Storytelling for Week 13: One Last Flame

It was a cold night. One of those nights where you could see every breath that you took and your body shivered just trying to gather what little heat it could create. Everybody was trying to stay out of the cold except one little girl. She walked up and down the streets every night, rain or shine. She was a quiet little girl. Everyone always wondered where she came from.

In her cold hands she held a box of matches. The little girl never said a word. It was as if she had already given up hope that anyone was willing to buy a match from her. Nobody offered her any help. They just stared at the quiet little match seller. She continued to walk up and down the streets. It was a wonder how such a little girl was managing to bear the cold weather, with only the slightest chance of anyone buying anything.

She knew that she could not go home. Her family was not the type of family that one wants to go home to. Each night, long after most little girls her age had already gone to bed, she would sneak into her house, hoping that everyone was already asleep. She was lucky for most of the time there would be no one awake in the house. She could sneak into her tiny room and sleep for a couple hours. She made sure that she awoke long before anyone in the house did. If she didn't manage to sneak in unnoticed, she would have to pay the price.

Because she knew that she had to, she continued to walk through the streets, hoping that today was the day that she would finally sell a match. Each day she was disappointed, yet again. On that particular day, the cold was brutal. The little girl was no longer able to feel her hands. She decided that she had to light a match. She cuddled up against a brick wall and lit the match between her fingers. She was able to feel the warmth. It was like nothing she had experienced before. The match went out in no time and so she continued to light the matches. She looked at the wall but it was no longer a wall. She saw beautiful things and even though she knew that this was a sign that she was not doing well, she did not care. She started to feel happier. She felt herself falling and realized that this was probably the end for her but she did not care.

A woman was walking by and noticed the little girl, lying on the pavement, cold to the touch. She picked up the little girl and ran home. She wrapped the little girl in a blanket and the little girl began to stir. She awoke, not quite sure where she was or why. The smile on the woman's face told her that everything was going to be okay. The little girl began to get feeling back into her hands. She relaxed her hand and the last match fell and landed on the ground. The woman picked up the match and struck it until a nice flame was coming off of it. The little girl smiled at the woman and the woman smiled back as she through the match into the fireplace. The little girl knew right then that she had finally found a safe place to be.

Burning Match. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's note: My story is based off of The Little Match-Seller. I chose to use this story because it was my favorite out of the unit. It is a story about a little girl who is trying to earn money by selling matches. She knows that she has to sell them or else she would be punished when she got home.She is outside on a freezing day just trying to sell the matches. When she gets too cold, she leans up against a building and lights one of the matches.She begins to see beautiful things on the wall of the building. The wall disappears and she is able to see through it and she sees all these beautiful sights. When her match burns out, all the amazing things go away too and she is stuck looking at the brick wall. She continues to light the matches, one at a time. Each time she does this, she sees all these amazing sights until she sees a shooting star. Her grandmother had taught her that this means that someone is dying. Her grandmother then appears to her and grabs her hand and leads her to heaven. People walk by and see her dead body lying on the sidewalk. I changed the story because I thought that the little girl deserved a happy ending. I kept the majority of the story the same, only changing the ending to where she was saved by a nice woman and brought to live with her.

Bibliography: This story is part of the Andersen Fairy Tales unit.
Story source: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).

Storytelling for Week 11: What's in a Name?

"It feels like these walls are going to close in on me," Isabella thought to herself. She wasn't sure how long she had been trapped in this room. It could be days or it could be weeks. There was no way to tell in here. Either way, it felt like forever. She found that she started to talk to the walls. She had heard about people doing that and it always seemed crazy... until now. The creature only came in every couple of days or so. She had no one to talk to in between. She realized that she needed to hear her own voice but she wasn't sure what to say.

"I guess I'll just start from how I ended up here," she said to the empty space. She realized that she had replayed how it all happened over and over again in her head and she still was in disbelief that this is where she ended up. Everything was going so well.

"Through a misunderstanding, a king decided he wanted to marry me. He believed that I was able to spin five skeins a day and I was not going to tell him that this was untrue so I went with it. I agreed to marry him under certain conditions. He would treat me like royalty for 11 months out of the year, and he followed through with this condition. It was a magical 11 months. The downside was that for the last month of the year, I was to spin five skeins a day or he would kill me." she laughed to herself

It sounds quite violent now that she has had time to think about it. She wasn't sure why she agreed in the first place. He seemed like such a nice guy but the threat of death always hovered over her.

"When it came time for me to spin, I was terrified. I didn't know how I was going to be able to pull this off. I had no experience with spinning fabric. Suddenly, a creature appeared out of the window. He agreed that he would spin the skeins for me everyday but there was one catch... I had to guess his name by the end of the month or I would belong to him forever," she explained to the darkness.

