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Tuesday, April 5, 2016
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.
Week 11 Reading Diary: King Arthur Continued
This week I'm reading King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang. This focus for the second half of the reading was much less on Arthur and much more on Lancelot. I like Galahad and Arthur much better for Lancelot because Lancelot doesn't have the best character in the world. I would not exactly describe him as galant, whereas Arthur and Galahad are really nice and kind and seem to be even better knights for that reason. I didn't really understand the whole Holy Graal thing until I wikipedia searched it. Between that and the Perilous Siege, there's a lot of confusing names of things in these King Arthur stories. Gawaine also seems like a less good knight, but that could be just because I don't like his name as much. Galahad is a really great name. I really liked that Sir Bors had to wear a different sort of garment until he fulfilled his quest. Little quirky stuff like that can really take a story from average to excellent just because I would have never thought of something so different. Everyone should have to wear a scarlet coat until they accomplish something awesome. The end of Arthur was sad, but he more interesting character when he was a young king who had to prove himself anyways. I was more sad when Galahad died because he still seemed like the best knight in the land, so that seemed like a pretty great loss.
Week 11 Reading Diary: King Arthur
This week I'm reading King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang. I've really enjoyed reading this, and I can't wait to get to the second half of the reading. Before reading this, I knew many of the stories of King Arthur, but I've gotten a lot of general clarification from reading the actual stories! I especially like trying to figure out and remember who is related to who. Arthur sure seems to have a lot of relatives. When I first start reading something new it's usually hard for me to keep the characters' names and descriptions straight, especially if they have alternate names that they will occasionally go by. This particular difficulty has made reading King Arthur stories especially challenging, but by reading the wikipedia pages and going through each story slowly, I think I'm really starting to get it. Many of the British unit stories sounded really interesting to me, so I may decide to do an extra reading unit this week or next week so that I can read all the stories that appeal to me! My favorite characters in these King Arthur stories so far is definitely Arthur himself. When he started crying because the Knights of the Round Table were going to go off and probably all die it was really touching. I'll have to try and add some crying kings to this week's storytelling post. I also like the villains in these stories because they have almost no motivation and they just seem grumpy and vindictive for no reason, which definitely makes their random acts of evil fun to keep up with!
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Week 9 Storytelling: The Hope of a Warrior's Mother
There once was a mother with an extremely small son. The mother was worried about her son’s future; she knew that he could never grow up to be a successful warrior unless he became taller and stronger. They lived in a village where the only way for a man to be successful was for him to become a warrior. The mother had heard about a powerful magician who lived in the village next to hers, so she decided to pay the magician a visit.
When the mother told the magician of her small son, the magician said that she had just the thing that would cure this boy of his tiny size forever. “Oh thank you so much! I will do anything you say as long as it will help my son to be a successful warrior one day!” exclaimed the mother.
The magician said, “Tomorrow, send your son to my house. I will be on a trip, so he will need to care for my garden and ensure that everything runs smoothly in my absence. But just be sure that he stays away from the hall closet.”
The mother ran home. She immediately told her son that he should take care of the magician’s plants the next day and to be sure to avoid the hall closet. He agreed, and the next day he arrived at the magician’s home.
There was a note left out that said that the magician would return the following week with detailed instructions for the boy. The boy followed the instructions carefully but with each passing day, he became more and more curious about the hall closet. He listened at the door, peeked underneath, and finally he was so curious that he convinced himself that there was no way that the magician could possibly know whether or not he opened the door.
On the final day of his time within the magician’s home, he pulled the door open and to his surprise, the closet was empty. The boy walked inside, and immediately his entire body started to grow. He felt very strange, and he decided that he should go home immediately and show his mother the evidence of his growth spurt.
As soon as he arrived home, his mother shouted with joy, “Oh, my son! You have finally grown, and now you can be a successful warrior!”
In response to his questioning gaze, his mother explained how she had only sent him to the magician in the hopes that he might grow. The boy was very excited because he had always wanted to become a warrior as well. The boy became one of his village’s most respected warriors, and his story was told for generations. He gave small boys everywhere hope that they might grow one day, but of course, no one knew his secret of how the magician had helped him.
When he had his own small boys, he sent them to the magician with a warning about not opening the hall closet. And one by one, each of his sons became so curious that they too opened the hall closet and grew into a large and powerful warrior.
Bibliography: This story is based on The Legend of the Head of Gold from Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Judson (1913).
Author’s note: The original story featured a father with a lazy son who visited an old woman because he was worried about his lazy son's future. The woman said that she could help. The lazy boy watched over a house and some horses, but he was instructed to stay away from a pot of gold. One of the horses he was watching told him to dip his head in the gold, and then the boy became extremely well respected.
When the mother told the magician of her small son, the magician said that she had just the thing that would cure this boy of his tiny size forever. “Oh thank you so much! I will do anything you say as long as it will help my son to be a successful warrior one day!” exclaimed the mother.
The magician said, “Tomorrow, send your son to my house. I will be on a trip, so he will need to care for my garden and ensure that everything runs smoothly in my absence. But just be sure that he stays away from the hall closet.”
