Trickster Mentor: Difference between revisions

* Max Malini in ''[[The Cape (trope)]]''

 

* [[Older Than Print]]: Some versions of Merlin and Morgan le Fay from [[King Arthur|the Arthurian mythos]].

* Trickster figures in myth and folklore tend to vary by region—particularly with the Native American tricksters. Raven was typically the more wise, trickster mentor. Crow tended to be more mercurial, even malicious. Coyote inhabited pretty much the entire spectrum between trickster creator, noble trickster, mean-spirited prankster, and avatar of chaos; depending on the particular region and people. African and European tricksters varied similarly by people and region. Anansi generally deviated between being [[Brilliant but Lazy|brilliant but so lazy that he never got anything done]] and brilliant but so conceited that he stumbled over his own convoluted tricks. Loki is clever but doesn't seem to have any particular lessons in mind with his tricks.

** Another example, this one taken from [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Sufism/Nasrudin an affiliate of] [[The Other Wiki]]:

{{quote|Once a renown philosopher and moralist was traveling through the land and stopped in Nasrudin's village. He asked Nasrudin to recommend a place to eat, and, being hungry for intelligent company as well, invited Nasrudin to accompany him. At the restaurant, they asked the waiter what the special of the day was, and were told, "Fish -- fresh fish!" They ordered two.

 

When the waiter brought the fish on a great platter, however, one was noticeably larger than the other. Nasrudin, seeing this, immediately slid the larger fish onto his own plate. The philosopher, shocked, proceeded to berate Nasrudin at length for violating the precepts of every religion and moral system ever thought of.

 

At the end of this, Nasrudin asked, "What would you have done?"

 

The philosopher said, "I, as a conscientious human, would have taken the smaller fish."

 

Nasrudin replied, "Here you go, then", and slid the smaller fish onto the philosopher's plate. }}