Folks of All Mythology

    There were a lot  of stories I liked in this unit. Most of them were really interesting, or concepts within the stories were really interesting. Two of the concepts I liked from Part B were the Ojha (exorcist) and rubies transforming from drops of blood because they hit Siva's head.     Something that really caught my attention in Part B was the story "The Bald Wife." The basic idea of the story isn't new. I'd say there's at least one story like it in every culture.     Premise      There are two females (sometimes girls, sometimes women).       One is good, kind, and selfless, and the other is evil, cruel, and selfish.       The good female makes a hard journey.      On the hard journey her kind, selfless, humble qualities endear her to magical things (plants, animals, spirits, people, etc.).      At the midpoint in her journey, she is given the largest blessing o...

  Good Luck vs. Bad Luck...Or simply just  Luck? Setting out on their journey. 1912. Warwick Goble. (Source:  The Evil Eye of Sani )     "The Evil Eye of Sani" is split into three parts in the unTextbook. The first part introduces the heroes: Sribatsa and his wife Chintamani. Sribatsa is subjected to the Evil Eye when he admits Lakshmi, goddess or Good Luck, was better than Sani, god of bad luck. Sribatsa tries to leave his wife for three years while he's subjected to Sani's Evil Eye, but she refuses and insists their lots are shared as they're married. Part two covers their forced separation and bad luck, and part three covers their reversal of luck as the Evil Eye is turned away after the three years Sani said he would give them.     My favorite parts are part one and the end of part three.     Reading about how luck is personified, or ruled over at least, as two separate entities is interesting because I think it's very much a Western idea...

 And the Threads of Stories Go On     The Goblin always left where he wanted to, and to the Sands of Many Stories did he go. In the sands were fine jewels. Each shined under the sun and glowed under the moon. Each facet presented to him another world, a story.     He tapped the center, and the jewel opened up for him. Into the world, he was transported within the blink of an eye. The characters stopped and stared. Their bickering halted, their problems paused, and their ponderings ceased.     They looked around the vast, luminous cavern. The walls sparkled and shined a bright yellow. The floor was bathed in a bright red, and the finest curtains made of warm light kept everyone from the cold of their dazzling prison.     It was time again.     The Goblin stood before them presently and waited until he was sure all their attention was on him. He held his arms wide and smiled. "There has been one to answer your riddles."     ...

      "Twenty-Two Goblins" continues to be one of the more fun sections so far this semester. Part A was good, but Part B had more stories and moments I liked.  My favorites were two stories plus the last bit of a third one. Not to mention I got both the riddle and  its reason correct from "The Four Brothers!" Mostly correct, anyway. My reasoning for the last brother being at fault was slightly to the left of the King's reasoning, but I did get the general gist right! Perham W. Nahl. 1917. (Source:  The Four Brothers )     The first story I came across and liked was "The Girl and the Thief." Most of the stories in "The Twenty-Two Goblins" were love stories, but this one really struck my romance streak (not exactly easy). I think perhaps it was the love at first sight trope (which I'm not usually into) combined with the King's answer on why the thief cried  and  laughed. Mixed with the fact the Thief takes his second chance at life t...

     For the fifth week of this course, I've chosen "Twenty-Two Goblins" from the Frametale Stories unit. Its two main characters are King Triple-Victory (from here on out, he'll be referred to as the King) and the goblin. Picture of Vetal hanging by a tree and Vikram in the background. Harshad Dhavale. (Source:  Wikimedia Commons )      Favorite Things How each story is like a snapshot of someone else's life. How each story leaves the protagonist, and sometimes their family, in such a dilemma that only wisdom and a certain way of clever thinking could go about to solve, both of which the King has. I'd like to think that each of these stories holds real people inside them who are forced to repeat the story over and over again until someone, like the King, solves their riddle. I think it would be fun to see how the rest of them get on with their lives in an epilogue-ish sort of thing. I like the use of both English words as names and names that sound li...

