Activity 3: READING JIGSAW

DIRECTIONS: In fifteen (15) minutes read with your group the article that follows. After reading discuss and share your ideas
about the topic. Choose one (1) reporter to explain in the class what you have understood.

Some Philippine Folk Narratives: A Short Discussion

It is widely known that myth and legend are regarded as true while the folktale is regarded as fiction. William Bascom
(Bascom, 1964, in Eugenio 1982) differentiates between myths and legends. He defines myths as “prose narratives,” which, in
the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past… are embodiment
of dogma and sacred... Their main characters are animals, deities, or culture heroes whose actions are set in an earlier world.”
Moreover, myths tell the origin of the world, of mankind, characteristics of birds, animals, geographical features and
phenomena of nature.

In addition, myths are fictional tales that explain the actions of gods or the causes of natural phenomena. It involves
supernatural elements and has little historical truth to it. They serve as a cultural history, explaining natural phenomena such as
oceans and mountains. They reinforce a culture’s values. They are source of entertainment. (Bryan, et al. 2003).

On the other hand, legends are prose narratives, which like myths, are regarded as true by the narrator, and his
audience, “but they are set in a period less remote, when the world was much as it is today. Legends are more secular than
sacred, and their principal characters are human. They tell of migrations, wars, and victories, deeds of past heroes, chiefs, and
kings.”(ibid)

Legends are either etiological which explains the origin of the how and why of things, or etymological legends, which
explains how things and places got their names.

In contrast to myth and legends, folktales are prose narratives which are regarded as fiction and they are not considered
dogma or history, hence, are not to be taken seriously because they are told for amusement. They are almost placeless and
timeless. Folktale may be considered as Marchen (German term for folktale) which may be human tales, animal tales, tall tales,
and moral or fables. Tall tale is humorous story about characters with impossible happening using exaggeration (Bryan, et al.
20013.) Philippine literature contains stories of these sort such as the Ilocano and Maranao epic.

An epic is a long narrative poem about gods and heroes in war or travel written or recited in ornate poetic language that
incorporate myth, legend and history that includes the intervention of the gods in human affairs (Bryan, et al. 2003.)

Activity 4. Story Grammar

Directions: Read the following stories in 15 minutes. After reading, pick 2 stories and do the tasks below.

1. Construct a story grammar using the diagram below.

Title of the Story

Setting Theme Plot Resolution

Location Goal Episodes Outcome

Activity 5: Recreating the Stories

Directions: With your group, draw a picture of any scene from the folk narratives that portray values like respect, love,
wisdom, friendship and so forth. Then present your output in the class.
An example of myth is the tagalong myth, “Why the sun shines more brightly than the moon”

Long, long ago there lived a fairy with two very beautiful daughters. Araw, the elder daughter, was very amiable and
had a kindly disposition; but Buwan, unlike her sister, was disobedient, cruel and harsh. She was always finding fault with
Araw. One night, when the fairy came home from her nocturnal rambles and saw Buwan badly mistreating her elder sister, she
asked God for help against her unruly daughter.
Before this time, God had prepared very valuable gifts for the two sisters. These gifts were two enormous diamonds
that could light the whole universe. When God heard the prayer of the fairy, he descended to earth disguised as a beggar. On
learning for himself how bad-tempered Buwan was, and how sweet and kind-hearted Araw, God gave the older sister her
diamond as a reward. Buwan was greatly angered by this favouritism on the part of the Almighty, so she went to the heavenly
kingdom and stole one of God’s diamonds. Then she returned to earth with the precious stone, but there she found that her jewel
was not so brilliant as Araw’s.
When God went back to Heaven and learned what Buwan had done, he sent two angels to punish her. But the angels
abused their commission: they seized both sisters and hurled them into the sea. Then they threw the two stones upward into the
sky, and there they stuck. But Araw’s diamond was bigger and brighter than the one Buwan stole.
Thereafter the bigger jewel was called Araw (“day” or “sun”), and the smaller one Buwan (“moon”).

Another example of an etiological legend is “The Durian Legend” from Calinan, Davao City.

