Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part B

The Two Friends

I'm not exactly sure why, but as I was reading this story, I was already coming up with a way to retell it. The two friends were so close that they promised each other to invite the other to his wedding, even if he had died. Which, since it was mentioned, it happened. But I kept imagining that maybe the two friends were close enough that they didn't need to be married, until the other died. And maybe then the still living friend went on to finally want to be married one day. He could then stop at his friend's grave, wanting to share the news but missing him. The dead friend rises and convinces his living friend to stay for a drink or two since they have missed each other so much. The living friend agrees, thankful to see his friend again, but then comes to find that three hundred years had passed by in his absence. 

I'll throw in more details, but I think that will make the story have more of an impact, in my opinion. 

(Wedding Seating on pxhere)

Bibliography: "The Two Friends" from Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part A

Emilian the Fool

This was my favorite story from the first part of this unit. The fool, who everyone treated badly, came upon good luck and was granted the power to have whatever he said happen. That seems like a Very powerful thing to me. I liked how at first he only used it to do the things the wives had asked of him. He never did anything bad or harmed anyone. I'd definitely like to have a power like that. 

For re-telling this story, I might make it so someone keeps this gift a secret and uses it for a long long time. Maybe by using this gift they create all sorts of things, creatures, anything! That might be fun! Maybe the pike plays a larger role than only granting the gift. Maybe the person keeps the pike somewhere and has to return to it to continue their powers. Then I could explore what happens if they forget or cannot return to the pike. 

(Northern Pike on flickr)

Bibliography: "Emilian the Fool" from Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno Unit, Part B

Satan, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius

Since beginning this unit, I have been looked forward to seeing how the different levels of Hell progressed and who or what would be at the very end. I figured it would be Satan himself, but I didn't expect him to have three heads and be a giant to giants. I also never imagined that he would be using his mouths to chew on some other famous historical people. I think it's interested that the three men were all infamous for their betrayals. I wish that the story would have made some comment about why specifically they were there, but if I had to guess it would be that. 

Once I got to the end and was a little surprised, it made me think, "What was I expecting?" and I am not sure I really have an answer to that. After finishing this unit I'm a little concerned with writing a story for it just because I have no idea what I would re-imagine Hell to be like...but, I guess we'll see. 

(Inferno by Gustave Dore on Wikimedia)

Bibliography: "Canto 34: Satan" from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno Unit, Part A

The First Circle: Limbo

Before this, I had never read any of Dante's Inferno. I had heard about it plenty of times with it being a classic, of course. What surprised me pretty early on was the concept of the first circle of Hell. From what I have understood growing up, limbo is an in between space where souls go when they can't go to heaven or hell. But, in this story, it is the place where good people, who died before Christianity was a thing, spend the rest of eternity. It just strikes me as sort of unfair. They have to live here just because Christ hadn't come about yet? And yes, a few were saved, but only a select few. I think I would rewrite this to be completely different just because I really don't think this would be...good? fair? right?

(Foggy Lake Mist on pixaby)

Bibliogprahy: "Canto 4: Limbo" from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales (Thomas), Part B

Owen Goes a-Wooing

I like this short story because while it is only 400 words long, it told a story full of different kinds of magic. The mansion under the lake that Owen floated to was great, and there was some sort of time magic going on as well. When Owen arrived to Siwsi, he found out he had been gone for months, rather that a few hours. It makes me think of the time magic in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But in that story, when the siblings think they have been gone for years upon years, they find that back home they were gone for merely hours. This sort of time magic has always been really fascinating to me because I think it can really alter a story and the characters perceptions within it. 

(Old Clock Close Up from Wikipedia)

The Martyred Hound

This story was sad and ironic. The King thinking the dog had eaten his heir, killed the dog, only to find out the dog had actually saved the child by killing a wolf that had gotten in. This story was also relatively short at 600 words, but even within that time, I felt intense sadness when it was revealed what happened. The dog and the King had such a strong bond, it was sad the King killed him needlessly. 

