Transformation Folklore

Commonalities in Universal Transformation Folklore 

Abigail M. Kelley

Capstone Project Monomoy high School

2020

Transformation is a vessel universally used by storytellers to convey information. Humans have told transformation stories to make sense of the world for as long as language has existed. The themes of these stories show how the fears and fascinations in the human subconscious are the same everywhere. Greed, corruption, revenge, fear, love, bravery, strength, explanations and warnings occur in stories all over the globe all through time. Our stories portray how much we have in common, and they can be a tool to unite us. If we learn their lessons, our lives can be transformed. 

Transformation is a common attribute in characters everywhere in folklore, and is found in both benevolent individuals, and malevolent foes. Benevolence is portrayed by celestial beings, everyday people, and even the tiniest camouflaged forest creatures. The kindness of a Native American  Comanche child saves her entire tribe. The strength and bravery of a East African Yao elder leads to the execution of a life saving plan. The generosity of the Japanese Crane wife keeps herself and her husband from starving. Malevolence adds balance to world wide tales. The Scotish Kelpie drags her human prey into the murky depths of swamps. The Native American Wendigo searches the Canadian forest intending to satisfy its never ebbing hunger with human flesh. 

Transformation is depicted in a myriad of different ways including shapeshifting and transforming from animal to human form. This serves the purpose of playing tricks or judging the worth of a character. Wrongdoers are transformed as a punishment for their actions. It may also be a power or gift from an external force, including gods, goddesses, or supernatural entities. In folklore, inanimate objects can come to life. Origami cranes sprout feathers and fly, ink painted seas grow turbulent and vengeful, and forgotten paint brushes grow roots and blossom. 

The themes in transformative folklore create meaning. Transformation can be either a dreaded punishment, or a valued reward. Folklore can be about the damage greed can have on one’s self or community. Some include warnings about the consequences of behavior. Transformation is often used to explain events in the natural world. The tales can be explanations made to satiate our curiosity for how and why things are. Magic and other tools are used to carry out transformative acts by both benevolent and malevolent beings either to guide or to harm. Transformation can even be used to perform pranks by trickster characters. Folklore reflects the nuances of the culture of the story teller, but the themes are universal. 

Transformation as Punishment or Reward

In folklore, transformation is used as either a punishment or a reward. Perhaps the character in question has offended a god or other supernatural entity, and it has resulted in a detrimental change. This happens to the son of a rich man in the Ukranian folktale God and the Mole. His father, distraught that his field was growing fewer crops than the poor man, claimed a segment of the poor man’s field as his own. Outraged, the poor man denied this, and the rich man told him to arrive early the next day to see who God would favor. That night, the rich man dug a hole in the ground and placed his son inside it. He instructed his son to listen for him to ask God whose field this was, and to reply with “It is the rich man’s field.” He then covered his son with hay. The next morning, townsfolk arrived at the two fields, and the rich man asked the heavens who owned the bit of the field. His son dutifully replied that it belonged to the rich man. Unluckily for him, God Himself was in the crowd, and announced the field actually belongs to the poor man. He then turned the rich man’s son into a mole, and told him to flee from the sun as long as it remained in the sky. God punished the rich man for lying by transforming his son into a mole. 

 Becoming a Windigo, an evil folk character from Native Algonquian tribes in Canada, mainly the Cree can certainly be viewed as a punishment. The creature can be a human transformed into a monster because they have done something desperate in extreme conditions, or they have been weakened by greed. It can also be depicted as a spirit that possesses a person while they are exhausted from famine or harsh winters. The Windigo’s description varies from place to place, but attributes mentioned frequently include sunken eyes, long yellowed fangs, terrifying claws, long tongues, and an odor of decay.

 “The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody. Its body was unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, giving off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.” (Legends of America)

 The being was adopted into pop culture, and was featured in several films and TV shows including Hannible and Supernatural. Over time, there have been changes to the Windigo’s appearance. The Windigo is not traditionally associated with deer, though it is often depicted with large antlers and a deer head. This misconception was started by Wendigo, a thriller released in 2001. The director, Larry Fessenden, later admitted to not researching the folklore until after the movie’s release. 

