Storytelling Week 10: Edge of Civilization

“Papa?”

“Yes, my little splinter?”

“Why are we so different from other people?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we are always alone. Our uncles and us. And we don’t exactly live like others do… in villages and such. We are always on the move. And. Well. All the other people have more children, and mothers, and wives, but it is just me and you guys. And none of you have wives, and I don’t have a mom. And then they talk about us and stare. And, and, and.”

“Hush, little splinter,” the man interrupted the child “Do not worry about it. We were chosen, that is all, you especially are a gift from the goddess. Do not fret about what the rabble are whispering about in the shadows, they simply do not understand.”

“But father, I don’t understand either”

“And it is not yet time for you to. I will tell you when you are ready. That is if you don’t figure it out yourself by then.”

He remembered the day the goddesses had blessed him with this innocent soul. He and his fellow druids were wondering about the wilds, communing with the goddess, when he was scraped on the leg by a thorn. He was in agony for months afterword. His leg had swollen so much that that he was unable to move about without aid. One day the healer among them took a spear head and sliced open the side of his leg to relieve the pressure. And from the wound had spilled the child. A beautiful girl, a gift to the men of the troop who would never marry. She was their darling and treasure, the legacy of an old forgotten religion.
“Father?”

“Yes, my splinter?”

“Why am I so different?”

“What do you mean, child?”

“I mean. I am half wild. Do not deny it. I know you take great pride in it. I can see it in your face.

I also see the men in the tribes we pass through. They stare at me with lust in their eyes, but none of them dare approach me because I scare them with my beauty and savageness. I can see the fear and dislike in the eyes of the women and elders. The curiosity in the children who are hidden in the skirts of their mothers.

It is more than just the looks. I know things that others do not. The way I live in woods, hunting and living with the animals. It goes beyond, even what you and my uncles do. And I don’t know how to explain it. It is like there is something in me that just can’t be changed.”

“Child, do not worry about it. I have told you many times of how the goddess gave you to me. That spirt you feel is a gift from them. It is not something to be ashamed of. Embrace it. It is perfectly okay for you to be like that. The only people who it should bother already understand.

Or is me and your uncles not enough for you?”

“Father, you know the answer to that. You guys are enough.

Besides, even if I wanted to be like all the other people, I don’t think I could stay among them. There will always be something just off enough that I would never quite fit in. I would always be an outcast”

“Does it matter? If you are happy where you are, stay there, if not go where you wish. You are not bound by the lives of normal men. You are blessed to be whatever you wish.”

The man watched as the child grew from an innocent babe into a fierce and beautiful woman. He taught her how to use the bow and spear. How to shape knives and hunt animals. How to live on the edge of civilization. He was there in the shadows as she talked with the wolves and the trees. He watched as she communed with the streams and stones of the wild. She grew quickly. She learned everything he and the other men had to teach, and then proceeded to either prove them wrong or teach them more as she grew. Her hunger for knowledge was insatiable and her love for the wilds uncontrollable.
“Father?”

“Humm?”

“I killed a man today.”

“Oh? And why did you kill this man? I assume there was a reason.”

“It was an accident. I think. I mean. I did not mean to kill him, not really.

He was trying to take me. He saw me and all he saw was a woman to state his desires. He grabbed me. And tore at my clothes. He was trying to violate me, and then probably justify marrying me by saying no man would want damaged goods.

And I was scared, but more than that, I was angry.

So, when he threw me to ground, I grabbed a rock and bashed it against his head. Then in my anger, I grabbed his knife and plunged it into his chest.”

“Oh, my splinter. You did the right thing”

“I know that.”

“Then why are you so distraught?”

“Because, I don’t feel bad about it. And that scares me. I do not want to be a savage, who kills without remorse. It terrifies me to think that I could kill a man and not feel anything about it.”

“Child, it is okay. The very fact that you are scared for that shows that you will be fine. Do not be scared of yourself. You are human, not a beast.”

“But”

“Child. You will be wild and untamed, it is who you are. But that fierceness does not make you a savage. Do not trick yourself into believing that.”

