Giant of the Village
(source: legendary moonlight)
There once was a giant who guarded the entrance to a village. Everyone in this village worked together for a betterment of the community. They all supported each other's needs; they played to each other's strengths and aided in eachother's weaknesses. One day, one of the villagers was gathering water from a nearby river when he discovered a cradle floating gently down the stream. The man immediately dove into the water and retrieved the cradle. He brought it back to shore and was shocked at what was inside. It was a baby, but it was not the size of a normal infant. The baby was nearly the size of a teenage child! Without hesitation, the man brought the baby back to the village, and every single member of the community was in agreement that they should help the child. The villagers fed the child a healthy amount, they built him his own shelter, and they aided in his development until he became independent. Once the giant was a fully grown man, most of the village expected him to leave. The giant had no plans for this. Instead, he decided he would stay with the people that had saved and cared for him. He would protect them from any danger that they might come across. After all, the villagers were his family.
One day, a royal guard stumbled upon the village and immediately returned to his king to report his sighting of the giant. The king was completely outraged that there was a giant living in his kingdom. He would not have it. He immediately ordered a unit of his soldiers to take a visit to the village and dispose of the giant. The king wanted to see the giant for himself so he decided he would accompany the men on the trip to the village. It was not that the king was an evil man, but he simply believed that having a giant in his kingdom was an endangerment to his people.
The king and his men approached the village, and they gazed upon the twenty-foot giant that stood guard at the entrance of the community. All of the men got off of their horses and advanced toward the giant. The king led the large charge against the giant. They all removed their swords from their sheaths and made it quite clear to the giant what they were about to do to him.
"Wait!" the giant cried.
"What is it?" the king replied.
"If you strike me down here, I am afraid I will fall onto the village and squash many of the innocent people that reside here."
"What do you suggest we do?"
"Please, remove small pieces from my body. This way, I will not harm any of the people from my village. It will be much more painful, but I am willing to take the pain. These people have done so much for me."
The king let out a long sigh. There was absolutely no way he could kill the giant now. There was nothing but kindness in his heart. It was clear that the giant cared so much for these people to the degree that he was willing to experience an extremely painful death.
"Giant, we cannot kill you. You are much too virtuous. Please, continue to take care of the villagers in these small town. They seem very important to you," the king said.
With that, the king and his men left. The giant and the villagers were relieved that the giant's life was spared on this day. The giant took the word of the king and never let any harm come to the people of the village. He guarded the village with all of his heart until the end of his days.
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Author's note: This story was completely based off of the Jataka tale called: The Spirit that Lived in the Tree. In this story, a king is clearing out a forest. He comes across a tree that is about the be cleared. The tree begs to not be cut down because he fears he will fall onto the grass and kill his kin. The tree requests to have all its branches cut off one by one so the grass below will experience to pain or death. The king is touched by this request and refuses to cut down the tree. In my story, it is clear that this is highly inspired by this story. I just changed the tree into a giant and the grass into people. I was also thrilled to end this story with a happy ending. All of my stories have had some sort of twist or filled with sinister plot points. This story was meant to be one of happiness where everyone wins. My favorite part of this story and the Jataka tale is the kind nature of the king. He spares the tree of giant in my story. I feel like a lot of these stories contain a king that is somewhat rude or evil. This king shows he his kind of heart and that is important for a happy ending.
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Bibliography: Shedlock's Eastern Stories and Legends
Link to this story
What a great re-telling! I think that making the tree a giant instead really emphasizes the potential to do harm. I am far more fearful of a giant than I am of a tree, and creating that dichotomy emphasizes the point of the story. I wonder what the origin for the source story is. Was India's past particularly eco-friendly?
ReplyDeleteWow you did an amazing job re telling this story! Personifying the tree was the best way you could have changed this! It made the story so much more personal and relatable. What a creative idea! I love how you portrayed the giant and how he was able to survive in the end. This is a much better story than the original in my opinion. It makes the moral of the story more obvious. Amazing Job!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your pice a lot! I liked the idea and the unique spin you put on the original story. There was a few punctuation errors but other then that you did a great job! I am excited to read more of your writing through out the semester.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a clever story idea, and I think that your version conveys a more important lesson than the original. The king learns not to fear someone simply because they are different, but to instead give let the giant be once he finds out how kind he truly is. The only suggestion I would have is to alter that first paragraph by possibly moving the first couple of sentences. The structure you have right now confused me into thinking that the giant baby was pulled from the river while another giant already guards the city.
ReplyDeleteWow, I really liked the small changes you made to the original story. The fact that the tree was changed to a human-like giant made his sacrifice seem even greater, since cutting off little pieces of a man involves more blood than a tree limb. I loved how the peoples' kindness to the giant baby was repaid by his willingness to die for them. Then the king's kindness saved the giant. The chain of kindness was a great way to develop your story. Great job creating a light-hearted and touching story.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I did not expect to find a happy ending here! As soon as the giant offered to make his excruciating sacrifice, I was so worried that’s how it was going to end. Needless to say, I’m also glad you got to write a happy ending to this story.
ReplyDeleteThere was one part that confused me enough that I had to read it three times to understand: You begin, “There once was a giant who guarded a small village full honest and virtuous people.” Then you move into the history of how that giant came to be in said village, but without signaling the transition to the past. Initially, I thought, “Oh, they’ve found a second giant. Why don’t they give it to the first giant and let him raise it?”
Switching tenses can be really helpful! Instead of saying “One day, one of the villagers was gathering water…” you might say, “One day many years before, a villager had been gathering water when…”
Thanks for writing a happy story! I feel like we don’t see enough of those.
I think it's really impressive that you are able to write such beautiful stories from simple tales. I loved this story. I think you wrote it wonderfully and your attention to detail helped the story transition from scene to scene. What you first said that the giant had no intention to leave, I thought it was going to stay and terrorize the village, but it turned out to be a gentle giant! I loved reading this story! Thank you for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteWell that had some serious surprises to it, didn't it? Well done though. You really take the reader for an interesting ride and the story was building up to make me feel like it was going somewhere else entirely so it was really nice to see something good happen with all this. You've done a fantastic job working with your source materials here too - I just have to specifically commend you on that front. As far as I can tell, you stay very true the original source material but still add your own creative flair to the idea. It was really interesting how the reader feels like the giant is going to end up being dangerous and terrifying but in the end, he's a gentle giant and all is good again. Well done. It was a fun read and good luck with the rest of the semester!
ReplyDeleteWhat an adorable story! The giant just seems like the sweetest guy and I'm really happy that the king didn't kill him! Way to jump to conclusions, haha. I love the way you changed it to people because it definitely helps with empathizing. Also another happy story!
ReplyDeleteHello Nick! This is a great story! It has everything that a happy story should have in it! I baby that is looking for a home. Great people that will take care of him, and shelter him. Then to have the giant only want to live there and protect the people that looked after him all of those years when he is growing up! I honestly thought that you were going to kill off the giant after the King was on his way. You are right that pretty much all the Kings are evil or rude in some sort or fashion. Giving the King his sympathy and over all compassion for the Giant was a great idea to just stick with the original story line! It also shocked me that the Giant wanted to be taken apart piece by piece. I feel like I would have just chosen to go to a different location and have them kill me if they are dead set on killing me.
ReplyDelete