The Complete Stories | Storyfest Journeys

Walk with me as a Friend

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:15:53 -0400

Old Hawaiian Tale

This story is an exploration into those mysterious realities we call friendship and love. They are not so much natural occurences as they are shaped and crafted by the gestures of our hands and the yearning in our hearts.

This Hawaiian quilt sets the theme for our story.

Queen Kapiolani's Fan

Quilt

This precious quilt from Queen Kapiolani portrays a special kind of fan used by royalty in Old Hawaii. Many of the original fans were made from precious and colorful bird feathers skillfully woven together by human hands.

The quilt itself continued the tradition with a new craft form brought by New England missionaries in the early 1800s.

The elusive Oahu Creeper

In this Hawaiian tale, friendship is woven by the hands and hearts of two very different persons. One is a great chieftain and the other his humble servant. Their friendship is not natural, but crafted by their hands, their minds, and their hearts.

Hawaiian outriggers in Honolulu, 1900

This Hawaiian tale is about a journey of discovery, both from island to island in an exterior way, and heart to heart interiorly.

The Peddler of Swaffham

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:12:09 -0400

English Medieval Tale

This story is a humorous and popular folktale of how a poor peddler sets out to London Bridge to find his fortune. But it is also a pilgrimage story about the seeker's quest to find joy and fulfilment in life.

The Greyhound Inn

The travelers inn is a vivid image of the places we dwell within briefly while journeying our life's path. The Greyhound Inn, was welcoming travelers and pilgrims 500 years ago in the English village of Swaffham as it does today.

Swaffham Market Cross

And the market cross in the center of the marketplace portrays the Peddler of Swaffham as a pilgrim, like you and me, as we journey our life's road.

But on the market square is the church that was also part of the itinerary of the 15th century peddler, John Chapman, the original hero of our folktale. Because he shared his gifts from the peddler's road with the whole community, he is remembered within the church walls.

John Chapman, Peddler

Inside the church are the many carved wooden angels fluttering about the peddler's statue, seemingly watching over him as he reminds us that we are all pilgrims on the road of life.

Angels aloft the village church

The Blue Light of Dawn

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:33:50 -0400

Native American Tale

This story is told in the Pueblos of New Mexico. This version was collected by Charles Lummis on the Isleta Pueblo, along the Rio Grande just south of Albuquerque.

Nachu-ruchu is the Isleta name for the young man who is a weaver and a cultural hero of the pueblo. In this tale, he outwits the two Yellow Corn Maidens.

(Here they are shown tossing the finely-ground cornmeal on the smooth mother-of-pearl shell outisde Nachu-ruchu's house.)

Yellow Corn Maidens

And he wins the love of the woman who visits him every night in his dreams. She is the Moon Maiden. (These sketches were made by artist G. W. Edwards from photographs taken by Charles Lummis.)

The Moon Maiden

This is a tale that celebrates both the beauty of nature and the beauty of craftwork. It reflects the harmony of nature and culture in the daily life of Isleta Pueblo.

Charles Lummis himself was a keen listener to the stories of the Native Pueblans and the Hispanics settlers of New Mexico. He had a knack for promoting the southwest that he loved so much. He was a photojournalist, an advisor to President Teddy Roosevelt on Indian affairs, and a historical preservationist.

Here is a photo of an Isleta Bride and Groom taken by Lummis sometime between 1899-1899. The story of the Blue Light of Dawn is a mythic tale about an Isleta Bride and Groom.

A Ghostly Knight's Treasure Trove

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:34:08 -0400

A German Tale from the Rhineland

This story is rooted in ancient Nordic myth and grows from those roots through Medieval legend and finally into a Romantic folktale that could have been collected by the Brothers Grimm or shaped into an opera by Richard Wagner.

It is a story grows through the centuries in the storyteller's imagination. And yet it is as firmly rooted in its place as an acorn that has grown into an great and ancient oak.

This tale is a mystery play about the passage of time. Every event in it takes place at the moment of balance in our life's journey -- the moment of the mid-life crisis between youth and age. It is a tale that again and again returns to the symbolic 40th year that marks the mid-point between life and death.

The story begins with a decision made by a Knight to hoard his treasure in the middle of his life journey. And then the tale passes to others over the centuries who also make fateful decesions in their fortieth year: a wealthy merchant, a dishonest judge, a poor woodcutter. And finally the tale comes to a rest with the decision made by a simple peasant woman -- neither young nor old, neither beautiful nor ugly, neither wise nor foolish.

She acts with simple grace, and redeems the story. Here is a tale that takes us on a journey down the Rhine, past the ruins of ancient castles, and to the moment of our own midlife journey -- whether it has already come, or whether we still await it.