» Episode 20 – What the Devil!?

There are many stories, fairy tales, folk tales, fables – you name it – both ancient and more recent, both light-hearted and also darker in nature, that have to do with shoes. Well, we love a good pair of shoes and we love a great story, so this is right up our alley! Here are a couple of our favorites. Maybe you’ve heard them before…and maybe not.

Abu Kasem’s Shoes

Our first tale comes from an ancient collection of Middle Eastern stories known as the Thousand and one nights. These are a collection of stories compiled during the Islamic Golden Age, so we’re talking roughly between the 8th and 14th centuries. Often translated into English as the “Arabian Nights,” these stories were translated over the span of many centuries by countless scholars, translators, and authors throughout parts of Asia and North Africa. These tales trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic,Greek, Indian, Persian, Jewish and Turkish folklore and literature.

Those of us in the West are probably familiar with a few of the more famous of these stories, such as Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, and the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. These stories are so well known, in fact, that they practically have become a part of Western folklore. But… have you heard the story of Abu Kasem’s shoes..?

Artist’s depiction of ancient Baghdad

3-D model of 9th century Baghdad

“Turkish Slippers” from Iran, ca. 1867

**Source:** Peabody Museum, Harvard University

The Grand Bazaar, Istanbul, by Amadeo Preziosi, late 19th century

The Grave-Mound

Our next tale comes from a collection of folk stories from the Brothers Grimm. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were German academics, scholars linguists, and folklorists who are best known for collecting German and other European folk tales during the 19th century. Among the most well-known of these stories are Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, and, yes, Cinderella, which, as we all know, involves shoes, or more accurately – glass slippers.

These tales, and many other tales collected by the Brothers Grimm have been translated into over 100 languages and, while not originally intended as children’s stories, per se, thanks to a lot of Disney magic, have been adapted into some of the most beloved and well-known children’s fairy tales and movies of our generation.

With Fall in the air and Halloween on the horizon, this is…a lesser-known, slightly darker Grimm fairy tale that, like Cinderella, deals with our favorite article of clothing.

Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm in an 1855 painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann