Anansi Folk Tales

From what I can tell this is a collection of tales about Anansi. Anansi is the trickster god of certain African cultures. He has been my favorite since I have heard about him. I wish I could remember when that was.

Most of the stories I have heard claim he was wise and helpful but reading the first five stories of this book make me wonder. I know that different geographical locations have different versions but these stories make me question his wisdom.

I liked Anansi and Nothing but wondered why he would allow his wives to have dinner with the king in the first place if he was so wise. Especially after the way he got them.

I thought he was going to use wearing the kings finery as a way to show the king not everyone could be taken at face value. Instead he may have gotten the beautiful wives but in the end they proved not to be loyal to him.

In return he killed Nothing for something that was not even his doing. The ending is a bit weird. A bit of a double meaning in my opinion. When asked why a child cries the reply is for Nothing (or nothing, no reason).

Then there is the story of the King and three daughters. The king promised he would marry his daughters to whoever knew the names.

This was the second story I read, where he pulled a fast one on a royal with names. He discovered the names by hiding in a tree and dropping sweets so the girls would call out their names. He then proceeds to tell another character and uses an instrument as a name reminder only for that other character to get the princess's.

He eventually gets the king to grant him the princess's by framing the other character for killing the kings favorite rooster.

In these two stories alone he has multiple wives. I see no timeline but wonder why in neither story only one set of wives was mentioned. I love mythology and lore for the stories told that contain wisdom while continuing a story.

I think we as humans have gotten away from the moral stories we were taught in elementary school and need to get back to them.

I have not read all of them but at this point I am down to read this and the three other books that came up when I searched for Anansi.

There is one last thing I want to mention as a bit of a foot note in this. There is also a story about Anansi being given a magic food pot. I am sure most of us have heard one version or another of this particular story but now I feel I have to know where it originated from.

Thank you for reading this and I look forward to engaging with you in the comments. If you are coming from outside of hive and enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me.