"Mowgli's Brothers" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

. Chronologically, it is the first story about Mowgli although it was written after "In the Rukh", in which Mowgli appears as an old man . The story first appeared in the January 1894 issue of '' St. Nicholas Magazine'' and was collected as the first story in ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

'' later in 1894 where it is accompanied by the poem "Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack". The story also appears in ''

All the Mowgli Stories All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and pro ...

''. In 1992 it was published as a separate volume with

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

illustrations by Christopher Wormell. The text is available on-line from several sources as part of ''The Jungle Book''. The story was adapted as a 25-minute

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

cartoon by

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...

in 1976. Jones also directed adaptations of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and "The White Seal".

Plot summary

Father Wolf This is a list of characters that appear in Rudyard Kipling's 1894 ''The Jungle Book'' story collection, its 1895 sequel '' The Second Jungle Book'', and the various film adaptations based on those books. Characters include both human and talki ...

and Mother Wolf, Raksha, a pair of

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

raising a family of cubs, are furious to learn from Tabaqui the

jackal Jackals are Canidae, canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe Canina (subtribe), canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-b ...

that

Shere Khan Shere Khan () is a fictional Bengal tiger featured in the Mowgli stories of Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book, Jungle Book''. He is often portrayed as the main antagonist in the book's media adaptations, itself an exaggeration of his role in ...

the lame

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

is hunting in their territory because he might kill men and bring human retribution upon the

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

. When Father Wolf hears something approaching their den, it turns out to be not the tiger, but a

naked Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...

human baby boy. Raksha decides to adopt the hairless "man-cub". Her determination is only strengthened by the arrival of Shere Khan, who demands the cub for his meal. The wolves drive off the tiger, and Raksha names him Mowgli, which means frog because of his almost hairless body. At the wolf pack's meeting at Council Rock,

Baloo Baloo (from ''bhālū'' "bear") is a main fictional character featured in Rudyard Kipling's '' The Jungle Book'' from 1894 and '' The Second Jungle Book'' from 1895. Baloo, a sloth bear, is the strict teacher of the cubs of the Seeonee wolf pa ...

the

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

speaks for the man-cub, and

Bagheera Bagheera ( / ''Baghīrā'') is a fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories in '' The Jungle Book'' (coll. 1894) and '' The Second Jungle Book'' (coll. 1895). He is a black panther ( melanistic Indian leopard) who serves as frie ...

the

black panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

buys his life with a freshly killed

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...

. Baloo and Bagheera undertake the task of educating Mowgli as he grows. Meanwhile, Shere Khan plans to take revenge on the wolf pack by persuading the younger wolves to despose their leader Akela. When Mowgli is about 11 years old, Bagheera tells him of Shere Khan's plan. Mowgli, being human, is the only creature in the jungle that does not fear

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

, so he steals a pot of burning coals from a nearby village in order to use it against Shere Khan. The young wolves prevent Akela from catching his prey, and at that night's meeting, Shere Khan demands that Akela be killed and the man-cub given to him. Mowgli, despite being naked and unprotected, relentlessly attacks Shere Khan with a burning branch and drives him and his allies away, but realizes to his sorrow that he must now leave the pack and return to humanity. As he leaves, he vows to return one day and lay Shere Khan's hide upon the Council Rock.

Animated special

In 1976 ''Mowgli's Brothers'' was adapted and directed as a half-hour

animated special of the same name by veteran animator

, with narration and voices by

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his n ...

, and June Foray as Mother Wolf. Though largely a faithful adaptation of the story, there are some notable changes in Jones's version. Differences include expanded roles for Baloo and Tabaqui, and that Shere Khan is a white tiger and there is no reference to his lame leg. Jones also directed adaptations of " Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and " The White Seal".

In popular culture

The Peter Weir film

Gallipoli The Gallipoli Peninsula (; ; ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles strait to the east. Gallipoli is the Italian form of the Greek name (), meaning ' ...

features a reading from this story. Bill Kerr's character, Jack, is reading it to some children while Mark Lee's character, Archie, listens in. It foreshadows that Archie will march away to war by the end of the film and become a man.

References

External links

{{Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book stories 1894 short stories Works originally published in St. Nicholas Magazine