Whale: Any of various marine mammals having flippers, a tail with horizontal flukes, and one of two blowholes for breathing. Any of the larger members of this group, such as a blue whale or a humpback whale, in contrast to the dolphins and porpoises.
Many of us know the whale from the biblical story of Jonah and the Whale, which has helped characterize in the popular mind the notion of a figure being caught in the belly of the beast. While whales are monolithic creatures, and they roam the waters like behemoth ocean spirits, they are not always monstrous devourers of men.
Fairy Tales: The Brothers Grimm have a story in their large volumes of works known as The Three Sisters. The tale is about a king who pawns off his three children for treasure. One memorable creature in the story is a whale-prince. Paraphrased from the The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Jack Zipes;
The Three Sisters
Once there was a king who spent through the entire fortune of his kingdom. He was forced to go hunting and foraging in the nearby forest like an ordinary man when all the money was gone. While he was there he disturbed the many magical wildlife creatures that dwelt in the forest. On his first visit, he was confronted by an angry bear who found him sitting and eating potatoes beneath the tree where his honey pot was stored. The bear was about to kill the man when the king pleaded with the creature not to eat him and offered his eldest daughter in exchange for his life. The bear agreed to this and the King escaped the forest and headed back to his home. He believed the bear would have no chance at entering the castle and he locked his daughter away in a tower so the creature could not get to her. But the angry bear did not show up at the gates of the king's home as a ravenous beast, instead the creature appeared as a rich prince drawn by a horse and carriage, clad with soldiers dressed all in gold. Before the king could realize what was happening, he saw his daughter who had left her locked chambers climbing into the prince's carriage where he whisked her away. And so the king bid farewell to his daughter who had been given away to an angry bear. Not long after her departure, the king received a chest filled with one hundred pieces of gold.
The king made merry with his new riches and spent them heartily. Soon all the money was gone and like before, he was forced to head back into the forest to feed himself. He took with him a prized falcon that he owned, who flew farther than the king could follow and the creature wound up in the sky over the dark forest, far from where the king would venture himself. When the bird returned back to the king, it was followed by an angry eagle who did not like the bird flying in it's woods. The king tried to spear the bird, but the eagle broke his weapon and asked why his bird had disturbed his kingdom. He demanded the king's second daughter as payment for his intrusion, to which the king out of fear, agreed. And like before, the second daughter was whisked away by a wild creature in the form of a man, who had approached the girl on the lawn of the castle as a handsome knight accompanied by his parade of armored warriors. She left with him and the king was in sorrow after her departure. But not long after, two golden eggs weighing one hundred pounds each were dropped on the ruler's lawn. And the king was rich again for a time.
When all the money was spent and the king found himself poor again, he was forced to leave the castle again in search of food. He did not desire to hunt in the forest, or the skies, instead he decided he would go fishing. He headed to a pond with a net that had been woven by his third daughter and he cast his net into the water. To his success, he caught many red-speckled flounders on the first try, but his net would not emerge from the water. After having tried many times to drag the net out from the pond, a whale finally emerged and threatened to gobble up the king for fishing in it's waters. At the sight of the humongous jaws of the whale, the king offered his third daughter in exchange for his life, to which the whale agreed. The king was saddened that he had consigned his last child, his youngest and most beautiful daughter to another beast. But there was nothing he could do about it. One day when the young princess was out fetching water from a well, she was approached by a coach with six white horses and men dressed in silver. One of the men was a prince and was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life, he asked her for a glass of water from the well. When she offered the man water, he embraced the princess and carried her off in his coach. The last of the king's children left the castle, and she rode away with the prince to the pond where the king had first encountered the whale. Not soon after she had left, the king received several sacks filled with treasure. The whale had gathered the most precious pearls from the floor of the ocean and brought them to the king. He had no more children, but he was rich beyond measure with the number of pearls the whale had collected for him. The Queen having lost all three of her children, wept uncontrollably, and she shed more tears than all the pearls in the ocean combined.
To the surprise of the King and Queen, they unexpectedly gave birth to another young child, a baby boy. The young boy would grow up to seek vengeance against all the beasts of the forest, sky, and ocean whom had stolen his three sisters. He would go on to discover each of his siblings living trapped lives of luxury with every one of the beasts. His eldest sister was living in a bear cave and had given birth to two bear cubs. The second sister was living in an eagle's nest and he found her warming the eggs of the bird while the eagle was out flying. The third sister was living in a cottage under the sea made out of crystal which the whale swam repeatedly around in circles keeping guard of her. Six days out of the week the girls were forced to live in these conditions, but every week on the seventh day, each of these dominions was changed into a palace with subjects, and each beast was changed back into their true forms, a handsome prince. And so the young boy could not break any of these enchantments or retrieve either of his sisters.
One day, he came across a raging bull in the forest. When he slayed the bull, another animal sprouted from inside the belly of the beast, it was a bird whom he pursued, the bird while in flight dropped a golden egg into the pond. The whale in the pond caught the egg and spat it back up on the beaches near the pond where the young man waited. When he cracked open the egg, he found a key inside. The young man found the gate to which the key fit, and he unlocked it. He was transported to a place of seven bright rooms all with closed doors. Having searched each of the rooms, he found in the seventh one a young maiden asleep. He woke up the beautiful, sleeping maiden after shattering a piece of slate on the ground. Once she had awoken, it was revealed that she was the sister to all three brothers who had been altered into beasts. And now that she was awake, the spell had been broken and the three beasts all changed back into men, the bear, the eagle, and the whale all transformed back into princes, and the three sisters lived happily ever after.
Indigenous Myth: In the work by Lewis Spence, Myths of the North American Indians, there is written of the Chinooks engaged in a number of competitions, one including the hunting of whales. From the story of The Four Tests;
"People suggested that the two chiefs should engage in a whale-catching contest. This was agreed to, and the Supernatural chief's wife, after warning them, placed Blue Jay and Robin under her armpits to keep them quiet. As they descended to the beach, she said to her brother: "Four whales will pass you, but do not harpoon any until the fifth appears.
Robin did as he as bid, but the woman had a hard time in keeping the curious Blue Jay hidden. The four whales passed, but the young chief took no heed. Then the fifth slid by. He thrust his harpoon deep into its blubber, and cast it ashore. The Supernatural chief was unsuccessful in his attempts, and so the Chinooks won again. One the result being known Blue Jay could no longer be restrained, and, falling from under the woman's arm, he was drowned."
Another tale included by Spence is the story of a figure known as the whale-catcher;
The Whale-catcher;
"She then called upon a dog which was gambolling close at hand.
"Take this dog," she siad to the Crow. "It belongs to your grand-nephew. When you come near the shore say, 'Catch a whale, dog,' and see what happens."
The Crow bade farewell to her niece, and, re-entering her canoe, steered for the world of mortals again. The dog lay quietly in the stern. When about half-way across the Crow recollected her niece's advice.
"Catch a whale, good dog," she cried encouragingly. The dog arose, and at that moment a whale crossed the path of the canoe. The dog sank his teeth in the great fish, and the frail bark rocked violently.
"Hold him fast, good fellow!" cried the Crow excitedly. "Hold him fast!" But the canoe tossed so dangerously and shipped so much water than in a great fright she bade the dog let go. He did so, and lay down in the stern again.
The Crow arrived at the world of men no more, and after landing turned round to call her wonderful dog ashore. But no trace of him was visible. He had disappeared.
Once more the Crow gathered many roots and plants, taking especial care to collect a good supply of the sort the Supernatural People were fond of, and gathering only a small basket of potentilla. For the second time she crossed over to the land of the Divine Beings, who, on espying her succulent cargo, devoured it at once. She carried the potentilla roots to her niece, and when in her house noticed the dog she had received and lost. Her niece informed her that she should not have ordered the animal to seize the whale in the mid-ocean, but should have waited until she was nearer the land. The Crow departed once more, taking the dog with her.
When they approached the land of men the Crow called to the animal to catch a whale, but it stirred not. Then the Crow poured some water over him, and he started up and killed a large whale, the carcass of which drifted on to the beach, when the people came down and cut it up for food."
Lewis Spence shared a number of stories about the character of the Thunderer and his son-in-law. In one story there is told of the young man's determination to prove his abilities to his father-in-law while whale catching, from the story of Storm-Raising;
"Father says you may look at him tomorrow when he catches whales." He followed his wife back to the valley and washed his face. Immediately he had done so the storm abated. Going up to his father-in-law, he said: "Tomorrow I shall go down to the beach, and you shall see me catching whales." Then the Thunderer and he rebuilt their hut. On the following morning they went down to the sea-shore together. The young man cast his net into the sea. After a little while a whale entered the net. The youth quickly pulled the net toward him, reached for the whale, and flung it at the feet of his father-in-law. Thunderer was amazed,and called to him: "Ho, ho, my son-in-law, you are just as I was when I was a young man."
