This document discusses characteristics of pre-colonial Philippine literature such as chants, proverbs, songs, and folk narratives that were passed down orally before Spanish colonization. It provides examples of different folk literary genres that depict Philippine culture, including folktales about trickster character Juan and animals, fables featuring cunning monkeys, legends explaining natural phenomena, and creation myths about how people came to be.

1. 21ST CENTURY
LITERATURE
Various dimensions of Philippine
literary history from pre-colonial to
contemporary

2. At the end of this lesson, you
should be able to identify the
characteristics of pre-colonial
literature of the Philippines.

3. •What texts are
considered pre-colonial
literature?

4. • The pre colonial literature includes all
literature produced before the Spanish
colonization like chants, proverbs, songs,
and folk narratives. These were all
passed down from generation to
generation by word of mouth.
• Philippine folk narratives are varied and
distinct. They depict the people’s
livelihood, customs, and traditions.

5. What’s the word! That’s the word!
1.oltakfel - ________
2.bleaf - _______
3.endleg - _______
4.thym - _______
5.pcie - _______

6. • Folktale – This is a characteristically
anonymous, timeless, and placeless
tale circulated orally among a
people.
• Fable – This features animal
characters or inanimate objects that
behave like people.
• Legend – This is presented as history
but is unlikely to be true.

7. • Myth – This is told to explain a belief,
a practice, or a natural phenomenon.
• Epic – This narrative poem celebrates
the adventures and achievements of
a hero.

8. • Folktales
• Folktales about Juan are very popular. Some
emphasize certain virtues, and some serve as
warning about behavior. Also, some are for the
reader’s amusement.
• Example 1:
• Juan Gathers Guavas (A Tagalog Folktale)
• One day several neighbors came to Juan’s
home to visit. His father wanted to give
the guests something to eat, so he sent
Juan to get some ripe guavas for them.

9. • Full of mischief, Juan decided to play a
joke on his father’s guests. He went to
get the guavas and ate all of them while
thinking of a good joke. Then he saw a
wasp’s nest hung nearby. With some
difficulty he managed to take it down
and put it into a tight basket. He
hastened home and gave the basket to
his father. Quickly he left the room where
the guests were and closed the door and
fastened it.

10. • As soon as Juan’s father opened the
basket, the wasps flew over the room.
With the door locked, the people
fought to get out of the windows. After
a while Juan opened the door. When he
saw the swollen faces of the people, he
cried.
• “What fine, rich guavas you must have
had! They have made you all so fat!”

11. • Juan Pusong and His Father’s Cows (A Visayan
Folktale)
• One day Juan Pusong's father put his cows
out to pasture. Juan slipped away from home
and took the cows into the forest and tied
them there. When his father found out that
the cows were missing, he looked around for
them. While looking, he ran into his son.
• “Where did you come from?” he asked.
• “I just came from school, Father. How about
you, where are you going?”
• “I am looking for our cows.”

12. • “You don’t say!" said Juan.
• By that time, everybody knew about
Juan’s power as a seer. So, he took a
little book from his pocket and looked
into it. He said, “Our cows are tied
together in the forest.” So, his father
went to the forest and found the cows.
• Later on, people would discover that
Juan could not read even his own name.
Consequently, his father beat him for the
trick he had played on him.

13. • Fable
• The monkey is a common animal character in Philippine
fables. It is often depicted as a cunning animal.
• The Monkey and the Crocodile (A Tagalog Fable)
• One day, a monkey saw a tall macopa tree
laden with ripe fruits, which stood by a wide
river. It was hungry, so it climbed the tree
and ate all of the fruits. When it climbed
down, it could find no means by which to
cross the river. Then it saw a young
crocodile who had just woken up from its
siesta. It said to the crocodile in a friendly
way, “My dear crocodile, will you do me a
favor?”

14. • The crocodile was greatly surprised by
the monkey’s amicable salutation. So, it
answered humbly, “Oh, yes! If there is
anything I can do for you, I shall be glad
to do it.” The monkey then told the
crocodile that it wanted to get to the
other side of the river. Then the
crocodile said, “I’ll take you there with
all my heart. Just sit on my back, and
we’ll go at once.”

