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74-925: Scheherazade ( / ʃ ə ˌ h ɛr ə ˈ z ɑː d , - d ə / ) is a major character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the One Thousand and One Nights . According to modern scholarship, the name Scheherazade derives from the Middle Persian name Čehrāzād , which is composed of the words čehr ( ' lineage ' ) and āzād ( ' noble, exalted ' ). The earliest forms of Scheherazade's name in Arabic sources include Shirazad ( Arabic : شيرازاد , romanized :  Šīrāzād ) in al-Masudi , and Shahrazad in Ibn al-Nadim . The name appears as Šahrazād in

148-782: A Chinese box narrative; other instances of this style of narrative can be found in Plato 's Symposion , Jostein Gaarder 's The Solitaire Mystery , Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights , and Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness . Frame stories have appeared in comic books . Neil Gaiman 's comic book series The Sandman featured a story arc called Worlds End which consisted of frame stories, and sometimes even featured stories within stories within stories. Sometimes, as in Washington Irving 's Sketch Book , which contains " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow " and " Rip Van Winkle " among others,

222-451: A fly fisherman , a person who is expected to tell tales of unbelievably large fish. The movie Amadeus is framed as a story that an old Antonio Salieri tells to a young priest, because the movie is based more on stories Salieri told about Mozart than on historical fact. Another use is a form of procatalepsis , where the writer puts the readers' possible reactions to the story in the characters listening to it. In The Princess Bride

296-422: A convenient conceit to organize a set of smaller narratives, either devised by the author or taken from a previous stock of popular tales, slightly altered by the author for the purpose of the longer narrative. Sometimes a story within the main narrative encapsulates some aspect of the framing story, in which case it is called a mise en abyme . A typical frame story is One Thousand and One Nights , in which

370-446: A fatuous fool, who is easily pleased with superficial entertainment and who is unable to resolve a dispute with a little rowing maid. Sneferu must go to the extent of having a priest solve the problem. With this narration and embarrassing depiction of a king, the author of Westcar dares to criticise the kings of Egypt as such and makes the third story a sort of satire . Lepper points out that the critiques are hidden cleverly throughout. It

444-426: A future king's mother, the parallels between the biographies of the two ladies has garnered special attention. The role of the maidservant is evaluated as being a key figure for a modern phrasing of indoctrinations about morality and betrayal. The maidservant wants to run her mistress down and is punished by destiny . Destiny is depicted here as a crocodile who snatches the traitor. The whole purpose would be to ensure

518-637: A literary resource for reconstituting the history of the Fourth Dynasty . The papyrus is now on display under low-light conditions in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin . In 1823 or 1824, British adventurer Henry Westcar apparently discovered the papyrus during travels in Egypt . For unknown reasons, he did not note the exact circumstances under which he obtained the artifact . In 1838 or 1839, German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius claimed to have received

592-477: A long time ago, but fantastic at the same time. He uses quaint phrases and makes the heroes' acting stilted and ceremonious. The first three stories are written in past tense and all the kings are addressed with the salutation "justified" (Egyptian: m3ʕ ḫrw ), which was typical in Ancient Egypt when talking about a deceased king. The heroes are addressed in the second and third stories the same way. Curiously, all

666-458: A multi-story frame story within the dream). Later, John Bunyan used a dream device in the Christian allegory Pilgrim's Progress and its sequel, explaining that they were dreams he had while he was in prison and felt God wanted him to write down. This worked because it made what might have been seen as a fantasy more like a divine revelation to others who believed as he did. In modern usage, it

740-656: A pardon as he could see that she was a "chaste and pure woman, freeborn and God-fearing." He then presented a splendid and magnificent robe to Scheherazade's father, the vizier. and she was celebrated throughout his kingdom for 30 days. Frame story Some of the earliest frame stories are from ancient Egypt, including one in the Papyrus Westcar , the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor , and The Eloquent Peasant . Other early examples are from Indian literature , including

814-400: A path to the water's edge where a crocodile catches her. The brother then goes to see Rededjet, who is crying over the loss of his sister. The brother starts to confess what has happened and at this point the papyrus story ends. Papyrus Westcar is of great interest to historians and Egyptologists since it is one of the oldest Egyptian documents that contains such complex text. Unfortunately,

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888-474: A second, more exciting tale, which she again stopped halfway through at dawn. Again, the king spared her life for one more day so that she could finish the second story. Thus the king kept Scheherazade alive day by day, as he eagerly anticipated the conclusion of each previous night's story. At the end of 1,001 nights, and 1,000 stories, Scheherazade finally told the king that she had no more tales to tell him. She summoned her three sons that she had bore him during

