But let’s leave all that behind.  Not everyone in the middle ages was a king, knight, or royal maiden. Most people– and by that I mean almost everyone– were very, very poor. And it’s a legend passed around by these poor peasants that we’re interested in today. 

So instead of imagining a grand castle with battlements and a drawbridge, let’s venture into the depths of Sherwood forest, where Robin Hood and his companions, the Merry Men, live and plan their raids. But, as you probably know, these are no ordinary criminals. The legendary Robin Hood was an outlaw, but he wasn’t in it to make himself rich. Instead, he stole from the rich and gave to the poor. His run-ins with the sheriff of Nottingham, his arch-nemesis, bring excitement and danger to the many tales of daring and bravery, while his relationship with the Merry Men and Maid Marion showcases teamwork, friendship, and generosity. 

But was there a real Robin Hood? And why have the legends of this green-clad crusader against injustice stayed so popular for over 700 years? Let’s go a little deeper into Sherwood Forest and see if we can find some answers! 

It turns out, the real Robin Hood is hard to find in those shadowy woods. Historians in the 14th and 15th centuries wrote about him as though he was real, describing a man who lived sometime in the 12th or 13th century. Later stories say he was a loyal supporter of the noble King Richard the Lionheart, and defended the king against Prince John, who seized the throne. But this alliance with King Richard was suggested by a much later writer, who lived in the 18th century, rather than anyone alive closer to the 1190s when he ruled. Also, Richard probably wasn’t as noble as these later Robin Hood legends suggest, and John probably wasn’t as evil. 

But in addition to history books, there were also plenty of songs and plays based on the legendary outlaw by the time the historians began to take notice. May Day festivals often included plays about Robin Hood. But it’s the songs, called ballads, where we find most of the Robin Hood legends we’re so familiar with today. A ballad was a folk song that told a simple story. They were performed by and for common people in many different settings in medieval England: At taverns, public markets, and fairs and festivals. 

Ballads were part of an oral tradition – stories passed around among friends, or from grandparents to grandchildren, generation to generation, over a long time. Ballads just happened to be set to music. Different performers might change things around or add new elements, so they weren’t really “written” by any one person. Most people didn’t know how to read or write in the Middle Ages anyways, so ballads were an important way to keep treasured stories alive. Over time, people forgot which parts were real and which weren’t, and the stories became legends.

At the time, people loved the idea of a hero who stood up against injustice and challenged authorities. Most people in medieval England were, after all. Most of them worked as farmers on land owned by royalty or the church. These people were called serfs, and they weren’t free to just get up and leave to seek a better life elsewhere. They had to farm the same land their parents and grandparents had farmed, for a wealthy baron or the church. But these peasants saw the grand castles and manors that the landowners lived in, the decadent foods they indulged in, and the fine clothes, and compared it to their own meager houses and rough clothes. 

So it’s no wonder Robin Hood became the hero of many a folk ballad, sung by these unfree peasants who worked the land. He strived to even things out, taking from the wealthy and giving the spoils to those who had almost nothing. In some medieval legends, Robin Hood is himself a commoner, a peasant, who goes against the system. In others, he started as one of those noblemen, but after seeing how the poor farmers on his estate lived, decided to devote himself to the cause of making their lives better.

Whatever Robin Hood’s personal history, wealthy, powerful people don’t always want to give up their wealth so that the poor can have a better life. Plus, what hero is complete without a villain? Robin Hood’s most persistent foe in the legends was the Sheriff of Nottingham. A greedy, cunning official, the sheriff had it out for Robin Hood, always devising schemes to capture him and his band of Merry Men. But Robin Hood always outwitted the sheriff, often besting him at his games. In one of the most famous ballads, the sheriff puts on an archery contest, with a silver arrow as the prize. The contest is designed to lure Robin Hood, who has a reputation as a skilled archer, into a trap so the sheriff can arrest him. But Robin disguises himself and wins the contest anyway. In some versions, he even splits another contestant’s arrow right down the middle! Later, he shoots a note–attached to an arrow–into town, boasting to the sheriff about how he had tricked him. 

Another thing every hero needs when he goes up against the bad guys is allies – a band of friends to help him through tough situations and keep his spirits up when things seem hopeless. Robin Hood’s Merry Men filled this role perfectly. Friar Tuck, Little John (said to be seven feet tall!), and Will Scarlett, to name a few, helped Robin with his schemes and disguises. Like Robin himself, we’re not sure whether most of these people were real, but many of them seem to be inspired by real people – mostly outlaws, though not always as charitably inclined as the Merry Men of the ballads!

But the love of Robin’s life was the Maid Marion. Though she’s always in modern movies and books about Robin Hood, she wasn’t in the earliest ballads and legends. But when she shows up in a 17th-century ballad, she makes a strong impression – on Robin as well as audiences! In this story, Marion disguises herself as a boy to search for Robin in the forest. But when she finds Robin, he’s also wearing a disguise, and instead of a happy reunion they get into a fight:

They drew out their swords, and to
cutting they went,
At least an hour or more,
That the blood ran apace from bold
Robins face,
And Marian was wounded sore.

“O hold thy hand, hold thy hand,” said
Robin Hood.
“And thou shalt be one of my string,
To range in the wood with bold Robin
Hood.
And hear the sweet nightingall sing.”

Fortunately, in the end Robin Hood is so impressed by his opponent’s swordsmanship, that he asks to stop the fight (“Hold thy hand”) and offers “him” a spot in his band of Merry Men, saying “be one of my string.” In other stories, Marion has very different roles: sometimes, she’s a noblewoman, sent off to marry the evil Prince John, rival of Robin Hood’s ally King Richard, and Robin must rescue her. In other accounts, she’s equal to any of the Merry Men–fighting alongside the rest of the crew, helping with Robin Hood’s mission to steal from the rich and give to the poor. 

In modern times, Robin Hood hasn’t lost any of his popularity. There have been countless novels, comic books, TV shows and movies about him since the middle ages. Movies range from the swashbuckling 1938 film “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” to the animated Disney version where Robin Hood and Maid Marion are portrayed as adorable foxes. Countless novels have been written over the years focussing not just on Robin Hood himself, but members of his outlaw band and especially Maid Marion. 

Whichever version of Robin Hood you prefer, the legendary outlaw stands for many of our most deeply held values. He’s loyal to his friends, brave in the face of injustice, and kind to those in need. I definitely don’t recommend stealing from anyone, but you can follow Robin’s example in any one of these areas. Even without breaking the law, doing the right thing can be uncomfortable, and doesn’t always make you popular. The world will always need people who are loyal, brave, generous, and kind – people who will do the right thing even if it means getting in trouble now and then.

Sources

https://www.boldoutlaw.com/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Robin-Hood

https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/robin-hood

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/medieval-times/european-middle-ages-and-serfdom/a/serfdom-in-europe

https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/738/the-adventures-of-robin-hood/#overview

The post The Legend of Robin Hood for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Have you ever made up a magical creature in your daydreams? What would your creature be like? Would it be gentle or fierce? Friendly or unfriendly? Would it have magical powers? Maybe it would have a mix of parts from different animals, like the body of a bull, the head of a lion, and the feet of an octopus. 

Okay, that would be pretty weird! But people all over the world, for all of human history, have imagined strange and magical creatures. And oddly enough, cultures from every part of the world have all come up with legends of fierce, snake-like creatures with magical powers. Some of these creatures are even gods. Many have wings and claws. Some are benevolent and helpful, some are evil and destructive. Some hoard treasure and breath fire. 

Of course, I’m talking about dragons, and other, similar mythical creatures. Dragon-like creatures come up again and again in stories from different parts of the world, from ancient Babylonia, to China and Southeast Asia, to medieval Europe, and from the Americas, both ancient and modern. These different dragons have different features, but all are snake- or lizard-like with parts of other animals squished into one. Some are good, some evil, but all are fierce, strong, and magical.

Dragons in Various Cultures

Folklore in India, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian cultures tells of Nagas – snake-like dragons that usually have no arms or legs, some with many heads.  The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl was a feathered serpent, and looks a lot like a dragon in some artwork. The Ancient Egyptians had many snake-gods, as did other African cultures. And the powerful Hawaiian goddess Kiwahawine is a dragon with reddish hair who sometimes shape-shifts into a human woman. 

Ancient Greece had its share of dragon creatures too. One of the more famous is Ladon, who Hercules fought  in order to steal the golden apples he guarded for the goddess Hera.

Later, in ancient Rome, a naturalist named Pliny the Elder passed on the knowledge that a dragon could strangle an elephant with their tail. No one knows where he heard this, but he may have gotten confused by second-hand stories of pythons, snakes that can squeeze their prey to death. 

Philostratus, a Greek philosopher from the 3rd century CE gave descriptions of several kinds of dragons. Mountain dragons are fast and fierce, he says, with glittery golden scales. He claims they have a longer tail than plains dragons, along with bushy beards. Marsh dragons he describes as sluggish and lazy, with black scales on their backs. He was convinced that India was full of dragons, and that Indians knew how to enchant dragons by weaving magical cloaks and lulling them to sleep. The eyes of a dragon were supposedly made of stone, and rings set with this stone would have magic powers.

But the best-known dragon legends today are probably the ones based on Chinese and medieval European stories. Early natural scientists in both Europe and China wrote about dragons as though real but still magical. Chinese scholars grouped them with other animals that had scales, like snakes and lizards. 

Misunderstandings About Dragons

Like unicorns, dragons were also subject to cases of mistaken identity. In the past, people who unearthed dinosaur bones often thought they were dragon bones. This was before scientists were careful and methodical about reconstructing skeletons and dating them, which made them realize they were real, non magical, but extinct animals. It’s easy to see why people might confuse dinosaur bones for dragon bones though: both have sharp teeth and claws, long tails, and an overall shape similar to a lizard. Still, in ancient Chinese medicine, these “dragon bones” were used to treat madness, kidney problems, and diarrhea, among other ailments

Other animal fossils were also mistaken for dragons. From the middle ages on, the town of Klangenfurt, Austria was home to legends about a “lindwurm” – a dragon–that once lived in surrounding marshes. This dragon roamed the countryside, picking off people and farm animals. The local king ordered his knights to kill the dragon, and after several valiant attempts, they finally did. The skull of the dragon was put on display in the town hall. Centuries later, in the 1500s, a sculptor commemorated the event by creating a statue of the dragon, based on this skull. Only later did people realize that the skull actually came from an extinct ice age creature, the elephant-like Wooly Mammoth!

