Horse of Fire

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by Lari Don


  These are not pony-club tales about gymkhanas. These are stories about warriors and monsters, stories about the origin of horses and the origin of people, stories in which horses can be magical, stories in which horses are not always the goodies.

  This has been one of the most challenging collections of myths and legends I’ve ever written, because it was almost impossible to choose which fifteen stories to tell, from the thousands of amazing horse stories out there. Every human culture that grew up with horses has brilliant horse myths and legends. Even places where horses only arrived in the last few centuries, like Australia, have lots of horse folklore.

  In the end, I just chose the stories I love the best. That’s why there are plenty of monster-defeating stories, and stories about the relationship between heroes and their horses, and also a centaur and a kelpie, because those are my favourite magical horses.

  As I tell these stories, I change them a little (or sometimes a lot!) to make them fit my voice and the audiences I tell them to. Traditional tales have always changed to stay alive, and I’m just adding my small tweaks to the evolution of these horse stories. If you tell them to someone else, I hope you add or subtract or twist a little as well.

  If you want to read the horse stories that inspired me, here are the details of where I found them:

  Pegasus and the Monsters

  Greek myth

  I’ve known the Perseus and Pegasus part of this myth since I was a child, and I honestly can’t recall where I first read it. (Though I now realise that not all versions have Perseus riding off on Pegasus, sometimes he uses winged shoes instead.) The Bellerophon part of the myth is not as well known, and I only discovered it myself in the last few years. One source I used is Greek Myths by Robert Graves (published by Penguin Books, 1955). There are so many different versions of the Greek myths, you can create your own favourite story from bits of all of them. That’s what I do, anyway!

  The Golden Horse

  Gambian folktale

  I really wanted a horse dung story for this collection, so I was delighted when I found this trickster tale, and I’ve already had a lot of fun telling it to audiences (shouting ‘plop plop squelch’ in a library is often the highlight of my day). The story of the golden dung is based on one episode from a longer story in West African Folktales by Jack Berry (published by Northwestern University Press, 1991).

  Riddling for the Foal

  Russian folktale

  I’m a fan of riddles, so I love this story about a clever girl winning back her family’s foal with her riddle answers and her no-nonsense attitude to the tsar. I first read it in Russian Fairy Tales by Alexsandr Afanas’ev, translated by Norbert Guterman (published by Pantheon Books, 1945). I’ve altered a few of the riddles asked by the tsar, so if you tell this story, you could make up your own riddles.

  The Horse of Fire

  Finnish myth

  This is a very small slice of the amazing Finnish epic poem Kalevala translated by W.F. Kirby (published by Everyman’s Library, 1907). I love the idea of a fiery horse being subdued by hail. In the original it’s clear that Lemminkäinen breaks his promise not to hit the horse of fire, but it’s not clear how the horse reacts. So I allowed the Fire Horse of Hiisi to get rid of the treacherous hero and go home to the meadow.

  Flint Feet

  Navajo myth

  This is a beautiful story about the first horse, told by the Navajo people in North America. I first read it in The Gift of the Gila Monster by Gerald Hausman (Touchstone Books, 1993) and I have tried to stay true to the spirit of the story.

  Bradamante and the Hippogriff

  European legend

  I first read about Bradamante in Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch (published by Hamlyn, 1964). He retold stories about the Age of Chivalry and Charlemagne’s knights from lots of sources, including Italian, French and German, so these were truly European heroes and heroines. My retelling is a small section of the massive epic legend, so I altered the beginning and end to make it work as a story on its own, and I also took out a few minor characters. But the female knight saving the male captive is totally genuine. As is the hippogriff.

  The Unicorns and the Flood

  Ukrainian folktale

  I can’t tell you what book I found this in, because I couldn’t find a full version of the story. I read lots of different books about unicorns, and found lots of hints and glimpses of a Ukrainian story about the unicorn being too arrogant to join the other animals on the ark. But no matter how far I wandered through the forests of folklore tracking this elusive story, I couldn’t find a genuine full Ukrainian version anywhere. However, that felt quite appropriate for a unicorn story, because unicorns themselves are notoriously difficult to find!

