Bailey - How Drakestail Went to the King - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I've a program coming up where the audience requested stories about Farm Animals for Harvest season. They want me to start with "Stone Soup" and I plan to end with the "Bremen Town Musicians." Beyond that I began to list all the farm animals that came to mind. The last of ten animals I remembered were ducks and geese. 

With more possibilities than I have time to tell, I will use another favorite way to select my stories. I will write each animal and a story for it on slips of paper. Then they go into an open-mouthed container. For Halloween it would be a cauldron. This time it will be an old cast iron cooking pot. The audience pulls out a strip to determine each story I will tell.

While planning this I mentioned I had not yet looked up a story for ducks and geese to my friend and storytelling colleague, Priscilla Howe. Right away she had a favorite, "Drakestail" and even has a YouTube video of her telling it. 

Hmmm. That sounded interesting, but of course I wanted to prowl a bit further. Along the way I found even more versions of the story such as this picture book version

Denise McGill had created an alphabet book of fairy tales with Drakestail for the letter "D."

Beyond that,of course, Wikipedia has a brief article on it, including noting its use of repetition. I love to use repetition as a method of audience participation. Beyond those resources I was sure such a traditional tale would be found in Public Domain. I was right and found a version by Andrew Lang in his Red Fairy Book and another in The Fairy Ring by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith. Those are indeed favorite authors, but it was Carolyn Sherwin Bailey's version in Once Upon a Time Animal Stories I liked the best. Her background as a storyteller shows why it will tell the best.

I'm giving it here, but looking at all those versions guarantees I'm going to incorporate ideas from more than just Bailey.  

HOW DRAKESTAIL WENT TO THE KING.

---

Once upon a time there was a wee little duck, with a very long tail, so he was called Drakestail. Now, Drakestail had some money of his very, very own, and the king asked if he might take it. So Drakestail loaned all his money to the king.

But the king kept Drakestail’s money for a year and a day, and still he did not send it back. Drakestail said he would go to the king and bring back the money himself.

So off he started, one very fine morning, for the king’s house. The sun was shining on the ponds, and Drakestail waddled along in the middle of the road, feeling very fine. As he traveled, he met a fox, and the fox said, “Where do you go this fine morning, Friend Drakestail?”

“To the king,” said Drakestail, “for he owes me money.”

“I will travel along with you,” said the fox.

“Ah,” said Drakestail, “your four legs would soon tire. Come along with me this way,” and he opened his wee little bill very wide, and down his wee little throat went the fox.

Then Drakestail traveled on a little farther. As he went he came to a ladder lying beside the road.

“Where do you go this fine morning, Friend Drakestail?” asked the ladder.

“To the king,” said Drakestail, “for he owes me money.”

“I will travel along with you,” said the ladder.

“Your wooden legs would soon tire,” said Drakestail. “Come along with me this way,” and he opened his little bill very wide, and down his wee little throat went the ladder.

Then Drakestail traveled on a bit farther until he came to his friend, the river, lying and glistening in the sunshine.

“Where do you go this fine morning, Friend Drakestail?” asked the river.

“To the king, for he owes me money,” said Drakestail.

“I will travel with you,” said the river.

“You would soon tire if you ran so far, my friend,” said Drakestail. “Come along with me this way.” He opened his wee bill very wide, and down his wee little throat went the little river.

Then Drakestail traveled and traveled until he came to the king’s house. Now Drakestail thought that the king would meet him at the gate, so he called out very loudly:

“Honk! Honk! Drakestail waits at the gate.”

But the king did not come out to meet him. Who should appear at the gate but the king’s cook, and the cook took Drakestail by his two little legs and flung him into the poultry yard. The other fowls, who were ill-bred birds, ran up to Drakestail and bit him, and jeered at his large tail. It would have gone very badly with Drakestail, but he called to his friend, the fox:

“Reynard, Reynard, come out to the earth,

Or Drakestail’s life is of little worth.”

So the fox came out, and he ate up all the ill-bred fowls in the king’s poultry yard. But still Drakestail was badly off. He heard the king’s cook putting the broth pot over the fire.

