Traditional Stories Research Articles

The Transparency of Time by Leonardo Padura

BOOKS IN REVIEW Leonardo Padura The Transparency of Time Trans. Anna Kushner. New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2021. 402 pages. IN DISCUSSIONS OF writers considered to be pushing the limits of the traditional detective story, the works of Cuban writer Leonardo Padura are frequently cited, and his latest translated novel, The Transparency of Time (La transparencia del tiempo), demonstrates the ambitious directions in which he is attempting to stretch the conventions . The main character of the novel is private detective Mario Conde, a former policeman and the protagonist in Padura’s four novels internationally known as the “Havana Quartet.” Conde is feeling the effects of age, drinking too much (like any hardboiled detective worth his salt), all the while confronting the merciless consequences of government-quality rum, intimations of mortality, and a prostate growing like a potato. The investigation this time involves the search for a black wooden Madonna to which the owner attributes a miraculous cancer cure, a Madonna of mysterious provenance stolen by the owner’s gay lover. Murder, of course, becomes part of the case as well as a transcendentally beautiful , part-Asian femme fatale, and a chase through the “lower depths”—a shantytown on the city outskirts mostly populated with illegal migrants from the eastern areas of the island desperate for work. Corruption in the art market becomes relevant to the question of why anyone would murder for this particular, seemingly insignificant religious artifact and provides the opportunity (as with Hammett’s Maltese falcon) to attract a number of oddball characters who would sell their mothers for an antique cigar box. So far, so good. These tropes and attitudes that have kept tough guys wisecracking for nearly a hundred years will rest pleasantly in the bellies of private-eye fans. There are at least two things, however, that make Padura’s novels into something more than the usual stuff that dreams are made of. The first of these is the portrait of life in Havana. Padura is interesting as an internationally known figure in not having taken what must have been many opportunities to escape the economic and other strains of living there. He drops details from page to page like a 1950 Chevy dripping the dishwashing liquid that frequently substitutes for transmission fluid in the embargoed country. Conde, for example, in passing compares the cheap government rum to rum made in the one factory that still follows the old Bacardi recipe. And then there’s the previously mentioned migrations of eastern Cubans; the peculiar relationship between the expatriate Cubans in Miami and their counterparts still on the island; and the Kafkaesque motivations of policemen, some true believers in the revolution and some more cynical than a thrice-married used-car salesman. The best detective novels, whether by Raymond Chandler or Henning Mankell, have long offered more about the societies that spawned them than casual readers digest (or possibly even care about), and Padura, by meticulous attention to detail and without preaching, is an expert in making the reader know what kind of life is possible in that bankrupt dictatorship . How do they get by? People make love. They share dinners and sit on the humid patio knocking down cocktails. They argue. They laugh. They know what the wrong thing to say is, and sometimes say it just to get away with it. Padura’s ambitions in this novel, however , go toward more than just a faithful representation of the social conundrums of living in his country at present. Padura reaches for an epic vision that transcends the mundane, connecting the novel’s detective story and his nation with the history of Spain and the Knights Templar, similar to the way he expansively weaves the history of the Jews into Heretics, his lengthy book centered around the quest for a Rembrandt smuggled onto the ill-fated 1939 ship SS St. Louis with its homeless refugees. The artworks in the two novels are more than MacGuffins for Conde to seek. The unusual blackness of the Madonna suggests the complexities of race in Cuba, for instance, without Padura tub-thumping on the issues, in much the same way that the economic problems of Cuba are always present...

And What If Overt Plot and Covert Progression <em>Are</em> Connected?

And What If Overt Plot and Covert Progression <em>Are</em> Connected?

Funkcija pripovedanja u romanu ''Ceremonija'' Lesli Marmon Silko

The paper examines the function of storytelling in the novel Ceremony. Leslie Marmon Silko includes traditional stories about the Laguna Pueblo, retelling stories, which have been passed down through the generations throughout oral traditions, stories that explore the nature of magic, that go into the origin of evil, and which can also show the way to redemption. Silko uses stories in the form of poems, oral narration, intertextuality, she even writes without chapters. She did not give chapters to her novel because she did not want to adapt to the standard format of the novel, she tries to avoid Anglo centric conventions. As many postmodern texts, the novel Ceremony can be seen as a response to the horrors of World War II. But unlike other literary works of postmodernism, Silko argues that we must present this tragedy throughout oral narration in order to heal ourselves.

