If you stand at the bottom of the mountains, just past the
big round lake and over the small rolling hills, look up and you can see one
white lone figure. Look a little closer and you can make out that the lone
figure is a lamb, small for its size, so it is probably a baby. Try to look just
a tiny bit closer and you can see that the baby lamb is gazing up to the sky. As
the baby lamb stares up at the stars she sees a lightning strike far off in the
distance; not long after, thunder sounds over the rolling hills. The storm is
heading her way and the mother lamb beckons her baby to come into their cave
for the evening. As she lays down to sleep, the baby lamb asks her mother for a
bedtime story, specifically for one about her ancestors. Snuggling closer to
her mother and closing her eyes, the baby lamb listens as her mother begins to
tell of how the lightning and thunder came to be what they are today.
Long long ago, Thunder was a sheep here on Earth and Lightning was her son, a ram. Like most young rams, Lightning had a temper much
of the time. Unlike most young rams, Lightning chose to take his temper out on
the nature that surrounded him. He would carry this out by burning houses, forcing
down trees, damaging people’s farms, and even going as far as killing people. Thunder
would rebuke Lightning with her loud and powerful voice when he did these
terrible acts, but Lightning could not rein in his temper. Eventually, the
people had enough of his nonsense and took their complaints to the king. The king,
not wanting to deal with lightning’s wrongdoings, decided he would banish Thunder and Lightning from the town so they could no longer hurt the people….or
so he thought.
This banishment did not seem to have an effect on Lightning
because the next time he got angry, he burned down the entire forest. This forest
fire spread to the entire town and burned down all the farms within range. The
king had no other choice than to banish Thunder and Lightning yet again, but
this time he banished them away from Earth and into the sky where Lightning
could no longer directly destroy the things on Earth.
Even though they were banished to the sky, they are still seen and heard among those living on Earth. Whenever Lightning gets
angry, you can see his marks across the sky. Just after seeing these marks, you
can hear Thunder, his mother, reprimanding him. The longer it takes to hear her
rebuke, the farther away the two are up in the sky. Lightning is still very
bitter that he was banished, so every once in a while he reminds the people on
Earth of the destruction he can cause by striking down and making his mark hit
the Earth’s surface, sometimes causing similar destruction as before.
When the baby sheep’s mother finishes this story she can see
that her sweet baby is fast asleep. As quietly as she can, she slips away from
her baby and goes to the opening of the cave. She looks out over the rolling
hills and big round lake and finally gazes up into the sky. Before the mother
turns around to head to bed, she sees one bright, threatening lightning bolt strike
cross the sky.
Author's Note: This story is originally from folk stories of Nigeria. Many of the Nigerian
folk stories are about either the origins of certain elements in nature or the
origins of behavior in certain animals. The story I chose is called The Lightning and the Thunder. This story is
very close to the story I told. It tells of how a sheep and her ram son were
once here on earth as lightning and thunder. Lightning was unruly and
destructive and his mother would rebuke him with her loud voice. He would not
listen to his mother’s reprimanding and continued his assault on the earth. The
people feared he would harm them so they went to the king. He first banished
them from the land, but this was not sufficient to keep the people and their
property safe. The king reassessed the situation and decided that they would
both banished to the sky. Today the two can still be seen and heard from the
sky. I added in the parts about looking up the mountain and seeing the baby
lamb and also the parts about her asking her mother for a bedtime story. I
wanted to keep the original story in my writing so I just added in a side story
so that the original one could be told.
Bibliography: The Story of the Lightning and the Thundery by Elphistone Dayrell
