Week 7: A Deceiving Lake

After hunting all day to find a meal for his family, Drew had no luck capturing any meat to return home with. He stumbled upon a clear, tempting lake at the bottom of the hill he was on and could not help himself from starting down towards it. A black, glistening raven swooped down and 'cawed' right in is ear when he was about halfway down from his starting point.

"Hey! Leave me be or I will shoot you down!" shouted Drew. He took off his backpack to make sure he had his canteen. After searching through the traveling bag for a few minutes, he finally found what he was looking for. He starts his journey again but does not make it very far before the raven swoops down again, this time wrapping it's claws around the canteen and making off with it.

"What have you done! Now how shall I drink from the beautiful lake?!" questioned Drew. He became upset because he would not be able to bring food home for his children and now he had to worry about dehydration.

Suddenly, an idea struck Drew. He thought if he could spare some fish from the lake, he would have a meal for his wife and kids! The hunter emptied his backpack's contents out on the ground in front of him and was surprised to see a bowl. His wife must have placed that in  his backpack without Drew realizing. He picked up a knife to spare a fish and the bowl to drink some water. He held both items tightly close to him while hurrying towards the moving water, so the bird would not be able to take anything this time.

As Drew approached the edge of the lake, the raven zoomed down and flapped her wings around Drew's face and shoulders. He tried to swat the bird away, but forgot that he was holding a knife. A handful of feathers fell to the ground and a cry of pain followed. The raven tried to fly off but her wing was too damaged.   

Drew felt horrible because he did not mean to hurt the bird. He ran to the water and filled his bowl. As he returned to the raven he tried to give her some, but she cried out even louder than when she was cut.

"Why won't you take the water? It is so cold and it will make you feel better!" exclaimed Drew. The raven had a sad look in her eyes and Drew knew something was not right. "I'm going to spare some fish and I will give you the first one I kill!"

He rolled up his pants and walked in the stream ready to strike at the first sign of movement. He finally saw something red under a rock. As he lifted up the stone, he saw five small fish already dead. He thought this was so strange because they were small and looked healthy. He investigated more areas of the lake. He found many remains of fish and other animals. "The bird was trying to save me" Drew came to realize.

Drew returned to the raven once again and apologized. "I will take you home to my family and my wife will heal you." said the Hunter. On their trip home, Drew spotted some deer and began his hunt. He was able to feed his family after all and gained a lifelong companionship from the raven.

Author's Notes: In How the Raven Saved the Hunter, a man sees a stream and makes a cup leaf so he can drink from it. A raven comes down and knocks the leaf out of his hand to stop him from drinking. He gets upset with the raven and eventually shoots it and kills it. He feels guilty at the end because he makes the realization that the raven was just trying to save him. I did not like the heroic bird dying, so I had the raven survive in my version and the hunter still did not drink from the deadly lake. My plot was very similar to the original story, but I added some details of my own to this short tale.

Image Information: A Raven Flying Down with it's Claws Out, Web Source: Max Pixel
Bibliography: How the Raven Saved the Hunter from the Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton, Web Source: Tibetan Folktales

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk tales, Part B

While reading the beginning of the story, it is easy to imagine all of the animals interacting, but I am having to use my own imagination to picture the scenery around them. The rabbit was clever in getting rid of the tiger at the end. The second story did not have much detail for setting, but I imagined a pretty forest when the sister came to her brothers as a bird. How the Raven Saved the Hunter had a really sad ending. I wish the hunter would have considered why the raven was knocking the leaf cup out of his hand before acting so violently. The Golden Squash had a great moral to it's story, you should help people for their benefit not your own. 'Where bounding their country was one black sea' was a very beautiful sentence. I thought the author was very descriptive when describing the mountains becoming plains. The Two Little Cats contained my favorite ending from this unit. I was really surprised when the rabbit got revenge on all the other animals and the shepherd instead of just having his revenge on the bear who killed his mom. The final story's setting included many monkeys asleep in trees and that scene was very easy to imagine.

Image Information: Monkeys in a Tree, Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:  Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton, Web Source: Tibetan Folk Tales

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folktales Part A

I thought the story was off to an interesting start because a big tiger was tricked into thinking a frog could eat him. The frog was very clever and the tiger was pretty naive to tell the frog his plan to eat him in the first place. The moral of the story for The Cony Who Got into Bad Company is that you will be associated with the same qualities of those you spend your time with. I really like this meaning and I think including a strong meaning within your story makes it even better. I thought having the people who showed up to watch the silly trial pay a fee that fixed the problem in the story was very clever. I did not like how the tiger and calf allowed the fox to turn them against each other so quickly when their mother's dying wish was for them to be brothers. I thought the fox dying was a bit extreme, but I am happy that their friendship pulled through. I don't know why the man turned in the guy who saved his life for stealing the queen's jewels. I am also surprised nothing terrible happened to him in the story after doing this to the main character. The Wise Carpenter was a little harder to follow, but the ending was really strong. I thought the quote, "In birth and death there is no fear, and in fear there is no doubt" was really beautiful. I do not think Drashup deserved to live happily with the woman because he tried to kill her. I wish she would not have died in such an horrid way. "Then he tied the mouth of the bag with nine knots, blew his breath upon it, said many charms and prayers over it" was so descriptive and clever to include in the ending paragraph. In the final story, the author shares the she-devil's perspective with the reader while some characters in the story remain unaware of her true identity. 

 Image Information: Red Fox, Web Source: Wikipedia
Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton, Web Source: Tibetan Folk Tales