 |
| Green Jewel. Polyvore. |
Before heading the lake with the King himself, the King's scribe spoke to the huddle of girls to tell us what we would be doing that day. He exclaimed, "Fair virgins, we have summoned you today because the King is suffering. His mind is consumed by gloom so we have called you to take him out on the lake to ease his suffering."
I was confused as to how the King himself could be "consumed with gloom." After all, he was the richest and most powerful man in the kingdom. I looked past this thought, hoping to make the King happier.
Our merry troupe of girls rowed the boat around the lake, singing sweet hymns that would please even Ra himself. As I noted earlier, I am not the most skilled rower that could have been chosen. As we were turning the vessel around, my oar brushed my hair, causing a green jewel fastened to my headband to fall into the lake.
I gasped, raising my oar in distress. The other girls rowing stopped singing and looked at me in confusion, as did the King who muttered something about us stopping the vessel. I told the King's scribe that my jewel had fallen into the lake, silently praying that he would be able to do something to get it back.
The scribe, after conversing with the King looked around, almost annoyed at the situation and quickly muttered a spell in a language I have never before heard. His words flowed out of his mouth in a mix of sounds and syllables that I had trouble even comprehending.
Then, the most peculiar thing happened. As the spell made its way to the water, the waves began violently sloshing back and forth, rocking the boat side to side. We held on for our lives, as the water tossed and turned, threatening to throw us from the safety of our vessel. I looked to the side to find that the waves had parted, leaving a narrow lane in the center of the lake. The scribe jumped from the boat and retrieved my precious gem, handing it to me with a sigh.
I thanked him abundantly but just as I was speaking, he uttered that strange language yet again, and the waves molded back together, forming the lake as it had been just moments earlier. We all looked to the King, who seemed very pleased at his scribe. The King ordered us to row back to land, as the gloom had been chased away from his mind.
Author's Note
The story of the Green Jewel is definitely an interesting one in the Ancient Egypt unit. The original story is a frame story in which a prince is telling a king the story of the Green Jewel. The story states that a king wanted entertainment and went out on a lake rowing with many beautiful girls. One of the girls dropped a green jewel into the lake. The chief scribe muttered a magic spell and parted the waters so that the jewel could be recovered. Offerings and great thanks were given to the scribe for his great magical powers.
I decided to write my story this week from the point of view of the girl who lost her jewel in the lake. Telling this story of ancient Egyptian descent from a different character's point of view seemed like it could be fun and challenging.
Link to story: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/egypt-green-jewel.html
Bibliography
Book Title: Egyptian Myth and Legend
Story Title: The Green Jewel
Author: Donald Mackenzie
Year: 1907
I really liked your retelling, Kylie! I always find it interesting to hear the same story from a different character’s point of view. It is intriguing how different a story can seem to play out just by changing who is telling the story! Even though the saying goes: “There’s three sides to every story,” I think the sides of the story are only limited by our own imagination. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI think it was great how you changed the story to be in the point of view of the girl who lost the jewel. I think as girls, we can relate to the sadness we get when we lose or misplace our favorite jewelry piece. It was smart putting it in her point of view so we can feel her emotion as she loses the jewel in the water. I also think it helps to see how confused and amazed she was by the Scribe's ability to part the waters. She had no clue what was going on and then had the ability to completely shocked and grateful when her jewel was retrieved. Great job on the retelling!
ReplyDeleteAs with your story last week, you did a good job mixing it up with the POV character to make things fresh. By utilizing a POV character who is just an ordinary girl, the scribe’s power comes off as all the more otherworldly and strange. It’s also really easy to get into the story, since you start off with the girl mentioning the relatable problem of her not being good at something that she is being asked to do.
ReplyDeleteKylie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked this story. I liked your re-telling, as well. I didn't read the original story, but I found your story to be very entertaining and innocent. I liked that this girl was innocent and just wanted someone to help her. In most of the units I have read, there is a lot of deception and backstabbing, so this was a nice change of pace for me. I loved the description you have of the oar. Reading it actually reminded me of your background a little bit. You should use more imagery because you are good at it!
Linzee Manor
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKylie, I also liked your creativity that you added to re-telling this story. I also like when some takes the original story and tells it from the point of view from someone else. It makes the story more interesting and relatable. You do a really great job with detail in your stories. I felt like I could really imagine the setting. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI think that the Green Jewel story is also an interesting story. It was cool how you took the story from the perspective of the girl who dropped the jewel into the lake. My favorite part of the story was when the King parted the sea. It reminded me of when Moses did this in the bible. I wonder why the King was so nice. He didn't have to let the girl retrieve the jewel.
ReplyDelete