Reading Notes Part A: Italian Popular Tales

In this section I read one story in particular that sounded very familiar. The name of the story is Zelinda and the Monster. In the story, there are three daughters who ask their father for certain gifts as he goes off to the market. One asks only for a rose. The father, unable to find any wild roses, carefully enters a well-kept garden and picks a rose from a rose bush. A terrible monster appears and tells him that he must bring his daughter to the castle. It was at this point that I recognized the connection to one of my favorite Disney movies growing up, Beauty and the Beast. 

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From Zelinda and the Monster, a part of Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane. Link to story

Reading: The Brothers Grimm Part B

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The second half of the storybook was a little less violent it in my opinion. It also housed less common stories than the first half. There was, however, one story that has many versions. The Hedgehog and the Hare was about a race between the two. The hedgehog tricks the rabbit in a race, and the rabbit eventually runs himself to death. In most iterations of the story it is a turtle that races the hare. Another story that caught my eye was the one about the animals' years. When multiple animals go before the Lord he dishes out a fair amount of life to each one until the human comes up. Not satisfied with the measly thirty years that he is offered the human asks for more and more. God finally relents and gives him the years he subtracted from all the other animals. The story ends by explaining how the years are not always a good thing for the human.

From Dan Ashliman's Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Stories. Link to story

Reading Notes: The Brothers Grimm Part A

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This section contained the darker versions of a lot of stories many people heard as we were growing up. A weirdly common theme in the stories was the cutting open of wolves' bellies and placing stones inside (WHILE STILL ALIVE!!). I think the most interesting story was The Singing Bone. It had some traces of Cain and Abel, although the circumstances of the story were much different. I believe that I could add a little Macbeth and really make it fun.

Based on The Singing Bone from The Grimm Brother's Children's and Household Tales. Link to Story 

More Reading: Nursery Rhymes

This was my first time reading many of these nursery rhymes. Most were just simple little jingles about nothing at all, but some were actually kind of deep. I really just found myself reading them for the flow and simplicity. I guess that's why they've been a favorite of young kids for a long time. They're easy to understand and memorize.

From The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang. Link to rhymes

Unicorn and Lion

Reading Notes: Billy Duffy and the Devil

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Billy Duffy and the Devil. It's always kind of cool to see the ways in which the characters fool the Devil or Death in order to prolong their lives and such. It usually catches up to them, but Billy was able to fool him until the very end. I thought that once he reached hell the Devil would have something extremely bad worked up for him to do for eternity, but instead Billy put him in his place one more time. I also found it funny that the Celts owned their affinity for drinking and expressed it by saying Billy was typical in that he only worked until he had enough money to buy his booze. If Billy had been less self-centered and instead of squandering everything on booze and gambling, he may actually have been able to help people out. 

From the story Billy Duffy and the Devil, and excerpt from Welsh Fairy Tales and Other Stories by Peter Emerson. Link to story 

A man and the Devil
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales and Other Stories Part A

This reading was predominantly about fairies and their battles against witches and other evil-doers. I think that it's awesome that the Welsh decided to give a phenomenon that they noticed such as fairy rings such an awesome back story. In most cases, the fairies could only use their magic to reverse curses and such, but require a human to actually inflict harm on the bad people. I wouldn't mind seeing a fairy taking on a more prominent role.

Man-made Fairy Ring
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Ballads of Robin Hood

The tale of how Robin met Little John has been told and retold, and every now and then changed to a humorous story. Reading this reminded me of "Robin Hood: Men In Tights" when Little John falls into the brook which may be four inches deep at most, and thinks that he's drowning. It's fun to read the original tale without any embellishment.

From The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child. Link to story

Robin Hood and Little John
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Reading Notes Part B: Tales of the Round Table

I've been interested in middle English writing ever since I read The Canterbury Tales in high school. The stories of King Arthur and his knights of the round table are just as great, if not better, in my opinion. The story of the White Knight and Sir Galahad was a little confusing. I wasn't sure if the White Knight was supposed to represent an angel or not, but it seemed that he was otherworldly because he told a knight that no earthly being should know his name. After telling Galahad he should wield the shield, he leaves. From there, Galahad returns to the Abbey and confronts some sort of fiend. However, the fiend can't attack him because it sees angels around him. I'm not sure if this is because Galahad is very pure, or the shield wields the power of angels. These stories are really inspiring me to write a story of knights.

Sir Lancelot and an unkown knight
Source: Wikipedia

Reading Notes Part A: Stories of King Arthur

Vivien sends Merlin underground
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One story in particular stood out to me from this unit. The Passing of Merlin is a very sad story. It details him falling so hopefully in love that it eventually kills him. Rather, the woman he loves kills him to be rid of him. I just think that it's so sad that we as humans have so many emotions that we can't control. A lot of the time, acting solely on emotions alone leads to one's undoing, as evidenced in the story. However, it's these experiences colored by emotions which we can't control which give events and situations in our lives special meanings.

From King Arthur: Stories of the Round Table by H.J. Ford
Link to story 

Extra Reading Week 10: Saints and Animals

This was pretty new because I don't think I had ever read a ballad about saints and such before. It was very entertaining, and surprisingly descriptive at the same time. I can't believe what some people can do while rhyming at the same time. Athracta's stags was a very fun story to read.

Based on the reading Athracta's Stags from the Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts. Link to reading

Stags
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Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee Part A

Possum  Source

I always enjoy reading the stories about how each animal came to be the way it is. This time, I found the story of the (O?)Possum very amusing. I guess that the rabbit grew tired of hearing how great the tail was, and finally decided to do something about it. As much as the Possum gloated at the dance I can't say I blame him. In my story for the week I may write about how a certain animal came to be the way it is because it seems fun.