962-416: A story during the long night. The king lay awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story. The night passed by, and Scheherazade stopped in the middle. The king asked her to finish, but Scheherazade said there was no time, as dawn was breaking. So the king spared her life for one day so she could finish the story the next night. The following night Scheherazade finished the story and then began

1036-426: A summoned crocodile. Caretaker and crocodile are playing the role of justice , whilst king Nebka plays the role of destiny . Lepper and Liechtheim evaluate the depiction of king Nebka as being fairly positive. A strict but lawful king was ideal for the people of the author's lifetime. In the third story king Sneferu becomes a victim of the author's courage to criticize the monarchy . The author depicts Sneferu as

1110-403: A text detailing a miracle performed by a lector priest in the reign of king Djoser, possibly the famous Imhotep . The second story, told by Khafre , is set during the reign of one of Khufu's predecessors. King Nebka 's chief lector Ubaoner finds that his wife is having a love affair with a townsman of Memphis , and he fashions a crocodile in wax . Upon learning that his unfaithful wife

1184-471: A thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts, and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well-read and well-bred. Once in the king's chambers, Scheherazade asked if she might bid one last farewell to her beloved younger sister, Dunyazad , who had secretly been prepared to ask Scheherazade to tell

1258-404: A variety of ways. A common reason to frame a single story is to draw attention to the narrator's unreliability . By explicitly making the narrator a character within the frame story, the writer distances him or herself from the narrator. The writer may characterize the narrator to cast doubt on the narrator's truthfulness, as when in P. G. Wodehouse 's stories of Mr. Mulliner , Mulliner is made

1332-417: Is a palimpsest ; the unknown ancient Egyptian author obviously tried but partially failed to wipe the older text off. The clean and calligraphical handwriting shows that the author was a highly educated professional. The first story, told by an unknown son of Khufu (possibly Djedefra ), is missing everything but the conclusion, in which Khufu orders blessed offerings to king Djoser . It seems to have been

1406-454: Is a reused papyrus made of the plant Cyperus papyrus . The scroll of Westcar has been separated into three parts. During the life of Lepsius and Erman it was in two parts; it is not known when and why the scroll was separated into three fragments. The text written on the papyrus includes twelve columns in all. The first part contains on the recto (the front) columns one to three, the second part contains on its recto columns four and five and

1480-418: Is asked. The last portion of the film then unfolds without any narrator. In musical sonata form or rondo , a reprised theme occurs at the beginning and end of the work, or returns periodically. A framing device may take the form of a recurrent element at the beginning and end of the narrative. For example, a story may begin with a character visiting a park under one set of circumstances, then returning at

1554-410: Is covered by a glass pane. Part three was simply placed between two glass panes and was completely glued to them. The adhesive used for this has partially lost its transparency and a whitish haze has appeared. The edges of all three parts were left free for air circulation. Because of the paper lamination during the eighteenth century, all the papyrus fragments are partially damaged; at several spots

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1628-400: Is meeting her lover, he casts a spell for the figurine to come to life upon contact with water, and sets his caretaker to throw it in the stream by which the townsman enters and leaves the lector's estate undiscovered. Upon catching the townsman, the crocodile takes him to the bottom of the lake, where they remain for seven days as the lector entertains the visiting pharaoh. When he tells Nebka

1702-568: Is not surprising, since the author had to be careful—the Westcar Papyrus was possibly made available for public entertainment, or at least, for public study. In the fourth story king Khufu is difficult to assess. On one hand he is depicted as ruthless: deciding to have a condemned prisoner decapitated to test the alleged magical powers of the magician Dedi. On the other hand, Khufu is depicted as inquisitive, reasonable and generous: he accepts Dedi's outrage and his offer of an alternative for

1776-465: Is sometimes used in works of fantasy as a means toward suspension of disbelief about the marvels depicted in the story. J.R.R. Tolkien , in his essay " On Fairy-Stories " complained of such devices as unwillingness to treat the genre seriously; he used frame stories of different kinds in his Middle-earth writings. Lewis Carroll 's Alice stories ( Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through

1850-515: Is the "mother of two kings". For a long time it had been thought that she may have borne Userkaf and Sahure, but new evidence shows that Sahure, at least, had a different mother (Queen Neferhetepes ). The implication from the Westcar Papyrus that the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty had been siblings, seems incorrect. Since, in the Westcar Papyrus , Rededjet is connected with the role of

