Week 11 Story: Why You Don't Lie, Call Upon Tupilak's, or Kill Your Brother-In-Law.
Story One:
Nukúnguasik ventured in his kayak towards an island that he had never visited before. It was here that he came upon one of his brothers busy in a hollow. All Nukúnguasik heard was his brother chanting for the thing in question to bite him, Nukúnguasik.
He knew then that his brother was making a Tupilak.
Making his presence known, his brother died out of fright. Upon returning home, Nukúnguasik's brothers worried for the other and they went to search for him. They found him dead with the Tupilak eating his body.
This is why you don't meddle with such things.
Author's Note:
The first story that I decided to write is called Nukúnguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak in Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen. This was an easier story to make into a microfiction, despite finer details being left out to meet the word count. However, the story goes that Nukúnguasik came upon one of his brother's making a Tupilak on this island, and when he made his presence known his brother died out of fright. Eventually, the other brothers wanted to go look for him, and that's when they found his dead body and the Tupilak eating him.
- Tupilak's are created by people with magical powers who seek to get revenge on someone. The Tupilak is made out of human and animal materials, so essentially a zombie in Western terms, but it can only be stopped by the caster publicly talking about what they did since it has a neutralizing effect in response to it being created in secrecy.
(Wikipedia Commons)
It wasn't Papik's intention to kill his brother-in-law, Ailaq, but he did so out of jealousy for Ailaq's hunting prowess. Papik was accused by his mother-in-law.
"I'll eat you alive." She said, and made ready to die and avenge her son as a ghost.
Papik didn't hunt for awhile out of fear, but eventually returned to the ice. A fog came down over the ice, and the creature inhabiting it came after Papik. The other hunters ran, and alerted the villagers. When last they came out, they found Papik torn apart.
This is why you don't kill without good cause.
Author's Note:
The second story that I chose is called Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother in Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen. Again, the finer details were left out but essentially Papik killed his brother-in-law, and his mother-in-law was not happy so she vowed to eat him alive. My microfiction downsizes the original story since there was more with the villagers hiding from the monster before they realized that it was the old woman getting revenge.
I picked this story because, honestly, I thought it was pretty cool that the old woman came back and, quite literally, ate him alive. We love a woman who keeps her word!
Story Three:
Navaránâpaluk wanted to start trouble between her husband's people and her own who were known as man-eaters. Visiting her kinsfolk, she wore mittens on her feet in place of boots so they'd pity her, and think they treated her badly. They agreed to make war on them.
The men were away when their women were killed, and seeing this they retaliated in fashion, and took the man-eater's now widowed women as wives.
Navaránâpaluk had her arms cut off and she was left for dead since they knew she was only at fault.
This was her punishment because she lied.
Author's Note:
The third story that I chose is called The Wife Who Lied in Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen. The only change I made to the story was that the wife of the husband's tribe wanted to cause trouble instead of in the original where there was no motive to her actions. Of course, I followed the original end of the story because when I initially read it I definitely didn't expect them to kill her. It makes sense in the end, but I was still not expecting it. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy!
Jacicee, some very interesting stories here this week. They all seem to be pretty gruesome. They did feel unfortunately short. I am not sure what the length requirements on these are but I know readers would be able ot better identify with what your saying and connect with your writing if your include more details. Readers want ot embrace your characters and narratives but that can be hard to do in so few words.
ReplyDeleteHi Jaicee! These were some cool and dark stories! I don't think I would have thought that Eskimo Folk Tales would be so sinister. But you did a great job of capturing that dark element that seems to present in the original tales. I think it is really impressive when people can tell a cohesive story in such few words. And you did three of them! Great work! I think it's probably easier to write longer stories as you have so much time to get the point across. For shorter stories, however, you can really only include what is absolutely necessary. Fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteHi Jaicee! You wrote some very interesting microfictions this week for sure. Both were a bit dark, but I loved how you added the lesson of the story in the very last sentence of your writing. I feel like if you had not written out the lesson that was meant to be learned then it may have gone over some peoples heads. Also, I do feel as though these stories are extremly short. I know they're microfictions but it's still hard for me to get into them due to their length. Maybe if you added a bit more detail it would draw the reader in more? Overall I really liked what you wrote!
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