Week 10 Storytelling: The Origin of Nessie

"Photo" of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster

There once lived a very old sturgeon in the Loch Ness Lake of Scotland. He lived a mostly peaceful and long life near the bottom of the lake. This old sturgeon was given the name Sarge by the younger sturgeons that also lived in the Loch Ness.

One day, two young sturgeons named Ash and Rock swam towards Sarge and started to mess around with the old fish.

“Hey, Sarge! Are you gonna slowly drift around again like an old dead log?” laughed Ash as they swam in a circle around Sarge.

“Haha! Good one dude!” chuckled Rock.

“What in the hell do you delinquents want from me this time?” asked the very irritated Sarge.

“We want nothing from you. Actually, you know what? You’re an old relic. I’m sure Indiana Jones will come get you some day,” jested Ash.

“Haha! Good one dude!” giggled Rock again.

“Dude. Is that all you can say?” questioned Ash as he stopped circling around Sarge.

“Uh… no. H-hey, old man. I b-bet you don’t even know who Indiana Jones is do ya?” taunted Rock as he faced Sarge.

Sarge just glared at the two young sturgeons and began to swim the opposite direction to avoid their failed attempt to bully him.

“Where you going geezer? You gonna go extinct like your species of old fish?” jeered Rock.

“Dude, what the heck man? We’re all the same species you idiot.” Scolded Ash to Rock. “Whatever. Let’s leave the old man and go tip over some boats.”

The two young sturgeons then swam away from Sarge to cause more mischief elsewhere.

Later that day Sarge was laying quietly on the bottom of the lake until he heard some odd vibrations with his whiskers. He looked around near the bottom to see if the vibrations were from the ground but there was nothing down where he was. Then Sarge looked up and saw that one of the young sturgeons that was harassing him earlier was caught by a fisherman’s hook.

“Hold on youngin! Old Sarge is on his way!” shouted Sarge as he darted toward the soon to be captured sturgeon.

“Help! Help me!” screamed Rock as he is flailing around with a fishing hook stuck in his mouth.

“You idiot! Quit moving around so much! This is why our species isn’t living as long as we used to.” Ordered Sarge as he was trying to calm Rock down.

“O-okay. Okay. W-what do I do Sarge? I-I’m scared.” Whimpered Rock.

Sarge looked at the distressed Rock and then looked up at the boat and saw a fisherman reeling the fishing line in with a great big smile.

“Alright. Here’s the plan. I am going to distract the fisherman while you rock the boat back and forth by swimming down on the left then to the right of the boat. You got that?” explained Sarge.

“Y-yeah. I-I think I can do that,” sobbed Rock.

As soon as Rock began swimming down and to the left and then right of the boat, Sarge positioned himself between the fisherman and the sun and lifted half of his body out of the water with his powerful tail. The fisherman was frightened by the head of this large shadowy creature and thought it was rocking his boat so he held on tightly for his life.

Jumping sturgeon just like the story

After one strong pull by Rock, the boat flipped over and Ash swam out from under the flipped boat.

“ASH!” yelled Rock.

“ROCK!” Ash shouted back.

“So that’s where you were, hiding in the boat. What an interesting way to have fun,” joked Sarge. “Let’s go back down before the fisherman can see us.”

All three sturgeons swam quickly back into the darkness of the Loch Ness and told many of their kind to never go up near the top. However, their story could not prevent a few sturgeons from appearing at the top every once in a while.

The fisherman on the other hand, told stories of a great big creature that had a ginormous head and body that lifted his whole boat from the water. Such an exaggerated fisherman’s tale made headlines all over the world as the Loch Ness Monster who is also named Nessie.

Author’s Note. The original story is called “The Origin of Winnebago” from the Menomini natives of Wisconsin. In this story Manabush, who is a trickster hero, finds a flock of birds that live near water. He begins to walk closer to them. The birds swim away from him and ask him what he is doing. Manabush then tells them that he is simply dancing and wishes for them to join him by singing and dancing. The birds agree and Manabush tells them to circle around him and sing as loudly as they can while closing their eyes. As they being singing loudly, Manabush beings killing them one at a time. The duck notices that there aren’t as many birds singing as before and opens his eyes. Manabush catches the duck and gives him red eyes. Afterwards, Manabush buries his kills and makes a fire to cook them. Soon he falls asleep from all the work he has done and some Indians come by and steal his food. Manabush wakes up to see the Indians going away in their canoes and shouts, “Winnebago! Winnebago!” Thus the Menomini call their thieving neighbors Winnebago.

My origin story is very different and focuses on the origin of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster. The story starts out with sturgeons living in the lake of Loch Ness in Scotland. These sturgeons are a very old species of fish who have lived through millions of years and are known as living fossils. There is one really old sturgeon named Sarge and two young sturgeons named Ash and Rock. One day the young sturgeons are bothering Sarge and fail to do so since Sarge simply swims away. Later during the day, Rock has a fishing hook in his mouth and is flailing everywhere. Sarge notices this and swims quickly to the distressed Rock. Sarge comes up with a plan to get Rock free from the fisherman. Rock then begins to rock the boat back and forth while Sarge jumps up out of the water and frightens the fisherman. The sturgeons successfully tip the boat over and save Rock from the hook and Ash who was inside the boat. All three fish swim back down to safety. The fisherman shocked from his experience tells the wildest fisherman’s tale and makes the Loch Ness famous worldwide. This was the origin of the Loch Ness Monster otherwise known as Nessie.

Bibliography. “Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes” by Katharine Berry Judson (1914). Web Source: Internet Archive