StorySpotting: Birds that never land (Alien Worlds)

 StorySpotting is a weekly or kinda-weekly series about folktales, tropes, references, and story motifs that pop up in popular media, from TV shows to video games. Topics are random, depending on what I have watched/played/read recently. Also, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. Be warned!

Netflix has dropped a new speculative show titled Alien Worlds. Every episode talks about how life would develop on different types of alien planets.

Where was the story spotted?

Alien Worlds, season 1, episode 1 (Atlas)

What happens?

On Atlas, gravity is twice as strong as on Earth, and life has adapted to that. One of the creatures introduced in the episode is a "sky grazer", a flying herbivore that feeds on the floating seeds of plant life. Because of the denser atmosphere of the planet, sky grazers never land in their life - except for then the females lay their eggs. And then, because they can't lift off again due to their body weight, they die.

What's the story?

Besides the mythological reference in the planet's name (which seems to be a running theme), I knew I have read this "never lands" part in folklore before. Turns out, the idea of birds that never have to land pops up in more than one place here on Planet Earth.

And many of those even figured out the breeding problem. 

The most well-known example of a never-landing bird would the the Huma (Homa) of Persian mythology. According to lore, it spends its entire life flying, never touching the ground. Some legends even posit that it has no legs at all. Some sources hold that it drops its eggs from the sky, and they hatch and the chicks take flight before they hit the ground. Unlike the sky grazers in Alien Worlds, the Huma of folklore is said to have a male and a female half, unifying both sexes (and genders) in one body. The Huma is believed to be a good omen and brings luck to those who see it.

In a folktale from Kashmir, a poor woodcutter is helped by a Huma bird that lays a golden egg for him. However, the woodcutter catches the bird and accidentally strangles it instead. He ends up visiting the Huma bird's kingdom in penance, and eventually becomes rich. In another folktale from India, which is a variant of Cupid and Psyche, a poor woodcutter's daughter marries a mysterious husband. When he is spirited away by his evil mother, she has to acquire a Huma egg (here they have nests), and hatch it under her shirt, so that the bird can peck out the snake-eyes of the evil queen. She is helped in her quest by friendly squirrels and bumblebees.

The folklore of Wisconsin has a creature beautifully named the Wild Blue Yonder Eagle, which "soars eternally above the earth and never lands." Instead of building a nest, much like the Homa it also drops its eggs, and they hatch before they reach the ground. The hatchlings immediately know what to do, and start flying as their feathers come in. By the time they are adults, they "have flown in great circles into the Wild Blue Yonder." This is a classic tall tale creature, but it still has a nice ring to it.

(Also, I know it's an expression, and yet I can't help but picture them with blue feathers.)

At the end of the 16th century Samuel de Champlain wrote about his voyages to Central and South America. Among the many wonders he's allegedly seen he mentions a bird named "pacho del ciello" (pájaro del cielo? - sky bird) which never lands, spending its entire life in the sky. It is the size of a sparrow, greenish-brown with a hint of red, and has no legs but a tail almost two feet long. The female lays her eggs on the back of the male, where they are kept warm until they hatch. According to Champlain these birds live in Chile and Peru. Most likely he was referring to exotic birds whose prepared skins did not include the feet as they were used for ornaments. 

The Mashona people of Southern Africa have a similar belief about the bateleur eagle - in their language called Chapungu, "spirit of a departed one." They believe this bird carries away the spirit of important people when they die. The folklore of other cultures in the area holds that this bird never lands either.

Conclusion

There would be a lot of logistical questions around a creature that evolves to never stop flying. It is clearly and idea that has intrigued people here on Earth for a very long time. 

Now I want to see a study go into detail about what all this kind of lifestyle would entail on a biological level...

K is for the Kakapo (Folktales of Endangered Species)

Welcome to the 2020 A to Z blogging challenge! This year my theme is Folktales of Endangered Species. I am researching cool traditional stories about rare, fascinating animals - to raise awareness of what we might lose if we don't get our collective shit together. Enjoy!

