Mowgli
From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
Mowgli is a fictional feral child character created by Rudyard Kipling.
His first appearance was in the short story "In the Rukh" (1893) where he appears as an adult. This was shortly followed by "Mowgli's Brothers", which became the first of three Mowgli stories in The Jungle Book (1894). Five more stories about Mowgli appeared in The Second Jungle Book (1895).
The Mowgli stories were collected in chronological order in The Works of Rudyard Kipling Volume VII (1907), and subsequently in All the Mowgli Stories (1933).
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[edit] Other authors
Pamela Jekel's The Third Jungle Book (1992) is a collection of new Mowgli stories in a fairly accurate pastiche of Kipling's style.
Maxim Antinori's novella Hunting Mowgli (2001), although marketed as a children's book, is really a dark psychological drama in which Mowgli is pitted against a human hunter.
[edit] Adaptations
There have been several film, radio and television adaptations of The Jungle Book, nearly always concentrating on Mowgli's adventures, but almost invariably changing the story until Kipling might not have recognised the result. This is especially true of the Disney cartoon version (1967), which uses the names and basic appearances of Kipling's characters but changes almost everything else. There have also been some comic book versions which are generally more faithful to the original story.
In most of the film and television adaptations the Mow of Mowgli is pronounced to rhyme with go, although Kipling explicitly stated it should rhyme with cow.
The film, TV and comic adaptations always depict Mowgli wearing a loincloth or similar garment. In the original stories he is always naked except while living with humans.
[edit] Original Story
- Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In the Rukh tells how Gisborne of the Indian Forestry Service, hires a young man named Mowgli who has remarkable hunting and tracking skills. Gisborne later discovers the reason for this - Mowgli was raised by animals in the jungle.
The stories in the Jungle Books trace Mowgli's early life from infancy to adolescence.
Lost in the jungle as a naked toddler, he is adopted by wolves who name him Mowgli ("Frog") because of his hairlessness, and tutored by Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther, in defiance of the lame tiger Shere Khan who claims the "man-cub" as his prey.
At the age of 7 Mowgli is abducted by a troop of monkeys Bagheera and Baloo rescue him with the help of Kaa the python, who also becomes his friend and ally.
When Mowgli is about 11 Shere Khan turns most of the wolfpack against him and they depose their old leader Akela. Mowgli saves Akela by driving away Shere Khan and his followers using fire stolen from a human village, but realises he can no longer live with the wolves and sorrowfully leaves the jungle to rejoin humanity.
Arriving at a more distant village he is adopted by the bereaved Messua and her husband, who think he may be their long-lost son Nathoo. The villagers teach Mowgli such human customs as ploughing, money, caste divisions and clothing, none of which impress him. While herding buffalo outside the village, he also keeps in touch with the wolves who tell him Shere Khan is still planning to kill him.
The village hunter Buldeo hopes to catch the lame tiger in order to claim a reward for his skin, but Mowgli and his wolf-friends ambush Shere Khan in a ravine and stampede the buffalo, trampling the tiger to death. Mowgli skins the tiger, and his wolves prevent Buldeo from claiming the skin.
Mowgli assumes the matter is settled, but Buldeo returns to the village, accuses Mowgli of sorcery for being in league with wolves, and turns the villagers against him and his adoptive parents. By the time Mowgli returns with the buffalo the villagers are up in arms and they drive him away. Mowgli returns to the jungle with the tiger-skin and dances on it, singing of his anger and confusion.
Driven out of both the wolfpack and the human village, Mowgli vows to hunt alone except for his closest wolf friends. While doing so, however, he learns that Buldeo is planning to kill Messua and her husband for fostering him, so with the aid of Bagheera and the wolves he rescues them and sets them on the road to another village.
He then persuades Hathi the elephant to harry the jungle creatures into a series of stampedes which destroy the village crops and eventually drive the people away. The elephants destroy what is left of the village and the jungle consumes the remains.
Soon afterward the wolfpack's territory is invaded by dhole (wild dogs) and Mowgli must find a strategy to defeat them. By stirring up a colony of wild bees Mowgli is able to thin the dhole-pack enough to turn the tide in the subsequent battle. The wolfpack is saved, but Akela dies of his wounds after telling Mowgli that he must soon return to humanity.
Sure enough, the 17-year-old Mowgli finds himself becoming restless for reasons he does not understand and runs aimlessly through the jungle until he hears a familiar voice coming from a village hut. The voice turns out to be Messua's, now widowed and raising a small son. Messua is astonished that the boy she once knew is now a tall and beautiful young man, and she begs him to stay and help raise his new brother. Mowgli is torn between Messua and the jungle, but his animal friends persuade him to return to humanity, taking the wisdom of the jungle with him.
[edit] See also
- Mowgli and The Jungle Book at Wikipedia
