Essay: South African Folktales

This past week I read the unit on South African Folktales. This unit was similar to what I read last week from Nigerian Folktales, but definitely had its own uniqueness to it. The folktales included great, in-depth stories that continued throughout the entire unit. Many of the same characters were seen throughout the unit and surprise endings (to me at least) always made the stories much more interesting.

Each of the stories were super easy reads and very easy to understand. I would almost think some of these stories were for children until I read some of the dark endings. For example, in my Reading Diary B I talked about a story I read called Jackal and the Monkey. In the story, the sleazy Jackal tricks the monkey into a trap and leaves him to die for the Jackal’s crime.

The first story I pointed out in Reading Diary A was probably my favorite story. It had a lot of interesting features and kept me entertained. I thought it was clever and original and was a story that I could see being passed down from generation to generation in the South African culture.  The story was a about a monkey with a bow and arrow and a fiddle. When he was falsely accused and sent to court for lying about his bow and arrow, he played his fiddle and all the animals couldn’t stop dancing. They were so exhausted that they begged the monkey to stop and he could have whatever he wanted, even be king of the forest. The monkey simply wanted his bow and arrow back and his wish was granted. All the other animals left the area in fear he would play his fiddle again.

I really enjoyed this unit overall, and I would encourage others to read from South African Folktales.

Map of South Africa.

Photo Cred: CDC

Storytelling Week 7: Lyle and the Pedestrian

A few years back, a serial killer named Lyle lurked the streets of Lincoln, Nebraska. Lyle always wore a mask so his identity would always remain unknown. He was notorious for abducting people at gas stations and convenient stories late at night.

Lyle killed approximately six people over the course of four months and the entire city was terrified of this murderer. As more killings occurred, more and more pressure was placed on authorities to find this serial killer. The police department tried various strategies, but they could not find the killer.

One day, the sheriff of Lincoln decided to take matters into his own hand. He set a trap at a local convenient store to see if he could catch the serial killer. The sheriff placed a disguised mannequin getting gas and placed a trap that would catch Lyle when trying to abduct the fake person.

After the sheriff set up his trap, he waiting and watched down the street. As time passed, the sheriff grew restless and figured the serial killer was not going to fall for his trap. As the night grew old, the sheriff walked into the convenient store to grab a cup of coffee for an energy boost.

While the sheriff was inside, Lyle snuck up to the gas pump to abduct what he thought was a woman getting gas. Suddenly, Lyle was snagged by the trap and couldn’t escape. A pedestrian nearby stopped to see what the commotion was about.

“It’s you! The killer!” yelled the pedestrian, “And you’re trapped!”

“I’m not trapped, I want to be here, and this is my wife. We just wanted some air and need gas,” said Lyle.

“Whatever, you are lying! I’m going to tell the sheriff,” said the pedestrian.

“That’s a lye! Come over here and see for yourself,” said Lyle.

Hesitant, the pedestrian decided to walk over to Lyle and see for himself. When he got close, Lyle grabbed him and stuck him in the trap releasing himself to freedom.

“Hey! You can’t do this! I’m trapped, you are the killer!” screamed the pedestrian.

Lyle saw the sheriff walking toward the door of the convenient store and darted into the darkness leaving the pedestrian in the trap.

“Aha! It’s you! The killer!” yelled the sheriff to the pedestrian.

“No, no! I’m innocent, I promise!” the pedestrian pleaded while trying to escape the trap.

Boom.

The sheriff shot the pedestrian dead. He believed he had shot the killer who was trying to escape his trap. To this day, Lyle has not been found.

Sheriff of Lincoln.

Photo Cred: Huron County

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is based on the South African Folktale, the Jackal and the Monkey. In the story, the jackal steals sheep and a farmer sets a trap to catch the criminal. When the jackal is caught, he convinces a monkey to come to the trap and the monkey gets stuck setting the jackal free. When the farmer found the monkey in the trap, he killed him and the jackal lived. My story is a modern spin on this folktale using real people instead of humans. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Title: South African Folk-Tales 

Author: James Honey 

Year: 1910

South African Folktales - Reading Diary B

The second part of this unit was full of more great stories from South African Folktales. A lot of the stories used animals as characters and the folktales used many of the same characters throughout the various folktales. I was really surprised to find that some of the stories were pretty dark. For example in the folktale, Jackal and Monkey, the jackal tricks the monkey into a trap made by the farmer. The farmer made the trap to catch the animal who had been stealing his sheep. The notorious jackal was caught after stealing a sheep and the monkey taunted him. The jackal tricked the monkey into letting him out of the trap and the monkey was caught in replace of the jackal. The jackal wouldn't help the monkey escape and left him to receive the wrath of the farmer. When the farmer arrived to the trap in the morning, he saw the monkey and believed it was the animal stealing his sheep. He shot the monkey and the jackal lived another day.