  The Headless Horseman of New South Wales

  Australian folktale

  I first read a brief account of this ghostly horseman in Horses In Australia, An Illustrated History by Nicolas Brasch (published by NewSouth Publishing, 2014), then I broadened the story out with wider research. The ghost is a local celebrity, and the con-man butcher is also the star of some versions, but I couldn’t find any information about why a man who drowned became a ghost without a head. And I have to admit I invented the statue in the town square. In real life, the story of the headless horseman is commemorated in a painting hanging in the pub in Booroorban…

  The Kelpie with the Tangled Mane

  Scottish folktale

  As a Scottish writer and storyteller, I know a ridiculously large number of kelpie stories, but this is the first one I ever told and it’s still one of my favourites, because I like the well-matched battle with the water bull. My version is adapted from an Islay tale in Volume 4 of Popular Tales of the West Highlands by J.F. Campbell (published by Edmonston and Douglas, 1862).

  The Wise Colt

  Jewish folktale

  There are stories from all over the world about a helpful animal guiding a young man on a quest. I like this one, which I found in Elijah’s Violin and Other Jewish Folktales by Howard Schwartz (published by Penguin Books, 1987) because the helpful animal is a wise talking horse. However, the original tale ends with the golden bird still trapped in the cage (though it’s apparently content after being given a nice apple). One of the joys of retelling stories is that you can set the bird free if you want. And I did.

  Fire and Clay

  Indian tribal tale

  This is an ancient creation story from the Munda tribal people of Chota Nagpur in India, which I found in Folklore in the Old Testament by James George Frazer (Macmillan, 1919). I love that a horse is the baddie and a spider is the goodie in this story.

  Selling the Goddess

  Tibetan tale

  This is a small part of a much longer story about Goodheart and the tree goddess. I found it in Tibetishe Märchen by D. and M. Stovickova (translated from Czech to German by I. Kondrkova, published by Werner Dausien, 1974) and my very talented mother translated it from German to English for me. Thanks, Mum! However, she will undoubtedly be surprised at all the things I tweaked and removed, after her careful and precise translation. Sorry, Mum! (I lost the waving headscarf, but the tree, the snake, the cloud, the axe and, of course, the white horse all made it through…)

  The Centaur’s Heroes

  Greek myth

  I think centaurs are the most impressive horse-related fabled beasts, but they don’t have many stories of their own, they tend to be bit players in other heroes’ Greek myths. So I’ve stitched this Chiron story together from various Greek myths, including the stories in Charles Kingsley’s The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children (published by Macmillan and Co, 1895), where I first read about Chiron’s school for heroes. Though I did completely invent the birthday party. Centaurs usually crash weddings…

  What You Learn at Wolf School

  Balkan folktale

  There are lots of brilliant folktales about little prey tricking large predators, but I enjoy this one because the prey is so much b
igger than the predator. There are several old ballads from different parts of Europe which tell different versions of the ‘horse kicks wolf’ story, but I’ve been telling my own ‘wolf school’ story for so long I can’t be sure which version inspired what element of my story. You can find one traditional version in Tales from the Heart of the Balkans by Bonnie C. Marshall and Vasa D. Mihailovich (published by Libraries Unlimited, 2001). When I tell this story in schools, I ask the audience to guess what the animal is, but I suspect in a book of horse stories, you all worked it out quite fast!

  The Horse Who Fought a Lion

  Persian legend

  This is my favourite hero and horse story, which I found in the epic Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings written by Abolqasem Ferdowsi in the tenth century. (I read this English version: Shahnameh, translated by Dick Davies, published by Penguin Books, 2007.) My retelling is just the start of Rostam and Rakush’s adventures, and I may have been kinder to the lion and the dragon than the original hero and his horse were.

  Look out for more short story collections

  from Bloomsbury Education

  First published 2016

  This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Copyright © 2016 Bloomsbury Education

  Text copyright © Lari Don

  The moral rights of the author and illustrators have been asserted

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