Myth Folklore - Chapt. 2

Back to Cover Page
On to the next...
Go Home...

Two days had passed since the last story from our storyteller. The children were anxious for more stories. So was the storyteller. He began to prepare for the next story telling. He set about rekindling his fire that had gone out and started to warm some more hot chocolate for the children. He had just enough cocoa mix to make three more servings for all of the children.

He looked at the children who were finally gathering around his fire to get some hot chocolate and hear the next story. "Children, I have decided to tell you a story that many of you may not know."

The children looked eager. They didn't care if they knew the story or not.

"Children, this is the story of Gilgamish. A king who possessed great strength. In his lifetime, he had one important friend whom he loved dearly, Enkidu. After Enkidu's death, Gilgamish sought to live forever. He eventually decided to ask his uncle, Utanapishtim (who was currently living forever), how he too could live forever."

"Why did he want to live forever?" One of the children asked.

The elder replied, "Enkidu made Gilgamish a better man. Without Enkidu, Gilgamish was frightened of death and wanted to avoid it. Living forever was the only way that he could avoid death." He looked at the children, who seemed uneasy at this point.

"Don't worry, children. It is a story that has a good message. Let's hear about Gilgamish's uncle and how he was able to live forever."

Gilgamish finally found his uncle and asked him, "How is that you live so long and look the same as I do?"

His uncle replied, "Let me share with you a secret of the Gods."

Some time ago, one of the Gods, Enlil, decided to flood the world. Mankind had become so wicked. Another God by the name of Ea decided that he did not want to see all of mankind destroyed. Ea brought the secret to me in a dream and told me to tear down my house and build a boat. He told me to forget about my belongings and save the animals, myself and my family. I promised him that I would do this.

I built a great boat and when it was finished, I put my family and all of the animals in the field into it. The rains were so great that no one could see the front doors to their neighbor's houses.

It rained hard for seven days straight and finally it was calm. I fell to my knees and sat weeping within my boat. As I looked around for any sign of land, many miles away, I saw a mountain. The boat made it to the mountain and planted itself firmly on one of its peaks.

After seven days on this mountain, I sent a dove out to find land, but it returned to me. This, of course, meant that the dove did not find land. The next day, I sent out a swallow and it returned just as quickly as the dove. The next day, I sent out the raven and it never returned.

One of the children gasped at this, "Oh my gosh, this is just like Noah's story!"

The elderly man smiled, nodded, then continued.

After this, the waters went down and I sent out all of my animals. My family and I came out of the boat and we burned good smelling powders to please the Gods. The Gods gathered to enjoy the smell. Just then, Enlil, the God who had created the floods, came and when he saw my boat, he became furious! He bellowed, "Who allowed these humans to survive?"
Everyone looked at Ea, the God who had told me to build the boat, and they knew that it had to have been him. Before Enlil had a chance to say anything to Ea, another God stopped Enlil and asked him, "Why try to destroy every living creature without thinking of all the good that is out there? Why not allow nature to take its course?" When Enlil heard this, he came to me and grabbed me by the hand. He made my wife stand next to me and he touched our foreheads. He then told us, "You were once humans, but now you will forever be like the Gods: immortal."

"And so Uta-Napishtim finished telling his nephew, Gilgamish, the story of how he had become immortal. Then, my children, Uta-Napishtim offered Gilgamish the same immortal life, but he told Gilgamish that he had to stay awake for a full seven days. Can you guess what happened next?"

One of the older girls spoke up and said, "He fell asleep, didn't he!?"

The elderly man smiled, "You are right. He went right to sleep."

Another child asked, "Did God make Noah live forever, too?"

The elderly man replied, "No, Noah did not live forever. The story of Gilgamish and Uta-Napishtim is unlike Noah in a few ways. There are gods and goddesses, the timing is different, there is no rainbow, but immortality. It is also like the story of Noah since a God chose to save someone who they felt was worthy in addition to the birds and the overall flooding." At that, he looked around and saw yawning faces with hands balled into fists rubbing the eyes of their little owners. "OK, children, I am sure you have places to go and sleep where someone is waiting for you. Let's not make them wait any longer! I will have another story to tell you tomorrow or the next day, depending on how much we have to do around our camps. Until then, dears."

At that, all of the children stood and walked back to their tents where
they knew they would definitely fall right to sleep.

Author's Note: This was difficult to frame. It was a tale within a tale that is now within my tale of the elder and his children. Also, there is a lot of information, so once again, it is terribly long. My only hope is that it is interesting enough to seem as though it isn't extremely long. I only included specific names of Gods who were involved. I tried to include the theme that the children were exposed to in the beginning, something with which they are familiar. The first story of Noah was told to provide hope for them, and this one is too, but I tried to develop a few new ideas. First, there were others who were saved by (a) God and maybe they told their flood legend from their own cultural perspective. Second, by introducing Gilgamish's search for immortality, I wanted to give children the sense of impermanence, although I really believe the only message the children received was that Gilgamish sought desperately sought eternity, was offered it and he still failed to obtain it. I think that individuals that grasp the concept of impermanence early, tend to be better at detaching themselves from the less important things that need to be "let go of" and are able to focus energy on more important things in life, like appreciating and taking care of your planet!