Species: Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus)

Status: Critically endangered

Kakapo and Albatross play hide-and-seek

Maori folktale

Kakapo and Toroa (albatross)* had an argument over which one of them should rule the land, and they decided to put their abilities to the test. They agreed to take turns trying to hide from each other, and the one who could blend in best would win. Toroa tried to hide first in open land, but his bright white feathers gave him away. He tried a second time, but kakapo had an easy time spotting him again.
Now it was kakapo's turn. He lay down under some ferns, and blended in so well he became invisible. Toroa searched and searched but couldn't find him until kakapo began to laugh. They agreed on a second try and kakapo hid again - so perfectly that toroa lost the game.
Ever since then, the albatross has been living out at the wide ocean, flying over water, while kakapo lives on land, blending in with the colors of the forest.

*Many albatross species are also critically endangered or endangered.

Sources: You can find the story here and here, or read it online here or here.

How can I help?
Read about conservation efforts here, or here.

What bird would you most like to play hide-and-seek with? Do you think you could win?

Picture from here

I is for Indian vultures (Folktales of Endangered Species)

Welcome to the 2020 A to Z blogging challenge! This year my theme is Folktales of Endangered Species. I am researching cool traditional stories about rare, fascinating animals - to raise awareness of what we might lose if we don't get our collective shit together. Enjoy!

Species: Indian vulture (Gyps indicus)

Status: Critically endangered

How the well was purified

Folktale from Rajasthan

A king wants to sacrifice the wife of his son to purify a well. The prince runs away with his wife, and in a faraway city they accidentally take shelter in a jinn's house. The jinn seduces (or enchants) the woman, and plots to get rid of the prince by various means. 

One day the wife tells the prince to go fetch her a vulture's egg. The prince finds a nest placed too high to reach, and sees a serpent trying to crawl up to it. He kills the serpent, saving the vulture chicks, and their mother is so grateful she gives him an egg.

From that point on, one of the young vultures becomes the faithful companion of the prince. The vulture accompanies him on the next quest, helps him fly across the ocean and win red flowers from the daughter of another jinn. The helpful vulture watches out for the prince, protects him from the jinn, and helps him complete his tasks. When the wife succeeds in poisoning him, the vulture carries his dead body to the jinn girl who can revive him.

In the end, the prince sacrifices his wife to the well, and marries the jinn girl instead.

Sources: Read the story in this book. The folktale motif number of "Helpful Vulture" is B455.1

How can I help?
Read about conservation efforts here and here.

F is for Falcons (Folktales of Endangered Species)

Welcome to the 2020 A to Z blogging challenge! This year my theme is Folktales of Endangered Species. I am researching cool traditional stories about rare, fascinating animals - to raise awareness of what we might lose if we don't get our collective shit together. Enjoy!

Species: Saker falcon (Falco cherrug)

Status: Endangered

The great Turul bird

Hungarian legend

According to Hungarian tradition, our nomadic tribes were led into what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD by seven chiefs. Their leader was named Álmos ('of a dream') for a dream his mother Emese saw when she was pregnant: she dreamed that a legendary Turul bird descended to her as her protector, and a spring welled up from her womb, symbolizing a line of great kings. Álmos' son, Árpád, founded the first Hungarian royal dynasty. The Turul is seen in Hungary as our collective mythical protector.

Legend also says that when the Hungarian tribes began migrating west to the Carpathians, they were led by the Turul bird to their new home. The Turul protected them and their livestock from eagles and vultures on the way.

(No one is entirely sure what kind of bird the Turul was, but most archaeological and folklore sources point to the saker falcon as the most likely candidate.)

Sources: Read the legend in English here.

How can I help?

Read about conservation efforts here, here and here.

If your family had a mythical protector bird, what would it be?

