Babbitt - Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Last week I began looking at whether you should end a story with a moral.  I strongly recommend a look at that article for a variety of reasons.  There were three stories I already liked best in Ellen C. Babbitt's More Jataka Tales.

One of them, today's "Prince Wicked and the Animals", drew this comment from me: (reading it again, I really must post it in this election season even though it's the longest Jataka in the book!)

Don't worry, it's not political, but that's the application or moral that popped into my head at the time.  Your own  moral may be very different, but I hope you, too, enjoy the story.

There are many ways this story could be used.  Whether you feel the need for a Moral to end the story is up to you, but I hope you Keep the Public in Public Domain by keeping this and other Jataka Tales alive.  (Personally I love the re-tellings by Babbitt as they are simple and very tellable, but, as mentioned last week, if you prefer something more academic or true to its Buddhist origins, be sure to look at last week's inclusion of the original sources she used.)
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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  


At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings as often as I can manage it.    

There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I recommended it earlier and want to continue to do so.  Have fun discovering even more stories!