Storytellers have
delighted their listeners with animal tales throughout the ages. Across the world these
stories have entertained and instructed as parables of human nature. The heroes - and
villains - of this earliest and most widespread form of the folktale were often
mischief-making rogues known as tricksters. The comic nature of the trickster as
troublemaker, resourceful champion, and sometime fool is explored in these tales from
three cultures.
Zomo the
Rabbit is a prominent member of the family of animal tricksters that populate the
traditional tales of West Africa. Like tricksters in storytelling traditions around the
world, the fleet-footed Zomo outwits his larger foes through guile and trickery - and uses
his wit to gain wisdom.Raven is the central character in Native American tales of the Pacific Northwest. He is a trickster on a cosmic scale. Both mischief maker and culture hero, he at times wreaks havoc and at others bestows on humankind the gifts of fire, light, or food.
Coyote stories
are the most widely known and most often told trickster tales of Native American
tradition. In the pueblos of the Southwest, Coyote is
portrayed as a conniving fool, the perpetual victim of his own inquisitiveness. In Coyote
he serves as a vivid example of human vanity, and his misbehavior brings him misfortune.The trickster has special appeal for children because of his ability to triumph over larger foes not
by
physical strength but by wit and cunning. In addition, tales of the trickster still speak
to us in a gentle, humorous way about the strengths and weaknesses of humankind.
