Narrative Text | The Legend of Toba Lake

Legend is a story coming from a region or district. The story is fiction and no body knows whether it's true or not. It's only folklore. Folklore belong to narrative text.

The following is one of folklore coming from North Sumatera. It is the legend of Toba Lake. 

The Legend of Toba Lake

Toba Lake - Photobucke

Once, a fisherman named Batara Guru Sahala lived in the Batak Land. One day, he caught a fish. He was surprised to find that the fish could talk. It begged Sahala toset it free. He did accordingly.

As soon as the fish was free, it changed into a woman. She was so beautiful that Sahala fell in love at once. He asked her to marry him. The woman agreed to marry Sahala. However, she told him that he must never let out the secret that she was once a fish. Sahala promised that he would not tell anyone about it.

They were happily married and had two daughters. Every morning Sahala went out fishing. One day, his daughters brought him his launch. However, instead of bringing food to their father, the two gtirls ate it. When Sahala knew what they had done with the meal, he got very angry. He shouted at them saying, "You behaved exactly like the daughters of the fish!".

They did not know what their father meant. They went home and asked their mother about it. Their mother was very upset. Although Sahala apologized to her, she would not forgive him for breaking his promise.

Then the earth began to shake, and the volcano started to erupt. The earth cracked and formed a big hole. It is said that the hole became the Toba Lake. 

The text is taken from UN SMP 2011