(chacma baboon)

South African Folktales - Reading Diary A

I chose to read the first half of South African Folktales this week for my reading diary. It was a really interesting and offered a lot of good options to read from. Similar to the Nigerian Folktales that I read about last week, these folktales contain a lot of stories about animals.

My favorite story was called the Monkey's Fiddle. This story was about a monkey who had obtained a fiddle and bow and arrow from his great uncle. On his journey home, the monkey helped a wolf kill a deer for dinner and after the meal was prepared, the wolf grew jealous of the monkey's weapon and wanted to take it from in. When the two got into a quarrel, they had to take their argument to court to see who the bow and arrow belonged to. The wolf lied and said it was his and the court believed him.

Then the monkey started playing his fiddle and the entire court couldn't stop dancing due to its magical powers. He said he'd stop playing if he could have his bow and arrow back and the wish was granted.

(vervet monkey)

Essay - Nigerian Folktales

This week, I read from two separate units. On Monday, I read from the Japanese Mythology unit, but I decided to switch things up on Tuesday and read from Nigerian Folktales. I thought I was going to really joy the unit over Japanese Mythology, but I got really bored with it and when I began reading the second half of the unit I found it very hard to understand. The stories were written in modern English, but they used words and names from their ancient myths that I was unfamiliar with. I decided to take a shot at Nigerian Folktales and see what it was all about.

I’m glad I did! The unit offered a lot of bizarre stories about animals and creatures. It was pretty easy to follow and understand, too. I wrote about a specific story from the unit in Reading Diary B about a leopardand a walking fish. I thought the story was already interesting enough when it talked about a walking fish, but I was really taken back when the plot twists and the fish has an affair with the leopard’s beautiful wife. How weird is that? A walking fish has an affair with his leopard, best friend’s wife. It was a good story and was a great folktale to explain why fish can no longer walk and must remain in the water. The story explains that the fish’s punishment for his affair was no longer being able to walk or breathe on land.

I only read the first half of this unit, but I would like to go back and rad the second half at some point because I really enjoyed it. I feel like most kids would enjoy some of these stories in this unit as well because they use animals to tell the stories!

The walking fish.

Photo Cred: Louis Dietvorst

Story Telling for Week 6: The Fish and the Leopard.

In early centuries, animals lived peacefully together in giant forests across the world. Fish had legs that allowed them to walk on land and all animals had the ability to speak to one another. This story is based on a unique friendship between a leopard and a fish.

Fred the fish was best friends with Linnie the leopard. They spent all of their time together, every day. The two were inseparable. Both Fred and Linnie had wives and two children. The families loved each other and grew up together.

A walking fish.

Photo Cred: Louis Dietvorst

Linnie the leopard was a recognized hunter among the animals in the forest. He is known to have the ability to kill any predator that entered the forest. Other animals hired Linnie as a bounty killer to find and kill animals who had broken the laws of the forest. Linnie ended his career as a bounty hunter when he married his wife and decided to settle down and teach young animals fighting skills for self-protection.

Fred the fish on the other hand was a schoolteacher. Quite smart, Fred taught algebra to various fish and forest animals.  He was known for his intelligence and care for his students.

The two grew close as friends at an early age. Fred would always help Linnie out in school and Linnie would protect Fred from any bullies.

One day, Linnie asked Fred to help him with some finances. Because Linnie’s skill was finding and killing, he needed some help when it came to his finances for his family and creating a retirement plan. Fred agreed with an agreement that Linnie would teach his son how to defend himself at school and learn self-protection.

For one week, Linnie would take Fred’s son to learn how to fight, while Fred took care of figuring out and managing Linnie’s finances. When the week was over, Fred had told Linnie that he had figured out Linnie’s finances and a retirement plan that would assure him to have enough money to support his family for the remainder of his life.

Thrilled by Fred’s work, Linnie threw Fred a huge party and invited the entire forest to attend. The animals ate, drank and danced the night away in honor of Fred’s good friendship. The next morning, Linnie woke up to Albert, a ram who was a tax collector. Albert declared Linnie's bank account as bankrupt.

“How could this be?” asked Linnie, “Fred took care of all my finances just yesterday!”

Linnie looked for Fred, but he was nowhere to be found. He searched the entire forest and asked every animal, but no one had seen Fred. Then, one of Linnie’s neighbors told him that she had seen Fred take a suitcase of money from Linnie’s home during the party. Linnie was astonished and could not believe his best friend would do such a thing after all there years of friendship.