“But, father”

“Remember, child, you are a gift from the goddess. The person you are, is who you were meant to be. A remnant of the old religion. Where men once balanced on the edge of civilization. Do not fear yourself. Understand who you are and who you are meant to be. Do not be scared of your potential"

Wild Woman by kaelycea
DeviantArt

Bibliography: "Splinter-Foot-Girl" Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson: Source 

Authors Note: To be honest, this mostly for me to attempt to write the dreaded dialogue. Most of the story wrote itself and took me along for the ride. Parts of this story align closely with the original- like how the girl was born and raised, but all the rest are very lose interpretations. In the original the girl marries a bull then runs away and is helped by trees and other animals. I just wanted the girl be curious and independent. I think I managed to get that through. 

Reading Notes:Native American Marriage Tales, Part B

Dog Husband
Now, how can i make this really dark? Oh mother raises her children to take revenge on the village that shunned her for her rape-rape that could have been by some mechanics of the gods. Basically she raises her own army. Before then all the canines in the area were dogs-the village had killed off the wolves. Her children become wolves because they were raised savage and not by man kind. The children end up killing and eating the village as a warning from the gods to leave nature as it should be.

True Bride
nope- I want her to give birth to real animals and several more than the story-but I want them each to have the ability to turn into humans with another special characteristic. The mother gets lock away-but the husband continues to lie with her in hopes that she will eventfully conceive a good son, and that all her children-no matter how beastal, are useful to him. The children are treated well, and so is the mother despite her confinement. Step mother gets angry and decides to kill the mother, but the children each find a way to thrath her plan. The last child is born and grows up-ends up being the one to kill the stepmother and free his mother. Mother marries someone else and gives birth to a human pup- who chooses to become like his siblings- they all become gods in the end.

Mother of Wolves by MD-Arts
DeviantArt

Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson: Source 

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part A

Pipued Buffalo Wife
Princess and the frog crossed with the Minotaur
I what the man to stay dead- change the entire plot into a revenge story of the mother for taking advantage of her. Make the man fall in love with her then take that love away-when he comes to reclaim his family trick him into believing his son was helping but instead give him false hope. Make it really dark an depressing-revenge is best served cold plan

Splinter-Foot Girl
Story of the wild girl- foot stuck child- and her savage beauty. How graceful and fierce she is. Could be a story of her growing up in the on the edge of the wild asking why she is so different then other people. I want her to save herself- she kills the bull-perhaps out of need or by accident-but not because of hate-I want her to be a woman on the edge of civilization-who has nature bow to her whim. But not as an nymph or sorceress-but as someone at ease in the wild. or maybe she left of her own accord-not understanding marriage then when the bull chased her she killed him. I want her to be strong and independent- but slightly off in her reactions and understandings of the human world.

Eagle and Whale Husbands
 two sisters abandoned in the forest. They fall asleep together but awaken in different  places- one in the heights one on the coast- each taken by two different men. The girls grow up separated but always yearning for one another company. Well cared for and educated. They eventually die and become spirits of the wind- an ocean breeze and the warm breeze. Finally they reunite on the coast as a hurricane.

Wind Elemental by HoiHoiSan
DeviantArt

Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson: Source 

Storytelling Week 9: Raven's Lament

They say the world is like a painter’s canvas, blank and empty, awaiting an artist touch to bring out the beauty calling from its expanse. This could not be truer than the world at its beginning. Then, the ground was only white where it was cold and brown where it was warm. The sun and moon shown upon an empty flat world. There was no life. However, it was world balanced on the edge of a blade, awaiting the right touch to fall into either absolute desolation or incomprehensible beauty. The day came where the world shifted, changing from its static circumstance just slightly enough. In the gaze of the moonlight formed a creature of shadows. It was like an ink dot upon unblemished parchment. Its feathers glimmered iridescent, throwing off colors not yet seen upon the world until then: blues, purples, and shimmering greens. Here was the raven, the first life upon an awaiting world.

