Folk Tales/The Nightingale

The Nightingale appeared as a text based story on the Purple Moon Place website. It was featured on Viva’s secret pouch page. On the link to the story Viva says, "I heard lots of stories when I was in the treehouse..."

The Story
The Nightingale

A long time ago, soon after the world began, all the birds of the world were very much the same. One day, the great Bird Spirit decided upon a plan: she would paint the birds beautiful colors so that people would marvel as they flew in the sky above. So she told all the birds to gather by the great oak tree at dawn the next morning.

As the sun rose, the Bird Spirit brought out a wooden box full of fancy beaks and paints, and let each bird pick the ones they wanted. At the end of the day, she was tired but quite pleased as the sky filled with colorful birds.

All at once she heard a rustle in the tree above. “Oh!” said a voice, “I hope I’m not too late! I wasn’t able to get here sooner – please don’t forget me!”

It was the nightingale calling from the great oak tree. The Bird Spirit looked in her box and discovered that all the beautiful beaks and paints were gone! All that was left was a tiny speck of gold on one of her paint brushes. It was not enough to color even the tip of one wing feather.

“Open your beak,” the Bird Spirit said.

The nightingale was very sad. The paint was bitter on her tongue – and she was still as drab and plain as ever! She opened her mouth to spit out the speck of paint and suddenly a beautiful sound came from her throat. She sang all night long, and the people gathered around the tree to hear her.

After that, the nightingale never wished for bright feathers or a fancy beak, for she treasured the gift that was given to her. And she sings the same sweet song to this very day.