Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

This post is my reading notes from The Cunning Crane and the Crab from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales by W.H.D Rouse. The next post will be my adaptation of the story.

Settings:

    The Little Pool: A fine pool when it was rainy, but the summer heat has dried it up and made it inhospitable for the Fish.

For my story, I could make this any once thriving, but now barren setting. Perhaps a small kingdom or a city.

    The Beautiful Lake: A fresh, cool lake not far from the little pool that is always under the shadow of great trees. The Crane lives on the banks of this Lake and the One-Eyed Fish got to see the lake when the crane took him in his beak.

This setting should be turned into a lush place, a respite from the barren landscape. Something like a garden, oasis, or thriving kingdom/city.

    The Tree: One of the trees beside the beautiful lake. This is where the Crane takes all of the Fish and tries to take the Crab.

A not-so-perfect part of the beautiful respite. A dungeon, pit, or other unsavory place should do.

Characters:

    The Fish: The inhabitants of the little pool, they are tricked and eaten by the Crane. They were at first wary of the Crane, but their desperate situation in the pool forced them to trust him.

Inhabitants of a now barren place. I'm thinking that the little pool should be a once glorious but now impoverished city, and the fish are the starving nobles.

        The One-Eyed Fish: The only character separate from the collective voice of the Fish. He is chosen to see if the Crane is telling the truth about the lake. After convincing the Fish to trust the Crane, he is the first to be betrayed.

An old, battle-scarred character. Perhaps the nobles are actually warriors, and this one is the leader?

    The Crane: An inhabitant of the beautiful lake, tricks the Fish into trusting him, but is tricked in turn by the Crab.

The Crane should be a beautiful, alluring figure; but since the fish knew from the start that the Crane is deadly to them, the adapted character should keep that same balance. The Crane character could be a beautiful rakshasi that tempts the warriors to her beautiful gardens and eats them instead.

    The Crab: Did not trust the Crane at all and set a clever trap for the Crane once his true intentions for the Crab were revealed.

I'm not quite sure yet how to adapt this character. On one hand, the crab can become a wise warrior who avenges his fallen companions; or the crab can become a female character, perhaps a wife of a fallen warrior? I'll have to keep pondering how I want the story to go

Main Themes:

As you can tell by my previous musings over settings and characters, I really like the original themes of the story. I want to keep the plot as intact as possible, only deviating as needed for my adapted characters.

Final Notes:

The little pool will become a barren fortress, and the warriors inhabiting it will be desperate for a respite from their circumstances like the fish were. The crane is now a beautiful rakshasi who tells the warriors that she has sworn off eating men and wants to take them all to her beautiful gardens where they can eat and drink merrily and marry her beautiful sisters who live there with her. One warrior, a scarred man who has survived many battles, travels with her and brings back tales to his companions of the beautiful gardens, plentiful food, and gorgeous women. The warriors leave the fortress one at a time to live in the gardens, but the rakshasi sisters devour them instead. Who will the cunning crab be in this story? You will have to see in my complete retelling of The Cunning Crane and the Crab!

(Illustration from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales)