Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

The Fisherman and His Wife

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 2/14/2019
Primary Language: English

Text:

Informant: So anyways, it’s something to the effect of, I don’t remember it very well but it was, it was part of a theater thing that we did and apparently it’s a very old story where, like a fisherman catches like some magic fish that, he and his wife were kind of down on their luck, and the fisherman catches a magic fish and the magic fish gives him a wish every time he catches it, but the fish doesn’t like being caught. So, he gets, he gets them like I don’t know, just kind of enough to feed themselves for like however long they want to be fed because they were kind of born destitute and like need it. And he gets it. And then his wife starts to ask for like, more and more and starts to live a more and more lavish lifestyle, so every day he goes back and catches the fish and wishes for some new thing and the, and eventually the fish just gets fed up with it and takes everything away. And it’s kind of, I don’t know if I would call it, yeah sad, I guess it’s a little bit sexist because it’s one of those like “women are gold diggers” or whatever. That’s basically what the message of it is, but I guess in a larger sense, in just relating to the audience members regardless of gender, it’s just “don’t ask for too much” and “don’t get, don’t get caught up in wanting more when you already have everything you need.”

Context: The informant learned this story from a theater group in New Jersey, where he was told that it was a theater story. It had been passed down from other actors. This story was recorded by the Brothers Grimm in 1809 (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Von dem Fischer un syner Fru, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales — Grimms’ Fairy Tales), final edition (Berlin, 1857), no. 19.). That said, it likely has origins outside of the New Jersey theater community.

Analysis: I tend to agree with the second analysis given by the informant, with the sentiment of “don’t ask for too much.” While it is technically the wife’s desire to have more, that doesn’t mean that the husband isn’t also wanting the same things. At the same time, I also feel like the tale could show how hard work and persistence can lead to getting your goals (at least before they are taken away). Essentially, the idea is to know when one is successful enough to stop taking advantage of others to garner more success when it’s unnecessary. Overall, the idea of complacency and assuming that you can keep all good things is a theme of the tale that resonates with me, especially because of the emphasis on capitalist ideals in America.

How The Spider Got Its Long Legs

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Music Industry Assistant
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 10, 2019
Primary Language: English

Piece:

JG: Want to know why a spider has long legs?

I: Sure.

JG: My dad told me this story when I was little. Here it is: Once, there was a spider named Anansi and Anansi was a greedy spider. He was about to have dinner with his wife and his wife was a great cook. But he was greedy and wanted to go out and try his friends’ food. So he leaves his wife at his house and he goes to Rabbit’s house. He is drawn in by the smell of something cooking. He finds Rabbit cooking delicious greens. “Oh rabbit,” said Anansi, “those greens look mighty fine.” “Well they are going to be really good and you can wait for them to be done,” says Rabbit. Now, Anansi knows, if he were to wait, Rabbit would just give him a lot of chores to do. Anansi hates chores. “Oh no,” says Anansi, “I got some chores to do on my own. But I don’t want to leave these greens. So I have an idea” “What’s your idea?” said Rabbit. Anansi made a string of web-material. He tied it to one of his eight legs. “Now when you are done cooking the greens, pull the web and I will know it’s done.” So he left. Down the road, Anansi smells something really good, so he goes down the path to Bear’s house. Bear is cooking some delicious looking porridge and invites Anansi to wait for it to be done. “Oh yeah bear I would love to have some, but I still got some chores to do. So why don’t I just tie this string of web around my leg. When it’s done, you just pull on it and I’ll come on back.” And on Anansi goes visiting all of his friends. In the end, Anansi ends up with a string of web tied to each of his eight legs. Anansi thinks, “Now I just need to wait for one of them to pull the string and I can have some delicious food. Then, his foot pulls. “Oh Rabbit must be done.” Then, four of the strings get pulled, and then stretch out his legs, then 5, then 6, then 7, then 8, until all 8 of his legs are being pulled at one time. And they pulled and they pulled. And Anansi finally pushes himself down to the water, which dissolves the webs. When he comes out of the water, he finds he now has 8 very, very long legs.”

Context:

The informant was told this story as a child by his father. The informant believes his father likely read it in a book of fables and used it to teach about greed as well as tell a funny story. The informant thinks of it as a silly fable, but says it stuck with him until now, so therefore it must have been entertaining enough to remember since childhood.

Analysis:

This is a classic fable that uses fairytale-like elements– for instance, talking animals and an element of suspended reality. There is no explanation for Anansi’s greed, which implies that perhaps greed is a natural “human” urge (or an urge of living beings) we all must fight. The use of animals rather than people connects the theme of the story– greed– to an element of nature outside of humans, especially as greed causes a visual result on the spider children can recognize.

