Storytelling Week 11: The Most Generous Man

The professor walked into the classroom and set down his things. The high school students, chattering away at their desks, became quiet and pulled out their notebooks for class to begin.

"Goodmorning everyone!" said the professor as he leaned back, barely sitting at the front of his desk. "Now, you all should have read Franklin's Tale last night from the Canterbury Tales. So today, we are going to discuss the question posed at the very end... Which one of the three generous men was the most generous?"
"As an overview, the woman, Dorigen, was head over heels for her husband and mourned nonstop while he was away." The professor rolled his eyes and sighed at the ridiculousness of the subject, and all the students laughed.
"She swore to never leave him, but, when she learned a poor squire was in love with her, she told him that she would only leave her husband for him if they could no longer see the large rocks poking out of the water just off the coast. Of course, she thought this could never be done so she wasn't worried about it. Well that squire, boy, when you talk about doing anything for love, this kid did it all! He went to a magician, and... can anyone tell me the deal between the squire and the magician?"

"The squire would owe him 1000 pounds if the magician could make the rocks disappear for just a little while!" shouted Mary from the back of the room.

"Yep! And so it was, the magician got rid of the rocks, and the squire led the lady to see. Her husband honored her promise by allowing her to leave, but after seeing her mourn (because Lord knows she did it relentlessly) the squire stated that he would rather suffer his whole life without her than break her away from the man she truly loves. What does this mean for the squire then? He still owes the magician. However, when the magician heard of what happened, he released the squire from his debt because the squire was so honorable. Now, which is the most generous?"... "Jayton?"

"I think the magician is, because he did this and worked hard expecting to be paid but he allowed the squire to go without paying," explained Jayton.

"Except the magician said the squire had already housed and fed him, so that was compensation enough! The magician didn't exactly give up anything; he simply didn't make a profit!" said Sally.

"Good point," said the professor, "So what about the squire?"

"I think he was the most generous because he put in so much work and so much effort, and he finally completed his task and won the girl... but then he gave all of it up because she was unhappy," said Doug.
Sally piped up again, "But don't you think it was selfish for him to do that in the first place? It's not like he didn't know that she was head over heels for her husband and would be unhappy with anyone else. He was trying to steal her. That's completely selfish of him."

"Alright, well Sally, do you think Dorigen's husband was the most generous then?" asked the professor.

"No. I don't think any of them are generous. The magician got free food and housing for performing magic, the squire was selfish trying to take away the woman from her husband, and the husband obviously doesn't love her enough, because any rational man would not simply let their wife, who is bawling her eyes out and would almost rather die than live without her true love, just go off with this selfish boy who tricked the rocks into disappearing for a while!"

The whole class stared, and the professor? Speechless. Some of the students began to snicker.

"Well... that was a wonderful argument, Sally. You're going to be a great lawyer some day." The class laughed.
"Well, class, since Sally completely destroyed any points I was about to make about this story, let's move along!"
The class roared with laughter and the professor moved on and taught the rest of the Canterbury Tales.

Dorigen and Aurelius, from Mrs. Haweis's, Chaucer for Children (1877)
Source: Wikipedia

Author's Note: I wrote this story based off "The Franklin's Tale" from The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908). When I originally read the story, I thought it was neat how it had the question at the end about who was the most generous man. Then I thought it would be fun to make it a classroom discussion. The professor gives the overview of the story, and how it ends. The rest is obviously all made up. I thought about making the husband the most generous, but then I thought it would catch the reader off guard to argue that none of them were generous. Anyways, I tried to add as much dry humor as I could, but I'm tired so I don't know if I succeeded all that well! Hope you enjoyed it!

