THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES - A Legend of Hercules: Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories - Issue 347

By Anon E. Mouse

ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 347
In this 347th issue of the Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the Greek Fairy Tale "THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES”.

Have you ever hear of the golden apples, that grew in the garden of the Hesperides? Ah, those were such apples as would bring a great price, by the bushel, if any of them could be found growing in the orchards of nowadays! But there is not, I suppose, a graft of that wonderful fruit on a single tree in the wide world. Not so much as a seed of those apples exists any longer.
And, even in the old, old, half-forgotten times, before the garden of the Hesperides was overrun with weeds, a great many people doubted whether there could be real trees that bore apples of solid gold upon their branches. All had heard of them, but nobody remembered to have seen any. Children, nevertheless, used to listen, open-mouthed, to stories of the golden apple-tree, and resolved to discover it, when they should be big enough. Adventurous young men, who desired to do a braver thing than any of their fellows, set out in quest of this fruit. Many of them returned no more; none of them brought back the apples. No wonder that they found it impossible to gather them! It is said that there was a dragon beneath the tree, with a hundred terrible heads, fifty of which were always on the watch, while the other fifty slept.
But then the adventure was undertaken by a hero who had enjoyed very little peace or rest since he came into the world. At the time he was wandering through the land with a mighty club in his hand, and a bow and quiver slung across his shoulders. He was dressed in the skin of the biggest and fiercest lion that had ever been seen, and which he himself had killed; although, on the whole, he was kind, generous and noble. Even so, there was a good deal of the lion's fierceness in his heart for his name was Hercules (also known as Heracles).
Everywhere he went he asked if anyone had news of the garden or if they could give directions to it.
Did Hercules ever get directions to the garden of the Hesperides? Did he ever find his way there, when so many before him had failed? If he did get to the garden was he able to gain entry and did he get to pick a golden apple? So many questions……..
To find the answers to these questions, and others you may have, you will have to download and read this story to find out!

Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories".

Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps.

33% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.
INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abela Publishing
• Release date: Jun 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9788826445274

Book preview

THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES

A Fairy Tale

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

Published By

Abela Publishing, London

2017

THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES

Typographical arrangement of this edition

©Abela Publishing 2017

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Abela Publishing,

London, United Kingdom

2017

Baba Indaba Children’s Stories

ISSN 2397-9607

Issue 347

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www.AbelaPublishing.com

An Introduction to Baba Indaba

Baba Indaba, pronounced Baaba Indaaba, lived in Africa a long-long time ago. Indeed, this story was first told by Baba Indaba to the British settlers over 250 years ago in a place on the South East Coast of Africa called Zululand, which is now in a country now called South Africa.

In turn the British settlers wrote these stories down and they were brought back to England on sailing ships. From England they were in turn spread to all corners of the old British Empire, and then to the world.

In olden times the Zulu’s did not have computers, or iPhones, or paper, or even pens and pencils. So, someone was assigned to be the Wenxoxi Indaba (Wensosi Indaaba) – the Storyteller. It was his, or her, job to memorise all the tribe’s history, stories and folklore, which had been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. So, from the time he was a young boy, Baba Indaba had been apprenticed to the tribe’s Wenxoxi Indaba to learn the stories. Every day the Wenxoxi Indaba would narrate the stories and Baba Indaba would have to recite the story back to the Wenxoxi Indaba, word for word. In this manner he learned the stories of the Zulu nation.

In time the Wenxoxi Indaba grew old and when he could no longer see or hear, Baba Indaba became the next in a long line of Wenxoxi Indabas. So fond were the children of him that they continued to call him Baba