My Blog for Myth and Folklore

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 ...