Essay Week 9: Hero Tales

This week I read the unit Hero Tales (Thompson) in the Native American section of the UN-Textbook. This unit had 8 different stories. My favorite story was the Jealous Uncle. I liked this story because the character in the story was really smart and the story was easy to read. This story was about a boy whose uncle kills all the children that his parents have that are boys. With a little help from his parents and aunt at his younger ages, the boy is able to survive. He outsmarts his uncle many times and in the end kills him to end his parents suffering. I really like stories like this. I like to see how the characters can find their way out of a sticky situation. Another story like this is Bluejay and His Companions. This has the same type of outsmarting others in it as well. My other story I really enjoyed was Dirty-Boy. This story reminds me of the book Mahabharata from Epics of India. This story has two daughters to be won by completing challenges and so does part of the Mahabharata. I like these types of stories because I like how everyone doubts the underdog. In the end the underdog finds a way to win the event and in this case gets the girl. I guess I can relate to this because in many instances in my life I have been the underdog but I normally find a way to win. I didn't really like the Dug-From-Ground story. I was kind of lost throughout this whole story and it was kind of weird how the guy came to be born.  Overall, I liked this section. I would not say that it was my favorite but it goes to the top portion of my list of readings for this class.

Native Americans Web Source: Wikimedia

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 9 Reading Diary: Hero Tales

The Jealous Uncle: There was an uncle that would kill his nephews after they were born.  The mother and aunt tried to hide the fact that the next child was a boy by dressing him like a girl and having him play with the girls. The uncle found out one day that he was a boy and planned to kill him. He had him get stuck in a split of a log and left. The boy was prepared though and freed himself.

The Jealous Uncle (cont.): The uncle tries to push the boy down a cliff but the boy has an eagle feather that he floats down with. The next day the uncle gets him sucked into a clam. The boy escapes that as well.

The Jealous Uncle (end): The uncle put the boy in a box and set him adrift in the sea. The boy washed up in eagle land. He was given to the chief’s oldest daughter. After a while the boy told his wife his story and she took him to her father. He gave him his eagle skin which would turn him into an eagle when he wore it. The boy went home and found his uncle mistreating his parents. He dropped his uncle in the sea and took him parents back to eagle land with him. 

Bluejay and His Companions: Bluejay was mean to Grouse. Grouse made a wooden seal and when Bluejay shot it, it swam away with Bluejay and his companions. They finally made it to a village after many days of paddling back. The village was not their own though. Bluejay got challenge to a climbing match by Squirrel from the village. Bluejay won and he and his companions were able to leave the village.

Bluejay and His Companions(cont.): They came to another village and Bluejay was challenged again. This time it was a diving match. With some trickery Bluejay won and was able to leave that village. They made it to another village and all 4 were challenged but they were able to win again by being clever.  They came to another village and were challenges. They tricked their way out of it and snuck away. They finally made it home. Now they make sure to be nice to Grouse. 

Dug-From-Ground: A virgin dug up a baby from roots. She would never look at him until he did two tasks. His grandmother took care of him. One day the boy did the two tasks and his mother claimed him. Later on he went back to the place of the gods and was welcomed by his in-laws. 

Dug-From-Ground (cont.): Dug wins everything back in the game of Shinny. He also makes the wildcat and Fox’s face the way they are today. He was able to shoot the white bird which no one could shoot. He was only in the heavens for a couple of days but in earthly time it was many years. 

The Attack on the Giant Elk andthe Great Eagle: A goddess’s child, Jonayaíyin, was sent to help the humans with the enormous animals. His first mission was to kill the elk. He got help from the lizard and gopher. He shot the elk in the heart and got away by using the gopher tunnels. The elk used its antlers to plough up the tunnel and made mountains. The elk finally died and he went home to his mom.

The Attack on the Giant Elk andthe Great Eagle (cont.): He now wanted to go after the eagle and his mom sent him on his way. He found the eagle and killed her with the antler of the elk. He killed the father eagle the same way. Then he struck the children on the head so they could not grow any bigger. In return for helping him down, he gave the old bat the feathers. She could not take care of them and kept getting robbed.

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away: A mother was killed and her twin boys were thrown away in different places. The boys survived and the father brought them back together. The boys brought their mother back and killed the lady that had killed their mother. They also killed the alligator.

Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away (cont.): The boys continued to disobey their father and kept killing the bad things.

The Son-in-Law Tests: A trickster tested his son in law many times trying to kill him. The man outsmarted the trickster every time and the trickster ended up being turned into a Pike.

The Jealous Father: A jealous father leaves his son on an island. The mother sent a walrus to bring him back. The father sent a storm to kill the walrus. The boy tricks the walrus into staying above water. The boy makes it to land but the walrus gets struck by lightning. 

The Jealous Father (cont.): The boy traveled towards his home and met an old lady who told him how to beat his father’s traps. He did so and made it home he ended up killing his father. He and his mother turned to birds and flew away.

Dirty-Boy: Sun and Star came to earth to gain the chiefs daughters. After all the other people had taken their shots at the eagle, Sun took his shot from his bed and killed the eagle. The chief was upset with the look of the sun aka dirty-boy and makes another challenge. 

Dirty-Boy (cont.): The sun completed the next challenge with the help of star. The chief was sad that his daughters had to marry a sickly boy but kept his word. On the way to their new soon to be husband the oldest daughter went into the Ravens house and married their oldest ugly son. The youngest continued and married the sickly boy. The next three days she helped take care of him and on the fourth day she found out that her husband was sun. He and star had transformed back into their original forms and were beautiful again.