Reading Notes, Twenty-Two Goblins Part A

The Girl who Transposed the Heads of her Husband and Brother. Which Combination of Head and Body is her Husband?

Plot: A laundry man finds a beautiful woman and falls desperately in love. Their fathers arrange for them to be married. The two are very happy and in love. One day the husband goes to the temple and is inspired by his reverence for the goddess and decides to make a sacrifice of himself and beheads himself. His brother-in-law comes into the temple and seeing this is devastated and does the same thing. The wife comes in and is horrified to find her husband and brother both beheaded. Distraught she goes to hang herself in a tree. The goddess stops her and says that if she puts the heads back on the bodies they will awaken. In a rush, the woman accidentally puts the wrong head on each body. The goblin asks the king which is her husband, the body or the head? Her husband is the body with the husband's head and the brother's body as the head is the thing you recognize others by.

Characters: The beautiful girl Lovely, her eventual husband White, the goddess Gauri and the unnamed brother are the main characters in this story.

Ideas: I liked this story mostly because I thought it was kind of funny. I also agree that the head/mind is what defines a person more than their body. I would probably stick to a classic retelling in the past but maybe change what causes them to behead themselves. Instead of a sacrifice maybe they get in an argument?

Story Source: Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur W. Ryder

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