I told this story on two different occasions with two different groups of people. The responses I got were completely different (however, in terms of the types of people I told the story to, the reactions and responses are fitting to their personalities and their belief systems). I will tell the story first and then I will talk about the responses I got from my audiences.
How evil came into the world:
A very long long time ago, when the earth was a couple years old, the most mystical of creatures roamed the earth. There were fairies, dragons, unicorns, mermaids, witches and many other creatures. People did not exist yet.
It was not often that the creatures would interact with each other, they lived in such different places, far away from each other, that during the year they would hardly cross each others paths. The fairies lived in the forests in beautiful flower patches, the mermaids lived in the ocean, the unicorns loved living in meadows with long grass to feed on. The witches, they lived in caves. They liked the darkness. However, once a year, the witches would host a celebration. They would invite all of the mystical creatures of the earth to one of their large caves beside the ocean (so that all of the water creatures could attend) and celebrate a new year. This celebratory evening would be filled with dancing, gift-giving, singing and storytelling.
One year, the witches thought it would be fun to have a competition of stories about darkness. They invited all of the creatures to tell the scariest of stories they could conjure. The fairies and the unicorns did not like scary stories, they were easily scared and only believed telling stories about happiness. They decided to leave the party early. The mermaids also did not like telling stories but thought that the dark stories would be entertaining, they decided to stay to listen. The elves, dragons, werewolves and vampires all joined in the competition with the witches.
Because there were so many creatures taking part in the storytelling competition, the witches suggested that everyone leave for the night and come back the next night to share what they had come up with. The next night, they all gathered around the fire. All of the creatures had a chance to tell their versions, some spoke of the darkness of the night, some of the unknown, and some even brought props to express the fearfulness of their tales. However, nothing seemed scary enough until the last witch told her story. She spoke of disease, abuse, loneliness, and helplessness. All of the creatures were terrified. They had pleaded with the witch, “Please take it back! That story was too scary! Too real!” Despite their pleas, the witch knew, and told them, “I cannot take it back, for whenever you tell a story, you release it into the world and it is impossible to take it back.”
When I told this story to my partner, Patrick, he sat and listened intently. He never interrupted and never asked any questions. He allowed me to tell the story and take as long as I wanted. Once it was finished, he seemed lost. He stared at me with confusion on his face. We sat and talked about the story and he asked me why I needed to tell that story and why it was about how evil came into the world. Patrick, to me, is a realist. He is not interested in fictional stories but instead, is more concerned with real life events that are told as stories.
Then I called my sister, Katelyn, and my brother, Joseph. Both of whom live in Ottawa. We grew up in a household where my grandmother loved to read us stories about mythical creatures and watch movies with animals who could speak. I knew that my sister would enjoy the story. She loves mythical creatures but more specifically, she loves witches. She expressed that it was a really interesting concept that the witches brought evil into the world and wanted to know more about how the creatures had all gotten there (and if they were there before, where are they now?) My brother had little to say, although he did mention that he was entertained by the story and chuckled at my assignment.
It was a really fun assignment. I enjoy telling stories so this fit well with my personality. I found that it was almost more fun to tell the story to my sister and brother because I knew that they would like it. I imitated voices for them and went into great detail describing the celebration. I did not do this with Patrick, I think that is because I knew that he is not interested in fictional stories as much as I am. This story really reflected what I like most about storytelling (I am a fiction junkie) and I was wondering for my fellow students, did you find that your stories reflected your interests? Also, if you told the story more than once, did you find that your mood or your experiences during the day influenced your story in any way?
Bibliography:
“Evil.” Dictionary.com. n.p. 3 February 2015. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/evil
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough:Anansi Press. 2003. Print.
“Unicorn Wallpapers.” AlphaCoders. n.p. 3 February 2015. http://wall.alphacoders.com/big.php?i=136423
“Winifred Sanderson.” Disney Wikia. n.p. 3 February 2015. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Winifred_Sanderson
Hi Laura,
Thanks for your story. I like how you incorporated your experiences with storytelling into your own re-telling.
In response to your questions, my interests definitely affected what kind of story I wanted to tell. I had been reflecting on all the reading I have done in the past 8 years and realized that I have not really read for pleasure very often. At the same time, I was working on my application for UBC’s B.Ed program. So I thought why not put my story in an educational setting to vent my frustrations about losing the love of reading? As for my mood, I did not really find it affecting the way I told my story. I just varied my storytelling according to who I was talking to. I mention a little bit about this in my blog. But in both tellings, I conveyed my feelings of frustration and tried to be snide.
Jasmine
Hi Laura!
Thanks for sharing your story! I have a question about it, but first I’ll answer YOUR question. My experience was very much the same as yours. When I told my story to my mother, I had very little expression in my voice and I stumbled on my words quite a bit because I was nervous. When I told the story to my roommate, though, who loves whimsical things and fantasy fiction, I was more confident and put emphasis on the humour because I thought she’d like that. She did. Retelling the same story to varying audiences is an interesting experience, isn’t it?
Now for my question: I am wondering what you think of witch people being the subject of this story. Witches are a real, religious people group now as well as historically. I’ve known a number of Wiccans, and I am certain that at least some of them identify as witches. The story on which we based our stories seems to pick witch people in order to refrain from condemning any “real” group as having brought evil in to the world, but I don’t think it worked. Do you?
Hi Laura,
Nice story! Like Lauren, I can totally relate to your experience of storytelling. An immediate audience can certainly modify a storyteller’s tale. Like you, I also found myself altering my expressions and tone according to who my audience was. (When I told the story to my little cousins, it came across as a much cheerier, lighter story but was a lot more serious and grim when I shared it with my parents.) However, I feel that the ability of stories to change like this can lead to loss of meaning of sorts – it definitely affected the underlying message of my story to some extent. I was wondering if this was the case for you?
Hey Laura, Thanks for an entertaining story! I especially liked your incorporation of multiple magical creatures such as unicorns, vampires and mermaids.
It was also interesting to hear about the reactions from your audience. As you say, your partner is a “realist” and therefore was probably quite confused with this tale of impossible magic and mystical creatures, however, your brother and sister (who grew up loving these types of stories) understood and enjoyed the story. This is exactly what happened to every story in the world, some people will understand and love it because of their background or past experiences, some people will be puzzled yet intrigued and want to know more, and others will flat out hate a story. When we hear a story we are subconsciously drawing from our own memories and imagination, your siblings (with a wide background in these types of stories and a passion for them) enjoyed listening to the tale because they could understand and relate to its flow, the magical elements etc. I think that people’s histories, minds, and general outlooks on life play an important role in how they interpret stories, do you think this could cause conflict in some situations?
Leana
Hi Laura – thanks for a great re-telling and an interesting commentary on the telling – god dialogue too 🙂