Reading Notes: The Man on The Moon #1

The Man in the Moon

In this story, there was a blacksmith who complained. He said that he was sick, and that his work was too warm and that he would rather be a stone in the mountain since it was colder from the wind and shade from trees. 

A wise man told him then to go be stone on the mountain, and made him into it. But when a stone-cutter came through and started chiseling him, he cried out because it hurt so bad. He didn't want to be stone anymore. He just wanted to be a stone-cutter now. 

Humoring him, the wise man turned him into a stone-cutter. But once he was, his feet would hurt and he decided he wanted to be the sun instead. But the sun was warmer than everything he already was; the blacksmith and the stone, so the wise man didn't understand. So when he decided he didn't like being the sun, he decided he wanted to be the moon. 

Then, he told the wise man that it was even warmer than being the sun because the sun constantly shined on him. He wanted to go back to what he originally was - a blacksmith. 

But the wise man wasn't going to be taken advantage of, and decided to leave him as the moon. And that is why there is a man in the moon to this day. 

I have always really liked stories that relate back to why things are the way they are, and this has been one of my favorites. I think it would be a fun challenge for me this week to try to relate it back to something zoo and animal related, maybe make it an animal changing into different things instead of a man and make it like rock shaped animal or something like that. 

Man in the moon. Link here

Bibliography: The Man in the Moon in Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson