June 20 - "The Parrot"

“The Parrot”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A merchant purchases a parrot to tell tales to his daughter, keeping her inside their home and out of the reach of a king who wants to marry her.

I enjoyed the tales-within-the-tale the parrot told the daughter more than I cared for the main story. Each adventure the parrot sent the maiden of his tales on became more and more enjoyable, folktales themselves. And I don’t know if it was the result of the translation, or if the tale really went this way, but beating the wizards to death with crowbars was hilarious. Never did I expect to find in an ancient Italian folktale how to properly dispose of wizards. Harry Potter beware, all I need is a crowbar.