IDEA

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Thank you very much for presentation of your energetic work crossing various countries... By skimming your webpage, we were able to catch the philosophy of your project... Finally, please note that, according to the result of the evaluation, UNESCO would be able to offer moral and practical support to your project.

Tereza Wagner,
Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise,
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France CLT/ACE/ACS.

INNOCENT'S OLD FIDDLE

 

Print by Currier & Ives, N.Y., 1870.

 
Innocent Marpl on his way home is accosted by an old man (the devil in disguise) who attempts to push a book on him. Innocent protests that he hasn't any money to buy the book. The old man assures him that the book will bring him wealth untold and that he will gladly exchange it for the Innocent's cheap old fiddle. Recognizing a good bargain, Innocent Marpl agrees but soon finds he can't make heads or tails of the book. The devil proposes a simple solution: come stay at my house for a few days (where I have good foods, cigars and drink) and you can teach me to play this fiddle while I teach you the ways of the book. Innocent agrees and soon finds that the old man was as good as his word.

Satisfied, Innocent Marpl finds himself back on the road, but as soon as he reaches his village, he discovers that he wasn't at the devil's house for just seven days, seven years have passed. His fiance has married and has children, his friends and family run from him in horror, thinking that he is a ghost. Disgusted, and realizing who the old man really is, he throws the book away, but the devil, disguised as a cattle merchant, appears and convinces him to take up the book again and make his fortune.

Innocent is indeed wealthy, but all his wealth can't please him since he has lost the only things that matter: his family and his fiance. The devil, this time disguised as an old woman, appears to sell him his fiddle. But when Innocent Marpl finds he can no longer play it, he throws the fiddle away again and tears the book to shreds.

Innocent comes to a town where the kings daughter is ill and a reward of the princesses hand has been offered to whoever can cure her. Innocent finds he is able to cure the princess of her illness with his music. He again meets the devil and they play cards. Innocent, in the progress of the game, realizes that the only way to win back his old life is to lose all his money to the devil. The devil falls defeated and Innocent triumphantly reclaims his fiddle. Innocent makes the devil dance a jig to his tune.

...The newlyweds are happy as they have never been. The princess begs to be introduced to Innocent Marpl's family, but Innocent, who realizes that to leave the kingdom would put him again under the spell of the devil, refuses. But he can't resist the temptation of his wife's charms and so agrees. As they cross the frontier, the inevitable happens and the devil dances his triumphant dance.

 
Some words from Innocent's Old Fiddle interpreter [ru]
Innocent's Old Fiddle [ru]