Episode Details
Back to Episodes
Folk Tales of Suriname — Part 1: Anansi and His Children · A Feast at the Water-Nymph's · A Story from the Life of Friend Spider · Master Spider and the Water-Nymph · Every Grown Man Must Have a Red Seat
Description
Part One of a new shelf: the Anansi tales of Suriname, from Mythen en sagen uit West-Indië — Myths and Legends of the West Indies (Zutphen: W. J. Thieme & Cie, 1926) by Dr Herman van Cappelle (1857–1932), the Dutch geologist who recorded these stories in Paramaribo and in the Nickerie district at the turn of the century, from the city's storytellers; they were first printed in 1916. Billed by collector and book, as the tales Van Cappelle gathered; not a survey of all Surinamese tradition, and no completeness is claimed. The tales were screened in the order they stand in Van Cappelle's book under this shelf's standing rule, and many were set aside — every one stands named, with its reason, in the shelf register. Read here in a fresh English translation made for this shelf.
Anansi and His Children — in a famine, Master Spider gives his own portion away, then asks his twelve children which of them loves Papa most of all. A Feast at the Water-Nymph's — Anansi sinks to the riverbed feast with stones in his coat pockets, but the watra-mama makes him take the coat off. A Story from the Life of Friend Spider — the tug of war between Elephant and Whale, fought over one rope, neither giant seeing the other. Master Spider and the Water-Nymph — one grain of rice, a borrowed pot, and the mark that spiders carry on their heads to this day. Every Grown Man Must Have a Red Seat — Anansi eats a whole basket of peppers to win the King's daughter, and must hide what the peppers did to him.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:23 Anansi and His Children
4:49 A Feast at the Water-Nymph's
7:29 A Story from the Life of Friend Spider
15:15 Master Spider and the Water-Nymph
16:56 Every Grown Man Must Have a Red Seat
Herman van Cappelle, Mythen en sagen uit West-Indië (W. J. Thieme & Cie, 1926) — public domain.
Narrated by Mira. Music: opening and closing theme and short separators between the stories, "Desert Cello Rhapsody" — the tales themselves are read dry, with no music under the narration.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
Suriname folk tales · Anansi tales · Anansi the spider · Herman van Cappelle · West Indian folk tales · Caribbean folk tales · world folk tales · free audiobook