Showing results by author "Bill Gordh" in All Categories

An old farmer was out in the woods chopping wood for his family when his ax slipped from his hands and went flying into the river. The farmer was so upset, he cried out to the river. The river spirit heard him and up out of the river rose a silver ax. "Is this your ax?" asked the River Spirit. The framer would have loved the ax, but he was an honest man and he said, "No."

A father and son went to camp out in the forest and do some hunting. They found a place to set up camp. Before going to sleep, the father told the boy some stories including one about the monster that lived in the forest. The boy fell asleep and his father went to do some night hunting. The boy woke up, was scared and went looking for his father. His father had heard an animal up in the trees and climbed a tree to hunt. The boy heard his father in the tree and called to him. The father was startled and thought it was the forest monster.

The wealthy young man and all his family and servants are preparing for his wedding. Later in the day, he will travel by horseback to his fiancée's family's home for the ceremony. One old servant hears a noise down the hall from the kitchen. He sees the story bag where the young man used to store his stories when he was a little boy. He loved stories so much. The stories are angry about being left behind and forgotten about. They are planning to hurt the young man.

There was a farmer who worked hard on his land for many years. He and his wife had a little farmhouse and ate their simple meals each night together. One evening the farmer ran down from the fields all excited. His next door neighbor saw the old farmer and wondered what was going on. He sneaked over to the old farmer's house and listened through the window. The farmer told his wife how he had spotted down in a hole full of rocks a kettle that was full of gold coins.

Long ago there was only sun in the rainforest. It was beautiful but too bright. People had a hard time sleeping. A farmer was married to the River Snake King's daughter, and she told her husband about something called "Night" that was deep in the river. It would let people rest. They had too much farm work to do, so they sent three friends in a canoe down the river to ask the River Snake King for Night.

Seven children (traditionally told with boys) are playing a rock game in the space where the dances are held in the village. The mothers call for the children to gather some corn so they can make corn soup. The kids just keep playing. The mothers keep asking. They keep playing. The mothers get mad and put rocks in the soup.

Raven can be either a bird or a man. As a man, he can pull down his pointed hat onto his face, and he transforms into Raven bird. The world is dark. The sun and moon and stars were taken by an evil wizard, and he kept them locked up in his big house on the hill. Raven says that he will bring them back. He flies to the house, but he cannot get in. He decides to play a trick. He pecks on the front door and then flies off and hides behind a tree.

Coyote saw Rabbit sleeping under a tree. Often Rabbit tricked him, but this time Rabbit was asleep! Coyote pounced, ready to eat. Something up in the tree gave Rabbit an idea. Rabbit asked, "Could you wait 'til I do my job for you to eat me?" Coyote asked what the job was, and Rabbit told him she had to shake the tree to ring the bell for all the little bunnies to get out of school. Coyote decided he would rather eat some little bunnies than a skinny old rabbit.

Gecko eats a mosquito. Yum. Then he settles into sleep. Gecko can't sleep. Firefly keeps flashing its lights. Gecko goes to the chief. Chief goes to the firefly. Firefly says it's Woodpecker who is knocking on a tree, trying to tell everyone there is an earthquake, and that is why firefly is flashing. Chief goes to Woodpecker. Woodpecker says it got the message from Frog. Frog says it is not saying that. It is saying that Ox is dropping plop on the road. Ox says it is just trying fill potholes caused by Rain.

Twin brothers were the best of friends. When they grew up they became partners and grew corn. They shared the work and what they sold. One evening in the threshing ground, after they had worked all afternoon, they decided to spend the night there to make sure no thieves stole the results of their hard work. In the middle of the night, one of the brothers woke up. He looked at his sleeping brother and began thinking about him with his wife and children.

Mouse Deer was down by the river one day when Crocodile swam up and chomped on little Mouse Deer's leg. Mouse Deer could not pull his leg from the clamped jaws of the crocodile. Mouse Deer did some quick thinking and began talking about how lucky he was that the crocodile had accidentally chomped on a stick instead of Mouse Deer's leg. Mouse Deer picked up a stick, which he extended from his body. Without thinking about it, Crocodile let go of Mouse Deer and chomped on the stick.

Little Ant was a hard worker and saved her money. With her savings she bought a new dress, shoes, and a beautiful hat, and she took a walk. A dog saw her and asked her if she would marry him. She asked him how he would talk after they were married. He got excited and started howling. She told him, "No - too scary." She walked on. A cat saw her and asked to marry her.

A young man married, and at the wedding dinner at the bride's house, the bride excused herself to go in the cellar and draw some wine. While she was there, she noticed that an ax was stuck in one of the rafters. She thought that if one day she had a son and named him Bastianelo, and they were visiting her parents, and they asked him to get some wine, and he came down, and the ax fell and struck him in the head, then her son might be killed, and she began to cry while the wine poured out of the keg.

A young woman named Pirili lived in a village. She was kind and generous. A hunter named Mangowa from another village saw her and wished to marry her. She did not wish to marry him. He brought gifts and food and flowers. He hunted just for her and brought her everything he caught. He did not bring food to his own.

A farmer met a fairy and asked her to marry. She finally agreed but said he must never get angry or call her a bad fairy. He said of course he would not do that. They married, and everything went wonderfully. They had three children. One day he was in the upper pastures and saw a storm approaching. The fairy wife knew it was coming and so gathered her fairy clan, and they cut the green wheat and put it in the barn with an alder tree branch between each sheaf.

There were two brothers who fished every day. They were not having much luck. One brother carved a squid from wood. It really looked like a squid, and when he threw it into the water it became a real squid. Happy to be alive, the squid helped the boy by chasing herring close to shore, and the boy could catch them easily. The other brother wanted to have more luck too.

In a small village, a mother and her daughter were just getting by. They had very little. One day the girl announced that she was going to go and find some work. There was no work in the village and so she set out on her own. She began to cross a field and there were 2 bulls fighting. The fighting made the girl sad and she sang to the bulls to stop their fighting and they did! She moved on.

Three friends borrowed a rowboat to row upstream. They wanted to row up to a village. There were three other villages that they would pass on the way. So the first friend rowed as far as the first village. The second friend rowed as far as the second village. The third friend rowed as far as the third village. Then they began arguing about who would row the final stretch. While they argued, they were carried back downstream to where they had started.

Munanchar and Menanchar are two friends who are out picking raspberries. As Munanchar fills his bucket, Menanchar eats them. Munanchar discovers what is happening and tells Menanchar that he is going to go get a stick and hit Menancnhar on the head! So Munanchar sets out and finds a tree that has a branch that will be just the right stick. But the tree tells him he needs an ax. He goes to the ax, and the ax tells him he needs a stone to sharpen the ax. The stone says he needs water to wet the stone.