In a Cree and Metis tale, a man named Wesakaychak was wandering the forest, and happened upon a fearsome Windigo. It demanded he start to gather wood to build a fire, and terrified, Wesakaychak compiled. While gathering sticks, he met an ermine, a short tailed weasel. Wesakaychak begged the ermine to save him, and promised that if he did, Wesakaychak would make him the most beautiful animal in the world. The ermine agreed, and jumped into the Windigo’s mouth when it next spoke. He then gnawed through its heart, killing the monster. As a reward, Wesakaychak transformed the ermine’s coat white, with black tipped tail.

Transformation is also a reward given to people who have done something honorable. In a Chinese tale, Tian, lord of the cranes, came down from the heavens to see if humanity had remembered to be kind. He dressed as a beggar, and happened upon an inn. He asked the innkeeper, Wang, for food and drink, and though he could not pay him, Wang happily complied each time he was asked. As a reward for his kindness, Tian turned three cranes into dancing paintings on the wall. People from far and wide came to witness this spectacle, and Wang became a very wealthy man. 

Some transformations are gifts from the gods. In a Plains Indian tale, a drought caused a famine on the land where the Comanche live.  The gods were displeased with the greed they had been displaying, and demanded someone sacrifice the most valuable object they possess. No one was willing to, except a young orphan girl, who offered a doll made by her deceased family. Pleased with this, the gods ended the drought, and turned the doll into fields of the bluebonnet flower. 

The Crane Wife is a traditional Japanese transformation folktale that has been passed down orally for centuries. The wife is a beautiful woman with long black hair,  who has a sweet and gentle voice. In some versions she is naked, and in others she has very thin clothing. The Crane Wife often carries a bag of rice. In the story, a man saved a Japanese Red Crowned Crane after it was injured. That evening a beautiful woman appeared on his doorstep, and asked to be his wife. She was a weaver.  In some versions, she made sails, and in others, she made silk, but she always hid herself away from her husband as she worked, warning him not to peek. He became greedy, and demanded she create the cloth faster. It began to turn red.The man looked, despite being told not to, and discovered his wife was the crane he rescued, and she was making the cloth out of her feathers plucked from her breast. It had begun to run red from her blood, as she tore them out faster and faster. The greedy husband is punished by the loss of his beautiful wife who, though injured, flew away, The popular tale has inspired many artists, and an opera and a band have been based on it.

Another Japanese tale similar to the Crane Wife begins with a fisherman who  chose to take ownership of a white feathered robe. He discovered it hanging off of a pine tree, and as he was taking it down a beautiful woman approached him, requesting he return it to her. The cold hearted fisherman denied her, but after some tears and persuasion agreed to hand it back if she danced for him. The woman informed him she could not dance without her robe, and the fisherman then accused her of intending to rush away without dancing. The maiden was deeply offended, and replied that while mortals like himself often break promises, heavenly beings like herself always keep them. The fisherman, ashamed, handed her back her robe. She began to dance and sing songs about her mysterious homeland on the moon, while accompanying herself on an unknown instrument. As she performed, the maiden floated into the sky, until she reached the palace on the moon. The fisherman may have learned a lesson but he was not rewarded by the love of the beautiful maiden.

The Selkie is a Scottish transformation tale about sea dwelling beings, who when they don a seal coat, become a seal.  Some believed them to be fallen angels, others thought they were humans who did something horrible, and were fated to live as animals. Others still thought them to be the souls of the drowned.

 “When angels fell, some fell on the land, some on the sea. The former are said to be the faeries and the latter were often said to be the seals.” (Orkneyjar.com)  

Female selkies are said to be stunningly beautiful and pure in human form, and are usually discovered naked. In traditional Celtic stories selkies are separated from their skin, and they are compelled to marry the fishermen who find them. They spend their days longing for the sea, while living their lives as human women, cooking, cleaning and having children. After years of this, the selkies find their skins, and return to the sea, abandoning their land dwelling families. Male selkies are attractive and alluring, and are described as irresistible to human women. They are rarer in tales, but are used as an excuse for wives who cheat on their husbands with a young good looking man.  Selkie stories were originally put to paper in the 18th and 19th centuries.  

A variation of seal skin stories is also found in Iceland. In this version, a man from Myrdal was drawn to a cave by sounds of merriment. Outside the cave  was a stack of seal skins, and he chose the most beautiful one, took it home and locked it in a trunk. Later he discovered a beautiful naked girl at the entrance of the cave weeping. He clothed her, comforted her, and brought her to his house. Years passed, and they married and had seven children. Throughout all this time, he never shared the secret of the seal skin locked away. When his wife found the key and discovered the skin, she knew it to be her home and returned to the sea.

