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

Reading Diary A: Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes

Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes

Creation

Another story about creation. This story started a bit similar like my story called “Tangy’s Creation” with the creation of water and fish. Most of the story centers around the Creator focusing more on the humans than any other animal. The Creator taught men many new things and gave them many tools to use for survival. He also made women and taught them to cook and sew. It was kind of funny when the Creator created tobacco just so that the humans could calm down.

The Origin of Winnebago

This was an interesting story of how the Menomini people called their thieving neighbors Winnebago. The Manabush persuaded birds to come back and sing with him while he played music. However, Manabush only did this so that he could grab and kill the birds to eat. He buried the birds and made a fire to cook them. Before Manabush went to sleep, he told his thigh to watch over the food. Indians came by and took the cooked birds and ran away. Manabush woke up and saw the Indians and called out “Winnebago! Winnebago!” Such an interesting story about how Menomini people call their thieving neighbors.

A field of tobacco plants

The Origin of Tobacco

Native Americans have a lot of origin stories. This origin story of how tobacco and grasshoppers came to be was quite interesting. Manabush goes up to a mountain where a giant keeps loads of tobacco. The giant tells Manabush to come back in a year for tobacco but Manabush sees many packs of tobacco and takes one. The chase begins and the giant leaps over Manabush falling into a chasm. Manabush then curses the giant and turns him into a grasshopper who are pests that eat tobacco.

Week 9 Storytelling: Tangy's Creation

Zebrasoma flavescens A.K.A Yellow Tang

In the beginning of time, there was one living being in the world. He was a yellow tang named Tangy. With nothing to do in the world, Tangy came up with a plan to make the world more lively.

Tangy began to burp out bubbles that created a breathable atmosphere above the large body of water that covered the world. Next, he grabbed the dirt from the bottom of the sea with his yellow fins and tossed them all around him to create terrestrial plains, mountains, forests, and deserts.

Tangy then blew out three bubbles. Each bubble had their own unique shape. There was a seagull-shaped bubble, a human-shaped bubble, and a grasshopper-shaped bubble. Tangy pushed all three bubbles to the surface of the sea and popped them one after the other.

“I have a task for all three of you,” said Tangy to the three newly created beings. “Each of you will create living creatures that belong in your specific area.”

The three creatures nodded and separated to complete their task. Tangy swam back down into the sea and created fish that belonged in the sea and other bodies of water. The seagull flew to the nearest beach and made many others just like him from his feathers before making all of the other different birds. From the clay of the Earth, the human molded many mammals and animals that traveled on land and also created animals that are amphibious. Lastly, the grasshopper hopped around the Earth millions of times creating a vast amount of insects and bugs with each hop.

Soon, the world began blooming with life from the sky to the depths of the ocean. The seagull, the human, and the grasshopper made their way back to Tangy and reverted back into bubbles. Tangy then inhaled each of the bubbles back inside of him.

Bubbles the yellow tang from Finding Nemo

Life was good on Earth, but Tangy saw that most of the animals could not see very much since there was no light. Knowing that this was a problem, Tangy blew a ginormous bubble and gave it all of his yellow color. He then pushed the giant yellow bubble out of the water and it became the sun. With Tangy's yellow color gone, he looked as white as a ghost.

White Tang with some yellow color

The sun allowed all of the life forms to see one another and frolic around. After days of sunlight, all the living creatures began to burn from the heat and become weary and tired. Seeing that this was another problem, Tangy had a very similar solution like when he created the sun.

Tangy once again blew up a big bubble, but this bubble was quite small compared to the sun. Since the only color that Tangy had left was his pale white color, he gave it to the big bubble and pushed it out of the water. This big bubble then became the moon that allowed animals that played in the day to rest at night and for the animals who played at night to come out. After giving the moon his white complexion, the only thing Tangy had left was the absence of color and his life.

Black Longnose Tang with a spec of white

Tangy knew that his job was completed and that the world will grow and develop on its own. He soon floated up and out of the ocean and became the dark night sky watching over all of life on Earth.

Author’s Note. The story about “Tangy’s Creation” was inspired by the Native American story “Spider’s Creation.” In the original story, the spider’s name is Sussistinnako and he had two parcels which he laid down and started to sing. Soon two women came out from the parcels followed by other animals and life forms. The two women were named Utset and Now-Utset. Utset was the mother of all Indians while Now-Utset was the mother of all other nations. Sussistinnako created nearly everything on Earth including natural elements such as lightning, thunder, and rainbows. After being inspired by Sussistinnako, both Utset and Now-Utset created both the sun and the moon for their people to see in the day and the night. Utset and Now-Utset also made Star People to shine brightly in the night sky.

My story is very different from the original story. The characters are very different since Tangy, the yellow tang, is a fish instead of a spider. Also, Tangy had three helpers to create life on Earth. Each helper had their own unique task of creating creatures that were similar to them. Tangy created all fish that belonged in small and large bodies of water. The seagull created all birds that could fly and those that were flightless. The human created all mammals, land animals and amphibians. The grasshopper created all bugs and insects around the entire world with every jump it made. The three helpers returned to Tangy and became one with him. Tangy then sacrificed his colors and himself to create the sun, the moon, and the night sky.

Bibliography. “Spider’s Creation” by Katharine Berry Judson (1912). Web Source: Sacred Texts Archive