There are slight differences between dragons in legends from different areas–wyverns have two legs and wings, while knuckers have four legs and lived near water, but European dragons mostly follow the mold of the Klangefurt dragon: menacing and powerful. The early medieval English poem Beowulf kicks off this trend, telling of a dragon who burned down homes with his fiery breath. The “wurm” part of the name “lindwurm” comes from an old English word that meant dragon or snake. Maybe this is why medieval Europeans often associated dragons with snakes and evil. In Christian teachings, the devil appeared to Eve in the Garden of Eden as a snake. 

Tales of knights fighting dragons who have been terrorizing towns and farms, like in Klangefurt, were popular throughout the middle ages in Europe. Another famous story tells of St George, the dragonslayer. In a typical plotline, a dragon was terrorizing a village, breathing fire on people and farm animals. The villagers decided to sacrifice one sheep each day to the dragon, to keep him happy, but eventually, they ran out of sheep. Next, they started choosing a child at random each day to give to the dragon. One day, the king’s daughter was selected to be that child. Lucky for her, St George was passing through town that day, and was horrified to learn what was happening. He offered to slay the dragon so that no more children would need to be sacrificed. As he struggled against the dragon, he noticed a weak spot in its armor. He plunged his sword into this spot, under the dragon’s arm, and killed him, saving the princess. 

This story was probably made up by Christian soldiers called crusaders long after the real St George was dead. It’s very similar to other dragon stories of the middle ages, and dragon tales were very popular at the time. They were on coats of arms for many kingdoms and countries, banners, and coins, as a symbol of strength. And some people believed they were real for a long time: a scientist from the 17th century describes dragons winging throughout Africa, bludgeoning other large animals to death with their tails. My guess is that this guy never actually went to Africa, just like Philostratus probably never traveled to India. 

The dragons of Chinese folklore are a bit different from European dragons. Though they are fierce and magical, Chinese dragons, called “lung”, are benevolent and helpful. These four-legged creatures with scales, horns, claws, and fiery eyes, lived near water, such as streams, rivers, and oceans. In fact, lungs were originally divine beings who controlled water and rainfall. 

Other accounts from Chinese authors talk about four types of dragons. The Celestial Dragon, Tianlung, guards the home of the gods in heaven. You can see Tianlung as a group of stars coiled around the north star at night. In the west, this constellation is known as Draco, which also means dragon. Then there are the Dragons of Hidden Treasure, who guard buried treasures, creating volcanic eruptions when they burst out of their underground lairs. The Earth Dragon controls waterways, while the Spiritual dragon controls rain and winds. The Earth and Spiritual dragons were especially popular. In later folklore they morphed into “Dragon Kings” who lived in the oceans, sending rain, and protecting ships at sea. 

Modern Dragons

In modern times, dragons have remained very popular. You can still see an ancient ritual in many places around the world where people hold Chinese New Year’s parades: the dragon dance. People line up, holding a colorful and elaborate dragon costume above them as they wind and dance their way along the parade route. 

Many books, movies, and comics also feature dragons. Maybe you’ve read The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, where Bilbo Baggins helps defeat the dragon Smaug, in a way very similar to St George; or the Chronicles of Narnia, where a character learns an important lesson when he is accidentally transformed into a dragon. More recently, series like Tui Sutherland’s Wings of Fire series and How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell, put a more modern spin on traditional dragon lore. The dragons in these series may look like medieval European dragons, but they aren’t all evil. Wings of Fire has dragons from different tribes, each with its own customs and powers, learning to cooperate, overcome their fears, and solve big problems. How to Train your Dragon follows a Viking boy and his dragon as they team up to overcome challenges, with plenty of silliness along the way. 

If you were making up your own version of a dragon, what would it be like? Helpful and benevolent, like the lung from ancient China? A fire-breathing terror who guards a treasure hoard, like the ones from medieval Europe? Or one of the more modern versions? What magical powers does it have? So many people throughout the ages have imagined different versions of these fascinating creatures. As you go to sleep tonight, try to imagine what your dragon-friend would be like!

Sources

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/dragons/european-dragons

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/dragons/natural-history-of-dragons

https://www.britannica.com/event/Crusades

https://www.britannica.com/topic/long

https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/draco-constellation/

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/philostratus-life-of-apollonius/philostratus-life-of-apollonius-3.6-10/

https://www.stgeorgessociety.org/news/2018/3/30/saint-george-the-man-the-myth-the-legend

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dragons_in_mythology_and_folklore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga

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In a previous story, we learned about the ancient Greek poet Homer, and his epic poem The Iliad. The Iliad told the story of the hero Achilles,  and how he had to overcome his anger to help his people win the Trojan War. The Odyssey is a very different story, but just as full of adventure. It tells the story of one of the kings who fought in the Trojan War. His name was Odysseus and the story is about his adventures as he tries to return home. 

What was Homer’s The Odyssey?

The Odyssey starts after the war and is far away from the war and even far from Odysseus himself. It starts in Ithaca, Odysseus’ home island, where he was king before leaving for the Trojan War. There, we meet his son, Telemachus, who was just a baby when Odysseus went off to the fight at Troy, but who is now nearly grown up. Odysseus has been gone almost twenty years – ten years at war, and ten years trying to get home. Telemachus and his mother, Penelope, don’t know whether he survived the war or not. Other men have come to Odysseus’ house, demanding that Penelope choose one of them to marry. They behave very rudely, eating all the food in the house and making messes, and staying even when they’re told to leave. 

