Week 3 Storytelling: The Beggar King
A long, long time ago a mighty proud man named Hagag reigned as King. As the priest read to him the scripture from the Holy Bible, just as he did every day, King Hagag became very angry. The scripture claimed that wealth and riches are not forever, and that power and the crown makes its way through every generation. King Hagag was so conceited and proud that he was offended by these words. He thought no one and nothing was above him, and that nothing could take away his wealth and power. He snatched the Bible from the priest and ripped out the pages that spoke these words. Then he tore them up into a million pieces and threw them into a nearby flame and threw the Bible straight to the ground. He had committed a horrible act, but felt absolutely no remorse for his actions.
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| The Beggar King |
Later that afternoon, King Hagag left the palace on his fastest unicorn to spend his day hunting the wild animals in the enchanted forest. In this forest there are ogres, unicorns, fairies, and flying monkeys. King Hagag immediately hears the flapping wings of a flying monkey and starts to hunt it down. He chases down the monkey and gets close, but cannot catch up because his unicorn is not fast enough. Just as the monkey was getting away, his wing got caught in a massive spiderweb. When the king caught up with the creature, he pulled out his sharpest sword, but he realized he was just a man dressed in a winged monkey suit. He claimed to be a genie who will teach the proud king a fine, much needed lesson. The genie then snapped his fingers, and was all of a sudden dressed in Hagag's clothing leaving Hagag naked. He rode off back to the kingdom while leaving the king behind in the dust.
Along came a woodcutter who called Hagag a fool for claiming to be king. The man gave clothing and food to the king who had nothing, but left him to find his way back to the kingdom by himself. The king lived the next few months as a poor, homeless man on the streets of the kingdom he used to rule. People would walk past him and either give him food or clothing out of pity, or they would mock him for being a beggar. He was miserable and lonely but he finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
Hagag realized that he could do some good even in his powerless situation. Hagag remembered passing some blind beggars a couple days before. Hagag decided to be a kind man and help the blind beggars by guiding them through the streets. He became very close to these people, and started to feel happy again. He knew that he could make a difference and bring joy to those who were worse off than he ever was.
When the genie decided to hold a huge feast after a few long months of reigning as king, he invited all of the beggars of the city. He talked to each one individually and searched for Hagag. When he finally laid his eyes upon Hagag, he was very pleasantly surprised. He knew that he had finally learned the very important lesson that he was waiting for all of these months. Very much pleased, the genie offered Hagag his kingdom back, but Hagag refused. He told the genie that he was ashamed that he was ever such a wicked and cruel man, and he felt that he could do much more good to the world by staying a guide to the blind beggars and helping others who need it. The genie, however, could not be king forever and would not let Hagag deny his destiny. From that day on, King Hagag was the most kind, wise, and forgiving King the land had ever seen.
Author's Note: For this story, I thought I was going to change a lot of it, but I decided to stick mostly to the story because it taught a pretty good lesson to the King and I did not want to take away from that. Instead of changing the story line I decided to have fun with the animals in the story. Instead of "normal" animals such as deer and horses I decided to use the kind of animals you hear about in fairytales. I thought this gave a fun little twist to the story while keeping true to the storyline. I also elaborated on a few things and made them more dramatic to keep the reader interested.
Bibliography:
Author: Gertrude Landa
Year Published: 1919
Web Source: Un-Textbook
Stephanie this was a great story! I had so much fun reading it. I loved the creativity you used while still keeping the meaning behind the story the same. It contains such a great moral for King Hagag but the twist of the mythical animals was entertaining. Your story was very easy to follow and pay attention to.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard this story so I thoroughly enjoyed it! I wish your Author' Note was a little bigger so I could read it a little easier but I was able to read it. I think your story has a great moral to it. There are many people that misuse there power when they could really help others. I liked how you changed the story to fairytale animals. That kept me guessing on what would come next. Great job!
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