Mythology and Folklore (Spring 2021)

  What is always dreaded but also highly anticipated? Takes months to happen but finishes within two hours? Covers many pages of text in a few?                                        Answer: A final exam (Yay!) I can write thousands of words and not make a lick of sense. I can cover miles but never move more than a couple inches. When I am the color red, I mean error. But any other color can be just for fun. What am I?                              Answer: A pen ( One pen can write thousands of words, but they don't necessarily need to be coherent. A pen can be used to write many random words not relevant to each other. The ink in a pen can write for the equivalent of miles, but the pen itself stays within a small area. In school, we are used to red pen marks marking our mistakes and co...

 Grimm (Librivox): Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm Clever Elsie A girl, Clever Elsie, was to be married A man came to woo her, Hans, and said that she should be really smart if he was to marry her Said if she wasn't actually smart, then he wouldn't marry her At dinner, her mom asked Elsie to get some beer from the cellar She got a chair so she didn't hurt her back As she left the beer running into the pitcher, she saw a pick-ax the masons had left She thinks that if she and Hans were to have a kid, then the pick could fall and kill their son, so she began to weep A servant was sent down to find Elsie when she had not come up for a long time The servant heard Elsie screaming and weeping, and when Elsie explained why she was doing so, the maid began to weep with her, saying how clever she was A boy sent down and the same thing happened And then the same with the mom Then the father, and once again the same occurred Hans finally makes his way down there and Elsie explains th...

      The student had spent three hours straight perfecting their final. It had been a long semester in Cell Biology, but they could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Saving the final and turning it in, the student then went about their day, studying for their other finals.     Waking up the next day, the student found an email on their phone saying they would receive a zero if they didn't turn in their exam. The student had somehow managed to turn in a blank exam. After having a breakdown for five minutes, the student went about trying to find where their work had gone.      The student manage to find their final with  their answers and turned it in to their professor, getting an 89 on the whole thing. Basically my worst nightmare Author's Note:     So, I did microfiction again! But this time I used a personal story from last semester. Somehow I had managed to save my file with my answers in a different place. Thus I ...

 Margaret Hunt's  Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm Bearskin A young soldier fought in battle and when war was over, he was dismissed His parents were dead so he went to his brothers to ask them to take him in til war began again, but they said he could not do anything for them so he should make a living for himself So the young man was left with his gun, no money, and no trade He sat under a circle of trees when he saw a man with a cloven foot The man says he needs to know that the young man is fearless before he can give him money To prove the soldier is fearless, the man tells him to turn around, where he sees a bear The soldier shot the bear through the muzzle without hesitation the man then says there is another condition to meet He says the soldier can't bathe, comb his hair, cut his nails for 7 years he will be given a coat and cloak to wear within that time If the soldier dies during this time, he is the man's, but he will go free with riches if he su...

Margaret Hunt's Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm Thumbling   (2)   (3) The story begins with a peasant couple lamenting that they have no children The wife said she would be happy if they even had a kid the size of her thumb The wife became ill and gave birth to a thumb-sized child, which they named Thumbling As the kid grew up, he excelled at everything he did His father once went into the woods and wished someone could pull the cart for him, THumbling told him he would get it done The wife equips the cart with a horse and Thumbling spoke in the horse's ear as he was making his way, two men saw the miraculously moving cart and followed it Upon seeing the small kid, the two men offered to buy him from his father, who refused But Thumbling told him to sell him, for he would come back soon Thumbling slipped into a mouse-hole, escaping the men, and they were forced to head home After the men left, Thumbling found a snail-shell to spend the night in, as it was too ...

      There was once a famous cook, Jeanine, who could cook any individual a meal they were sure to love. Many were amazed at how the chef could instantly guess what kind of food an individual would like with just one glance. For months, the chef and her restaurant were the features of many news stations and magazine articles. The hype eventually died down, but it was still well known that the chef's restaurant was a necessary stop when in the town of Pixie, Missouri.      Jaxton, a young man fresh from culinary school, had always been amazed by the stories of Jeanine. In fact, he had become a chef so that he could someday impress people just like she had. Jaxton lived a couple towns over from Pixie and, after graduating culinary school, he decided to move to Pixie to work in Jeanine's restaurant. He had anxiously awaited a response after he had put his application in. Not even a week later, he had been called in for an interview and offered the job. The ne...

 Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod How Britomart did Battle for the Golden Girdle Last day of the tournament Satyrane was powering through field covered in broken weapons and shields and horses running wild Knights of Maidenhood coming out on top Then Artegall showed up, and quickly strikes down the other competitors Satyrane and his band left the field Prize for this was the golden girdle, which many wanted for selfish reasons, as it gave gift of constant love It would loosen on those who were false and fickle though Britomart won in the third day of the tournament and was given the girdle This kinda pissed Artegall off

  Faerie Queene - Britomart  by Mary Macleod How Britomart Looked into the Magic Mirror The princess, Britomart, is asked why she disguised herself as a knight and took on a journey She herself is the only heir to her father's kingdom She starts by saying she's been trained in the art of war since childhood and she can't live the boring life most ladies do From reports, she has heard that many adventures and famous dudes and ladies are to be found in Faerie Queene (Remember this is all a lie) She then says that Artegall has acted badly towards her, but this was a lie, as this was her future lover she was seeking Her companion tells her she is surely wrong as Artegall is a great man, which makes her happy Britomart asks her companion to tell her some distinctive characteristics of Artegall so she can recognize him when she sees him But she already knew what he looked like because she had seen his reflection in a magic mirror a long time ago, and he became her only love This ...

 Scrawls of pencil and ink cover the pages     Who's to know what the next stage is. She twiddles and fumbles, all with no sleep     All in the hope there will be rewards to reap. Now she is finished and sends off the bundle     Here's to hoping it won't just be locked in a trundle. Image Source: Peter Milosevic     I did the Nursery Rhymes unit this week, so I tried my hand at a short little story in the form of a rhyme. In case it's a bit difficult to tell, I was trying to depict the hard work of an author ! 😊

  The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang Lots of repetition and riddles aren't always clearly stated as riddles A lot of phrases are repeated with little bits of description added after each repetition Image Source: Emoji One contributors This Is the House That Jack Built There is repetition like the other stories, but this is a story that adds on a sentence or two each time and repeats the previous It begins with the house Jack built, then adds various animals to the story, such as a rat, then a cat, then a dog The story ends with the farmer, Jack, sowing his corn while married to a maiden, and they are awoken by a rooster

The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang     This is probably one of the weeks I was most excited for because we obviously all know a bunch of nursery rhymes, but what about the ones we don't know? There was a Crooked Man A crooked man once lived with all kinds of crooked things Even his pet cat was crooked and the cat caught a crooked mouse Their house was crooked as well SEE a pin and pick it up, All the day you'll have good luck; See a pin and let it lay, Bad luck you'll have all the day! This reminds me of picking up a penny to have good luck But there is the condition that the penny must be face up, otherwise it is bad luck Image by David Eppstein The Queen of Hearts A knave stole the queen's tarts and she beat him for it after being beaten, he never stole again Hickory Dickory Dock Like the 'catch a finger by his toe,' this rhyme is used to pick who is out or 'it' Whoever was pointed at when the last letter, T, was said, was chosen

      Kai had never been the worst in school, but she had also never been the best. However, her sophomore year math class was going terribly. She couldn't think of the last time she got a grade that was higher than a 65. Nine-week progress reports were going to be handed out in seventh hour and Kai needed to figure out how to slip out of this situation she was in. Her mom didn't expect to always come home with As, but she usually expected Kai to at least have Bs and Cs, and right now she had a D in math. She thought about hiding the report, but her mom would know something is up because another one could be printed even if she 'lost' it. By the end of the day, with her progress report in hand, Kai had decided she was going to lie to her mom. She wasn't proud about it, but it was the only way she could save her own behind. ~~~~~~     "Kai!! Why do you have a D in geometry?!' When she had arrived home, Kai had quickly handed her report off to her mom and spr...

   Eskimo Folk-Tales  (stories recorded by Knud Rasmussen) The Wife Who Lied A woman from a tribe that ate people became the wife of a man from a tribe that did not When she went to visit her own tribe, she put mittens on her feet so they'd think her husband's tribe was not treating her properly And so they prepared for war They attacked when all the men were out and killed all the women, but 3, and the ones they killed they stabbed through long poles The men instantly thought of the wife the men then prepared a counterattack and hid among the rocks before attacking One of the old women of the cannibal tribe had a dream about 2 creatures fighting, and the tribe believed this meant the other tribe was near The tribe set up a spirit calling, and when it begun they heard a dog on the house of a roof, alerting that the other tribe had come The cannibal tribesmen were killed and the women taken for wives, except for the original wife who was taken off by two men They cut throu...

  Eskimo Folk-Tales (stories recorded by Knud Rasmussen) The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago I might use this for further inspo for my flood storybook Earth was formed with hills and stones falling from the sky Men came about, as young children, crawling out of bushes, not knowing how to walk A man and a woman were there, the woman clothed the kids Men wanted to have dogs, so they whipped a dog leash and called out and dogs rushed forward But overpopulation became a problem, because these people did not know how to die, even in their old age To handle this, a flood was sent, and there are now less men, and we can see traces of this flood The first man to die tried to come back, because they did not know how to die With death, came sun, moon, and the stars Because when men die, they become the shining things in the sky Qalagánguasê, Who Passed to the Land of Ghosts There was a young boy whose parents and sister died This boy was paralyzed from the waist down and when he was ho...

