Week 6: Storytelling

Week 6: Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King

There once was a king named Botu who was very successful, but everyone hated. He was very successful and rich because of his wonderful leadership skills, but he had many enemies.This is because he went to war too often and killed far too many people, and because he often turned prisoners into slaves.

In a town nearby people were becoming very aggravated with Botu and they wanted him killed. Since he was very good at battling and fighting, they would not be able to beat him in a fight. They came up with a scheme that would surely work. They had a very old witch in their town who could shape shift into whatever she pleased. The people of town offered to pay the witch, Ursula, to kill the king.

Ursula the Witch

Ursula took the offer and changed herself into the most beautiful young woman that anyone had ever seen. She had long hazelnut brown hair and dark green eyes with rosy red cheeks and candy apple red lips. When Ursula set off to visit Calabar, where the king lived, she brought a very sharp sword that she had hidden in her boot. She stumbled into the Halloween festival that was being held in Calabar that night.

Everyone stared at Ursula when she walked by. They were in awe of her beauty and she quickly became the talk of the town. Less than an hour later King Botu had gotten word of this beautiful creature and had to meet her. It was well known that Botu had quite a thing for pretty girls. He searched the festival for less than twenty minutes when he found her and when he did, he was speechless.

Botu knew he must make Urusla his wife immediately. He proposed to her right there in the middle of everyone. Ursula, knowing this just made her job one hundred times easier, said "Yes!" before he even finished asking. They headed to the palace that second to be married and then consummate the marriage.

After the wedding, Ursula slipped some sleeping pills into Botus wine so he would fall asleep very quickly and then she could kill him and get on with her life. When they finally got back to Botus bedroom, the second he hit the pillow, he fell asleep instantly. Ursula slid the sword out from her boot and without hesitation, she sliced his head right off.

To prove that she had indeed killed the king she brought his head with her back to her town so that she would receive the money she was promised. When the king was discovered dead, no one even thought to consider that his new, young, beautiful wife had done it.

"Never marry a stranger, no matter how pretty she may be."

Authors Note: For this story I did not change much because I did not want the moral of the story to be lost. I changed the names from Mbotu to Botu and Oyaikan to Ursula. I left out the ending of the story where the witches town ends up attacking the kings town and killing almost all of their people. This is because it did not really go with the theme/moral I was going for in my retelling.

Bibliography:
Book: Nigerian Folktales
Author: Elphinstone Dayrell
Year Published: 1910
Web Source: Un-Textbook