Storytelling Week 12: The Hatter

There was once this man, he was kind of crazy or maybe you could call him mad. He loves his hats but actually they are not his hats at all. He just makes them and keeps them to eventually sell. He is known as the Hatter but many call him the Mad Hatter. I do not think you should label anyone for their craziness so I will call him the Hatter. If you did not know, when Alice went to see the Hatter, he and his companions were stuck at tea. They had been having their tea party for many days but could not seem to stop. Alice asked him why and he mentioned that he had upset Time. He was good friends with Time but when the Hatter had to sing for the Queen she accused him of killing time and now the poor Hatter is stuck at 6 o’clock. Too bad Alice never got to see the Hatter and Time interact. They were the best of friends. They spent almost all hours of the day together. One day the Hatter had to make hundreds of hats for the people of Wonderland so that they could attend the Queen’s hat party. If he did not finish the hats the queen would surely take off his head. He was freaking out and rambling about why is a raven like a writing desk. Time came to him and told the Hatter to calm down and tell him why he was acting mad. The Hatter told him about all the hats he had to make and that there was just not enough time to get all the hats made. Time chuckled at the Hatter. This confused the Hatter and caused him to go crazier. All of the sudden all time seemed to stop around the Hatter. The Hatter even thought he had gone crazy. He looked at time and asked him what he had done. Time told him he paused the time at 9:00 am so that he would be able to make all of the hats. The Hatter thanked Time over and over and promised to repay him however Time wanted. Time told the Hatter that e could repay him by never messing up time and if he did he would stick the Hatter at tea time for many months. The Hatter agreed to those terms and also added in a hat for Time that had clocks all over. Since the Hatter was killing time at the queen’s concert, he is now stuck at tea time until Time feels like releasing him.  

 

Author's Note: This story is from the Alice in Wonderland unit. I thought this would be a great unit to read since I went as the Mad Hatter for Halloween as you can see in the picture. This story comes from the Mad Tea Party stories. The Hatter tells about how he and time used to be good friends until he was killing time while singing at the concert. I took that and added all the back story to their friendship. 

Bibliography: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 

Web Source: UN-Textbook

 (Myself dressed as the Mad Hatter)

Storytelling Week 11: Two Brothers and a Mean Queen

There was once this boy, a prince actually, named Tom. Tom lived in a grand castle. His life was great until his mother past away. He and his father grieved for a while. Being the king, his father had to have a queen. He found a new wife easily.  Tom was happy to have a new mom. She loved him just like her own son. Soon after the weeding the new queen had a son with the king.  Tom loved his brother, Bob, and could not have been happier. He promised to always protect and be there for his brother. The brothers grew up side by side and were always playing. 

One day, the queen realized that her son would not be the next king but instead Tom would be the king. She became jealous of Tom. She started treating him badly and paying him no attention. The day finally came where the queen could no longer take the fact that her son would not be the king. She started thinking of ways to change this outcome. Many ideas crossed her mind but she decided she would poison Tom. If Tom was dead then Bob would be next in line to become king. She told the cooks to put a small amount of poison in Tom’s drink. Bob overheard his mom and the cook talking. He ran to Tom and told him his mom’s plan. Tom took the advice and did not drink his drink at dinner. He instead poured it out. 

The next day, the queen thought for sure that Tom would not wake up. About that time Tom and Bob showed up for breakfast. The queen did not understand how tom was still alive. She went to the cook and confronted him. The cook said maybe since the poison was only a small amount the poison had no effect on Tom. The queen told the cook to put a higher dose of poison in Tom’s drink. Bob overheard this conversation as well. He ran to Tom again and warned him. This time Tom kept the drink but did not drink the drink. Tom knew that the queen would stop at nothing to get him out of the way. He went to Bob and told him that he was going to run away. Bob said he wanted to go but Tom told him he should stay. After a lot of convincing, Tom allowed Bob to join him and they both ran away together. 

 The Two Boys Grown Up

Web Source: UN-Textbook

Author's Note: This story is from The Ridere of Riddles in the More Celtic Fairy Tales unit in the UN-Textbook. This is basically just the beginning of the story. I kept the main parts of the story the same. Like the queen trying to kill him and her being his step-mom. I did add in the names and her thinking of ideas to kill him. In the original story, we do not know the names and the queen just decides poison. I also added in the part of Tom telling Bob to stay. In the original story, the two boys just run away.   