“Ladder, ladder, come out to the wall,

Drakestail does not wish to be broth at all,”

he cried. So the ladder came out and leaned against the wall, and Drakestail climbed over in safety. But the king’s cook saw Drakestail and set out after him. He caught poor Drakestail and clapped him into the broth pot, and hung him over the fire.

“River, my sweetheart, put out this hot fire,

The flames that would cook me rise higher and higher,”

cried Drakestail. So the river put out the fire with a great noise and sputtering, which the king heard. And the king came running to the kitchen.

“Good morning to you, King,” said Drakestail, hopping out of the broth pot, and making a very low bow, “are you through with my money, which you have kept for a year and a day?”

“That I am, Drakestail,” said the king. “You shall have it at once.”

So the king gave Drakestail the money that he owed him, and Drakestail waddled home again to tell of all his travels.

*************

As I said I liked the repetition and definitely plan to have Drakestail  travel along with a waddle, waddle, waddle throughout the story. I'm not sure I'll use the comments in verse, but certainly plan to have the fox, the ladder and the river each have personalities. Now on to making strips with stories for each of those other animals.

 

*************************** 

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 20^th 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 them.

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.

See the sidebar for other Public Domain story resources I recommend on the page “Public Domain Story Resources."

 

 

An Email Conversation on Memorization and Storytelling

 

Fellow storyteller, Priscilla Howe, has a blog called More Storytelling Notes and her article "On Storytelling and Memorization" sparked an online conversation between the two of us.  First go to that link and then think a bit about it.  This is what I emailed her: 

Oh I definitely agree!  I've seen some of those who memorize get hopelessly stuck.  At the same time, my years of storytelling this way has caused me HUGE difficulties when I started to return to my background of theatre.  I'm doing it as a mental discipline while pampering my inner ham. I also prefer supporting roles to avoid letting my fellow actors down if I can't regurgitate it 100%.  (My theatre training said you should listen to your colleagues, but I find some -- if they were storytellers they'd definitely memorize! -- expect that 100%.)

I believe in storytelling.  It's alive and adapts to its audience.  At the same time I know there were some societies, like the Druids, who believed in memorization to guarantee passing a story unchanged through the ages.

At the same time I'm finding some of historical storytelling needs me cheating a bit to guarantee (a) getting all the topic into the presentation and (b) getting facts presented accurately.

I'd love a way for you to "guest" on my blog on this topic, Priscilla. 

I was never paid for my memorization (maybe I'd have grown to love it), but my mom, too, loved to spout bits from her own memory including that RLS couplet.  I'm still trying to figure out what in her youth prompted her to exclaim with delight "the old man spilled his bag of gold!" upon seeing a lawn scattered with dandelions.  I'm attaching a poem from Annette Wynne's For Days and Days; A Year-Round Treasury of Child Verse.  It was published in 1919, so it would have been a recent book when she was in grade school.  Still that ending couplet of "Miser, miser, here's God's gold, Gather some before you're old!" seems to have problems with being both memorable enough AND it's about gathering, not spilling.

LoiS(earching & wishing I'd asked her to say more)

This was that poem (with a bonus poem on the same first page):

To which she responded:

Thanks for the comments, and for the poem. My mother had vast quantities of poetry floating around in her brain, but it was not always accurate.

On a totally different note, she would sing "Wilberforce, get off your horse, and bring him in to lunch!" but no other verses. Do you know that song? There are SO many things I wish I could ask my mother now.

I've been doing a presentation for Humanities Kansas that is about 3/4 storytelling and 1/4 lecture. For that, I do use notes. Facts don't stick in my head as well as stories do. I think that's why I don't do many historical pieces. When I tell a story I wrote about the Siege of Leningrad, I always have to go over and over the specific facts, and still wonder if I've bungled them.

I'd be happy to be a guest blogger. Do you want to use this Substack post, or something new?

Be well!

Priscilla

Learn about my programs, recordings and calendar on my website. You can also read my blog and sign up for my Substack newsletter there. You'll find lots of videos on my youtube channel.

Our conversation continued 

Oh, Priscilla, I know exactly what you mean about wishing you could talk to your mother yet again.  Where's a true time machine that would permit that?  As storytellers we do the best we can, but always know it's imperfect.