Penelope waits on choosing a new husband, hoping Odysseus will return home soon. She tells her suitors that she must weave a funeral blanket for her father-in-law before she can choose a new husband. So every day she weaves the cloth at her loom, and every night she unravels it, so the blanket is never finished. 

Her son, Telemachus decides he must find out whether his father is still alive, so he sets out on his own quest. He learns from one of Odysseus’ friends that his father had been imprisoned by a goddess named Calypso. She wanted to marry him, but Odysseus only wanted to return to Penelope and Telemachus in Ithaca. Finally, after seven years, the other gods convinced Calypso to let Odysseus go.

Odysseus builds a raft and leaves the island. He lands on an island called Phaecia. The king of Phaecia is kind and offers Odysseus food, gifts, and a place to stay. In return, Odysseus tells him the story of the many trials he faced on his quest to return home, and how he ended up alone on Calypso’s island instead. So Odysseus is now the bard, telling his own epic within Homer’s story!

After Odysseus and his crew leave Troy, their ships are quickly thrown off course. 

Buy The Odyssey

Polyphemus, the Cyclops

Soon, they are captured by a one-eyed giant called a cyclops. He plans to eat them! But crafty Odysseus comes up with a plan to trick the monster, whose name is Polyphemus. First, Odysseus talks to Polyphemus, pretending that he’s trying to convince him to let him go free. Polyphemus is not swayed though, and only promises that he’ll eat Odysseus last. While they’re talking, the cyclops asks Odysseus his name. But instead of telling him his real name, Odysseus replies that his name is “Nobody.” 

This is part of Odysseus’ real plan! 

As Polyphemus sleeps that night, Odysseus ties each of his men to the underside of a sheep. Then he takes a stake, and blinds the cyclops, plunging it into his eye. Polyphemus begins to scream, calling out to the other cyclops on the island to help him. But when they come to the cave entrance and ask who is hurting him, he replies “Nobody!” (the pretend name Odysseus gave himself) The other cyclops leave, thinking their friend is just goofing around. At last, Polyphemus calms down and rolls away the stone that covers the door to the cave so his sheep can leave to graze. When the animals leave, they take the men with them, tied to their bellies.  

Poseidon

After escaping the cyclops, Odysseus’ troubles are far from over. You see, Polyphemus came from a powerful family: His father is the sea god Poseidon. Poseidon wasn’t too happy with Odysseus for blinding his son. And, you can probably imagine, it’s not great to have the god of the sea angry with you when you’re trying to sail home in a boat. 

Odysseus finds that, because of Poseidon’s anger, the gods will no longer send helpful winds to blow him back to Ithaca. They wander, and all but one of his ships sinks in a disaster. 

Island of Circe

Finally, he is blown to the island of Circe, the home of a powerful witch. At first, Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. But with some help from the god Hermes, Odysseus is able to steal Circe’s magic wand. He says he will only give it back if she turns his men back. Circe is impressed with Odysseus and agrees. Even better, she offers to help him! 

Circe tells Odysseus of the many dangers they will face sailing back to Ithaca, and how he should deal with each one. The last thing Circe warns Odysseus of is the Island of the Sun God. This island is where the Sun God’s cattle eat grass. If even one cow is eaten by Odysseus or his men, they will be punished severely. Circe tells him not to even stop there. 

So Odysseus and his men set out from Circe’s island. At first, they follow her advice as they pass through each danger. 

But after all these trials and challenges, the men are getting frustrated and tired. They insist on stopping at the Island of the Sun God. You can probably guess what happens next. Despite Odysseus pleading with them not to, his men kill and eat the cattle on the island. Odysseus is angry with them, but it’s too late. As they sail away from the island, the gods send a storm that sinks the ship. 

Only Odysseus survives the shipwreck. He clings to boards from his wrecked ship, drifting for days until he finally comes ashore on the island of Calypso, who of course captures and holds him prisoner.

This is the end of the story that Odysseus tells his new friends the Phaecians, but of course, it’s not the end of the epic. He’s still not home with his family in Ithaca. The Phaecian king helps Odysseus get a new ship and return home to set things straight.

Odysseys Returns to Ithica

Once he reaches his home of Ithaca, the goddess Athena disguises Odysseus as an old beggar. He returns to his house to see what’s been happening. By this time, Telemachus has returned home, and he and Penelope treat him kindly, not realizing he is actually Odysseus in disguise. 

While they are talking, Penelope tells him all about the men trying to marry his wife – how rude, wasteful, and selfish they are. She says that she’s decided to hold a contest. Twelve axes will be set up in a row. The axes each have a hole in their blades. Penelope says she will marry the person who shoots an arrow through the hole in the ax. She knows none of the suitors will be up to the task. Odysseus, still in disguise, encourages her to follow through on this plan. 

The next day, each suitor takes the challenge, stringing an arrow and trying to shoot through all twelve axe heads. Each one fails. When none are left, the old beggar (who is Odysseus in disguise) steps up and asks to try. The gathered suitors all laugh, but they let him try, sure he cannot possibly succeed where they have all failed. But they are wrong: Odysseus strings his bow and shoots. The arrow whistles through all twelve axe heads, sticking in the wall behind them. Everyone is stunned that this old, feeble man has beaten all the young, strong suitors.