Enkoye Totit–Ethiopian bedtime story

Nationality: Ethiopian-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 04/13/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Amharic

The informant is my 18-year-old cousin, who was born and raised in the United States but has Ethiopian parents. She told me about Enkoye Totit, bedtime story her mother and aunts told her when she was little.

——————–

“So, Enkoye Totit is this little monkey character who keeps getting in trouble. It’s a bedtime story that parents tell their kids. It’s like, there’s not really one specific story I can think of about Enkoye Totit, but she’s a character that you can insert in any story. Totit means, like, little monkey. It’s like a diminutive of “tota,” which means monkey. That’s what parents call their kids. Like, it’s a nickname for kids when they’re being silly or misbehaving but not actually doing something that bad. Like if you keep annoying your mom, she’ll call you Tota.”

——————–

The fact that “monkey” is both a word referring to the animal and an term of affection for young children in Amharic is interesting, because it allows these stories to become self-insert stories for the children they are told to. Because Enkoye Totit is a stock character and not one from a specific story, it allows parents to plug this character, as an extension of their own children, into many different plots that will be vehicles for lessons they want to teach their kids. This is also reinforced by the characteristics of a monkey–small, mischievous, intelligent, inquisitive–most of which are also applicable to children. At the same time, because there are actual monkeys in Ethiopia, this fact might be less obvious to Ethiopian children, since the stories are based on a monkey that they could actually encounter, but because both my cousin and I were raised in the United States where monkeys do not live in nature, the metaphorical nature of these stories becomes more apparent.

Krasue in South Asian Folklore

Nationality: American
Age: college age freshman
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

NC: So there’s this story about crossaway or crosu (Krasue) I don’t know exactly how to pronounce the name but in southeast asian folklore she is supposed to be a very beautiful woman and she’s only a head, so she’s a decapitated head and her entails are hanging out and she’s supposed to float around uh a building- a haunted building or something um she’s- I think she’s searching for something and she might also kill anyone who comes into the building. That’s all I’ve heard about it.

 

Background:

Location of Story – Southeast Asia

Location of Performance – Dormitory room, Los Angeles, CA, night

 

Context: This performance took place in a group setting – about 2-3 people – in a college dormitory room. This performance was prompted by the call for stories about beliefs, ghosts, or superstitions as examples of folklore via a group message. NC approached me in person in response to the text and had just discovered this creature herself. 

 

Analysis: Krasue is physically unlike any other “monster” or creature I have heard of before. I was particularly interested in the dichotomy between the woman’s beauty and the grotesqueness of her lower half. For me, this hints at a commentary about how women are viewed around the world globally: her head is attached but her body has been ripped apart by what exactly? If women often fall victim to objectification, then it makes sense that this lore would depict her “body” has being completely consumed by something else or at least lost to something or someone besides herself. Additionally, the fact that she is bound by a building, confirms the archetypical “domestic” woman, but the threat she poses to anyone else trying to reside in her household disrupts this stereotype and protects the space as her own.

El Cucuy – “Boogeyman” Creature in Mexican Folklore

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA/ Georgia
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The Cucuy, I’m not really quite sure what it is, um, but, usually, uh, when like children are acting like- out of like the norm, like when they’re misbehaving uh parents will be like “oi, there comes the cucuy!” Like he’s gonna come eat you if you don’t stop being a bad person, um…and it’s sorta like similar to like the boogeyman like if you- if you put your child to sleep, and like they don’t go to sleep, you’ll be like the cuc- if you don’t close your eyes, the cucuy’s gonna come get you…so yeah.

 

Background:

Location of story – predominantly Mexico, according to informant

Location of Performance – Interviewer’s dormitory room, Los Angeles, CA, night

 

Context: This performance took place in a group setting – about 2-3 people – in a college dormitory room. This performance was prompted by the call for stories about beliefs, ghosts, or superstitions as examples of folklore via a group message. KF approached me two days prior to this interview, but schedules did not allow for a recording until she came to ask a homework and remembered. I am good friends with KF. This story followed two of KF’s previously about La Llorona and the devil appearing on people’s horses at night.

 

Analysis: This performance demonstrates the phenomenon of children being more inclined to follow instructions based on the threat of a supernatural creature or element rather than their own parents. Likewise, the parents utilize this tactic because the effect is so immediate. It is also interesting to note that the comparison to the boogeyman is drawn because I have only known the American version of that bedtime creature: bedtime and a fear of the dark seems to conjure similar fears and potential monsters across cultures.