Bibliography: More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Web Source: UN-Textbook

Storytelling Week 10: Kut-O-Yis

There was once this village that was run by a man. He took over the village when he married his father-in-law’s daughters. The father-in-law knew that it was his time to give up his position. So he happily gave the position to his new son. The son took care of his new parents for a while. He eventually got tired of taking care of them and started mistreating them. He made his father-in-law help him hunt but would not give him any meat to eat. The father-in-law was able to sneak a blood clot of a buffalo one day and rushed home. By the time he got home a baby boy had formed from the clot. They named the boy Kut-O-Yis. Kut-O-Yis grew very quickly and was a man within a few days. He noticed that his parents did not have much food to eat. This upset him because he saw that the son-in-law had plenty of food. The next day Kut-O-Yis took his father to hunt. The son-in-law showed up and was angry with his father-in-law. They had a battle but neither could win so the father-in-law called to Kut-O-Yis for help. Kut-O-Yis did come to help and killed the son-in-law for the mistreatment of his parents. Kut-O-Yis also punished his sisters for not helping their parents. He did take it easy on the youngest though because she did give a little meat here and there. 

Kut-O-Yis knew that he had a great gift. He was strong and smart. He decided he wanted to go and help other people that were being mistreated. He was told of a village not far from his own. He traveled there and saw a beautiful lodge in the middle of the village. Instead of going to that lodge, he went to a smaller not so nice lodge. Some old women welcomed him and brought him food and water. The food they gave him was some of the worst meat you could have off of the buffalo. He asked the elderly ladies why they did not provide him with better food. They told him because the bear chief that lived in the beautiful lodge took the best meat from the entire village and left everyone with the worst. This infuriated Kut-O-Yis. He decided the next day to kill a big buffalo and hang it up outside the old ladies lodge. Later that day, the bear chief sent his daughter to collect the best meat. When she saw Kut-O-Yis buffalo she knew she had to take it. She walked over and started to take the buffalo down. Kut-O-Yis walked out and smacked her on the head. He told her she could not have the buffalo. She ran home crying to her father. The whole bear family came to destroy Kut-O-Yis for disrespecting the little girl bear. Kut-O-Yis was stronger than the bears and killed the entire family except the little girl bear. Instead, he let her go so she could populate the world with more bears. His smack on her head knocked the knowledge of knowing bears could be chief out of her head so that they could never be leaders of a village again. Kut-O-Yis continued his journey to defeat all things evil. By the end of his journey he defeated 7 evil beings. 

 

Blackfoot Tipis (Lodges) 

Web Source: UN-Textbook

Author’s Note: This story is from the Blackfoot Stories unit in the Native American section of the UN-Textbook. This particular story is based on Kut-O-Yis, The Blood Boy. I told this story to follow almost exactly how the story is told. I thought the story was so great that I didn’t need to change much. I did however add the part about how Kut-O-Yis’ smack knocked the knowledge out of the bear. In the original story he does hit her on the head and she does get away. He says in the story that he let her go to populate the world with bears. I thought that since bears are not village leaders that it would be a nice touch to say Kut-O-Yis made that happen. 

Bibliography: Blackfoot Stories by Grinnell. Web Source: UN-Textbook

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

Week 7 Storytelling: The Boys and the Farmer

There was once this little boy and his older brother. They loved wonder out of town to go hunt. They found this field where they could hunt small game all they wanted. After they got their fair share they would play games like “who could shoot that bird flying.” They did this day after day for many weeks. After a while the small game started to disappear so the boys started looking farther into the field. They found a flock of chickens and decided to take one a day so that the flock would not disappear. The owner of the chickens realized his chickens were disappearing. He decided to watch over his chickens the next day. He found the two brothers coming after his chickens and told them that they owed him for the chickens they had already taken. The two brothers had nothing to give but the farmer really liked the boy’s leather vest. The vests were not big enough for the farmer. So he told them that if they made him a vest he would let them go. The oldest brother told the farmer he would need some leather to make the vest. The younger brother said he was hungry and that they would not make them until they got some food. The farmer took the two boys home and killed a cow. The farmer made some steaks for the boys and gave them the cow hide to use for the vest. The boys ate until they felt full. Then the oldest brother started making the vest. When he was done the farmer was very pleased and wanted to try it on right away. The oldest brother helped him put it on but told him to stay in the sun for the rest of the day to let the cowhide cure. The boys headed home as fast as they could and the farmer stayed outside in the sun the rest of the day. By the end of the day the cowhide had shrunk and turned to leather. The vest shrunk so much that the farmer was uncomfortable and could not get it off. He knew the boys had tricked him into giving them food for a vest that would cause him pain. He went home and his wife cut the vest off of him. He knew that he had to find a way to get back at the boys and he started plotting. 

Flock of Chickens

Web Source: Wikimedia

Author’s Note: This story is based off of the story Adventuresof a Jackal from African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books. The original story is about a jackal and a hedgehog that trick a panther into killing a cow in exchange for a pair of shoes. They all eat the cow then the jackal makes the shoes and tells the panther to leave them in the sun all day. The shoes get hard and hurt the panther’s feet. The jackal and hedgehog run away while the panther is unable to follow them. I thought I would make the story about humans instead of animals and what you have read is what I came up with. I hope you liked it.

 Bibliography: African Stories from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. Web Source: UN-Textbook