(Enzo the Italian Greyhound on flickr)

Bibliography: "Owen Goes a-Wooing" and "The Martyred Hound" from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas with illustrations by Willy Pogány (1908).

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales (Thomas), Part A

Arthur in the Cave

When I read the short explanation before the story, I already knew I would like this story. There's a popular book series that's fairly recent called The Raven Cycle. These books are all about a group of teenagers searching for the sleeping king of Wales. In the book, the King isn't Arthur, however... or at least they don't call him Arthur. They call him Glendower. I love the series (though I haven't finished it yet) so I was excited to read the tale that inspired the books. I've always been a lover of fantasy, and a sleeping King is a fantastic story that I absolutely love. 

In the original, I thought it was really interesting that King Arthur was woken up, and then he decided to listen to the sorcerer saying it was not time to wake up. Truthfully, I expected Arthur to get mad we was woken up for nothing and maybe fight and/or kill the intruders. 

(King Arthur by Charles Ernest Butler on Wikimedia)

Reading Notes: More Celtic Fairy Tales, Part B

"The Legend of Knockgrafton"

This story was about two different men with humps on their back. The first, Lusmore, was a kind man. One night he heard fairies singing and sang along with them. The fairies liked this so much that they removed his hump, gave him fine clothes, and improved his life. The second man, Jack Madden, was more mischievous and rude. When we heard about Lusmore, his family brought him to the fairies. When the fairies started singing, he interrupted their song instead of singing along. For this, the fairies punished him by giving him Lusmore's old hump, so that Jack would have two humps.

To me this story was a tale about being kind in life. Those who are kind in life are rewarded, while those who are not are punished.

(Fairy Bridge from Wikimedia)

Bibliography: "The Legend of Knockgrafton" from More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Reading Notes: More Celtic Fairy Tales, Part A

My two favorite stories from this reading were "The Fate of the Children of Lir" and "Dream of Owen O'Mulready." The first story was a bit longer and told the story of the four children of King Lir who were turned into swans because his second wife was jealous of them. The children were to remain as swans for 90 years until two specific people were married. This story sort of reminded me of Swan Lake, because, you know, swans. I think it could be an interesting story to retell. Maybe with an ending where the children don't have to wait 90 years to turn human, just to die immediately.

(The Four Swans, Waltham Cross, Hertforshire by Christine Matthews on geograph.org.uk)

The second story was about a man who had never had a dream. His master gave him instructions on how to have a dream, which Owen O'Mulready followed. He did have a dream, but it was the sort where you sleep walk...or sleep climb? And he ended up dropping his shoe on his wife's face, waking her up. She woke him up and Owen decided he didn't want to have any more dreams. As someone who used to sleepwalk, I would always go to bed afraid I would get up in the night and get myself hurt. Maybe I could re-tell this story with a difference circumstance to O'Mulready's dreaming/sleepwalking. 

Bibliography: "The Fate of the Children of Lir" and "Dream of Owen O'Mulready" from More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1895).

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes Unit, Part A

My favorite story, or should I say stories, from this part of the unit were the two stories about the origin of corn. One is from the Ojibwa people and the other from the Odawa people.

In the Ojibwa story, there is a beautiful stranger sent to wrestle with a human boy. The boy was fasting, but as he wrestled the stranger each day he grew stronger. Eventually he defeated the stranger who instructed him to bury his body. From where his body was buried, corn grew. 

The Odawa story was similar in that it involved wrestling, and the winner buried pieces of his fallen foe, and from that corn grew. 

I was interested to see that wrestling and burying your opponent was common among these stories, and it got me thinking as to if other corn origin stories would have those things as well. If I choose this story to re-tell, that is something I would want to look in to. 

(Amazing Maize on Wikimedia)

Bibliography: "Mondamin" from Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1914). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends Unit, Part B

My favorite story from this reading was "The Land of the Dead." I thought the journey through the Land of the Dead in the story was really interesting. The idea that people who did certain things in life, like hit dogs or pull up grass, have punishment like things related to that after death is something that I think can be found in different legends. I know I have heard different ideas about hell and how people would be punished according to their wrong-doings on Earth, similar to this story. In the Alaskan legend though, all of these different people were in the same after-life together.

