My Blog for Myth and Folklore

After becoming a captain of my own ship, I took off from earth and quickly left the atmosphere, piloting my ship on a well-known trading route to various planets which were friendly toward earth and toward exchange. We carried with us all sorts of things, that though common to us, were novelties where we were going. Everything was fine until the ship stalled. The maintenance workers were sure they could fix it but in the meantime, as we were passing a small planet which appeared to be uninhabited, I gave permission to send a small ship down so the crew could look about.  I joined them and fairly soon we were down on the rocky surface of the planet. We hadn't gotten far when the ground beneath us jolted and we were thrown off our feet. There was another shudder and I realized we were not standing on a planet but on a giant monster! I even glimpsed its head before it lurched again.  Several of the crew members were launched off the monster's back; the rest ...

Here is a photo of a fox, which appeared in several of the stories, photo credit:  pixnio Here are my second notes from my favorite parts of the  Chinese Fairy Book  by R. Wilhelm, translated by Frederick H. Martens. The Little Hunting Dog A man lived by himself but was plagued with fleas and gnats. One day a swarm of tiny hunters, no more than two inches tall, arrived with hunting dogs and falcons. They killed all the fleas and gnats and then went away again. However, they left behind one hunting dog. The man made it a home in a box and every day the dog searched his bed and killed all the fleas. One night, the dog climbed into his bed to sleep with him but the man rolled over and squished it. Fox-Fire A poor man saw a fox breathing out an elixir of life. He crept up and stole it and ate it. For years, he could interact with the spirit world. He helped people with illnesses and became rich from the gifts of the grateful. One night he felt someone patting his b...

For this week, I read the readings from China, parts of the Chinese Fairy Book  by R. Wilhelm, translated by Frederick H. Martens. This unit is a bunch of individual stories. I have separated them out and written notes on my favorites below: The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck The daughter of an emperor who was born with bad luck marries a beggar because she believes he has good luck, which will change her own. Her father banishes her for this and she lives in poverty for eighteen years, while her husband leaves to find his fortunes. When he returns, he has become an emperor himself. He takes her to his palace and rewards her for waiting faithfully, however, because of her bad luck, she dies after eighteen days. Her luck never changes. The Cave of Beasts A father with seven daughters finds seven duck eggs which he wants to share with his wife, however, his wife gives them to the girls. The father is angered and takes two of the girls to leave in the mountai...

This week was a difficult one! I had two exams in Tax and Advanced Corporate Finance on the same day and I had to learn a piano duet with a classmate. Because of that and because we are short staffed right now at work and I am filling in, I missed one assignment in this class this week but I am making up for it now with some extra credit. I am also trying to knock out some of next weeks assignments today so that I don't feel so stressed in the future. Already, I know that it is just going to get busier. I have a team project in Audit to start, more exams on the horizon, and lots of other assignments here and there. I feel like the semester is in full swing and if I get too far behind I won't catch up. But as for this class, I really liked the reading I did this week. I did Arabian Nights last week and Sinbad this week which is a story inside Arabian Nights, so it kind of felt like a continuation of things I already read. It was a fun story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I a...

I hadn't heard of Padlet before but it was interesting to work with and very easy to use. I liked that we all were able to add pictures of our pets in one space. It was fun to scroll through and see all of my classmates animals. It is a good way to learn about everyone since we are in an online class. If you want to see my cat, here is the link . Just look for Pester.

The Voyages of Sinbad  from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang Sinbad leaves on his fifth journey, using his own ship this time, however, he invites other merchants to come along. During the trip, they stop and find another roc egg. This one is hatching. The other merchants, despite Sinbads protests, kill the hatchling and eat it. The rocs parents return and chase the fleeing ship with large stones. One hits the ship and it sinks. Sinbad clings to a piece of driftwood until he reaches an island. Once there he finds groves of fruit trees and an old man wishing to cross a river. Sinbad takes him on his back and helps him across, however, the man clings to his neck with his feet and for several days, forces Sinbad to help him collect fruit from the trees. Sinbad uses a hollow gourd to make wine and the man drinks it, at which point Sinbad knocks him off. He returns to the seashore and meets some merchants who take him to a village where he can collect coconut...

The Voyages of Sinbad  from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang This tale was within the Arabian Nights story which I had already read. In it, Sinbad the sailor, who has met another Sinbad, is telling his story. He began as an idle rich man but decided to become a merchant. On his first trip, they had stopped at an island which turned out to be a whale. He was plunged into the ocean and the ship left without him. He managed to float to a real island where he found some grooms which took him to their king. He was accepted into the country and meets with the arriving merchants to find passage back to his homeland.  He by chance meets with the captain of the ship he was originally on and once he convinces the captain who he is, he gets his original merchandise back. He gives some of it to the king, who gives him gifts in return, and sells the rest. When he gets home, he is even richer than before and lives contentedly for a while but then sets sail again. ...

