Lesson 1.3
Let me tell you the story of how evil came into the world.
Long ago, there was a warren of rabbits who were held below ground by a pack of wolves at the entrance to their tunnels for many weeks. The wolves were very hungry, and the rabbits were very weary. The wolves growled down the tunnels, telling the rabbits it was better to emerge than to starve in the tunnels.
Instead of giving up, one of the younger rabbits thought up a grand idea. He gathered all the rabbits from all the dens and asked them to think up the scariest thing they could in order to frighten the wolves away.
One of the rabbits began stomping on the ground, shaking the tunnels and creating a great noise. But the wolves were brave and were not scared away. One of the rabbits kicked rocks out of the tunnels at the canines using his great hind legs. But the wolves were swift and were not scared away. One of the rabbits scraped his claws along a rock creating a sharp noise. But the wolves tucked in their ears and were not scared away.
Finally, the young rabbit who had suggested scaring the wolves called through the tunnels. He began telling a story to the wolves. The story contained such fury and fear and bloodshed that the wolves fled immediately. Finally, the rabbits were able to emerge. But when they did they found the world was much darker than before. Realizing what had happened, the warren begged the young rabbit to take back his words. But it was too late, as what had been spoken could not be taken back. The rabbits had been freed, but at a grave price.
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This assignment is so very different from anything I have ever done before. In our academic lives, it is constantly stressed that we should not copy someone else’s work in any manner. But for this assignment, we had to copy the moral of King‘s story, and so a few elements of the story ended up the same as well. I think it’s cool because, even though my story is very different from King’s, you can still see his telling at the roots of what I have created. I wanted to have some parallels between my story and King’s, but at the same time I wanted the words to be mine. I think I achieved this.
I think it will be especially interesting to see the influence individual experiences have on the stories we tell. My story in particular is heavily influenced by my favourite book, Watership Down. Throughout the novel, one of the rabbits, Dandelion, tells stories about the clever rabbit prince, El-Ahrairah. These are my favourite parts of the novel. The story that I’m most partial to is that of the sun God Frith blessing all of the animals with special gifts. Rabbits were given their strong back legs because El-hrairah was half-way into a hole so that he would not be recognized and Frith was forced to bless the only thing sticking out of the hole – his behind. I love stories like this and King’s which tell how something came to be in a clever way. I imagined my story to be in the same vein as those stories, except that it paints rabbits in a more negative light as, though they were clever enough to make the wolves flee, they were not wise enough to see the effects of their actions until it was too late.
References:
Adams, Richard. The Story of the Blessing of El-ahrairah 8m.
Watership Down. Google Books. Google.
Thomas King. Wikipedia. Wikimedia.
Hi Shannon, I really enjoyed your retelling! I agree that it is interesting how our personal experiences influence the stories we tell and how we tell them. Personally, I enjoy the fable-like vibe of your story created by employing animals as characters. It was cute and sweet, but still had the powerful and chilling moral at the end. I also enjoyed the added dimension of freedom, and freedom at a price, that you brought in, as opposed to the original story where the witches wanted to come up with the scariest thing just for the sake of having a fun contest.
Just wondering, in telling your story orally, what kind of reaction did you get from your audience? Was it what you expected?
Hi Shannon-
I liked your version- short and to the point! There’s nothing like it.
I also was thrilled at how different this assignment was.
I always find that stimulating my brain in different ways (for example, storytelling), really expands my understanding of a subject.
I am also wondering like Lian, what was your audience’s reaction?
Thank you 🙂
Thank you for this story Shannon; I couldn’t help but enjoy the notion that it “takes a scary story” to scare away the wolves at the door! Fighting fearful beast with fear — has consequences. Yes, an interesting little story. I enjoyed your post story telling comments and have a couple of them I’d like to talk more about. You note how different this assignment is from “anything else”:
This assignment is so very different from anything I have ever done before. In our academic lives, it is constantly stressed that we should not copy someone else’s work in any manner. But for this assignment, we had to copy the moral of King‘s story, and so a few elements of the story ended up the same as well.
I came up with the idea for two reasons: 1) King keeps telling us to “take” his stories – so, and 2) I wanted you to have an experience with telling a story, so that we could learn about that experience: you and I – and everyone else in our class. So, what was the telling of the story like; who was/were your listeners? Did the telling shape the story?
And finally, the idea of telling someone else’s story – an academic taboo! Well, what do you think now -? you write:
“I think it will be especially interesting to see the influence individual experiences have on the stories we tell. My story in particular is heavily influenced by my favourite book, Watership Down.to see the influence individual experiences have on the stories we tell”
Now that you have read some of our other stories – how do you feel about the assignment; did it fulfill your idea of expressing individual experience through a common story: the moral?