Storytelling

Whenever I come across myth stories, I collect them. I do not remember at what age I started collecting and saving these myth stories on my laptop, but I do remember I had a bunch of them saved up on my laptop before it was stolen in an unfortunate event. I only have a few in my current laptop – for now. I do not collect them for academic reasons – I collect them simply because they make great stories.

When I was young – and this was way before we moved to New York – one of my favorite past-time activities is sitting on my mother’s lap while listening to her storytelling. Whenever my mother came up with a story, she would call my brothers and me, and we would bring to her a wooden rocking chair and a hand-fan. My mother likes telling stories in her wooden rocking chair while fanning herself with a hand-fan – and I think she still likes telling stories that way. I don’t remember if we had children books at home but even if we did, I still would have preferred the stories my mother came up with. The stories my mother has often narrated are fables, where she would often include talking-animals. Out of all the other tales I heard from my mother, my favorite one is “The Golden Star Fruit Tree.” The tale describes an elder brother who inherited all the money from the father while his younger brother was left with nothing except a star fruit tree, and what happened around the star fruit tree:

Once upon a time, there was a very rich man who lived in a village. When he died, he left his two sons a huge fortune. But the two brothers were entirely different.

The elder was greedy, but the younger was very kind. After the parents’ death, the elder claimed the fortune and left his younger brother a star fruit tree (a very productive tree that gives sour fruit). The younger brother took good care of his tree, watering it every day and hoping it would give him lots of fruits, so that he could make a living by selling them. The elder brother, on the other hand, was so happy with his inheritance that he had nothing to worry about.

One day, the wife lamented, “Poor us. As poor as we are, the only thing we count much on was what that star fruit tree brings us; now look, this bird ate them all. We will probably know starvation.” Miracle! The raven upon hearing those lamentations, perched down and replied in a human voice, “Star fruits I eat, with gold I pay, be ready with a three-foot bag and follow me to get it.” Afraid, the woman ran in the hut to look for her husband. They discussed and decided to sew the bag according to the indicated size, waiting for the return of the bird. A few days later, the bird came back, ate all the star fruits, and then got down from the tree to invite the husband to take a seat on its back with the bag. Then they disappeared together in the horizon.

Frightened, the younger brother closed his eyes. The bird took him very far before landing on a deserted island – an island full of precious stones. He was free to take whatever he could. He filled the bag and the raven took him back to his home. From then on, the couple became wealthy and lived in luxury places. They often gave help to the poor. On the commemoration of his parents’ death, the couple invited the elder brother to come over. The elder brother and his wife were surprised to see the younger couple’s opulence and wealth. Curious, the elder skillfully tried to penetrate the mystery. His younger brother, honest and frank, did not hesitate to tell him the story of the giant raven that took him to look for gold.

The elder couple proposed an exchange of their fortune for only the hut and the star fruit tree. The younger agreed. One day, the raven came back to eat the star fruits and gave the same recommendation, “a three-foot bag to go looking for gold.” The elder, greedy and curious, brought with him two big six-foot bags and when on the island, filled them with gold. On the way back, burdened by the overweight of of the two bags, the raven who could not hold any longer, swayed and sent the elder to the sea, where he drowned. The elder was the object of much despise when people knew about his greed and stinginess.

Because myth stories were originally developed as an oral tradition, there isn’t one single authoritative version recorded and preserved forever in an unchanging form; these myth stories, instead, are often subjected to change and are circulated in many variants. These stories sometimes express a glimpse of a particular culture – like the part about the star fruit tree, which is native in East and Southeast Asia – but I think what make these stories so appealing, at least to me, is the oral tradition, as well as their storytelling elements. I didn’t pay much attention to the genre of those stories, but the physical closeness and spending time with her were such a real pleasure.

– Jason

P.S. For the link to the story, click here.