 “This I want, and yet I want it not,  

Seven children have I at the bottom of the sea,

Seven children have I as well here above.”(D.L.Ashliman)

From that time after, when her husband was out fishing, a weeping seal was said to accompany him, he always had a good catch and good fortune followed his family. 

An interesting difference in this tale is the role of the fisherman. In Celtic selkie tales, the fisherman is clearly a villain, and the selkie wife’s absence is viewed as a punishment. The region was frequently invaded by the Vikings, who treated their women surprisingly well for the time period. In the Icelandic variant, the fisherman is written as a protagonist, and after the selkie leaves, it is viewed almost as a long distance relationship, despite it being clear he kidnapped her. 

Transformation Explains the Natural World

In the beginning of an African tale, all of the animals on the plains were white, and their skin, fur and feathers had no exciting patterns. When a cave full of colored fabric and thread was discovered, the very greedy zebra spent his time munching instead of investigating. When he noticed his fellow animals sporting their colorful new coats, he began to walk to the cave. The zebra spent so much time eating grass along the way, by the time he got to the cave there were only strips if black fabric. He made himself a coat, but it was too tight, and burst at the seams, causing his white belly to spill out and be seen. This explanation for why zebras have stripes draws on aspects of the animal’s behavior to explain its appearance. African storytellers were fascinated by the world around them and how it worked. 

In searching for explanations for natural phenomena, revenge and punishment are prevalent themes.  Nanabozho is a humanoid trickster spirit from Menomini folklore. 

“Stories about Nanabozho vary considerably from community to community. Nanabozho is usually said to be the son of either the West Wind or the Sun, and since his mother died when he was a baby, Nanabozho was raised by his grandmother Nokomis. In some tribal traditions Nanabozho is an only child, but in others he has a twin brother or is the eldest of four brothers.” (Native Languages)  

In one tale, he was tricked by a buzzard into climbing on his back. The buzzard’s feathers were very slick, and with some reckless flying, he managed to shake Nanabozho off. Humiliated from plummeting to the ground, Nanabozho sought revenge by turning into a deer carcass. The stench and line up of other scavengers lured the buzzard to investigate, and munch. When he began to eat the tongue, Nanabozho snapped his mouth shut. The buzzard’s feathers were stripped from his neck and head in his attempts to free himself. Nanabozho has had his revenge, and we have an explanation for the buzzards' baldness. 

Native American folklore is composed of animals, people and gods, and sometimes they overlap. Glooskap, a god-like figure, has a role in the creation of the Algonquian world, and his name can translate to “liar”. 

“The Maliseet-Passamaquoddy word for "to tell lies" is koluskapiw, and in Mi'kmaq, it is kluskapewit. According to legend, Glooscap got this name after lying about his secret weakness to an evil spirit (in some stories, his own brother) and therefore escaping from a murder plot.”(Native Languages)

 In a particular tale, a rowdy and disrespectful tribe did not heed his warnings. Instead of making preparations for a flood as they were warned to, they feasted, danced and sang. The tribe made rattles out of turtle shells and pebbles, and used them to add to the music they were dancing to. Enraged, Glooskap decided to turn them all into rattlesnakes instead of drowning them. Glooskap was satisfied with this kind of rattle, and the Passamaquoddy people were satisfied with the explanation as to why rattlesnakes raise their head in a dancelike way, or rattle at all.

In many cultures the moon is seen as the home of celestial beings. Unlike European tales of the man in the moon, Asian folklore depicts a rabbit living there. The jade rabbit in Chinese folklore is a companion to the moon goddess Chang’e. He spent all his time mixing an alexier that ensured her immortality. The goddess on one occasion drank too much of the potion and floated to the moon. Her loyal companion followed her and continued to pound her elixir with a mortar and pestle. Figures of hares and white rabbits represent longevity, fertility, and the feminine power of Yin, and are sold at Chinese moon festivals. The first record writings of the moon rabbit appear in Chinese poems from 260 B.C.E. The celestial rabbit also appears in Japanese, Korean and Aztex folklore in which he transforms through smoke to the face of the moon. 