A long time ago there lived an ugly, old but powerful king named BaroM-Mai in Calinan. He married the young and
beautiful Madayaw-Bayho, a daughter of Tageb, king of the sea pirates who ruled the islands of Ligid, Talicud and Samal. But
Madayaw – Bayho did not love the king, so she often ran away from his kingdom. But her father always returned her to the
king. One day, she ran away, and vowed never to return to the king. Because of this King Barom- Mai told his advisers, headed
by Matigan, to find a way to make his wife love him. Matigan told the king to go to a wise hermit who could help him. When
the king met the hermit, the hermit said to him to get three things: the egg of the black tabon; twelve ladless of white carabao’s
milk; and the nectar would make her see the king as young and handsome. Pawikan, king of the sea turtles, helped him secure
the tabon’s egg. The king also easily got the milk. He procured the flower with the help of Hangin- Bai, a wood nymph. He
gave three things to the hermit who mixed the nectar, the milk and the egg together and told him to plant it. It grew into a
Durian tree. He brought the fruit to his wife who ate it. After eating, she fell in love with the king who looked young and
handsome. They returned to their kingdom and feasted. They forgot to invite the hermit who said angrily that the delicious fruit
with offensive odour be covered with thorns. Since then, the durian fruit is thorny but delicious.

An example of a folktale is the Pilanduk story which tells the story of animals. In such stories, human qualities are
ascribed to animals, designed to show the cleverness of one animal and the stupidity of another. The interest of animal stories
lies in the humor of the deceptions or the absurd predicaments into which the animal’s stupidity leads him.

“Pilanduk and Singah” is a cycle of Tausug animal tales which revolve around the Pilanduk, a kind of mouse-deer and
the lion are best friends. Wherever they go they are always together. The mouse deer helps the lion in hunting for his food. One
day, there occurs a plaque in the forest and almost all the animals are killed by the disease. The lion tells the mouse-deer that he
will soon eat him, so the mouse-deer pretends to be dead near a river infested with crocodiles. When the lion sees the mouse-
deer dead, he goes to the forest to die. The mouse-deer, meanwhile tells the crocodiles to line up and be counted because he
wants to take a census of them; then he crosses the river safely on the back of the crocodiles. The mouse-deer is eventually
saved.

An example of an etymological legend is “Bud Dahu” (Tuban, 1989)

Bud Dahu’ or Mount Dahu’ is one of the most picturesque mountains in Jolo Island. It is Majestic Mountain of about
800 meters above sea level lording it over the panoramic stretch of land and sea below. It is a mountain wrapped in a romantic
legend that deepens with time and each retelling.
In olden days, there lived a prince named DatuDahu’ at the side of the huge mountain, Bud Dakula’. This prince was
sad and lonely because in the length and breadth of the kingdom no beautiful girl could be found for him to him.
One day, the prince, quite restless, thought of going away and spending his day hunting. He told his men to get ready
for the journey to a forested mountain which promised a successful wild hunt. Unfortunately, when they got there they found no
game, not a single deer whose horned head the prince could bring home as a prize trophy and whose meat he and his men could
feast on. Fatigued after searching long and in vain, they ate after sunset and slept. At the break of dawn, they woke up and had
breakfast. Shortly after breakfast, a magnificent bird zoomed past them headed for the top of the mountain. The prince was
enchanted by the beauty of the bird.
“Let’s go up the mountain and go after that beautiful bird” exclaimed the prince. Hastily they mounted their horses and
started climbing up the mountain. As soon as they reached the summit, the prince heard the call of the bird: “Baud!”
The prince asked, “Did you hear the call of a bird?”
His mmen shook their heads.
“Come on, let’s follow till we come to the other side of the mountain.”
The faint sound of the bird led them on. “Baud!” the bird called to them. Some strange power goaded the prince to
follow the call of the bird down in the other side of the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain they saw not a bird but a beautiful woman seated on a boulder on the bank river. The prince
went near her and asked: “What brought you here, young woman?”
 The woman answered: “Aloneness. I have no mother and father. Such an orphan am I.”
“A.............................................nd your name, young woman?”
She was silent for some time. Then she said, “I am Princess Baud.” “Oh my God!” the prince said, as excited as he was
happy. He realized the bird had led them to woman he had long wished for.
His men chorused: “We are dazzled indeed! How beautiful she is!”
Charmed by the beauty of the woman with eyes that sparkles like stars, the prince alighted from his horse. Overwhelmed by the
love she inspired in him so suddenly, he took her hands, ut them close to his bosom, and then kissed them. He asked her to ride
with him and the woman consented.
It was a long and tiring ride along the river. Tired and sleepy, she learned on his chest. They rested. The princess beside
him, the prince cast a happy look at the place where his long search for happiness had finally ended and proclaimed: “Since his
mountain does not have a name yet, I will call it Bud Dahu’, because it is here where I found my fortune, my Princess Baud.”
There at the foot of the mountain, the prince decided to stay with Princess Baud. And, as love stories of this sort
conclude, they lived happily ever after.