Nasruddin’s Nail
How the Hodja sold and bought a house
In the 800 years since his death, countless tales have become associated with the much-loved figure of Hodja Nasruddin. As is to be expected in folk lore, the stories range from being suitable for children to being very much adult material.
This tale, whilst not itself bawdy, is in a wonderful collection which in the publisher’s words, is “For Mature Readers only”: Extraordinary Adventures of Mullah Nasruddin: Naughty, unexpurgated tales of the beloved wise fool from the Middle & Far East (Revised Edition ~ collected & retold by Ron J. Suresha). But I first met the story, told in Italian, by Egyptian teller, Lamya Tawfik, at the 2017 Raccontamiunastoria festival in Rome.
Storytell contributor Mary Grace Ketner recently posted: I have heard it said that if you tell one Hodja story, you must tell seven. I’ve also heard that if you hear seven, you have taken one step toward enlightenment.
So to ensure your spiritual progress, go to All tales on the website and scroll down to Nasruddin.
Not surprisingly, many of the over 2000 stories at the Turkish Oral Narrative Tales archive feature the Hodja.
More comic tales
The video gallery has become very extensive. So if you would enjoy more tales like this, here are a few suggestions.
The video clips here are all amateur quality, shot in various theatres or, as here, in my home studio.
Their intention is just to show the range of my storytelling and give a flavour of a live performance.
Permission is granted for use in non-commercial educational contexts.
The videos are © Richard Martin.
Professionally recorded CDs and DVDs are available here.
Go here for tales to watch
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
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Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling