Week 11 Reading A: Britomart the Brave

So for the first reading for week 11 I chose to read the ‘Tale of Britomart,’ from the Faerie Queene reading unit. Instead of taking notes like I usually do where I summarize the plot from a couple tales from the first half of the unit, I’m going to point out parts of the first half of the reading that I really like, including aspects of Britomart’s personality and character.

Within the first half of the reading, we’re given an in depth look at Britomart’s heart, morals, drive, determination, and bravery. This is a girl who comes from royalty, a princess, and one day she accidentally peers into her father’s magical looking glass gifted to him by the Merlin (a powerful wizard famous throughout Arthurian tales) and beholds the sight of her husband-to-be, Sir Artegall. For weeks thereafter her heart is tormented at the thought of not being with him at the very soonest moment and she can’t eat or sleep because of it.

Her nurse, Glauce, sees what’s happening and takes Britomart to the great Merlin to figure out why she is becoming so sickly with no visible illness. The Merlin merely laughs and tells them it is merely heartsickness, and that Britomart must go after her true love if she wishes to find peace.

So Glauce, being a wonderful friend and person, suggests to Britomart that they take off to the land of the Faerie Queene where Sir Artegall is rumored to be. But they go in disguise - Britomart as a gallant knight and Glauce as her squire. Britomart pulls off the guise of knight easily because she’s already had training in self defense with the sword and shield.

So they ride off into the land of the Faerie Queene. I actually wonder if the ‘land of the Faerie Queene’ is another name for Avalon, because I’ve been reading ‘The Mists of Avalon’ by Marion Zimmer Bradley and it seems like a lot of important events happen in Avalon.

Along the way to find her destined lover, Britomart and Glauce have many run-ins with other knights, jealous Queens, and churls of the worst kind.

What impresses me so about Britomart is her strength of heart. Through her journeys she often feels the pang of heartsickness, fear, and longing to find Sir Artegall, but she never gives up on her quest for him. She keeps going forward and keeps up hope, even in the most dire of situations. Britomart reminds me of myself in some cases because she has such drive and determination and when she wants something she doesn’t sit idly by and wait for it to come to her. She goes out and gets it on her terms through her own means. Maybe it’s just my impatience, but I’m much the same way.

The character Brienne from ‘Game of Thrones’ also reminds me a lot of Britomart in her morals. She is always kind and looking out for those less represented and she also kicks ass with a sword.

Brienne of Tarth

Game of Thrones Wiki

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of her story and I hope it ends up having a fairy tale happy ending, with her and Sir Artegall riding off into the sunset. I guess I’ll have to read and see!

Famous Last Words Week 10

Well, this past week has been the craziest out of all of the crazy weeks. I feel like I write that every time I write a ‘Famous Last Words’ post, but it’s true! This past week I had a big paper due, an exam, the post-lab from Hell, two experimental proposals, and career advisement to try and get my life together. Whew!

The week before last, Spring Break, was mostly spent lounging on the warm sandy beaches of North Miami. Yes, it was glorious. Even though I was still in the United States, it felt at times as if I had traveled to a completely different country. This is because Miami is heavily populated with Cubans and other peoples with Latin American ancestry and almost every shop I walked into had five or more conversations held completely in Spanish.

Probably the most fantastic thing I found there was not the sandy beaches, or the seashells, or even the Keys West salad I discovered at the Publix by our hotel (a delicious combination of shrimp, imitation crab, bell peppers, tomatoes, and mozzarella): it was the Cuban coffee.

Let me tell you about this coffee - it’s not ordinary coffee. It’s the breath of life itself. I went with a total of five people (including myself) and we had to share two beds in a tiny hotel room. It goes without saying that we didn’t sleep comfortably, but we slept hard. 6 hours was the perfect amount to cram a restful night into what we needed to take on the next day.

But still, no matter how well I sleep I will need coffee in the morning. I’ve had to switch over to decaf due to health reasons, but after having a cuppa every morning for the past ten years (I started drinking it regularly when I was 12), it’s hard to give up.

