Week 11 Story: Two Old Men and the Sea

Author's Note: The story I chose to adapt for this week is that of "Kanagssuaq." In this story, an Inuit seal hunter, Kanagssuaq, goes out in a winter storm to hunt for his family. There he happens across a great fisherman, Kiliteraq. The ice where Kiliteraq usually hunted was faring poorly, so he had wandered over to where Kanagssuaq was. An intensification of the storm prevents Kiliteraq from having any success there either, so Kanagssuaq give him part of his own catch to take back. Some time later, Kiliteraq finds Kanagssuaq and gives him a set of ornate hunting equipment as a thank you.

My grandfather and his family was from a Greek fishing village in Anatolia. I felt this story was the perfect tale to adapt to that setting. Beyond that, the general plot of the story is relatively unchanged.

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Elias was a good fisherman, not great, but good. He never brought in amazing catches, preferring to stick with easier prey like sea bass or hake, but he was reliable. He never came back empty handed, and his village appreciated him for it.

It came to pass that one winter, there was a particularly terrible storm in the Mediterranean. Elias went out to fish as usual. People needed to eat, after all. In addition to that, however, Elias also hoped that he might run into a fisherman by the name of Dimitrios. Unlike himself, Dimitrios was a great fisherman, renowned for the magnificent swordfish and tuna he was seemingly always catching. Elias knew that Dimitrios would certainly be one of the only fisherman other than himself brave or crazy enough to set out to sea in this torrential downpour and figured if he was ever going to run into him, it would probably be now. In the meantime, Elias had more pressing matters: catching fish. He rowed his boat out to his usual spot and got right to casting his nets.

As it just so happened, Dimitrios was out fishing that day, but he wasn't having much luck. For whatever reason, storm related or otherwise, the fish just weren't biting so he decided to try his luck a bit closer to shore from his usual deep sea grounds. As Dimitrios relocated to his new spot, he found Elias already there, hauling in his second of two nets of fish. The two greeted each other cordially, Dimitrios explaining the situation he was in and Elias assuring him that he was perfectly welcome to try his luck here. No sooner had Dimitrios cast his line, however, than a great wave arose, seemingly out of nowhere, and came crashing down over the two fishermen. 

Letting the water rush over them, both men breathed a sigh of relief as they opened their eyes to find themselves unharmed and still on their boats. Just then, a second wave hit. Elias opened his eyes yet again and looked in horror to see that Dimitrios was no longer standing on his ship. As he brought his own boat around to look for him, he heard a voice call out from below. Spotting Dimitrios clinging to the side of his boat, Elias reached a hand down and helped him up.

Dimitrios thanked Elias, but mumbled to himself, "What a fool I am, I've caught nothing, and now I've lost my rod!"

Elias was quick to respond, "Here, you can have one of my nets."

"It's your own catch," Dimitrios started, but Elias cut him off.

"Take it. Just one net will tide us over for now, I can always go back out tomorrow or the next day."

Dimitrios did not bother arguing further. He took the net, stepped back across to his own boat, and the two fisherman parted ways.

When Elias made it back to his family, he told them all about what had happened. They, of course, did not believe him and teased that he was just making excuses for losing a net. Elias didn't press the matter.

Some time passed, and as spring began to come around and the storm subsided, Elias found himself out at sea, fishing as usual, when he spotted a boat heading straight towards him. As the boat drew nearer, he recognized its rower: Dimitrios. Before Elias could call out to him, Dimitrios called out himself, "Elias! I've been looking for you all month!"

Elias was surprised. "I'm shocked you remember me!"

"Remember you?" Dimitrios responded, "Of course I remember you! My village would've been in for a hard few days if you hadn't shared your catch with me. I didn't have any luck reeling anything in for at least a week after we bumped into each other. I've been searching for you because I wanted to give you this as a thank you." 

As he said this, Dimitrios produced an ornate fishing rod which, upon closer inspection was no ordinary fishing rod, even discounting the elaborate carvings and furnishings. "I caught a monster swordfish a few weeks back. My wife made this rod from its blade, and I figured you should have it."

"This is an amazing gift," Elias started. "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything," Dimitrios replied. "Just come fishing with me sometime."

You can bet Elias's family believed him then.

Greek Fisherman, Santorini. Source: Fine Art America

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Story Source: Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen