The origin of the Polar Skulk
- a tale of foxes and freedom
One day the silver kit asked the grey one:
"Who made the light, which brightenes our singing place?"
The grey one looked at him lovingly and asked he kit to sit with him, for he would tell a story of old, a story from the days when the tribe was young.
"Once there was a time, when the world was light and happiness. During the day the sun shone on the savannah, and at night the moon cast the gras in a silver sheen.
It was during that time, when there were fewer animals in the wild, that the GNUs learned the working of songs of creation, deep and vocal, and they taught us and everyone their new findngs, and the life of our skulk was happiness and love.
But while the GNUs spread their songs and made new songs for every idea they could imagine, others invaded the plains, and they stole away the songs and sang them in their own way. And they drowned out the lith, and with it went the happiness and love.
And when everyone shivered in cold and darkness, and stillness and despair were drawn over the land, he others created a false light which cast small enclosures into a pale flicker, in which they let in only those animals who were willing to wear ropes on their throats and limbs, and many animals went to them to escape the darkness, while some fell deeper still and joined them in enslaving their former friends.
Upon seeing this, the fiercest of the GNUs, the last one of the original herd, was filled with a terrible anger to see the songs of creation turned into a tool for slavery, and he made one special song which created a spark of true light in the darkness which could not be taken away, and which exposed the falsehood in the light of the others. And whenever he sang the song, those who were near him were touched by happiness.
But the others were many and the GNU was alone, and many animals succumbed to the ropes or the ropers and cour move no more on their own.
To spread the song, the GNU now searched for other animas who would sing with it, and the song spread, and with it the freedom.
It was during these days, tht the GNU met our founders, who lived in golden chains in a palace of glass.
In this palace they thought themselves lucky, and though the light of the palace grew ever paler and the chains grew heavier with every passing day, they didn't leave, because they feared the utter darkness out there.
When they then ssaw the GNU, they asked him: "Isn't your light weaker than this whole palace?" and the GNU answered: "Not if we sing it together", and they asked "But how will we eat in the darkness?" and the GNU answered "you'll eat in teh light of your songs, and plants will grow wherever you sing", and they asked "But is it a song of foxes?" and the GNU said: "You can make it so", and he began to sing, and when our founders joined in, the light became a shimmering silver like the moon they still remembered from the days and nights of light, and they rejoiced in its brightness.
And whenever this light touched the glass of the palace, the glass paked and showed its true being, and where the light touched the chains, they whithered and our founders went into the darkness with the newfound light of the moon as companion, and they thanked the GNU and promised to help it, whenever they were needed.
Then they set off to learn the many songs of the world and to spread the silver light of the of the moon wherever they came.
And so our founders learned to sing the light , which brighenes every one of our songs, and as our skulk grew bigger, he light grew stronger and it became a little moon, which will grow with each new kit, until its light will fill the whole world again one day."
The grey one looked around where many kits had quietly found a place, and then he laughed softly, before he got up to fetch himself a meal for the night, and the kits began to speak all at once about his story. And they spoke until the silver kit raised its voice and sung the song of moonlight, and they joined in and the song filled their hearts with joy and the air with light, and they knew that wherever they would travel, this skulk was where their hearts felt home.
PS: This story is far less loosely based on facts than it looks.
There are songs of creation, namely computer programs, which once were free and which were truly taken away and used for casting others into darkness. And there was and still is the fierce GNU with his song of light and freedom, and he did spread it to make it into GNU/Linux and the free software universe we know today.
If you want to know more about the story as it happened in our world, just read the less flowery story of
Richard Stallman free hackers and the creation of GNU.
PPS: License: This text is given into the public under the GNU FDL without invariant sections by Arne Babenhauserheide (who has the copyright on it).