Fairy Tale Friday--Nourie Hadig (Armenia)

Hello and welcome to Fairy Tale Friday. Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then I’ll begin.

Today we look at a tale from Armenia entitled Nourie Hadig. It is an Armenian fairy tale collected by Susie Hoogasian-Villa in 100 Armenian Tales. I first read a version of this tale in Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales and fell in love with it. I started developing a storytelling with props to go with it, but never finished. Perhaps now that the children’s section at the bookshop where I work has expanded there will be an opportunity to tell it.

This is a tale that also uses the moon as the magic mirror. In this tale the mother (not step mother) puts her husband to the test saying, "Tell me, who is more important, your daughter or me?" The husband who SHOULD have said "my daughter because she is not asking me to kill someone I love" pulls a Hansel and Gretel and abandons his own flesh and blood in the woods.

What marks this out as different is that the place she stumbles on to is rather like a reverse Sleeping beauty where she finds a sleeping prince. A disembodied voices tells her "You must look after him for seven years and then the spell will be broken." And so she does, all the while her mother is searching for her to kill her because the moon keeps telling her that her daughter is alive.

It gets lonely tending to a sleeping prince for seven years and so halfway through she recruits a passing Gypsy girl to help with the labour. Now, I am not happy with the emphasis on Gypsy here (and will not say than in my storytelling--I plan to say a village girl) because she is a dishonest sort and I don’t feel comfortable with that connection being drawn just because of her heritage. But when the prince wakes up during the Gypsy girl’s shift, she neglects to mention that the other lady is the true bride and she merely the servant. And so like The Goose Girl, the poor girl and rich girl switch places. The prince offers to buy the servant a gift to celebrate his upcoming wedding to the false bride and she asks for a Stone of Patience. Have you ever heard of one of these? No, nor had I but the stonecutter says, “If the Stone of Patience sees that your troubles are too great to repair, it will swell and break wide open."

Our heroine not wanting to snitch directly on the usurping bride, tells her sorry tale to the stone while the prince secretly listens. The stone swells and cracks and he realises she is the true bride. Here in this version nothing seems to happen to the betrayer, but in the Angela Carter one Nourie Hadig keeps insisting it is fine to be a servant and let the false one be his bride because the wedding preparations are all ready, but you know she secretly is wanting the prince to insist otherwise. Quakers would not put up with that. “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” If he had been a Quaker, he would have taken her at her word and married the Gypsy.

So does it end there with a happy ending? No of course not. Her mother asks the moon who is the most beautiful and the moon replies, the Princess of Adana so her mother knows not only is her daughter still alive, but now she is married to royalty. She sends a poison ring as a wedding gift which our heroine duly puts on and falls down in a deep sleep from which she could not be awakened. In a lovely twist of fate, her husband lovingly cares for her for years just as she had cared for him. When it is finally removed, she is revived, and they lived happily ever after. Upon finding out, her mother dies of shock though I would have preferred dancing in red hot shoes.

If you ever come across the Angela Carter version, I would highly suggest you check it out. I think it is more poetic than this version. It is on page 200 in case you happen to pick it up.

How was I going to do this as a storytelling, I hear you cry? Well, once on a tree planting expedition with a bunch of unruly ten year olds a series of interesting rocks were found in the mud. I saw the first one and thought it could be the stone of patience and so asked muddy kids to bring me rocks of various sizes as they slopped about getting filthier by the minute with their spades and little tree branches. I found several identical ones in ever increasing size and for the piece de resistance, I found a large one that was split in two and could easily slot together like a puzzle and then crack open for the final reveal. So I went home from that trip about 20 pounds heavier due to a rucksack full of rocks.

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Nourie Hadig source

Once upon a time, there lived a rich couple, and each month the woman asked the new moon, "Am I the most beautiful in the world, or are you?"

Each month the moon replied, "You are most beautiful."

The woman gave birth to a baby girl, and they named her Nourie Hadig which means ‘tiny piece of pomegranate.’ She grew more beautiful with each passing year, and one night when she was 15, her mother asked the moon who was most beautiful. The moon replied, "Nourie Hadig is more beautiful than you or I."

