Tag Archives: tale

Folk Narrative: Tale – The Bridge of Arta

  1. Text: In the city of Arta there was once a master builder. He was brilliant – he could craft anything he desired, he only had to put his mind to it. One day, he was made responsible for building a bridge over the Arachtos River. This was a necessary construction as this bridge was to be the connecting point between two different cities. The master builder began immediately in his efforts to craft the bridge – and he soon completed it. The morning afterward though, the builder discovered the bridge had been destroyed by the river. The master builder and his crew of workers labored tirelessly to construct the bridge. Every day they did, and every morning they would discover it destroyed by the river. Spiraling into despair, the master builder was soon visited by a supernatural figure, a fairy of some kind. This creature revealed to the builder that he would not succeed in building the bridge unless a human sacrifice was made. Not just any human being – but his very wife. The builder was shocked at this proposal and found himself at a crossroads. Ultimately, the builder made the choice to lure his wife to the place of construction. From there, his workers grabbed the master builders wife and started building around her. Despite her dismay, the bridge was built with her at the foundation. Before they built her in, the wife cursed the bridge to break. Her husband, the builder, repelled her curse by claiming this would only ever happen in the event that her brother crossed the bridge, an occurrence unlikely to ever transpire. The Bridge of Arta still stands to this day
  2. Informants Context: Myself, my sisters and my parents travelled throughout the mainland of Greece when we were young. My father, an immigrant of Greece, loved to show us the country and travel by car. He wanted to impart wisdom on us, not just in life but also about the homeland and its history. This was an opportunity for him to get close to us. Ultimately, we travelled to the midpart of Greece until we finally arrived at the Bridge of Arta. The actual structure itself was immensely beautiful. The arches were incredible. It was only after myself and my sisters spent a few minutes admiring the construction that our dad revealed the folkloric story behind its creation. Naturally, my siblings and I were flabbergasted. My mother simply rolled her eyeballs. My father laughed at our reaction. Once he’d had the laugh, he impressed onto us a lesson – the tale was a microcosm for what life and ambition. Nothing strong and reliable comes with ease. Those things which are good come at the cost of deep sacrifice. To leave something great behind in this world, one must be ready to give up their pound of flesh.
  3. Collectors Interpretation: The tale of the Bridge of Arta is an extremely dark and heavy-handed tale that at the core of it has themes relating to sacrifice, the power of the human oath and persistence. The father of the informant correctly perceives the Arta bridge to be a testament to the need for sacrifice. The story metabolizes the concept that all durable qualities and achievements are strictly a result of great personal costs to the person who gained the achievement. The story reflects how human oaths are forces of nature decide the trajectory of all things. By promising that the bridge would never break unless her brother would cross it, the builder guaranteed the stability of the construction. So long as the bridge stands, his oath remains uncompromised. Moreover, the story raises questions about the morality of what it means to be “great”. Is the cost of immortal recognition too high? Is the folklore making a statement about how many of histories most accomplished people are morally compromised? I would lean towards answering yes to that question. The folklore is recognizing the immorality of ambition obsessed men but it is not condemning them. It is simply recognizing that greatness comes at a deep personal and moral cost. As all these ideas relate back to Greek culture, one should assume that the continued existence of the bridge has only reinforced the folk tales themes in the minds and culture of all Greeks who have witnessed the structure.

Fields

AGE: 50

Date_of_performance: May 9, 2025

Language: English

Nationality: Greek/Canadian

Occupation: Teacher

Primary Language: English

Residence: Canada

Why Frogs Cry(Croak) in the Rain

Text:

Long ago, there lived a widowed frog mother and her son. Her son was notoriously mischievous and disobedient, often doing the opposite of what his mother told him. If his mother told him to come inside, he would stay outside and play longer. If she told him to go up, he would go down. If she told him to go to the hills, he would wander near the river, and so on and so forth. She loved her son very much, but his antics worried her so much she began to get sick. But even then, her son did not change. One day, when the mother frog knew she was going to die, she lay on her deathbed and called her son over. She wanted a proper burial on the mountainside, but knew that if she told her son, he would do the opposite. So she asked him to bury her next to the river. Sorrowfully, he promised. And when she died, her son mourned and blamed himself for her death, and decided to keep his last promise to his mother rather than go against her supposed wishes. So, even though he knew it wasn’t the proper way, he buried his mother next to the river instead of up in the mountains. But when it rained, the waters started to rise, and he prayed that it would not wash away his mother’s grave. But the rain did not stop, and the river overflowed, and indeed washed his mother’s grave away. The son sat in the rain and cried for his mother. And that is why frogs cry in the rain today.

Context:

The informant had heard this tale from her mother, as it is a traditional Korean folktale. She interprets it as a warning to obey your elders, especially your parents.

Analysis:

I, too, interpret this story as a warning to always listen to your parents and respect them. I see this as a broader reflection of Korean culture; historically, almost all aspects of Korean society have operated under strong Confucian influences and values, especially filial piety, obedience, and social harmony. In the story, because the frog disobeyed his mother constantly, he caused her early death, and furthermore caused himself personal distress as he watched her grave wash away. This is a consequence of his constant disregard of hierarchical family relationships(in Korea, elders are held in high esteem and have overarching authority in the family dynamic) that are central to Confucianism. Although this is a folktale to find the reason behind frogs crying–croaking–in the rain, this story seems moreso to be a cautionary tale rather than an etiological story.

Parable / Wisdom Tale

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English

Context:

A story my informant was told when they were growing up, used to reframe seemingly bad things into a positive light. It’s an example of intergenerational folklore because his mother was told the story as a child as well.

Text: Pulled from a message my informant sent me

“My mom would tell me this story about a man that seemingly fell into continuous fortune and misfortune. The man owns a farm and has a son. His son falls off his horse, and breaks his leg. Everyone tells him “how unfortunate,” but he says “don’t say how unfortunate.” A week passes and there’s a draft, all young men must go fight, but his son isn’t taken because of his broken leg. Everyone says “how fortunate,” again the man replies “don’t say how fortunate.” Later when the boy was healed, he wasn’t able to use his leg the same way. My mom would say this to keep me centered no matter what I’m doing. That not everything that happens to you is bad luck, because everything can change. She was trying to teach me a moral lesson that we must be thankful in every situation and not focus on a specific outcome.”

This story can be categorized as a teaching tale, which are used to convey moral, spiritual, or philosophical lessons. It’s not just a story for entertainment, it’s supposed to be instructive. This story teaches us patience, perspective, and detachment. It also overlaps and can be condensed into some common proverbs like “everything happens for a reason” and “don’t judge too soon”.

Book of Job – Didactic Tale/ Moral Lesson/Oral tale

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student
Language: English

The person who I met with grew up in a religious family. They grew up in a Christian household with parents who are avid bible readers and church goers. That in turn lead to their parents using a lot of biblical references in conversation, including references to the Book of Job.

The book of Job in the bible details the life of Job, a proud servant of God who had everything we could have wanted because of his strong faith in God who has blessed him because of this faith. However, Lucifer (the Devil) challenged God to test Job, proclaiming that his faith wouldn’t be so strong if bad things started happening to him. God, believing in Job’s faith in him, accepted this challenge and allowed Lucifer to test Job. Job then ensured many hardships including his family dying, losing his wealth, and his health. However, Job’s faith did not waiver. He stayed true to God no matter what happened to him.

This book of the bible was crucial to my informants upbringing. It’s a story about having faith in the lord no matter what happens in your life. The message is that anything bad happening to you is all part of God’s plan and you should always stay faithful to Him. The bad times will pass and the good times will come. It’s a message to stay positive when things aren’t going your way and to push forward but put into a religious context. Why is this message presented to my informant this way? It’s because they grew up in a very religious household so that’s how it was framed. I’m sure their parents could have found comfort in the idea that it’s all part of God’s plan but the message stays the same no matter what the context is. As to why their family is religious, I think it has something to do with their ethnicity as a someone who’s grandparents immigrated to the US from Mexico. Christianity is the dominant religion in Mexico with a majority of those Christians being very devout like my informants family are. I think they brought their faith over with them and brought their kids up with the same beliefs and so on. Being devout Christians, it makes sense that they would transcribe this positive message to their children in a religious context through their telling of the Book of Job.

Fable – The Ant and the Grasshopper

Nationality: Thai
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Language: English and Thai

My informant is from Thailand and this is a story they were told by their parents as a child.

The Ant and the Grasshopper:

The story goes that the one Fall, there was a group of ants and a grasshopper. The ants were hard working, collecting food for the upcoming winter. However, the grasshopper was not. All he cared about was having fun and playing around without a care in the world. Later, Winter comes and the ants have food to eat but the grasshopper doesn’t. He begs for food but they scold him and say he can’t have any because he was being lazy and didn’t get it for himself. Since he didn’t work for his own food and the ants won’t give him any, he dies from starvation.

This story would be categorized as a tale, more specifically a fable. This story is a fable because it’s a fictional tale with talking animals who are being used to teach a moral lesson.

The moral lesson of this story is that you shouldn’t be lazy and expect people to help you out when you didn’t do the work you were suppose to. It’s a fable that discourages laziness, shortsightedness, and expecting people to give you things you don’t deserve. It encourages being like the ants who work hard for what they have, practice collective and collaborative labor that benefits them all, and are well equipped for the Winter (hard times) because of their hard work.