This is a handmade linocut print featuring woodland animals inspired by a folktale from Ukraine, retold by beloved children’s book author Jan Brett in her book The Mitten. The artwork includes various woodland animals: a bear, elk, duck, fox, marten, porcupine, rabbit and raccoon all trying to fit inside a mitten!
There is a heartwarming folktale about greediness and its limitations and how foresight and generosity can prevent future catastrophe. Versions of this story can be found in both Ukrainian folklore and in Abenaki folklore (from the Northeast Woodlands of the United States), two vastly different cultures and landscapes.
In the Ukrainian version, retold by Jan Brett in her children’s book The Mitten, some forest animals find a lost mitten and they all try to fit inside to stay warm only to discover they cannot all fit. The story is about limited resources and how important it is, given this reality, to extend kindness and generosity to others. In the Abenaki version, retold by Joseph Bruchac in his book Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children, the main character Gluscabi* and his grandmother Woodchuck are hungry, so he goes hunting with his grandmother’s magical bag made from her very own hairs. However, he is greedy and deceives the animals telling them the world is ending and the only way they can survive is to get in his bag. In fear, the animals all run into his bag, but when he returns home his grandmother is upset and says he must keep only the animals he needs to survive and release the rest for the children of the future. Both stories are about the right thing to do when things are scarce. In the Ukrainian version, it is about not packing the mitten too tightly and in the Abenaki version it is, similarly, about not taking in excess of one’s needs.
I love the idea of a collective consciousness: enduring patterns of thought that exist across cultural divides revealing universal themes in the human psyche, and our deep ancient connection to each other. Great creative thinkers like psychologist Carl Jung and mythologist Joseph Campbell speak about the idea of a collective consciousness, and how the frequent existence of myths that share similar archetypes and storylines despite having originated from distant geographical locations and different cultures shows there is more than just coincidence at play. There is an undercurrent of universal themes that show up in folktales and fairytales that are told in different languages from different countries and the mystery and magic of this synchronicity deserves our attention.
I believe folktales and fairytales have been told and retold time and time again over generations for a reason: because those who came before us must have felt the stories contained wisdom that would be valuable for future generations. Shared wisdom like the importance of sharing resources when times are scarce is one that. transcends culture and resonates universally. Though our ancestors were not faced with the same environmental or economic or political problems that we are confronted with today, humans have always had to face scarcity of resources. Perdita Finnn talks about the importance of listening to the ancestors in her book Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World. She speaks about the valuable role ancestors can play in helping us handle the overwhelming problem of climate change. She says, “What if the dead themselves hold the answer to that question? After all they have borne witness to at least six mass extinctions over the course of the planet. They have endured ice ages and floods, super eruptions and genocides. What if we consulted and listened to them? What if we trusted them to guide us forward?” Her words make sense in the context of folktales because they are the voices of our ancestors!
The carved and inked block of linoleum next to the actual linocut print.
In both the Ukrainian and Abenaki versions of this story, greed and disregard for others’ is disfavored over thinking about others’ well-being even though the latter choice comes at a sacrifice, and even though the one extending generosity may never meet, be known or acknowledged by those who benefit from their genoerosity. In fact, in the Abenaki version, the Grandmother character is thinking many generations ahead of herself, and the story is framed in such a way that the reader is implicated in the mind of the Grandmother character. She made the choice to include us when she thought about how much she needed. . .because today it is possible to witness the abundance of the earth. After reading a story like this, I feel moved to act with the same gesture of generosity towards future generations. Amidst climate change and the scarcity of resources we are faced with, this folktale compels me to ask the question: “Am I acting like Gluscabi, taking more than what I really need from the earth to survive?”, and “What can I leave behind for the children of the future?”
It matters less where the folktale originated. . .what is more important is how the teaching resonated for people in two vastly different landscapes and that they honored and retold it year after year so that their descendants could benefit. I love how this shared value of thinking of future generations fosters collective empathy, cooperation, and a sense of interconnectedness and continuity between the generations motivating us to resolve our conflicts today in order to strive towards a common goal for the future. It brings me great joy to retell this ancient folktale by designing and printing this handcrafted linocut to decorate a living space, children’s room or community space in hopes that its timeless wisdom can be remembered.
Note * Gluscabi is the benevolent culture hero of the Wabanaki people (a Confederacy of eastern Algonquian nations: the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot)
References:
Brett, Jan (1996). The Mitten. G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.
Bruchac, Joseph (1997). Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children. Fulcrum Publishing.
Finn, Perdita (2023). Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World. Running Press Adult.
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