Week 6 Storytelling: The Story of Sylvanus

Image Information: Urashima Taro and the Turtle illustration: Source: kyuhoshi.com

            There was once an old couple that lived alone peacefully in a small field outside of the big city. They had lived there for many years, and had been married in harmony for even more. Their lives were not easy, but they worked the land each day and prayed to their gods every night and were at peace with their station in life. For although the wife was barren, the husband loved her more than he loved the idea of children, and so the years passed in quick succession, full of love and companionship. But the wife, although content, prayed each night for a light to come to her life, for something to break the monotony that had became her life.

            One morning, the wife awoke, startled, to a loud crashing sound. Rushing outside she found that her favorite tree had fallen over in the nearby field. Crying out, she ran over to it and fell to her knees, supplicating herself to the gods to which she had prayed. With her head bowed, her tears fell straight to the ground and mixed with the dirt. She cried until she had run out of tears, lamenting her life because although she loved her husband dearly there were parts of her life that were just too empty to ignore.

            As she went to stand, she used her hand to brace herself in the small pool of water that had accrued at her feet. Thinking nothing of it, she turned to make her way back to her small house, and her favored husband. But as she began to walk she heard small sounds and turned her head back on instinct to investigate.

            “Who are you?” The little boy sitting in a pile of mud asked her, idly running his fingers through the damp ground and rubbing the mess between small, pink fingers.

            Startled, her hands flew to her chest, and she stuttered out a surprised, “me?”

            “You’re funny,” the boy said, beginning to stand, “I think I’d like to live you now.”

            And honestly, what was the old woman to say in response to that? She had been praying for a ray of light and it had found her. Who was she to question her good fortune? So she reached out her hand and told him, “Well, grab on. Lets head home then.”

            Thrilled with her discovery, she introduced the little boy to her husband. He asked not where he came from, but asked for his name. The wife started to say that she had not asked, but the boy spoke up with a confident “Sylvanus,” his hand still tightly clutching the old woman’s, “but you can call me Sylvan.”

            The man, laughing at the boy’s oddness, grabbed the boy’s other hand and touched his wife’s smiling face. “Okay kid, sounds good.”

            Years passed and the old couple’s lives continued to shine with radiance from Sylvan’s company. They loved him dearly and taught him all there was to know about the world. As he grew, he showed much promise in the art of fishing, so the old couple prompted him to go off and perfect his skill and to learn as much as he could. For though he was the light of their life, they knew that one day he would return to them.

            And even though the boy was gone, the old couple could still feel his presence with them all the days he was gone. And they knew he was happy. And as days turned to months, and months to years, they continued to be happy and content with the life that once saddened them, because their boy was off doing what he loved and was happy. There came a day far off in the future where the old couple slipped into death, curled around their partner, still content with the knowledge that their boy would one day come back to them.

Author’s Note:

I chose to write my story based on the Japanese Fairy Tale (Lang) Uraschimataro and the Turtle. In this story a young man goes off to become a great and brave fisherman, only to one day wreck his boat and be saved by a huge sea turtle that he had once shown mercy to as a young child. This turtle rewards him by introducing him to the daughter of the Sea God. They fall deeply in love and he stays with her at her behest. Until one day the desire to see his parents for one last time overwhelms him and he returns to the shore. It turns out that he has spent 300 years underwater with the woman and his parents have lost since died. In despair he opens a box (that he was told not to) and quickly grows into his old age and dies on the shore wishing to take back his choices.

I thought that this story was really sad and wanted to kind of show how the parents must have felt after their child left and never returned. I kept some of the magical aspects of the original story, but kept it mainly from their perspective of blindness to his life after his departure. I also wanted to include the fact that he did end up seeing his parents again (in death), which kind of lessens the blow of the story.

Bibliography:

Story source: The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897). Urashimataro and the Turtle