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Aneleh
An old, poor fisherman was living near the sea coast of a small island, far in the Pacific ocean. He had got a wife, a son and two daughters. They were all joyful, especially the children, who were playing in the sand in front of the house the whole day. The fisherman and his family had no money, but they had never been hungry. Father fisherman knew every stone in the sea and he knew exactly when and where to catch fish. He never caught too much fish, just as much as he needed to feed the family. The fisherman’s wife was hardworking in the garden behind the house, where she was growing vegetables and so they had everything they needed.
The children were growing, singing and playing. Especially the boy could sing beautifully, so beautiful that the sea sirens stopped breathing because of admiration. They were even envying him for his nice voice. Esoh, that was the boy’s name, often used to sit on a rock above the house and sing with a full voice. When he was singing, all birds stopped their singing; on the sea surface appeared various fish, lobsters, even whales came to listen Esoh’s song. Esoh was often accompanied by the choir of dolphins, who were very clever and loved him and his songs. By the end of his singing, in the bay could be heard loud clapping. That were the sea lions clapping with their fins. The boy’s older sister, Aneleh, was a wonderful, beautiful girl with dark hair and eyes. She knew swimming and diving even before she knew walking. Anjas, their younger sister, had long blond hair, eyes as blue as the sea and her teeth were like the most beautiful pearls.
Time passed by and slowly the children were growing. They became the most beautiful young man and two wonderful girls, whose laughing echoed in the bay.
One night there was a great storm, huge waves were raising and reaching the small house. It seemed as if they would float it off into the sea. As the morning came everything calmed down and the fisherman and his family saw a huge shell, as high as a man. “Open me, open me,” they heard a voice coming out of the shell. The fisherman hit the shell with his paddle, it opened and they saw a beautiful pearl of rosy color in it. “Aneleh, take me” it seemed as the pearl was speaking.
Aneleh entered the shell, took the pearl out and gave it to her father. At the same moment the shell shut and imprisoned Aneleh. A huge wave appeared on the sea and dragged the shell with Aneleh into the sea. Alone in the darkness, Aneleh was terribly scared and she felt that the shell was moving with great speed. After a while, there was no more air to breathe in the shell and Aneleh lost her conscious. Aneleh opened her eyes a long, long time after and she found herself still in the shell, but on a wonderful bed made of aromatic sea herbs. Somewhere she heard girl voices singing a silent and sweet song. When she got up of her bed, she looked around herself and saw a whole choir of sea sirens. They were singing. They were accompanied by an orchestra of red sea parrots and directed by a large cuttle-fish with its hectocotylus. She noticed that they were all in a large hall, the ceiling was made of shining little fish and held by pillars of red corals. At a moment the song became still, the large door opened and a large flock of dangerous sea cats swam in, followed by a big sea horse on which back there was a frightening old man with long hair and a long beard, carrying a trident in his right hand. Everybody made a bow and the old man spoke in a deep, but loud voice, that it seemed as if the sea roared. “Aneleh, I am Poseidon, the God of the sea, and I arranged to bring you here to see who is the girl my son Talamus fell in love with. Now, as I can see how beautiful you are, I can only say that I am very satisfied. But I want you to see my son first, to get acquainted with him and then you should decide whether you will stay with us or want to bring you back home, “ he said.
“Good, but how would I breathe and speak under water?”- asked Aneleh. Poseidon laughed and answered: ”Touch the spot under your beautiful neck, there we have build in gills, so you can breathe.”
Then she heard trumpets and a blond, tall young man entered the hall. His eyes were as blue as the sky. His whole body was like that of a man, but instead of legs he had a whale’s tale. Aneleh looked into his eyes and saw deep love in them. She forgot her home, her daddy and mummy, her brother and the younger sister. Talamus took her hand, called two sea horses and on their back they went on a long journey across the seas and oceans, because Talamus wanted to show her his father’s and his kingdom.
During that time her mother and father were sitting on the coast sadly and crying so bitterly that out of their tears grew up a brook under their feet. The brook was running into the see and because of its bitterness all the sea inhabitants ran away. Their son Esoh watched them but he didn’t know how to help them .
