Week 11 Story: The Goblin Island

Everyone knows that there are goblins but did you know that there are she-goblins? Well, there are. They are just like other goblins, but they possess the magic to transform into beautiful women so that they can lure human men into falling in love with them so that it would be easier to eat them. On an island, a large group of only she-goblins was able to flourish by luring sailors into the town because of their magical beauty. And since no one ever escaped the island, the she-goblins were able to continue attracting sailors to the island and feast on their flesh. But one she-goblin would change everything.

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It had been about a week since the she-goblins had gotten to eat. They were starving and ready for a ship to sail close enough to the island to lure the men in. Just at that moment, a ship began to sail by close enough to the island. The head of the she-goblins, Vanessa, turned to the others and said, "Ladies let's look our best. This time we must try and ration the sailors better. So, each night we will select only a couple to eat that way we be sustained longer till the next ship comes along."

All of the other she-goblins were excited and very hungry for flesh except, Tracey. She did not seem to like the taste of human flesh and always felt terrible that they killed all of the sailors. But that was the way she was raised. Not wanting to cause trouble or not be like the rest she continued eating the sailors as she was ordered by Vanessa. Tracey did not know that this boat of sailors would change her way of life.

As usual, the she-goblins were paired with the sailors and used their magic to make the men fall in love with them. However, because of Vanessa rationing of the men, Tracey began to get to know her sailor husband. It did not take long for Tracey to realize that she was actually in love with her human husband. But what could she do? Vanessa would never let him live, and there was no way off the island. Not even a she-goblin could leave the island.

In the middle of the night, Tracey snuck out of her house and went down to the sea. That day Vanessa had told her that they would be eating her sailor for dinner in two days. Tracey went to the sea hoping to discover an answer, sitting down on a rock by the ocean she kept going over her options of how to save her husband. She could try to tell him that they were goblins but he would never listen because of the magic. She could try to fight the other she-goblins, but there were so many of them. She would end up dead, and then they would eat him or worst they would eat him in front of her then kill her.

A sea fairy was not far away listening to Tracey go over an impossible puzzle of how to save her husband that she appeared in front of her. At first, the sea fairy was scared; the she-goblin magic did not work on the sea fairy, so she saw Tracey as her true self. Very timidly she told Tracy, "I can help save your sailor. But you will have to stay on the island; I cannot help evil creatures."

With tears in her eyes, Tracey knew that this would be her only hope of saving her sailor's life. So, she agreed to help the sea fairy. That night when Tracey returned home, she made a bunch of noise then called over some of the other she-goblins. When they arrived Tracey let them know that she had missed out on the meal that night and wondered if there were any left-overs?

The others she-goblins crackled telling her of course not, they devoured those sailors within minutes. But not to worry she would get the first bite the next day since they would be eating her sailor soon. Trying to keep the ruse going, Tracey smiled then started to chant their eating verse,

"Man's meat, man's meat,
That's what goblins like to eat!"

The other she-goblins joined in, and after a few minutes, Tracey felt that enough noise had been made. Tracey shushed the she-goblins and let them out so they could get some rest. Then she went off to bed, hoping that the sea fairy had kept her end of the promise and finish the rest of the plan to save her beloved sailor.

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Author's Notes: This story comes from a combination of two tales, one called The Goblin Town by Noor Inayat and the other called, The Goblin City by W. H. D. Rouse. Both of the stories are about a town/city of she-goblins that lure sailors into their town/city so that they can eat them. One night a sailor is woken up after hearing some noise realizes that the women are all she-goblins. In the tale of The Goblin City, the man’s meat chant is what gives it away that they woman are all goblins. Then the stories split the design on how the sailors are rescued. The Goblin City sailors have a fairy that helps them, while The Goblin Town sailors have a mysterious voice that save them. Either way both groups of sailors are saved by a flying horse that takes them home. I wanted to change up who helped the sailors and changed the story to a forbidden love. Even though Tracey cannot save herself from being evil, she can save the man she has fallen in love with from being eaten. I decided to still keep the story morbid which is why Tracey is still stuck on the island and will never be able to leave. I also added the man’s meat chant to make it obvious that she is trying to get her husband to figure out that they are she-goblins and try to get off the island. I hope you have enjoyed my story and would love to hear feedback!

