As the saying of " 'tain't a fit night for man nor beast" proves true, a story by the fire or other way of warming up seems appropriate. The 1924 book In the Animal World by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey has the perfect story. Her Table of Contents says it and a story following it are "Adapted from an Iroquois legend", but neither her Foreword nor Editorial Notes give her source of Iroquois folklore. Knowing how she tailors her work to be easily enjoyed by young readers and listeners, I'm going to trust her work. Nowadays it would be documented and with more time I would hunt various major resources. For now, let us enjoy the story.
My own elderly husky/malamute mix has often been mistaken for a wolf. He definitely has no interest in laying by the fire . . . Too Hot! We allow his old bones to come in and out as much as he wants, but this is what he was doing in the most recent snow squall.
That's a drowsy dog and he's not even curled up in what is called a "Siberian Swirl" where he curls up in a ball with his tail for protection over his nose and face.
Next week our temperatures in this area will bounce back up by 20 degrees after the 30 degree drop we currently have. Stay warm and enjoy stories as you join me in Keeping the Public in Public Domain!
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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain." The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century. My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them. I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.
At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience. Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week. This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here. (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.) Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection. I have long recommended it and continue to do so. He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories. There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
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