Showing results by author "Bill Gordh" in All Categories

Hare and Hyena are great friends and decide to start a farm together. They will have a garden and buy 10 cows for milk. They share the work. One day one tends the garden, milks the co

Award-winning storyteller Bill Gordh (Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence winner, National Association of Parenting Periodicals Gold Award winner) presents this folk tale live with no script, accompanied only by his own dynamic banjo playing.

Mouse Deer was down by the river one day when Crocodile swam up and chomped on little Mouse Deer's leg. Mouse Deer could not pull his leg from the clamped jaws of the crocodile. Mouse Deer did some quick thinking and began talking about how lucky he was that the crocodile had accidentally chomped on a stick instead of Mouse Deer's leg. Mouse Deer picked up a stick, which he extended from his body. Without thinking about it, Crocodile let go of Mouse Deer and chomped on the stick.

An old man put the teakettle on the stove and went out to sit on his porch. When the water began to boil, the pot began to transform. It became a tanuki (sort of like a badger) and began racing around his house, causing all kinds of noise and trouble. The old man realized it was a magical kettle, as the tanuki became the kettle again when the old man came inside. He made a box and, before it could change again, put the teakettle into the box.

In a small village, a mother and her daughter were just getting by. They had very little. One day the girl announced that she was going to go and find some work. There was no work in the village and so she set out on her own. She began to cross a field and there were 2 bulls fighting. The fighting made the girl sad and she sang to the bulls to stop their fighting and they did! She moved on.

Lion was declared king and invited all the animals to come for a greeting, so he could thank them all. Little Ant was representing all the ants and she was so excited she got up extra early and got to the greeting place before any other animals. She didn't care.

Munanchar and Menanchar are two friends who are out picking raspberries. As Munanchar fills his bucket, Menanchar eats them. Munanchar discovers what is happening and tells Menanchar that he is going to go get a stick and hit Menancnhar on the head! So Munanchar sets out and finds a tree that has a branch that will be just the right stick. But the tree tells him he needs an ax. He goes to the ax, and the ax tells him he needs a stone to sharpen the ax. The stone says he needs water to wet the stone.

Nasruddin made a bet with some friends that he could stand all night long outside, in the middle of the square, with no clothes on. They all said it was too cold. They all decided that if he could make it through the night with no heat, they would make him dinner, and if he failed he would cook them dinner. He went into the square. As it got later it got colder. Colder and colder and colder. Nasruddin was about to give up and go inside to get warm when he saw a candle in a window across the square.

Sister Fox tries to get Br'er Rabbit by inviting him to go fishing with her on her rowboat. She knows that he can't swim, and she is tired of being tricked. She also knows that he loves fish and will not pass up an opportunity like getting to fish from a rowboat. They get out in the middle of the lake and sit there singing. Sister Fox is singing about her favorite lunch - rabbit! Br'er Rabbit cannot swim and is getting nervous.

Jack and his mother were having no luck on the farm. Jack was taking the cow into the village to sell it when he met a man who offered Jack some magical beans for the cow. Jack said, "Okay." When he came home, his mother got mad at him for making such a trade and threw the beans out the window. In the morning Jack woke to discover a huge beanstalk rising to the sky. He climbed it up into a cloud land. He walked on a path across the clouds to a great palace. Inside he discovered a huge woman. She was the ogre's wife.

Manka was a clever girl. Her father was a shepherd and did a job for a neighbor. The neighbor had promised him a calf for pay, but when the job was done the wealthy farmer refused to give him the young cow. They wound up in court.

Twin brothers were the best of friends. When they grew up they became partners and grew corn. They shared the work and what they sold. One evening in the threshing ground, after they had worked all afternoon, they decided to spend the night there to make sure no thieves stole the results of their hard work. In the middle of the night, one of the brothers woke up. He looked at his sleeping brother and began thinking about him with his wife and children.

A fox is walking down a path when it is pounced on by a hungry tiger. Fox has to do some quick thinking. It asks the tiger if it really means to eat the leader of the forest. Tiger says it would not eat the leader of the forest, but Fox is not the leader.

Coyote saw Rabbit sleeping under a tree. Often Rabbit tricked him, but this time Rabbit was asleep! Coyote pounced, ready to eat. Something up in the tree gave Rabbit an idea. Rabbit asked, "Could you wait 'til I do my job for you to eat me?" Coyote asked what the job was, and Rabbit told him she had to shake the tree to ring the bell for all the little bunnies to get out of school. Coyote decided he would rather eat some little bunnies than a skinny old rabbit.

The wealthy young man and all his family and servants are preparing for his wedding. Later in the day, he will travel by horseback to his fiancée's family's home for the ceremony. One old servant hears a noise down the hall from the kitchen. He sees the story bag where the young man used to store his stories when he was a little boy. He loved stories so much. The stories are angry about being left behind and forgotten about. They are planning to hurt the young man.

Pig was tired of his living conditions and went to the farmer. Farmer said the pig should go to the judge, and whatever the judge ruled, the farmer would do. Pig went to court. The judge ruled that Pig could have what he wanted - to sleep on a mat and eat alfalfa.

Long ago there was only sun in the rainforest. It was beautiful but too bright. People had a hard time sleeping. A farmer was married to the River Snake King's daughter, and she told her husband about something called "Night" that was deep in the river. It would let people rest. They had too much farm work to do, so they sent three friends in a canoe down the river to ask the River Snake King for Night.