She had been sure that she would have plenty of time. Everything was going so well until it came to the last day of the month and she still had not figured out his name. That was when the creature grabbed her and forced her to this dark room and this is where she is destined to stay for the rest of her life.

"This isn't exactly the happily ever after that I was promised," she cried as she continued to stare at the wall.

Spinning wheel. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's note: My story is based off of the story Tom Tit Tot. The original story is about a girl who eats all her mother's pies. Her mother starts singing about how her daughter has eaten five pies and a king approaches her to ask what she is singing. Embarrassed, she says that she is singing about how her daughter can spin five skeins. The king is amazed by this and offers a deal. He wanted to marry her daughter and he would treat her extremely well every year if during the last month of the year, she spins five skeins a day every day. If she does not do this, he will have her killed. When the girl is put into the room to begin, a creature, only referred to as 'that' agrees to help her and spin the skeins for her. The only catch is that she has three chances a day to guess his name, if she does not guess his name then she will become his. On the last day, she is able to guess his name and he flies off never to be seen again. In my version, I wanted to write about what would happen if she was not able to guess his name. The main details in the story I kept, only eliminating the first half of the story. I didn't feel that my version required the background as much as the original story had.
Bibliography: This story is part of the English Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Storytelling for Week 10: Doe and Bear

Doe and Bear were two women who had something very big in common. They were both married to the same man, Chickenhawk. Bear was the first wife. She met Chickenhawk when she was younger. She had known that eventually he would be taking a second wife. She loved him though and thought that she would be able to handle it. When the time came and Chickenhawk brought home Doe, she had realized that this is not what she wanted. She tried everything to convince Chickenhawk that they were better off without Doe, but Chickenhawk was not convinced. So Bear decided that she would give this relationship a try.

Many years had passed since Chickenhawk married Doe. Chickenhawk had three children with Bear and two children with Doe. Bear was still bitterly jealous over Chickenhawks relationship with Doe. She tried everything she could to be okay with the relationship but she was never able to get over it. Chickenhawk did not hide the fact that he loved Doe more than Bear. He spent all of his time with Doe, leaving Bear to fend for all of the children herself.

The children loved Bear. She was the mother to all of them. Doe was not a nice person. Chickenhawk and Doe were horrible to the children and Bear was left to defend them. Bear loved the children. They all considered themselves to be hers. She was their mom. She had to be since Doe wanted nothing to do with them.

Once day, Bear and Doe were getting ready for dinner. Doe kept telling Bear about how much fun it was on her date with Chickenhawk, knowing fully well that Bear had not been invited on a date in years. Chickenhawk came home and told Bear to finish dinner herself, he wanted to spend time with Doe. Bear decided that this was all she could take. She was finished with them. Anger filled up inside of her and she decided that she had to get away. She needed to get the children and go. She knew that they would never let her leave with the children and this was a risk that she was not going to make.

When Bear prepared the dinner, she made Doe and Chickenhawk's extra special. She knew that they would not survive the meal. They all ate in silence. It was not long before Doe and Chickenhawk began feeling ill. It wasn't long after that before they died. Bear grabbed the children and they escaped from the house, never looking back. They were finally free.

Bride by Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921). Source: Wikimedia Commons

Author's note: This story is based off of  Bear-woman and Deer-woman. The original story is about a grizzly and doe that were both married to chickenhawk. They went to the creek and that is when grizzly kills doe and takes her head back to the house. She puts her head in the fire and doe's children notice that grizzly has killed their mother. They decide to take revenge and lure grizzly's children to a hollow log under the guise of playing a smoke-out game. The doe's children go first and then when it is the grizzly's children's turn, the doe's children kill them. They take them back and cook them to feed them to the grizzly. The grizzly realizes that she is eating her own children and goes after the fawns. The grizzly is killed when the grandfather tosses her into the creek. I changed the story in making both the characters into real people and having grizzly actually be really caring compared to doe. I wanted there to be a good reason why grizzly wanted doe gone and so I changed it from just jealousy to grizzly wanting to kill doe and chickenhawk so that she and the children could live happily.
Bibliography: This story is part of the Native American Marriage Tales unit.
Story source: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).

Storytelling for Week 6: Bad luck Princess

Once upon a time, there was a Princess. She was not an ordinary princess. She was a princess of bad luck. No matter what she did, she could never seem to escape her bad luck. Nobody wanted to be the Princess's friend. Everyone in the Kingdom tried to stay as far away from her as possible. As she grew older, she realized that if she was ever going to have any friends, she would not be able to remain in the Kingdom where everyone knew about her bad luck.