Magic and Other Tools

Storytellers world-wide use the same tools to depict their tale’s meaning. Magic, emotion, and cause and effect are the most important components of a folklore story. In the tale of the Crane Wife, the wife left her husband as a result of his breaking his promise and looking in the room where she weaved. Cause and effect is also apparent in the manner Glooskap punished the disrespectful tribe by turning them into snakes for their rudeness. Nanabozho, embarrassed by being tricked by the buzzard, tricked him in return, resulting in the buzzard’s baldness. Meanwhile, across the globe, a fisherman let his pride get the best of him as he kidnaped a selkie maiden to be his wife. She was miserable on land, and at the first chance she got, the selkie returned to the sea. Tian used magic to reward a friendly innkeeper for his kindness with dancing paintings of cranes. Deep in a forest, an evil medicine man used his newly gained magic and knowledge to bring suffering on his tribe.

Were tales from around the world incorporate magic. Those from  Russia and Germany are unlike the well known French and English versions, where a bite from another werewolf is the cause of the transformation. Characters in German and Russian can choose to turn into a wolf or a fox. When women are transforming they have a belt or strap of fur that aids in the transformation. In one tale, an impoverished woman was known for still being able to have fresh meat for all her guests. A male relative stopped by, and while eating fresh mutton she had served him, he asked her how she was able to have fresh meat. She instructed him to climb to the roof so he could see. From the roof, the man spotted a large wolf attacking a flock of sheep. The shepherd noticed, and began running after and attacking the oblivious wolf, clueing in who and what this animal was, the relative shouted out a warning. The woman turned back into human form, and was able to drag herself home. In a fox variety of this tale, a woman owned a strap of fox fur that could turn her into a fox, and her grandchildren brought it to school. The schoolmaster was accidently turned into a fox, and rushed off startled. Years later, he was killed in a great hunt when a bullet hit his head. The blow also rendered the strap useless and broken. 

Malevolent and Benevolent Beings Using Transformation

The Skinwalker is a malevolent folktale creature from the Navajo, a Native American tribe located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The creature is someone who has reached the highest priesthood in a tribe, and decided to use the knowledge and magic bestowed on them for evil. The Skinwalker can turn into any animal using the creature’s skin, but it will never look quite right. They are said to be able to mimic sounds, and sometimes will imitate the voices of loved ones to lure people into the woods. However, it will always sound garbled,  and unsettling. 

According to Navajo Legends.org, “It is believed that skinwalkers wear the skins of the animals they transform into, it is considered taboo to wear the pelt of any animal. In fact, the Navajo are only known to wear two hides, sheepskin and buckskin, both of which are only used for ceremonial purposes.” 

It is unknown exactly what it takes to become a Skinwalker, but a recurring attribute is the action of killing a loved one, the greatest evil in Navajo culture. It is believed that the Skinwalker will be summoned by speaking it’s name. The Skinwalker represents fear of corruption. The story embodies the fear that those who we trust to lead us have ulterior motives. 

Celtic folklore is, for the most part, dark. Perhaps influenced by the desolate landscape and dreary weather, the tales are filled with tragedy and betrayal. Besides the selkie, one finds kelpies who drag people to the murky depths of swamps. Kelpies, or water horses, usually disguise themselves as beautiful white horses. They pray on children, or lost travelers desperate to get out of the elements. Once the unsuspecting rider is seated on the kelpie’s back and stuck with a magical force, the kelpie thunders into the bog, drowning the struggling passenger, who is helpless to get free. 

 Changelings are malevolent fairies or elves that have replaced humans, usually babies or children. They can be fairy children, old fairies wishing to be taken care of by humans, or an inanimate object enchanted to look like the stolen child. Children thought to be changelings were identifiable by ill temperament, not wanting to be touched by humans, or by being sickly and weak. The stories have ancient origins but have continued to be relevant in the present day. 

“The story of the changeling is said to be pre-Christian in origin, but many of the best written sources come from the late Middle Ages. An early mention of the phenomenon is found in the writings of William of Auvergne, who was Bishop of Paris from 1228 to 1249.”(Skeptical Inquirer)

 A more recent record is from 1895 in which a woman named Bridget Cleary was burned to death by her husband,  who claimed she was a changeling. 

The rabbit was not the only revered mammal across Asia. The cultures also found awe in predatory animals such as the tiger.

