Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs), Part B

(Bat,  Todd Cravens on Unsplash)

Because there were so many short stories in the Aesop's Fables selection this week, I had trouble deciding on just one story to take notes on, so I selected two: "The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts," and "The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner."  I believe both of these stories would lend themselves well to retelling.

The first story, "The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts," describes a war between the Birds and the Beasts.  The Bat finds himself somewhere in the middle: he says he can't join the Birds because he is a Beast, but he can't join the Beasts because he is a Bird.  But the story says the war never ends up happening, because the Birds and the Beasts reconcile at the last moment.  At the news of this, the Bat tries to join the Birds' celebration, but is denied entry.  He turns to the Beasts' celebration, but again, they don't let him join.  The moral of the story is that if you don't pick a side, you have no friends.  I personally find that moral to be very true in the modern age with dichotomies that create divisions in politics, beliefs, etc.  I'm not sure what the Bat's motivation was when he was unable to chose a side--perhaps he didn't want to be involved in conflict, or maybe he was unsure of his own identity.  Either way, his thought process would be interesting to experiment with in a modern retelling.

The second story, "The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner," is about a Trumpeter who goes too close to enemy lines in the middle of the battle and is captured by the other side as a result.  He asks for their mercy, because they want to execute him.  His plea is that he is unarmed, and therefore not dangerous--that he is not their enemy and doesn't seek to do them harm.  However, the enemy's response is that the Trumpeter encourages other men to fight against them, so the Trumpeter is as dangerous as any of the armed men.  The moral of the story is that "Words may be deeds."  Once again, I thought this moral was quite true, even today.  In the age of social media and rapid communication between people, I think it's quite true that words have the ability to bring awareness, create action, and potentially even harm other people.  One way this story could be retold in a modern context is through a story about bullying, where someone online encourages their peers to bully another person physically.  In the end, the inciter would have to accept as much of the blame as the other actual bullies, because words were the beginning of the harm.

Bibliography: The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts, and The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner, Aesop's Fables (Jacobs), by Joseph Jacobs.