Aurore's Journey by Nadia Origo

Reviewed by: Aurore's Journey by Nadia Origo Karen Ferreira-Meyers Origo, Nadia, Aurore's Journey. Trans. Aquene Kimmel, ed. Cheryl Toman, La Doxa Editions, 2020. Pp. 110. ISBN 978-2-37638-041-2. 10€ (paper). One of the ways in which Francophone African literature can reach a wider audience in- and outside of Africa is through diligent and context-appropriate translation. French-Gabonese Nadia Origo's short novel was first published in French in 2007 by Société des écrivains and reedited in 2008 by La Doxa Editions (Origo's own publishing house). Origo has published a series of novels, Le voyage d'Aurore (2007), J'ai résolu de… (2008), Le bal des débutants (2012) and La valse des initiés (2014), and a collection of poems (Sanglotites équatoriales, 2014) as well as two volumes of traditional stories (Le royaume de Longo, 2008); her work has been applauded as original and testimony of a lively second generation of women authors from Gabon. The story of Aurore's Journey is mainly autobiographical: 20-year-old Nadia-Aurore is a young, dynamic and committed, although quite naïve, student at her university in Libreville. In July 2000, during the holidays, she travels to Ogooué-Ivindo, in the northeast Gabonese hinterland, with her two friends, Pilli and Gal from Forest-Source. The objective of the fortnight "journey" is ecological in nature: the trio wants to meet the local populations to explain how to exploit the equatorial forest resources harmoniously and to fight against widespread deforestation. Nadia-Aurore's ecological engagement shines through; this is quite understandable as, besides being an editor, she holds a PhD in geography and sustainable development, health and environment. In her foreword, Cheryl Toman, the editor of the translated novel, explains the importance of keeping the [End Page 197] main protagonist's name in the title: Aurore, in French, means dawn, and Origo's focus on shedding light on African realities is part of her ideological commitment to her roots. Aquene Kimmel's French translation is beautifully and poetically crafted. She translates, transcribes, feels and expresses Origo's original text. As a translator myself, I particularly appreciate expressions such as "thumbing through a rosary of excuses" (29), and that Origo's work is now available in English ensures that communication across language barriers can take place. It echoes what Toman notes in her foreword, namely that "one of the vestiges of colonialism is indeed the post-independence reliance on the colonial language, and this complicates matters for Africans themselves. The young members of Forest-Source indeed encounter disadvantages as they must rely on translators to get their message across to their fellow citizens in Fang and Kota villages" (13). The topics Origo tackles in this short but poignant novel–ecology, grassroots involvement and participation, sustainability, individual and collective commitment, ecofeminism, afrocentrism–make her work relevant and thought-provoking, and will surely spark debate for years to come. Researchers will be tempted to compare her work to other travel writers (both male and female) from Africa and beyond. They might also look at authors who are committed to fight for our natural resources. In addition, scholars working on autobiography and autofiction will find the novel an interesting example of how women narrate their stories. There will also be scholars and members of the wider audience interested in the portrayal of both positive (rules of behavior, politeness, for example) and negative (bribery, for example) aspects of Gabonese culture. All in all, Origo poetically described one of the most beautiful, pristine and "magnificent landscapes" (21) of Gabon in her novel, in her "literary postcard" (Toman, Foreword, 14) and Kimmel allows us to travel to that exquisite spot on earth through her skillful translation in English. As readers we "forgive" all stakeholders involved in the production of this translation for the small punctuation and translation errors, especially since none of them hinder our understanding and reading pleasure. Karen Ferreira-Meyers University of Eswatini Copyright © 2021 Women in French Studies

Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories ed. by Charlotte Artese

Reviewed by: Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories ed. by Charlotte Artese Sara Cleto (bio) Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories. Edited by Charlotte Artese, Princeton University Press, 2019, 373 pp. In 2015, Charlotte Artese published her groundbreaking text Shakespeare’s Folktale Sources, in which she demonstrated how folktales profoundly shaped and influenced Shakespeare’s plays. While scholars had previously noted connections between folktales and Shakespeare’s plots and characters, these observations were largely restricted to motif spotting. In Shakespeare’s Folktale Sources, Artese argued that the majority of Shakespeare’s plays are deeply entwined with folklore and, more specifically, that seven of the plays have plots that are derived directly from folktales. Furthermore, she illuminated the ways in which the network of Shakespeare’s plays and their narrative elements function much like folktales themselves. Artese’s new book, Shakespeare and the Folktale, is the logical and welcome extension of her previous project. In this anthology, she has collected [End Page 383] and edited the folktales that are the backbone of her argument: the folktales that animate Shakespeare’s plays. As she explains in her introduction, “[T]his anthology aims to augment our knowledge of Shakespeare’s sources and influences by supplying examples of his folktales’ sources rather than revisiting his acknowledged literary ones,” which are already generally recognized and are readily available in other texts (3). The book consists of an introduction, eight chapters, a bibliography, and an extensive index. Each chapter addresses one Shakespeare play, including a brief discussion of that play’s sources followed by the full text of five to eight related folktales. In Shakespeare’s Folktale Sources, Artese considered seven plays: The Taming of the Shrew (1592), Titus Andronicus (1592–93), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597/1602), The Merchant of Venice (1596–99), All’s Well That Ends Well (1598–1608), Measure for Measure (1603–04), and Cymbeline (1611), each of which features one or more plots drawn directly from a folk-tale. The contents of Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology overlap with but do not replicate those found in the earlier book. The new anthology includes a chapter on King Lear (1606), which “adapts a legendary history that includes folktales and folk narrative motifs,” a chapter on The Comedy of Errors (1594), which has a classical Roman source as well as a folktale source, and a chapter on The Tempest (1610–11), “whose dependence on the ‘Magic Flight’ folktale is partial and incomplete but fascinating nonetheless” (7). Artese does not include chapters on The Merry Wives of Windsor or Measure for Measure because of the lack of relevant folktale versions available to print in English. There is a significant methodological challenge to Artese’s project, which is, simply put, that we do not know exactly which versions of each folktale circulated in Shakespeare’s day, let alone which ones he personally encountered. The very nature of oral tradition makes a perfect reconstruction of Shakespeare’s folktale sources impossible. However, this does not make Artese’s project any less worthwhile. We know that the folktale plots that underpin Shakespeare’s plays existed before he ever set pen to paper because medieval versions survived (2). Though we will never know exactly which versions Shakespeare encountered orally, “folktales collected in the modern world (the nineteenth century and after) can give us insight into the stories Shakespeare and his audience might have known” (2). The folktales that Artese has assembled are, therefore, not Shakespeare’s exact sources but instead “later members of the genus of his sources” (2). Because we cannot know the exact sources—and because Shakespeare himself may likely have been working from several different oral versions—Artese has included several examples of each folktale type in the collection to provide a sense of possible variations. “Attending to the folktale in its many guises can [End Page 384] give us a clearer sense of the story tradition available to Shakespeare, although we cannot reconstruct it exactly” (3). Because the anthology represents an educated and creative reconstruction rather than a precise replica of Shakespeare’s sources, Artese’s primary criteria for selection was how closely a folktale resembled the Shakespeare play...

Editorial

In this editorial, I am discussing two of the most common myths related to publishing in top journals. A myth is defined as a traditional story about historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. Opinions to elaborate on this editorial were gathered from 54 researchers located in both developed and developing countries. As expected, their thoughts and ideas covered many aspects that may be considered myths, but the majority tend to agree on the two presented here. For each case, I provide supporting thoughts and objective facts that either confirm or disconfirm the myths.

EL STORYTELLING EN LA MARCA DE DESTINOS TURÍSTICOS: EL CASO DE GIRONA

El storytelling como estrategia para transmitir los valores e identidad de una marca ha adquirido importancia en los últimos años, pero aún hay poca literatura que desarrolle este concepto entorno a los destinos turísticos. Este artículo pretende analizar las potencialidades y uso del storytelling en un destino turístico a través de relatos y leyendas tradicionales. Las leyendas de la ciudad de Girona (España) se utilizaron como caso de estudio. Los resultados ponen en evidencia que, a pesar del potencial de las leyendas, actualmente no se está explotando adecuadamente. Storytelling as strategy to transmit values and identity of a brand has acquired relevance during the last years. However, this concept is already relatively underdeveloped in academic literature on tourism destinations. This paper aims to analyze storytelling potentialities and use in a tourism destination trough traditional stories. Legends of the city of Girona (Spain) have been chosen as a case study. Results demonstrated that legends of the city have the potential to develop a storytelling strategy, but this potential is not used properly.

