Week 3 Story: Bad Wolf, Good Wolf
I am Wolf. I'm not entirely sure what I means, and there are many other "Wolf" in these woods too. Perhaps it is my name or maybe just the name for my kind, maybe it is all our names? I know not, but my human friend calls me "Wolf" and so I respond. He is a good friend to all woodland beasts, a very kind human. I know not a single creature who dislikes him, domestic or wild.
However, just because we are his friends does not mean we are friends with each other. Today I crossed paths with a very stout pig, the fattest I've ever seen! This pig was waddling about on the outskirts of a woman's home, fairly far from the lady who was on the other side of the house tending to her garden. Surely this is not her pig? I decided this encounter was a fortunate event and that I shouldn't pass up this lucky opportunity. The pig seemed absent-minded as he grazed on the fresh, green grass around him. I snatched the plump pig right out of the pasture and carried him swiftly into the woods. As I ran, I thought I heard a loud scream from a woman behind me, but as I sprinted into the forest her cries faded and I didn't think much more of it.
Some time had passed after I had carried the pig back to my den, poor pig was so scared of me that he had fainted. I had him cornered inside my home with no escape besides the front, where I stood guarding my meal. The sun had not yet set, so I did not want to start my feast in the daylight. Other predators may want to try and steal my feast. I would wait for nightfall to have him all to myself in the privacy of my dark den.
A moment later, I heard a call for my name. It was my good human friend! He sounded upset. What does he want? Looking back at my unconscious prey hidden away in the back of my den, I felt it was safe to leave for a moment to see what my friend needed from me. I hurried to his voice immediately.
"You bad Wolf!" he said. "Don't you know that the Pig was a friend of mine, too?" My friend shook his head sadly at me. I cowered to the ground, ears folded downward; I have disappointed my friend. "He is not handsome," boy, I'll say. "But he is nice and plump," that is true too. "He is the only pig of a poor, lone woman. How could you be so selfish?" My friend then asked me to retrieve the chubby pig and return him to the woman. I have made a mistake.
Embarrassed at my mishap, I went promptly back to my den to bring back the pig. When I arrived, I found the pig had started regaining consciousness. He squealed at the sight of me. Silly pig, I'm returning you to your master. I ran back to the woman's house, with the pig screaming the whole way back.
The woman fell onto the pig in tears as soon as she saw him. Lucky pig, perhaps this is why is he so full. The woman probably feeds him well. I returned to my human as soon as I finished the deed, hoping he would forgive me. As I approached him, a warm smile spread onto his face. "Good Wolf," he said, as he gave me a dish with fresh cow's milk to drink. As I drank from his gift, he petted my head and scratched me behind my ears. I have pleased my human.
Author's Note:
This story is based off of Saint Blaise and his Beasts from Abbie Farwell Brown's Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts. It was actually pretty challenging for me to think of my own story for this, since this is a story about a saint and I didn't want to stray too far from the original because I felt like it would be wrong. I decided that changing the perspective to come from the wolf while staying on the small storyline about the poor woman's pig would be a safe route. The wolf was only mentioned in Part A of the story, so that is the only section I referred to.
Bibliography:
Source: "Saint Blaise and His Beasts, Part A" from "Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts" by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900).
However, just because we are his friends does not mean we are friends with each other. Today I crossed paths with a very stout pig, the fattest I've ever seen! This pig was waddling about on the outskirts of a woman's home, fairly far from the lady who was on the other side of the house tending to her garden. Surely this is not her pig? I decided this encounter was a fortunate event and that I shouldn't pass up this lucky opportunity. The pig seemed absent-minded as he grazed on the fresh, green grass around him. I snatched the plump pig right out of the pasture and carried him swiftly into the woods. As I ran, I thought I heard a loud scream from a woman behind me, but as I sprinted into the forest her cries faded and I didn't think much more of it.
Some time had passed after I had carried the pig back to my den, poor pig was so scared of me that he had fainted. I had him cornered inside my home with no escape besides the front, where I stood guarding my meal. The sun had not yet set, so I did not want to start my feast in the daylight. Other predators may want to try and steal my feast. I would wait for nightfall to have him all to myself in the privacy of my dark den.
A moment later, I heard a call for my name. It was my good human friend! He sounded upset. What does he want? Looking back at my unconscious prey hidden away in the back of my den, I felt it was safe to leave for a moment to see what my friend needed from me. I hurried to his voice immediately.
"You bad Wolf!" he said. "Don't you know that the Pig was a friend of mine, too?" My friend shook his head sadly at me. I cowered to the ground, ears folded downward; I have disappointed my friend. "He is not handsome," boy, I'll say. "But he is nice and plump," that is true too. "He is the only pig of a poor, lone woman. How could you be so selfish?" My friend then asked me to retrieve the chubby pig and return him to the woman. I have made a mistake.
