Folks of All Mythology

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...