The mother ran home. She immediately told her son that he should take care of the magician’s plants the next day and to be sure to avoid the hall closet. He agreed, and the next day he arrived at the magician’s home.
There was a note left out that said that the magician would return the following week with detailed instructions for the boy. The boy followed the instructions carefully but with each passing day, he became more and more curious about the hall closet. He listened at the door, peeked underneath, and finally he was so curious that he convinced himself that there was no way that the magician could possibly know whether or not he opened the door.
As soon as he arrived home, his mother shouted with joy, “Oh, my son! You have finally grown, and now you can be a successful warrior!”
In response to his questioning gaze, his mother explained how she had only sent him to the magician in the hopes that he might grow. The boy was very excited because he had always wanted to become a warrior as well. The boy became one of his village’s most respected warriors, and his story was told for generations. He gave small boys everywhere hope that they might grow one day, but of course, no one knew his secret of how the magician had helped him.
When he had his own small boys, he sent them to the magician with a warning about not opening the hall closet. And one by one, each of his sons became so curious that they too opened the hall closet and grew into a large and powerful warrior.
Bibliography: This story is based on The Legend of the Head of Gold from Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Judson (1913).
Author’s note: The original story featured a father with a lazy son who visited an old woman because he was worried about his lazy son's future. The woman said that she could help. The lazy boy watched over a house and some horses, but he was instructed to stay away from a pot of gold. One of the horses he was watching told him to dip his head in the gold, and then the boy became extremely well respected.
I wanted to keep some of the same details, especially that the son was ultimately rewarded for going against the instructions he was given. I decided to make it about a boy in a warrior village because I thought that his mother would be equally as worried as the father with the lazy son. Both parents would have no hope for their sons because of the lack of career prospects the sons faced. I also wanted to have a happy ending since sometimes stories with magicians end in trickery that leaves many people unhappy. I had the boy take care of plants instead of horses because I wanted to have the boy break the rules because of his own desires, not because he was following a horse's instructions.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Week 9 Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of the Great Plains Continued
I finished up the second part of Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Judson (1913), and I really enjoyed this second half. I really liked the Legend of the Head of Gold. It was a different kind of story and it was unlike many others that I've read or heard of. It was a bit like Adam and Eve because there was a certain item that the boy in the story was not supposed to mess with, but he did it anyway. However, this story was different because it was good that he was messing with the gold and got a gold head because then he because well-respected because of it.
Before he got the golden head, he was a very lazy person, so I don't really understand where the shift was, expect for being motivated enough to not be too lazy to break a very important rule? I don't really understand the moral of this story besides that laziness is a big problem.
I liked reading all of the native american stories in this unit because the stories really have a purpose, but since they are usually relayed orally, they don't have the same hard-to-understand language as most religious texts. I think it's important to try and learn new things from different cultures so you can get a feel for the morals that guide diverse audiences.
Before he got the golden head, he was a very lazy person, so I don't really understand where the shift was, expect for being motivated enough to not be too lazy to break a very important rule? I don't really understand the moral of this story besides that laziness is a big problem.
I liked reading all of the native american stories in this unit because the stories really have a purpose, but since they are usually relayed orally, they don't have the same hard-to-understand language as most religious texts. I think it's important to try and learn new things from different cultures so you can get a feel for the morals that guide diverse audiences.
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Monday, March 21, 2016
Week 9 Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of the Great Plains
This week I read Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Judson (1913). I was really excited about getting to read some Native American stories. My favorite from the first half of the reading was the creation story. I always like creation stories because every culture has one and they are all extremely unique even though they have certain things in common at times.
This particular great plains creation story from the Osage (Wazhá zhe group) people featured an elk who helped all the animals live on earth. I really liked that the animals could fly/float. I definitely want to write a story at some point this semester that involves flying. Everyone knows that flying dreams are the best kind, so I want to be sure and bring that fun aspect into a storytelling post.
The elk in the story is totally awesome because everyone trusts him so much. He allows the animals to live in a place that is covered in water and he provides the seeds for plants and vegetables. Obviously, the elk is really important to this culture.
This particular great plains creation story from the Osage (Wazhá zhe group) people featured an elk who helped all the animals live on earth. I really liked that the animals could fly/float. I definitely want to write a story at some point this semester that involves flying. Everyone knows that flying dreams are the best kind, so I want to be sure and bring that fun aspect into a storytelling post.
The elk in the story is totally awesome because everyone trusts him so much. He allows the animals to live in a place that is covered in water and he provides the seeds for plants and vegetables. Obviously, the elk is really important to this culture.
In the Osage (Hoga group) creation story, the animals relied on the crawfish to provide land to live on after a few other animals had drowned. I liked this simple story, but there was no flying involved so that was a slight disappointment.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Future Reading Ideas
I'm really excited for this next unit so I can read Myths and Legends of the Great Plains. I'm fairly familiar with many different Native American stories, so it will be fun to see if I've read any versions of the stories before.
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After I read the stories of the Great Plain, I'm planning on reading Myths and Legends of Alaska. I really like short stories so I can sample quite a few before I decide which one I liked best and to use for my storytelling post. I once wrote a research paper over Aleut creation myths, so I'm really excited to get back into some Alaska legends!
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