  “Morphing into a tiger seemed to be a common occurrence across Asia. In India, were-tigers were evil sorcerers, in China were-tigerhood was considered a hereditary curse, and in Thailand, rampaging man-eaters were thought to be angry were-tigers. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the harimau jadian (benevolent were-tigers) that guarded plantations were only dangerous if they were hungry.” (National Geographic) 

Transformation began at the feet, which turned into large paws with fearsome claws. The limbs and back enlarged and became padded with muscle, and was soon after striped with black and orange. Lastly, the head was replaced with that of a giant tiger. In Malaysia the opposite transformation takes place, as the were-tiger is a creature who wears the skin of a human and preys upon wrong doers. Weretigers have stalked folklore for centuries, and appear recently in the novel The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo. 

Transformation and Trickery

Beaver-Man is a trickster in Inuit folklore who is known for his cunning. In one tale, he discovered a trap that was coated in blood. Beaver-Man pretended to have been caught in it to learn who had set the trap. A massive wolverine, a member of the weasel family around three feet long with thick brown fur and sharp teeth, removed him from the trap, and brought Beaver-Man back to his home. Beaver-Man sprang to life, and killed the wolverine, his wife and his two giant wolverine cubs. He cut open the mother to discover two wolverine cubs, the size they grow to be in the present day, and told them to not grow any larger, and to never eat humans. 

The Inuits’ respect for animals as equals is a constant in their stories. This may be because the arctic landscape is so barren, provides so little shelter, and people rely so much on the animals for survival.

“In myth, there was no clear dividing line between beast and human. Animals interacted, talked, and sometimes even mated with people, and those who treated them with due respect were invariably the ones who benefited most from the connection.” (Allan and Phillips, 54) 

Anansi is a man who can transform into a spider. He is a common trickster in  African folklore, and is featured in a famous folklore picture book called A Story A Story. In this tale, Anansi wanted the sky god to give Anansi his stories, as there were none in the world. The sky god refused, demanding to be paid with a python, a leopard, a fairy and a hornet. Anansi tricked the python into lying on a long branch, and tied him up. He dug a hole which the leopard fell into, and instead of helping her out with his webs, he tied her up as well. Anansi placed a doll covered in sap and a bowl of yams under a tree. A fairy ate the yams, and when the doll did not reply, she slapped it, and her hands were stuck in place. To capture the hornet, Anansi told him it was raining, and trapped him in a gourd he thought would shelter him. The spider-man then took them to the sky god in return for his stories. 

Folklore of the world is told with one voice in many different languages. Tricksters mischievously interact with everyday characters to expose their flaws. Celestial and natural consequences explain natural phenomena. Monsters commit cruel acts which teach lessons regarding  desperation, harm and greed. Wives are physically held captive, or chained by obligation and must escape. Magical rewards are bestowed on those who are worthy.  In transformative folklore the characters and their adventures reflect the culture of storytellers the world over as they reflect common humanity. When the global community listens we will be transformed. 

Transformation Folk Stories 

Retold By Abby Kelley

Selkie

A storm was brewing, stirring the frothy sea, and turning it a steely blue grey. The seal colonies, warned of the squall by the choppy waves, had taken shelter in the tide beaten caves along the cliffs. The wind wailed, and the rain pelted the ocean’s surface. A small fishing boat was thrown carelessly by waves, tossed around as though it was nothing more than a toy. An inexperienced fisherman had recklessly decided to continue the search for mackerel, despite the warnings from the sky and sea. 

A young seal noticed his boat rocking precariously on the swells, and took pity on him. She swam out, battling the merciless crests, whose rage draped themselves in lacey foam. By the time she reached the fisherman, the little boat had been splintered by the powerful waves. The seal dove under, desperately searching for the poor man, before finding him, and dragging him to shore. 

At dawn, gentle silver light filtered through the clouds, and awoke the man;  whose mouth tasted of salt. Through his squinting eyes, he made out a woman, kneeling and leaning above him. She had a seal’s skin draped gracefully upon her lap, and her eyes were a stormy grey blue. 

“Are you alright?” her voice sounded like crashing waves on a calm clear morning. The fisherman nodded, and she turned to enter the sea.

“Wait!” his voice was hoarse from the salt water, “ I must do something to repay you! Why don’t you come stay in my cottage with me, I will make you meals, and you may sleep upon my bed and rest.”

“Alright...” replied the woman with reluctance. 

