The Twins

Look at these mangrove trees. They're definitely not children.

Hello, reader. This week, we're looking at a tale from somewhere in Africa because the place I found it didn't give a country of origin. The Twins is a tale of several people being rude. Often for no reason. Enjoy!

When the mother was trying to kill her twins, I felt sorry for them at first. They knew they weren't supposed to kill a one-eyed antelope, but nothing actually happened to them afterward except for their mother's actions, so it doesn't seem like it was that bad. I do have to wonder what their reaction would have been if they found out that instead of a one-eyed antelope, they were born from several limes. In any case, it seems like a self-fulfilling prophesy to tell them not to do something, since the twins were so ornery. However, after the twins escaped from their mother, I stopped feeling sorry for them. I'm really glad they weren't able to do anything to the little girl who was having a wound cleaned. These kids literally had no limits.

Their awfulness makes me wonder about the structure of the story. Were they awful so we wouldn't feel bad when they were turned into mangrove trees? If the twins had a better moral code and were still being chased for some reason, we would probably be quite upset when they were turned into trees for the rest of their lives. This idea makes sense with the lack of depth to their character. They are nasty, disobedient children who only care about each other. I suppose at least they care for someone, but that is also a necessity for the story. They can't both be turned into mangrove trees if they're trying to kill each other, or if they split up.

For this week, I suppose the moral is that if your kids kill a one-eyed antelope, wait and see what happens before you try to kill them.

The Sealskin

Sounds like they're having fun. I'd better steal something.

It's snowing today, so I thought we'd look at a tale from Iceland. The Sealskin is a tale of love, loss, and of course, seals.

I cannot help but feel badly for the woman in this story. She comes on land to party and, when she can't go back home, is abandoned by her friends and ends up following a stranger home. The story has no details about how the man courted her, but either he did something right or she was desperate because they got married and had seven kids. This clearly wasn't her plan. Once she is able to get her sealskin back, the woman turns back into a seal and never becomes human again.

Stories like this show a lot about how women were treated in the time and place this tale comes from. She ended up loving her children on land, as she says, and at least liking her husband enough to get him fish every day. However, the fact that when she has a choice, she does not come back on land shows that she wasn't happy there. She had children in the sea before she had some on land. She had a life, but some guy's curiosity pulled her away from that and kept her away for several years. And it's not depicted as anything terrible, or even bad. It's just shown as something that happened. I enjoy the look into culture that these stories give us, but I don't always like what I find.

The moral for this story would have to be: Even when you're partying, keep an eye on your sealskin so some jerk doesn't steal it.