Revision as of 16:35, 18 June 2022 edit Seloloving (talk \| contribs) Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers 18,814 edits m Reverted 1 edit by 45.116.231.26 (talk) to last revision by Northernhenge Tags: Twinkle Undo ← Previous edit		Revision as of 14:29, 29 July 2022 edit undo ראובן מ. (talk \| contribs) 244 edits →‎Classification and parallels: I made a mistake here. Apperently, Gressmann cites about a dozen of stories, but I can't read the German article to verify this Next edit →
Line 14: The story is commonly viewed in scholarship as an instance or a reworking of a [[Folklore\|folktale]]. Its folkloristic nature is apparent, among other things, in the dominance of [[direct speech]] which moves the plot on and contributes to the [[characterization]].<ref name="Mordechai Cogan 2001, p. 196">Mordechai Cogan, ''I Kings'' (Anchor Bible), New York: Doubleday, 2001, p. 196.</ref> The story is classified as [[Aarne-Thompson]] tale type 926, and many parallel stories have been found in world [[folklore]]. In Uther's edition of the Aarne-Thompson index,<ref>Hans-Jörg Uther, ''The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antii Aarne and Stith Thompson'', I, Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2004.</ref> this tale type is classified as a [[Novella (folklore)\|folk novella]], and belongs to a subgroup designated "Clever Acts and Words". Eli Yassif defines the folk novella as "a realistic story whose time and place are determined ... The novella emphasizes such human traits as cleverness, eroticism, loyalty, and wiliness, that drive the plot forward more than any other element".<ref>Eli Yassif, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LbZPv-2LO6YC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&pg=PA27#v=onepage&q&f=false ''The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning''] (Folklore Studies in Translation), Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999, p. 27</ref> [[Hugo Gressmann]] has found 22several similar stories in world folklore and literature, especially in India and the far east.<ref>See Hugo Gressmann, [https://archive.org/stream/deutscherundsch130stutuoft#page/212/mode/2up "Das salomonische Urteil"], ''Deutsche Rundschau'' 130 (1907), pp. 212–28</ref> One Indian version is a [[Jataka]] story dealing with [[Buddha]] in one of his previous incarnations as the sage Mahosadha, who arbitrates between a mother and a [[Yakshini]] who is in the shape of a woman, who kidnapped the mother's baby and claimed he was hers. The sage announced a [[tug of war]], drawing a line on the ground and asking the two to stand on opposite sides of it, one holding the baby's feet, the other his hands – the one who pulled the baby's whole body beyond the line would get to keep him. The mother, seeing how the baby suffered, released him and, weeping, let the Yakshini take him. When the sage saw that, he returned the baby to the hands of the true mother, exposed the identity of the Yakshini and expelled her.<ref>See E. B. Cowell (ed.), [http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j6/j6012.htm#page_163 ''The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births''], VI, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907, p. 163.</ref> In other Indian versions, the two women are widows of one husband.<ref>See for example G. R. Subramiah Pantulu, ''Indian Antiquary'' 26 (1897), [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.61241/2015.61241.The-Indian-Antiquary-Vol-Xxvi#page/n111/mode/2up p. 111]</ref> Another version appears in the Chinese drama [[The Chalk Circle]] (in which version the judge draws a circle on the ground),<ref>Theodor Herzl Gaster, ''Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament: A Comparative Study with Chapters from Sir James G. Frazer's Folklore in the Old Testament'', II, New York: Harper & Row, 1969, p. 493.</ref> which has spread worldwide, many versions and reworkings being made, among them [[The Caucasian Chalk Circle]], a play by [[Bertolt Brecht]]. [[File:Gaspar de Crayer - The judgement of Solomon.jpg\|thumb\|left\|290px\|''The Judgement of Solomon'' by [[Gaspar de Crayer]], c. 1620]] The common motif in those parallel versions is that the wise judge announces an absurd procedure, which is reasonable in some perverse way: splitting the baby, according to the principle of compromise; or a tug of war, in which one can possibly presume that the true mother will be motivated to pull harder. But the procedure is actually a concealed emotional test, designed to force each woman to decide between her compassion for the baby and her will to win.<ref name="William Hansen 2002, p. 228">William Hansen, [https://archive.org/details/ariadnesthreadgu00hans/page/228 ''Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature''], Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002, p. 228.</ref>

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