At this point, Athena reveals the beggar’s true identity. It is Odysseus! Penelope and Telemachus are overjoyed that not only has Odysseus returned home, but he also beat the suitors in the contest. The suitors are terrified and realize they need to get out of there fast, knowing Odysseus isn’t going to be happy about how they’ve treated his family and home.

Conclusion

Stories like The Odyssey tell us about how the ancient Greeks thought. The poem warns people that they should treat others with respect and honor the gods, or else face terrible consequences. Though the consequences in real life might not be as harsh as they are in the poem, treating others with respect is a good idea no matter when or where you live. That’s another thing about Homer’s epics — they show us that people have always been people, even the ones we think of as heroes. They make mistakes. They might do or believe things we disagree with. But people have always  needed the same things we do now: Respect, the love of family, and a place to come home to after a long, hard journey.

Sources

https://www.worldhistory.org/homer/

https://blog.britishmuseum.org/who-was-homer/

Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Richard Lattimore. University of Chicago Press, 1951

Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Emily Wilson. Norton & Company, 2020.

The post The Story of The Odyssey by Homer for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Wait! You’re probably saying: Did I just say poems? I did! Actually superheroes and epics have been around for thousands of years, and the first epics were performed as very long poems! These poems told of dangerous journeys, fantastical monsters, and grand battle scenes. Some of them were as long as chapter books. Heroes had to overcome almost impossible obstacles to fulfill their destinies.

Many cultures, from all over the world, have their own epics. These sagas told people about their history, mythology, and religion in a way that’s exciting and memorable. So memorable in fact, that before there was writing, people would memorize and perform them, and they would be passed down for hundreds of years! Today we’re going to talk about two of the most famous epic poems composed by a poet named Homer.

Homer was a poet and bard in ancient Greece. A bard was a person who recited stories or poems for an audience, often set to music. He composed two of the most famous epic poems in the world: The Iliad and the Odyssey. His life is a bit of a mystery actually. We don’t know exactly when he was born, or exactly where. He was probably born sometime in the 8th century BCE, and somewhere in what is now western Turkey, or a nearby island. At the time, there were many Greek settlements in western Turkey, along the coast of the Mediterranean. 

Both The Iliad and The Odyssey talk about events surrounding an ancient war called the Trojan War. The Trojan War in the poems was probably based on a real war, but as you’ll see in a few minutes, the real war was probably nothing like the one in the stories.  The first poem, the Iliad talks about the war itself. The Odyssey is the story of King Odysseus’ homecoming after the war. Today we’re going to talk about The Iliad, and in the next episode, we’ll talk about The Odyssey.

The Iliad starts out in the tenth year of the Trojan war. The leader of the Greek forces, Agamemnon, and his best fighter, Achilles are arguing. 

You might be wondering, why start the story in the tenth year of the war? Isn’t it important to start at the beginning so people know what’s going on? Well, Homer’s audience, the ancient Greeks, knew these stories. They probably even knew the stories he included in the Iliad, but the excitement would have been in hearing them all put together, maybe with certain details added or certain parts given more attention. But, since you may not know how the war started, I’ll go over that now. 

It all starts with an apple. The gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece were celebrating a wedding, and decided not to invite the goddess, Eris. She was angry and decided to trick the revelers. So she threw a golden apple into the party, and said it was a gift “for the fairest.” The goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each thought they deserved the apple. After much arguing, they agreed to let a human named Paris judge which of them was the most beautiful and should get the apple. 

All three goddesses tried to gain Paris’s favor by promising him things if he chose them. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, promised him he could marry the most beautiful woman in the world. This was the prize Paris wanted, so Aphrodite won the contest. The most beautiful woman in the world was named Helen. But the BIG problem here was Helen was already married to the king of Sparta. You can imagine how this is going to cause some problems. So Paris and Helen fall in love and when Paris is visiting they escape back to the city of Troy. But Helen’s husband, Menelaus, was very angry that she and Paris left. So what did he do next? He called on all of his friends to help get her back. Many of his friends were powerful kings of other Greek cities and islands. They formed a huge army and headed to Troy to take Helen back from Paris. 

Now, if you’re a bit skeptical about the idea that an apple could cause a war, that’s okay. Remember, these stories weren’t just about telling history, they were also about entertaining people and teaching moral lessons. So gods and magical events would often become part of the story over time. It made things more exciting, just like the powers that the heroes of our day have like superpowers or magic. 

So, the Iliad starts ten years into this war over Helen! But more importantly, it starts with anger. In fact, the first line of the poem talks about anger: 

Sing the anger, oh goddess, of Peleus’ son Achilles.

This story starts with an argument between the hero Achilles and the leader of the Greek forces, Agamemnon, over a servant girl Agamemnon took from him.  Achilles refuses to fight, and also keeps his army, the Myrmidons, on the sidelines. This is a big problem for the Greeks, because there’s a prophecy that says they cannot win the war without Achilles.

Agamemnon tries all sorts of things to try to get Achilles to rejoin the fighting. He even tells everyone they should just pack up and go home. Maybe he thinks if he threatens to leave, Achilles might not like the idea and finally decide to cooperate. (Have your parents ever tried this on you?) But a few of the other leaders convince everyone they should stay and continue the fight.