The Coming of the Genie  Author's Note  In order to give background for my story, I thought I would put my author's note first. This is based on Arabian Nights, in which, the Sultan's wife, Scheherazade is telling her husband stories in order to keep him from killing her. She tells a tale of a merchant who has been threatened with death by a genie. Three men came along and told their tales and finally a third man will tell his. If each of their tales are better than the previous one, the genie will spare the merchant's life. The first man told a tale about the deer he was with. It was his wife, they had no children so he adopted the child of a servant. The wife was jealous so she turned the boy and his mother into a calf and cow. The cow was slaughtered but the steward's daughter saved the calf and turned him back human. They married and she turned the bad wife into a deer. The second man came with two dogs. They were his brothers and were wicked. They...

Arabian Nights   retold by Andrew Lang  The second part of the Arabian Nights was the entire story of Aladdin and the Lamp told by Scheherazade to the Sultan. It was very different from the Disney version. Aladdin retrieves the lamp, however, he has another genie in a ring given to him by a magician. He then competes with the Vizir's son for the Sultan's daughter. He wins and builds her a palace, however, the magician from the beginning comes back and steals her, the genie of the lamp, and the palace away. Aladdin has to find her and with her help, he tricks the magician and kills him. He and his wife return to her father's land but the magician's younger brother comes to avenge the first magician's death. Aladdin defeats him and lives happily ever after. I can see where Disney got their story from but it certainly is different. And of course, all of this is a story told by Scheherazade as well. It was difficult to remember that at first, however, there were c...

For this week's reading, I chose Arabian Nights. I have wanted to read it for a while and I am glad I am finally getting a chance to start it. Arabian Nights   retold by Andrew Lang  In this story, a Sultan, Schahriar, is betrayed by his wife. Because of this, he hates women and marries one each day and has her killed in the morning. His grand-vizir is in charge of providing the women, against his will. One of his daughters, Scheherazade, vows to put an end to this and has her father choose her as the Sultan's next bride. That night, she begins a story and ensures to leave it unfinished in the morning so that the Sultan will spare her in order to hear the rest of the story the next night. However, whenever she finishes one story, she starts another so that he continues to spare her in order to hear her stories. One thing I noticed was that often times, Scheherazade's stories have something to do with someone being treated unfairly or being threatened with death, as ...

For the extra reading this week, I read: The General Prolog, Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, retold by Tony Kline freebookapalooza This is the very beginning of the Canterbury Tales when everything is laid out. It is told that Chaucer, the narrator, meets up with twenty-nine pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and they accept him into the group. Then, the pilgrim are introduced extensively. The first to be mentioned is the knight, who is traveling with his son, a squire. There are also clergy members such as a monk, nuns, and priests. Some of these, Chaucer seems to esteem, others, he chastises, particularly members of the clergy who live lavishly. Once they are introduced, it is proposed they have a storytelling competition to pass the time on their journey. They will tell two stories on the way there and two on the way back. The winner will get a free meal when they return to their starting place. Lastly, the knight is chosen as the first storyteller. Here is a picture of the c...

Photo Credit:  goodfreephotos Here is the link to my story project:  Tales on a Train It is a modern retelling of the Canterbury Tales with new characters and a new setting. 

For this assignment, I started with the article about the Canterbury Tales, since that is what I am working on for my project. First article:  The_Canterbury_Tales This one is very intensive and covers not only a premise of the story but also a historical context, the themes, and the style of the writing. I imagine I am going to use this article a lot when I begin working on my project. From this article, there are links to all the other sections and a bunch of pictures of the different pilgrims. Second article:  General_Prologue This is the prologue and the beginning of the story. It not only gives a premise to the storytelling competition, it gives a background of the pilgrims and their destination. I am going to use a similar premise in my project and will refer to this article when I am working on my introduction. One thing I am debating is whether I will have a "Geoffrey Chaucer" character in my story. In the original, the author inserted himself into the tale, I d...

For my Lab this week, I decided to research my storybook project. I have lots of ideas but I am still in the preliminary stages of planning, so I thought now would be a good time to do some research into the topic. I am pretty sure I want to do a modern retelling of the Canterbury Tales with new characters but I don't know what kind of trip I want them to be on. I thought a train might be a good idea since a plan would be too noisy for storytelling, so I looked up some pictures of trains. This helped me envision a setting and also gave me some destination ideas since the websites were for specific trains traveling to specific places. Here are some pictures of train dining cars, perhaps where my storytellers will come together: Train out of Washington DC  wikimedia Train in Austria  wikimedia And there were plenty of more in Australia, Canada, India, England, Italy, etc. I still haven't decided where my travelers will be headed or for what purpose yet but thi...