Trickster Tales : The Trickster Tale

The figure of the Trickster is a common aspect in First Nations mythology and creationism. Much like Loki is to Northern Europe and Hermes is to the Greeks, the figure of the trickster has god-like abilities and often leads through negative example. First Nations mythology uses various characters like the coyote and Nanabush (Nanabozho) to shares stories of the creation of man, to share morals, to explain how things came to be, and to toy with gullible victims and trick them into doing things against their moral judgment. The mythological use of the trickster through various roles helps to parallel human experiences and the understanding of the creation of man through a relatable and familiar character.

As we speak of Trickster today, you must try to blow life into the image, to imagine Trickster as life energy, to allow Trickster to step out of the verbal photograph we create . . . . Because trickster stories still have power: the power to bring us to laughter, the power to baffle us, the power to make us wonder and think and, like Trickster, just keep going on. (1993)

Kind and selfish, deep and shallow, male and female, and foolish and wise aren’t always words that are associated with each other, quite the opposite in fact. However, when it comes to the trickster tales of Native Americans, each word is associated with the other and describes more or less the same person or animal. To Native American people a trickster affects the world for an infinite number of reasons, including instruction and enjoyment. A trickster, like the name implies, is a cunning deception. A trickster can be a hero. However, at the same time he could introduce death. How is that heroic? Why would a group of people want to remember a person that brings punishments such as death? The function the trickster tales have/ had on

Triumphant reward in spite of unjust punishment is a universal sentiment that transcends languages and cultures. There are thousands of folktales and fairy tales that are firmly rooted in individual cultures, yet the tale of Cinderella has been told through many centuries and throughout the far corners of the world. With thousands of versions of this classic tale in print worldwide, the tale is believed to have originated with the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave girl who is married to an Egyptian King. The story of Rhodopis, which means rosy-cheeks, dates back to 7 BC and is attributed to a Greek geographer named Strabo. The Chinese variation of this fairy tale is named Yeh-hsien. The Chinese version is traceable to the year 860 and appears in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Duan Chengshi. Yeh-hsien is a young girl, motherless and in the control of her stepmother, who befriends a treasured fish. The jealous step-mother kills the fish, but it’s bones provide Yeh-hsien with magical powers, eventually enabling Yeh-hsien to escape the control of her step-mother for a royal life. The Story of the Black Cow which is found within the pages of Folk Tales from the Himalayas by John Murray, published in 1906, the child who is mistreated by a stepmother is a male and the role of savior is portrayed by a snake, with a cow serving as the moral of the story, faithfulness. These two versions of Cinderella carry many common threads that are

Joseph explained the trickster hero as a very important figure in the Native American Mythology. His a kind of devil and fool and the creator of the world. He took the example of Yahweh, how he allowed the people to build the buildings, but once it was three stories high. He was afraid it was going to wreck heaven he comes down and flood the world. The biggest trickster move as Joseph described. Basically the trickster hero come in as an upsetting factor.

A trickster is “someone who tricks or deceives people especially in order to get something” (Merriam-Webster). Examples of the trickster archetype can be found in the Odyssey by Homer. For example, while Polyphemus has trapped Odysseus and Odysseus’ crewmates in his cave, Odysseus tells the Cyclops “Here, Cyclops, try this wine-to top off the banquet of human flesh you’ve bolted down” (Homer 222 lns. 388-389)! Enjoying the wine, the Cyclops demands for more, just as Odysseus anticipated he would.

Coyote said “let's play a game of dice.” This is a quote taken from the trickster tale entitled Coyote Steals Fire. In this story Coyote asked this question to the Thunder God to play a game dice to trick him in playing to win the fire. My stories i choose to compare and contrast between “Coyote Steals Fire” and “Master Cat” these stories are trickster tales and their are many differences and similarities.

The trickster archetype is used in stories of various cultures from European to North American. With each story the trickster varies depending on the norms of the society the story originated from. In most trickster stories, the trickster and cultural hero are combined. The trickster can take any shape and is almost limitless in its abilities. They often go around the ordinary actions to prove a point or reach there goal. There are many different characteristics to the trickster archetype, they can be magical or break ordinary limits effortlessly, illogical, cleaver even in foolish manner, and have benign intentions, just to name a few however there are many more. In the Koasati trickster tale “The Bungling Host” has some of the more common traits such as causing unintentional harm, foolish, posses magic, and more common in NAtive American stories, the characters have definite shapes as animals. The less common ones this story possess is a creation story and death of the trickster. The Koasati Rabbit fits the trickster archetype because he is foolish, breaks the rules of nature, and the story involves silliness.

The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.

The myths and folklore that we encounter in many cultures appear to have at least one Trickster in the midst. The specific skills of each Trickster varies from cultures, but evidently are important in the creation and development of each culture, “In some... trickster myths, the side effect of its lawlessness is the creation of social order” (Giddens, 31). The Coyote of Native American traditions is often shown as aiding the “Great Spirit” in the world. In opposition to the culture, Greek mythology Hermes is a devious child who captures a tortoise with his lies and creates the first lyre from its shell, but eventually transitions to as the messenger of the gods that relates to Coyote and the “Great Spirit” as he aids the gods by relaying messages. Both Hermes and Coyote have many similarities and differences that make them unique to the culture that believe in them as they depict the theme of duty, the theme of morality as well as gender roles.

However, as with original ideas that are based on previous ideas, Nanapush demonstrates many un-trickster-like characteristics, most notably the ones that make him seem more human, specifically his fear and his love. For the first, fear, while the trickster character occasionally feels afraid of his situation, he does not actually fear other beings. In fact, one of the markers of the trickster is his sometimes foolish fearlessness. The trickster character does not fear repercussions of his actions—as evidenced by his constant return to them; he does not fear the power of others—as evidenced by his willingness to tackle problems much larger than his ability; and he does not fear what others would call sacred—as evidenced by Coyote’s desecration of the dead buffalo. Nanapush, on the other hand, fears Fleur and her power. His fear is more than pure terror, though; it is the fear that is mixed with respect, a respect that the trickster character gives to no one. For the second characteristic, love, the trickster character loves no one but himself. Although Coyote has a wife and children, he manipulates and uses them, but he

The Greek people believed in guile as a great value of the gods. Guile is the image of clever trickery and strategy. Since any way to conquer an enemy was considered valuable this concept was created. When strength was not enough for a victory, warriors turned to intelligence using schemes. In the story, Creation of Man, Prometheus betrays Zeus and the gods by tricking them into making a lousy decision. “He cut up a great ox and wrapped up the good eatable parts in the hide, disguising them further by

1. What is the genre of this story? Are there any other possible genres this story could fall into?

Once upon a time there were 3 llamas Carl, Fuzzy, and Lola .They all wanted to go see their friend Magic who is a unicorn. Magic is a total buffoon that lives in a town called Crystal Cliff. So, that night they all packed up all of their things to go visit Magic.

As we grow up, we hear fairy tales and we read them into our lives. Every word and every image is imprinted into our minds. The fairy tales we read are never abandoned. They grow with us and our dreams become molds of the many morals and happily ever afters fairy tales display. We tell children fairy tales when they go to sleep and they read them in school and we even have them watch Disney adaptions that reinforce them further. Generally, they were everywhere while we grew up and they continue to be present while children are growing up now. But what influence do these stories have? We casually expose our children to these tales, but in some cases they can have particularly, harmful personal effects on them, although there is nothing completely or visibly “bad” about them or about the characters in them. Before we divulge our youth to these stories, we should assess their substance and see what sort of effect they may be having on them. They have received so much scrutiny and have been studied by many. Recognizing fairy tales effects on the minds of children is vital in their development. This paper will focus on the underlying messages that the average person wouldn’t recognize in these everyday stories. There’s a modern distort with fairy tales because while they still are widely popular with the youth, they influence children’s self images, outlooks on reality and expectations for their futures, especially for young women.