Once the armies reach Troy, The Greeks and the Trojans try to settle their differences by having Paris and Menelaus fight one-to-one. After all, it was their argument over Helen that started the whole war. But when it becomes clear Menelaus is going to win, the goddess Aphrodite saves Paris by carrying him back to his house on a cloud. 

So the two sides just keep fighting. 

Another important character in the Battle for Troy is the warrior, Achilles. A prophecy says that the war can only be won with Achilles help, but Achilles had refused to fight because he was wronged. Eventually, Achilles starts to feel bad about not helping, as he sees his friends struggling and dying around him. So he gives his best friend, Patroclus his armor and tells him to lead his men into battle. Sadly, Patroclus Achilles dies in battle and Achilles regrets his decision to send him instead. Achilles now feels he has no choice but to rejoin the war, that he must avenge his friend’s death. 

So Achilles puts on his armor and in anger, avenges his friend’s death but the Trojan War continues on anyway. This poem, called The Iliad, ends with Achilles overcoming his anger and accepting his responsibilities towards his comrades. Eventually, the Greeks do win the war, and Helen returns home with husband, the King Menelaus, but those events aren’t part of The Iliad or The Odyssey. In a way, The Iliad isn’t about the war – how many years it took, why it was fought, or who won. It was about one person, Achilles, learning to overcome his angry feelings and do what his friends and community needed him to do. This is often what makes someone a hero: overcoming their own anger, pride, or fear in order to serve a bigger purpose.

The next episode, we’ll talk about Homer’s other epic poem, The Odyssey. This story is very different from the Iliad. Instead of talking about the war, it talks about one king’s return home. The king’s name is Odysseus, and he’s known for being very crafty and smart. He actually had the idea that led the Greeks to eventually win the Trojan War.  His idea was to build a giant, wooden horse, as tall as a building. It was also hollow inside so Greek warriors could hide inside. Then the Greeks told the Trojans they wanted to give them the horse as a gift. Once the horse was inside the city and it was night, the soldiers hidden inside climbed out of a trapdoor and took over the city! Pretty tricky right? This is where we get the term “Trojan horse” for something that looks harmless, but hides a nasty surprise.

Thanks for listening to this episode about The Illiad. Be sure to listen next time for the story about The Odyssey. 

Sources

Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Richard Lattimore. University of Chicago Press, 1951

Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Emily Wilson. Norton & Company, 2020.

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Have you ever gone camping? When you camp, you’re usually in a place where there isn’t wifi or cell reception, or even electricity. You have to figure out ways to entertain yourself that don’t involve movies, TV, or the internet. If you haven’t been in that situation, take a moment to imagine what you would do. You could take a walk and explore nature, read a book, or play a board or card game. 

But what about when it gets dark? If you’ve been camping, you know that once it’s dark, you can’t really do any of those things easily. Instead, you might build a fire and take turns telling stories– stories about your past, characters you’ve made up, or even ghost stories. 

If you’ve had this experience, then you know something about the topic of today’s episode. Today, we’re going to talk about how people entertained themselves, and learned, before there was electricity for things like lights, cellphones, and TVs. Before there were many books. And, in some cases, before there was even writing. Although humans have had writing for thousands of years, until the last few hundreds of year, most people in the world couldn’t even read. Books were also expensive and hard to find for a very long time, so even if you could read, you probably wouldn’t own a lot of books. 

Instead, people told each other stories. People have probably been telling stories to each other for as long as they’ve been talking. Since humans have always lived in groups, the really good stories would be told over and over again. They would be passed down from parents or grandparents to children, generation after generation. And over time they would change. Each person who told the story might add their own details, while keeping the basic plot and characters in place. Every culture in the world has stories that are passed down orally, which means they are telling them by speaking and by memory. Some stories are written down later, but many never are.  

Today we call this “oral tradition.” The “oral” part means it’s spoken–not written down– and the “tradition” part means it’s something that people pass down from generation to generation over a long time.  But this is just a modern way of talking about something that people have been doing for tens of thousands of years. 

We also just call it “storytelling.”

As you probably know, people still do this, any time someone tells a story from memory, without reading it from a book. Maybe it’s one that they’ve made up. Maybe they heard someone else tell it. Maybe their great-great-great- grandmother was the first to tell it, and it was so good, the family has been telling it to their children ever since.  

Many religious stories were passed down as oral traditions for hundreds of years before being written down. Many people today still memorize and re-tell them, even though they’re written down. The Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah, the Hindu Vedas – all of these religious teachings were passed down by people who memorized them and re-told them to the young in their families or communities. They wanted to keep the stories about their beliefs and morals alive.   

Families have their own stories as well. Some families have stories about a great-grandparent or aunt or other ancestor who did something exciting or remarkable, and these stories might be passed down orally too. 

Often, traditional stories would start out as real history. Imagine listening to a live Bedtime History podcast while sitting around a campfire!  A war would be fought, or a king would rule wisely and make sacrifices for his people. People who lived through the actual events would tell their families about them. As time went on, the children would grow and tell the stories to their children and grandchildren. 

Different storytellers would add things. They might change things in order to teach a lesson. A god might come into the story to help the wise king, or punish a bad ruler. A war might last ten years instead of two and start because of a quarrel between the gods. Magic and miracles would make their way in.

These stories would grow more exciting and fantastic over the years. There would be arguments between gods and people. Heroes would go on daring voyages and fight evil monsters. They would become stronger or larger than real-life people. They were a lot like the superheroes you find in comics or movies now. In fact, gods and heroes that started out in traditional stories do come up in modern superhero movies – Thor and Loki from the Marvel universe were originally Norse gods! Just like in the Marvel-universe, the same characters would come up again and again. They’d have their own habits and personalities. They would repeat the same mistakes. People would get to know them as if they were real.

But these stories didn’t just talk about history made by humans. Many traditional stories tell about the land and our planet as well. They tell people how to find food or water and survive where they live. Sometimes, stories talk about meteors, floods, and volcanic eruptions. Many of you have probably heard the story of Noah’s ark and the flood in the bible. This isn’t the only story about a flood though. The ancient Mesopotamians, who lived in what is now Iraq, had a story about a giant flood too. It’s part of the story of the hero-king Gilgamesh. The ancient Chinese, Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and many other cultures also have flood stories.  

Some traditional stories talk about specific natural events in Earth’s past. The Klamath people, a Native American tribe from the northwestern United States, have a story about how a specific mountain lake formed. The story tells about a god who lived under a mountain, who wanted to marry a woman from a nearby village. When she refused him, he began raging, throwing rocks and fire out of the mountain. Finally, another god helped the village people by pushing the mountain god and his fire back down under the ground, leaving a deep crater that became a lake. 

Stories like this give us an idea about how long oral traditions can be passed down. The lake, which is in Oregon, is now called Crater Lake. Scientists have discovered that the eruption that created the lake happened over 7 thousand years ago. It hasn’t erupted again since, which means this story may have been passed down from generation to generation for a very long time!

Often, a person in a community had a job to memorize and tell stories. These storytellers, sometimes called bards or rhapsodes, did their best to make the stories interesting and exciting. Sometimes, they would dance, wear masks, act out the action, or clown around while telling the stories. 

You may be wondering how on earth a storyteller could remember so many stories without writing them down. Today, we are very used to having things written down. Reading and writing are part of school, and we’re told they are very important skills. And they are. But in the past, before writing was invented, and then before most people could read, memory was just as important. People had to be able to remember a lot of information just to be able to survive – to find food and water, and make shelters. Stories helped them do this, and they also helped people learn about their culture’s history and beliefs. 

Still, some stories that were passed down orally were very long! Many of these stories were told as poems. They are often called epic poems. For the most part, the stories that went into these poems weren’t told all at once, and one bard probably wouldn’t memorize all of them. But still, many did memorize poems as long as books. 

Telling the stories as poems made them easier to memorize, because poems have a regular rhythm. Sometimes they were even set to music. They would also repeat certain lines over and over. For example, an epic poem might always describe the sunrise on a new day with a particular line, such as:

  Dawn stretched her rosy fingers over the sea.

A line like this might be in several different stories, and be repeated many times in one story. All this would help others remember as well, so they could go on to tell the stories later. 

Many stories have been collected and written down as epics. A Finnish epic poem called the Kalevala was told for hundreds of years before being written down in the 19th century. It tells the traditional Finnish myth of the creation of the earth and the life of the first man.

The most famous epics are probably the poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, from ancient Greece. The Iliad tells the story of a war the Greeks fought over a woman named Helen, who was said to be the most beautiful in the world. It focuses on the hero Achilles, who must put aside his argument with a friend in order to help win the war. The Odyssey tells the story of the journey another king, Odysseus, took to get home after the war. Both of these poems are hundreds of pages long.

But that’s nothing compared to the longest epic poem! That title goes to the Mahabharata, from India. It tells the story of a war between two royal families that took place in the 8th or 9th century BCE, and was written down in the 4th century BCE. Can you guess how long it was? The length of a poem is usually talked about in terms of number of lines. The Mahabharata is over one hundred thousand lines! As a book, that’s close to one thousand pages.

Every culture on Earth has its own set of stories that has been passed down over hundreds, if not thousands of years. The Australian Indigineous people have traditional stories about their coasts being flooded as the last ice age ended about 10 thousand years ago. Stories of a Swahili hero-king named Liyongo have survived since the middle ages. Many fairy tales that you likely know, like Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel come from German stories that were passed down orally for a long time before being written down. These are just a few examples – there are hundreds more!

Take a few minutes to think about someone important to you who’s lived a lot longer than you. Maybe a parent or grandparent, a neighbor or a teacher. Take some time soon to sit down with them and ask them to tell you a story about what things were like when they were young. You might ask about an important event that they lived through, or how they played when they were children, what their house was like or if they had any pets. You never know what you’ll learn! Maybe when you get older, you can tell your children or grandchildren these stories. Or, you might like them so much, you decide to write them down. You will be continuing the oral tradition, but more importantly, you will hear some wonderful stories and be entertained and learn from them, too!

Sources

https://scroll.in/article/806662/the-mahabharata-how-an-oral-narrative-of-the-bards-became-the-didactic-text-of-the-brahmins

https://africanpoems.net/epic/introduction-to-epics/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/oral-tradition

Nunn, Patrick, 2018. The Edge of Memory: Ancient Stories, Oral Tradition and the Post-Glacial World. Bloomsbury Sigma, London. 

