Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Coyote Provides Fire

This myth is very well known and not created by me. I only took a portion of the short story for the purpose of our group's facilitation. Again, I am not taking credit for this myth!
Long ago, when man was newly come into the world, there were days when he was the happiest creature of all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the willow tails, or when his children ripened with the blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod bloomed in the autumn haze.
But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more chill, and the sun's strokes grew shorter. Then man saw winter moving near, and he became fearful and unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of winter.
Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire. So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring day when he was passing a human village. There the women were singing a song of mourning for the babies and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote's neck.
"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs," one of the men was saying. "Feel how it warms the earth and makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during the winter."
Coyote, overhearing this...
Based on the elements of the "Trickster" we have discussed so far, come up with your own unique conclusion by yourself or with your row to this short story. It is completely open ended; just use the elements we have mentioned as guidelines to how you think the rest of the story goes. Post your final product with an original title onto your blog when you are finished!
My part begins here: The beginning is from the group presentation.
Coyote sympathizes with the need of humans for warmth because they lack fur. First he gives them fur, but this causes anger amongst the other animals because he took the fur from them to make human clothing. This makes Coyote ostracized and he feels hurt because he had tried to help the humans, but at the expense of others. He calls out to lightening to avenge him and causes fire to follow him as he runs which the humans are able to grasp for their use, but the animals get burned out of their homes, and Coyote is forever banished from the community and has to live on the edges of society.

1 comment:

  1. I like this- it would be interesting and fits in with combining Loki and the Coyote.

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