Mythology and Folklore (Spring 2021)

     Last week, I talked a lot about the ideas that I want to carry out in my storybook, so here is a link to that: Topic Research Week 3 . This post describes the three stories that I plan on writing so far. I am still looking into the myths in further detail, so I have yet to polish the basic premises of the stories.     As for my source material, I have three main stories that I want to use as the primary inspiration for my short stories:     The Buddhist flood myth found in a collection of jatakas. I really want to use this story as inspiration, not only because I find the storyline interesting but also because I am not very familiar with any Buddhist stories. Also, this story follows a slightly different narrative than most flood myths, what with the flood affecting only a single island and the involvement of spirits.     The first story that got me interested in focusing on floods is the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha told by Ovid. This ...

 Storybook Link: Here Come the Floods Hello! Any and all feedback is really appreciated!     I have always been a science person so writing is definitely not my forte. Nevertheless, I do rather enjoy writing on occasion and feedback is always helpful when I find myself trying to write a narrative.

      The Salamander and the Reed           Once, a young little salamander was taking a meander around the pond it lived at. The salamander's mom had warned the little one to be careful on their journey, and be on the lookout for any predators. The walk was hardly enjoyable, with the salamander swinging their head continuously to keep an eye out for danger. There! The young salamander saw something moving amongst the grass and dived into a nearby puddle, a predator surely on their tail. The salamander spent the whole day in hiding, while the rest of the salamanders watched a reed sway peacefully in the breeze. Enjoy a puppy! (Because apparently, my blog won't let me upload my pic of a baby salamander) The Salamander and the Reed (condensed)     Their mother had warned and so the salamander was on their toes. Though perhaps a bit too on their toes, hiding in fear from a reed subject to the breeze. Author's Note:     I got...

  The Serpent and the File   from Aesop's Fables (Jacobs) A snake went into an armor shop and pricked itself on a file while slithering across the floor The snake tried to attack the file, but couldn't, as it is an inanimate object ' It is useless attacking the insensible ' The snake had to release his anger without an outlet This file looks pretty harmless, but I'm sure the one the serpent encountered was a bit sharper. The Frog and the Ox  from Aesop's Fables (Jacobs) A frog saw a big ox and told his father, who said that surely the ox was barely bigger than the father frog The father frog continually puffed himself up every time his son said that the ox was bigger Eventually, he puffed so much that he burst Your ego can be the death of you Frog!       I think I want to try to combine these two stories somehow for my writing this week, as I think the two could complement each other in a way.

  Androcles and the Lion   (From Aesop's Fables (Jacobs))     I have read this story before in an intermediate Latin course, so I am familiar with the story, and it's honestly pretty interesting to see the king of beasts act like a house pet Androcles, a slave, escaped from his master and wandered into the forest where he found a lion in pain He at first ran from the lion, but the lion didn't chase, so he came closer and saw a thorn in its paw, which he helped remove The lion took him back to his cave and took care of him, feeding and acting like a dog The two were later captured, with the slave to be thrown to a lion, but low and behold, the lion he was thrown to was the one he befriended The lion recognized Androcles and greeted him like a puppy would Androcles explained the story to the emperor who released and freed the slave and released the lion into the forest A picture of one of my own puppies! (Her name is Toph)

      The feedback gallery was way more useful than I honestly expected it was going to be, as it lays out some clear examples on how to successfully give feedback. I have always been assigned assignments in which I had to give feedback to other students, but before this course, I had never been taught just how  to give feedback. Suggesting ways to expand the story as well as asking questions about the content of the story seem like really good strategies to me, because they really get the writer to think about their writing more in-depth. Feedback: It's how we improve upon ourselves! How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk     Like the feedback gallery, this article gives a lot of good methods for feedback, especially when that feedback is more on the negative side. Explaining your viewpoint and how you yourself have benefitted from feedback is something that I think would be really helpful to me if someone were giving me feedback. The compliment san...

     Flood myths are found in many variations across the world, from Ancient Rome to Biblical times. Many historians have theorized that these stories are because of geology , as many geological natural disasters can be connected back to some flood myths. For this initial research project, I looked into a few different flood myths, trying to take inspiration from a couple of them, but primarily stick with Deucalion and Pyrrha (or some other version of them) as the main characters. In particular, I think I want to use a lot of inspiration from a Buddhist flood myth, which is a bit unique from others. In my previous readings notes (part A) from week 3, I covered the basics of Ovid's Deucalion and Pyrrha. For the Buddhist flood myth, there are similar overarching elements, but it varies in some significant details from the flood stories of other cultures. In the Buddhist tale, a group of lazy carpenters were banished from their town and came to an island where the only rule ...

      Somehow it had gotten out that Eli's older sister was Katie, the awesome senior who threw amazing parties throughout high school. Which, is cool and all, until you consider the fact that Eli is the complete opposite of Katie, barely leaving his room long enough to even hold a conversation with their stepdad. He doesn't even remember how it got out, the two of them only have an age gap of two years, so it's not like they're suddenly in the same school or anything. Why does it have to be now?! Midterms are coming up and I have so much studying to get done . Now that everyone knew he and Katie were related, all the other kids in his class were suddenly expecting him to throw a bomb party. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Okay, but why can't you help me," Eli whined," after all, it is kind of your fault in the first place!" Rolling her eyes, Katie rapidly turned around to face her whiny little brother, "I don't see how you being an antisocial nerd is...

