Illustrations from "The Bird Princess," "Jeremiah, Catch the Devil," and "The Werewolf of Borschev."
The stories that make up "Tales the Wind Told" were written to be read aloud. At the end of each story is a link to an available book of these short stories. The tales are dedicated to the reader, whose understanding of drama and voice will lend life to the characters; to the listener, who may remember the story and the circumstances of the reading many years down the road; and to the characters themselves, who have become my friends.
-- Brooks Mencher
A boy, a bear, a bee: They say three wonders bring tragedy. A terrible accident, in which Szymon and the bear each lose a leg, marks the beginning of three interlinked adventures - - that of a boy with the leg of a bear; a bear with the leg of a boy; and a small girl who has taken up residence in a treetop as she awaits the return of her brother and the old bruin.
A water spirit, awakened by the brilliance of the moon and stars, finds herself inside a tree root, and in the shape of this root she ventures out into the world. Though she is protected by Methuselah, a leopard as black as night, it is not enough to save her from enslavement in an evil village. With the help of the big cat, she escapes and forges a path that she hopes will lead to becoming completely human.
A child is stolen from his cradle, and suspicion falls upon just one man - - if man he can be called. For he is a werewolf, foul of face and body. But his heart is good, and, knowing that he is defenseless against accusations of murder, he leads brave members of the child's family on a quest to find the missing child and to battle the true villain - - an evil creature so dark it has never seen the light of day.
The sun, struck in the heart by a chip of ice, falls to the Earth. In the guise of a ragged old man, he wanders the land until he stumbles upon Rigel, a simple gardener who lives beneath a huge oak on the river. Who can help the broken sun return to his place in the heavens? The task has fallen, like the plummeting sun itself, to Rigel and his unlikely companions - - a garden worm, a bat, a squirrel and a spider.
In the silence of a solstice night, lonely Jeremiah Faithful fashioned a boy out of river clay, and, using an ancient incantation, he brought the child to life. But what will the world hold for a child of clay, a golem? After Jeremiah is burned out of his home for dabbling in witchcraft and blasphemy, he wanders the world looking for the child, Uriah. But when they finally meet again, they must overcome more than angry villagers - - for a devil is loose in the world.
What power on Earth could ever entice a gnome to leave his forest? Ah, but fate is a peculiar thing, and the gnome, Snorri, did leave his trees and flowers and crossed the river into the world of men. A victim of the villagers' fears, Snorri is imprisoned. Only a tree, an old man and the faith of a young girl stand between the gnome and his doom.
Each year the natural forces of the Earth meet and decide how and when the leaves will fall in autumn. The council members include the spirits of the wind and mountains, moon and sun, and the animals who watch the seasons turn -- badger, frog, mouse and wren. This play is appropriate for grade-school actors, or adult actors for a young audience.