Pig Tails
Watch:
Why The Pig's Snout Is Flat
Synopsis
This particular volume, Pig Tails, is a collection of folk and fairy tales from around the world in which pigs take centre stage. Although pigs may not always inspire the same admiration as more “majestic” animals, there are many compelling reasons to bring these pig-centred stories together.
Pigs occupy a curious and enduring place in the folklore of countless cultures. They have been symbols of prosperity and fertility, embodiments of greed and folly, offerings in ritual and feast, and, in some traditions, guardians of sacred knowledge. Whether portrayed as humble farmyard companions or as monstrous boars of myth, their presence in story carries meanings that are both familiar and deeply symbolic.
In these tales, pigs are not always noble or heroic. More often they are comic, noisy, stubborn, or sly. Yet at times they appear as magical creatures, enchanted princes, or divine beasts whose power rivals that of gods and heroes. This mixture of the ordinary and the extraordinary makes pig stories especially rich. They remind us that even the lowliest of animals may be vessels of wonder.
As in all folklore, shadows accompany the light. There are darker tales here, stories of monstrous boars hunted by kings, of gluttony punished, of vanity unmasked. Yet even these speak to the deep, complicated relationships humans have always had with pigs: as food and sacrifice, as symbols of excess, as figures of laughter, and sometimes, as unlikely teachers of wisdom.
Many of these stories carry moral lessons. Through pigs and boars we are reminded of the dangers of pride, the value of loyalty, the perils of greed, and the strange places where kindness may be found. Like all fairy tales, they lead us into enchanted worlds where animals speak, curses bind, and the line between the comic and the sacred grows thin.
And perhaps most importantly, these tales are fragments of the great oral tradition that threads through every culture. In retelling them, we keep alive not only the stories themselves, but also the voices, values, and imaginations of the people who first gave them shape.
A Sample...
Why The Pig's Snout Is Flat
In the beginning, when the world was still young, the animals all lived much as people do. They spoke with voices as clear as yours or mine, they gathered in markets, they argued, they laughed, and they quarrelled.
In those days, Pig was very proud of his nose. It was long and round, with a fine sharp point. He would strut through the village showing it off, boasting,
“Look at me! With this noble snout, I can sniff out the sweetest yams, the fattest roots, the juiciest cassava! No one has a nose like mine!”
The other animals rolled their eyes.
Goat muttered, “Boast, boast, boast. He talks more than he eats.”
But trickster Anansi pricked up his ears. Anansi loved nothing more than humbling the proud, and Pig’s pride was as fat as his belly. So Anansi thought to himself, Let us see how long that fine nose lasts when I have had my fun.
So, one day, as Pig snuffled about the forest, Anansi crept close and whispered, “Friend Pig, with that wonderful snout of yours, you could dig up treasures the rest of us cannot reach.”
Pig puffed out his chest. “Of course I could! I am the master of the earth itself!”
“Well then,” Anansi said slyly, “deep in the earth there is a yam as long as a canoe and as sweet as honey. Only you, with that perfect nose, could find it. Dig, and it will be yours.”
Pig’s eyes shone. Without a thought, he plunged his snout into the earth. He dug and dug, rooting and shoving, while Anansi chuckled. Pig pushed harder and harder, convinced that the treasure yam was just below his snout.
But there was no yam, only hard earth and stones. Pig’s nose scraped and scraped, pressing flatter and flatter as he shoved it against the ground.
At last Pig raised his head, snout bloody and swollen, no longer proud and sharp but squashed flat against his face. Anansi burst out laughing so hard he nearly rolled into the bushes.
“Where is the yam?” Pig cried, bewildered.
“Why, you’ve already eaten it!” Anansi teased, pointing at Pig’s ruined nose. “Look how much earth you swallowed while you rooted about! A finer feast you’ll never find.”
Pig groaned, but the other animals gathered round and laughed, too. Goat bleated, Monkey shrieked, even the birds in the trees cackled. Poor Pig slunk away, his snout ruined forever.
And from that day to this, Pig’s children and children’s children have all borne the same flat nose, good for nothing but rooting in the soil. That is why you see them still, snuffling and grunting in the earth, searching for yams and roots they may never find.
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eBook:
978-1-915081-52-0
978-1-915081-52-0
978-1-915081-51-3