  Pretty Flowers and Bear Pals     "Don't wander too far Ian!" Ian ignored the yell of the head of the orphanage and continued on his way into the forest to look for pretty flowers. He liked to collect flowers and then press them in his journal he had gotten last Christmas. Each page had at least three flowers pressed, as Ian did not want to waste any of the space among the pages. After wandering for five minutes, the young boy saw a path he had yet to travel down. Ian quickly changed the path of his footsteps and began to head down the newfound path. Wow! So many new kinds of flowers!  The path was lined with flowers of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Most of which the boy had never seen before. Ian quickly unzipped his jacket and tied it into a makeshift bag so he could carry all the flowers back with him. Just around the bend, he could see a GIGANTIC flower, and it was his favorite color too! The boy took off running towards the huge purple flower, only realizing t...

  The Life of Buddha  (by Andre Ferdinand Herold) Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha Siddhartha had left his home, becoming a hermit and experiencing other things In meditation, S sees the awfulness of rebirth He contemplates the reason for existing and has a waterfall of thoughts connecting existence to tires to desire to sensation to contact to the senses to name and form to perception to impression to ignorance So he concludes ignorance is the root of death, old age, suffering, and despair Concludes that leading a life of holiness will lead to suppression of desire and thus end the endurance of birth and suffering    after this contemplation, Siddhartha was now Buddha Siddhartha Deserted by His First Disciples S decided to meditate by the Nairanjana During this time, he stopped breathing because he was so engrossed in thoughts The Gods thought him to be dead, and his mother, Maya, who now lived among the Gods came down to see him and wept and spread flowers over his bo...

 For this week, I decided to do the readings of The Life of Buddha  (by Andre Ferdinand Herold) because I am interested in using the idea of the story-telling method of the jakartas. These stories are all told by one individual, the Master, which is Buddha. In my own storybook, I am using a village chief as the overarching story teller. Maya's Dream  and  The Birth of Siddhartha   Tells the story of the family Buddha picked to be born into, a family of a king and queen Maya was suddenly able to heal all kinds of ailments Queen Maya insists that her child be born amidst flowers, and the king, Suddhodana, allowed this request The garden was embellished with silver and gold A whole procession brought Maya to where she would have her child A cleansing light traveled throughout, healing all Buddha was originally given the name Siddhartha Asita's Prediction Buddha was to be the one who saved the people from rebirth Asita tells the king he received this honor because o...

      At this point in the semester, I think I have been pretty happy with the way I am progressing, though I haven't had the chance to do extra credit. The assignments that I enjoy the most are the reading notes and story writing, and my project of course! One thing I think I could work on though is my weekly routine, as I tend to be kind of inconsistent with completing my assignments. Working on my blog and website for my storybook have gone better than I thought, considering how technologically challenged I am.     Going forward, I want to try doing some extra credit work. I also want to try connecting some of my previous short stories with later short stories, combining elements from different stories together. As for my blog and website, I am content with their content and layout so far, so I hope that trend continues. A cute kitty hanging in there, just like I will!

      The feedback from other students really helps, as they have a totally different perspective and can provide suggestions. I also have a tendency to mess up small grammar things, which I don't really notice when I reread my stories myself, so I appreciate it when those little mistakes are pointed out. I would like to think that I have gotten better at leaving feedback as the weeks have gone by. I have always been pretty bad at noticing little mistakes, but I do tend to comment on the content of stories and make suggestions on how to expand the story.     Reading new introductions every week is really fun because I get to see all the different personalities that are in this class. It is also cool to read someone's intro and then read their stories because you can better see their personality shining through. For my own intro, I am glad that I get to hear about people with similar interests and stories, as my small town really had limited diversity.   ...

  Looking Back     I think the reading notes are really helpful for writing stories, as I tend to have vague impressions when I don't actively read and take notes. So far, I am still pretty content with the layout of my blog and website, but this might change as the semester goes on. For my reading notes, I have found a way to look out for the main points of the stories instead of getting caught up in little details. I think having the goal of 'reading like a writer' really helps when taking notes because I think of what the main components of the story are. So far, I really enjoyed the stories from the    Twenty-Two Goblins  and the premise of the king having to solve riddles that show how intelligent he is, but also cause him to work harder. My puppies are my happy place when I need a break from school work and writing! (Original image featuring our girls: Quinn, Stormy, and Toph) Looking Forward     So far, I am pretty pleased with my progress ...