15. • The monkey sat firmly on the crocodile’s
back, and they began to move. In a short
while they reached the middle of the
stream. Then the crocodile began to
laugh aloud. “You foolish monkey!” it
said, “I’ll eat your liver and kidneys, for
I’m very hungry.” The monkey became
nervous. Trying to conceal its anxiety, it
said,

16. • “I’m very glad that you mentioned the
matter. I thought myself that you might
be hungry, so I have prepared my liver
and kidneys for your dinner.
Unfortunately, in our haste to depart, I
left them hanging on the macopa tree.
Let us return, and I’ll get them for you.”

17. • Convinced that the monkey was telling
the truth, the crocodile turned around
and swam back to the direction of the
macopa tree. When they got near the
riverbank, the monkey nimbly jumped
up onto the land and scampered up the
tree. The crocodile came to realize what
happened and said, “I am a fool.”

18. • Legend
• There are different Filipino legends of
the great flood. The story of
Bukidnon, for instance, tells that a
huge crab caused the water to rise by
going into the sea. On the other
hand, the Igorot story tells that the
sons of Lumawig the Great Spirit
caused the flood.

19. • The Flood Story (A Legend of Bukidnon)
• A long time ago there was a very big
crab which crawled into the sea.
When it went in, it crowded the
water out so that it ran all over the
earth and covered all the land. Now
about one moon before the flood
happened, a wise man had told the
people that they must build a large
raft.

20. • They did as he commanded and cut
many large trees until they had
enough to make three layers. These
they bound tightly together; when it
was done, they fastened the raft
with a long rattan cord to a big pole
in the earth.

21. • Soon after the raft was done, the
flood came. White water poured
out of the hills, and the sea rose
and covered even the highest
mountains. The people and
animals on the raft were safe,
but all the others drowned.

22. • Soon the waters went down, and
the raft was again on the ground.
It was near their old home, for
the rattan cord had held.
• The people on the raft together
with the animals were the only
ones left on the whole earth.

23. • Example 2:
• The Flood Story (A Legend of the Igorot)
• Once upon a time, the world was flat,
and there were no mountains. There
lived two sons of Lumawig, the Great
Spirit. The brothers were fond of
hunting; since no mountains had formed,
there was no good place to catch wild pig
and deer. The older brother said, “Let us
cause water to flow over all the world
and cover it, and then mountains will rise
up.”

24. • So, the brothers caused water to flow
over all the earth. When it was covered,
they took the head-basket of the town
and set it for a trap. They were very
much pleased when they went to look at
their trap, for they had caught not only
many wild pigs and deer but also many
people.

25. • Lumawig looked down from his place in the
sky and saw that his sons had flooded the
earth. However, there was just one spot
which was not covered. All the people in the
world had been drowned except a brother
and a sister who lived in Pokis.
• Then Lumawig descended, and he called to
the boy and girl, saying, “Oh, you are still
alive.”
• “Yes,” answered the boy, “we are still alive,
but we are very cold.”

26. • So, Lumawig commanded his dog
and deer to get fire for the boy
and girl. The dog and the deer
swam quickly away. Lumawig
waited a long time, but the dog
and the deer did not return. All
the time the boy and girl were
growing colder.

27. • Finally, Lumawig himself went
after the dog and the deer. When
he reached them, he said, “Why
are you so long in bringing the
fire to Pokis? Get ready and come
quickly while I watch you, for the
boy and girl are very cold.”

28. • Then the dog and the deer took the fire and
started to swim through the flood. When
they had gone only a little way, the fire was
put out.
• Lumawig commanded the dog and the deer
to get more fire, and they did so. However,
they swam only a little way again when that
of the deer went out. That of the dog would
have been extinguished also had not
Lumawig gone quickly to him and taken it.

29. • As soon as Lumawig reached Pokis, he
built a big fire which warmed the
brother and sister. The water
evaporated so that the world was as it
was before, except that now there were
mountains. The brother and sister
married and had children, and thus
there came to be many people on the
earth.

31. • Myth
• There are Philippine versions of
the creation myth. The Igorot’s
story tells that Lumawig the Great
Spirit created people. On the
other hand, the Tagalog story tells
that the first man and woman
came from a bamboo.

32. The Creation (An Igorot Myth)
In the beginning, there were no
people on the earth. Lumawig, the Great
Spirit, came down from the sky and cut
many reeds. He divided the reeds into
pairs which he placed in different parts of
the world, and then he said to them, “You
must speak.” Immediately the reeds
became people, and in each place was a
man and a woman who could talk.
However, the language of each couple
differed from that of the others.

