{"id":270,"date":"2024-01-30T23:57:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T23:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/?p=270"},"modified":"2024-01-30T23:57:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T23:57:27","slug":"great-heart-and-the-three-tests-a-native-canadian-fairy-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/30\/great-heart-and-the-three-tests-a-native-canadian-fairy-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Heart and the Three Tests: A Native Canadian Fairy Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Francesca Calicdan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Folklore always had a hand in all things creative and entertaining. A kind of art where you could wave your hands over a fire, suspending an audience in a world where limits are passed to craft the extraordinary by only the mind and language. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so interesting; what can or did you offer to the audience once you let your tale free? What could become of your story when it also became their world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Native Canadian folklore, just like any other culture\u2019s folklore, is the product of someone\u2019s identity. What it has to offer are their own histories, their own ruminations, life lessons, and of course, their own story. What may their stories say? What can we take from them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story \u201cGreat Heart and the Three Tests\u201d demonstrates the culture\u2019s identity in a way that is easily accessible. It\u2019s not long, doesn\u2019t wear out its welcome, and the moral is of something that has practical value: companionship. Sure, it\u2019s a lesson that would be learned over time, but it\u2019s not necessarily an easy road to walk if the story was saying something, so let\u2019s get to unpacking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sypnosis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Near the sea in the olden times, a boy lived with his father and mother. He inherited his father\u2019s superb hunting prowess, to which his mother believes he\u2019ll be a great man and will win wide fame like in her vision and the fairy gifts by his cradle. His father, on the other hand, wanted to let time tell for his son to prove himself by his future deeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, there was a girl who was also beautiful, but unlike the boy, her father was a great Chief. Both of her parents died and she was left with land, wealth, and no one else in her family. She was displeased by all the meddlesome and insincere men in their performances in her tests to weed out unworthy suitors. Her fame was brought to the boy\u2019s humble land and his parents concluded that it was the opportune time to send him out to earn his wealth as the girl\u2019s husband, so the boy went out. On the journey, he meets and recruits 4 other men, introducing himself as \u201cGreat Heart,\u201d to participate in the test with him with the promise of shared fortune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the group arrived, no one believed they would win, but Great Heart won the first challenge with his strength and the rest won the proceeding ones, deeming him victor and a suitable suitor for the girl. When he and the girl married, he gave the promised treasures to his companions, and bringing his wife and new riches, he returned to his village, his success not surprising his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I think the \u201cGreat Heart and the Three Tests\u201d is a good and honest tale, all things considered. It addresses that intelligence isn\u2019t a product made by one person; what the boy, Great Heart, amassed in the story was companionship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He, amongst many, many other suitors had completed the test and with the understanding that it wasn\u2019t possible without support. He had pride and self-confidence, and given how we as a society deal with it, the case may be that accepting aid is hard. The resolution, a highlight of the moral, shows that taking that \u201chard\u201d route will ultimately turn the tides to your favour. As the tale points out, it\u2019s not plausible to charge into the challenge (which, frankly, could be said about a lot of things). The story is saying to take the \u201chard\u201d route and it\u2019s perfectly okay to. After all, he never broke the rules and there weren\u2019t many excuses for not considering his approach before he even got to bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story reminds me about how all beings are really just one unit and all claims otherwise are bound to doom people. Strong word, \u201cdoom,\u201d but okay, what does that mean? Think about your textbooks at school. Were they written by someone? Were you ever under the impression that however you may succeed in life is entirely based on your skills? Is a CEO of a company ever just the only person that works at the same company? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly, does being independent hold that much merit as you might\u2019ve been told? You should know how to supervise yourself, yes, but the difficulty of trying to make a product bigger than yourself alone\u2026 that sounds awfully strenuous, and I wouldn\u2019t wish that on anyone. Like I said, it\u2019s not plausible. What if Great Heart entered by himself, blinded by pride just like the other suitors? He needed that help, and that didn\u2019t mean that he was weak. That made him strong to the girl\u2019s standards. I could take a shot in the dark and say that this is what the First Nations had intended with this story. They think it\u2019s illogical to try to succeed by yourself, and it so happens that I was convinced by this story of the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Takeaway<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGreat Heart and the Three Tests\u201d is a modest tale with the lesson of the necessity of companionship. For a short story, there is a great balance between making it comprehensible and still having elements ponder upon. A nice story in the books, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s much better in the outdoors where stories could really come to life\u2026 amongst life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is something other than the moral to take from this, it\u2019s that you should find more stories like this if you\u2019re looking for something brief and memorable. Not all people have time to read books of behemoths upon behemoths of text and unpredictability, but I bet it\u2019s easier to find time for something like this. Stories are what you give to the audience, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great Heart\u2019s story is amongst many, many folktales\u2014not limited to the First Nations\u2019, but other beautiful cultures. From different mouths and different eyes and different people to share the story. Have fun with your next experience because where his story came from? I\u2019m sure the rest will catch you in a new, intriguing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/fairytalez.com\/great-heart-three-tests\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Francesca Calicdan Overview Folklore always had a hand in all things creative and entertaining. A kind of art where you could wave your hands over a fire, suspending an audience in a world where limits are passed to craft the extraordinary by only the mind and language. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so interesting; what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions\/274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meraki-blogs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}