*Azerbaijan Folklore : Jirtdan - The Little Boy Who Fought the Monsters*

*Summarized by Jane*

*Once upon a time, there was a very smart little boy named Jirtdan which means “tiny”. He lived with his grandmother in a village. One day, his grandmother gave some bread and butter to all Jirtdan’s friends and had them go to the forest to collect wood with her grandson. Because they received the bread and butter from his grandmother, therefore, they cut the wood, brought back the wood and carried Jirtdan when he was tired on the way back to the village.*

*When the sky was dark, the group lost the way. They saw two directions. One was with barking sounds from dogs and one was with a light. Following the advice from Jirtdan, they chose the way with the light. As they came closer, they realized the light was shining out from a house. This was the house of a big, ugly, scary monster. The monster couldn’t eat all of the boys one time, so he told the group to sleep and then he could eat one by one. Realizing the intention of the monster, Jirtdan stayed awake. After a while, Monster came back to make sure the group all asleep. Two times, Jirtdan told him he was still awake and asked him to do something for him to make him fall asleep. For the second time nearly the morning, meanwhile the monster was trying to fill a sieve with water from the river, Jirtdan wakened the boys. They ran away from the house. The monster found out and chased them. On the way, taking the advice from Jirtdan, the monster put a mill stone used for grinding wheat and having a big hole in the middle of It over his head to cross the river. The monster was pulled down to the bottom of the river and couldn’t chase the boys. The boys came home safely.*