Aladdins Lamp

The fairytale is very long, so I have broken it into three parts for the re-telling.

Read it and try writing your own version.

Can you imagine some coloring pages from this fairy tale story?

Are you wanting to try drawing some of this tale?

Can you feel the ideas coming to make your own art?

Are you a scrapbooker who is looking for some inspiration from the actual fairy tale?

Okay Aladdin's tale...

He was a bit spoiled and let to run free. The parents found him so stubborn that eventually the young man just ran the streets refusing to work in his father's shop.

Eventually, his father died and by the time Aladdin was a young man his mother had sold the shop and was living by working spinning cotton. They were very poor.

Still Aladdin only wanted to run wild in the streets with his friends. One day in the marketplace a stranger was watching Aladdin intently. The stranger was a sorcerer or a magician from Africa.

The magician had ways of finding information and inquired about the young man. When he looked at him he was thinking that he would fulfill a role in a plan of his.

One day he approached young Aladdin and asked him if his father was Mustapha the tailor? Aladdin was surprised and answered "Yes, sir, but he has been dead a long time."

At these words, the magician threw his arms about Aladdin's neck, and kissed him several times with tears in his eyes. "Alas, my son," cried the Magician with a sigh, "I am you uncle, your worthy father was my own brother. I have been many years abroad, and now I am come home with the hopes of seeing him, you tell me his is dead."

He did come that night and Aladdin's mother had prepared a fine meal. The magician explained that he had been away travelling for forty years, and that is why they never met.

He expressed that he was very unhappy at not being able to see his brother again, but very happy at meeting his son, who seemed so much like him.

He looked at the boy and asked him his name. "I am called Aladdin," said he.

"Well, Aladdin," replied the magician, "what business do you follow? Are you of any trade?"

His mother explained that Aladdin did nothing except run in the streets, and that she worked spinning cotton to keep bread on the table, and that eventually she would have to turn him out for good.

The magician lectured the boy that he must find a trade and offered to set him up in a store of his own.

Aladdin thought about this, and although he hated working decided that a store was a pretty good option. He agreed and the Magician said he would take him with him tomorrow and buy him some clothes dressing him like a successful merchant.

Then the magician took him to all kinds of fancy places in the City and introduced his so-called nephew to all kinds of people. When the magician took him home that night Aladdin's mother cried "Generous relation! I know not how to thank you for your liberatlity! I wish you may live long enough to witness my son's gratitude which he cannot better shew than by regulating his conduct by your good advice."

He assured Aladdin's mother that he was really a good boy, and that tomorrow he would take him to meet some other men of business.

The magician did take him to more and more of the finest places in the City and then looking at fine houses started to lure him out into the countryside. The magician was up to something. They continued out away from the City and even Aladdin started to wonder how he would find his way home.

When they were between two mountains divided by a narrow valley, which was the place where the magician intended to carry out his plan, that had brought him from Africa, he said

"We will go no farther now, I will show you here some extraordinary things, which, when you have seen, you will thank me for."

Aladdin was frightened, but the magician roared at him to obey. He then told him that he must take hold of the brass ring and lift up that stone. Aladdin didn't think that he could do it, but the magician told him to say the names of his father and grandfather. Aladdin did so, and the stone lifted easily.

He told him to follow the steps down into the cavern. You will find a door which will lead you into a spacious vault, divided into three greatt halls, in each of which you will see four large brass cisterns placed on each side, full of gold and silver. Do not touch.

Before you enter the first hall, be sure to tuck up your vest, wrap it about you and thenpass through the second into the third without stopping. Above all do not touch the walls, for if you do, you will die instantly.

At the end of the third hall, you will find a door which opens into a garden planted with fine trees loaded with fruit. Walk directly across the garden by a path which will lead you to five steps that will bring you upon a terrace, there you will see a lighted lamp. Take the lamp down, and extinguish it. Bring it to me.

You can help yourself to the fruit on the way back. But otherwise listen to my instructions.

After these words, the magician drew a ring off his finger, and put it on one of Aladdin's tellim him that it was protection against all evil.

"Go down boldy, child, and we shall both be rich all our lives."

Once down inside he did as the magician told him and crossed the garden without stopping took down the lamp from the nice, and put it in his vestband. As he came down from the terrace, he stopped in the garden to observe the fruit. All the trees were loaded with extraordinary fruit, of different colors on each tree. Some bore fruit entierely white, and some clear and transparent as crystal, some pale red, and others deeper, some green, blue and purple and others yellow.