Story from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900) Link to story

Reading Notes: Biblical Stories

I have read the book of Genesis a few times, and it's still one of my favorite parts of the bible. The fall of Lucifer, who was once perfect, and the Lord's favorite angel, is one of the deepest stories in the bible in my opinion. It is almost like one of Aesop's fables regarding ambition. Because Lucifer believed himself to be so perfect he could rival our Creator himself, he was cast away from heaven. 

From The Legends of Jews by Louis Ginzberg   Link to Story

The Fall of Satan   Source

Reading Notes: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest Part B

It's really funny to me how most of the folk stories that we read use animals as the main or supporting cast with human qualities. Sometimes when they are telling the story I imagine "crow" not actually being a crow, but a person with the name Crow. Wind is another example from The Children of Cloud. I wonder if the author was trying to say that there was a man who controlled all wind, or if there was only wind at the house. Either way I don't really understand how a cloud can have a child unless they mean that his children were literally lightning and thunder.

Notes on The Children of Cloud from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest 

Link to story

Lightning   Source

Reading Notes: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest part A

Earth Wikimedia Commons

While reading through part a of the reading notes this week, I came upon Spider's Creation. There were some really strange parts such as the parcels that he sang into people and the fact that the spider sang everything into existence. I plan to go a route that uses a spider's actual talents instead of weirdly singing.

From "Spider's Creation" from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Judson    Link to story

Reading Notes: The Fish and the Leopard's Wife

At the beginning of the story I found it quite funny that the fish originated on land. The story has some betrayal that I don't really have any biological explanation for, namely the goings on between a fish and a leopard's wife. I would probably change the setting to undersea and have the punishment that they had to go on land, thus populating the land.

From The Fish and the Leopard's Wife by Elphinstone Dayrell Link to reading

A Spotted Leopard   Source: Mythology and Folklore

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology Part B

Yamato is obviously a great hero and such, but unlike Heracles/Hercules I don't really understand why he's doing the labors. He begins by trying to win over a siren by finding a golden apple for her. However, when he fails to do that he seems to forget that and starts running around and doing other things. All the while, he leaves his poor wife to waste away in loneliness. Another classic example of someone chasing things they can't have while the things that they love suffer. This is a very common theme in stories from all over the world it seems. I may change things up and make a duo out of Yamato and Tacibana that do most of these labors, not because they want to win over a siren or anything like that, but because the king charged them with the responsibility because Yamato failed him in some way.

Yamato and the Fire.   Source: Mythology and Folklore

Reading Notes:Japanese Mythology Part A

The beginning of the story is a jumbled mess of how the world was created. I always kind of dislike the beginnings of these when one goddess gives birth to hundreds of offspring. It just makes it a little hard to keep up with. Izanagi's pursuit of Izanami's soul after her death is a really cool part of the story. It really speaks to his love for her. Maybe I could expand upon that chase in my story. Another cool thing would be setting the chase in Greek mythology. The chase could take inspiration from the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the story Orpheus travels all the way to the underworld and asks permission to take his wife back. I feel like Izanagi would go to drastic lengths  to make sure this happens seeing as how he is a god himself.

From Romance of Old Japan, Part 1: Mythology and Legend by E.W. Champney and F. Champney

Izanagi stirs the sea with his magical spear, creating land.  Source:Mythology and Folklore

Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphasis part A

The very first thing I noticed is that if one doesn't have a very solid basis on who each character is in Roman mythology, it is going to be very hard to stay with the stories. If the stories could be put in layman's terms for us non-8th century philosophers, I believe it would help quite a lot. Things get really intense really fast with the rape of Persephone. Persephone's mother is absolutely mad for much of the story. It seems that she's also a bit mad at her daughter for some reason, even though everything happened against her will. If I were writing a story based on this, I would probably still try and stay away from the romantic route, but also make the story a bit less harsh.

From Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000). Link to source

Persephone breaks her fast.  Source: Mythology and Folklore

Reading Notes: Anasi and Nothing

The One Ring  Source:Wikipedia

This week I read the short stories of the trickster spider Anansi from the West African Folktales. I am thinking of crossing the story of Anansi with that of Shelob, a very large and very frightening spider from one of my favorite trilogies, The Lord of the Rings. Anansi's tricks are relatively harmless when compared with the single-minded killer Shelob. However, I believe that it would not be all that hard to put a really dark twist on the folktales that would better reflect the enormous predator.


West African Folktales by Barker and Sinclair: Link to the reading online

Reading Notes: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

Walt Disney's Aladdin   Source: flickr

I was pretty fascinated by this version of the story. I loved the Disney movie Aladdin when I was growing up, but this had a lot darker tone to it. I think that I might replace the magic lamp with some other "magic object". I was also confused whenever the genie became angry and referred to the roc as his master. I'll do a little research into that topic and maybe use the roc's egg instead of the lamp. I may also use an Aladdin who was rich previous to discovering the object, and the magician may be someone who intends to take over his palace and/or riches. I may decide to start my story many years after the happenings of the other story. A possible setting is Aladdin is an old man and afraid of dying, and the genie can't do  anything for him. He then hears of something which could restore his and his wife's youth. He starts out on a journey and realizes how dependent he has become on the genie to do things for him. If I take this route I may place this "fountain of youth" or whatever I choose somewhere in North Africa or maybe South America.


From Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang Link to the reading online