Relationship Resonances in the Learning Process as Found in Stevenson’s Kidnapped and the Cherokee Story, The Gambler

In a time of racial division, this critical study explores both the history and possibility of reconciliation of, not only the complicated relationship between the Scottish and Cherokee peoples, but also within an analysis of, two stories: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson and the traditional Cherokee story, The Gambler. Using Object Relations Theory, along with the concept of Resonance, readers will find connections between the main characters, David Balfour and Cooch, as well as implications further analysis and the relationships teachers may establish in the classroom.

Description and Categorization of Balti Tense Markers

The current study aims at describing and categorizing the possible tense markers of Balti language, spoken in the Baltistan region of Gilgit-Baltistan. As for linguistics exposure is concerned, Balti is one of the less explored languages. Balti has a handful amount of traditional pieces of literature in the form of books (Traditional Grammars, stories, and history) and even the available Balti literature have not been documented within the proper paradigm of linguistics. To conduct this particular study, 200 Balti root words (verbs) have been collected from the corpus data using both the naturalistic and documented sources. The selected 200 Balti root words (verbs) were critically described, analyzed, and categorized within the paradigm of inflectional morphemes of tense markers using the qualitative research design. The result shows that there are 11 tense markers, i.e., “-ed", "-en", "-set", "-s", "-uk", "-nuk", "-tuk", "-ik", "-in", "-se" and "-e" in Balti language. These tense markers are added to the respective root verbs to mark present indefinite, present participle, past participle, future indefinite, and future perfect tenses. This study will hopefully encourage future researchers to conduct research works on the various aspects of Balti language.

In the caress of a wave

ABSTRACT This article is derived from a larger study using an interpretive narrative framework exploring ‘the outdoors’ as a defining feature of outdoor education. For Māori, landscapes are imbued with metaphysical values, and these are passed on through pūrākau (traditional stories), waiata (song) and whakataukī (proverbs). Wiremu, re-introduces youth to pūrākau to help build practical and ethical ways to care for places, people, and self. While his work is particularly relevant to Māori, it is equally important for anyone interested in building environmental connections to develop knowledge, attitudes and responsible behaviour. Who we are and how we live on this earth, is both created and limited through the stories we have access to. By including more indigenous stories in that repertoire, it is possible to increase the learning gained from and types of outdoor experiences we value.

Reimagining the diocese: administrative, sacred, and imperial space in the Russian Empire

The study of the Orthodox diocese 1 in the Russian Empire has a long and storied tradition. Imbued with significant practical advantages (the ability to identify and select a relatively manageable ...

The effectiveness of a multisensory traditional storytelling programme on target vocabulary development in children with disabilities accessing English as a second language: A preliminary study.

The current deliberations on increasing access to English and the democratization of English in post-war Sri Lanka must extend to students with disabilities. Research evidence from speech and language therapy promotes the use of multi-sensory stimuli to advance the development of communication and language skills in children with intellectual disabilities. In this preliminary study, 3 local children's stories, together with relevant story-making activities, were offered to 7 children with intellectual disabilities in one special school across 12 lessons. Vocabulary measures of word naming of target vocabulary were undertaken pre- and post-intervention using picture-based tasks presented via PowerPoint. A positive difference was found post-intervention on the target vocabulary naming test. The findings of this small preliminary study should be interpreted with caution. However, the findings are suggestive of the potential benefit of using culturally relevant familiar local traditional stories with a range of multi-sensory stimuli and storytelling activities to aid learning of new vocabulary in children with disabilities accessing English as an additional language. Further research using a large sample together with a control group will be required to substantiate the positive trend of vocabulary gains observed within this preliminary study.