1924-846: The Encyclopaedia of Islam and as Šahrāzād in the Encyclopædia Iranica . Among standard 19th-century printed editions, the name appears as شهرزاد , Šahrazād in Macnaghten's Calcutta edition (1839–1842) and in the 1862 Bulaq edition, and as شاهرزاد , Šāhrazād in the Breslau edition (1825–1843). Muhsin Mahdi 's critical edition has شهرازاد , Šahrāzād . The spelling Scheherazade first appeared in English-language texts in 1801, borrowed from German usage. The oldest known text of

1998-611: The Sanskrit epics Mahabharata , Ramayana , Panchatantra , Syntipas 's The Seven Wise Masters , and the fable collections Hitopadesha and Vikram and The Vampire . This form gradually spread west through the centuries and became popular, giving rise to such classic frame tale collections as the One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ), The Decameron , and the Canterbury Tales , in which each pilgrim tells his own kind of tale, and whose frame story "was once

2072-408: The vizier could find no more virgins of noble blood and, against her father's wishes, Scheherazade volunteered to marry the king. Sir Richard Burton's translation of The Nights describes Scheherazade in this way: Scheherazade had perused the books, annals, and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples, and instances of bygone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected

2146-454: The 1000 nights to come in before the king (one was a nursling, one was crawling, and one could walk) and she placed them in front of the king. Then she kissed the ground again and said: "King of the age, these are your children and my wish is that as an act of generosity towards them to free me from sentence of death, for if you kill me, these babies will have no mother and you will find no other woman to bring them up so well." The king granted her

2220-542: The 2005 novel Q & A ), about a poor street kid named Jamal who comes close to winning Kaun Banega Crorepati (the Indian equivalent of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ) but finds himself accused of cheating. Most of the story is narrated at a police station by Jamal, who explains how he knew the answers to each of the questions as the show is played back on video. The show itself then serves as another framing device , as Jamal sees flashbacks of his past as each question

2294-482: The Looking-Glass ) includes such a frame, the stories themselves using dream-like logic and sequences. Still, even as the story proceeds realistically, the dream frame casts doubt on the events. In the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , the events really occur; the dream frame added for the movie detracts from the validity of the fantasy. To be a frame narrative, the story must act primarily as an occasion for

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2368-524: The Westcar Papyrus consists of twelve columns written in hieratic script. Miriam Lichtheim dates the document to the Hyksos period (eighteenth to sixteenth century BC) and states that it is written in classical Middle Egyptian . Linguist and Egyptologist Verena Lepper thinks it is possible that the Westcar Papyrus was written during the Thirteenth Dynasty . The papyrus has been used by historians as

2442-476: The ancient Greek traditions of Herodotus and Diodorus , who described an exaggerated, negative character image of Khufu, ignoring the paradoxical (because positive) traditions the Egyptians always taught. But other Egyptologists such as Dietrich Wildung see Khufu's order as an act of mercy : the prisoner would have received his life back if Dedi had performed his magical trick. Wildung thinks that Dedi's refusal

2516-516: The beginning of a new dynasty by making the only danger disappear. The author of the Westcar Papyrus artfully creates some kind of happy ending . Since the first translations of the Westcar Papyrus, historians and Egyptologists have disputed whether the story was finished or unfinished. Earlier evaluations seemed to show an abrupt ending after the death of the traitorous maidservant. But more recently, linguistic investigations made by Verena Lepper and Miriam Liechtheim (especially by Lepper) strengthen

2590-443: The birth of the triplets and the beginning of a new dynasty. Lepper and Liechtheim both evaluate the story as some kind of narrated moral that deals with the theme of justice and what happens to traitors . Lepper points out, that the story of Rededjet might have been inspired by the historical figure of Khentkaus I , who lived and may have ruled at the end of the Fourth Dynasty . Among the titles discovered to have been given to her

2664-406: The book, Robert Walton writes letters to his sister, describing the story told to him by the scientist Victor Frankenstein . Midway through Frankenstein's story, he is met by the monster , who tells him his own story after he was created, and this third narrative even briefly contains the tale of a family whom he had been observing. This set of frame narratives that fit together is sometimes called

2738-402: The bus-stop bench. However, in the last fifth or so of the film, Forrest gets up and leaves the bench, and we follow him as he meets with Jenny and her son. This final segment suddenly has no narrator unlike the rest of the film that came before it, but is instead told through Forrest and Jenny's dialogues. This approach is also demonstrated in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire (adapted from