  Ovid's Metamorphoses: Perseus and Andromeda Perseus is a son of Zeus and a mortal woman He borrowed winged shoes from Hermes before taking off on his journey, during which he defeated Medusa, turned the Titan Atlas into a mountain, defeated a sea monster, and found himself a wife While journeying back after cutting off Medusa's head, Perseus came across the land of Atlas and asked if he could rest on the land The Titan remembered a prophecy that said his tree would be stripped of the gold it possessed by a son of Jupiter (Zeus) He refused to let Perseus stay and so Perseus direct Medusa's head at the massive Titan, who subsequently turned to stone and sprouted trees, becoming a mountain After his encounter with Atlas, Perseus moves on and comes across Andromeda, who is tied to a rock to be sacrificed to a sea monster because her mom was cocky about how hot she was Perseus promises to defeat the sea monster and asks for Andromeda's hand in marriage, which her parents q...

      *I took notes on two different stories from Part A, as one is a story that I plan on doing my Storybook on this semester. The two below stories are from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 1-4) Deucalion and Pyrrha Zeus sends flood because he's not happy with man, and is helped by Poseidon One of many flood myths, which are found across time and different cultures Deucalion and Pyrrha (spouses, and cousins) ask for the help of Themis as to what to do when they survive the flood Structures and buildings destroyed, those that aren't are submerged completely animals mixed up in the water, sea animals where land used to be Those not swept away die from starvation Deucalion and Pyrrha land on Mount Parnassus, they worshipped gods of the mountains, Corycian nymphs, and goddess of oracles, Themis Pyrrha with great reverence for gods and Deucalion with a fondness for justice and was a virtuous man Zeus saw the two remaining, who were lovers of the gods and both innocent, so he call...

      I myself have always been bad at giving others helpful feedback, mostly because of fear of being rude or being unhelpful. In high school, I took a few English classes at OCCC, during which we had to give feedback to our classmates on their papers, and this feedback was a recorded grade. I usually found myself overthinking what I was going to say because I wanted to be helpful and not just shut down everything someone may have spent hours perfecting. Why It's So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback     When reading this article, it instantly brought me to why I myself hate to leave feedback, because it can often be negative. However, this article points out that it is important to note that it is given with good faith and we should be open and honest when giving negative feedback. I have found that I do tend to avoid negative feedback, but I know that I make mistakes and there is no way they're going to be solved if I don't figure out how exactly the mistake occu...

  Ovid's Metamorphoses: Deucalion and Pyrrha     The first topic I'm interested in creating a storybook about is one of Ovid's works, depicting the sole survivors of a flood: Deucalion and Pyrrha. I have actually personally translated the original version of this story from Latin to English in one of my intermediate prose classes, and have recently touched on their story in another of my classes this semester. Ovid's Metamorphoses  provide a really nice baseline for rewriting stories, I believe, as there are so many elements that you can play around with in his stories. I could also bring in other elements from Greco-Roman mythology, as it is an interesting story bank to pull from. The story of Deucalion and Pyrrha also has many different versions, describing different reasons for the flood or the different ways the two survived the flood. Tales such as that of Deucalion and Pyrrha would be fun to integrate with a more modern-day setting, or perhaps in a dystopian se...

      So maybe this whole going on a self-discovery trip without technology wasn't the best idea . The young girl was pretty sure this was the fifth time she had seen that exact tree, or maybe she hadn't seen that tree at all? Gosh, who knows which trees she has and hasn't seen, she just wants to go home! All those inspirational Instagram pages always talk about going on a trip into the wild to connect with your inner self or some kind of crap along those lines. She totally wouldn't have even considered it if it hadn't been a group trip. They were all supposed to be together, enjoying their time with each other without technology! But why is she now alone? Crack . The girl whipped around, "Who's out there? Izzy, is that you? Don't try and scare me!" She yelled into the dark night, hearing no response. Maybe I'm just hearing things . The girl shrugged it off and continued to trudge through the woods she found herself lost in for over an hour. As...

 Story Origin:     Teton Lakota Traditional ghost story elements:     A man by himself encounters ghosts during the night.     The first ghost seems as if she had been an illusion, and the man found a burial scaffold. A very traditional element in ghost and horror stories, with the burial grounds or grave of the previously encountered ghost being found after the encounter.     This first ghost was also dressed in clothes of older times, as are typically encountered in ghost stories, as the olden clothing adds to the creepy atmosphere of encountering a ghost.          The woman also physically touches the man, almost cutting his limbs when he appeared to be dead.     The second ghost was a man made of bones, who had been wandering the woods while singing, a creepy atmosphere piece we are all familiar with. Special elements:     The man wrestles with the second ghost, who promises him victory in his ...

  Classical : Week 3 and 4 Week 3: Ovid's Metamorphoses Week 4: Aesop (Jacobs)   Middle Eastern : Week 5  Indian : Week 6 Week 5: Ancient Egypt Week 6: Twenty-Two Goblins   Asian : Week 7 African : Week 9 Week 7: China Folk Tales Week 9: Stories from Congo   Native American : Week 10 & 11 Week 10: Alaskan Legends Week 11: Eskimo Folk Tales   British : Week 12 & 13 Week 12: Nursery Rhymes Week 13: The Faerie Queene   European : Week 14 & 15 Week 14: Brothers Grimm (Hunt) Week 15: Grimm (LibriVox)     There are several weeks that I am pretty excited about this semester, primarily the next 4 weeks and the last four weeks of the semester. I am a huge fan of somewhat grim tales or stories that deviate from the traditional happy ending or predictable ending. I also enjoy learning about the gods and goddesses of different cultures, so I selected a few stories that detail the deities of other cultures. For the Native American unit, I am r...