Storytelling Week 10: The Wolf Man

Michael walked through the front door after a long day of hunting in the grasslands. He was exhausted from dragging home the massive buffalo he'd shot. He placed his gun in the corner of the kitchen and walked around, looking for his wives. The old, wooden house was dark and cold.
He sighed, "They must be out with their friends... again," thought Michael. He then scavenged through the cabinets to find something to cook for dinner. All of a sudden, he went into a rage, punching in one of the cabinets which split in half and fell to the ground.
"That's it. I'm done with this," He cried aloud. "The house is disgusting, my wives don't ever clean, cook, nor do they appreciate me, and it's about time they started."
Around 10:30 that evening, his wives stumbled into the house slightly tipsy after partying and drinking with their friends all afternoon. Michael was waiting.
He stopped them and firmly stated, "We're moving. Go pack your things and have them ready to go at sunrise tomorrow."
The wives simply stared at him, nervous to say anything since they could tell their husband was upset. The wives immediately went packing, without a question as to the reason for their move.

The following day Michael and his wives travelled a hundred miles into a small cabin that sat lonely on the top of a rolling hill, out in the middle of no where. Every morning, Michael would go hunt and bring back food. In the evenings, he sat by the house at the top of the hill on a buffalo skull, watching to see where the buffalo were feeding.
The wives were finally doing their spousal duties. They were bored considering Michael had dragged them away from all their friends, so they had no other option than to keep busy by cooking and cleaning.

After three months of being out in their little country cabin, the wives began to get anxious.
"Sue, I'm bored out my mind. I hate living out here. I miss being able to hang out with all our neighbors! We always had such a blast with them, and now it's as if Michael is punishing us for our enjoyment there!"
Sue replied, "Karen, I completely agree. And honestly, Michael is starting to drive me crazy. He's so annoying, requesting us to clean and cook for him now that we have nothing else to do. Why do we need him anyways? We should just... get rid of him somehow. Then we could go back to how we were living our lives before."
For the rest of the day, the wives schemed as to how they were going to kill their husband. They decided they would dig a massive pit underneath the spot he sits every evening, then cover it so that he would fall straight in when he sat down.
It worked.
That evening, Michael fell into the hole, breaking an ankle, an arm, and a few ribs. As soon as they saw him tumble down, his wives packed up and went back to their old camp.

Michael spent the next week trapped in the hole, unable to find a way out. Severely depressed, Michael gave up trying to live, deciding he'd lay there and wait to die.
He eventually heard a whimpering, and opened his eyes to see a wolf peering down at him. It kept circling the opening of the hole and whimpering.
"Great. Now I'm going to be eaten by wolves," thought Michael. The wolf began to dig, and eventually dug to where he could reach Michael. Michael, unable to move from his injuries, was mentally prepared for the wolf to eat him. Instead, the wolf bit him by the collar collar, and dragged Michael out of the hole and all the way back to the wolf's camp.
By now, Sue and Karen had returned to their home town. They entered sobbing and wailing about how their husband got lost and died in the woods, but on the inside they were happy and relieved that they had succeeded in murdering their husband. The town was extremely sympathetic towards the two women, and adorned them with gifts of all kinds. The two wives finally had back their freedom.

A month passed, and the town's buffalo supply began to dwindle significantly. A trap was placed by the entrance to capture any animals that try to eat the buffalo. The trap had been broken.
Word was spread around the town concerning a new animal thought to live in the nearby woods... They called it the Wolf Man.
The town decided they needed to capture the Wolf Man and therefore protect their food supply.
A few men posted themselves outside the entrance to the buffalo gate, and sure enough, the Wolf Man appeared to hunt their buffalo. The men captured the beast and dragged it back to the middle of the camp.
"It's me, it's Michael!" cried the Wolf Man, "Please do not kill me!"
The men holding him down jumped up and away from the Wolf Man, partly surprised, but mostly terrified.
Michael stood up. He was a large, healthy man, and looked nearly the same with the exception of his massively large paws that had replaced his hands!
"Oh no! How could this be, I thought we'd killed him for sure!" exclaimed Sue to Karen. The two women stared at Michael, horrified, as if they were looking at a ghost.
Michael immediately began explaining to the town that his wives had attempted to kill him but he was saved by a pack of wolves.
The men that had captured Michael began to move towards Sue and Karen, both of which began screaming that Michael was lying, and they would never try to kill their husband.
But it was too late.
The men grabbed the two women, and dragged them away as they kicked and screamed. They were never seen again.