Ritual & Custom: James Frazer in his work The Golden Bough writes of the customs of tribes to fast and abstain before the whale hunt:
"Thus the Indians of Nootka Sound prepared themselves for catching whales by observing a fast for a week, during which they ate very little, bathed in the water several times a day, sang, and rubbed their bodies, limbs and faces with shells and bushes till they looked as if they had been severely torn with briars. They were likewise required to abstain from any commerce with their women for the like period, this last condition being considered indispensable to their success. A chief who failed to catch a whale has been known to attribute his failure to a breach of chastity on the part his his men."
"Rules of the same sort are, or were formerly, observed by Malagasy whalers. For eight days before they went to sea the crew of a whaler used to fast, abstaining from women and liquor, and confessing their most secret faults to each other; and if any man was found to have sinned deeply, he was forbidden to share in the expedition."
From The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, he writes of a personal experience upon discovering the bones and fossils of a whale:
Imaginative Description of Nature
The Whale
The discovery of the fossilized remains of a whale gives rise to reflections on the transitoriness of even the strongest creature. Like a whirling wind scouring through a sandy and hollow valley which with speeding course drives into its vortex everything that opposes its furious course...
Not otherwise does the northern blast whirl round in its tempestuous progress...
Nor does the tempestuous sea roar so loud, when the northern blast dashes it in foaming waves between Scylla and Charybdis; nor Stromboli nor Mount Etna when their pent-up sulphurous flames send and burst open the mountain fulminating stones and earth mingled together in the issuing flames. Nor when Mount Etna's inflamed caverns vomiting the ill-restrained element and thrusting it back to its own region, driving before it whatever obstacle withstands its impetuous rage...
And drawn on by my eager desire, anxious to see a great magnitude of varied and strange shapes made by formative nature, having wandered for some distance among over-hanging rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern before which for a time I remained stupefied having been unaware of its existence, my back bent and my left hand supported on my knee while with my right I made a shade over my lowered and contracted eyebrows. And repeatedly bending first one way and then another, to see whether I could discern anything inside, from this I was prevented by the deep darkness within. And after remaining there for a time, suddenly there arose within me two emotions, fear and desire - fear pf the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there might by any marvelous thing therein...
O powerful and once-living instrument of formative nature, thy great strength not availing thee thou must needs abandon thy tranquil life to obey the law which God and time gave to creative nature. To thee availed not the branching, sturdy dorsal fins wherewith pursuing thy prey tho wast wont to plough thy way, tempestuously tearing open the briny waves with thy breast.
Oh, how many a time the terrified shoals of dolphins and big tuna fish were seen to flee before thy insensate fury, and thou lashing with swift, branching fins and forked tail, didst create in the sea mist and sudden tempest with great buffeting and submersion of ships: with great wave thou didst heap ip the uncovered shores with terrified and desperate fishes which escaping from thee, were left high and dry when the sea abandoned them, and became the plenteous and abundant spoil of the neighboring people.
O time, consumer of things, by turning them into thyself thou givest to the taken lives new and different habitations.
O time, swift despoiler of created things, how many kings, how many peoples hast thou undone, how many changes of states and of circumstances have followed since the wondrous form of this fish dies here in this cavernous and winding recess. Now destroyed by time thou liest patiently in this closed place with bones despoiled and bare serving as a support and prop for the mountain placed over thee.
Popular Fiction: In the story of Pinocchio, the evil character and villain known as Lornenzini is the owner of a theater and a circus where he tempts and tortures small children into his corrupt schemes and operations, he is also shown transformed into a monstrous whale where he has swallowed up Pinnochio's maker and father Gypetto.
In the book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the whale is mentioned as an unexpected part of the intergalactic journey taken once the planet earth has been destroyed. While exploring space, the characters discover there are many more planets that are similar to earth, and it is revealed to audiences that there is a masterful creator behind all the designs of the planets. The whale as an unpredictable aspect of the author's story, and as part of their world-building;
"Another thing that got forgotten was the fact that against all probability a sperm whale had suddenly been called into existence several miles above the surface of an alien planet.
And since this is not a naturally tenable position for a whale, this poor innocent creature had very little time to come to terms with its identity as a whale before it then had to come to terms with not being a whale any more."
In the second film, Avatar 2: The Way of Water, the character Lo'ak helps a Tulkan whale who has been speared with a harpoon, after the creature has saved his life.