User:Alamander

Stories To The World

I'm new at Wikipedia and 'Alamander' is my screen name. The source of the name is in one of many 'grandpa' stories I wrote over the years for my too-faraway grandchildren. 'Alamander' is the lead character in one of my stories titled: 'Stories to the World' which is a chapter in my freely downloadable collection, titled 'A Grandpa's Notebook.' archived in 'Project Gutenberg' at

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2737

The online edition includes permission to freely repro copies for intergenerational and other non-commercial purposes.

I often start one of my 'grandpa' stories with a short note of encouragement to a prospective storyteller. For a story like this it might be something like this:

One way to get into storytelling is by giving your own version of a well-known folk tale, a popular myth, or one of Aesop's fables. The plots, characters and structures of these stories have been handed along from one generation to the next for centuries, and have already passed the test of time and circumstance. When you start your story or your version of a myth or legend you join a historical procession and launch yourself into the ancient, yet always new and wondrous world of the imagination.

Storytellers are occasionally asked how a particular story came to be. In this telling, the narrator presents still another version of 'Anansi and the Box of Stories', one of many West African folk tales about the source of all stories. In the myth, Anansi, the Spider-man is depicted as a mythical trickster among the Ashanti, the Wolofs, and other peoples of Ghana and West Africa.

Over the centuries, stories of Anansi's offensive behavior spread throughout the world, and generally depicted him as full of deviltry. In the well-known story about the source of all stories, Nyami, the Lord of the Sky, has a box beside him in which he keeps all the world's stories. Anansi asks Nyami for the box so that he can release the stories. Nyami agrees to give Anansi the box if he will first bring a python, a leopard, a hornet, and a creature that none can see. Anansi, the Spider-man, does so by first misleading his victims with falsehoods and then capturing them with trickery, deceit and pain.

Nyami, nevertheless true to his word, gives Anansi the box of stories and the Spider-man releases them to the world. The myth, told in this fashion, portrays a noble gift from the Lord of the Sky being given to the world through dishonesty and the abuse of creatures that are, themselves, also under Nyami's care. 'In Stories To The World' I replaced deception and entrapment with respect for life in all living things.

In my version, Alamander, a boy of the village, whose name was arbitrarily shortened from Salamander by my grandson during a story conference, has a parrot Aringabella. My grandson merely added an “a” to each end of “ring a bell.” The problem, however, was unchanged: in essence, long, long ago the people of the world had no stories.

In my telling, Nyami directs Alamander to first bring him an object that floats in the air on a gentle breeze so that Nyami can easily guide it into his private domain. Nyami's second and third requests are also for gifts that are non-violent and are to be acquired without deceit or harm to any living thing, including Planet Earth. I leave the nature of the gifts to the 'grandmas and grandpas' who are the storytellers. They use their imaginations to meet Nyami's requests, taking into account the ages and impressionability of their young audiences. The story also provides Grandma or Grandpa an opportunity to engage Grandchild in a story conference for ideas on what Nyami would like as gifts from humans.

When Alamander delivers the third gift, Nyami, the Lord of the Sky gives him the box of stories. Alamander, with Aringabella's help, lifts the box to his shoulder and climbs back down a rope ladder to the Earth. He drags the box to the middle of a meadow, and removes the heavy padlock that holds the lid in place. With Aringabella gripping his shoulder firmly and helpfully flapping its wings, Alamander lifts the lid and steps back to watch all of the world's stories rise into the freedom they deserve and to roam the world forever.

As Alamander later described the adventure to his family and friends:

'There was moment of deep silence. Suddenly, the heavy lid flew up and over, and crashed to the ground. From out of the box's shadows roared a powerful wind that whirled about and away in a cloud of dust.

'An instant later there rose from out of the box swarms and tangles of flapping wings, waving arms, running legs, grasping claws, writhing tentacles, and a horde of strange wriggling shapes, their number beyond counting. And from this twisting mass came sounds of laughing and crying, whining and humming, rustling and chattering, shouting and whispering, and snarling and hissing and howling, and even sounds for which, even now, no words can describe.

“Up and away, flying and running, strutting and crawling, staggering and marching and plodding and toddling, they cascaded over the sides of the box. Some took to the air, others ran or slid toward the forest where they disappeared into trees, shrubs and flowers, and into the burrows of tiny animals and the caves of larger beasts. They dove into the river and the sea, and dug themselves into the ground or slithered under rocks. A few raced each other across the meadow and slipped into the homes and shops of the nearby village. They took to the sky and the sea for distant places. Very soon they were everywhere.

“What did they look like? They looked like everything and anything: trolls and elves, trees and clouds, birds and people, horses and barns, airplanes and boats and spaceships and stars in the sky, and all the things that are or ever were, and also things that are not and never could be. Stories, even today, look like anything that ever happened and which might yet happen in years and centuries to come. And stories are whatever people might wish for, and things of which they are afraid.

“Soon the stories were all gone from the box in which they had been kept imprisoned until someone came along who really wanted them released. Now the stories could go wherever they wished, and to be for all time among the peoples of the world. When the stories were heard, the listeners often took them in and gave them the nourishment and shelter that stories need to be strong. In return the stories gave pleasure and knowledge and, at times, sadness and disappointment to the peoples of the world. Stories will always try to give those who listen carefully an understanding of how the Lord of the Sky means for the world to be.

“Sometimes, the stories from Nyami's box did not change, and at other times, they were changed about by storytellers to give them new meanings. Sometimes this was good; at other times, it was not good, but it's how stories are meant to be. However they are changed, all stories are gifts from the Lord of the Sky, who has many names.

“What happened to Alamander and Aringabella?

“Alamander grew from boy to man, and, in time, he married and had a family. With the wise advice of his friend, Aringabella, he became a respected elder among the people of his village.

“Often, in the evening, when the day's work was done and with his parrot perched securely on his shoulder, Alamander would lead his family to a quiet clearing along the riverbank where they would sit facing the river. They contemplated the world around them: flowers and trees, grass and rocks, and fallen leaves pushed along the ground by soft breezes. They looked out at the river and saw fish breaking the surface, and they listened to the hum of insects, the songs of birds, and the squeaking of bats. Raising their eyes, they gazed at the stars in the black velvet dome above, and they spoke their thoughts of how all these things came to be, and might yet become.

“And as they marveled, Alamander would tell again how he and Aringabella had helped to bring stories to the world, and of the wonder of the place from which the box of stories had come.

“The people of Planet Earth,” he would often say as he and his family turned toward home, “must deserve this great gift from the Lord of the Sky.