A Wolf
Source: Clipart

Author's Note: This is a retelling of "The Wolf Man" from Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915). The storyline is generally the same, except I told it from a different point of view, with more detail than in the original, and I changed it to a modern, more colonial time period. Also, I left out the part explaining what happened to Michael (who is left nameless in the original) when he got taken by the wolves. I kind of wanted to leave that a mystery for the reader in my story, but in the original, the wolves could talk. There was a blind, magical wolf who healed the man completely and gave him wolf hands and feet. So that's the story!

Storytelling Week 9: The Boy Who Laughed at Winter

Once upon a time,
In a land far away,
The warmth would not linger,
Only the cold would stay.

And in this land, there lived a boy.
Owanu was his name.
He was not too fond of the cold,
but in the snow he would linger,
For it did not frighten him away.

Owanu's friends thought,
But what's the matter?
You'll die if you stay in the winter.
But Owanu just laughed, as he always did,
And said no, I will bring back the Summer.

Owanu's friends left, and said their goodbye's
to their friend who had sealed his fate.
But Owanu was true,
He would rid of the cold,
And summer would never be late.

So he taunted the cold
With his hot fire and wood,
And said, "Try, oh Winter cold,
to get me this day."

The Winter was offended
At Owanu's cruel words,
And thought, "Oh this boy's day has ended.
I will freeze him to death, in one second flat,
Then winter will be always in season."

Then the Winter brought up
A storm so very great
That any man would have shivered in fright.
But Owanu just laughed, and he always did,
And tended to his fire deeper into the night.

Owano cried, Winter,
The fire only grows larger!
Your storm is no match for my skill.
So come into the tent,
and fight like a man,
And we'll see which of us will be killed

The Winter, so proud,
Could certainly not turn down
The challenge Owanu had made.
So with a great frozen wind
He flew right on in,
Determined to freeze Owanu.

But as Winter just stood there,
In the midst of the fire,
He felt his nose beginning to tingle.
Then as he looked down
He saw wet on the ground,
And realized that he'd be a puddle!

Winter ran out as quickly as he'd entered,
and cursed the hot fire that burned him.
But Owanu just laughed, as he always did,
Happy he'd weakened the Winter.

Owanu was sure, yes he could win,
He'd beat the bitter cold,
And the heat would move in!
So Owanu, warmed by the fire, went out,
And challenged the Winter to battle again.

The two fought on,
In the bitter ice cold,
But Owanu, so warm,
Grabbed Winter ahold.

The warmth of Owanu,
It just couldn't be beat,
The Winter had to give way.
So Owanu stood proud
In the bright morning light,
And Winter?
He ran away.

Today, we all know
The North, it stays cold,
While the South is where people stay.
This is only because,
Great Owanu, yes he,
Had frightened old Winter away.

The North Wind
Drawing by xLapinasx
Source: DeviantArt

Author's Note: This poem was based off the story "Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind" from American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned (1921). So I've written one other storytelling post as a poem and I really enjoyed it, and I got a lot of great feedback so I decided to do another! In this one, i stuck to the main story the entire way. The story is about the North Wind and the South Wind, and how they are always at odds with eachother. Shin-ge-bis and his friends are out fishing, and the South Wind decides to take a break, so the North Wind steals his chance to move in. The friends leave but Shin-ge-bis stays. That's where my poem picks up, and the story is the same from there! I changed the name of the main character to Owanu, and in the original story they mention how he laughs at everything, regardless of if anything is funny or not, and I wanted to highlight that in my poem by repeating the "Owanu just laughed as he always did." Besides that, the storyline is the same as the original. Hope you enjoyed it!