  House in Misty Woods. (Source:  Wallpaper Flare )     For my story about the evil Baba Yaga triplet, I'll be using  Project Gutenberg . For the morally gray Baba Yaga triplet, I'll be using  Russian Folk-Tales . For the good Baba Yaga, I'll be using  Wikisource — Márya Moryévna .      I'm thinking about doing a fourth story centered on one of Baba Yaga's servants (day, sun, and night). If I do that, I'll be using  Russian Folk-Tales  again.     Aside from the potential fourth story which will be from a servant's perspective, all the stories will be from the hero's POV. It's not something I wanted to change because I feel it would be the best way to tell the story. I'm also thinking of keeping them in the past because I want to put signs up that all three heroes just missed meeting each other by like half an hour. I thought that would be a nice humorous tie-in, since the Baba Yaga is supposed to be hard to find, and ...

  Dark, creepy woods. (Source: Pikist ) My  Storybook  Project

Gathering of the Year               Emity turned off the sidewalk into an alleyway lit brightly from the strung lanterns overhead. The painted black door of the coffee shop stood proudly at the end. H A V E N was stamped in big, bold golden lettering. The brass doorknob was cool against her slightly translucent fingertips.     She opened the door and walked in. Soft piano music accompanied by the clatter of dishes and quiet murmuring of patrons wrapped around Emity. The last home for her kind welcomed her back. Patrons ranging from spirits, like her, to duwendes to nagas to dullahans sat at tables near windows or at the bar. Most were enjoying the food and drink the cafe had to offer.  Emity chose a table apart from the other patrons and sat facing the door.       Minutes later a large man with thick black hair and a pencil mustache trundled through the door. His chin was held high with his shoulders back in a wa...

Ghost. Artie Navarre. (Source: Pixabay )     My favorite story from the Part B readings was "The Higgldey-Piggledy Palace." The "Fairy Frog" was a distant second because of how Adam was incorporated. Plus, my curiosity was piqued when the frog said "fairy son." What's the difference between a son and a fairy son?     Anyway. The Palace story is about how a spirit helps Sarah get away from becoming part of the pharaoh's harem. As the story goes, when Abraham and Sarah fled to Egypt, the king saw her and was so taken by her beauty he immediately desired her as a wife. Fearing he would imprison or kill Abraham for being her husband, Sarah said Abraham was her brother.     The pharaoh paid for Sarah and separated her from Abraham. They both prayed for her deliverance from the pharaoh. Help came in the form of a ghost!     Every time the pharaoh would make his moves on Sarah, the ghost hit him with a stick. He could not see the ghost and to anyone not ...

      For week 04, I chose to read the Jewish Fairy Tale unit. The Classic units didn't particularly interest me as I've read them before, and since I read the Women Saints unit I wanted to read something different. Of the six stories in Part A, "The Beggar King" was my favorite.     This one interested me the most because of the genie and how his magic operated. From what I've heard online and come across in brief searches, the genie in Middle Eastern folklore is seen as a demon and force of evil.     However, in this story, the genie is sent to teach people who disrespect the Scripture a lesson. This brings up several questions for me. In Jewish folklore, are all genies like this? Is it just this specific genie who is sent to reprimand people? Is it his punishment? Does he do this willingly? Is this the job he chose/signed up for/was created for? Can he only impersonate men? What about women? Is there a separate genie for the women? How do his powers...

      Baba Yaga, from Vasilisa the Beautiful 5. Ivan Bilibin. 1900. (Source:  Wikimedia Commons )      For my topic, I've chosen stories around the Russian folktale figure Baba Yaga. Most of the popular stories focus on her being either a child-eater or an all-ages cannibal. However, there are some stories where she is portrayed as more of a morally ambiguous character and in one story even a really good guy. I think those stories are much more interesting.     Probably the most interesting thing about the character is she is sometimes portrayed as not one person but a trio of sisters! This is the main detail I want to carry over to my storybook with each story being a different triplet with a different personality.     The first story is the main Baba Yaga story in  The Project Gutenberg EBook of Russian Fairy Tales, by W. R. S. Ralston . This story is about a girl whose father marries an abusive woman who turns out to be...