Embarrassed at my mishap, I went promptly back to my den to bring back the pig. When I arrived, I found the pig had started regaining consciousness. He squealed at the sight of me. Silly pig, I'm returning you to your master. I ran back to the woman's house, with the pig screaming the whole way back.
The woman fell onto the pig in tears as soon as she saw him. Lucky pig, perhaps this is why is he so full. The woman probably feeds him well. I returned to my human as soon as I finished the deed, hoping he would forgive me. As I approached him, a warm smile spread onto his face. "Good Wolf," he said, as he gave me a dish with fresh cow's milk to drink. As I drank from his gift, he petted my head and scratched me behind my ears. I have pleased my human.
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| Source: Max Pixel. |
Author's Note:
This story is based off of Saint Blaise and his Beasts from Abbie Farwell Brown's Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts. It was actually pretty challenging for me to think of my own story for this, since this is a story about a saint and I didn't want to stray too far from the original because I felt like it would be wrong. I decided that changing the perspective to come from the wolf while staying on the small storyline about the poor woman's pig would be a safe route. The wolf was only mentioned in Part A of the story, so that is the only section I referred to.
Bibliography:
Source: "Saint Blaise and His Beasts, Part A" from "Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts" by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900).
Hey Julia! Great job with this story! I love that you told it from the point of view of the wolf, and it was interesting to see how Wolf's motivation was tied to his relationship to his master. I like how you make the wolf's voice so conversational; it really sounds like the thoughts of a dog.
ReplyDeleteIf you're open to suggestions, I think it would be interesting for the pig to have more of a character in the story rather than just fainting. Does he argue with the wolf, or beg for his life? Does he tell the wolf about his mistress?
Keep up the good work!
Hello Julia! This story was very fun to read! I find it really cool that it was from the point of view of the wolf. I think that it adds a very interesting twist when stories are told from the characters perspective. I wonder how this story would have ended had Wolf not run into his human friend. I assume he would have most likely killed Pig. This connection between "man's best friend" and the wild wolf was very interesting. I also like the fact that this connection is strong enough for Wolf to disregard his primitive nature in order to correct a "wrong" that he has done. Especially since his actions were not filled with malicious intent but with his natural instinct to hunt and protect his catch. I think it would have been interesting to see some of this from Pig's point of view or even from the human or woman's point of view. Good story!
ReplyDeleteI thought that you did a great job writing your rendition of this story. I liked how you changed the perspective of the characters to tell your story. I too have been doing that with some of my stories. I like how doing that can give the reader a new view of the original story without straying too far away from the original plot. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHi Julia, that was an interesting story. I think I would have struggled to tell that story as well, having to change it up. I do like the version you came up with. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi Julia! I have never read the original story, so I didn't have anything to base your story off of, but I really enjoyed your version of the story! I like how you gave the wolf what seemed to be a real personality with relationships to other things (including people). The wolf also had feelings and considered other people’s feelings too. That made me like the wolf, which is a cool thing to do because usually in most stories, wolves are the enemy and readers don't like them as much. When you were writing the story, did you think about including more details about the woman (who's pig was stolen)? Also, I think what would make the story even better would be to include some of the pig's thoughts when the wolf takes him! Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteHey there Julia! I really liked how your story was told in first person from the wolf's point of view. I imagined a dog saying these thoughts and just trying to impress his human owner and it made it funny and relatable. It's nice that even though the wolf did a bad thing, you can also sympathize with him. It is a short and sweet story with a happy ending. Did you consider giving more lines to the pig or woman? One suggestion i have is that I wish there was a little more conflict in the story, maybe between the pig and wolf, or wolf and the human? I felt like it resolved a little too easily and it would be really cool if we heard a bit of bantering between the wolf and pig. Overall, I really enjoyed your story and I didn’t read the original one but I think it’s cool what you did.
ReplyDeleteHey Julie. I like how you told this story in first person. It made me like the wolf more because it felt like I was the wolf. I like the idea of how you made the wolf loyal to the human. I was a little confused on when you said "just because we are his friends doesn't mean we are friends with each other." At first I thought that you were talking about the wolf and the human but then I had to go back to the previous paragraph and realized that you were talking about the wolf and the other animals. I wonder if you had made the wolf into a dog because dogs are more obedient and it was kind of hard for me to believe that a wolf is this obedient. I guess that could make the story what it is. A wild animal listening to a human shows their strong connection to each other. I think if you had changed it to a dog it couldn't have made as much sense as it did.
ReplyDeleteHi Julia! I really enjoyed how you told you story from the point of view as a wolf. It was fun how you chose to write this story considering it was being written by a wolf. You did a great job of laying out the setting and the premise for the story. I felt as if I knew exactly what the wolf was thinking because of how you wrote this. Why was the woman alone and why did she love that pig so much? Was the man friends with every animal or just the ones that belonged to humans? I think if you provided some more detail about the pig and why the human was so upset about him taking the pig. Overall, i really enjoyed this story and loved how you wrote it from the first person perspective of the wolf.
ReplyDelete