She fell instantly sick with jealousy. When Nourie Hadig noticed her mother's fevered brow, she ran to her father. When he asked his wife what was wrong, she said, "Tell me, who is more important, your daughter or me?"

"I cannot answer such a question," he said.

But she would not be calmed; she insisted her husband kill their daughter.

The man was sick with grief, but he felt he must somehow cure his wife of her illness. And so he told his daughter they must go into the forest to seek help. This they did, but at sunset the father tearfully looked at Nourie Hadig and said, "Wait here for my return."

Nourie Hadig waited, but after many days when he did not appear, she began to search for him. She came to a house where she hoped she might find shelter. As she reached to knock, the door opened. She walked inside, and the door closed behind her. She turned to open it, but she could not.

Nourie Hadig discovered rooms full of silver and gold, silks and satins, rugs and candelabra, jewels and chandeliers, and at last a room where a handsome young man lay fast asleep. When she spoke, he did not answer or move.

And then she heard a disembodied voice that told her the prince was under a spell. "You must look after him for seven years," the voice said, "and then the spell will be broken."

And Nourie Hadig's work began.

Three years passed, and Nourie Hadig tended to the sleeping prince.

One night her mother smiled up at the new moon, and for the first time since her daughter's death, she asked, "Tell me, am I still the most beautiful in the world?"

The moon gleamed, as if winking, and said, "Nourie Hadig is most beautiful."

And the woman understood her husband had not killed their daughter as she'd asked, and so she knew she must do it herself.

So the mother set off to find Nourie Hadig.

Each month the mother asked the moon, "Who is most beautiful?" and each month the moon answered, "Nourie Hadig."

Another year passed.

One day in her loneliness Nourie Hadig cried out the window to a group of Gypsies, "Will someone help me tend to a sleeping prince?" She dropped a rope, and one young girl agreed to climb the rope and help.

Nourie and the Gypsy girl took care of the prince together, and three more years passed.

One summery day, the Gypsy girl sat beside the bed when the young man woke. "You have broken my spell, and I shall marry you and make you my princess!" he said, and naturally the girl agreed.

Nourie Hadig loved the prince, but she did not say a word. When the prince asked if she would like a gift for her service, she told him she would like the Stone of Patience.

"And your happiness," she said.

In the city the prince bought a ring and a bridal gown, and he went to see a stonecutter to ask if he might have the Stone of Patience.

The stonecutter smiled. "Yes," he said, "but you must know this: If the Stone of Patience sees that your troubles are too great to repair, it will swell and break wide open."

He agreed to sell the stone to the prince.

Back home the prince gave Nourie Hadig the Stone of Patience. At once she began to tell her tale.

"My father left me," Nourie Hadig said, and the stone swelled to twice its size. She went on to tell of the four years she took care of the prince all alone, and it swelled still more. She spoke of the three years she and the bride-to-be worked, and she asked the stone, "Tell me, am I more patient, or are you?"

With those words the Stone of Patience broke open, and the prince understood Nourie Hadig had saved him. He asked her to become his wife.

And she became Princess of Adana.

Soon after, when her mother asked the moon who was most beautiful, the moon answered, "Princess of Adana."

Now she knew how to find her daughter, and so she had a beautiful ring made and filled it with poison. She sent a servant to deliver the ring with a note asking for forgiveness.

Overjoyed by this, Nourie Hadig slipped the ring onto her finger. At once she fell into a deep sleep from which no one could wake her.

Three years passed, and just as his wife had looked after him, the prince looked after Nourie Hadig.

One day a healer came, and as he tended to Nourie Hadig, he noticed the ring. Hoping no one would see, he slipped the ring from her finger, and she woke.

He knew he had discovered a secret. He returned the ring to her finger.

"I can cure your wife," he told the prince, "if you'll pay me in silver and gold."

Naturally, the prince agreed.

The healer removed every necklace, bracelet and ring Nourie Hadig wore.

Last of all, he slipped off the mother's ring from her finger, and Nourie Hadig awoke at once.

That night, when her mother asked the new moon who was most beautiful, the moon answered, "Nourie Hadig, Princess of Adana."

And the mother, shocked at this news, died that night.

But Nourie Hadig and the prince lived happily ever after.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned next week for a tale with a scorpion necklace.