33. Then Lumawig commanded
each man and woman to marry,
which they did. By and by there
were many children, all speaking
the same language as their
parents. The children married and
had many children of their own. In
this way, there came to be many
people on the earth.

34. Now, Lumawig saw that there were
several things which the people on the
earth needed to use, so he set to work to
supply them. He created salt and told the
inhabitants of one place to boil it down
and sell it to their neighbors. However, the
people could not understand the
directions. The next time he visited them,
they had not touched the salt. So, he took
the salt away from them and gave it to the
people of a place called Mayinit.

35. The people of Mayinit did as Lumawig
directed. Because of their obedience, he told
them that they should always be owners of the
salt and that the other peoples must buy of
them.
Then Lumawig went to the people of
Bontoc and told them to get clay and make
pots. They got the clay, but they did not
understand the molding; the jars were not well
shaped. Because of their failure, Lumawig told
them that they would always have to buy their
jars, and he removed the pottery to Samoki.

36. Lumawig told the people of
Samoki what to do, and they did just
as he said. Their jars were well shaped
and beautiful. Then Lumawig saw that
they were fit owners of the pottery,
and he told them that they should
always make many jars to sell.
In this way, Lumawig taught the
people and brought to them all the
things which they now have.

37. The Creation (A Tagalog Myth)
When the world first began there was no
land. There were only the sea and the sky,
and between them was a kite. One day the
bird which had nowhere to light grew tired of
flying about, so she stirred up the sea until it
threw its waters against the sky. The sky, in
order to restrain the sea, showered upon it
many islands until it could no longer rise, but
ran back and forth. Then the sky ordered the
kite to alight on one of the islands to build its
nest, and to leave the sea and the sky in
peace.

38. Now at this time the land breeze
and the sea breeze were married, and
they had a bamboo as their child. One
day when the bamboo was floating
about on the water, it struck the feet
of the kite which was on the beach.
The bird, angry that anything should
strike it, pecked at the bamboo. Out of
one section came a man and from the
other a woman.

39. The earthquake called on all
the birds and fish to see what
should be done with the man and
the woman, and it was decided
that they should marry. Many
children were born to the couple,
and from them came all the
different races of people.

40. After a while the parents grew
very tired of having so many idle and
useless children around. They wished
to be rid of them, but they knew of no
place to send them to. Time went on,
and the children became so numerous
that the parents enjoyed no peace.
One day, in desperation, the father
seized a stick and began beating them
on all sides.

41. The beating frightened the
children so much that they fled in
different directions. Some seek
hidden rooms in the house. Some
concealed themselves in the walls.
Some ran outside, while others hid
in the fireplace. Several fled to the
sea.

42. Now it happened that those who
went into the hidden rooms of the house
later became the chiefs of the islands; and
those who concealed themselves in the
walls became slaves. Those who ran
outside were free men; and those who hid
in the fireplace became negroes; while
those who fled to the sea were gone many
years, and when their children came back
they were the white people.

43. • EPIC
Biag ni Lam-ang
This Ilocano epic tells the adventures
of Lam-ang, a man with supernatural
powers. He goes to war at nine-months-
old and seeks the killers of his father. He
embarks on a quest with his animal
friends and meets his future wife, Innes
Kanoyan. He is swallowed by a fish and
resurrected from death by his animal
friends.

44. Hinilawod
This epic is of the Sulod, a group of
people living in the mountains of central
Panay. It tells the story of three very
strong men, namely, Labaw Donggon,
Humadapnon, and Dumalapdap. They
are the sons of Datu Paubari, the ruler of
Halawod, and the goddess Alunsina. The
exploits of each son concerns beautiful
women that he wants to have as a wife.

45. Darangan
This Maranao epic depicts the
adventures of a brave warrior named
Bantugan. He owns a magical sword
protected by a spirit. After a battle,
he rests and accidentally falls into the
water. A crocodile finds him and
brings him to the enemies. He fights,
regains his strength, and wins the war.

46. • The pre colonial literature of the
Philippines includes all literature
produced before the Spanish
colonization. It includes chants,
proverbs, songs, spells, and different
folk narratives like folk tales, fables,
legends, myths, and epics that were all
passed down from generation to
generation through the word of mouth.