Alright, settle in. Today we are heading into the rich, strange world of Arabic folklore for a tale called The Steel Cane. It is one of those stories where nothing is quite what it seems. Sorcerers wander about as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, a princess proves far sharper than anyone expects, and an old woman leaning on a steel cane quietly turns the whole story on its head. This version comes to us through Andrew Lang, in The Olive Fairy Book from 1907, itself drawn from an earlier collection by Frédéric Mailer in 1905. So this tale has travelled, changed hands, and gathered a little dust and magic along the way before reaching us here.
Wherever you are listening from, thank you for spending a bit of your day by this particular fireside. If you enjoy stories where identities blur, justice arrives in unexpected ways, and a simple object holds surprising power, you are in exactly the right place. There are plenty more tales like this waiting for you, and you can find full collections linked below, along with more about the project over at clivegilson.com. Now, let us begin.
#folktales #fairytales #legends #stories #arab #arabic #arabian #middleeast
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