 The Descendent     Margot, of being pure in chastity and of unshakeable faith, called upon the saints of her line, upon the angels, upon the protection of Jesu Christ. For her faith, she was rewarded and thus feared none and sought to purify corruption. Not to give sway to any inner desires of pride, she grieved for lost souls whom she herself was not meant to save. She drew comfort in another being able to succeed where she failed.     She walked the streets of the city, feeling the great Evil festering in every shadow.  The scourging clean of this city would be difficult work.     The first six weeks of her visit yielded no fruit. No eyes nor ears nor hearts would break their shells of stone to believe.     Yet Margot in faith did not wane. Twelve times a day, twelve times a night she would weep in pleading to the Lord to enable her to save the city for Him.      And at once in the evening of the third day of the sevent...

 Saint Martha     If S. Juliana had all the chill, and S. Margaret had no chill, where does that leave S. Martha? I think it leaves her somewhere in the middle leaning toward S. Juliana. She is aggressive enough to see a dragon, the Tarasque, eating a man and whip out a crucifix with no hesitation. She's also calm enough to keep it frozen there, while the townspeople kill it.     S. Martha takes one look at this giant amalgamation of a dragon who shoots flaming excrement out of its butt just munching away on another person and has the presence to know she can stun and hold it there while everyone else helps her.     If she wanted to, I believe she could've slain the Tarasque all on her own, but her prayer was only to restrain it. I think she let the townspeople kill it to help heal the grief they had from the Tarasque's reign.     While she didn't hold a conversation with it, she was more of a passive actor in the encounter with the dragon. ...

       My two favorite stories from this unit were the stories of SS. Juliana and Margaret. The stories are pretty similar, but both women are different enough in personality that they take the stories' middles in kind of two different directions.     Both stories involve the women refusing to marry a pagan official and being tortured and jailed for the refusal of both the marriage and of turning back to pagan gods. While in jail a demon (demons in Margaret's case) visit them in an attempt to get them to sin. Unfortunately, they both die in the end by being beheaded.     S. Juliana's story is more of a mental one. Of the two, she's definitely more laid back and chill. She simply grabs the demon by the wrist and speaks to him. They have a conversation about religion, why he tempts people, and where he comes from. It's all a rather civil affair.     For this reason, demons when represented less like a Hollywood jumpscare and more like the ...

 My Four Possible Topics     These are listed in alphabetical order and not the order of most to least likely to use for my project. 1. Alaskan Legends          Native American mythologies and folktales, in general, have always been fascinating to me. I've heard some stories from a whole bunch of different tribes, but the only one I've heard from the Inuit tribe is about a fox who becomes a guy's wife. From what I also know about the Inuits, I think their stories are probably really cool and interesting.     These stories are the ones I'm least familiar with out of the four, so I'm not quite sure what I want to learn from them. I think just learning about aspects of their culture and lifestyle through their stories.     As for the retelling of stories, switching points of view or swapping genders would be cool for these stories, especially the ones listed in Reading B. Those stories seem like they're going to be the most fun to...

 Åtta the Troll's Proposal     On the eighth day of the eighth month, Undra and her father and her mother climbed the tallest mountain. They stopped only when they had reached the summit at the eighth hour in the morning. They had not yet caught their breath when the ground shook beneath their feet, and the sky trembled above their heads.     Undra's parents stepped back in fear. Undra stood where she was. She refused to shake from the fear that struck her heart. From the mist emerged  Åtta, the youngest but most vile of the trolls.      His hair was stained the darkest red from his victims. His noisome body was wrapped in a cloak of moss, firs, and pines. Åtta's sunken pitch eyes reflected no light. He stood eight leagues over the summit and had to stoop to see Undra.           "Of the question I have asked your eight sisters before you, Fru Undra, you may answer only yes or no: Will you marry me?"   ...

Initial Thoughts     Once I started reading the anthology, I was hit with excitement. Excitement from starting the readings, but mostly it was the excitement of not only how lucky I was to be able to have the technology and resources to read all of the stories but the fact they all survived to the present day. There are so many stories, so many versions  of stories, which haven't survived. The fact these stories have traveled through time to be cataloged in a place where anyone can look them up and read them is exciting! The Chosen One     By this, I just mean the story I've chosen to focus on. I liked most of them a lot but had four stories I liked over the rest of the anthology. Of those four, I chose two to focus on the most.      In second place :  The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal . I liked this one because I have a soft spot for tigers in general, but mostly I liked it because I painfully understand the tiger. It's easy to get me r...