2812-569: The character Scheherazade narrates a set of fairy tales to the Sultan Shahriyar over many nights. Many of Shahrazad's tales are also frame stories, such as Tale of Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman , a collection of adventures related by Sindbad the Seaman to Sindbad the Landsman. Ovid 's Metamorphoses makes extensive use of framing, with the stories nested several deep, allowing

2886-409: The character description of Djoser is impossible due to the great deterioration within his story. In the second story, king Nebka plays the key role. He is depicted as a strict, but lawful judge , who doesn't allow mischief and misbehaviour to occur. The adulterous wife of the story's hero is punished by being burnt alive and her secret lover, revealed thanks to the loyal caretaker, is eaten alive by

2960-428: The conceit is that the author of the book is not the real author but a fictional character, in this case a man named Crayon. Here the frame includes the world of the imagined Crayon, his stories, and the reader who is assumed to play along and "know" who Crayon is. When there is a single story, the frame story is used for other purposes – chiefly to position the reader's attitude toward the tale. This can be done in

3034-403: The court, and upon Dedi's arrival he orders a goose, an undefined waterbird, and a bull beheaded. Dedi reattaches the heads. Khufu then questions him on his knowledge on the shrine of Thoth, and Dedi answers that he does not know the number of rooms, but he knows where they are. When Khufu asks for the wheres and hows, Dedi answers that he is not the one who can give Khufu access, but the first of

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3108-415: The difficult birth. The three children are born, each described as strong and healthy, with limbs covered in gold and wearing headdresses of lapis lazuli . The maidservant of Rededjet later has an argument with her mistress, receives a beating and flees, vowing to tell king Khufu what had happened. But on the way, she meets her brother and tells the story to him. Displeased, he beats her, too, and sends her on

3182-420: The early 1860s and Lepsius' name does not appear in any lists or documents. Furthermore, Lepsius never made the text of the Westcar Papyrus public; he stored the papyrus at home in his attic , where it was found after his death. These inconsistencies have led to widespread speculation; many British historians speculate that Lepsius may have stolen the papyrus. In 1886, German Egyptologist Adolf Erman purchased

3256-403: The end to the same park under a different set of circumstances, having undergone a change that allows him or her to see the park in a new light. A framing device might simply be a defining image of the narrative or art that is used at the beginning and end of the work, as in the film Chariots of Fire which begins and ends with the characters running along a beach, accompanied at both times by

3330-514: The frame is a dream vision , where the narrator claims to have gone to sleep, dreamed the events of the story, and then awoken to tell the tale. In medieval Europe, this was a common device, used to indicate that the events included are fictional; Geoffrey Chaucer used it in The Book of the Duchess , The House of Fame , Parlement of Foules , and The Legend of Good Women (the last also containing

3404-436: The frame of a grandfather reading the story to his reluctant grandson puts the cynical reaction a viewer might have to the romantic fairytale into the story in the grandson's persona, and helps defuse it. This is the use when the frame tells a story that lacks a strong narrative hook in its opening; the narrator can engage the reader's interest by telling the story to answer the curiosity of his listeners, or by warning them that

3478-495: The idea that many ancient Egyptian writings were influenced by the Westcar Papyrus : column 232 contains the phrase "sleeping until dawn", which appears nearly word-for-word in the Westcar Papyrus . A further descriptive example appears in The prophecy of Neferti . As in the Westcar Papyrus, a subaltern is addressed by a king as "my brother" and the king is depicted as being accostable and simple-minded. Furthermore, both stories talk about

3552-433: The inclusion of many different tales in one work. Emily Brontë 's Wuthering Heights uses this literary device to tell the story of Heathcliff and Catherine, along with the subplots. Her sister Anne uses this device in her epistolary novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . The main heroine's diary is framed by the narrator's story and letters. Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein has multiple framed narratives. In

3626-520: The kings are addressed with their birth name , notwithstanding that this was unusual in the author's lifetime. While deceased kings were normally called by their birth name, living kings were called by their Horus name . King Khufu is nevertheless called by his birth name in the first three stories, yet in the fourth story, he is treated as being still alive and being the main actor. And even the future kings Userkaf , Sahure , and Neferirkare Kakai are called by their birth names. Verena Lepper thinks, that

3700-484: The material is torn, distorted, and squashed. Some of the fibres are now lying over the inscription. All of the artifact shows large gaps and the rim of the scrolls is badly frayed. Because of the gaps, many parts of the text are now missing. The text itself is completely written in black iron gall ink and carbon black ink and divided by rubra into ten paragraphs. Between the neatly written sentences red traces of an older text are visible. It looks as if Papyrus Westcar

