Mythic Writers Blog

On Monday, my beloved brought me a lovely present—two books to add to my writing research collection! One of them is a very nice, heavy volume of The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales. (Which is not going to stop me from getting The Annotated Brothers Grimm, by the way.) I’m so excited! I’ve been meaning to get one for the longest time.

So, I curled up on the sofa with my prize and spent some time poking through the very long table of contents, reading random stories when a title struck me as particularly interesting.

One of the tales I read was “Simeli Mountain.” In this story, a group of thieves hide their treasure inside a mountain. And to get into the mountain, what do they do? They chant, “Semsi mountain, semsi mountain, open.” (Simeli Mountain is an incorrect pronunciation that causes the main character’s brother all sorts of trouble, but you can read the story to find out just how much trouble. Go ahead. It’s short.) What especially strikes me with this story is “Semsi.” Sesame? As in “open sesame”? I have nothing to back up this idea, at least not at the moment (you see, I do still need that annotated volume!). But isn’t it intriguing? Especially with the thieves hiding treasure in a mountain. I am going to have to get my hands on a good copy of The Arabian Nights (I believe that’s where “open sesame” is found—in “Ali Baba and the Forth Thieves” I think), preferably an annotated version. But in the meantime, I thought I’d throw this fascinating tidbit out there for everyone else to ponder. Enjoy!