago. Here's how the story goes:

One day, a hunter pees on a keladi leaf in the woods. Soon after, a wild boar comes by and drinks the pee, and she gets pregnant! A few months later, she gives birth to a baby girl who grows up into a beautiful young woman, coveted by many men, all whom she rejects.

One day, while resting with her faithful pet dog, her handkerchief falls into some sort of hole, which she can't get into to retrieve. She says out loud: "Anyone who can retrieve my handkerchief will get to marry me!". And guess what? Her dog goes down and gets it for her! And so she marries her dog.

And gets pregnant and gives birth to a boy. She doesn't tell the boy that the dog is his father. So one day, while the boy was hunting (with the dog), he spots a wild boar (none other than the very same boar that drank the pee and gave birth to his mom, no less) and wants to kill it and bring her heart home to mommy dearest.

The dog, knowing that this is his wife's mom, stops him from killing his own grandma. The kid is furious (bear in mind, he's like 6 or 7 at the time) and kills the dog instead, brings its heart home, cooks it and gives it to his mother who readily eats it up. She notices that the dog/hubby is not around so she asks her son where it is.

Her son tells what happened. She gets really really angry and chases him away, but not before throwing a large rock at him that leaves a scar on his head.

To make a long story short, he grows up not knowing his mother and she, for some reason, stays as young and beautiful as ever. They meet and fall in love and only when they're in love does she see the scar and realise that it's her son. Of course, the stupid obstinate boy will not listen and insists on marrying his own mother.

Through some trickery on her part, she basically avoids marrying him.

But the point I'm getting to here - Drinking pee and getting pregnant from it, bestiality, incest? Man, people sure did use to get around, huh?

2 comments:

the younger safynaz kazem said...

omg cite ape nih?! LOL

Zurin said...

hehe.. It's called "Sangkuriang" babe. Look it up n u'll see what I mean :P