The Girl Who Helped Thunder

This week’s story comes from the Lenape people of Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware where I grew up. It can be found in the compilation of Native American folktales with the same title, The Girl Who Helped Thunder, retold by Joseph Bruhac, Ph.D.

The Lenape were a people whose women shared social and political power. They were free to choose their mates. This tale illustrates, however, that a women would be wise to listen to and consider her family’s advice in order to choose well when taking a mate.

The story centers on the character of Pretty Face, who is named for her good looks. Her great flaw is that she is shallow and vain and considers herself too lovely for any of the men in her village. So she stays unmarried for years choosing to remain living in her parents’ home rather than marry someone less appealing than herself.

Although holding out for the perfect fit is often a sign of Wisdom, the foolish nature of Pretty Face’s vanity and superficiality becomes very evident when a handsome stranger arrives in her village. He walks straight to her parents’ wigwam and says that Pretty Face should follow him as he has come to make her his bride.

She takes one look at his strong beautiful form and his bead-covered leather garb (signs of wealth in Lenape society), and she decides instantly that he is exactly the kind of rich, good-looking man she has been waiting for. Her parents urge her to reconsider. They point out that she knows nothing about him or his family, but Pretty Face is determined to follow this “prince” wherever he may lead in that moment.

So she follows him to the river near her village without even knowing his name! When he orders her to follow him into the river, she follows! Much to her surprise, she finds she can breathe underwater as he leads her down a path that ends among heaps of rocks. “This is my village,” he tells her, “and that is my wigwam. Go wait inside. I will go hunting for us.”

Out of his wigwam, comes an old woman who chastises him for bringing an outsider to their village. She calls him her son and by his name, Amankamek. Amankamek ignores his mother, and continues on his way. The old woman hisses at Pretty face as she obediently enters the wigwam to wait.

Pretty Face is starting to feel really uneasy when she turns around to watch her husband leave, and to her horror, she discovers that he has transformed into a giant serpent! Now it hits her! Amankamek is the name of the Great Serpent who lives beneath the river and is said to take on human form in order to deceive humans! Pretty Face fell for his deception, and now she doesn’t know if he plans for her to be his wife or his dinner.

She does not intend to stick around to find out.

She knows of only one who is strong enough to challenge Amankamek- Thunder Being. She calls out a prayer for help to Thunder Being, and he appears as an apparition of a strong old man outside her door. He urges her to run down the path by her door immediately. It is the only chance she will have to possibly save herself and help him. Pretty Face takes off as soon as the vision disappears, and Amankamek’s people follow in close pursuit.
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Soon Amankamek is right behind her warning her to stop, but Pretty Face just runs faster. She races right to the surface of the water and is about to be devoured by her husband, when an ear-splitting crash of light cracks open the sky, and Amankamek is struck dead by a lightning arrow of Thunder Being.

Thunder Being thanks Pretty Face for luring Amankamek to the surface of the water so that he could be vulnerable to his lightning arrow. Pretty Face sees her husband is dead, and she says she cannot return to her village, although she doesn’t say why. Perhaps her intimate dealing with the elemental nature forces has changed her too drastically and made it impossible to return to an ordinary human life. Thunder Being says she can follow him to live with his people in the Sky World in reward for her service, so that is what she does.

Now, it is said, when young women hear thunder rumbling across the sky, they are suppose to remember Pretty Face and her warning that they choose carefully when picking a mate.

Da Neho.

p.s. Today, right before I was about to teach this story to the students at Winterhaven Elementary, I saw lightning striking in the horizon before my parked car, and the powerful sound of thunder cracked loud all around me. Lightning being fairly uncommon in Portland, OR, I was duly impressed by the power of story to weave its way into everyday life.

Poses I will feature in this story:

Warrior II/Radiant Warrior: Variation of Virabhadrasana- I use this pose to introduce Pretty Face since she considers herself too beautiful for any of the village men. I pretend the hand that is raised above my head holds a mirror and that I am gazing enamored of my own reflection.

Snake Pose (Bhujangasana)- This pose gets used heavily in the scene where Pretty Face is running away from the serpent people and Amanckamek. It’s super fun to draw out the “ssss” and to hiss like a monster on the outbreath.

Warrior Pose I &II (Virabhadrasana I & II)- We are using Warrior I transitioning to Warrior II to illustrate Thunder Being firing his Lightning Arrow at Amankamek. To shoot a lightning arrow, start out in Warrior I with arms and hands joined and pointing out in front of you and down at an angle like you are a sky being aiming at a giant serpent in the river below where you stand. Then as you turn your torso for Warrior II, draw the arm that normally points behind you across your body like you are drawing an arrow back in a bow. When you are certain you have Amankamek in your sight, release your hold on the arrow. This requires concentration and stillness. When you have only one chance to defeat your arch nemesis, there can be no retakes.