"Tonight is the night," she told herself. It was the night that she decided she was going to run away from the kingdom. So after everyone in the palace had fallen asleep, the princess climbed out her window. It was painful to leave her mother, father, and little brother but she knew that if she ever wanted to find happiness, she had to leave.

It was a bitter cold night. She bundled up under her warm coat but her coat got caught on something. She tried to pull it away but it ripped completely off of her. This did not surprise her though. She was used to having bad luck but she wasn't sure of how she was ever going to keep herself warm. Suddenly, a handsome stranger walked up to her.

"Do you need a place to stay?" the handsome man asked.

With tears streaming down her face, she could only nod in reply. She followed this stranger to his house where she went inside to keep warm. They sat on the couch and talked all night long. He ignored all the bad things that were happening, like when she broke the cup that he gave her. She knew that she had found the man of her dreams. Shortly after this night, the two got married.

They tried to live happily, but her bad luck just kept getting in the way. Finally her husband decided that he was going to find a way to make things better. They said their goodbyes and he went on his way to find fortune, so they could share it together. It was the only way to get rid of her bad luck.

"Promise you will wait for me," her husband begged of her, "No matter how long it takes."

"Of course I will," she replied, "I will wait forever."

Years went by but the princess knew that she had to stay faithful. She waited and waited for her husband to return, but he never did. After many years had gone by, a man showed up at her door. She knew something was wrong. She could feel it. The man told her that her husband had offered his life so that she may live a happy one. Her husband was dead and he took her bad luck with him.

The princess kept her promise though. She never remarried but she went on to have good fortune and lived the happy life that her husband wanted her to live. She remained faithful the rest of her life.

Twin Dragons. Luck.  Wikimedia Commons

Author's note: I based this story on the The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck.
In the original story, a princess who was a child of ill luck. The princess decided that when it was her time to marry, she chose a beggar. Her father could not understand why she would chose the beggar but she chose him because he was a favorite of fortune and she believed that she could share in his good luck. She marries the beggar and moves into a hut with him. One day, he decides that he is going out to find his fortune and then he will return to her. 18 years later, he finally returns but she does not recognize him. He uses this to test her loyalty. He tries to convince her to leave her husband and when she refuses and says that she will wait on her husband until she dies, he confesses that he is her husband and they return as emperor and empress. She was still a child of bad luck and because of this, she dies shortly after.
I changed my story so that the princess and the beggar fall in love first. I thought that this would make for a better story since he is choosing to be with her even with her bad luck. I also changed the ending so that he loved her so much that he gave his life so she could get rid of her bad luck. He was willing to die for her so that she could live a happy life.

Bibliography: This story is part of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit.
Story source: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Storytelling for Week 4: Half-boy

There once was a man who had many wives. His wives were unable to get pregnant and this made the man very sad. One day he was walking in his yard, doing his yard work all by himself when he came upon a strange item. It was a lamp. The kind that legends say genies reside in. He shrugged and thought genies don't exist. Just for fun though, he rubbed the lamp and out pops a genie!

"What are you?" asked the man in surprise.

"I am a genie. I have been trapped in that lamp for so long. Why is it that you are doing all the work yourself? Do you not have children that will do it for you?" the genie asked.

"I'm afraid not. I have three wives, but none of which are able to give me children." the man responded.

The genie thought of a way that he could help the man. He had been trapped for oh so long. It would be nice if he were able to repay the man what freeing him. The genie thought long and hard.

"I have a solution to your problem. I will give you three apples. You must give them to each of your wives and they will be able to give you a child. They have to eat them now though and they must eat every last bite," the genie warned him.

The genie then handed him the apples and disappeared. The man ran back to his house and gave his wives the apples. The first wife ate hers right away. The second wife, however, only ate half of hers. The third wife decided that she wasn't hungry, she didn't eat it until the next day.

Months later, the man had three new children. The first child was perfect. The other two were a bit odd. The child born to the second woman was only half-boy. The third child seemed to be perfect, but little did they know, this child was evil. His mother had consumed the rotten apple.

Many years later, when all the children had grown into men, the third child began to show his true side.One night, he snuck into his father's room and killed his father! He planned to take out the rest of the family next and then the kingdom would be his. He didn't realize that someone had been watching him. His brother, the half-boy, knew that it was finally his time to do something. He jumped on his brother and a fight broke out!

"You can't defeat me!" yelled the evil one, "You are nothing more than a half-boy!"

He did defeat him and everyone in the kingdom was so happy. They decided that the half-boy would become the new full King. He showed everyone that you can be a hero even if nobody else believes you can be.