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Image: The picture of the flying horse from The Goblin Town book. Source:  Twenty Jataka Tales by H. Willebeek Le Mair

Reading Notes: Reading B: Twenty Jataka Tales

For the second part of the reading of Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat, again I found a story, The Sarabha that was similar to Banyan from the first part of the reading. Both stories have a magnificent deer that that helps a King learn a lesson, and then the King vows to not hunt any more creatures. It seems that both stories, the author thinks of a deer as the wise creature in the forest and reiterates the common saying when a King would decree that no one could hunt creatures in their forest. Because of how much the deer is brought up in these stories and a King, I think trying to create one that would seem to flow with the stories would be easiest. Another story that is familiar is The Goblin Town. In the story, she-goblins are transformed into beautiful women and try to allure sailors to stay with them so that they can eat them. One sailor learns the truth and tries to tell everyone. Only some of the sailors believe him, and those that do can escape with the help of a flying horse. In this version just, a voice from the sea sends the horse that helps the men but what if it was a she-goblin who did not want to eat her husband. What if she had fallen in love with a human and knew the only way she could save him was to let him find out their goblin secret so that she could send a flying horse to keep him safe. The third story I enjoyed reading was The Golden Goose. At first, I thought it was going to be similar to the story, The Golden Feathers that was in reading A but they were pretty different. In The Golden Feathers, a husband is turned into a golden goose so that he can help his low-income family but his wife becomes greedy and tries to take all of his golden feathers. But in The Golden Goose, even though a King is obsessed with a golden goose and his wisdom he does not try and keep him in the palace but allows him to live his life as distance friends. I think the comparison of the two stories shows the separation of people that are greedy for money in life to those that are respectful and understand limits of others. I think the story of The Golden Goose could be combined with The Golden Feathers where the wife learns from the goose and her daughter how to be respectful of the golden goose.

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Image: A goose with a golden-ish color. Source: Wikimedia Commons by Thelostrobot89

Reading Notes: Reading A: Twenty Jataka Tales

For this week I wanted to read some more of the Jataka Tales so I picked, Twenty Jataka Tales by Noor Inayat. There were ten stories to read and some of them were familiar tales while other were completely new. One of the familiar tales was the story, The Tortoise and the Geese. This story is about the turtle who cannot, not talk long enough for a pair of geese to fly him to a new better home, so he falls and dies. But what I liked in this story is they added a King at the end that learned a lesson. Most of the stories in this reading have a King that learns a valuable lesson from the animals in the story. I really liked this aspect and the added character of the King in the stories and want to find a way to incorporate this into my own story. The second story that I liked was, Banyan this story is very similar to a story that I had read and then rewrote about last semester (The Foolish Deer that Lost). The story of Banyan, is about two golden deer that are in charge of separate herds but the King ends up taking one deer from each herd to eat everyday. The two golden deers have the other deers take turns to see who is suppose to be killed for the day but on one day a doe of a little deer ask to have her turn later so that she can be with her baby for a little while longer. Banyan selflessly puts himself as the deer to be killed to save the doe but when the King sees that he says he will not kill any deer. However, the King goes on to say that he will not kill any creatures. I think this is a little far fetched and should be changed. I think it is great that the King learns a lesson but he went a little too far. The last story I really liked was the lesson from, The Young Parrot. The young parents goes out to eat rice every day but always comes back with rice in his mouth to feed his parents. I really like how the parrot even though he is considered the most beautiful parrot still thinks about his family. I would like to figure out a way to incorporate this lesson into my story I create. 

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Image: The King.  Source: pixabay by Clker-Free-Vector-Images