So me and one of my friends would go on the hunt for coffee every morning when we first woke up. Within a block of our hotel was a Latin American Cafe, a Latin American Market, a Peruvian cafe, and down the street was a Publix, a Buenos Aires cafe, and countless other small cafes, bakeries, and restaurants. Each morning we went to a different place and got a shot of Cuban espresso ranging anywhere from 60-80 cents a shot.

A tiny shot of heaven - Cuban espresso. Yum!

Image: The Ground Bean

You might be thinking, “One shot? That’s it?” But trust me - one is all you need.

These little shots of Manna are brewed with with darkest Cuban roast along with two teaspoons of sugar to give a beverage that’s black as night and sweet as sin. Ever since I came back to Norman my heart and taste buds have cried out for something more than what starbucks can offer, but to no avail. I would try to make some myself, but I’d likely screw it up to the point where I’d never be able to have coffee again.

Unfortunately, our hotel had crappy Wi-Fi, so I couldn’t work on anything while we were there, which meant I had to scramble to do stuff on Sunday evening when we got back.

But I feel refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the semester with vigor and drive! Yay for Spring Break, and YAY for almost graduation!

Week 10 Extra Reading: Tales from the Blackfeet

I was going to go with Apache stories this week, but the way they were written was too hard for me to follow. So instead I decided to read tales from the Blackfoot Native Americans. After some brief research on Wikipedia, I’ve found out these people are from British Columbia and Montana, so they’ve survived in harsh territory.

To read more Blackfoot stories, visit the unit here!

The Dog and the Root Digger

In this story, Napi, one of the great chiefs, goes undercover as a dog to discover where all the buffalo have gone by visiting a lone tent in the middle of the plain. A friend goes with him and turns himself into a root digger (a tool) to also disguise himself.

A man, his wife, and their child are the only ones living in the tent. The child takes the dog (the chief in disguise) and root digger as his companion and playthings. Through this way the chief and other man discover that the lone family has been hiding all the game inside a cave and they release them all back onto the plain so that other families can have their meat.

What really struck me in this story was how Napi and the root digger hid themselves as the buffalo were exiting the cave while the man who had put them there watched for the dog and root digger to come out. It was almost exactly like what I had read in the Odyssey when Odysseus and his men escape the cyclops’ cave by latching onto the underbellies of sheep! It’s amazing how similar stories can be even when they’re told in different time periods by completely different cultures.

Buffalo in Yellowstone

Image: Wikipedia

The Camp of Ghosts

I really liked this story just because I’m a sucker for cheesy romance stories where one will do anything to bring their beloved back to them. For example, if anyone has seen ‘The Crow,’ that’s a perfect example of the kind of love stories I’m into.

A man and his wife have a son but she dies soon thereafter. For days he weeps and mourns and, because he can bear it no longer, he goes out in search of his wife who passed away.

He leaves the child with his grandmother and begins his journey.

He enters into the land of ghosts through the direction and counsel of old women he meets in dreams. When he finally comes to the camp of ghosts he stays there for four days on the agreement that his wife will be returned to him on the fourth day and that he can travel home with her.

There are a lot of rules and contingencies on her going back with him. He can’t open his eyes while traveling, he cannot hit her, he must allow her to carry a pipe, etc. etc. He is also instructed to take a sweat as soon as he arrives home because there’s ‘something about the ghosts that is hard to get off.’ Maybe it’s ectoplasm? Bleh.

They return home safely, have a sweat together, and live together again for a long time, happy and healthy. But this guy screws it all up and makes as if he’s about to hit his wife with a branding iron, so she vanishes forever. Way to go.

Storytelling Week 10: Little Seal-Girl

There was once a man who lived by the sea. He made his living off of whaling and was always able to provide for himself and his wife. They had a modest home and a modest life and were content to live simply and be happy.

Two months into the spring, the wife gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. The father was beyond proud and doted on her and did his best to make sure she did not go without food, clothes, or toys.

