Reading Notes: Sindbad Part A

Sindbad and the snake devouring Roc (Flickr)

Sindbad

I love Sinbad. He is a like a cat with nine lives who keeps narrowly escaping death and somehow coming out of his near-death experience richer. He always promises to stay home after each of his adventures but grows bored and ventures out to sea once again to find more trouble. Each of his voyages seem to get more ridiculous than the last. I am not convinced he is anything more than a pathological liar but his stories are very detailed and too outrageous not to be true.

Charting Sinbad's Voyages

Voyage Number	Cause of Near Death	How He Escapes	Riches Gained
1	Ship lands on an island that is actually a sleeping whale	Held on to a piece of driftwood until he washes up on an island	Favor/gifts of King Mihrage Stuff is returned by a captain and he is brought home to Bagdad
2	Stranded on island because he is forgotten while napping	Finds roc’s egg and ties himself to roc and is carried to a new island
2	Island full of giant snakes	Finds meat and is picked up by an eagle who is brought to nest where merchants were seeking diamonds	Diamonds
3	Shipwrecked on island with tiny red-haired savages and man-eating giants	Is skinnier than the captain and lucky
3	Angry blinded giant returns with several new friends	By raft, somehow is spared though all others perish
3	Still more giant snakes	Climbed a tree and waits for a boat to rescue him	His merchandise is somehow returned to him with interest made by captain
4	Storm wrecks ship	Good fortune washed him ashore
4	Captured by cannibals	Does not eat much and runs away eventually	King’s favor, wife, riches from “inventing” a saddle
4	Buried alive	Kills others and eats their provision, follows an animal out of cavern to the seashore	Jewels

Andrew Lang, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments