Did you know that the theme of time travel dates back hundreds of years?
There are actually two fairy tales I know of so far that feature time travel:
One from Ireland (Oisin in the Land of Eternal Youth)
One from Japan (Urashima-Taro)
In both stories, the protagonist travels hundreds of years into the future!
However, while performing cross-cultural analysis of the two stories, I soon discovered that time travel was not the only commonality between the two stories:
The protagonist is betrothed to a magical place and spends three days there.
He then grows homesick for the Material Plane, and so the maiden of the realm sends him off...warning him never to do a certain thing.
He comes home to find that 300 years have passed since he left!
He ignores the princess's warning, and becomes very very old.
There are some differences, however...
Oisin's trip to the Otherworld is essentially an all-expenses-paid vacation trip promoted by the fairy Naimh.
Urashima-Taro's trip to the dragon god-king's court is a reward for saving a turtle (who was actually the princess Otohime in disguise) from animal abuse.
Oisin is given a horse by the fairy Naimh, who warns him never to dismount.
Urashima-Taro is given a box by the princess Otohime, who warns him never to open it.
In some versions of the Oisin story, Oisin gets a chance to recount the tales of his father Finn McCool to Saint Patrick (who is "driving the snakes out of Ireland").
Ireland and Japan are nowhere close to each other, which means that there can be no easy answer to why these two stories have so much in common.
Nevertheless, I was inspired by the common theme of traveling forward in time due to a trip to a mysterious magical land, to write a story of my own...in which a lad from our own time accidentally travels forward in time in much the same manner as Oisin and Urashima-Taro did.
Be sure to check it out on my Facebook if you have not; I posted it as my New Year special for the start of 2024.
Let me know what you think in the comments:
Why are the tales of Oisin and Urashima-Taro so similar to each other?
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