Blame it on Reynard (Following folktales around the world 87. - Belgium)

Today I continue the blog series titled Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts here, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

Folk tales of Flanders
Jean de Bosschère
Dodd, Mead & Co., 1918.

The book contains twenty-four Flemish folktales, and several beautiful, colorful, occasionally grotesque illustrations. In some cases, the tales had been re-written to fit the sensibilities of the era and an audience of children - in one of the stories, a wife was hiding her "nephew" from her husband, instead of a lover, and in some cases severe punishments were also omitted (although they did unceremoniously hang the Fox). It is a book for children, so it contains no notes or sources, but most of the tale types are easily recognizable, and the author re-told them in an enjoyable, entertaining style.

Highlights

My favorite tale in the book was that of The peasant and the Satyrs. It is rare to find Satyrs in tales outside of Greece, so I was excited for them; in this case, they took the Devil's place in a known tale type (or maybe the other way around?). A poor man got lost in the woods in the winter, and found a little cottage where a Satyr family lived. They invited him in, but when they saw him blowing on his hands to get them warm, and blowing on his soup to make it cool, they concluded he must be a powerful being, for being able to blow both hot and cold...

How the goldfinch got its colors was a lovely tale about how the angel tasked with painting the birds forgot about the finch, and had to paint it with colors taken from other species. This was not the only bird legend in the book; the usual "who can fly higher?" contest here happened between Eagle and Goldcrest. The latter became King of the Birds, but only after they tried to imprison it, and Owl let it escape.

The Goldcrest also led the winged creatures' army in the Battle of Birds and Beasts, which was won by the winged ones - a wasp stung Reynard the Fox, who was holding his tail up as a standard, and the beast thought they had been defeated.
Probably the most famous story included in the book was The Trial of Reynard the Fox. Reynard was called to King Lion's court to answer for his many tricks and crimes. Bruin the Bear, and Tybert the Cat failed to fetch him (he outsmarted both), but eventually Blaireau the Badger managed to get him to court. Reynard, being the quintessential trickster, managed to turn his confession into an accusation against other animals, offered the King some fake treasure, got away, and even had time to kill Hare and send his head back to the King. At the end, he was caught and hanged in some other kingdom. Reynard tales are usually very dark for a trickster...

Connections

Sponsken (Little Sponge) and the Giant reminded me of an American Jack tale; our hero outsmarts a giant, and then teams up with it to defeat a bear, a boar, and a unicorn (!) and win a princess. However,the princess did not want to marry him, so the king found him another, willing bride. Go figure.
The Musicians of Bremen in this case were known as The choristers of St. Gudule - they set out to start a singing career in their old age. Another similar gang started out fleeing from The end of the world, but ended up finding a king's lost ring, and making a lot of money together.
Hansel and Gretel - in this case, Jan and Jeanette - found a Sugar-candy House in the woods, owned by an old lame wolf. The wolf chased them until they crossed a rived, helped by some ducks. When the wolf asked the ducks to ferry him across too, they dumped him into the river.
I was reminded of a Nasreddin tale by The peasant and his ass, in which a foolish man was tricked into believing he was dead, and that his donkey had turned into the captain of the guard.

Ups and downs, in which Fox got Goat to go down into a well, was familiar from the tales of Uncle Remus. Trickster, as we have already seen, was always Fox, specifically a fox named Reynard. He fulfilled the role of Puss in Boots for Poor Peter, and he rescued the knight who saved an ungrateful dragon, by tricking the dragon into going back into the trap. He also tricked Wolf in a "fake baptism" tale type (where he repeatedly sneaked out to steal lard from their shared pantry), and convinced Bear to use his long tail for ice fishing (which is why bears have stumpy tails now).

Where to next?
The Netherlands!

