The first of a run of four, Spinner of Stories is the lead story out of Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Tricksters.
This story is that of Anansi, the Trickster son of the Sky God, Nyame. Anansi is an Akan folklore character, often known as the God of all Knowledge and Stories. The story starts, as always with The Storyteller and his old dog. In front of a fire, the Storyteller recounts Anansi’s story. How he gambled and made ad deal with his father, how he used tricks and cunning to capture the Great Onini, Mmoboro and the MMoatia
His cunning won him the knowledge he seeked, but because he was a trickster after all, he did not follow his deal. As his story is a folktale, it makes sense that there is a moral to a story like this. And for Anansi, the moral is letting pride overwhelm you, will always end in trouble. (or something along those lines) When he over drinks from the bottle of knowledge, he ends up falling into the mouth of a fish. (which, ew) In the end he does get free with the help of his son, Ntikuma, but not without a good punch to his pride.
Once freed, his son helps him to realize that he should not try to hoard all the knowledge and together they let the knowledge and stories into the water, to go and be carried to all of humanity. It’s a beautiful story, including the son’s part that insoles throwing the moon up into the sky so that it may shine on those who pass the stories.
I’ve heard the story of Anansi before, but that didn’t stop my from thoroughly enjoying this comic. I think that it is probably a really easy way for people to ease into African folklore, if they don’t already know it. I think that’s why these Storyteller offerings are so good, becasue they do bring people new stories, which in the end, might bring those new readers to even more new stories. its a beautiful feedback-loop.
Spinner of Stories was written by Jonathon Rivera and drawn by Jade Zhan and released today from Archaia.
