The Girl Who Loved the North Wind
About our Spoken Story Series
Because of the needs of this time —when our normal outgoing lives have changed, ONE is offering a series of told stories for your enjoyment, healing, unwinding, and for you to lean into the ancestral wisdom passed through tales, myths, and legends.
Our storyteller, April Thanhauser, is a member of the ONE visioning council and a life-long lover of folk and fairy tales. She tells us:
“Stories, like hearth fires and campfires have always brought people together —for sharing wisdom, laughter, tears, and comfort. No matter where our people came from, stories are part of our heritage. The traditional tales I will be telling originate from many different parts of the world, but please accept them as a gift from the old ones of our shared human culture.”
About this Episode
This story, “The Girl Who Loved the North Wind” came to me through the wonderful book Body Eloquence by story-teller-teacher-author-healer Nancy Mellon. This special book not only affirms the healing, life-giving power of stories and story-telling, it also offers specific stories for particular body organs and systems. “The Girl Wo Loved the North Wind” is given as a medicine story for the Lungs.
Another title for the story is “Madrone Girl” (Parabola 1995). Madrone is a magical and very beautiful tree native to the Northwest coast of NA, who peels off one layer of her bark to reveal an inner layer of skin that is satiny smooth. Thus a fitting name for the Wild Girl of this story, who learns a song of Power from her grandmother, but must find her own way of singing it to call her lover.
There are so many ways to love the winds!
And a recommendation: Across cultures there are tales of people (sometimes heroes) trying to control the wind. And often the consequences are not so good. Joseph Bruchal tells such a teaching story in a kindly -humorous way, relating the story of the hero Gluscabe or Gluscombe and the Wind Eagle. You can hear him tell this story with his son, in both English and Abenaki here: Joe & Jesse Bruchac - Gluskabe and the Wind Eagle - YouTube
Listen to other Stories:
Snake Magic is a story of a young woman who receives her father’s dying blessing but is violently chased from home by her greedy brother.
“12 Wild Swans” is a story of a sister working to rescue her twelve brothers who were turned into swans.
Thomas the Rhymer, in honor of Beltane, the magical cross-quarter day and joyful spring festival of the Celtic Year, we offer the story of “Thomas the Rhymer.”
“East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, is a Northern story of a girl who must save an enchanted prince.
“The Magic Hummingbird”, tells the story of a drought, a famine, two children, and a magical hummingbird.
“The Wonderful Healing Leaves”, tells the story of an unlikely hero who must secure healing leaves for the king from the land of no return.
“Xueda and Yinlin”, tells the adventures of two courageous young people who seek a cure for the mysterious illness which has stricken their village.
"Picking Mountain Pears", a traditional Japanese folktale, tells the adventures of three brothers who undertake a quest for the mountain pears to help their beloved mother heal from a mysterious illness.
