"Davdi Silverrock" <davdisil at gmail.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 07/06/06 08:50 AM To "Dragaera List" <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject Re: Mózes suppózes his tózes are Rózsa's? >However, on my recent perusal, I note that in the brief tale that >Miska tells to Viktor (about two princes), he mentions one who was so >clever that he learned the language of the birds and the beasts, and >could make the River run backward, and could make the stars come out >during the day (force an eclipse?). It seems possible that this >prince had some connection to Mozes or Rozsa or both - perhaps he was >Mozes, or their son after they wed? Or perhaps he was the one who did >the tricks originally, as a favor for his sister so she could marry >Mozes, who was otherwise nothing special? Well, since they are folk-tales, it would make sense that there are almost as many versions of a tale as there are people who tell it. It's also probably pretty common to have certain aspects of folk-tales (such as a list of tasks that are all but impossible to accomplish) that are shared between many of them. "Making the River Run Backwards" could be used almost any time a hero is called upon to do something impossible. This could be kind of like how "40 days" is actually just biblical short hand for "a long time passed", rather than an indication of the actual amount of time that went by. (Why did Moses spend 40 years in the desert? Why did it rain for 40 days during Noah's flood? Why did Jesus spend 40 days in the wilderness before being tempted? Because 40 was a number that was a colloquialism for "a lot", or perhaps "beyond counting". Ahem. Sorry. Forgive me for preaching, I'm not really a bible scholar.) >Who can say? Indeed. Majikjon