Week 9 Story: Hilary's Voice

Hilary could not believe how selfish her sisters were being. I mean, she had just booked her first world tour, its not like she was Beyoncè or anything. Melissa and Katy just wanted to mooch off of her because they did not think they were making enough at their boring jobs. It wasn't Hilary's fault that she was born with this killer voice. It wasn't her fault that she had signed a record deal when she was 21 and had had 10 chart-topping hits in the two years since. But Hilary's sisters had just come to her and seemed irritated that she had not offered to help them out. They both had kids, and Hilary knew that had to be expensive, but it wasn't Hilary's decision for them to have kids. And she was young, she did not know how long the fame would last. She needed to keep her money and make sure she could take care of herself.
Hilary was in her dressing room, taking her 30 minutes of meditation before dress rehearsal for her next show. Suddenly, she heard a low voice whisper, "My child, come to me". Hilary began shaking with fear, asking "Who is this?" The voice whispered back, "All will be revealed soon my child. But you must follow." Hilary did not know why, but she knew she must obey the whisper. She followed the sound of shuffling paws out the door and into courtyard of the hotel. There, she peered into the fountain, and saw an amazing sight- mermaids were swimming around in an underground kingdom! Hilary blinked her eyes but the image did not go away but only became more incredible. Suddenly the waters began to part, and Hilary was pulled into the fountain.
Hilary opened her eyes and found herself sitting on a throne surrounded by mermaids. All around were blue and purple towers made of shimmering shells, and fish swam freely around her. One of the mermaids swam up to her and gently said, "Our honored guest, we have prepared a feast for you. Please join us." Hilary noticed now that there were decadent trays loaded with food and drink all around her. But for some reason Hilary had a gnawing feeling in her stomach that she should be afraid. She tried to politely decline, but the merpeople became more insistent. Finally, she took a sip of a glass offered to her, and noticed a burning sensation in her throat. When she tried to tell them what was happening, no sound came out of her mouth. The mermaid who had first spoke to her came up and said, "Hilary, I am Sovana, leader of the mermaids. We saw how you were treating your sisters, and for your selfishness you have now lost your voice. Return to your land." Hilary began screaming, but no one heard it.

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Author's Note: This story is based on the Congo story The Fetish Sunga. In this story a man is a great fisherman but he does not share his fish with his family, he lets them rot in his house before he will share them with his family. Then a fetish (spirit) brings him to a lake and gives him a big feast, which takes away his voice. She does this to punish him for his selfishness. I took this story to modern times but still kept the part where she loses her voice. 

Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Week 9 Reading: Congo, Part B

-There is a sense of justice to a lot of the Congo stories, and a sense of Karma- if you harm your family or do not share what you have, then you will be punished either by fate or by some fetish or spirit. I think in a place like Africa where poverty is so widespread they have to believe in a sense of justice, and they have to believe in pooling their resources otherwise many of them would not survive. I imagine in day-to-day life family and important village members just police the village and make sure that everyone is pulling their weight, but it is more fun to think of it happening by spirits
-I wonder why Basa who seemed so afraid seemed so willing to follow the little servant. Why did he not jsut run?
-Sunga was quite dramatic in the way she punished him for not sharing his resources. She could have just made the fish disappear or just taken his voice, but instead she led him into her little lake town and gave him this big feast.
-We do not get to see how Basa reacts to having his voice gone. Was he too scared to protest? Was he furious but could not make a sound? And how did his family see it? Did they see the punishment as too harsh or fair for letting all of the fish rot?
-I like that there was a female lead in this story who took out justice on a man, that was refreshing
-It would be easy to convert this into a modern tale- it could be a family member who became a famous singer but did not share her wealth with her family, so a spirit comes and takes her voice so she can no longer sing

Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

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Week 9 Reading: Congo, Part A

The jealous wife is such a sad story, but I guess the wife deserved what she got for trying to kill the other wive's child. I imagine they lived together, and I cannot believe that a woman would murder a child that she lived with. However, Africa is a much harsher environment than here, and I cannot begin to imagine how different things are there. Another thing is that I think it would be very hard to be the elder and share a husband, and the wife must have had a lot of jealousy against the younger wife. This probably fueled her drive to murder the son. I still do not think a mother would mistake her own child for another.
At the end when they gave her the poisonous bark, I imagine it was probably as a punishment. But to me it almost seemed as if it was a mercy killing. She was never going to forgive herself for killing her own child, her life was over at that point. And her husband was never going to trust her again or see her the same after she killed their child.
Jealousy can drive people to do such terrible things. I think people get it so worked up in their heads and they create these monsters out of people when they are really innocent.
It would be very easy to retell this story in a modern setting. Maybe the two wives could be sisters and the one sister is jealous of the other sister's child, but instead of killing them she aims to ruin their chances to get into a good school by framing them for a crime. But she ends up framing the wrong child, and her child gets sent to jail. The lesson of jealousy would still be there just in a modern time.

Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Image from page 358 of "Women of all nations, a record of their characteristics, habits, manners, customs and influence;" (1908)