Week 14 Storytelling:The Snake's Demands

“Girls! I’m going to the store!” called mother.

My sisters Ellie and Mary came running. “Do you girls want anything from the store?” She asked all three of us. Ellie and Mary promptly listed off at least twenty items each that they had to have. My mother then looked at me, but I shook my head and said all I wanted were some fresh flowers to go on my desk.

Two hours later mother arrived back at the house with bags upon bags of things she had picked up. I searched around the bags for a little but couldn’t find any flowers. When mother saw me searching she immediately realized she had forgotten to buy me flowers. She apologized to me so many times, and I told her it was ok, and that it wasn’t a big deal! She kept going on about how bad she felt, and decided she was going to go pick me some fresh ones from the forest that backed up to our house.

Another two hours went by, and I started to become very nervous. Mother should have been back by now. The sun would set in an hour.  I decided I must go looking for her.

I started off into the forest and just kind of wandered, not knowing which way she chose to go. After a little bit I saw some beautiful roses, and had the thought that maybe she was there picking some for me but got distracted or something. As I was walking over to the roses I saw a figure that appeared to be lying down. Silly mother must have decided to take a nap. It was strange though because there was a nice house in the background. As I got closer, though, she did not appear to be sleeping. There was a snake slithering all around her.

As I walked over the snake appeared to see me and started to slither towards me. I was a little frightened, but I needed to see if mother was ok. The snake stopped me before I got there and told me that my mother had been paralyzed in punishment for picking his flowers. I felt so terrible! Those were my flowers! I begged the snake to wake her up because it was my fault. He told me that if I completed a series of tasks for him he would give me the anti-venom for my mother.

Snake
From Wikipedia

The first task was to clear out all of the leaves and twigs that were strewn across his garden. That was easy enough, and I finished within ten minutes.  The next task was for her to cook him a nice homemade meal. This took a little longer, but not terrible long. I went inside the house and made him a nice plate of spaghetti and meatballs with a salad on the side. The snake seemed to really enjoy it, and then listed off my final task. It was to cut his head off with a sword. He showed me where it was, and gave me the cure for mother in advance once I had promise to do it.  I was a little hesitant because he did not seem all the bad, and I had never killed anything before, but I went ahead and did it to save my mother. Once I was done I rushed to mother and gave her the anti-venom. She started to wake up immediately!

AS mother was waking up I heard some rustling in the background, so I turned around to see what was going on. Where I had chopped the snake’s head off stood a beautiful man, and instead of the house there was a castle. The man started walking towards me, and when he got there he introduced himself as John. He said that my final task would be to marry him, or my mother would not fully recover. I agreed.

It turned out John was a great husband! We had a big feast and celebration after our wedding for all of our friends and family. My sisters did not seem too happy for me, but mother was and that was all that mattered. Today we are still happily married.

Author’s Note: I used The Three Roses as the original story. In the original the mother finds the roses on the way back from market, and realizes she forgot her daughter’s flowers, so she goes to pick some.  After she does so a basilisk appears. And tells her she must bring her daughter to him in payment for the roses. She goes home and brings her back. The basilisk makes her go through a series of tasks, then asks her to cut his head off. After she does so a snake appears, and asks her to do the same. After she has cut off the head of the snake a man appears, and tells her that the final task is to marry him. I chose to change the story a bit and put my own spin with just the snake. I liked her doing his house chores because I liked to think that the snake just needed a little help around the house, since he could not do it himself.

Bibliography: The Three Roses from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis (1922).

Week 12 Storytelling: The Two Sons

Deep in the jungle there lives a family of apes. On the outside they seem to be the typical family. The father goes to work every day picking bananas out of trees on the assembly line. The mother stays home with her two precious twin boys. They seem to be an all around normal family. What nobody else sees though is that one of the twins receives more favor than the other. Jake and his twin Blake never really did get along. They fought and wrestled and threw bananas at each other’s heads every chance they got. Somehow, Blake always got away without any punishment, while Jake got banished to the highest spot in the tree.

Baby Apes
FromPixabay

Jake and Blake followed similar paths until they reached the age of college. They needed to learn what kind of jobs they wanted to do so that they didn’t have to work the assembly line like their father. Jake had always excelled at school, while Blake had a little more trouble. This never affected Blake’s grades though, seeing as his mother would just do the work for him. Jake had to learn for himself, and in the meantime he became very independent. This is why when the twins got to college Jake was right at home. He made a ton of friends, and was doing better than ever in all of his classes. Blake on the other hand was failing miserably.

After a few months Blake couldn’t handle the work. He had never had to do so much in his life! He didn’t know how to manage his time or even how to do most of the work at all. He decided he would go home to mommy, and she would fix everything like she always did.

