Week 10 Storytelling: How Grandma Married Grandpa.

Hey Grandma, Tell Me A Story from Saritharao Blogspot

"Hey Grandma Coral! I was wondering... How did you and grandpa meet? How did you marry him?"

"O! That is a great story sweetie! When I was younger, people said I was very beautiful. So one day three separate brothers came up to my father and asked for my hand in marriage."

"Wait grandma! You were going to marry a man before you met him?!?"

"Yes dear, that is how it worked back then." Grandma Coral said while nodding her head. "My father decided he would give me to one of the brothers, however, I did not want to marry one of them because I did not want to hurt their feelings."

"That is nice of you Grandma!"

Grandma Coral laughed to herself and then continued. "The brothers stayed all day and night and we had a great dinner and afterwards I danced with all three of the brothers. In all of the excitement I got a fever and died."

"YOU DIED????? But you are alive now! What happened???"

"I am about to tell you little one!" Grandma Coral said as she scooped up her grandchild and placed them in her lap.  "The brothers then burned my body. One of the brothers slept on a bed of my ashes, The second took my bones and dipped them in the sacred Ganges river. The third brother becaume a monk and wandered through many countries. In his travels, the third brother discovered a  magic spell that could bring me back to life! He came back to my ashes and the bones that were dipped in the river and brought me back to life."

"YAY!" the grandchild exclaimed.

Grandma Coral chuckled, "Yes! Yay! I came back to life! Then the brothers started to argue over who should marry me. The third brother thought he should marry me because it was his spell that brought me back to life. The second brother thought he should marry me because he dipped my bones in the sacred river which helped bring me to life. The first brother aruged that he should marry me because he kept my ashes safe. Which one do you think got to marry me?"

The grandchild scrunched up their face, deep in thought. "I think it was the brother who kept the ashes."

"You are right! Your grandpa kept my ashes! My father decided that your grandpa deserved to marry me because he did what a true lover would do. He kept my ashes safe by sleeping with them and truly mourned me when I was dead."

"I am glad he chose grandpa! I love him!"

Grandma Coral smiled. "I love him too."

Author's Note:

I based this story off of The 2nd Goblin's riddle. In the original story a goblin tells a riddle to a king that he must answer correctly or die. I rewrote the riddle in the perspective of the girl that died, Coral. I liked the idea of a grandchild wanting to know more about their grandparents that love each other so much. I stayed pretty on target with the original story line. I just condensed it and had the child guess the answer to the riddle the grandma was asking.

Bibliography: The 2nd Goblin from Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder (1917).