Reading Notes: Nigeria Folk Stories, Part A

Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky:

In this story, the sun and the moon are husband and wife and they live on the earth.  The sun is very good friends with the water, but while the Sun always visits the water, the water never visits the sun because he knows he will not fit into the suns house, especially with all the sea creatures that live in him.  The sun then promises to build an extremely large compound so that the water can come visit him.  But when the water came to visit, he overflowed the house, and so the sun and moon were driven out and forced to go to the sky.

One thing I thought was funny in this story, was that, as the water was flowing in, he would keep stopping to ask if he should continue flowing inside, to which the sun and moon always replied, "Yes."  If I were to rewrite this story, I would have it so that the moon is at least thinking clearly and has doubts about building a whole new house and inviting the water and all his inhabitants into their house.

Bibliography: Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky by Elphinstone Dayrell

Sun and moon together over water.  Source: flickr