Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

Animal Folklore: Tiger Stripes

I wanted to continue with the animal folklore theme, as so much from this collection was based on human stories, I wanted to add more animal folklore. Additionally, I wanted to look for folk tales from other cultures beyond Western influences. Thus, I went on YouTube to find some Eastern tales and found a very interesting little cartoon explaining how the tiger got his stripes. The tale comes from Vietnamese folklore and is narrated by Rob Cleveland. It is a digitally generated cartoon published by August House for children’s entertainment.

The tale talks of the arrogant and proud tiger who is not afraid of any animal in the jungle except the water buffalo. At this point in history, the tiger had a pure golden coat, which he was extremely proud of. He scared the other animals away with his big teeth and claws. One day, “Tiger was confused” to see his enemy the water buffalo tied to a plow that a lowly human was using to till his field. So, tiger asked the water buffalo. The story has different voices for each of the animal characters, which makes it more entertaining from a visual perspective. They are all the same narrator, but with different accents. The water buffalo tells the tiger he works for man because of his “wisdom.” The tiger saws “I must get some wisdom” because of his arrogance. He threatens the man and demands he gets some wisdom. The man says, “tiger, wisdom is not something I can give you,” but the tiger continues to threaten the man. So, the man says “oh tiger, mighty tiger, I am afraid to go get you the wisdom,” because he is worried about the tiger eating his goats. The tiger promises not to eat the goats and agrees to be tied to a tree by the tip of his tail to protect the goats. The man continues to tie the tiger’s paws and head to the tree as well as he continues to trick him. The man left the tiger there after tricking him, and the other animals in the jungle laughed at him. Finally, the water buffalo “shook his head and walked away.” Finally, the tiger realizes he was tricked and could not untie himself from the tree. As he pulled away, the ropes “dug into his fur;” he eventually broke free but “the ropes had burned stripes into his coat.” Tiger saw the stripes and became embarrassed, slinking around in the shadows, “still searching for wisdom.”

The narration starts off with “many years ago, when the jungle was young, the proudest animal in the jungle was the tiger.” This is reminiscent of the way Western fairy tales start, beginning with “a long, long time ago.” It is interesting to see how similar folk tales are, despite vast cultural differences. Moreover, the basic format is very similar to that of Aesop’s Fables. The man tricks the tiger and his arrogance leads to a significant change in the animal’s character. It also explains a behavioral characteristic of the tiger in a very fun and entertaining way for children.

Source: August House. “How Tiger Got His Stripes.” 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf7ascNGbcM

Animal Folk Stories: The Donkey

Again, I wanted to add folk tales from cultures that had not been represented yet in this growing collection. Thus, I searched on YouTube for Indian folktales and found another short children’s cartoon from Geethanjali Kids as part of their Rhymes and Stories series. They aim to help keep Indian culture alive by presenting various folk tales to children in an entertaining manner. The folk tale I found for this collection is called “Mind Your Business.”

The “Mind Your Business” story features a washer man who had a pet donkey and dog. Each had a job for the man, as the dog was a guard and the donkey carried his “stack of clothes to the river and brought it back.” The two animals slept outside but had different views of their relationship with the man. The dog “was proud of his duties and boasted a lot.” One night, he teased the donkey about how he does not have to work as hard as the donkey. The dog calls him a “beast of burden,” insulting the donkey who did not respond. A few nights later, a thief robbed the man’s house. The dog saw the thief but did not bark, which was a violation of his own duty. Instead, the donkey saw the thief and questioned the dog’s inaction. The dog said, “mind your own business, don’t talk to me about my duties.” The dog explains how he is upset with his master because he feels he is not treated well enough. So, he lets the thief in, and the donkey protests, saying “you fool, this is not a time to complain, this is a time for action!” So, the donkey made the noise and chased the thief away. The man thought the donkey was making noise for no reason and he beat the donkey. The tale ends with “it is always better to mind your own business.”

The story also begins with “once upon a time,” which may be a strategy to connect the folk tale with an English-speaking audience. As stated in the last entry, most folk tales begin with some version of this, even though some of them come from very different cultures. I am assuming that in the English translation of the tales, narrators choose to use some version of this opening because it reinforces to the viewer that this is a folk tale. It helps with the introduction and setting certain expectations within the reader, as there will be a situation, resolution, and clear moral lesson within that resolution. However, the lesson comes in a much darker format compared to other animal fables, as there is no consequence for the man beating the donkey. I was expecting the donkey to be rewarded for his service, but the tale took a very unexpected end with the presence of animal abuse.

Source: Geethanjali Kids. “Mind Your Business.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9CsiPMBsCU

Persian Folktale: Friday Night’s Gift

For the last entry, I wanted to use a performance of a folktale that was close to me. This is a story my grandmother used to tell me when I was young. I do not know where it is written in a book or collection of short stories, as she used to tell be it verbally, memorized by heart. She used to tell my siblings, cousins, and I this story when we were staying over at her house for babysitting. It was a story she would often tell us around the time she was putting us to bed. I am going to recount her performance of the story from my memory for this collection.

In an ancient city in Iran, an old wood cutter and his daughter lived a humble life. The daughter, however, asked her father to get some extra dates to make cakes one day. So, the woodcutter went out again late, but could not find any dates. He came home and was disappointed, telling a man he met on the road. But the man explained that Friday nights are Holy nights (Shabbat) and that God would help the man if he helped others. However, he failed to heed the man’s advice. During the meantime, his daughter was chosen by the princess to be her hand maiden. Eventually, the princess claimed the daughter had stolen a necklace and soldiers came to look for her. Instead, the arrested the father who cursed himself for not doing charity on Friday nights like the man had told him to do. While in jail, the woodcutter was sad and lonely. He stopped a beggar boy and gave him some of the food that the jailer had given him. The boy was grateful, as he had not eaten that day. It was this little bit of charity that turned the woodcutter’s fate around because the next day the princess went back to the lake she swam in and found her necklace!

I remember my grandmother would always enunciate the ending part of the story that demonstrated how charity helps provide for others to be kind to you. In many ways, she was trying to install the importance of the Sabbath as well with the emphasis on Friday night being holy. Her voice was soft throughout the whole story until that ending bit where the necklace was found, and the woodcutter was freed. Interestingly, the moral is very similar to a few of the folktales added in this collection about how the energy one puts out into the world comes back to you, especially in the form of good works.

Riverbed Ghost

Nationality: United States
Age: 54
Occupation: Substitute Teacher
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 3/24/2018
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

 

The following was recorded from the Participant. They are marked as LG. I am marked as DG.

 

LG: So one of the ghosts, and usually I saw this one outside, is you would see, and just for a brief moment, the riverbed that used to be under our house in the old days, before California developed up more, and that’s what you would see. When you saw that ghost, you saw that time period. And i-it, it didn’t look anything the same. And then it would be gone. And that’s the only time you would see them, they would both pop in together and then they would both pop out together. So it was him on the land he was on. And I didn’t even know there had been a riverbed until I found out later.” But pretty much everyone who had been at our house has seen a ghost.

 

Context:

 

The conversation was recorded while sitting on a patio in Glendora, CA. The sun is setting and a group of us are sitting around all sharing folklore.

 

Background:

 

The interviewee is a 54-year-old mother of two, who is married. She grew up in Los Angeles, before moving around, and finally ending up back in Los Angeles. Her and her parents had a very tight-knit relationship, and she comes from a religious background.

 

Analysis:

 

This is a local ghost story, to the point where you would have to spend time in the interviewee’s house in order to see the ghost. As such, this folklore does not show up often, but has been corroborated by the interviewee’s siblings. I’m inclined to believe it’s true, given the later-found-out fact that there is, in fact, a riverbed below the interviewee’s house.

THE BABY KILLING WITCHES

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 35
Occupation: Nursery Worker
Residence: San Marcos CA
Performance Date: 04/21/2018
Primary Language: Spanish

STORY

My grandparents once told me about a story about witches that would come at night and drown babies or not drown but suffocate them.

In Mexico in Oaxaca it is said that there would be green lights in sky in those would be the witches that would come at night. They wouldn’t have a specific purpose or reason but usually that is what parents would be worried about. This is why it is supposed to be important that you don’t leave your babies alone at night because if you do leave them alone The Witches would come and suffocate them in their sleep in the crib. The witch would come and suffocate the baby and in the morning the baby would be dead and purple as if someone had choked him.  This was real this would happen way back then though I don’t know if it happens now.

 

Background

The informant explain that the story brought them closer to their grandparents because when she was little her grandparents would tell her stories like this maybe to educate her on the idea of never leaving her babies alone at night. The story grew up with her because she would never leave her four children alone at night since she feared that the witches would come and suffocate the babies.

 

Context :

There are many beliefs of witches in Mexico and the idea that they come to either alert children or hurt them if they are unbaptized or if they’re left alone. This could also be something from Europe that had traveled to Mexico like the Salem witch trials. In the mountains of Mexico it has also been said that broomsticks and random green lights have been seen flying through the air and mountains of Mexico. The idea that we just joke babies comes from the fact that a lot of babies would die because of sudden infant death syndrome and Mexicans would come up with an explanation that has to do with religion and witchcraft. Clearly sudden infant death syndrome didn’t appear to them that it was due to Suffocation from a blanket.