Soon enough, the pair arrived at the fisherman’s cottage. It was cobbled, draped in lichen and ancient, having been passed down from father to son for centuries. The man led the woman to his bed, where she laid down to sleep. After her breathing became deep and steady, the fisherman swiped the silver seal’s skin from under her head, and dug a hole under the old elm tree. He then nestled it among the oldest and largest roots. After returning from burying the skin, the fisherman began to make clam chowder. 

The selkie woman awoke hours later, and sat up with a start. 

“Where has my seal’s skin gone?” She cried out in distress. 

“Seal skin? I don’t remember a seal’s skin. Perhaps you left it by the ocean's edge?” the fisherman grew a smug, cruel smile as the selkie rushed desperately back to the beach, where she of course, discovered nothing. With nowhere else to go, she soberly wedded the fisherman. During the ceremony, he reeked of pride every time his eyes rested upon his most valued catch. 

Days turned to months, which turned to years. A child was born, and no matter how often she was bathed and dried, she always was damp, and smelled of salt. After seven years of longingly gazing at the sea, of stitching waves and schools of fish into every piece of cloth and clothing, and of painting seals, the daughter grew the courage to question her mother. 

“What is it about the sea you find so tantalizing?” she asked, her eyes, the same grey of the storm and sea that fateful night, were wide with curiosity. After a beat of silence, her mother spoke. She told her of her past, and the kingdom of the selkies, and how the water looked from beneath, and how schools of silver fish were the stars she made wishes on. 

“Why don’t you go back?”

“I can’t. My seal skin was lost a very long time ago.” Suddenly, the daughter remembered the night her father dug a hole beneath the elm tree, and did not stop until he touched something buried deep beneath the earth and, satisfied, piled dirt upon it again. 

That night, while her father was drinking heavily at the pub, the daughter found the old gardening shovel in the shed. She began to dig a hole, and sure enough, discovered a seal skin, somehow pristeen, despite years spent covered in soil. The daughter yanked the fur out, and rushed into her parents’ bedroom, shaking her mother awake. 

“Look mother, look at what I have found!!” the daughter shouted with joy, thrusting the skin into her mother’s sleep stilled arms. The Selkie stared in tearfilled awe, and gently stroked her coat, like an old friend. 

Quickly, the selkie mother sprung out of bed and ran out of the ancient cottage, seal skin and daughter in her arms. She wrapped the skin snuggly around them both, laughing and singing as she fell backwards, and let the ocean welcome her with open arms. “I will get you your own skin, my child, when we are safely home, in the depths of the sea.” 

Windigo

It was a harsh winter, infested with frigid snow storms, and crippling cold. The kind of cold that nests deep in your bones, and makes your hope fragile and brittle. Nestled into the thick pine forest was a lodge, owned by a family. There was a mother, a father, two brothers, and three sisters. They had been trapped in their home for days by an angry blizzard, and their food had been greatly depleted. The family knew if they did not get more food soon, they would waste away to nothing. The eldest brother set out  to hunt, for his father had grown weak with hunger, and had begun to limp. The deathly snow silence was penetrated only by the crunch of desperate feet in drifts as high as a coyote stands. 

At home, the father lay in bed as the mother prepared the last of their food to be a meager meal. His hands shook with hunger, and his eyes began to glaze over. 

“Daughter,” he called, hoping to summon his youngest child. She lifted her head, and locked eyes with her father. Her stomach churned at the expression he wore, and she wracked her mind for a plan. 

“Brother, sisters, let’s go search the nearby woods for food. Perhaps buried deep beneath the snow, there are nuts, or dried berries. We may even discover a squirrel’s special pantry!”

“A marvelous idea,” her mother replied, and bundled them each up warmly. The eldest daughter remained to help her mother with the sparse supper. The youngest sister led her siblings into the woods, and explained what she had seen, and her fears that their father may be about to become something horrible. A Windigo.  

Far in the depths of the forest, where the trees were so thick they appeared to be woven together, the eldest brother continued to hunt. Just as he was about to give up, he heard the most beautiful sound, rustling, and heavy breathing. A beautiful buck bulldozed through the snow, without noticing the brother. He aimed his bow, and fired an arrow directly into the buck’s heart, killing it instantly. The eldest brother began the long trek home. 