Time passed and she grew into a robust child, full of energy and adventure. Oftentimes she would play outside her house by the shore while her father was away hunting whale. It wasn’t long before she began swimming and diving to collect shells and other trinkets to give to her mother to sew into clothes or to make necklaces with. Her father noticed and returned home one day with a young seal. He skinned it to where the pelt came off entirely and after taking the excess blubber off he presented it to his daughter.

“The days are getting colder, but I know how much you love to swim. Wear this from now on when you’re swimming and keep warm.”

The girl was delighted and every day thereafter she donned the sealskin and continued collecting treasures from the sea.

Many years passed and her father would skin bigger and bigger seals each year so that she could continue to swim in the cold. She was swimming so much that by the time she was a young lady she could pass for a seal herself whenever she was out in the water. When a pack of seals came to roost near their home in the late summer, she would swim with them and play with their pups.

Harbor Seal soaking up the sun

Image: Wikipedia

Her father and mother noticed her fondness for her seal friends and allowed her relationship with them to continue, but worry was never far from their mind. Still the girl would bring home shells and trinkets she found, but one day she came home crying.

Her mother brought her into her lap and soothed her, talking softly while peeling off the seal pelt. “There, there… what’s the matter, little one? Could you not find any shells today?”

Between sobs the girl cried, “A huge whale… he came…. he ate one of my seal friends…”

Terrified, her mother tried her best to remain calm and soothe the girl. “Perhaps then it is better for you to forgo swimming with them for a little while. You look so much like a seal in that skin that the whale could also mistake you for one….”

The girl wept all through the night and went out early the next morning to watch the sun rise over the sea. She had a plan.

When her father was about to leave to go hunt, she asked him, “Papa, where are you going hunting today?”

The father scratched his beard thoughtfully. “Out to the Northwest by those icebergs. I saw a pod of whales there earlier in the week, so hunting should be relatively easy.”

After her father had set out, she assured her mother she was going to go collect late summer greens for supper. Instead, when she was outside of view from the house, she donned her seal skin and swam to her seal friends, which were to the southeast of where her father was going.

She waited a while, scanning the waters, and finally spotted the giant whale. Taking a deep breath, she dove into the water and taunted them, swimming lazily about and splashing. It wasn’t long before the whales noticed and began chasing her.

She swam faster than she had ever swam in her life, weaving through holes in icebergs underwater and resurfacing to take great gulps of air. The whale was gaining, but she only had to go a little further to reach her father.

When she spotted his kayak, she led the whales to the left of it and then scrambled up the iceberg. She felt a tug and looked down to see the monstrously sized whale pulling down on the tail of her seal skin. She looked to her father and cried out, “It’s me, your daughter! Help!”

Recognizing his daughter’s voice, the father wasted no time and harpooned the giant whale, driving the hook deep into it’s thick skin. The whale released her tail and slid from the iceberg back down into the cold sea water.

The father helped his daughter down from the iceberg and cradled her like he did when she was a child to help ease her shock. He then tied the rope connected the harpoon embedded in the whale to his kayak and paddled back home with both daughter and whale in tow.

Since then the seals were not bothered by any whales, be they lone whales or in a pod. They continued to play with the little girl until she grew up to become a fine woman. After that, nobody knows what happened to her. Some say the skin she wore so much became one with her and she joined her seal friends as one of their own.



Author’s Note: This is a very different version of the original tale of Attarsuaq. In the original version, Attarsuaq had a boy whom he taught how to swim from the time he was a baby and when he grew older, Attarsuaq gave him a seal pelt. With this, the boy learned how to dive and hold his breath for a long time underwater. In the original story, the boy didn't make friends with the seals. The original tale was also a tale of revenge, much more serious than the re-telling I did. Attarsuaq was killed by one of the many enemies he had made over the years and his son used his seal pelt to lure his father's enemies out to sea. There, he killed them one by one to exact revenge for his father.