I think this story could be interesting to re-tell from the perspective of someone who has just died, similar to the original. Walking through the land and seeing those who have died before them.

(The Ghost Town of Falk by Bureau of Land Management on flickr)

Bibliography: "The Land of the Dead" from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends Unit, Part A

I enjoyed how all of the stories were about Raven and the different things he created in the world. The unifying theme helped keep my interest as I read. Corvids are my favorite kinds of birds, so I like that Raven was the main focus in these different stories.

The first, longer, story about the creation of Man was really interesting to read, and I think I would maybe want to focus on Raven and Man if I choose to use these stories for my retelling. I'm not sure what sort of story I would want to tell with them, though... Maybe I would make up a story explaining the creation of something that was not covered in this unit.

(Visit From A Raven by Ingrid Taylar on flickr)

Bibliography: Alaskan Legends Unit from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Part B

From this reading, I enjoyed the short story of "The Goblin of  Adachigahara." This story was about a human-eating goblin that lived near a small community. Everyone in the community knew the goblin was there, so they stayed away from that area at night. One night there was a priest that was wandering around and happened upon the goblin's house. Since the goblin was in the form of an old woman, he asked her to let him stay and she complied. Later, the goblin went out and warned the priest not to look in the back room. He did, of course, and found the room filled with bones of people the goblin had eaten. He fled from the house and outran the goblin so he was not eaten.

This story was short(er than some others) and I enjoyed it a lot.I think it's different than how I would expect the story to go, mostly because when a character does what they are told Not to do, I expect them to have consequences. This story is different because the priest looked in the back room, which he was told not to do, and instead of being eaten by the goblin, she escapes from her. I think that makes this less of a story about "do are you are told," and more of a story about "be diligent in prayer" maybe? Because the priest says he was able to escape the goblin because of his prayers to Buddha.

(Dwelling on pixabay)

Bibliography: "The Goblin of Adachigahra" from Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Part A

I liked how this reading was comprised of a few number of longer stories. My favorite out of the three was "The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die." I liked this story because I think fear of death is something most, if not all, people have experienced at some point. I was not expecting it all to be a dream at the end, but I think I like that ending better than Sentaro being eaten by a shark. Because it was a dream, Sentaro was able to feel like he had lived three hundred years and also feel like he died when he did not want to. Those were both important for him to experience so that Jofuku could tell Sentaro that what he really wanted/needed was to live his normal length live as best as he possibly could.

I like the idea of someone learning what they actually want by dreaming about what they don't want. Maybe that can be what I focus my storytelling on this week. Someone who is convinced they know what they want, but then someone gives them the ability to see just that, and they don't want it anymore. The plot reminds me a little of A Christmas Carol in that way.

(Lyrics from "Fix You" by Coldplay, graphic made by me)

Bibliography: "The Man Who Did Not Want to Die" from Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki (1908).

(Web Source)

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part B

Part B of this unit was just as awesome as part A! This might be my favorite unit so far, in fact. For today, the two stories I wanted to focus on the most are "How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off" and "Retribution."

How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off

I liked this story because it was similar to a trickster story, only the one doing the tricking was not meant to be a "bad" character. Instead, it was a good character who was actively helping another character. The bad people, who were sacrificing girls to the River god were punished and the one's that weren't learned their lesson. I think this would be a fun story to retell, but with a different setting. Perhaps they all work together and the "girl" is someone who they give all of the hard tasks to. Then the person in charge sees what they are doing and makes them do it instead? Haha, maybe. I like that there was a sense of justice with the end, but it also felt a little like a parent punishing you for your own good, in my opinion.

