A Sopa de Pedra e a Sopa de Pregos

Esta apresentação oral de ambas as histórias deverá ser acompanhada de algumas imagens identificativas dos dois países em power point: Croácia e Portugal (bandeira, localização geográfica e, se possível, duas imagens ilustrativas de ambas as histórias).

We chose a Croatian tale called “The nail soup”, and a Portuguese tale called “The stone soup”. Both stories are very much alike, even though one belongs to the Portuguese oral tradition and the other one belongs to the Croatian oral tradition.

“THE NAIL SOUP”

Once upon a time, after a war that lasted 14 years, the kings decided to make peace and send the soldiers back home with a uniform, a firearm, some bread and a square of cheese.

One of the soldiers, unable to arrive home in a couple of days and having eaten the bread and cheese, decided to stop at a village and thought to himself “I fought for these people for so many years…I’m sure they’ll give me some food”. The soldier knocked at every door in that village and to all the villagers he said – “I come from the war and I’m heading home; I’m hungry; could you give me some food?” – but no one helped him.

Tired and hungry, he decided to rest and found next to him a handful of nails. He, then, had an idea: he called out for all the villagers and told them about a secret longevity and wisdom nails soup. After hearing this, the villagers decided to help him with the soup and everyone gave something: the pot, some water, timber, salt and spices, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, pumpkin, meat, etc. Then, the soldier cooked a great soup and everyone shared the food, laughed, danced and enjoyed the party.

Suddenly, a young boy noticed that the soldier hadn’t used the nails in the soup. “That’s right!” – said the soldier, and handed in the nails to the boy, then adding – “Next time a hungry man knocks at your door you will know what to do!”.

Like this, all the villagers learnt their lesson…

“THE STONE SOUP”

In the Portuguese tradition, the traveller is a monk and the story takes place around Almeirim, Portugal.

The monk arrives at a peasant’s door and says that he is going to cook a stone soup. The monk has the stone, obviously, but adds that the soup would be even more delicious if it had some extra garnish, like salt, potatoes, some fat, meat, cabbage, etc. The peasant,

without noticing the trick, ends up giving him all the ingredients for the meal, and the monk manages to eat a great meal without having anything with him.

Once upon a time, there was a friar that decided it was time to eat. As he had no food with him, he thought about asking some villagers for food.

CONCLUSION

In the French and Hungarian versions of the tale, the travellers are soldiers: three returning home from the Napoleonic Wars.

The story is most commonly known as nail soup in Scandinavian and Northern European countries. In these versions, the main character is typically a tramp looking for food and lodgings, who convinces an old woman that he will make nail soup for the both of them if she would just add a few ingredients for the garnish.

In Eastern Europe the variation of the story is called axe soup.

A Informação da “Conclusão” foi retirada de http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup