Friday, January 16, 2015

WHAT YOU MISSED LAST NIGHT

Married to a Monster! was the theme, and the stories certainly lived up to it!

Marie told us a tale from Africa - a chief's first wife, resentful of the much younger second wife who has eventually borne the chief the son he so much desires, with the authentic full-moon birthmark, does all she can to dispose of the son and heir, but fails in the end. The lost child is found and restored to his birthright, while the "monster" is sent back to live with her parents.

Maddie gave us Thor as Bride - a hilarious tale of cross-dressing and even crosser general behaviour among the Gods, Goddesses and Giants of the North. You may expect to get hammered at a wedding - but not, I hope, in this way!

Jill told us how Jack followed the best advice you can get for dealing with a woman, "be sweet to her", and got, as his reward, the mermaid he had seen from afar, and not the monster she had appeared to be when first he captured her and brought her home. [Don't know if the same technique works with men.]

Mike closed the first half with Captain Murderer, a bedtime story from Dickens' Uncommercial Traveller, which you can find here. [Though the general view was that you shouldn't read it too close to bedtime, if you want to get a good night's sleep.]

Laura filled the second half with 白蛇传 - The Legend of Lady White Snake. One of the Four Great Chinese Folktales, it began life in the sixth century as a horror-story, but changed over time into a love-story, and the hero of the first version, an abbot who fights and eventually defeats the snake-demon, turns into the villain of later versions, as a narrow-minded cleric who breaks up a pair of true lovers. The audience was left wanting more - and Laura assures that there is more - plenty of it! What happened to Lady White's son? How did Lady White and her maid-companion-friend Blue meet? Other stories for other times!

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