Storytelling Week 9: My Jealous Uncle

Come, gather around, and sit down children. I will tell you the story of my uncle. Before I was born, I had many brothers born to my parents but every time my parents had a son my uncle would find a way to kill them. My parents could not stop him for he was the tribe leader at the time and made all the rules. My parents got tired of their sons being killed and talked my aunt into telling my uncle that I was a girl. My parents dressed me as a girl and had me play with all the girls in the village. For all I knew I was a girl. This lasted for many years until one day I showed my uncle all my muscles. I did not know it was a secret that I was a boy. My uncle knew he had been tricked and decided that he had to kill me. My aunt warned my parents that my uncle was going to take me away the next day. My parents wanted to run away with me but I told them that a life of running was no way to live. They told me it was my decision to make. I asked them for all of my siblings’ toys. They gave me a box. In the box I found a piece of a knife, some eagle-down, and a sour cranberry. I had no idea how these items would help save me but I knew my siblings’ spirits would help me. The next day, my uncle asked me to help him gather wood from the forest. I followed him for a very long distance until we came to a huge log. He started hammering wedges into the log. He “accidentally” dropped one of the wedges into the split he had made. He asked me to lean in and grab the wedge. When I leaned in he removed the other wedges and the log closed on me. I was frightened at first. Then I realized this is like the mouth of the log so I rubbed the sour cranberry on it and it opened right up. I made it back home with the wood, much to my uncle’s surprise. He tried many other ways to kill me but I found a way to survive every time. The last time he tried to kill me, I met my wife. I eventually I returned home and found him mistreating my parents. This upset me so I took him far out to sea and threw him into the water. I gave him a small chance to survive like he had done for me. He was not able to make it back to shore and drowned.  There you go children, that is the story of my horrible uncle. 

Yupik Mother and Child 

Web Source: UN-Textbook

Author’s Note: I read Hero Tales this week. I wrote this story from the story The Jealous Uncle. I wrote this story from the boy’s point-of-view. I thought this would be a nice way to retell the story but also give a little more detail to parts of the story. I kept all of the details from the story the same I just added a couple of parts like his parents wanting to run away.
 Bibliography: Hero Tales by Stith Thompson. Web Source: UN-Textbook