In this story, I left out the killing of people and instead substituted the revenge on an animal - an animal that could also be used for food, so the death wouldn't purely be out of revenge. 

I also thought the original story was an origin story for the selkie, a mythological creature that can take the form of a seal but remove the pelt to become human again. Since that wasn't the case, I decided to make it happen in my own re-telling! Ah, the beauty of creative license.

Bibliography:
Title: Attarsuaq
Book: Eskimo Folk-Tales
Author: Knud Rasmussen
Year: 1921

Week 10 Reading B: More Eskimo Stories!

I’ve noticed the Eskimo folk tales focus a lot on vengeance and the consequences of doing wrong by another. These are good morals, but I kinda wish there was more variety to it.

‘Papik, who Killed his Wife’s Brother’, and ‘Pâtussorssuaq, Who Killed His Uncle’

The moral of this story and the one before it is ‘it is wrong to kill’. Of course it is, that’s why we have laws against murder and the like today. It appears the Inuit also had their own form of punishment for murder, though it came about in the way of superstition and evil spirits.

In each story, a man kills another man out of envy of his hunting skill or his wife. One of the family members of the murdered man either dies or kills themselves to exact revenge on the murderer in the form of an evil spirit. And so we see in both stories that the man who murders is torn to pieces by the angry spirit of the victim and THAT is why you shouldn’t kill. Not that it’s immoral and outright rude, but that you’ll be torn apart. Some people just need better incentive, I guess.

The Eagle and the Whale

A group of brothers with two sisters keep trying to get the sisters to marry, but they refuse. Frustrated, they tell their sisters that one will have an eagle for a husband and the other a whale for a husband. Then the sisters are whisked away by their new husbands and live with them for a while. Why is it so bad that women don’t marry?

The sisters (understandably) don’t like their husbands and so begin making rope. One uses hers to get off the eagle husband’s rock, the other uses it to trick her whale husband and escapes. The brothers help their sisters do this because they’ve missed them. The husbands are killed by the brothers and everyone lives happily ever after.

One thing I noticed in this - the eagle husband brings back narwhal and walrus for the girl to eat. How big are eagles in Greenland? They sound frightening. 

The Narwhal, the unicorn of the sea.

Image: Wikipedia

Atarrsuaq

A man named Attarsuaq had many enemies. He bore a son who he taught to swim very well and hold his breath underwater for a long time. His son grows and he continues to teach him how to swim, but one day he does not return because one of his enemies has finally killed him. They come down to the hut to finish the job, but the boy lures them out to sea with his great swimming capabilities and kills them one by one on top of an iceberg. One man is left alive to go back to his village and tell the other men to never come again. The boy grows up in peace without any trouble from his father’s enemies.
Reading this story, I thought it would first take a turn where the son swam so much he eventually turned into a seal and his father one day accidentally killed him. There’s a lot of revenge in this story, though, and it didn’t take the turn I thought it would.

Check out the Eskimo Stories here!

Week 10 Reading A: Eskimo Folk Tales

Many of the blog posts I read last week focused on the Eskimo stories. The Inuit have always fascinated me in that they are able to live in some of the harshest environments in the world and still thrive. I’m curious to see if harsh climates breed harsh folk tales.


The Coming of Men:

This origin story surprised me because it is not like many other origin stories I’ve read. Instead of the Earth coming up from a great body of water, the Earth simply was to be made one day and stones and dirt fell from the sky to create it. Children came up from the Earth and a woman sewed clothes for them and raised them to be men. Nobody knows where this woman comes from. And apparently there was only one woman because every child was male.

There was no sunlight and water was able to burn. The cost of no light meant no death, but then people just grew really old and there were too many people. So a bargain was made for there to be death AND light, but no death without light.

I guess the Inuit also prize dogs, because no other animal is mentioned in this creation story except for dogs. Man wanted dogs so he called for them and they came. I wish this was as easy for me as it was for this old Inuk because I love dogs. I want to roll around in a pile of dogs.


