Reading Notes: Tibetan Folktales, Part A - The Two Devils

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The Two Devils

Character Charting: 

I will be listing the main characters of this story, as well as what seems to be the driving motivation behind their actions and the character trait that either allows them to succeed or fail by the end of the story (as in, do they die or not, because this story has a fair amount of death).
  1. The Seven Sons (excluding the youngest one, who ultimately survives)
    1. Motivation - desire, attraction
    2. Trait - superficial (the brothers decide to make the woman they meet in the woods their wife, just because she is pretty, without taking even a second to get to know her, and subsequently six of them die by her hand)
  2. The Youngest Son
    1. Motivation - gratitude (also desire and attraction, because he also agrees to marry the she-devil, but once he is saved, he is grateful and wishes to reward the man who saves him)
    2. Trait - luck? (he really only survives because of the fake fortune-teller, not because of anything he really did, so he was just lucky)
  3. The Two Devils
    4. A Tibetan Yak (Source: Tibet Vista)
    1. Motivation - survival (I assume the devils can only live as long as they're feeding on someone's soul, which is why the sons died, because otherwise I can't think of a reason for these two to be doing what they did, aside from just...being demons?)
    2. Trait - the classic supervillain trait that always causes them to fail, they openly discuss their evil plans without thinking to check if anyone is listening...I don't know what word describes this so let's just go with...careless?
  4. The (Fake) Fortune-Teller
    1. Motivation - survival, fear of losing face (I don't know why he started telling fake fortunes in the first place, but he continues here because at this point, it is literally the king's life at stake, and if he exposes himself as a fraud now, that could mean a very messy end for him)
    2. Trait - Interestingly enough, I would argue that it is the fortune-teller's survival instinct that actually leads him to success. He climbs onto the roof to escape one he realizes that the king's wife is a devil (after noticing that his condition improves as soon as she leaves) and because of that he falls through it, falls onto the yak's back, rolls off, and is lying there while the two discuss openly the ways to kill them (because they're idiots, maybe?), and uses that information to get rid of them and get his reward.
Story Source: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).

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