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Two years later Jake was graduating early from college with honors. He had so many job offers he didn’t know which to take. He also had the perfect girlfriend, who was soon to be his wife. His life couldn’t be going better, much to his mother’s annoyance. Blake on the other hand was the complete opposite. He was still living at home, and his mother still babied him to no end. He didn’t have a job, and did not seem to be wanting to get one anytime soon. His mother was getting fed up with him, and couldn’t handle him always being home. She decided it was time for him to leave the nest whether he was ready or not. Blake was kicked out of his home, and was not allowed to return.

In the end Blake ended up scrounging for food, and for places to stay. He never really could function in society because everything had been done for him. He had no work ethic. His brother, Jake, ended up becoming the leader of the tribe, and going down in history for being one of the best. He had taken all of his frustrations of never being good enough, and turned them into success.

Author’s Note: I wrote this story based on The Ape and Her Two Brats. In the original story she favors the one twin, and when terror strikes she puts her favorite under her arm to carry him, and the other on her back. As she heads down the tree her favorite’s head is smashed against a rock, and ends up dying. She is left with the other child. I wanted to take this not so literally, and show that it ended up hurting her to favor the one child. It was worse in the end for the one she loved the most, and she saw that the other went on to succeed despite her own role in holding him back.

Bibliography: An Ape and her Two Brats from Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Roger L'Estrange (1692).

Week 11 Storytelling: Alice's New School

“Good morning students! Welcome to your first day of classes! I hope you enjoy your semester. Now, get to your first period class so you aren’t late.”

Alice was in the locker room still. She hadn’t worked up the courage to go out to the field where she was supposed to be playing monkey lacrosse. She wasn’t too sure what that entailed, and it being her first day at a new school she had no one to ask.

Locker Room
From Wiki Commons

Finally, a teacher came in and saw her. She was reprimanded for being tardy, and ushered out to the field where she saw all the other girls in her class standing in front of her teacher. Her teacher. That was the worst part. It was just Alice’s luck that this class happened to be taught by the principal of the school, Mrs. Heart, so everyone had to be on their best behavior.

Lacrosse Field
From Wikipedia

As Alice looked around she noticed that no one had any gear yet. That was peculiar, since the Mrs. Heart was explaining the rules. Alice was too busy daydreaming about why it was called monkey lacrosse to hear any of the rules. She must have missed something important because all of a sudden everyone was walking toward what looked like cages. Alice followed, trying to peer around her classmates to see what was in the cages. Soon they were right in front of them, and she could see that there were actual monkeys in these cages!

Each girl picked her monkey one by one until it was Alice’s turn. She got to the front and saw that there were only a few to choose from, and all looked exceedingly difficult to deal with. She chose one at random, and followed everyone back to the field where Mrs. Heart held something in her hand. Everyone scattered around the field into what Alice presumed were positions…

 Maybe she should have paid more attention to the rules, she thought.

A whistle blew, and Mrs. Heart threw what was in her hand into the air! It was green, but too far away to make out what it was. Everyone scrambled around the field to get to the ball. Someone called out “Hey Blondie!”, and before Alice realized what was happening there was a frog coming straight towards her. She couldn’t get her monkey to stop pulling her hair, and had to dodge the frog before it hit her. Her team didn’t look too happy that she had let this one slide passed her.

All Alice could think was that this was definitely going to be an interesting semester at an odd new school. 

Author’s Note: I chose to make my own story from the croquet scene from Alice in Wonderland. I liked that they used animals, and wanted to change that up a bit, so I decided to pick a new sport. I also wanted to change the setting a bit because otherwise I thought it was be too similar to the original story. I chose a school because that seemed like one of the most plausible places for someone to be playing a sport like lacrosse.

Bibliography: The Queen’s Croquet Ground from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).

Week 10 Storytelling: The Girl Who Caught a Star

There once was a lonely girl who thought she would never find love. The only comfort she found was when she got to spend some time outside at nights. She would frequently go hiking, and one day she traveled a little too far to make it back before nightfall. She found that the stars and the night sky gave her a break from her loneliness. They made her feel like she belonged somewhere, and that the night sky was her true home.  After this discovery she would do anything and everything to make it outside at least for ten minutes each night.  While she was out in the darkness she made friends with some of the animals. They seemed to just love her. She liked to think of herself as a modern snow white because she felt so connected to them. This gave her even more comfort while she basked in the night’s glory. She finally had everything she thought she needed, and she felt loved.

Some nights the girl would think that her life would be perfect if only she could just be a part of the night sky. She wished desperately to have something concrete to hold from it. She would confide this all to a little fox that had taken a liking to sitting with her. Each night she would think about how much better off she would be if she could float up and become one with the sky. She knew that this would never happen, of course.