The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster Son:

A little old woman who usually receives shares of meat from young hunters is presented one day with a frozen bear cub. She leaves it to thaw, goes about cooking, and finds that it moves. Thereafter she feeds it and talks to it, helping it to grow strong and smart. The beart plays with the children, with men, and eventually helps the men to hunt seal. The bear is loved by all of the community, but tribes further to the North have other ideas. They want to kill the bear but are met with backlash when the bear kills one of their own and brings it back to his foster mother. She weeps and sends him away to live with his own kind, despite the sadness it brings her.

Cute lil' cub

Image: Huffington Post

Qalagánguasê, Who Passed to the Land of Ghosts

I’m beginning to learn that Inuit names are oftentimes pretty long and hard to pronounce. I don’t even know how to pronounce this boy’s name. Anyway, this story is about a boy whose family died and he had to be looked after by strangers because he was lame. When the villagers go out to hunt, ghosts come in and play and talk with him, including his family members. Eventually he decides to go with them into the Land of Ghosts and the story goes that he turned into a woman when he went. I find this interesting as there is so much controversy today about trans-gendered individuals. Did the Inuit believe a person could have been born into the wrong gender? I would like to learn more about their culture.

Check out the Eskimo Stories here!

Extra Reading Week 9: Pacific Northwest Stories!

One thing I've noticed and love about the myths and legends from the Native Americans - they all feature animals as either main characters or an integral part of the story. I know the Natives held animals in high regard and in the myths from the Pacific Northwest Natives, the animals are caught dancing without their 'skins'. Without them, they look just like people!

How Silver-Fox Created the WorldAs with most creation myths, this one begins with a large body of water. Coyote and Silver-Fox share the world above the sky, but Silver-Fox becomes curious and cuts a hole in it while Coyote is gone to peer down at the world. He goes down to the water and creates and island. Coyote eventually joins him and asks questions. Silver-Fox does not reply immediately to a lot of his questions. He is very mysterious that way.

Silver Fox keeps making the world bigger, pushing dirt out into all four directions. Where is he getting this dirt? I have no idea.

He makes Coyote run around the world to find how big it is growing. Then the two argue about how many moons should be in one winter. Coyote says 10, Silver-fox says two. It is then decided that there will be four moons in a whole year - 1 moon for spring, 1 moon for autumn, and two moons for winter. Notice how there’s no mention of Summer in here?


How Beaver Stole Fire

Before there were people, there were animals and trees that walked and talked like people. Only pine trees had fire and that means all the animals nearly froze to death in the winter. So one day, the animals got fed up with the greediness of the pine trees and plan to steal fire from them.

Beaver volunteers to do the job. As the pine trees are warming themselves at a large fire, a coal rolls down to the riverbank and beaver snatches it away, hiding it in his breast. Personally, I think this would burn, but maybe that’s just me.
A grand chase ensues between Beaver and the pine trees. The pine trees chase after him for a long way and eventually grow tired and stop in random places. This is why there are so many pine trees in certain parts along the river bank.
Once beaver is far ahead of everyone he gives fire to the trees and animals so that they can stay warm.

This is a myth of the Nez Perce. I wonder why it was beaver they chose to tell the story about? I would think fire and a water animal wouldn't mix, but maybe that’s just me.


The First Totem Pole

Wakiash was the chief of his tribe, but unlike the other chieftans, he never had a dance for his people. This made him ashamed, so he went to find solitude and fasted for four days.

On the fourth day he woke up and discovered he was on Raven’s back and Frog was on his chest. Frog was telling him that Raven was taking him to the house of animals to learn how to dance. I’ve heard Raven is a pretty important animal in Native American mythology, so I’m not surprised he’s featured here.

Anyway, the chieftan comes to the house of animals and hears them dancing inside. The animals have all shed their skins and are now in the form of people. Interesting! So I wonder if the Pacific Northwest natives have myths about Selkies too!