Retribution

I really liked this story because of its parallel structures. The first man accidentally killed the water-carrier, who was then reborn wealthy. Then, the reborn water-carrier accidentally killed the old man next door. Both of them hid from what they did and let it seem like the other fell on their own. It implies maybe the older man will be reborn, possibly in higher standing, and may go on to accidentally kill someone who will be reborn and so on. I am a sucker for parallel story telling!

Edit: After re-reading the story a bit more carefully, I realized it was actually the older man, old Wang, who accidentally killed the water-carrier. Then, the water-carrier reborn accidentally killed old Wang. The younger man, Ma, was actually just witnessing everything from his house. This makes the story even more interesting to me, since the same two people were accidentally killing each other.

Chrysanthemum Blossom Bloom Flower Plant Macro

Public Domain

(Blossom Plant Bloom Chrysanthemum Macro Flower on maxpixel)

Bibliography: "Retribution" and "Hot the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off" from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

Two stories from this section stood out to me. The first was The Cave of the Beasts because of how awful the father was. He got the duck eggs for himself and his wife, but when his daughters ate them, he wanted to leave them to be eaten by wolves?! I think he sucks, and when the youngest daughters found all of the jewels, I was rally happy for them. I didn't like how he acted like he was grateful they were alive and then took all of the jewels back home. I think in my ideal story, the girls go back with the jewels and he is eaten by wolves. It's only fair.

The second story was one that I liked. The King of the Ants was a fun, short story that I thought was funny. The small people reminded me of Thumbellina (only even smaller!) which was a story I adored growing up. This is a story I would like to retell simply because I think there are a lot of fun and different possible outcomes! I was a little confused as to how the men were so tiny and why they went back into an ant hill? Maybe they rule over the ants and there are other tiny people somewhere? Why did no one really comment on the size difference between the small people and the scholar? Things I would definitely wants to address in my story.

(Cabinet Build Tiny People Little Helper on maxpixel)

Bibliography: King of the Ants and The Cave of the Beasts from The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Reading Notes: Bengal, Part A

I really liked the stories for this week, but I think my favorite was The Ghost-Brahman. This story reminded me a little of the Bible story where two women had babies, but one woman's baby died. She then stole the other baby, and their case went before some king. He declared the baby should be cut in half , and half given to each mother. The fake mother complied, but the real mother pleaded that the baby should remain unharmed and given to the fake mother. The king saw her as the true mother and gave her the baby back. The Ghost-Brahman story was different from this in that nothing was going to be split up, but similar in that an impostor stole something and in answering/completing a task a certain way, they were found out to be the fake.

I have a feeling this sort of story may be found else where in the world, and I think it is an interesting plot to follow. Maybe when I rewrite a story this week I will rewrite this one using this plot device.I liked the persistent Brahman and think that would be someone I might focus on.

(Folk-tales of Bengal on wikimedia)

Bibliography: Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with illustrations by Warwick Goble (1912). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part B

Part B of these stories might have followed the same pattern of riddle, correct answer, goblin escaping, repeat; however, these riddles had a different sort of pattern from the ones in Part A. These were more focused on "here is what happens, who is to blame/why did this happen?" Overall, I think I liked this set of stories more. The last one also had my head spinning so I wrote out the story and I think the children would simultaneously be each other's uncles/aunts and nieces/nephews.

(Diagram of the Family Tree made by me)

I feel a bit more inspired after reading Part B on what I might do for storytelling. I think I want to practice with Twinery and made a story that way. The stories would be written and someone could click the answer they want and the paths would move accordingly. The only thing is I don't have something concrete worked out for someone answering incorrectly on purpose. Maybe I can plan this week and figure something out.

Bibliography: Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati translated by Arthur Ryder

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part A

For reading A of this week, there was definitely a theme of "to which should the girl be given"  or "which one is the cleverest/bravest." I enjoyed reading these riddles and even managed to guess 3 of the 7 correctly!

In all honesty, I'm not sure what to say about these stories. I liked reading them, but nothing struck me as a "wow!" sort of moment, and I didn't think of any creative ideas about possible retellings. I chose this unit because I love riddles and I wanted to read a few. Maybe when I retell the story I will come up with very different riddles.