I definitely agree that I, too, need ways to see notes relating to facts.  I've found ways to do it as a reporter in my Prohibition program and as a school teacher in my One Room School program.  My WWI Hello Girl program, because I have the audience hold up photos (also in the Prohibition program) has me look at notes.  My Underground Railroad/Civil War program has me study beforehand like a spy learning a cover story!  I'm getting my plans together for a woman who led a Minute Women's group and can't think of a way to "cheat."  Spy style learning will probably have to return & that's so tough.  I think it's on a par with what you say about your Siege of Leningrad story.

I've been thinking about how we can do this.  My blog has stayed print rather than podcast, but it can always take a link and embed it.  That's how we could use your Substack post, by printing the article, mentioning it's followed by the minute-long Jabberwocky and giving a plug to your Substack blog.  Beyond that I guess it's my comments and yours from these emails.  I'd love to find a way to break them up more like a conversation, but I guess calling it An Email Conversation On Storytelling and Memorization is the best we can do.  Brief intro to your post then our emailed reactions.

Your further thoughts on this?  You ask about "something new" and admit I'm open to it, but this is where my head sees it currently.

LoiS<MILE> & well wishes your way, too

Oh, Priscilla, I know exactly what you mean about wishing you could talk to your mother yet again.  Where's a true time machine that would permit that?  As storytellers we do the best we can, but always know it's imperfect.

I definitely agree that I, too, need ways to see notes relating to facts.  I've found ways to do it as a reporter in my Prohibition program and as a school teacher in my One Room School program.  My WWI Hello Girl program, because I have the audience hold up photos (also in the Prohibition program) has me look at notes.  My Underground Railroad/Civil War program has me study beforehand like a spy learning a cover story!  I'm getting my plans together for a woman who led a Minute Women's group and can't think of a way to "cheat."  Spy style learning will probably have to return & that's so tough.  I think it's on a par with what you say about your Siege of Leningrad story.

Your further thoughts on this?  You ask about "something new" and admit I'm open to it, but this is where my head sees it currently.

LoiS<MILE> & well wishes your way, too

Priscilla:

Oh, yes, the spy cover story! In fact, my uncle wrote backstories for German spies who had been "turned" by the Americans, and who were being sent back into Germany. He wrote a novel about his experiences, Call it treason, which was made into the movie Decision before dawn. I've been thinking about telling his story, and the story of a cousin on the other side of the family who was in the French resistance in WWII (caught, almost hanged, saved at the last moment!), and my great-aunt and great-uncle who were in WWI (one a nurse and the other a pilot). One of these days...And of course, the pressure to keep to facts is intense. 

Here are a few more points:

Though I don't memorize, when I've told the same story hundreds of times, it tends to come out almost the same every time.

One of the benefits of not memorizing is that I can personalize it to the audience or location. For example I mention the local co-op when I tell The ghost with the one black eye (a story I heard from my good friend Mike Rundle, who worked at said co-op for decades).

Maybe we could ask readers if they memorize, and if they do, what they prefer about that way.

Just mullling.

Priscilla

Lois: 

Some great history lurking in your past!

Talking about expanding the conversation, telling often on a story (as opposed to those factual tales) I find tends to simplification a la the great story synthesizer, Pleasant DeSpain.

As for personalizing (singing:) Aaaa-men, AMEN! AMEN.  I dearly love it's freedom to match the audience and also incorporate things happening which would be a distraction if using memorization.

The audience response is worthwhile, giving another viewpoint.  I confess it's no longer for me after finding the benefits of telling.  To my mind it's a straitjacket or a support that can't be trusted.

LoiS(melling the mulled thoughts & like mulled cider, I like it)

********

So this is where we ask for reactions.  Do you memorize?  Why do you prefer memorization?

This blog offers some limited options to reply here.  I also mention it each week on Facebook and will be posting about it on Storytell, the email list for storytellers.

 

 

 

 

Priscilla Howe - Nasruddin Hodja Is Warmed by Moonbeams

 

Today's story is NOT Public Domain.  It's graciously been shared by friend and storytelling colleague, Priscilla Howe and her publisher, Parkhurst Brothers.  

