Hello!
While this forum was made mostly for Rejam to dabble in, all members are welcome (encouraged!) to contribute to The Black Dog Cycle, one of Matope's many epic oral traditions.
About The Cycle
The Black Dog Cycle is a series of stories passed down orally that form one long epic tale about a buck named Black Dog (or The Black Dog, depending on the teller).
The Black Dog Cycle may be sung, chanted, or told prose-style, depending on the teller, but in most cases the teller will choose a combination of all parts.
While almost all Kimeti know the stories contained in the Cycle loosely and can recite parts of it, very few know the entire Cycle, and in any case there is no single agreed-upon account, and the telling can vary widely from one Kimeti to another, including shuffling characters and places, changing the order of events, and altering physical descriptions. Due to the Cycle's oral tradition, very few aspects of any given story are concrete, with a few exceptions (noted below) and embellishments and editing are common, although some Kimeti--notably Legendaries, Couriers, and particularly keen Storytellers--are interested in forming one cohesive and perfect history.
The Black Dog Cycle also contains a number of smaller cycles, as demonstrated below.
Contributing to the Project
If you have even a bit of a story for any chapter of the Cycle, they can be posted in this forum. Please format your post titles thus:
Chapter # - Title of Story
For example:
Chapter 1 - The First Story
Chapter 3 - Complete version, abridged
Etc.
Don't worry about contradicting existing versions. That's part of the fun. Just stick to the loose timeline outlined below.
The History
Is the Black Dog Cycle fact or fiction? It's hard to say. Much like our world's Robin Hood, no one is even sure if Black Dog existed. It could be that all the stories are embellished versions of actual historical events, or they could all be bardic fantasies.
It is true that the latter parts of the Cycle especially are very bloody and wartorn, reflecting an embattled culture that seems very strange to most modern Kimeti. As such the stories of warriors and fights are told less and less as generations pass, as emphasis shifts to the cunning and artfulness of tricksters and strategizers. Some conflicts that resulted in dozens of death in early versions of the Cycle have come down through generations of increasingly-placid Kimeti until they consist largely of battles of wits or riddle contests.
Still, the Cycle, especially the last chapter, is extremely violent. These stories are treated with respect, and the figure of Tatterhide in particular is very popular despite her bloody character.
Interestingly, the Cycle can be loosely dated, as Legendaries do appear frequently to guide or assist the buck, but Matope herself does not figure save in some dream sequences. This suggests that the Cycle came into being or was heavily altered during the period just before the Legendaries began dying out.
The Chapters
The Cycle is composed of several chapters no matter the teller. They can each stand alone--even parts of them can stand alone--and a full telling of all of them end to end may take days on end, and is usually reserved for important festivals or to mark special occasions in a Kimeti's life.
chapter one - The Prologue
Of all the chapters, the Prologue changes the least in the telling.
In general form the Prologue describes how stories were once wild beasts, frightening, keeping secrets for themselves. Black Dog, a ferocious coal-black buck, found that they could be defeated and tamed, and though he had to shake some fiercely to control them (which is why some stories come to us in fragments), he eventually brought them all under control. The Prologue usually begins, "There once was a buck named Black Dog, and for hunting and fighting and beauty and running none could match him."
One story evaded him, however, and he pursued it for a period either of five days or five years, depending on the teller. In the latter case, the Prologue alone can comprise several hours of stories.
Upon catching the tale, Black Dog pins it to the ground and demands to hear its secrets. The story begins to whisper into Black Dog's ear his own story, beginning, usually, with the opening line of the Prologue, creating a circular tale.
chapter two - The Childhood Deeds of Black Dog
Chapter two is made up of a series of stories detailing Black Dog's childhood. He performs unrealistically heroic deeds from foalhood onwards. Generally these include a mass slaughter of crocodiles, and the catching of the first story, which is generally considered to be The Story of the Other Eggs (a story about other types of Kimeti which died out or ran away from the swamp), which he shakes to pieces.
