At the beginning of time when the Earth was very young, there was only day. The sun shone brightly and strongly all the time, everywhere.
In these days there lived a prince who had 3 servants. He loved to go fishing. Once when he was far out to sea, he met the daughter of the King Of The Ocean. They fell in love, and the daughter of the King Of The Ocean left her home and went to live with the Prince on the land.
For many years they lived happily, but the longer she spent in the bright light of the constant daytime, the more she became ill and got weaker and weaker.
When the Prince asked what was wrong, she replied:
“It is too bright for me here. I need the darkness of the deep, I need the cool shadows. But I am now too weak, and I cannot go back there.”
“Then we shall bring the shadows to you here my love” said the Prince. And he sent for his 3 servants, and charged them to seek out the King Of The Ocean, and ask him to give them some ocean shadows for his daughter to heal herself.
The 3 servants set off into the sea, and found the King Of The Ocean. He agreed to give them a bag of the deep sea shadows, but told them “this bag contains secrets that only an ocean dweller may understand. You may take it to my daughter, but it is for her and for her alone: no-one else is to open this bag.”
The servants took the bag and started on their long journey home. But they heard noises coming from the bag – noises that they had never heard before, and they became afraid.
“How do we know what is in this bag?” they said. “Perhaps it is dangerous. What if the King Of The Ocean has tricked us? We must peep into the bag, just a little bit, to make sure that we are safe.”
And so they opened the bag to peep in, and as they did the darkness of the deep sea, and all the noises of the nighttime, came flooding out and covered the world.
The daughter of the King Of The Ocean saw the bright sky swallowed up by the blackness. And she fell into a deep sleep.
But the world and all it's creatures had never known darkness. Nobody knew what to do and everyone was scared.
The Prince went to the daughter of the King Of The Ocean. “You must wake up my love!” he cried. “The world has gone dark and we do not know why”.
“Oh… I feel so much better” she said as she awoke and looked around. “But what has happened? This is the darkness of the deep sea. How can it be here?”
The 3 servants had arrived home by now, and they were very ashamed. “The darkness was in a bag” they explained, “but we were scared, so… we opened it. Just to peep. And, um… it got out… sorry.”
The daughter of the King Of The Ocean thought about this. “I cannot put the darkness back in the bag, for its magic is too powerful. But you, my Prince, cannot live without light.”And then she smiled. “I know what to do…”
And quick as a flash, she turned the 3 servants into monkeys, and she made them chase away the darkness. “They will chase the darkness for all time” she said. “They will chase it right across the sky and around the world and they will never stop”.
And so from that time on, day was followed by night. And in Brazil, every evening you can still hear the loud screeching of the monkeys as they chase the night across the sky.
Video summary
A beautifully animated tale from Brazil that playfully imagines how the night came to be.
It tells the story of three servants who disobeyed the King of the Ocean’s orders and released the deep-sea shadows into the daylight.
This short film invites children to think about curiosity, disobedience and to consider how we use narratives to imagine the earth’s phenomenon and origins.
Teacher Notes
This short film could be used to support the teaching of key literacy skills such as reading, writing and listening.
It could encourage pupils to explore decisions of characters, and examine their actions to understand their cultural belief, values, differences and similarities in everyday life.
It could also engage pupils in the way others see and imagine life and ask questions on what is familiar and unfamiliar.
This could be used in connection with learning about stories from other cultures, as well as in conjunction with teaching about traditional stories and fables to explore the differences or similarities in storytelling.
The tale could be incorporated into specific reading and writing exercises (e.g. pupils can write about a specific dramatic scene or a descriptive setting in the film). In addition, it could be used as part of creative writing exercises.
This short film will be relevant for teaching English at primary level.
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