The animals can sense the stranger and send Mouse outside to investigate. She comes across the chieftan and he explains that he wants to learn the dances to bring to his people. Mouse tells him to come in just as the animals start dancing. So as they begin to dance again, Wakiash jumps into the room and the animals are shamed because they’ve been caught by a human in their people form. They ask what he wants and he answers truthfully.

So the animals teach Wakiash their dances and their songs. He packs up their house and the animals in it and takes them with him back to his tribe He returns to his people after being away for four years and throws down the bundle, revealing the house and the animals on a totem pole.  Then he throws for his people the biggest dance ever seen and makes all the chieftans in the land ashamed. Afterwards he carves another totem pole and puts it outside his house and calls it Kalakuyuwish: The pole that holds up the sky. 

Totem Poles in Vancouver

From Totem-Pole.net

Week 9 Reading B: More Cherokee Myths!

These are a continuation of the notes for the second part of Cherokee Myths

The Owl Gets Married

In this story, a girl is advised by the widow she lives with to only marry a man who is a good hunter. So when a potential suitor comes courting and claims he’s a good hunter, the girl is arranged to be married with him. He comes to live with her.

Everytime he goes out claiming to hunt, he comes back with only small things - fish, scraps of meat, a single crawdad. The old woman gets suspicious and tells the girl to follow him secretly the next time he goes out.

She does so and discovers that he transforms into an owl to collect the mere morsels for their table. The next time he comes home she tells him that he knows what he is and sends him out of her house. He spends the rest of his days pining with grief and love-longing.

See, I don’t understand why the owl didn’t just remain in the form of a man and hunt that way. Maybe he didn’t know how? But regardless, getting anything bigger than a small fish would be easier in a larger body.

The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'tï

This myth is about a great horned snake called the Uktena. The Cherokee created it to kill the Sun when she sent a sickness out upon them, but it failed. Angry and jealous of the people for choosing Rattlesnake as their champion instead, the Uktena was sent to a place where other dangerous things are kept. 

The Uktena as depicted by Kyoht on DeviantArt

The Ulûñsû'tï is a bright transparent crystal in the forehead of the Uktena. Whomsoever has it will have luck in all aspects of life, but especially in prophecy. It works very similarly to a crystal ball. But keeping the Ulûñsû'tï has a price - the owner must bathe it in fresh blood and keep an eye on it, lest it becomes wise and escapes from its hiding place.

The Uktena reminds me of what I’ve read of British Isles mythology. The horned God Cernunnos is often depicted as yielding two horned snakes. Do these and the Uktena have any correlation to one another, I wonder?

Âgän-uni'tsï's Search for the Uktena

A great medicine man, Âgän-uni'tsï, is captured by a warring tribe and is about to be executed, but he claims he can get the crystal from the Uktena. The tribe leader warns him of the danger, but the medicine man assures him he knows. With his life, he begins the search for the Uktena.

He goes to many places where the Uktena is rumored to live - lonely places in the mountains and deep pools of water. He encounters all sorts of monsters, like giant snakes, frogs, fish, and lizards. At last when he travels very far south he finds the Uktena in a mountain hollow asleep.

Âgän-uni'tsï devises a plan and digs a trench and sets a bunch of pine cones on fire at the base of the mountain. Then he shoots the Uktena in the heart with an arrow and races down the mountain, jumps over the fire and trench, and takes cover. The Uktena races after him but, being wounded, is stopped by the fire and uselessly spits poison at the medicine man, which sizzles in the flames. Once the Uktena dies, Âgän-uni'tsï waits seven days while the birds pick at the giant snake until all that is left are bones and the Ulûñsû'tï. He gathers his prize and becomes the most revered medicine man in the land.

I’m curious how big this Uktena actually was. Are we talking Anaconda big, or even bigger like as wide around as a sequoia tree trunk? Anway, the Cherokee have many myths about the Uktena and I still wonder if it and the horned snakes held by Cernunnos have any relation to each other.

A depiction of Cernunnos holding a horned serpent

Part of the collection of god and goddess statues from Magical Omaha

Bibliography
Book: Cherokee Myths
Author: James Mooney
Year: 1900
Read the stories here!