3774-403: The most admired part of Chaucer's work". The use of a frame story in which a single narrative is set in the context of the telling of a story is also a technique with a long history, dating back at least to the beginning section of Homer 's Odyssey , in which the narrator Odysseus tells of his wandering in the court of King Alcinous . A frame story is a literary device that acts as

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3848-434: The movie's famous theme music. This scene, although chronologically in the middle of the film and unimportant to the straightforward plot, serves to convey a defining emotion and tone that sets the context for the main story. Papyrus Westcar The Westcar Papyrus ( inventory -designation: P. Berlin 3033 ) is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians . In

3922-404: The name of the author has been lost. The most recent translations and linguistic investigations by Miriam Lichtheim and Verena Lepper reveal interesting writing and spelling elements hidden in the text of the papyrus, which has led them to a new evaluation of the individual stories. The first story is lost due to damage to the papyrus. The preserved sentences merely reveal the main protagonist of

3996-420: The palace lake. Sneferu orders twenty beautiful oars made, and gives the women nets to drape around them as they sail. However, one of the girls loses an amulet - a fish pendant made of turquoise so dear to her that she will not even accept a substitute from the royal treasury , and until it is returned to her neither she nor any of the other women will row. The king laments this, and the chief lector folds aside

4070-462: The papyrus from Lepsius' son and left it to the Museum of Berlin. As the hieratic signs were still insufficiently investigated and translated, the Westcar Papyrus was displayed as some kind of curiosity . Since Erman's first attempt at a complete translation in 1890, the Westcar Papyrus has been translated numerous times, resulting in different outcomes. The dating of the text also varies. Papyrus Westcar

4144-574: The papyrus from Westcar's niece. As Lepsius was able to read some signs of Hieratic , he recognized some of the royal cartouche names of the kings and dated the text to the Old Kingdom . There are inconsistencies about the true nature of the acquisition and the subsequent whereabouts of the Westcar Papyrus. Lepsius writes that the document was on display in the Oxford Bodleian Library , but public exhibitions have been documented there since

4218-580: The papyrus text, each of these tales are told at the royal court of king Khufu (Cheops) ( Fourth Dynasty , 26th century BCE) by his sons. The story in the papyrus usually is rendered in English as, "King Cheops and the Magicians" and "The Tale of King Cheops' Court". In German , into which the text of the Westcar Papyrus was first translated, it is rendered as Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar ("the fairy tales of Papyrus Westcar"). The surviving material of

4292-417: The prisoner, questions the circumstances and contents of Dedi's prophecy, and rewards the magician generously. The contradictory depiction of Khufu is an object of controversy among Egyptologists and historians to this day. Earlier Egyptologists and historians in particular, such as Adolf Erman , Kurt Heinrich Sethe , and Wolfgang Helck evaluated Khufu's character as heartless and sacrilegious . They lean on

4366-570: The reason may be some kind of spelling reform that occurred in the lifetime of the author, perhaps trying to fix the spelling rule for naming a deceased king, in order to show that even the future kings in the story were long since dead during his lifetime. For this reason Verena Lepper doubts that the Westcar stories are based on documents originating from the Old Kingdom. The fourth and fifth stories are written in present tense . The unknown author moves

4440-430: The same king, Sneferu. The Papyrus pAthen contains the phrase: "...for these are the wise who can move waters and make a river flow at their mere will and want...", which clearly refers to the wonder that the magicians Djadjaemankh and Dedi had performed in the Westcar story. Since pAthen , pBerlin 3023 and The prophecy of Neferti use the same manner of speaking and quaint phrases, complete with numerous allusions to

4514-422: The story began in an ordinary seeming way, but they must follow it to understand later actions, thereby identifying the reader's wondering whether the story is worth reading to the listeners'. Such an approach was used, too, by Edith Wharton in her novella Ethan Frome , in which a nameless narrator hears from many characters in the town of Starkfield about the main character Ethan's story. A specialized form of

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4588-404: The story of Dedi. The last section of the fourth story, in which the magician Dedi gives a prophecy to king Khufu, shifts to future tense for a short time, before shifting back to present tense again. This present tense is maintained until the end of the Westcar stories. Papyrus Westcar contains hidden allusions and puns to the characters of the kings Nebka, Sneferu, and Khufu. An evaluation of