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/marchapril/feature/how-the-grimm-brothers-saved-the-fairy-tale

The post History of Storytelling and the Oral Tradition for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Momma loved her grandchildren and took good care of them. She also wanted them to be responsible, so she taught them good manners and made them help at the store. Often Maya’s job was to sweep the floors. Their Uncle Willy taught them to read and believed they should have an education. It was at this time that Maya fell in love with words as she read new books. One of her favorite authors was William Shakespeare. Charles Dickens was another favorite.

While living in Stamps, Maya’s brother, Bailey, was her best friend. They spent all of their time working and playing and learning together. They loved to run in the woods and had lots of freedom. Bailey always stood up for Maya when people teased her or said mean things. She loved her older brother very much. 

In 1935 Maya’s father came to Stamps to bring them back to the city where he lived, St. Louis, Missouri. They weren’t used to the city but were glad to see their mother again who also lived there. St. Louis had a big library and Maya spent her free time checking out books and reading them at the library. Before this time Maya had a safe childhood, but when she was 7 she was hurt by her mother’s boyfriend. This horrible experience caused her to stop talking. No one knew what to do. Eventually, Maya and Baily moved back to Stamps to be with her Grandmother and Uncle Willy again. For five years Maya didn’t speak. Instead, she spent most of her time reading and writing.

In 1941 Maya’s Grandmother decided they needed to move back in with their mother who now lived in San Francisco, California because the schools were better there. She and Bailey were now 13 and 14 and enjoyed the new city with the amazing Golden Gate Bridge and the cable cars. Maya liked her new school and did well there. She spent her free time writing poems and her own stories. She also started taking singing and dancing lessons. But Bailey had a harder time in San Francisco and often got into trouble and ran away from home. Maya missed Bailey and this caused her to struggle in school. She decided to take a break and look for a job. In San Francisco, people used cable cars on tracks to move all around the city. Maya applied to be a cable car conductor, the person who takes people’s tickets and helps them on the cable car. She ended up becoming the first African American cable conductor! After a semester of working, she decided to back to school. She also learned that Bailey joined the Navy and they wrote letters back and forth. She was happy to hear from her brother again.

In 1945, during her last year of high school, Maya had her first baby and named him Clyde Bailey after her brother. She and the father didn’t end up getting married, so Maya was left to raise Clyde on her own. For the next several years she worked as a waitress to earn enough money to take care of Clyde. She also worked at a music store and later as a Calypso dancer at a club called The Purple Onion. There she sang and danced for the audience. Performing before an audience made Maya very nervous, but she did it anyway and found she had a talent for it and got better and better as she continued to practice and improve her skill.

Soon people all over San Francisco were waiting in lines at The Purple Onion to watch Maya perform. Her name started showing up in the newspapers and on the radio. Her next big break was joining a touring group that performed a musical called Porgy and Bess. They traveled all over Europe and Africa, visiting 22 different countries to perform. Maya loved visiting foreign countries and while traveling began to learn other languages and write about the places she visited.

When the tour was done she returned home to be with her son and continued working as a dancer. But Maya knew her real love was writing poems and stories. She had many experiences in her life she wanted to share with others. While living in Los Angeles, she met a famous author, John Oliver Killens, who read some of her stories and encouraged her to move to New York, so she could share her own stories.

In New York City Maya joined the Harlem City Writer’s Guild, where writers met to share their stories and give each other advice. In New York Maya went to listen to a speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. He spoke about how people should be treated the same, no matter the color of their skin. Maya liked Martin Luther King, Jr. and helped put on a show to raise money for him and his cause, which was called the Civil Rights Movement. They believed that all people should be equal and treated the same. They wanted to end segregation. 

Maya continued to help with the Civil Rights Movement by writing and helping earn money for the cause. She later moved to Egypt to help with Civil Rights in Africa. There she wrote for a newspaper and met other famous Civil Rights Leaders like Malcolm X. 

Maya moved back to New York to continue writing and speaking about Civil Rights. There a famous black author and friend, James Baldwin, encouraged Maya to write her life story. This is called an autobiography. When Maya finished her autobiography in 1969 she gave it the title “I Know Why A Caged Bird Sings.” She gave it this title because many times in her life she felt like she was living in a cage, not always free to live and act the way she wanted. To Maya, this cage was racism and abuse. But her story was also hopeful, as the bird singing, because she believed that even when someone’s life is hard and painful they can still find joy and happiness. Her book, “I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings” was a huge success and soon many knew about Maya Angelou and her incredible life story. 

Maya continued to write. She wrote a book of poems and a screenplay for a movie. She starred in a musical on Broadway and a TV miniseries called “Roots” about the history of slavery in America. She was also married to a French cartoonist and writer. Her son was married and had a child of his own, so she became a grandmother. 

Maya wrote more books of poems and traveled and spoke and told her life story to inspire others and give them hope. She read her poems for three Presidents and in 2010 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive. 

In 2014 Maya died peacefully in her home in North Carolina. She was 86 years old and after her passing people all around the world spoke about how much they loved her and loved the words she wrote. Her life and actions and deeds were an inspiration to so many people over the years.

Maya once wrote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

And “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”

She also wrote, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

Finally, “If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.”

Performing “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s Inauguration:

“Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou

“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

“Harlem Hopscotch” by Maya Angelou

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