Storytelling Week 12: A Rabbit's Tale

Robert Rabbit sat by the fire next to his hundreds of grandrabbits. This had been an eventful evening! He had taught his youngest grandrabbits how to make s'mores and only one managed to burn themselves. Harper, one of his eldest grandrabbits, soon asked for a story.

"A story, eh? Robert said with a grin. "I know just the one! Have I told you the story of how I fought elephants?"

The older grandrabbits rolled their eyes. They have heard that story hundreds of times. However, the little ones were jumping with excitement. "You fought an elephant Grandpa Rob???" They all questioned.

Boxer Bugs by Buster126 from Deviantart

Robert cleared his throat and began his story, "Once upon a time, there was a young rabbit (that's me!) who decided to take a walk through the woods. Suddenly, the whole earth began to shake! The rabbit ran to find shelter from this earthquake and just managed to get out of the way before a whole herd of elephants ran through right where he was standing! The rabbit was furious that the elephants could be so careless, so he emerged from safety and yelled at the elephants to stop. The elephants all turned around to see who was yelling at them and started to laugh. It was only a rabbit. The rabbit was offended by the elephants and challenged them to a fight if anyone dared. The elephants only laughed harder at the young rabbit. The rabbit started to get really upset and called the elephants cowards. If it was so easy to beat a rabbit then why wouldn't the fight him? The leader of the elephants then stepped up to the rabbit to accept his challenge. Another elephant counted down. 3, 2, 1, FIGHT! The elephant charged at the rabbit, but the rabbit was too fast for him. He jumped around the elephant's legs and dodging everything the elephant threw at him (literally there were some branches thrown). Finally, the elephant had an idea: he would squish the rabbit. The elephant weight about 300 times what the rabbit weighed. This would be an easy victory. He went to squish the rabbit and the rabbit jumped up on top of him and the elephant fell. With one swift movement the rabbit kicked the elephant in the head so hard that he knocked the elephant out. The rest of the herd than ran scared and never came back to the forest again."

"What happened to the elephant leader, Grandpa?"

"He woke up and then left to find his herd." Robert said with a shrug. "However, I sure taught them a lesson! They have not dared to come this way again!" Robert was beaming at the memory of him defeating a mighty elephant.

"Grandpa, I want to be like you someday!" One of the grandrabbits said and was soon echoed by many of their siblings and cousins.

"You will have adventures of your own! Perhaps one day you can tell your grandrabbits stories from your adventures! How cool would that be?"

All of the grandrabbits smiled and later that night each of them had dreams of adventures that are all their own.

Author's Note: I chose to write this week's storytelling post based off of "The Elephant Fighting Hare" from Indian Fables and Folklore. I decided to write this as a grandpa telling the story to his grandkids (in this case grandrabbits) because I feel like this was a story that this particular rabbit would want to tell everyone for the rest of his life. In the original, the rabbit did not knock the elephant out. The rabbit was simply on top of the elephant as he was laying down and the other elephants thought the rabbit was holding the elephant down with all of his strength. This scared the other elephants into leaving. The elephant that fought the hare then realized he was all alone and ants got into his trunk and then he left as well.

Bibliography: The Elephant Fighting Hare from Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi (1919).

Reading Diary Week 12: Indian Fables and Folklore Part A

Indian Fables and Folklore

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The Elephant Fighting Hare

I absolutely loved this story! I thought it was so cute! I would love to write a story about the hare fighting the elephants. Perhaps he could be telling his friends and family about it at home. I think it would be great if he was an older hare now and it was like he was telling a war story. It may also be exaggerated over time. Maybe this one hare saved the village or something of the sort. There are so many things that I could do with this short story.

The Moon in the Well

I actually think I have heard this story before! I think I would rewrite this so no monkeys died though. Perhaps the moon really was stuck in the well and they create a very elaborate rescue mission for it. Almost like a mission impossible version of the story. I think that would be a fun and new way to write my story this week. I haven't done anything like that and it could be quite the challenge.

The Gifts of the Sun

I thought this was a cute and interesting story. The sun was so polite to the sage. The sage was very daring. The sun could have scorched the earth because of what the sage did. It could be a fun approach to tell the story like the sun did release all of its wrath. Perhaps people could be telling stories and fables about how the world was before the sun scorched the earth. Green trees, flowers of every color. It could sound crazy to someone that only knows desert.