4662-449: The story of the Westcar Papyrus . They also both talk about subalterns with magical powers similar to those of Dedi's. The Papyrus pBerlin 3023 contains the story, The Eloquent Peasant , in which the following phrase appears: "See, these are artists who create the existing anew, who even replace a severed head", which could be interpreted as an allusion to the Westcar Papyrus . pBerlin 3023 contains another reference that strengthens

4736-463: The story, King Djoser. The name of the hero, who is said to have performed the miracle, is completely lost, but Liechtheim and Lepper think it's possible that the Papyrus was talking about the famous architect and high lector priest, Imhotep. The second and third stories are written in a conspicuous, flowery, old-fashioned style, and the author has obviously tried to make them sound as if handed down from

4810-439: The story, and calls the crocodile up again, the king orders the crocodile to devour the townsman once and for all. Then he has the adulterous wife brought forth, set on fire, and thrown in the river. The third story, told by another son named Baufra , is set during the reign of his grandfather Sneferu . The king is bored and his chief lector Djadjaemankh advises him to gather twenty young women and use them to sail him around

4884-418: The tale of Scheherazade is a ninth century (CE) Arabic manuscript from Cairo . By the twelfth century the 1001 Nights was established, with the story of Scheherazade being its frame. The story goes that the monarch Shahryar , on discovering that his first wife was unfaithful to him, resolved to marry a new virgin every day and to have her beheaded the next morning before she could dishonor him. Eventually,

4958-418: The tales of Papyrus Westcar inspired later authors to compose and write down similar tales. They refer to multiple, and somewhat later, ancient Egyptian writings in which magicians perform very similar magic tricks and make prophecies to a king. Descriptive examples are the papyri pAthen and The prophecy of Neferti . These novels show the popular theme of prophesying used during the Old Kingdom – just as in

5032-504: The telling of other stories. For example, Odysseus narrates much of the Odyssey to the Phaeacians , but, even though this recollection forms a great part of the poem, the events after and before the interpolated recollection are of greater interest than the memory. A film that plays with frame narrative is the 1994 Forrest Gump . Most of it is narrated by Forrest to various companions on

5106-444: The theory that the Westcar text is definitely at an end after the story of the maidservant's death. Lepper points out that the crocodile sequence is repeated several times, like a kind of refrain , which is a typical element in similar stories and documents. Furthermore, Lepper argues that the papyrus has a lot of free space after the apparent ending, enough for another short story. Verena Lepper and Miriam Lichtheim postulate that

5180-401: The third part contains on the verso (the back) columns six to nine and on the recto, the final columns, ten to twelve. The papyrus textile is grainy, of greyish-yellowish colour and very fragile. Part one was fixed onto linen and placed between two glass panes. At five spots the papyrus was fixed to the glass with methyl cellulose . Part two was fixed to a cardboard and wooden plate and

5254-523: The three future kings in the womb of the woman Rededjet is. This is a prophecy detailing the beginnings of the Fifth Dynasty , starting with Userkaf . The final story breaks from the format and moves the focus to Rededjet giving birth to her three sons. Upon the day of her children's birth, Ra orders Isis , Nephthys , Meskhenet , Heket , and Khnum to aid her. They disguise themselves as musicians and hurry to Rededjet's house to help her with

5328-441: The timeline and also changes his mode of expression from "old-fashioned" into a contemporary form. He clearly distinguishes "long time passed" from "most recently" without cutting the timeline too quickly. The speech of Prince Hordjedef builds the decisive transition: Hordjedef is sick of hearing old, dusty tales that cannot be proven. He explains that a current wonder would be richer in content and more instructive, and so he brings up

5402-451: The water to allow the retrieval of the amulet, then folds the water back. The fourth story, told by Hordjedef , concerns a miracle set within Khufu's own reign. A townsman named Dedi apparently has the power to reattach a severed head onto an animal, to tame wild lions , and knows the number of secret rooms in the shrine of Thoth . Khufu, intrigued, sends his son to invite this wise man to

5476-590: Was an allusion to the respect Egyptians showed to human life. The ancient Egyptians were of the opinion that human life should not be misused for dark magic or similar evil things. Lepper and Liechtheim suspect that a difficult-to-assess depiction of Khufu was exactly what the author had planned. He wanted to create a mysterious character. The fifth and last story tells about the heroine Rededjet (also often read as Ruddedet ) and her difficult birth of three sons. The sun god Ra orders his companions Isis, Meskhenet, Hekhet, Nephthys, and Khnum to help Rededjet, to ensure

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