Angered, Linnie went to his old friend the lion, the king of the forest, to tell him the situation. The king sent his servants to search the entire forest and find Fred and bring him back to his palace. The servants found Fred on the outskirts of the forest trying to purchase a giant house tree worth millions of forest dollars. The servants quickly got ahold of him and the suitcase full of money and brought Fred to the king. When the king lion proved Fred was guilty of this evil crime, he swore to the forest that because of Fred’s betrayal to his best friend, that no fish would never be able to walk or breathe on land again and could only swim in the sea. To this day, fish remain in the water due to Fred’s betrayal of his best friend.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is based from the Nigerian folktale, The Fish and the Leopard's Wife. In this story, the fish and the leopard are best friends until the leopard discovers that the fish is having an affair with his wife. I thought the story was very original and unique so I wanted to take a spin that had similar guidelines. I was pretty surprised about the outcome when I read this original story, but it was so interesting that I enjoyed it. I wanted my story to be similar, but give more background information in to the lives and relationships of the character as well as think of a new way of betrayal. I really don't like stories where affairs occur, so I wanted the trial to be over something that people can relate to, but not as tragic.

I liked how the leopard and fish are friends in the original story, so I wanted to keep the same animals as friends, but give them some more personality. I wanted to bring their families more into the picture to give more of an emotional draw to each of the characters. This was a fun unit to read and I enjoyed getting to write a story based from these myths. I hope you enjoy the characters in this story and can see their personality. It was a fun story to write!

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Title: Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria
Author: Elphinstone Dayrel
Year: 1910

Reading Diary B - Nigerian Folktales

I found the Japanese unit to be a little boring, so I decided to change to a new unit! I read through the Nigerian Folktales and found some super interesting stories! A lot of these stories included animals that had big personalities and character. My favorite story in the unit was called The Fish and the Leopard's Wife. This story was really unique because the story was literally about a leopard and a walking fish. The two animals were best friends and the fish visited the leopard's home often.

Here is the kicker - the fish has an affair with the leopard's beautiful wife (How a fish and a leopard have an affair, I don't know...). When the leopard finds out about this we wants to kill the fish but spares his life because he is his friend. Instead, he informs the king about the situation. King Eyo then proclaims that fish will never be able to walk again and both animals and humans are allowed to kill fish at anytime they want.

So, if you have been curious as to why fish cannot breathe out of water, it is because one fish had an affair with a leopards wife.

The mighty leopard.

Photo Cred: Wikimedia

Reading Diary A - Japanese Mythology

This unit on Japanese Mythology includes stories from gods, Izanagi and Izanami, and their children: the sun goddess Amaterasu and her brother Susanowo along with other stories from Japanese mythology. Written in modern English, these stories are easy to read and provide a lot of knowledge to the Japanese culture. My favorite story in the first unit is The Miraculous Mirror. This story portrays Amaterasu's personality and actions. Fueled with different gods from Japanese mythology, this story does a great job of giving some insight into the culture's mythology. The stories in this unit are quite different then the ones I have read the past few weeks. It was cool to read some of these myths in a different perspective. I haven't really learned too much about Japanese culture and mythology, so I'm excited to read the rest of this unit!

(illustration from the book)

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Essay: Persian Fairy Tales

This past week, I read the Persian Fairy Tales unit. I really didn’t know what to expect when I chose to read this, but I saw that there were good notes to accompany the reading and so I figured I would give it a shot…and I am really glad I did! This was a great unity that included various fairy tales from the Persian culture. It was interesting to hear fairy tales from a different culture and find some similarities and differences between American fairy tales. Some of the fairy tales I read in this unit were quite bizarre, but that made it even more fun to read.

I wrote about my two favorite stories in the reading diaries from earlier this week. One included a story about a goat family and a wolf. I compared the story to Little Red Riding Hood and wrote a new story in my Storytelling blog based from this story.

My other favorite story from this unit was about a shepherd that saw his friend’s soul in the form of a firefly. This story had a lot of symbolism and had a great storyline. In the end, the shepherd found a lost treasure because of a dream of his friend. I had never heard a fairy tale like this one before, so it made it very interesting for me to read.

Overall, I really enjoyed this unit and thought it brought a great perspective to learn from the Persian culture. After reading more serious stories the past few weeks, I liked having the opportunity to read some light-hearted stories that were sometimes even funny!

I thought there were good notes to give some background to these stories and add to the way these stories were given. I hope next weeks stories are as enjoyable as this unit was!

The Shepherd who found a treasure.

Photo Cred: DLTK