I do feel bad for the wise King because he has to go back and get the goblin so many times. I wonder if the conclusion is him giving up and his head exploding, or if the goblin finally asks a riddle the King cannot answer. After twenty-two times of retrieving a body, I'm not sure I could handle it any more.

I also like the parallel structure within the stories. Like when the three brothers are tested about their expertise in Food, Women, Cotton. That sort of structure helps the story flowing nicely and I think I'll definitely make use of it.

(The goblin in the tree)

Bibliography: Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati translated by Arthur Ryder

Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 1-4, Part B

(A Roman mosaic from Piraeus depicting Medusa in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens)

(tw: rape mention)

From the second part of this week's readings, I wanted to focus on Perseus and Medusa...but more specifically, the last paragraph where the story of how Medusa came to have snakes for hair was told. I looked up Medusa's Wikipedia page to rad more about her, but as far as the actual myth goes, there isn't much information, and what is there are differing stories. Going with Ovid's telling, since it's the one I read this week, Medusa was raped by Neptune (Posideon) in Minerva's (Athena's) temple, so Minerva turned Medusa's hair to snakes and made her turn people to stone.

This goes along with my Part A reading notes where I talked about Juno's reactions and punishments for women that Jupiter had raped. This is a common theme in Greek mythology, but not one I am a fan of. Looking again to Wikipedia at a list of people who were raped in mythology in general, 9 out of 18 entrees are about Greek mythology. Out of those 9, 7 were raped by gods, 4 by Zeus specifically. This list is not complete, by any means. It leaves out Callisto, which I talked about last week, and I'm sure countless others. What I am not sure of, is why this trope persisted so much. It probably had something to do with people making excuses or wanting to tell a good story, and perhaps the parts about the angry goddesses Juno/Hera and Minerva/Athena were due to who told the story and something to do with gods being unable to rally harm other gods.

A messed up, interesting pattern.

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Bibliography: Ovid's Metamorphoses: Perseus and Medusa translated by Tony Kline

Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 1-4, Part A

The two stories I want to focus on this week are Phaethon's Ride and Callisto. These were the two stories I found more interesting and might was to retell for this week!

Phaethon's Ride

This story was similar to the famous story of Icarus in that a son ignores his father's warning and is consumed by fire as a result. I had never heard Phaethon's story before and I enjoyed reading it. Phaethon was a young man, overly confident in his parentage, who thought he could wield Phoebus' own chariot, even though he explained not even Jupiter himself could do so. It fits in with other classic tales warning against arrogance and pride. 

If I retell this story this week, I would leave Phaethon's actions the same, but maybe set it in more modern times and have Phaethon's horrible driving be like an unknown cause of global warming/climate change. That is was I was thinking about reading the section that detailed the consequences to the earth for his mistakes. 

(Phaéton on the Chariot of Apollo by Nicolas Bertin)

Callisto

(tw: rape mention)

This was another story I had never heard before, but this one really got me going. It's no secret Jupiter was never able to keep it in his pants, that I hate. What I also hate is how Juno always made it out to be the woman's fault, in this case Callisto, even though Jupiter raped her. Victim blaming was alive and well in ancient Rome and Greece. 

I really felt awful for Callisto in this story because she was thrown out by Diana when she realized Callisto was pregnant. Callisto lost everything and was then turned in to a freaking bear, almost killed by her own son, and then turned into a constellation. 

If I retell this story this week, I would want to change multiple things. first off, the setting. I would set it more modern in like a large city. Second, the character's would be different and I would have Diana and her followers be in like a girl gang. In my story, when Jupiter rapes Callisto, the gang would come together, not shun her, find and beat the hell out of Jupiter. We'll see, I guess! 

(Diana and Callisto by Peter Paul Rubens)

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Bibliography: Ovid's Metamorphoses: Phaethon's Ride and Callisto, translated by Tony Kline