Anluan With The Temper

[cuchulain]

A woman named Anluan lived by a stream in the forest, in a small hut. She was renowned for her bursts of sudden temper whenever

anything in the slightest went wrong. One day she was washing her laundry in the stream, when a salmon leaped into the air, glistening in

the sunlight. Anluan hadn't eaten lunch yet, and saw this as the perfect chance for some fish.

Anluan immediately grabbed a branch from nearby and started thrashing in the stream, flailing this way and that, becoming more and

more angry until finally she ran out of breath. Then she looked around, and noticed half her clean laundry had been knocked into the

water, and floated into a mud bank.

Sick with frustration, she gathered her laundry together again, and rewashed it. Sure enough, when she was almost finished, the

salmon leaped again. Anluan rushed into the stream and grabbed the salmon, laughing in triumph until the beast wriggled loose and

jumped into her basket of laundry, then into the stream...getting away again. Anluan flailed about herself in a perfect rage, and when

she was tired saw that she had done it again. The laundry was a mess, she was starving and now she was worn out.

So Anluan went to the hut and got her fishing net and set it. She finished the laundry a third time, and noticed her nets wiggling in

the stream. The salmon had been caught. Anluan went to the nets, turned them over, and let the salmon loose.

This is how Anluan of the temper became known as Anluan the wise.

[grateful]

[Seeker]

Nice story, but I'm not really understanding this.

I get that releasing the salmon was a good thing, but...

Why so angry in the first place?

Why the sudden change of heart?

Why catch it if she was going to let it go?

There seems to be a disconnect in the narrative.