Castle

Author's note: I based this story on one of the stories in the Persian Fairy Tales Unit called Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy. The original story is about a king whose wives were infertile. He was given apples to give each of them that would help them become fertile, but they had to eat all of the apple. In the story, all but one wife ate all of the apple. The last wife only ate half and she gave birth to the half-boy. The half-boy's sister is taken by a Div and the two "normal" brothers try to save her but are defeated. The half-boy then goes to save the sister and saves his brothers too.
I decided to change the story a bit. I decided that it would be interesting if the apples were eaten all at different stages, so the rotten apple led to an evil son, the whole apple led to a normal son, and the half apple led to the half-son. I also thought it would make a good story if I had the evil brother try to take over the kingdom and decide that he wanted to be the king. He then became the one whom the half-boy had to defeat. I also thought that the half-boy deserved to be king since he did defeat the brother.
Bibliography: Story source: Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).

Storytelling for Week 3: Ailbe Finds His Mother

There once was a boy named Ailbe and although he was just a little child, his parent despised him. They treated him horribly. Growing up he was forced to do all the housework and treated like a slave. They never showed him any love but he still tried so hard to make them want him. Always doing everything they demanded of him, he still kept a smile on his face. He was an optimistic child, even though his upbringing gave him every reason not to be.

One day when Ailbe was fetching water from the well, he ran across a wolf. He was scared of the wolf and ran home without the water. This angered his parents and they started to yell at him.

"What is wrong with you, stupid child! You are not to step foot into this house until you have fetched the water!" screamed his mother

Ailbe turned away, looking defeated. He knew that he had to get the water or else he would be in trouble. He did not want to disappoint his parents. So Ailbe turned right around and headed down the path to fetch the water but when he got to the well, he saw the wolf again. Startled, he turned and started running back to the house. He stopped half-way there, knowing that if he was to dare to go back to the house without the water he would be punished severely.

Ailbe fought the urge to run away again and began heading towards the well but this time he noticed something different. For some reason, all his fear disappeared when he saw the wolf. He noticed that she was taking care of her baby wolves. He didn't know that mothers could be so kind.

"Hello boy," he heard the wolf say. "Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."

At first he was shocked that he could understand this wolf. He felt somewhat connected to her.

"Sit down and have some water," the wolf said.

So Ailbe sat down. He had never experienced someone being so nice to him. He did not want to leave her side. So he sat, talking with her the rest of the night until he finally curled up next to her and fell asleep. When Ailbe woke up the next morning he knew that he would be in trouble.

"I have to get home," Ailbe cried, "Mother and father will be so angry!"

Tears filled his eyes. He was scared of what would happen when he went home. He got up and started to walk back to his house but before he could take a step, he saw his parents. They were angry.

"How dare you not return home!" His father screamed, while raising his hand to prepare to hit Ailbe. Ailbe closed his eyes, preparing for what was sure to happen, but the wolf saw all of this and was not going to let her new friend be hurt. She jumped in front of him and started to growl at the boys parents.

Frightened, his parents screamed, "Fine then! You can have the boy! We didn't want the pathetic child anyways!" They turned and ran away from the wolf and Ailbe.

"That's fine with me," replied the wolf, "I am quite fond of the boy anyways."

From that day on, Ailbe lived with the wolf and finally became a part of a loving family. The end.

Ailbe and his wolf-mother.

Authors note: I based my story off of the story The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe. This story was about a boy who was abandoned by his real parents and the wolf took him in and raised him. When he was older, a prince found him and took him away from the wolf and raised him to be a great man. Ailbe had never forgotten about his wolf-mother and ended up saving her from hunters. He took care of her the rest of his life for the rest of their lives.
I changed my story to be that his horrible parents kept him. I thought that it would be interesting from that perspective because then it would be that the wolf had to save him later on. I left out the part of the prince altogether because I did not feel that it fit in with the version of the story that I wanted to tell. I wanted to show how things would have been different if he had to deal with his parents until he was a little older and then he was able to consciously choose who he wanted to be with, his horrible parents or the nice wolf that helped him.
Story source: The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900).

Storytelling for Week 2: Bathsheba Gets Caught

Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah. She was a beautiful woman and loved to be the center of attention. Uriah was away at battle and Bathsheba had grown lonely. She tried to find anything that would pass the time. She missed having someone else with her. It would be so long until she had Uriah back and she did not desire to wait for him any longer. In order to try and clear her mind, Bathsheba decided she was going to relax and bathe.

