The Man with the Iron Head
Teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Fran Stallings, a storyteller based in Oklahoma, works on a weekly basis with a local 2nd grade class (7- to 8-year-old children). Their classteacher, Mr C, uses the story she tells as the basis for an amazing amount of his teaching, in particular in the STEM subjects.
Fran has posted some details of this work on the Storytell listserv. She has generously given permission for me to publish some of them here – until such time as she creates pages on her own website.
Below are some of them.
The Man with the Iron Head
For our last regular Tuesday storytelling session of the year, I told the second graders my little brothers’ favorite story, “The Man with the Iron Head” (skeletal synopsis below). I have usually only told it to older grades and even high school students; but I figured Mr C’s kids had developed a sophisticated understanding of story form and motifs, and their responses showed that I was right.
This long märchen has many episodes and invites pauses to consider “Is this the end? Why not? What could happen next? Why do you think so?”
Mr C’s second graders were as analytical and astute as any older group I’ve worked with. They spotted unresolved plot elements, characters about whom they wanted to hear more, and intriguing items that had not yet played a role. They made comparisons with motifs in stories we did earlier, and saw how they played out differently here. It was a lively and very interactive session! By the time we had reached the traditional happy ending, they were brimming with more questions. “Where did that character come from? How was he related to this other character? Where did she get the …? Why was he motivated to …” etc etc. Their ideas came spilling out. I explained that Prequels are stories that answer questions like this, and they could compose some of their own. And Sequels are stories that describe the further adventures of the character, which they might also like to invent.
Mr C told me on Thursday that they had thrown themselves into oral rehearsal of Prequels and Sequels after jotting down some of their ideas in picture or word form. I look forward to seeing some pictures and hearing some tales when I return this week for our last visit. This story may have been my little brothers’ bedtime favorite because it takes so long to tell! But it has become a favorite interactive story for me to use with a single classroom because it serves so many folktale tidbits for them to chew on.
Synopsis
Miska, eldest son of a poor farm family, left home to seek work but could only get a job on an old man’s farm. At the end of a year he was paid one walnut, with the warning not to open it until he got home. Ashamed at this low pay, and hungry on his long walk home, Miska opened it and found hundreds of tiny farm animals who grew to normal size as they leaped about and escaped: a fortune in livestock, lost.
But The Man With The Iron Head rounded them up for him in return for a promise that Miska would never marry, on penalty of death.
Home again, rich: happy ever after?
Papa arranged Miska’s marriage to a girl from a neighboring village and promised that a race horse would be saddled and ready in case TMWTIH came, which he did.
Miska escaped, long ride through the Hungarian prairies, spent the night with an old woman who in the morning gave him a colorful silk scarf and twisted roll of bread.
Ditto second day/night/morning, third.
But on the third morning the third old woman also told him his way would be blocked by a wall of fire which would open when he beat it three times with the three scarves; also throw the rolls over his shoulder.
He did; bread turned into giant dogs: Sharp Ear, Weigh Much, Strong Arm.
Inside the wall of fire he found a woman and her daughter his age; told his story; they let him stay if he would work.
Happy ever after?
Miska and girl were friendly but she worried she couldn’t trust him if his wild story was a lie. She tested it by taking the three scarves to the wall of fire. They worked!
But TMWTIH was waiting, came storming in, she couldn’t stop him.
However Sharp Ear heard her shouts, Miska climbed a tree. TMWTIH grabbed the trunk and started shaking him down but Weigh Much jumped on TMWTIH’s head, squashed flat. Strong Arm threw TMWTIH so high, nothing came down but dust.
So Miska was free to return home, to his waiting bride… Girl gave him a ring to remember her by.
Happy ever after?
Miska’s family were delighted at his safe return but had sad news: that village girl had married another.
No longer running for his life, he couldn’t get back to the other girl.
Thinking of her, he twisted her ring on his finger: she appeared next to him!
NOW happy ever after.
But with some threads hanging, as you can see.
I learned “The Man with the Iron Head” from My Book House (1937 edition, vol 7, pp 11-19) and later found the editor’s source, “The Iron-Headed Man” in Magyar Fairytales from Old Hungarian Legends (Nandor Pogåny, Dutton 1930).
Below are some more of Fran’s posts
They are in no particular order, but serve to show what is possible.
Visit Fran’s website
to find more about her wide range of work.
In particular, explore the Earth Teller Tales, where she shares many articles about teaching natural science through storytelling.
Fran’s article The Web of Silence: Storytelling’s Power to Hypnotize is a deep exploration of many aspects of the storytelling experience, including the storytelling trance. It also offers great insight into the whole art itself.
Fran can be contacted here.
Further resources relating to storytelling in schools
- Science teaching: Hawthorn Press
- Generally using storytelling in schools: Storytelling schools
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
Go here to receive an e-mail notification when new tales are added
Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling