Week 12 Story: The Master and his Pupil

The Master and His Pupil 

There was once a man who was smarter than all those who surrounded him. He lived in the country to the north and knew all the languages that existed. It was his goal to know all of the mysteries of creation and he had succeeded. To store all of his information he created a big book bound by black calf and clasped with iron, it had iron corners and was chained to the table which was fastened to the floor. To be read the book it required an iron key that only the master knew the location of. The book contained all of the secrets of the spiritual world.  It told how many angels there were in heaven: and how they marched in their ranks, and sang in their quires, and what were their several functions, and what was the name of each great angel of might. And it told of the demons, how many of them there were, and what were their several powers, and their labors, and their names, and how they might be summoned, and how tasks might be imposed on them, and how they might be chained to be as slaves to man.  

The Master also had a pupil who was still young and brash. The pupil believed that he was smarter than the Master and wanted to take the place of the master and be the most powerful person in the world. The master saw the potential in his pupil but did not yet trust him with the power of the book so he wanted his pupil to learn and grow before trusting him with that power.

One day the master had to go out to another town for a mission and he had forgotten to lock the book and so while he was gone the pupil snuck into the room the book was kept and tried to say 'magic words' yet nothing happened. It was then he realized he needed to read from the book but when he looked at the book he could not understand anything that was on the page. It was written with red and blue ink, he put his finger on a line and spelled it through. 

The second he completed the line the room became full of darkness and the house trembled; a clap of thunder rolled through the door of the old room. Beelzebub the demon stood before him, a horrible form breathing fire. 

"Give me a task," said the demon with a voice like a roaring jet engine. 

The boy only trembled as his hair stood up on end. 

"Give me a task, or I shall strangle you!"

The boy could not speak however so the demon stepped towards him putting his hands on the boy's throat. The dingers burned his flesh as the demon repeated "Give me a task."

"Water the plant," gasped the boy pointing to a flower in the corner. 

Almost instantly the demon dropped the boy and disappeared from the room and appeared back with a barrel full of water on his back. He kept watering the plant until the room was filled with water and the boy drowned. 

When the master arrived and saw what had happened he banished the demon and mourned for the boy.


Bibliography


 English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Author's Note
I looked at this story the boy in the original was foolish but I didn't think that the master would pick a fool as a pupil so I wanted the boy to be young and dumb but power-hungry and decently intelligent but he was outshone by being impatient and not just he got unlucky. 

Comments

  1. Hey there,

    I think this could be a really great start for a story for your portfolio project! I like how you changed the character's personalities, which caused for different lessons to be learned throughout the story. I had few complaints, I just would love to read more! I think this story is so short and has so much potential! I love dialogue and I think that if you spent time adding details, that could really send this story over the top. Great job overall!

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  2. Hello,
    I enjoyed reading this story. I feel like a wise master and a talented but power-driven pupil is a very popular theme for many stories. I'm glad you decided to change the story up to that theme. It seems as if the pupil is still very foolish. Why didn't he run out of the room before it flooded? The master also doesn't seem to wise either. How could he forget to lock the most important book?

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  3. Hi!
    I don't remember reading the source story on this one but it reminds me of themes in other stories. The chained book immediately put me in mind of a book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. That book was also chained down, should never be read and caused some issues for those who did try to read it! The character in those novels came out a bit better overall than the boy in this one. Thank you for sharing, I enjoyed reading this and remembering other books I've read.
    -Eli

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