Before the birth of mortal men, in days dim and distant, a mistake was made.
A boy, blessed and beloved, born to the All-Father, Beorhthelm The Bold,
Graced the grass of what we now know as Earth.
The Gods granted him the name of Grimwold, and with this name, a prophecy foretold.
Ewias The Wise, warned that the boy would bring ruin to the world,
And so Beorthelm The Bold, entrusted the infant to Ewias,
Who banished the boy from heaven, and built for him, a library to keep the boy busy.
Locked away in the largest library on lonely Earth, Grimwold began to read.
Under the watchful tutelage of Ewias was Grimwold well instructed.
The child was quick and curious, and his lust of knowledge knew no rest.
He diligently devoured, texts and tomes of mystery and magics,
And soon learned of language and of love and of poetry and of passion.
Grimwold read and wrote, studied and surveyed, and contributed to the collection,
But prophecy is rarely perfect, and something succeeded that was not foreseen.
Grimwold’s magics began to manifest. When he read aloud, his words warped and writhed, cracked and created, and brought forth ideas from the void into actuality.
At first, his magics were marvelous. Grimwold spoke of Life and of Law,
And so all life and the first men were manifest.
Grimwold spoke of poetry and of prose,
And of science and of scholarship and of all those things Grimwold so adored.
And the world was at peace.
But soon, Grimwold grew green with envy.
Locked in his library without liberty, he began to speak of anger and of abandonment.
He spoke of falsehoods and of fabrication and murder and of malice.
And so too did these reveal themselves into reality.
And the world fell into chaos.
Ewias, realizing his error, launched himself to the library, and severed the tongue of his student,
But the damage could not be undone. Evil had wandered into the world.
Ewias Removing Grimwold’s Tongue
Once a story is told, reality makes it so. One can never take it back.
So, be careful of the stories you tell, AND the stories you listen to.
Commentary
This assignment was so much fun. I felt as if a story of this magnitude needed to be told in the fashion of an Epic poem. The last Epic I had read was the story of Beowulf.
“Anglo Saxon Epics are create rhyme with complex use of alliteration”(Anglo Saxon poetry). The link is attached if you are interested in reading on Anglo-Saxon Epics. I am not as talented as a writer as that, but did attempt to use as much alliteration as possible without hindering the flow of the words. There are a few happy accidents of creating rhyme through use of alliteration, but generally the convention is abandoned.
The process was interesting for me. The story was given to us based on the story of the Witches in Thomas King’s The truth about stories, and the style was given to me by Anglo Saxon poets who wrote around the year 300. The story is my own but the way I got there was by taking points from other people’s stories and twisting them. It is interesting how to think the same premise of a story can be retold, over and over and over again with so many variations. The heart of the story remains intact.
When I told this story to a few friends, the majority of the comments was about spreading misinformation. They said that Ewias had told a more correct version of the prophesy then the entire thing could have been avoided. Because Ewias did not have all the information to avoid causing the world to be destroyed, he should have voiced his concern that his prophesy may not have been accurate. Once Ewias spoke of the prophecy, the decision danger was already in place, and the prophesy became self fulfilling. He could not have taken it back as Beorthelm would have still been worried about the possibility of the world’s ruin.
Works cited
“Medieval Tongue Removal – Medievalists.Net”. Medievalists.Net, 2019, http://www.medievalists.net/2015/07/the-afterlife-of-the-dead-reform-in-attitude-towards-medieval-burials-corpses-and-bones/tongue/.
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narriative. House Of Anansi Press Inc, 2003.
“Anglo-Saxon Poetry – New World Encyclopedia”. Newworldencyclopedia.Org, 2019, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Anglo-Saxon_Poetry.Mralbertsclass.Files.Wordpress.Com, 2019,
Beowulf , https://mralbertsclass.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/beowulf-translation-by-seamus-heaney.pdf.
Hi Sean!
Thanks for your Epic poem! Along with the moral you listed of, “once you tell a story, you can’t take it back”, I also got a feel for a theme of “don’t jump to conclusions without having all the information”. In your reflection you point out that a story can be told many different times in many different ways, and still have the same meaning. Which I also think is true. But something that came to mind that conflicted was the theme of your story of not jumping to conclusions. Because Ewias thought he could prevent the danger from the information he had, he acted, and it ended up causing everything he feared. I wonder then, what you think in terms of how it’s possible for a story be told so many different ways and have people still come to the same conclusion? When your story itself warns us that knowing the specifics and details are essential to finding the truth to a story? Is there an inherent quality to some stories that lend themselves to this sort of shifting nature, and the same moral still be found?
Hey Ross,
Good question! I think this story is a strange one and outlines our classes discussion quite well. Even though my intended moral of the story was to illustrate “Be careful what you say, and what you listen to” An unintended moral of “look before you leap” has come into play. This illustrates the point “be careful what you say” as interpretation is vast depending on what part of the story is being focused on.
I think you’re correct in saying that some stories inherently lend themselves to picking out one moral. I think as story tellers we can manipulate what conclusion our listeners and readers come to with extreme care in the words we choose when we write.
I was caught up in the story and didn’t realize there was a second moral in my story until I started telling it and hearing thoughts on the matter. Because I was not as careful as I could have been to portray a single meaning, more than one meaning has presented its self.
Authors my want to tell a story for one intended purpose and get caught up in the narrative and forget purpose in which the story was told in the first place. This can lead to many interpretations. I think that’s the beauty of stories. In a rich environment we can focus on many things which may present many meanings depending on who reads it.
I hope that makes sense.
Hi Sean,
That was an interesting read! I liked the Anglo-Saxon poetry form, something I have never read before. I think the idea that as stories are passed along, information is altered or lost is very true. At the end of the day, when details are lost, it does not necessarily mean the conclusion or message of the story changes. I think the details of a conclusion matter more in stories that include religious elements/prophecies. If a story is told for a specific moral or message, the way it is told is not entirely important. What do you think?
Cheers,
Kynan
Hey Kynan, I think you may be right in saying details are important if the story is being told for a specific purpose, especially in matters of religion and prophesy, however as Ross has pointed out, the way in which I told my story, allowed for multiple interpretations and thus my intended moral was not foregrounded. I think it matters quite a lot the way in which a story is told in order to foreground a specific meaning.
If I focused more on the feelings of guilt that Grimwold had felt by telling the stories out loud and manifesting evil, perhaps the moral of “be careful what stories you tell” would have taken more prominence in a general interpretation, but because I spent more time on Eiwas’ reaction to the Grimwold, the interpretation of “look before you leap” seems to have taken prominence in most readers interpretation.
I hope that makes sense
Hi Sean,
This was very interesting and unique! I enjoyed your poem very much. You point out that when you were telling the story to your friends, the majority of the comments was about spreading misinformation. I think as stories are told and passed on, it sometimes changes according to the storyteller and even if the moral or conclusion stays the same, some details are lost or altered. I wonder if details to the stories are important or as long as conclusion the same? For me, I find that if details are changed or altered but makes sense to make up the moral or conclusion of the story, it does not matter as much but when details are lost, I think it does not make a strong impression on the moral. This is just because once I finish reading a story and learn the moral, I like to go back and look at the details, look for reasons and detail of the characters. When details are very vivid and clear it just makes me more connected to the moral of the story at the end. How about you?