Storytelling Week 6: How The Ugly Man Got Married

How The Ugly Man Got Married (based off the original How Gazelle Got Married)

There once was a man named Robert. He wasn’t the most handsome in the village, but in fact, he was the ugliest in the village.  Growing up, his "desire to be perfect" parents always thought he was going to change from being ugly to handsome. 

“Pretty soon, he will grow out of his baby fat.” 

“Pretty soon, he will grow into his nose.”

“Pretty soon, his pimples will go away, and he will have the clearest skin.”

“Pretty soon, he will gain some muscle and won’t be as lanky.”

“Pretty soon, he will learn to have the wits that will swoop any woman off her feet,” exclaimed Mama all throughout Robert’s life. 

Although she loved her son very very much, she always hoped that he would become the handsome man who would give her perfect and beautiful grandchildren to spoil rotten.  One day, she found the perfect opportunity for Robert to get two beautiful wives!

The king of the village was a very powerful and noble man that everyone looked up to, and he had two twin daughters that he kept a secret to the outside world.  He kept them so much of a secret that nobody even knew their names.  So one day, the king realized that they would have to meet someone and marry a man some day. 

“Any man that can find out the names of my two daughters can have their hands in marriage,” proclaimed the king to the whole village. 

When Robert heard the message from the king, he knew this was his opportunity to find not only one beautiful wife, but two beautiful wives! All he had to do was figure out the names of the king’s daughters.  Robert and his dog ventured off to the castle in the middle of the village to talk to the king about the challenge to win over his daughters. 

When Robert arrived at the castle, he talked to the king to try and guess their names.

“Ashley and Rachel? Alyssa and Brooke? Carly and Mariah? Rebecca and Raquel?” guessed Robert. 

The king quickly stopped him and told him that none of those are the right answers, and he would be there for years if he kept up with that jibber jabber.

As the king released him to take a walk around the castle, his dog stayed inside.  This was no ordinary dog.  Robert’s dog could talk just like humans but only spoke when Robert spoke to him.  So once Robert left and the dog stayed inside, the King called his daughters by name down to the dining room for dinner.  

“Laurie, Landry, come down for dinner and feed the dog in the entry room, too!” yelled the king to his daughters.

The dog all of a sudden perked his ears up and knew he had to tell Robert the names of the King’s daughters.  The girls fed the dog, and he ran away to find Robert.  On his way to tell his master, the dog became very thirsty from the food and searched for water instead.  Once he found Robert, the dog had already forgotten the names of the two daughters.  The dog returned to the castle to try to find out the names of the daughters once again.

As the dog ran back inside the castle, the family was just finishing up dinner and the king, again, yelled the names of his daughters.  

“Laurie, Landry, don’t forget about the Grand Ball tomorrow night, and give more food and water to the dog,” the king yelled loudly.

The dog’s ears perked up again.  So again, the dog ate and drank the water they gave him, and he set out again to find his master. 

Once the dog found Robert, the dog immediately told Robert the names of the daughters, and they both raced back to the castle.  Robert told the king the names of his daughters.  Although the king was baffled and did not understand how Robert had figured out his daughter's names, the king did make a deal that he had to uphold.  The king granted Robert the right to marry his two daughters.  Although it took some getting used to from the two girls and Robert, they all lived happily ever after.

[Source]

Author’s Note:

This story is based off of the original story of How Gazelle Got Married in the Stories from Congo unit.  I kept the basic underlying story about how the daughters were up for marriage and whoever could guess their names could have their hand in marriage, but I added a beginning to the story and changed the characters.  The dog helped in the original story, too, but kept forgetting the names of the daughters just like in my story.  I changed the main character to a man to make the story a little bit easier to understand and added some character development of the man to know his background.  The main character is easy to sympathize with because he acts as the underdog in the situation.  No one would have expected this not-so-popular man to marry, not only one of the King's daughters but both of them! I really enjoyed this story and I loved the part about the dog helping out but forgetting the names so many times. So I kept most of that in my retold story.  Although this story would never happen in real life, I feel like I made it more relatable and a little more comical than the original story.

Bibliography:

"How Gazelle Got Married" by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).  Notes on the Folklore of Fjort.