Storytelling for Week 7: A Day Heaven Would Never Forget
It was a normal day in Heaven. Nothing excited was going on, as usual, and all of the gods and goddesses were peacefully going about their daily business. Nothing unexpected ever happened, which is why today was a day to be remembered forever. Things may have started out typical, but they did not stay this way for long.
Things were very quiet when all of the sudden there was a huge commotion in the middle of Heaven. Everyone, gods and goddesses alike, were all shouting incoherently for everyone to hear! This was unsettling, considering no one ever shouted in Heaven, especially not everyone. Heaven was a peaceful place, not a college bar.
Everyone dropped what they were doing and ran to the middle of Heaven to see what the shouting was about. In the middle of Heaven, a hemp rope ladder flew into the air from Earth! Now, the gods and goddesses were curious creatures, and wanting to know where this strange ladder came from, they all banded together and held on to the rope, pulling it up quickly. The rope was heavy, and after dipping their heads below the clouds they saw why. There were many men and women climbing it furiously to escape a dragon! The gods and goddesses were caring people, and because they wanted to help these people out, they continued to pull the ladder out of danger’s way.
By the time they had pulled nearly the whole rope up, over eighty people had climbed into Heaven. The gods and goddesses were pleased with saving all of these people from the dragon, but there was still one man left to go. The man, known as Kweku Tsin, was bravely fighting off the dragon to give the others more time to escape. Thankfully, the gods and goddesses finally pulled Kweku Tsin up to safety before the dragon could eat him.
They asked Kweku Tsin about his story. Kweku Tsin told him how they had all been captured by the dragon and were being held prisoners until the dragon decided to eat them. By using his wisdom, he got all of the prisoners together and made a rope to throw into the heavens, hoping the gods and goddesses would help them escape. Then, knowing the dragon would try to kill them before they escaped, Kweku Tsin risked his own life and fought the dragon and kept him occupied so the others could make it to safety first.
He was not only the wisest of the prisoners, but he was also the bravest. Impressed with this, the gods and goddesses decided to reward Kweku Tsin. To reward him they made him the Sun, the source of all light. Without Kweku Tsin the other prisoners were dim and powerless, therefore the gods and goddesses made them the stars, where they relied on Kweku Tsin for light and life for all of eternity.
Author’s Note: This story comes from the West African Folk Tales unit, specifically the story The Moon and the Stars. The original story was about Kweku Tsin and his tale of how exactly he and his father got captured. The story also went into detail about how Kweku Tsin came up with the plan to escape. It also explained the details of everything he and the prisoners did to escape.
In the original story there wasn’t much information about the gods and goddesses. All that was written was that they were impressed with Kweku Tsin for his intelligence and bravery, so made him the sun, and his fellow prisoners the stars. When I was reading it I wondered what it would be like for the gods and goddesses to have a random rope ladder thrown into their home, and then have eighty people climb up into Heaven. So, I wrote about the story from the perspective of being in Heaven.
Your story is really good! Haha I really liked the part about Heaven not being a college bar!! Your story was very interesting! Your idea was very creative. I like how the gods and goddesses helped the mortals and even rewarded Kweku Tsin. I especially liked how you said that the others were dim and powerless without him.
ReplyDeleteAwesome story, I bet this was fun to come up with. I thought it was pretty cool that people were able to throw a rope up to heaven. I could just picture all the gods and goddesses standing around and see a rope suddenly appear! The character was pretty cool as well, especially since he fought off a huge dragon!
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