As the raven took flight, he noticed there was nothing but flat empty expanse around him. It mattered not how long or far he flew. The only change was the shifting of brown to white upon the flat ground. After a time, the novelty of life wore off, and the raven decided to change its surroundings, he shifted into a form that allowed him to mold the world as he pleased. Then, he took up the earth and began to mold them into hills and mountains. He created great peaks and gentle hills, and where he took from the earth, ravines and canyons formed. As he continued his self-appointed tasks, water began to pool where previously it had only run unimpeded, turning into lakes and oceans. When the raven saw this, he was amazed, for he did not know that the rain that fell from the sky bright color beyond that of the sky. Now, the world was no longer flat, but the raven was still not pleased.

He saw the pale blues and soft greens the water had brought to the world. He sought to bring more color to the earth aside from that of the sky and of the ground. He started near the oceans. There he tore up the sand into fine particles where they were bleached by the sun, turning pale yellow. Then he went to the canyon. There at sunset each day, he took the colors of the falling star and painted them onto the side of the walls. He stole pieces from the rainbow and planted them into the ground, and there formed gems of every shade. Still, the raven was not satisfied. He went out and made grass grow upon the empty plains. Fauna that waved in the winds with colors from amber to emerald green. He shaped wild flowers of every species, from those that shown yellow to those that warned away with gleaming red. Even then, the raven was restless. His world was still incomplete. He continued to create. From his mind spouted great trees and creeping vines.

It is from one of this vines, that the world shifted once more. One vine continued to grow beyond what the raven expected or indeed knew, for he was busy elsewhere. As the vine reached maturity, a man stepped out from its bursting seeds. Curious, he began to explore the vibrant world in which he had been born. It took many days for the raven to return to this corner of the world, but when he did, he was greeted with the sight of man. curious the raven alighted in front of him and asked,

“Who are you?”

Raven by DoodleWithGlueGun
DeviantArt

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911): source

Author's Note: I was inspired to write this story by the raven story about creation. I wanted to know what it was like for the raven before man sprouted from the vine. Granted in the original the raven had not created mountains  until later, or many other things that I attribute to him. It was interesting to me that the raven had such power of creation, but it took until man came out that he began to make animals. I suppose in my mind he did not know he could, because he was not aware that anything could work that way, he does not see himself as a animal but a part of the world.   

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends, Part B

The first woman
I would prefer this story not to cumulate with the rending of a woman into multiple parts and thus killing her. It would be more interesting for men to fight over her in battle or make it into a similar situation as Solomon and the two woman- with the one who loves her the most sis willing to giver her up to deep her alive . It would also be interesting if she were a goddess who ends up making two separate women based on what the men valued the most-dancing or stitching to each.

 Land of the dead
reminds me of Dante's Inferno- people are punished in similar forms of the sin and those who they met or inspired by in life are
guides upon the path. It would be interesting to make a path for myself or a beloved character and see where they end up in the path of the dead-like harry potter seeing Voldemort having seven different punishments happening at the same time or Bella being tormented incessantly

Which Way by Mike Coates
public domain pictures 

Bibliography:Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911): source

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends, Part A

Raven Myth
Aspects i want to keep: ability to transform into a man, association with shadows, ability to create living beings, making things to balance out human deeds, and so add to the bland world

possible story: raven sprang from shadows in a fully formed world-but it was like a blank canvas in a way- as he lived in the snowing north- and he began to create color to fill it- men still sprung from the seeds of his plants- he was lonely before man appeared- first words are "who are you"-
I want the mood to be dismal but beautiful
adding colors like brown or green or reds and pinks of flowers- colorful driftwood fire

another one i could write is how the raven is seeing the world today- and his despair at the ignorance of humans and how he has no more power to changed the world because his power came from the blank canvas of the world and we have used it all up with our own decorations or he is gradually corrupted by men -no longer caring as much for nature and slowly becoming more savage and less kindly- all his care for nature vanishes

or how he left Alaska and went to Australian having given up on the men of the tundra- and that is why there are all the weird animals down there- because he was trying to make a place where the animals would be safe from men who hunted them

Fantasy Raven by arnevierlinger
pixabay

Bibliography:Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911): source