Week 12 Extra Reading Diary: The Canterbury Tales Continued

For an extra reading from the British unit, I chose to read the Canterbury Tales unit from the The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908). I really enjoyed the first half of the reading, so I was extremely excited to finish the unit and read some more. The Priest who Learned to be a Philosopher was probably my favorite story from the second half of the unit. I wasn't sure where it was going at first, but I really liked the set-up of a priest that only worked for the dead and who was so super nice and fun that he didn't even have to pay rent! I feel like that would be quite the motivation for college students to be extra nice because rent is by far our biggest expense in most cases! I was so sad when the priest ended up getting tricked so badly! I feel like it's kind of his own fault since he's a priest and he was trying to learn how to do magic. The trickster did go to great lengths to fool him though, so maybe the blame was shared. I always think it's fun to read about tricks and stuff, so this story was right up my alley!

Week 12 Reading Diary: Robin Hood Continued

This week I decided to read the Robin Hood unit from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child (1882-1898). I love that in the story with the Bishop Robin Hood actually fools him with his women's clothing! It seems so far-fetched that that would actually work. I also love that the story even included this because it's such a funny thing now to see movie stars or anyone dressed as another gender, so it's nice to know that it was a popular theme even way back when these ballads were sung! I loved the Maid Marian story because it was just so fun to hear about how awesome Marian was. She and Robin Hood were definitely the real deal, and it's obvious because even Little John was in on the Maid Marian worship. I would definitely want to include some sort of super beautiful awesome Maid Marian type in a storytelling post because she really seems to put everyone in Robin Hood's crew to shame with how much she likes Robin Hood. Robin Hood is such a master of disguise that I kind of can't believe people don't start catching him on it. It seems like he should be smarter by the time the King comes dressed in a disguise, but I guess in this time period how was a person supposed to know what a king or a Robin Hood actually looked like?

Bishop, by L. Rhead

Week 12 Reading Diary: Robin Hood

This week I decided to read the Robin Hood unit from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child (1882-1898). I decided on this purely because I liked King Arthur so much and because I really liked the Robin Hood cartoon when I was a kid. It was definitely different to read ballads instead of a normal story. I liked being able to kind of make up a tune or read it like poetry, but it did occasionally confuse me. However, I thought it was fairly easy to follow the plot and really understand where the story was going. I had never thought before how much Katniss from The Hunger Games is basically a futuristic Robin Hood, but she definitely is and it's awesome. I wish I could make a storytelling post as awesome as those books and movies! I've never done that much with bows and arrows, but I can see now that the appeal is great. I loved when Robin Hood met Little John because even though things didn't start out great, you could still tell that they admired each other and would totally end up as friends. I like Robin Hood because even though he is a good guy, he's still tricky and likes to have fun, like when he meets Allen a Dale. It's like Robin Hood never stops being a little kid, but in the best way. He's obviously a lot like Peter Pan, especially because they both like the wear a lot of green and have a sort of cult following among young men within their respective stories.

man dressed as Robin Hood, 2006