Reading Dairy Week 13: Ryder's Twenty-Two Goblins

Western Representation of a goblin; source: wikimedia

This week I decided to read Ryder's translation of the Twenty-Two Goblins. I really like the format of this tale because it helps incorporate the story-within-a-story technique really well with all of the different fables told by the goblin. Each individual story is also really interesting. I really enjoyed the story of the dead girl and the three lovers, and it was interesting to see the logic the king used in explaining his answer about the riddle. I'm wondering if these are supposed to be taken as correct, or if we'll find out at the end that all of them have been impossible to decide and the King will be punished for not realizing that. I also really liked the story of the thrush and the parrot, but again, his reasoning at the end about all women being bad is a bit striking. I'm really looking forward to see if I can get more into the king's mindset as the story continues.