“Uprooted:” Anton Chekhov’s Influence on Frank O’Connor

Abstract Thus far perhaps the most acclaimed Irish practitioner of the short story, Frank O’Connor, attributes a lasting influence to Russian author Anton Chekhov when he considers the direction that the modern Irish short story was to take in the twentieth century. In The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story (1963), O’Connor emphasized two particular themes in Chekhov’s short fiction that influenced his own stories: on the one hand, a preoccupation with loneliness; on the other, a belief that venial sin, or the adoption of a false personality, was “far more destructive” than mortal sin itself. In other writings, he expressed an interest in narrative technique and structure as he found them in Chekhov’s stories. The article explores O’Connor’s “Uprooted” from his collection Crab Apple Jelly (1944), a story about displaced intellectuals. My reading illustrates how the Irish writer was not only adopting Chekhov’s themes but was also experimenting with Chekhov’s character types and narrative techniques, particularly as found in the Russian author’s story “The Lady with the Dog.” At the same time, O’Connor developed a distinctly individual technique of his own within the Irish realist/naturalist short story tradition, making a lasting impact on the art of the modern Irish short story. Unlike his displaced Irish characters in “Uprooted,” he prefers to remain faithful to this tradition.

Vitalization of the Kokama language beyond the borders of Brazil and Peru

Vitalizar uma língua é dar força ou vigor à sua dinâmica de existência. É ter a língua nos rituais dos pajés, nas brincadeiras de roda, nas contações de histórias antigas, nas danças, nas músicas, nos artesanatos, nas vestimentas, nas pinturas e na vida da aldeia, mesmo que seja como segunda língua. Esse processo tem sido vivenciado pelo povo Kokama do Brasil e do Peru, por meio de decisões que levam a língua de seus ancestrais a ocupar espaços comunicativos dentro e fora das aldeias. Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar a trajetória da vitalização da língua Kokama apresentada no evento “Viva Língua Viva”, no ano internacional das línguas indígenas de 2019. A vitalização está ligada à conquista do território por meio da língua, assim como a ocupação dos espaços físicos e digitais no século XXI, como os Centros de Ciências e Saberes Tradicionais Kokama, conhecidos como Museu Vivo, Lua Verde e Antonio Samias, e os Centros de Educação Escolar Indígena Atawanã Kuarachi Kokama e Tsetsu Kamutun, que são locais que vitalizam a língua. Nessa perspectiva, também são criados aplicativos que ocupam os espaços digitais produzidos por jovens, adultos e anciãos Kokama. A metodologia de pesquisa é baseada no mapeamento situacional de cunho etnográfico. Como resultado, observou-se que esses pequenos espaços vitalizam a língua, onde crianças, jovens e adultos encontram a função social da língua ao expressar sua cultura por meio dos atos de fala.

Adaptation of Nusantara Fable Story in a Circus Show

Along with the times, traditional arts slowly began to fade. So, it is with traditional folk tales. It is important to keep traditional stories known and understood by children. Introducing the arts, especially performing arts, can be done from an early age, carried out by parents, teachers, to certain communities. For children, of course, an easy and interesting way is needed so that they can be enjoyed until a show is over. The concept of the show 'The Fabulous Fable Show; Circus and Theater 'is a concept that was initiated as a form of love for the local culture of the archipelago, collaborated with circus performances as one of the main branches of the performing arts. Circus shows generally feature attractions such as juggling, spinning, acrobatics, or attractions that use animals such as lions, tigers, elephants, and others. To make this show even more interesting, the concept maker included a theatrical element by bringing up the fable story from Indonesia. The fable story was chosen because the characters used were taken from animals and made children interested in the play that was performed. From there, children can recognize emotional expressions, such as joy or sadness that arise from a dance movement or song that is played.

The Origin of the Crafts According to Byzantine Rosette Caskets

Byzantium, like many other cultures, possessed a story of the origin of the crafts. Three ivory caskets in Cleveland, Saint Petersburg, and Darmstadt depict the traditional story of Adam and Eve, only they include an unusual scene of the first couple at the forge as well as an image of Plutus, the god of wealth. Examining Byzantine ideas about the discovery of the technai, this article interprets these boxes as object-genealogies, tracing their own material extravagance back into economic prehistory and eliciting wonder at the first couple’s resourcefulness. The forge scene manifests a self-reflexive awareness within the artwork itself. The commodity claims to be descended from the first artifact. Romantically deriving craft labor from humanity’s invention of metallurgy and farming, ivory workshops historicized a culture of consumption within the Byzantine capital. Adam and Eve’s discoveries looked ahead to their own refined technology.