Sleeping Under the Stars
By Ed Ogle

It had been some time, and the girl was getting a little upset that she could not be more connected with the one thing she loved so dearly. On this particular night she was very down. Even her little fox could not bring her comfort. Right when she was about to give up all hope of ever being close to the night sky, something strange started to happen. It looked as if a star was coming closer to her. Not as much as a shooting star, but like it was gracefully just floating towards her. It kept getting closer and closer. The girl thought it must be a trick of the eye. Starts don’t just float towards the earth! This was certainly nothing normal.

After watching this occurance for about fifteen minutes the star was still getting closer. In fact it was almost right on top of her. The girl decided to be brave, and reached out towards the star to see if she could possibly catch it! If so it would really be a dream come true. The star would bring her everything she had wished for, and would mean she would always be close to the night sky. When she reached out her hand actually touched it! She had caught a star! It was little, and not hot. It was still lit, and so beautiful. This truly was a miracle. Now whenever the girl feels like a day is just dragging on she pulls out her star, and it reminds her of her true love, and how they can now be together forever.

Author’s Note: This story came from the Tejas Caddoan tribe. In the original an indian woman wanders into the desert and does not make it back before night. She falls in love with a star, and wants to be with it so badly that she contemplates killing herself to be there.  A witch instead turns her into a tree so that she can always see her star when it is out. The star then falls and lands white blossoms on the tree, so they will be together forever. In my story I wanted to modernize it a little bit, and have a girl fall in love with the night sky in general. I liked the idea of her having a piece of it to take with her, instead of being turned into something that stays outside. I also included the animals to kind of take the place of the witch, and to help comfort her a little bit.

Bibliography: The Maiden WhoLoved a Star from When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

Week 9 Storytelling: The Lesson of the Bunny and the Otter

“This week for story time we are going to read about two animals who once had a big conflict with each other. They both may seem very cute and cuddly, but that was not always the case. Who here likes bunnies and otters? “

The Rex Rabbit from Wikipedia

All the kids in Ms. McDaniel’s second grade class raised their hands high in the air.

“Ok kids well today we are going to be reading a Cherokee legend about how the bunny stole the otters soft, furry coat.”

The kids all waited patiently, and eagerly, to hear the story that was to follow.

“Once there were many animals in a forest, and all thought they had the most wonderful and beautiful coat of all. The animals decided that they couldn’t go on any longer, and it must be decided whose coat was the best. They planned a meeting that was mandatory for all animals where it would be decided whose coat would take first prize.

The bunny was insistent that he would win. He thought that it was a sure shot…until he heard about the otter. Not many people had seen the otter. He lived very far away, but it was rumored that his coat was magnificent!

The bunny was scared. He could not be beat!

The bunny came up with a plan to steal the otter’s coat, so that he could ensure that he would win. That day he set out to find the otter to set his plan in motion.

The bunny had walked for days, and was almost running out of hope when he saw movement in the distance. It was the otter, and he could see how beautiful the otter’s coat was even from far away! The bunny went up to the otter and said that he was there to escort him to the meeting, so that he would not get lost.

The first night everything was calm, and the two took off their coats and slept under the stars before starting on their way again. They walked all day, and were exhausted by the time night came. That night the bunny told the otter that this was a dangerous area because sometimes fire fell from the sky. For this reason he would stay up and keep watch. The otter took off his coat, and lay down to sleep.

After the otter had fallen soundly asleep, the bunny took the coals from the fire they had cooked dinner over, and threw them in the air. He screamed fire! Fire!

Immediately the otter shot up and ran to the nearby creek to escape the fire. The bunny saw this as his chance. He stole the otter’s coat that was hanging in the tree and ran as fast as he could.

He made it to the meeting later that evening where everybody took notice of the lovely otter in the corner, but they were shocked they the otter seemed so shy. When the otter looked up, it was actually the rabbit. Everyone was outraged that the bunny had done this, and chased him out of the meeting. The bunny never did give the coat back though, and to this day the otter resides in the water where he was chased by fire.”

“Now kids, this story, although sad, has a valuable lesson.” Said Mrs. McDaniel

“What do you think this lesson is?”

“Watch your coat at all times?” said one of her student.

“ Good guess, but no. The lesson is that some people may seem nice when you first meet them.  You have to be careful though because there are people out there who only want to be your friend so that they can benefit from something you have. You shouldn’t be scared to make friends, but you must look out for yourself. Make sure you are paying attention and gauging the intentions of people who seem a little off to you. Trust you guts.”

The kids all seemed to be receptive of this lesson, but were also probably more excited that they got to stand up and go to recess.

Author's Note: For this story I wanted to use the story of How The Rabbit Stole the Otter's Coat to teach a lesson that many people have to learn from experience. This is why I chose to have a teacher and a second grade class because children are very trusting. The original story was about why the otter lives in the water, and why the rabbit has the coat that it does, but I thought it could also have a more valuable lesson involved. 

Bibliography:

How The Rabbit Stole The Otter's Coat From Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900)