Week 9 Reading A: Cherokee Myths

I used the crystal ball to decide which myths to read this time (I hadn’t used it up until now) - and it chose Cherokee myths! I found this pretty amusing and special because I supposedly have a smidgen of Cherokee somewhere down my ancestral line.

The Journey to the Sunrise

A bunch of bored young men decide to go on a journey to discover where the Sun lives and what the Sun is like. They meet many different tribes along the way with customs different than theirs. A tribe of acorn eaters and a tribe that lived in the pines. They witness a woman being lowered into the grave with her dead husband. I wonder which tribe this was? I honestly have no clue and they don’t give names to any of the tribes.

They finally come to where the sky touches the ground and discover that the sky is actually made of rock and a hidden door is where the Sun comes in and out of.

One of the members tries to go in through the door but the rock comes down and crush him. The rest of his friends are like, “Nuh-uh,” and decide to go back home. It’s a pretty long journey because by the time they get back they’re old men.

I’m really curious what’s on the other side of that door. Space? A parallel universe? Another planet? Who knows?


The Moon and the Thunders

This is a compilation of origin stories of the moon, the sun, and thunder.

In this story, Sun and Moon are siblings. Sun is a woman and her brother is Moon. I always find it interesting how different cultures determine the genders of celestial bodies. Some equate feminine energy with the moon, mysterious and alluring, while others view it as the sun, radiant and nurturing.

Sun is courted by a stranger during the dark phases of the moon. She cannot see his face because it is so dark, so she cleverly puts ashes on his face to identify him. The next time the moon comes out she can see the ash on his face and he hides from her from shame.

Another origin story says that the moon is from a ball that was accidentally thrown up into the sky and stuck to the stone that the sky is made of.

This story also describes the different kinds of thunder. Thunder and his sons who live up in the sky, whose robes are made of rainbow, are benevolent and kind. However there are other thunders in waterfalls, in cliffs and mountains, and other secret places of nature. These thunders are mischievous and tricksters.

I think it’s interesting how there a multiple kinds of thunders. Now that I actually think about it, it does sound like thunder where a waterfall comes down, or in the echoes of a mountain.


How They Brought Back the Tobacco

It’s hard to imagine tobacco as having medicinal qualities and not being regarded as an addictive substance with how it's been advertised in our generation. Personally, I’m fine with tobacco as long as it’s not stuffed in a paper with a bunch of other things I don’t know about. The Cherokee appear to have held tobacco at high value for its medicinal and spiritual purposes.

In this story, the Geese (mean, mean animals) stole the only tobacco plant in the world and hoarded it for themselves. One old woman became very sick and frail without the tobacco medicine, so the animals auditioned to go get back the plant. The Geese killed every animal because they’re heartless creatures.

Geese are jerks

Image: Canadian Expat

Hummingbird offered and was at first laughed at because of his size. Once he demonstrated his incredible speed, however, there was no question about him going. He brought back some leaves and seeds just as the old woman fainted. Smoke was blown into her face and she was revived.

Bibliography

Book: Cherokee Myths

Author: James Mooney

Year: 1900

Read the stories here!

Commenting Review Week 8

I have a love/hate relationship with the commenting process. I’m great with giving positive feedback and moral support, but I’m horrible with giving constructive criticism. I myself am really sensitive to critique, so I worry when I’m trying to give constructive advice on somebody else’s project or blog post that I’ll come off as too harsh.

I suppose I’m not used to commenting on other people’s work in the way we do it in this class because most of the time, if I’m commenting on someone else’s work in my field, it’s because they did something wrong or I’m critiquing them as part of an assignment. It’s pretty cut-and-dry that way.

When I leave comments of any kind I try really hard to focus on a particular writing strength that person has. I think it’s important that people know their strengths in writing because if you struggle with it, you know there’s at least one thing you’re good at. It could be their style of writing, the way they describe the scenes and people, or just simply how they write dialogue. Everyone struggles with writing in one way or another, so in those ‘blocked’ moments I want that person to think about their writing strength to push through it.

