ตัวละครมนุษย์ฝ่ายดี : ผู้ช่วยเหลือในนิทานจากวัดเกาะ

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the role characteristics of the supporting characters in Wat Koh tales so as to understand the concept behind the creation of such tales, which will in turn shed better light on the Thai tale. The analysis of this study is based on ten tales namely kaew na maa, kom thong, jampa kaew jampa thong, taeng orn, bua kaew bua thong, pang ka cha, phuang malai thong, phikunthong, yorphraklin and sornnarin. From the study, good non-human creatures always appear in the Wat Koh tales as helpers who help out the leading characters by providing magic weapons to fight off the enemies, giving solutions to problems, protecting helpless and vulnerable persons in difficult times and acting as matchmakers between male and female leading characters. Good non-human creatures appearing in the Wat Koh tales are of many categories: god and goddess, spirit, animal, human-animal mix, demon, savage and half-savage, and other created characters. These characters have some kinds of magic, all of which reflect ways of thinking, beliefs and imagination of the Thai people that contribute to the unique creation of the Thai tale.