One day Esoh told his father: ”Listen father, let’s supply our ship with food and water and let’s look for Aneleh.” The mother and sister Anjas helped and so they quickly loaded the small ship. They even took the little monkey, the orangutan Peter, with them. Peter had to keep watch and run the ship by night, while father and son were sleeping. They were sailing day and night and Peter was very useful to them. By day he was preparing meals for them and by night he was running the ship. They were sailing one year and then another, asking birds, sperm whales and sharks about their beloved Aneleh. But no one could tell them a word about her. That was the order of Poseidon, because he wanted to wait until Aneleh and Talamus returned from their journey. One night they dropped the anchor not far from a rocky coast and while father and son were sleeping, Peter, as usual, climbed on the mast top and kept watch. At dawn, Esoh and the fisherman woke up because the ship was rocking terribly. They run out and saw a horrible scene. A large cuttle fish, about twenty meters long and with large hectocotylus, lifted the ship out of the sea and rocked it. With one hectocotylus she took little Peter by his neck and tried to strangle him, so he could not cry and ask for help. When they saw what was going on father and son took the axes and cut off the hectocotylus which was strangling Peter, but then the cuttle-fish caught father and son with another hectocotylus and tried to carry them to the large mouth. They both tried to defend themselves, Peter helped them as much as he could by loud shrieking, but the cuttle-fish was stronger. Thinking the end was coming, Esoh started to sing a song so sadly that the little orangutan started to cry, but the cuttle-fish grabbed him again. It seemed there was no hope for them. But at once, three sabre fish, which were swimming nearby, recognized Esoh’s wonderful voice and hurried to help them. They attacked the cuttle fish and cut it with their sharp sabres to pieces. So the three sufferers and the ship were saved. The sea became red of blood of the cuttle-fish and the blood attracted huge sea sharks who came and ate the rest of the cuttle- fish. The fisherman, Esoh and little Peter thanked the sabre-fish for saving them, but they asked Ezoh to sing them some of his beautiful songs. He sang and the sabre-fish, together with a large sea pigeon, jumped and clapped against the water, showing their pleasure in this way. Not far from the ship, there appeared a large, old turtle out of the sea and she said: “May Poseidon punish me, but I feel sorry for you, so I will tell you the whole story about Aneleh. Go home after that and wait until she appears.” So the old turtle told them everything she knew and they returned home to tell mother and sister the good news.
After a long journey they came close to their bay. Suddenly they recognized the smell of burning and saw a great ball of smoke. When they landed they saw that their modest house was burnt down, but there was no trace of the fisherman’s wife and daughter. They heard a painful groan and behind a rock they found a huge lobster with claws torn of. He told them that a pirate ship had come into the bay. The pirates saw beautiful Anjas, they grabbed her and as the mother tried to defend her, they grabbed the mother, too. The pirates took them to the ship and set the house on fire. As the lobster also tried to defend them, he broke the feet of two pirates with his claws. The pirates had cut of his right claw during the battle.
The old fisherman cried bitterly, threw his cap into the sand and beat with his paddle against the water. He cursed Poseidon because all his disaster began at the moment he took
Aneleh away. At the same moment the sky darkened, a strong storm blew and out of the water appeared angry Poseidon.
“Who dares to curse me, the God of sea, I crumble him with my trident.” The old fisherman was not afraid but sad: “It’s all your fault, you took my daughter, my son and I had almost lost our lives, and now the pirates have taken my spouse and the daughter. How shouldn’t I curse you?”
“Calm down, old man. I didn’t know what had happened. I was far away in the ice sea to bring ice for cooling our drinks but I’ll settle everything down quickly.” He ordered the fastest fish to call Talamus and Aneleh to return home into his castle immediately. Then he created with his trident huge waves up to ten meters high and ordered to role the pirates’ ship back. As the waves brought the pirates back he brought the fisherman’s wife and daughter on the coast first and then he crashed with his trident the pirates’ ship and sent the pirates under the guide of tremble fish to the prison.
During that time Talamus and Aneleh came back. Aneleh embraced her family and Poseidon and his son watched this scene with great pleasure. At last Poseidon said to the fisherman “I hope, you are satisfied now and that you will give Aneleh to my son to be his wife.” “Of course I will, why not,”- answered the happy father.
Poseidon organized a real sea wedding in his castle. Esoh was singing songs, one more beautiful than the other, and at the same time watching the most beautiful siren, who fell in love with him and his singing. The table was more than rich set though mostly with vegetarian food. There were various meals made of sea weed and herbs and the main drink was milk of the sea cows, that the pirates had to milk according to the punishment.
After the wedding Esoh went with his siren on a trip around the world, Talamus and Aneleh stayed with Poseidon and Anjas returned home with her mum and dad. There on the coast was built a new house of pearl shells in which she had later on told stories to her children about her sister Aneleh.
Grandpa's Tales Page 3