Folks of All Mythology

 How to be Dead 101     The man poked his head out of the burial site. His thin wrinkled face squinted at those around him. "I tried being dead," he told his wife, "but I don't think it's stuck to me. I don't know how to be dead."     His wife, who had bargained their long lives for some daylight, shushed him. "You are the first one to ever die, figure it out."     The man lay back down, grumbling.     Flashes of light went off around him. "Congratulations!" someone shouted. He couldn't tell if it was male or female. A smooth, round face, like that of a child's, appeared above him. H screamed and poked his head out of the gravesite again.     "Dear, I really don't think I like being dead."     His wife shushed him. "We'll figure it out once the men return from hunting. Until then, get back in your grave."     The man settled back into his grave forlornly.      "You're the first human to eve...

  Arctic Fox. Will Brown. (Source: Flickr ) Story 1     "Papik, Who Killed His Wife's Brother" wasn't a story that particularly grabbed or held my attention until the end. The old woman does turn into a terrifying monster, but what got my imagination going was one of the last lines. "The people of old times thought it an ill thing for men to kill each other."     At first, I just thought along the lines of how it could be commentary today. Have we truly become so desensitized to violence that we've arrived at the point where we don't care? Surely we're not that far gone. But this was written down in 1921. I think humans have always been this way. We have stories about how murder is a very bad thing and how in the "old days there wasn't this much violence!" But I think every generation feels that way, and I also think we have a tendency to glorify "simpler times" as more non-violent, more peaceful, more harmonious. I wonder...

  A Polar Bear in Manitoba Walking Toward the Camera. 9 November 2011. Emma. (Source: Flickr )     There are four stories that caught my eye from this unit, although I was surprised to find I really liked all of them. The way they're formatted is really interesting. A lot of times when stories are translated from oral to written, details or the way it's told gets changed in some way. I really liked these stories because I felt I was listening to someone telling them to me after I had pestered them about it. The stories often ended in, "And this is all I know about it." or in a very similar way. It made me feel like whoever had been originally telling the stories was telling them to a child who had been bugging them. It was amazing how even the narrative style put me in the shoes of someone else. The Story I'd Rewrite     The  story that caught my eye for the assignment in this class, in particular, was "The Coming of Men a Long, Long While Ago." This sto...

To Be Worthy of a Happy Ending     Prince Ucay looked nervously about the grand hall. His bride-to-be beside was not an unpleasant woman, but he did not love her. He pined for his love who he kept secret from the world for he was too afraid to admit to his father he was in love with the daughter of his father's most hated rival, a witch.     The doors to the hall burst open. The guests screamed. His bride-to-be cowered beside him. For a brief moment, Ucay's heart was elated. It was his love!     His heart fell. She did not come toward him with a smile. She came toward him with eyes red from tears and hate on her face.     "You have betrayed and destroyed any love we once shared! For your timidity and cowardice, you will be transformed into nothing more than the performing monkey you are. And what better place for a monkey to live than the tallest tree in the forest. And what better subjects for a monkey prince to rule over than the other animals i...

Raven. (Source:  Pixabay ) Overall Thoughts     I liked a lot of these stories because they were mainly creation stories, a.k.a. stories that tell how or why something came to be. I'm not super sure if "creation story" is the correct term, but I think it is. Anyway, out of all the creation stories and a couple fable-like ones, the two I liked the best in Part B were because their endings grabbed my attention. Story 1: "Why the Sun Shines More Brightly than the Moon"     The ending caught my eye because I didn't expect it to end the way it did with the two sisters dying. I thought the crystals would have allowed them to rise from and set into the ocean at different times, thus also explaining why the sun and moon seemingly rise from there. Or I thought they might also be saved by being stored in their crystals? I'm not sure, but I didn't expect it to end quite like it had.     I really liked how the sun and moon, or the people they were meant for, wer...