Concerning the comments I get, I get really happy and excited when I see that someone enjoyed my story, particularly the descriptions. I thrive off describing the scenery, the smells, the texture of whatever is the focus of my writing at that point. I like for my stories to be immersive, a short vacation.

I have gotten a few negative comments (not as in rude - more constructive than anything else), and sometimes I struggle with reading them just because it sounds like the person didn’t enjoy the story. That’s not necessarily the case, but regardless… it still bugs me.

I’m glad that commenting is available though, because it enables we students to grow as authors through the help of our peers.

In the end, we all help each other out.

Image Credit: Roger H. Goun

Writing Review Week 8

I’ve always been told my writing was good, but I don’t usually write for fun. I did for a little while, but school kicked into high gear and I lost all time to expand on it.

Doing storytellings for this class is therapeutic for me in that aspect - it seems like my brain is always in the realm of science and sometimes it’s nice to get out of that world for a while to spend time in another.

I think my greatest writing success this semester (so far) has been retelling the myth of Persephone. I’ve always thought about what the story would be like if told from her point of view and I’ve heard of other myths explaining how Hades was one of the most ‘chill’ gods and his marriage to Persephone was likely not as forced as the myth perceives. My other stories have been ‘ok’ in comparison (in my opinion, anyway).

A writing goal for myself the second half of the semester is to OBEY THE WORD COUNT while still cramming in as much detail and description as possible. I love describing everything in my stories because I feel it immerses the reader. Little details like the softness of someone’s hands or the yeasty aroma of freshly baked bread make the story come alive. Unfortunately, they also take up a lot of words. I also need to work on spacing out my dialogue. I’ve had many complaints that my stories read like one big paragraph. That’s not due to my ignorance of storytelling format - that’s just me being lazy.

Here's the iconic image of Hades and Persephone that was featured in my most favorite story retelling. 

Image: Puistopulu

Reading Review Week 8

Overall I am very pleased with the reading selections offered in this class. I knew Myth and Folklore was a good choice for my last upper division elective (and heck, I probably would have taken it anyway for the fun of it). As far as feedback goes, there are a few suggestions I have and a few complaints.

Readings thus far

Favorite: Honestly, I have to say my favorite readings (so far) were those from Ancient Egypt. I really enjoyed reading the raw mythos of the strange Egyptian animal gods and even some other stories that didn’t relate to their stories at all. I’m looking forward to the Native American unit because I’ve always wanted to read Native folk tales and stories but could never find a good enough source.

Least Favorite: The Biblical stories were a trek. There’s a reason I never really wanted to go to church as a child, and it’s because the stories were either too confusing or too boring. Trying to wade through the prose these stories were written in was probably the hardest part. I guess Biblical stories just aren’t for me.

What I would like to see: Honestly, I was surprised that no tales from the Norse sagas or Epics were featured here, especially with all the popularity the ‘Thor’ movies have been getting! I saw that the Kalevala is an optional reading, but I was really hoping to re-read some of the Norse myths. Oh well - it’s probably best they aren’t available in this class because it forces me to try something new.

Concerning the storytellings, I don’t often use my notes for the retellings. My notes are usually just summaries of the stories, because when I take actual notes (like I did early on in the semester), nobody understands what I’m talking about unless they read the story themselves.

The layout of the Un-textbook is great! It’s really comprehensive and easy to locate stories. I particularly like that each storybook section has a little summary of the stories included - whether or not there are monsters and wizards, dragons and jewels. The set-up and accumulation of all of these amazing stories is truly impressive and I am more than pleased with the easy-to-follow layout (especially since I consider myself technologically challenged).

The picture I'm using is one of my personal favorites. It's from my notes on 'Urashima Taro and the Sea Turtle' and I just love how elegant Urashima and the Sea Princess look. The colors are astounding and everything looks so peaceful.

Urashima Taro by Edmund Dulac