Fisherman and the Djinn (Storytelling)

What do you do when the thing you just rescued wants to kill you?

That's the problem facing a poor fisherman who pulls a sealed copper jar from the sea — and makes the mistake of opening it. Out pours a djinn. Ancient. Enormous. Furious. And completely committed to the oath he swore during his centuries of imprisonment: that whoever freed him would die by his hand.

In this episode of Fabric of Folklore, Vanessa Rogers tells the tale of "The Fisherman and the Djinn" from One Thousand and One Night

Old as the Arabian Nights themselves — and just as relevant as the day it was first told.

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Transcript

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The Fisherman and the Djinn is one of the core stories of 1001 Arabian Knights. And our story starts out with a poor fisherman and he has three children at home and a wife. And every single day he goes out and he casts his net four times because that is the number that has been decreed to him by Allah of how many casts he does on a daily basis. So the first time he casts his net and he brings in a dead. donkey head. And he sighs, but he gives praise to Allah and he throws his the donkey back out. He casts his net a second time and he pulls it in and it's heavy and he's hopeful but instead is a jar of mud. He throws it back in, gives praise and casts his net a third time. The third time he pulls it in and pieces of broken glass and jars con are contained within his net. He sighs, but he says, One more cast. And he throws his cast out for the fourth and final time. And it's not very heavy. And so he pulls on it and he at first he is feeling a little bit disappointed. And then he sees that there is a copper jar. within his net. And on top of the copper jar it is sealed with the seal of Solomon. And so he he holds the jar gingerly and it looks as if it's empty and it doesn't weigh very much. And he he says maybe he could he could sell it at the market, but he needs to know what's inside it so he knows how much to sell it for. And so gingerly he opens up the the jar. And out billows a giant cloud of smoke. And the cloud is so large, it's taller than the palm trees along the beach. And looking down with red fiery eyes is a Jinn, otherwise known as a genie. And it is angry. And he says, fisherman. Choose your death. And the fisherman is absolutely astounded and he's shocked and he says, I just freed you. Why are you wanting to kill me? And he said, When I was first imprisoned in that jar, I swore after 100 years, I swore that I would grant gifts upon the person who freed me. After two hundred years, I Oh man, now I'm forgetting. What does he say? In the first one hundred years I swore that whoever freed it freed me would receive treasure. The second hundred years I swore whoever f would freed me would receive secret art and hidden knowledge. The third hundred years I swore three wishes. After eighteen hundred years. The divine authority that had put it to I made an oath, Whoever freed me, whoever pried off the seal, let out the light, that person would die. The Ephrit with his red burning eyes of coal looked down upon the fisherman and said, Choose your death. And the fisherman took a step back. He was astounded. He was shocked. He was in absolute terror of this genie, of this djinn. And he said, But why? Why would you kill me? I just freed you. And the jinn Smiled with malice, and he said, After the first one hundred years, I swore that I would grant whoever freed me gifts. After the second hundred years, I swore that I would grant hidden knowledge and hidden secrets to the person who freed me. After three hundred years, I swore that the person who freed me would be granted. Three wishes. However, after eighteen hundred years of lying at the bottom of the sea, after being pressed and compressed in that copper jar, I grew angry, and I swore that I would take my revenge out on whoever freed me. So the fisherman took a deep breath. And he thought, and he said, I don't believe you. And the jinn laughed. And he said, You don't believe I will kill you? And he said, No, I I don't believe that you came from that jar. You are much too large to have ever fit inside that copper, that tiny copper jar. You didn't come from there. And the jinn laughed, his angry laugh, and he said, Watch me. And he shrunk his his smoke form back into the jar and the fisherman got the the cork and he stuffed it back in and he took the jar in his hand and he was about to throw it back out into the water when the djinn from inside started desperately crying out please please please whatever you do don't throw me back in and the fisherman says I don't believe any words that will come out of your mouth Because you just threatened to kill me after I freed you. After I freed you from centuries of being a prisoner. You were going to murder me. So why would I r release you again? I'm just gonna throw you back into the water where you can rot for the rest of eternity. And the Jinn says, No, no, please don't do that. And so the fisherman takes a moment and he says, Let me think it over. But while I do I'm gonna tell you the story of K King Yunnan in this age. And the story was about a king who was healed by a man of knowledge, a true Renaissance man, a man who was able to heal the king's leprosy without even touching with him, without even giving him medicine. But the vizier in the story was able to twist the king's mind against. The sage, the man who had saved him from a painful death. And instead of granting him rewards as he should have been given, he was granted death. And at the end, after the sage was murdered, after he was beheaded, the king opened up the book in which the sage had gifted him. And as he was Sifling through stifling through all of the pages, he realized that the sage had poisoned the pages and that the king ultimately would die. And so he died along with the sage. And so after he had told the djinn this story, he says, Do you see that you are like the king in this story? He was saved. He was given medicine by this. Sage and saved and he rewarded that sage with death. And that is the same as you. You are are about to kill me. And the jinn said, I promise, I promise, I I will take an oath that I will give you a gift if you release me, and it will not be death, and it will be something that you will be able to take back with you. And so the fisherman makes him swear the oath three times, and then he releases the jinn, and the jinn says, Come, follow me. And so he takes him to a land that he the the fisherman has never seen before nor ever heard before. And it is a clear lake, a lake that is clearer than any lake that he's ever seen in his entire life. And it is surrounded by four mountains. And within this lake, clear lake, are four fish, four types of fish. There are fish of red, blue, yellow, and white. And they are obviously. magical fish. They are like no fish that he's ever seen before. And the jinn tells the fisherman to cast his net in and scoop up the fish and to take it to the Sultan, and he will be rewarded. And then the jinn disappears. And so the fisherman does as he was bid. He throws in his cast, he brings in the the fish, and he takes it to the gates of the Sultan where he is promptly turned away by the guards because he is in rags. And he's about to turn around when he realizes that the he has something that the guards have never seen it so he shows the guards his bounty and so they they let him go in to see the king. And the king upon seeing the fisherman and what he's bringing to him is absolutely enthralled with this gift. And he gives the fisherman more wealth than he has ever seen in his life. And he and his family have never go hungry again. But that is not the end of the story. However, that is where we are ending this story. So we will have to make sure to stay tuned for part two to find out about the clear lake and the four magical fish. That the king is about to explore and discover. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Y Rogers from Fairy Tale Flip. And make sure you listen to this next episode because it is actually part of The Fisherman and the Djinn, which is part of the Arabian Knights stories. Um, but as These stories are told, they are always kind of told to lead in to another story, just as I am doing here. So it is part of how these stories are told. Thanks so much, and until next time, keep the fairy tales alive.