The Heart of a Monkey is a Swahili fairy tale collected by

Edward Steere Edward Steere (1828 – 26 August 1882) was an English Anglican colonial bishop in the 19th century. Life Steere was educated at London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a ...

in ''Swahili Tales''.Edward Steere (1870), '' Swahili Tales'', "The Story of the Washerman's Donkey".

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...

included it in ''

The Lilac Fairy Book ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...

''. It is Aarne-Thompson 91.

Synopsis

A monkey and a shark struck up a friendship, with the monkey tossing his friend the fruits of a giant '' mku yu'' tree that grew overhanging the ocean. After a time, the shark said if the monkey would only come home with him, he would give him a gift, and offered to carry him. The monkey accepted, but half way there, the shark told him that the sultan of his country was deathly ill and needed a monkey's heart to cure him. The monkey said it was a pity, because if he had known, he could have brought his heart, but as it was, he had left it behind. The shark, deceived, brought him back to get it. The monkey instantly jumped up into the tree and was not to be lured back down. He told the shark a story of a washerman's donkey, which was twice persuaded to meet with a lion, and so lost its life the second time — and that the monkey was not a washerman's donkey.

Versions

India

An earlier version of this tale, with a crocodile instead of a shark, serves as the

frame tale A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction * Framing (c ...

for the fourth book of the Panchatantra. In this version it is the crocodile's wife who, after enjoying the figs given by the monkey to her husband, desires to eat the monkey's heart. Whereas the Swahili version has only one embedded tale, in the Panchatantra version the monkey and crocodile tell each other numerous tales in the course of their story, the second of which corresponds to the story of the washerman's donkey.

Japan

Folklorist

Seki Keigo was a Japanese folklorist. He was joined a group under Yanagita Kunio, but often came to different conclusions regarding the same folktales. Along with collecting and compiling folktales, Seki also arranged them into a series of categories. This ...

stated that the tale is "very popular" in Japan, and reported an ancient Japanese version from the 11th century, in the '' Konjaku Monogatarishū''.

Commentary

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

in his ''

On Fairy-Stories "On Fairy-Stories" is an essay by J. R. R. Tolkien which discusses the fairy story as a literary form. It was written as a lecture entitled "Fairy Stories" for the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, on 8 March 1939 ...

'' cites this tale as an example of not a true fairy tale, because while the detached heart is a common fairy-tale motif, it appears in it only as a ploy.J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy-Stories" , The Tolkien Reader, p. 15.

References

External links

* *
"The Heart of a Monkey" on mythfolklore.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heart of a Monkey Fictional monkeys African fairy tales Indian fairy tales Indian folklore Indian literature ATU 1-99 Edward Steere