Anansi: Tricking His Way to Stories

There was a time before Anansi was the keeper of the stories. In fact, he had to undergo a series of trials in order to earn the role of storyteller. Let me tell you the tale:

In the beginning all of the stories of the world were kept by Nyame, the sky god. Anansi wanted to be able to tell stories, so he went to Nyame and asked to buy the stories from him. Nyame warned him that the price was steep, but Anansi still pushed for them. The sky god agreed that the stories would belong to Anansi if the spider could bring him a nest of hornets, a giant python, and a mighty leopard.

 

Anansi set out on his quest, confident in his abilities. He began with the hornets. First the spider found a hollow gourd and cut a small hole in it. He went to where the hornets lived and poured water all over the nearby trees and himself. Thoroughly soaked, Anansi incredulously asked the hornets why they were staying in the rain. He held up the gourd and offered it to them as shelter from the storm. The grateful hornets flew in one by one. When they had all filed in, Anansi plugged up the hole. He delivered the hornets to Nyame.

The next challenge was the python. Anansi greeted the enormous snake and struck up a conversation with him. The spider claimed that he and his wife had gotten into a debate – was the python larger or smaller than a pole which lay nearby? The snake obligingly offered to lay near the pole so that Anansi could measure him against it and see which was longer. The spider asked if he could tie the python to the pole, to make sure that both lay straight.

In the end, of course, the python was strapped to a pole. It was all too easy for Anansi to carry him off to Nyame.

The last animal needed was the leopard. Anansi dug a deep pit in the ground, then covered it with branches and leaves so that it was invisible. When the leopard walked over it, the branches gave way and he fell. Anansi “just so happened” to be walking along, and offered to help rescue the leopard.

The spider bent a tree over so that its top touched the ground, and tied it off. He tied another rope around the tree and dropped the other end into the hole with the leopard. The cat, thinking it would lead to his freedom, followed Anansi's instructions and tied the rope around his tail.

 

As soon as he had, Anansi cut the rope holding the tree to the ground. It sprang back into the air – and it took the leopard with it!

Anansi found the cat dangling from the tree by his tail. It was a simple matter then to capture him.

When he returned to Nyame with the leopard, the sky god could not deny that Anansi had met all of his terms. He gave all of his stories to Anansi.
 

That is the story of how the spider got his tales.

Alright, I promised you guys I'd take a look at some of the appearances of Anansi in pop culture. He appears in some of the works by author Neil Gaiman (who's absolutely brilliant and you should totally check out if you haven't!). The books American Gods and Anansi Boys both deal with the spider trickster.

It's been years since I've seen it, but the Gargoyles animated television show had a few episodes where a spider named Anansi appeared. I hadn't realized when I watched it, but Gargoyles actually draws a lot from various mythologies and folktales. Avalon and the character of Oberon (most well-known for his Shakespeare character) both make appearances in the show. I'll have to go back and watch it again to see what else does!

The last set I'll mention in this post is comics. Both DC and Marvel have incarnations of Anansi. The DC version interacts with the character of Vixen, and his actions are pretty fitting for a (mostly) benevolent trickster. The Marvel version appears a few more times, and his appearances are frequently tied into the Spider Man stories. Though I haven't read it myself, I'm told Anansi was actually the first Spider Man.

Thanks for reading, guys! And, since I neglected to mention it elsewhere in my post...Arrr, maties! Happy Talk Like a Pirate day! I hopes ye're havin' a good time, and doin' somethin' piratical and awesome! Avast!

I'll see you next week!

Anansi: Corn is Worth 100 Servants

Anansi is one of the most popular characters in African folktales. He appears throughout quite a few African cultures, and while the stories may differ, his personality remains the same. Anansi is a very wise and witty spider. He is the trickster of African mythology.

We've looked at several tricksters from other mythologies in previous posts. The Norse Loki is unquestionably evil, given his desire to bring about the end of world. The Japanese Susano can be nefarious, but he also has a lighter side. Out of all the tricksters I've talked about, Anansi is most similar to the Greek Hermes. Both are messengers, with Anansi frequently serving as a go-between for mankind and the gods. Their pranks tend to be light hearted in nature, instead of villainous.

Given the number of myths about Anansi, there are a lot of stories for me to cover – too many for just one post! I'm going to spend several weeks talking about Anansi, including one post taking a look at his portrayals in modern pop culture.

Today's story is one of my favorites, even though Anansi is pretty mean to the poor humans. It begins with a bet between Anansi and Nyame, one of the more powerful African gods.

Nyame possessed an ear of corn. Looking at it, Anansi asked to be gifted the corn. He boasted that he would trade that corn for 100 servants. Nyame was intrigued, but doubted that the clever spider could do as he said. Still, he gave Anansi the ear of corn.

Anansi then went to earth. He found a human village, where he was made welcome as an honored guest. The spider warned the humans that the corn he had with him was sacred – it belonged to Nyame himself! The villagers were all very awed and respectful.

That night, Anansi crept out while everyone was sleeping. He fed all of the corn to the chickens in the village. When the humans awoke the next day, Anansi flew into a rage. He accused them of letting their fowl eat the sacred corn!

The humans were completely apalled. Fearing the wrath of Nyame, they offered Anansi an entire bushel of corn to make up for the single ear he had lost. Anansi accepted their offering and set off down the road.

 

As he was traveling Anansi met a man with a chicken. He purchase the chicken for the bushel of corn. When he came to the next village, Anansi was again welcomed as a guest. He repeated his story, but this time it was the chicken who was sacred to Nyame.

Again, Anansi had a trick up his sleeve. That night he slaughtered the chicken and rubbed its blood and feathers all over the village. He railed against the villagers when they awoke – how dare they kill Nyame's sacred chicken!

The villagers gave Anansi ten sheep to placate him, and the spider set off on his way.

The sheep were exchanged for a corpse – Anansi's biggest trick yet. (I'd imagine the corpse-seller was quite happy with that bargain!)

Anansi carried the corpse into the final village, larger than all the others he had stayed in. He claimed that the body was the sleeping son of Nyame himself. He set the body in a hut, claiming that he was exhausted and needed his rest. Anansi enjoyed dinner, and then returned to the hut to "sleep".

 

The next morning, Anansi called some villagers into the hut to help him wake the son of the god.  Given that the "son" was dead, they were unable to do so. Anansi cried out that the man had been murdered! Who in the village would dare to kill the son of their god?!

The villagers were horrified, and greatly feared the wrath of Nyame. They desperately offered to send 100 of their finest young men to the god, hoping that their servititude would make up for the death of the god's son. Anansi gravely accepted their offer.

Nyame was very much surprised when Anansi marched into his court with 100 servants behind him. When the spider recounted his tale the god was amused.

And so it was that 100 servants were purchased for a single ear of corn.

What do you guys think? It always reminds me of that game where you start with something small – say, a paperclip – and see what you can trade it for.


I'll be back next week with a very special post, and then we'll return to African folktales the following week.

And, to all my fellow WoW players...have fun with Legion!!