For the second part of the Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by R.E. Dennet reading for stories of the Congo I was excited to read stories with animals that acted and interacted with humans. For my portfolio project, I am trying to keep the stories in a romance theme that includes animals. One of the story that stuck out to me was the tale, How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi’s Daughter. In the tale, a spider wants to marry a beautiful princess but has to complete a task before he can. To complete the task the spider, enlist the help of other animal’s friends and they are able to complete the task. But the animals then argue over who should get to marry the princess since they all helped to win her hand in marriage. Since the animals fight over her the princess’s mother decides that no one will wed the princess and the princess ends up an old maid. I think this story could be changed or continued to where the princess is given the choice of which animal she would like to marry. Then each animal could present to the princess why they would be the best choice for her husband. Another story I enjoyed was the tale of The Three Brother. I enjoyed this one because even though the mother had abandoned the three children later in life the three men help out their mother. I could alter this story to be told instead of as humans but the brothers could be animals. The Congo tales also have a different set of animals they use compared to the Aespo’s Fables. A leopard is the one that is used often and stuck out to me like in the tales of; The Antelope and The Leopard, The Turtle and The Man, The Gazelle and The Leopard, and The Leopard and The Crocodile.
A leopard at the Colchester Zoo. Source: Wikimedia Commons by Keven Law
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