By
Rita Grimaldi
Rewriting ‘The Iron Wolf’ for Telling in Wolf Mask
Telling a story in mask requires that the story be told
as if it were the experience of the mask character itself.
So as I rewrite the original story, I imagine myself as
Wolf. I feel what the story’s chain of events would be like if I were Wolf
thinking in human language. In this frame of mind, I see right away that as
Wolf, I am an adversary to the human man, the hero of the story.
In the story of The
Iron Wolf, wolf makes a deal with this male hero. The hero is given a magic egg in return for
12 years of service to a holy man.
Instructions are given that the egg must not be broken until a strong
cattle pen is built. The hero goes against these instructions, cracking the egg
open without the pen. Cattle pour out - too many for him to round up. This is
when the Iron Wolf appears.
Wolf offers to put the cattle back into the egg and to
make the egg whole again in return for the hero agreeing to be eaten on his
wedding day by the wolf. The hero agrees
to this bargain, accepts his magically restored egg and becomes rich because of
it.
The
Question of Wolf Eating his Adversaries
In many wolf stories, Wolf is portrayed as wanting to
eat his adversaries. For example, he eats two of the three little pigs and he
also eats Red Riding Hood’s grandmother.
And in this traditional story, Wolf gets agreement to
eat the young man.
Food is perhaps the ultimate human resource. In
primitive times, wolves competed with people for this resource.
But in storytelling traditions, being eaten may
represent winning the game. So this is why Grandma has to be restored from the
wolf’s stomach and the third little pig has to kill the wolf.
In my original story, Wolf is torn apart by three dogs.
But I am rewriting the story.
I am redeeming Wolf.
So I don’t have to follow the traditional story pattern.
In my rewrite, Wolf will die but he will come back to
life. He will learn. And then Wolf will prosper from this learning.
So here is what I did.
I followed the story pattern. At the beginning, I wrote
in Wolf’s feelings and Wolf’s desire to make a bargain that is advantageous to
him.
Wolf says, “I will collect the cattle and drive them back
into the egg for you. And then I will patch the egg so it will be quite whole.
But in return for that, whenever you sit on the bridal bench I will come and
eat you.”
In my story, I will write that Wolf watches and waits
for the time when his bargain will be fulfilled - when the young man marries and
then tries to escape. I will write of Wolf’s feelings and desires to have the
justice of getting his side of the bargain fulfilled. These feelings will be
apparent over the four days of Wolf’s pursuit of the young man. They will end
when Wolf is killed by the three dogs given to the young man by old men and old
women.
This is how the traditional story ends but in my
version, I will not end it there.
I will continue the story.
I will allow my Wolf the redemption of learning from his
experience.
Here is my new ending, beginning at Wolf’s death.
The New
Ending
In my mask, being Wolf, I will say:
Chutko
sounded the alarm.
Vazhko
pinned me to the earth.
And
Barry tore me to pieces.
I
died in great pain.
And
from another place – away from this world – I saw the young man gather his
three dogs around him, mount his horse and ride away.
When
they were gone,
I
put myself back together again.
I
did this just as I had put the red egg back together again.
And
then I considered my situation.
Well,
I thought, now the young man has three dogs.
And
these dogs have killed me once.
It
is better not to follow them.
So
I let the young man live in peace.
And
I went about my own business.
And In Conclusion…
Wolf becomes a learning creature. He learns from his
experience. He becomes less bound by his instinctual desire to eat his
adversaries. Contrary to the traditional pattern, Wolf is now able to choose
his own behaviour and in doing so, keep himself safe.
December 28, 2015
To be continued…
Part Three will discuss
how Rita changes Wolf’s costume to reflect his inner changes.
Part Four will discuss
the public performance of Wolf in mask and a debrief of Rita’s experience with the
Wolf mask.