Usually, chapter two includes a duet between Black Dog and a trio of does, who sing in unison. There is always a white doe and a black doe, and one who is sometimes said to be golden-coated, and sometimes scarlet. They foresee in turn that he will be mighty, that he will be famous, and that he will be handsome. Usually this section ends with the foal or colt's blood running so hot at the female attention that the water steams around him.
chapter three - The Mate of Black Dog
The golden or red doe from chapter two, who is almost never named, comes into play here in the form of Black Dog's mate.
Inevitably the chapter begins with a description of how desirable the beautiful and strong and clever Black Dog is as a mate. He issues a challenge to does, and whoever fulfills it will become his mate.
Typically (in perhaps 90% of retellings) he issues the challenge that the doe must make the stars in the sky dance. The golden/red doe succeeds by getting him tipsy on certain herbs, chasing him in circles until he is dizzy, and then kicking him in the forehead and telling him to look up. Realizing her wit and cleverness (and her beauty) he takes her as his mate.
In some versions of the tale the black and white does help their sister achieve her goal. In others, they are bitter and angry about it and launch a retaliation, which is sometimes the segue to the next chapter.
chapter four - Black Dog and the White Kimeti
In this chapter Black Dog's mate (or sometimes a male friend of whom he is extremely fond, or sometimes his children) falls deathly ill. Black Dog waits to challenge the White Kimeti (Matope's "Death" figure) to a fight to save his mate (or friend, or children).
The White Kimeti raises an army of dead Kimeti to fight for him, and a great war follows, in which Black Dog slaughters the enemies and eventually wins his case, either by force or by cunning, depending on the teller. Typically the White Kimeti agrees to leave the sick Kimeti alone if Black Dog will promise to help It with Its duties among the sinful and the greedy, which sets Black Dog up for a series of tasks avenging poor and abused Kimeti.
This chapter can be quite long, even when told alone. It usually includes a chorus version of a conversation between Black Dog and the White Kimeti, in which the storyteller recites Black Dog's parts and the White Kimeti's answers are chanted back to him by all the listeners. The White Kimeti speaks largely the same lines in each version, so this is easy to do despite varying accounts of the tale. Usually It speaks merely in yes or no answers, but frequently chants the lines, "Each bird that falls, each breath that stops, I see, I find, and you are no match for me."
chapter five - The Raising of Tatterhide
In this chapter Black Dog's famous daughter, Tatterhide (the Robin Hood of Matope, if Black Dog is the Hercules) is taught to hunt and fight and protect the innocent in a series of stories. These tales are lighthearted and are the most likely to be told alone, as each is independent of the other. Each functions rather like a morality tale, with a lesson to each, which Black Dog passes on to his daughter either intentionally or unintentionally. Tatterhide's appearance is, like her father's, well-established: a solid red doe, without a splash of any other colour on her, save for a black band about her face, her father's genes. This lends weight to the theory that Black Dog's mate was red-coated.
Chapter five is interesting for frequently making use of talking animals which personify certain attributes: patient catfish, cunning foxes, nervous mice, and tricky rabbits, for example. The rest of the Cycle is little concerned with such trivial touches, and has a much more somber tone.
chapter six - The Great War
The final chapter of the Cycle is also the longest and bloodiest, and the strangest to modern Kimeti. It tells a tale of vicious creatures from the sea that swarm upon the swamp to take the stories with them into the water, now that they were tamed.
Some of the Kimeti (for reasons mostly unexplained) range themselves on the side of the sea creatures (which have no species name, and are merely called exactly that, or the Ones from the Sea), and oddly, the battles described in this chapter are concerned largely with those between Kimeti. Historically it has been suggested that this chapter began as a series of recollections about a bloody civil war fought between Kimeti, which has since been toned down into a story about a traitor race siding with outsiders.
Tatterhide actually features more prominently in this chapter than her father, who makes a few token appearances to slaughter large amounts of foes or perform brilliant tactical maneuvers.
Between vicious fights, there are stories of battles of wits and espionage which are more accessible to modern audiences, although the slightly alien nature of war fascinates the Kimeti as well.