The youngest sister and her older siblings dug in the snow in search of nuts, and tried in vain to tune out the dreadful screaming of their mother, and eldest sister. Soon, it was once again as quiet as death. Then they heard crunching snow, beginning quietly, and crescendoing toward them. Their father appeared. Except, he was not their father anymore. His skin was pulled tightly against his bones, and his mouth and teeth dripped with blood. His eyes were barely pinpricks in his sunken sockets, and he chewed desperately on his ragged lips. 

He lunged at his youngest daughter, seeming not to even recognize her. She shut her eyes tight, waiting for the end, but it never came. An arrow whizzed over her shoulder, and struck her father in the heart. He collapsed dead, and was pulled off the youngest daughter by her hero, her older brother. He lifted her into his arms, and cradled her in mourning, of his mother, his sister, and even still, his father: The Windigo. 

Skin Walker

It was a warm spring day, and the air was a cacophony of bird calls, and humming insects. A young man was basking in the sun on a bolder in a clearing after a successful hunt. Comfortable, and full to the brim, he dozed off. The man awoke hours later, with a sick feeling in his stomach. The woods were silent, and deathly still. He felt a chill go down his spine. He drew an arrow from his quiver, and placed it in the bow, apprehensive. From behind the brush, he heard a voice, his grandmother’s, crooning at him. 

“Come here,” she called, sickly sweet, “Come here, come to me.” The man lowered his bow, momentarily relieved. 

“Come here,” She called again, in the same tone, with the same inflection. The man felt his hair stand on end. He now realized it was a bit too low, too guttural. Perhaps a bit feral. He did not reply. 

“Come here!” the voice barked, sounding angry, and closer. “Come here! Come to me!” The man lifted his bow again, as the large figure of a buck mule deer exited the tree line. It was too large for its skin, which was pulled taut over muscle and flesh. It stood too straight, and walked too confidently, carrying itself like a predator, rather than prey. 

The man ran as fast as he could to the other side of the clearing, hearing deafening hoofbeats in hot pursuit of him. He began to lose breath, but the monster was falling farther behind. He decided to scale a tree, hiding himself among the thick and plentiful pine needles. The deer caught up with him, and stood still at the base of the tree the man was hiding in. He held his breath. The deer suddenly began to molt its skin like a fur adorned lizard. Beneath the horrifying coat, was a coyote, with human eyes filled with blood lust. While the skinwalker was distracted, the man drew an arrow, and fired it, skewering the monster through the skull. The air was once again alive with birds. 

Crane Wife

One bustery morning, a few hours before a storm, a young man was out for a brisk walk. Birds of all shapes, sizes and colors were flying frantically in search of shelter from the upcoming rain. Except for one, the young man noticed, a Red-crowned crane who trotted miserably along the road dragging a dislocated wing behind it. Taking pity on the poor creature, the man bent down and righted its wing. He then watched the crane take flight, and shelter from the storm. 

That evening, the young man heard a soft knock on his door over the howling wind and roaring rain. He opened the door curiously, and discovered a beautiful woman dressed in a cherry blossom print kimono, covered with elegant cranes. In her hand was a small brown sack, and she wore no shoes. 

“Let me in,” she said, looking dejected and soaked from the rain, “Let me in and I will prepare your dinner, and be your wife.” The man explained that he was poor, and did not have enough money or food to give her a good life. This made no nevermind to the woman, who insisted. 

“I have rice.” she replied, and he let her into his hut. 

The woman did have rice in the small sack, and though months began to pass, the young man noticed the bag never seemed to empty. One morning, the woman warned her husband to not peek, and locked herself into a room. A few days passed, and though her husband was tempted to open the door, he obeyed his wife. The woman did not once leave her room, not even to eat, until one evening when she carried out a beautiful cloth in her hands. It had rich sunset colors, and flowed like mist through the air as she walked forward. 

“Sell this in the market,” she instructed, “for a high price.'' The man did as she advised, and returned home with his pockets full, and his spirits soaring. The wife continued to lock herself away and return with enchanting cloth as the years went by. Over time, her husband became greedy, and demanded she finish more cloth in shorter stretches of time. She began to weaken, and hardly had the strength to birth her beautiful daughter. The cloth began to run red. 

Five years after his daughter's birth, the man grew tired of waiting for his wife to finish the most recent masterpiece. He slammed the door open, a curse on his tongue, before pausing in shock. A bedraggled crane lay in front of a loom, in the midst of plucking feathers from her plumage. 