The white were pearls; the clear and transparent, diamonds; the deep red, rubies; the green, emeralds; the blue, turquoises; the purple, amethysts; and those that were of yellow cast; sapphires. Aladdin stuffed his clothes with as much of this fruit as he could carry.

Aladdin followed his uncles instructions all the way back to the mouth of the cave and there asked his uncle to give him a hand and help him out of the cave.

"Give me the lamp first" replied the magician, "it will be troublesome to you."

"I cannot now; it is not troublesome to me, but I will as soon as I am up."

The magician completely lost his temper and uttering some magical oath, the rock moved back over the opening to the cave and Aladdin was locked inside.

The African Magician had come all this way to find a young person to go into the cave and take out the magic lamp. Through his own temper he was now unable to retrieve the lamp and it was now apparent that he was not Aladdin's uncle. The Magician had picked him to go into the cave, give him the lamp, and then lock him away so that there would be no witnesses.

However, due to his own bad temper he lost the thing he came for. He knew that he could not make it work and open that cave a second time.

So the magician went back to Africa and Aladdin was alone in that cave.

Aladdin was beside himself and called out to his uncle. He finally realized that no one would hear him and he sat alone in the dark for two days not knowing what to do. He clasped his hands together and prayed to God who alone could help him.

Upon doing so he actually rubbed the magic ring that the magician had put on his finger and immediately a giant genie appeared and said to him:

"What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as the slave of all who may possess the ring on thy finger, I and the other slaves of that ring."

Aladdin would normally have been so frightened, but in the situation he was in managed to speak.

"Whoever thou art, deliver me from this place, if thou art able." He had no sooner spoken these words, than he found himself on the very spot where the magician had caused the earth to open.Aladdin managed to find his way back home and relayed his whole tale to his mother. She nursed him back to health, for the boy had not eaten in several days. Aladdin showed her the jewels, but since neither of them had ever seen jewels before they did not know their worth, and they stored them behind some cushions on the sofa.

Aladdin slept some more and when he awoke late the next day he begged his mother for something to eat. His mother said that she had a little cotton spun and would go and sell it. They would have something to eat for dinner.

It suddenly ocurred to Aladdin that he might be able to sell the lamp in the marketplace and his mother set to cleaning it up, as it was filthy. As soon as she started to clean it an enormous genie emerged and said to her in a voice like thunder: "What wouldst thou have? I am ready to obey thee as thy slave, and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands; I and the other slaves of the lamp."

Aladdin's mother fainted right away, and Aladdin grabbed the lamp and said to the genie boldly: "I am hungry, bring me something to eat."

Immediately the genie was holding a large silver tray, holding twelve covered dishes of the same metal and the aroma of a wonderful meal. The smell of the meat brought his mother around and although she had many questions, Aladdin insisted that they just sit and eat.

When they were finished Aladdin's mother realized she had enough food left for dinner that night and two more meals the next day. She also wanted some answers.

Aladdin explained that the genie of the lamp and the genie of the ring that saved him in the cave were quite different except for their size. Aladdin's mother wanted nothing more to do with genies and for the next little while they lived on the money Aladdin made from selling each piece of the silver dishes their one meal was served on. In fact Aladdin's mother was able to buy provisions for quite some time.

When their provisions ran out, Aladdin decided to call on the magic of the lamp again, and asked the genie for more food. Again the genie brought twelve large dishes on a huge silver tray. When Aladdin went to the market to start selling the silver dishes again, he ran into another merchant known to be very honest. Aladdin told him that he was selling each dish for one piece of gold, the honest merchant put it on the scales and showed Aladdin that he had been cheated. Each dish was worth more like 60 pieces of gold.

Aladdin and his mother were thrilled. Aladdin started to be interested in his new friend's business and so learned of the value of things. He also learned that the jewels that he had hidden in his house were of enormous value, and this he kept to himself. They were living very frugally, although Aladdin did start to take an interest in dressing better. His mother would not dress in anything but the cotton she would spin.

I Love Fairytales

Aladdins Lamp is magical and full of wonderful mythical creatures.

Feel free to write a fractured fairy tale, and open your mind to your creative flow.

Enjoy more of Aladdins Lamp by following the link to Part II - Aladdins Princess.

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