The effectiveness of using multi-sensory children’s stories on vocabulary development in young deaf and hard-of-hearing children

ABSTRACT Young deaf and hard-of-hearing children enrolling in school in Sri Lanka often display language delay due to limited amplification and limited language stimulation. The scarcity of speech and language therapy support within the educational context at present necessitates a rethink of service-delivery models to reach more children. Multi-sensory stimuli and traditional children’s stories have been used in speech and language therapy to promote vocabulary development in children experiencing language-learning difficulties. Fifteen deaf or hard-of-hearing children from three different educational contexts were offered a three week “Katha malu” multi-sensory children’s story programme through the class teacher. The programme focused on developing receptive and expressive vocabulary of a set of 30 target words. The programme was offered using a combination of Sri Lankan Sign Language and Spoken Sinhala. The participants' receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge on the target words was assessed using a specially devised picture-based vocabulary assessment pre- and post-intervention. The results show positive gains at both group and individual levels on receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. There was a positive effect of familiarity with the story with the overall vocabulary gains more prominent for the older, more traditional story. The findings of this study highlight the possibility of offering access to language stimulation programmes at classroom-level facilitated by the class teacher, under the guidance of a speech and language therapist.

The Gnawer of Rocks by L. Flaherty

Flaherty, Louise. The Gnawer of Rocks. Illustrated by Jim Nelson. Inhabit Media, 2017.
 The Gnawer of Rocks, written by Louise Flaherty and illustrated by Jim Nelson, is based on the author's memories of a story she heard as a child from an Inuk storyteller, Levi Iqalugjuaq, in Nunavut in the 1970s. The book, which feels like an incredible mix of picture book and graphic novel, focuses on a traditional story about a creature called Mangittatuarjuk and two young women who fall into her clutches. 
 Nelson's artwork follows the layout of a comic book, using word balloons and panel captions, which makes for an immersive reading experience following two girls who discover a trail of beautiful rocks outside of camp which lead them from the bright and colourful world of home into the increasingly dark and frightening world of Mangittatuarjuk. The book mixes Inuktitut terms throughout, but does include a glossary at the end.
 The story does get both gruesome and horrific in the cave of Mangittatuarjuk, but the story, which would be great for older school children, does include a warning in the author's note. A really great introduction to traditional northern Canadian stories, the book includes an introduction for context and acknowledges the original storyteller as well as the reasons for this type of story and its likely role in the lives of children. An excellent read for children who are already comfortable with scary stories.
 Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Kirk MacLeod
 Kirk MacLeod is the Open Data Team Lead for the Government of Alberta’s Open Government Portal. A Life-Long reader, he moderates two book clubs and is constantly on the lookout for new great books!

COMPARISON TRADITIONAL FOLKLORE BETWEEN CHINESE PI YING AND INDONESIAN WAYANG KULIT

Chinese Pi Ying and Indonesian Wayang Kulit as known as the crystal of folklore from two different countries. This article is aim to make a comparison between these two traditional folklore.Pi Ying and Wayang Kulit both are made from wood and paper or animal skin. The function of these two folklore is giving a show or performance to audiences based on traditional stories or mythological stories. Compared with Wayang Kulit, Chinese Pi Ying was originated from Han Dynasty, earlier than Wayang Kulit. As traditional arts, coming with improvement of digital technology, Chinese Pi Ying and Wayang Kulit are losing their influence now, these two traditional folklore only can be seen more frequently in theater or rural area. Through this article, Pi Ying and Wayang Kulit will be analyzed, compared and found out the same and different aspects from these two traditional folklore, furthermore, this article will also give certain solutions to solve the problems these two folklore are facing.

Grandpa, Grandpa, Tell Me the One About Bitcoin Being a Safe Haven: New Evidence From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bitcoin being a safe haven asset is one of the traditional stories in the cryptocurrency community. However, during its existence and relevant presence, i.e. approximately since 2013, there has been no severe situation on the financial markets globally to prove or disprove this story until the COVID-19 pandemics. We study the quantile correlations of Bitcoin and two benchmarks -- S\&P500 and VIX -- and we make comparison with gold as the traditional safe haven asset. The Bitcoin safe haven story is shown and discussed to be unsubstantiated and far-fetched, while gold comes out as a clear winner in this contest even when a broader cryptocurrency index (CRIX) is considered.