The man fled in confusion and rage, slamming the door behind him. After she was sure her husband was gone, the woman transformed into her human form once more, and rushed into her daughter’s bedroom. She scooped her into her arms, and returned to the weaving room. The wind shrieked outside the little house, almost drowned out by the steady thunder of the rain. It was worse than the storm that accompanied her arrival many years ago. She plucked the silk she was weaving from the loom, and fashioned a hasty kimono for her daughter, with long strips of fabric that flowed behind her like wings. 

The mother led her confused and sleepy daughter out into the garden. Silk gently grew feathers as they waited, and their wild hair dancing in the wind turned red. Within a moment, two cranes stood in their place, one smaller than the other.  The storm stilled itself for them, and lifted them into the sky with gentle hands. The pair wove over and under each other in flight, and cast dainty, flickering shadows over rice fields and marshes below. 

Book List for Teachers and Families

Aardema, Verna, and Yumi Heo. The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks: a Masai Tale. A.A. Knopf, 1997.

African Folktales Traditional Stories of the Black World. Paw Prints, 2008.

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Bang, Molly. The Magic Paintbrush. HarperCollins Children's, 2010.

Bruchac, Joseph, and Anna Vojtech. The First Strawberries: a Cherokee Story. Zaner-Bloser, 2013.

Bruchac, Joseph, and Susan L. Roth. The Great Ball Game: a Muskogee Story. Dial Books for Young Readers, 1997.

Bruchac, Joseph, et al. The Story of the Milky Way: a Cherokee Tale. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Bruchac, Joseph. The Boy Who Lived With Bears. Harper Collins, 1995.

Byrd, Robert. Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife: a Giant of a Tale from Ireland. Hodder Children's Books, 2004.

Charles, Veronika Martenova. The Crane Girl. Stoddart, 1995.

D., San Souci Robert, and Sally Wern Comport. Brave Margaret: an Irish Adventure. Simon & Schuster, 2002.

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D'Aulaire, Ingri, and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls. New York Review, 2007.

D'Aulaires, Ingri & Edgar Parin. D'Aulaires'Book of Norse Myths. New York Review Children's Collection., 1967.

DePaola, Tomie. Tomie DePaola's Big Book of Favorite Legends. G.P. Putnams Sons, 2007.

Esbensen, Barbara Ju. Star Maiden: an Ojibway Tale. Little Brown, 1991.

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Goble, Paul. Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. Live Oak Media, 2003.

Goble, Paul. THE GREAT RACE OF THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS. MACMILLAN, 1992.

Grifalconi, Ann, and Kadir Nelson. The Village That Vanished. Ragged Bears, 2010.

Grifalconi, Ann. The Village of Round and Square Houses. Macmillan Children's Books, 1995.

Hamilton, Virginia, et al. The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales. A.A. Knopf, 2016.

Hamilton, Virginia. Her Stories. Blue Sky Press, 1995.

Heaney, Marie, and Patrick James Lynch. The Names upon the Harp. Faber and Faber, 2016.

Heyer, Marilee. The Weaving of a Dream: a Chinese Folktale. Puffin Books, 1989.

How Chipmunk Got His Stripes A Tale of Bragging and Teasing. Paw Prints, 2012.

Manley, Curtis. The Crane Girl. Shen's Books, 2017.

Martin, Rafe, and David Shannon. The Rough-Faced Girl. Scholastic, 2003.

Melmed, Laura Krauss., and Jim LaMarche. Little Oh. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Milord, Susan, and JoAnn E. Kitchel. Tales of the Shimmering Sky: Ten Global Folktales with Activities. Clearinghouse for Specialized Media & Technology, 2004.

Negro, Janice Del. Passion and Poison: Tales of Shape-Shifters, Ghosts, and Spirited Women. Two Lions, 2013.

Osborne, Mary Pope., and Troy Howell. Favorite Norse Myths. Scholastic, 2001.

Wolkstein, Diane, and Elsa Henriquez. The Magic Orange Tree, and Other Haitian Folktales. Schocken Books, 1997.

Yan, Feng, et al. Eight Dragons on the Roof and Other Tales: Traditional Dragon Stories from China. China Books Inc., 2012.

Yolen, Jane, and Susan Guevara. Not One Damsel in Distress: Heroic Girls from World Folklore. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018.

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