It's no secret I'm a HUGE fan of Hodja stories, publishing about him seven times before this.  Sometimes he may have another name, like Goha in Egypt or the Mullah in Iran, but this trickster or "wise fool" is popular throughout the Middle East and beyond.  Priscilla had the wonderful experience of spending five months in Bulgaria on a Fulbright Scholarship collecting their folklore, which is little known in English-language folklore resources.  I asked if there was any way to share something from her book, Clever, Kind, Tricky & Sly.  This story is the result.  I'll say more after it.  We'll leave the bragging to the Hodja.

Nasruddin Hodja Is Warmed by Moonbeams

One day in the village square, Nasruddin Hodja was bragging about how easily he could stand the cold. “I’m so tough, I could sleep in that tree tonight with no blanket, no fire, nothing to warm me but the clothes I’m wearing now.”

The villagers laughed. “We bet you can’t, Hodja, you’re just talking.”

“A bet? You’re on. Tonight, I’ll sleep in the tree.”

He climbed the tree that evening and slept all night on a wide branch. In the morning, the villagers were surprised.

“How did you manage?”

“Easy, I just watched the full moon.”

“Ha! You lose the bet! You had the warmth of moonbeams!”

The next week, the Hodja invited all of those who had bet against him to dinner at his house. This was a rare occasion, as the Hodja was usually reluctant to feed so many friends. Everyone came, crowding into the Hodja’s house. They waited and waited for the meal to be served, but they couldn’t even smell food cooking.

After an hour, one spoke up, “Hodja, did you invite us for a meal? Will there be food?”

“Oh, yes, I’m cooking the rice now. Let us check on it.” They went to the kitchen, where there was an enormous iron pot of water, with maybe twenty rice grains in the bottom, hung over a small candle.

“Hodja! That candle will never heat the water!”

“Right. And moonbeams never warmed a man in a tree on a cold winter’s night.”

Storyteller's Note: I know this story best as a tale from Ethiopia called Fire on the Mountain, in which a poor man watches a fire on a distant mountain to keep himself warm all night.

From Clever, Kind, Tricky, and Sly: A Bulgarian Folktale Sampler by Priscilla Howe. Parkhurst Brothers Publishers, 2021. Available at bookshop.org, Amazon and by special order from your favorite independent bookstore (bookshop.org supports indie shops).

Oh, Priscilla!  Here in the extreme heat of this summer it's great to enjoy that look back at the difficulty of getting warm in winter.

Like Priscilla, I remember the Ethiopian version, but also recall this popular story idea in the book, Once the Hodja, by Alice Geer Kelsey.  From start to finish Kelsey has the flame of a candle keep him going, making this Bulgarian moonbeam version slightly different.  Stories travel and those differences are delightful!

I was going to tell more about Priscilla, but her website (I'll repeat the link, https://www.priscillahowe.com/) does such a great job of it.  Let me just say, if ever I wanted a mentor, I'd try to catch her when she's away from her home in Kansas, possibly before going out to tell internationally in one of fourteen countries.  Aside from being talented and an unstoppable bundle of fun, she's great with puppets, too.  Her blog comes close to feeling like a bit of time to chat together about such things over coffee at the kitchen table.  Her workshops are even more filled with her experience and that fun.

It's worth noting that the second half of Clever, Kind, Tricky, and Sly: A Bulgarian Folktale Sampler has tales about the Bulgarian trickster, "Clever Peter."  He's unique to Bulgarian folklore, poking his wit against the rich and self-important.  That misleading peasant is not as foolish as he wants to appear.  He's also not to be confused with the BBC show of the same name.  The book even includes a Bulgarian version of Cinderella, lots of source notes with ideas for your own storytelling, and that favorite author, "Minnie Moore."  (Aaargh!  pun alert!)  Take a look at the book's reviews to tempt you even further.

I also want to promote Priscilla's publisher, Parkhurst Brothers.  The company has a wide catalog, but I especially appreciate its large Storytelling section filled with stories and insight into storytelling.  It's president, Ted Parkhurst, has returned to his roots right here in Marion, Michigan.  While storytelling is not all he publishes, his support of the storytelling world is long and thorough.  As he said in his LinkedIn profile: We believe the storytelling community will grow in size and influence over the next generation, and we are doing our part to make that happen. 

With storytellers like Priscilla and supporters like Ted, it can't be otherwise.