      FINALLY!!     It's finally here! I've been waiting s pecifically for this week where I could read the most anticipated folklore and tales of the semester: Filipino tales!     There were three stories that caught my eye in Part A. Story 1: "The Three Friends: the Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao" Until this story, I didn't know what a carabao was. I had heard of carabaos' great horns and strength, and, in my mind, I had envisioned something out of a myth. I was so delighted to find it was just a domesticated water buffalo native to the Philippines. And I think it's so cute, too! A Carabao in the Philippines. Mike Gonzalez. 7 August 2005. (Source:  Wikimedia Commons ) This quote stuck out to me the first time I read it, "...for in union there is strength." I didn't know it at the time, but that's pretty much the lesson to be learned for Part A, aside from the few stories that have their own fables at the end. Many of the stories go on...

 The Fate of Two Friends           It was a peaceful day, even with Sun so close by. Bodhi was in mild shock something hadn't gone wrong because of his friend today. So far, there hadn't been pranks or tricks. No one had yelled. Sun hadn't gotten anyone riled up either. The weather was fair with a soft steady breeze flowing through every room.     Yes, it was a perfect day.     Bodhi frowned and rubbed his forehead. If it was so perfect, why couldn't he meditate? No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on it, he couldn't quiet and empty his mind today. He was tempted to blame Sun, but he really hadn't done anything today. Yet.     "That may be my fault," a man said.     Bodhi turned to admonish him who dared interrupt his prayers and meditation but stopped. Sitting serenely by him was a man dressed in glowing garments. Bodhi was stunned into silence. His brain catching up to him, Bodhi jumped up and bowed to t...

  Sun Wukong and Xuanzang. 1864. (Source:  Wikimedia Commons )     Sun is the type of friend that says, "If I bake the cookies at four million degrees for five seconds, that's the same as baking them at 350 degrees for 12 minutes."     Xuanzang is the type of friend in the background crying because that's not how any of that works,  and "Sun if you actually try it, I'll stick you so far under your mountain Buddha won't be able to pull you out."     Knowing this, it's understandable why most of the gods and spirits and celestial beings have a bone to pick with Sun. However, there is one being in two stories who has absolute patience with Sun and works to get him mercy from others, the Jade Emporer especially. That being is called Evening Star.     I searched Wikipedia and Google at large, and couldn't really come up with anything on this being. If anything, he (I believe Evening Star has masculine pronouns) is only a footnote in Sun'...

  The Monkey Songokû. circa 1824-1825. (Source:  Wikimedia Commons )     This week, I'm focusing on the mythical Chinese figure, Sun Wu Kung. His name is also sometimes spelled Sun Wukung, Sun Wukong, or all fancy with the accents like  Sūn Wùkōng. Sun means monkey and was given to him as a sort of inside joke from his first master Patriarch Bodhi as he did not previously have a name. Wu Kung means "awakened to emptiness." Although, it can also be taken as being aware of vacuity, i.e. aware of one's lack of thought, intelligence, or emptiness. Either way, his name basically means "Monkey Awakened to his Emptiness."     From here on out, I'll just refer to him as Sun.     To learn more about Sun's names, you can go  here  to a Wikipedia article about it!     My Favorite Part(s)     My favorite parts in Part A's readings were the ones where Sun and Bodhi interacted. So basically every story from "Sun Wu Kung Gets h...

 The Bald Wife's Happy Ending          The woman, a wife who used to be bald, sat beside the muni at his behest. She wanted to ask what he required of her but stayed silent until he was ready to talk. The sun set and rose once more before he uttered a single word to her.     Her long dark hair flowed in the breeze and the birds in the leaves sang of her charm, but she reveled not in her newly bestowed beauty but in the beauty around her. All was peaceful in the holy grove where the muni lived. The woman silently supposed that anywhere the younger wife wasn't yelling at and beating her was considered peaceful.      When the sun had risen enough to be blocked by the boughs of the trees, he spoke.     "By your kindness and obedience, you have been granted blessings," the muni said. "That is not easy to accomplish."     The woman bowed low. "I do not deserve such words, Father Muni," she said, "for I was doing what a...