While Bathsheba bathed, she had gained an admirer. King David was able to look out and see her. He became fixated on her. Day after day David went to his rooftop, hoping to catch a glance of the beautiful woman. He soon realized that just looking at her would never be enough. He had to know who this woman was. He had to have her. David sent for his guards.

"Who is that woman," he asked the guard, "and how can I make her mine?"

"That woman is Bathsheba and she is the wife of Uriah. He is one of your men fighting in the battle," replied the guard.

King David did not care if Bathsheba was taken. She was going to be his. He was going to have her. He sent the guard to go bring her back to him. The guard returned shortly after with Bathsheba in tow. She was more beautiful in person. He requested that she spend some time alone with him. Bathsheba, being incredibly lonely, happily agreed. Their relationship went on for another month. Uriah was still away and it was perfect for them, until Bathsheba learned that she was pregnant.

To try and cover up their secret, King David had to make sure that Uriah was able to be with his wife. Everyone would just assume that the baby was his and their secret would be safe. David called for Uriah to return home. He tried everything to convince Uriah to go home to his wife but Uriah refused. He wanted to stay with the rest of the servants. It would be unfair if her were allowed to go home.

King David grew fed up with the request and wrote a letter to have Uriah put in the front of the battle. “Uriah must not return home. He must die,” the letter stated. King David gave the letter to Uriah to take the letter.

Uriah took the letter but his curiosity got the best of him. Before he arrived, he had to learn what the letter said. He quickly realized that King David was trying to have him killed. He decided that he was going to kill King David instead.

When he got to King David’s house, he finally saw the reason that the king wanted him gone. He saw the king with Bathsheba. They both had betrayed him.

The king and Bathsheba, thinking that Uriah has surely been killed, decided to celebrate. They were blissfully talking outside the king’s when they saw Uriah out of the corner of their eyes. It was too late. Uriah killed king David and left the land. He went on to find a better life, leaving Bathsheba to grieve for her new lost love.

Bathsheba bathing. Wikimedia Commons

 Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the biblical story of Bathsheba. The original story has Uriah taking the letter that leads to his death after his wife has an affair with the king. When I was reading this story, I wondered what would have happened if Uriah had just read the letter that the king had given him to deliver. That is how I came up with the plot twist that had Uriah find out what was going on between the king and his wife.

Story source: King James Bible (1611): 2 Samuel 11

Week 1 Storytelling: Prince Jack and Princess Jill

"Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after."

(Traditional nursery rhyme)

Jack and Jill were the children of King Frank and Queen Jennifer. They were quite spoiled being the children of royalty. They would run through the castle and destroy everything in their path. Their parents soon grew tired of how out of control the children had become. They enlisted the help of the maids. The maids were glad to help. They had grown tired of constantly cleaning up after the spoiled children.

They wanted to start right away. They knew that this task would not be an easy one. So they waited until the children had run through the kitchen and tracked mud all over the freshly mopped floor. The king and queen noticed that the children had made quite a mess. They told the children that since they made the mess, it was now their job to clean it up.

The children complained and did not want to clean up the mess. They did not feel like it was their job. This made the maids even angrier. They told the children that they had to go get the water in order to clean the floors. The children went to the sink to begin gathering the water to mop the floor. The maids decided that it would be too easy for the children if they were able to get the water out of the sink. So the maids told the children that the water in the sink was not the correct water to mop the floor. The children, never having cleaned a day in their lives, believed this to be true.

The maids then led the children outside to the very large hill that led to a water well.

“That is the correct water” the maids exclaimed, trying to contain their laughter. “You will need to take this bucket and fill it up and then you may bring it down and clean.”

The children looked up at the hill. It seemed like a lot of trouble just for some water, but they began climbing nonetheless. Once up at the top of the hill, the children filled up the water bucket. Jack handed Jill the bucket, but Jill did not want to have to be the one to carry it. It was much too heavy. So she shoved the bucket back at Jack. She hit him so hard that he and the bucket went flying down the hill. She tried to reach out and catch him but all she managed to grab was his crown. This caused her to lose her balance and she fell on top of the crown, causing it to break.

Jack and Jill tumbled down the hill and landed on the ground. They realized how hard it was to clean the floor. They ran to the maids to apologize. The maids felt that they had learned their lesson and sent them on their way.

Jack and Jill by Sue Clark.Wikimedia Commons

 Author's Note:  This story was written based on the nursery rhyme "Jack fell down, and broke his crown" that was found in The Nursery Rhyme Book that was edited by Andrew Lang (1897). This nursery rhyme is about Jack and Jill. They climbed up a hill and fell down it. I thought it would be interesting if Jack and Jill were spoiled children and had to climb up the hill as a form of punishment.