Down the research mole rat hole

Every year, various organizations in Hungary announce natural treasures of the year, to raise awareness of the country's flora and fauna, and gather resources for conservation. We have Bird of the Year, Mammal of the Year, Wildflower of the Year, etc. Since it is by now a very popular tradition, I decided that this year I'd make a storytelling program that contained stories for all these natural treasures; I named the idea Wonders of the Year, and got right down to research.

Just to show you what I was trying to find stories for:

Bird: Peregrine falcon
Tree: Mountain ash
Wildflower: Marsh gentian
Mineral: Fluorite
Fish: Asp
Insect: Emperor dragonfly
Mammal: Mole rat
Reptile: Viviparous lizard
Herb: Lavender
Fungus: Lion's mane

The idea was to find one story for each, and then take the whole show to educational settings. Since I had a fairly busy year, the program did not really come together until the end of September, when we have the national Night of Research: Research institutions, universities and museums are open all night, and have all kinds of exciting science-related programs. A friend of mine, Dr. Beáta Oborny, biologist and storyteller, suggested that we should take the show to the university's own Natural History Museum; she'd provide the exciting factual information for each natural treasure, and I'd tell the stories. So we did.

In the end, the research process was not at all what I'd expected. Falcons show up in lots of stories, but none mentioned a peregrine specifically (in Hungarian, "falcon" used to refer to this particular species to begin with, other falcons had other names), and of course I had to give up on the "viviparous" part of the lizard very early on. Mole rats rarely ever come to the surface, so the folklore on them was pretty scant as well. But on the other hand, delving deeper into nature stories did bring up some unexpected, delightful surprises.

I tracked down some Bulgarian folk songs in which a girl is forced to marry a dragon, only to find out that her husband has no power over gentian flowers, and she uses them to escape; bonus in the story was the way the dragon's marriage entourage arrived at her house, and the dragon women re-braided her hair "in their fashion, like a dragon." Fluorite seemed like a lost cause from the get-go, but then I learned about the famous Blue John mines in England, which just happen to have a fabulous dragon legend attached to them (courtesy of Ruth Tongue, from Forgotten Folktales).

In the cases where I could not find the exact species, I did my best to improvise. For example, lizards appear in many stories; I almost fell for one where Lizard helps find the stolen Sun, but then I found out that this particular species is known for living in colder climates and habitats, and is the northernmost reptile known in Europe. In the end, I tracked down a Hungarian folktale (a variant of the Frog Princess) where a girl, turned into a lizard, lived at the edge of the world, and ventured into underground kingdoms to help a prince acquire magical items. Similarly, I went all the way to Japan to find some worthwhile mentions of the lion's mane mushroom. There it is associated with the yamabushi monks, and it just so happens that there is a well known Japanese comedy that features such a monk trying to pray an infestation of demon mushrooms away.

The hardest challenge, in the end, was the mole rat. It has been chosen as Mammal of the Year because building the wall on our southern border (*cough*useless*cough*) cut its habitat in half, and now it is severely endangered. Because it rarely ever comes above ground, there is not much folklore attached to it, and the one that exists is pretty bad. In some parts of Hungary it was believed that killing one with your left hand gave you healing powers (not for the poor creature, obviously). Other than that, I found some beliefs that children born from sibling incest live as mole rats for 7 years (weremolerats, hey!), although the word they use for mole rat could also just be a word for a mythical creature. In the end, I found a newspaper clipping from 1927 in which a mole rat was found on the road by someone, captured, lost, found again, and eventually made it into town from where the local doctor sent it on to London. Using all these small moving parts, I made up a story from the mole rat's perspective, and spiced it up with interesting details about these fascinating creatures.

I am proud to report that in the end I managed to find stories for all ten things on the list; most of them traditional folktales and legends, with some creative additions. It was tons of work, and I didn't even get to tell all of them in one show, but I had great fun with working on it. I still have three months to take it to other venues... and I can't wait to find out what treasures we'll have on the list for next year!

P is for the Pelican King (WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales)

Welcome to this year's A to Z Challenge titled WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales! You can find all other participating blogs on the A to Z Challenge main blog.

In the folktale titled The Pelican King, a princess insists that she will only marry a person who brings her the feathers... of the Pelican King. Our hero (who is incidentally called Peter) sets out to complete the impossible task. On his way he encounters various kings who have their own problems, and ask Peter to convey their questions to the all-knowing Pelican King, and beg for solutions.

When Peter finally arrives to the house of the Pelican King, he only finds the wife at home. The old woman promises to help, and hides Peter. When the King comes home, she lays him down to preen his feathers, and "accidentally" plucks three of them. The feathers shine with a brilliant diamond light. The old woman also manages to sneakily ask the questions Peter hand, and sends the hero on his way with the feathers and the answers.

I have two comments to add to this:


1. In folktales, having someone lie on your lap and "preening them" ("looking into their head", "checking them for lice", etc.) is symbolic for having sex. Yup. Re-think all those medieval illustrations.

2. The pelican in the middle ages was a symbolic bird, because people believed that it fed its young with its own blood. The church usually treated this as a symbol for Jesus, and people often referred to it as a symbol for motherhood. So, in this case, the Pelican King is some kind of a wise and radiant higher being, who knows all the answers to everything.

Basically, God is a pelican.

(I'm sure some of my SCA friends will be happy with this)

Wise crabs, sweet crabs, grumpy crabs (Following folktales around the world 27. - Trinidad and Tobago)

Today I continue new blog series titled Following folktales around the world! If you would like to know what the series is all about, you can find the introduction post here. You can find all posts under the Following Folktales label, or you can follow the series on Facebook!

Today we begin our Caribbean cruise!

Crick-Crack!
Trinidad and Tobago Folk Tales
Eaulin Ashtine
U.W.I. Extra-Mural Department, 1966.

The book contains nine folktales, all collected and re-told by a local author who wanted to help the children of Trinidad and Tobago become familiar with the stories of their own cultural tradition, rather than just reading fairy tales from Europe. The tales show a lot of similarities with African and South American traditions, and even some European connections, reflecting the cultural diversity of the islands. They were a very enjoyable read, and it clearly shows that they would be even more entertaining in spoken word.

Highlights

Frigate bird

One of my favorite tales in the book was How Pelican got his beak. It featured several local birds such as the Booby, the Frigate Bird, and of course the Pelican, and described how a group of them managed to trick the haughty Frigate Bird into giving up his very practical beak to Pelican. (It was good to see a frigate bird again, after several tales about them from Oceania).
The powerful story of Young Nelson and Old Nelson was about a great old bull who ruled the pastures in tyranny, killing all young bull calves. The forest animals helped a pregnant cow get away, so that a young bull could grow up, and take revenge on the tyrant.
On a lighter note, How Agouti lost its tale told about Dog who tried to infiltrate a party reserved for horned animals only (by wearing fake horns), and how he was outed by Agouti.

Connections

How Tortoise's shell was cracked was familiar from some South American cultures. It featured Tortoise who wanted to be a bird, and flew up to the sky wearing feathers, to join a party - but was kicked out when he proved to be rude and greedy. In Madam Crab loses her head, an old witch captured a girl, and would only let her go if she guessed her name - which she did, with the help of Old Madam Crab (similar to the Rumpelstiltskin stories, except the name here was En-Bois-Chinan).
Crabs also featured into my favorite story from the book, How crab's shell got cracked. This was basically a Frau Holle story, except instead of girls there was a kind crab (Mamselle Sweet) and an unkind crab (Mamselle Sour). I really loved this one.
The local trickster is Compare Rabbit, who usually tricks Compare Tigercat. In one story, he managed to make Tiger believe that he could wither animals simply by looking at them. Talk about a superpower.

Where to next?
To Grenada! (Which is not the same as Granada, and also not the same as St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which will be the next stop after)