Storytelling for Week 6: The Great Build

Hello. My name is Phil and I am what most humans call a leopard. One day I had a great idea that my son and I needed a new house. I knew of the perfect place to start a clearing and begin building my house. By the time that I traveled to the location, the lot had already been cleared and minor work had been done to start the groundwork for the house. It had look to me as if it had been abandoned for quite some time so I decided to start working from where the previous wok was left off. After a long evening of working on the house I had returned home to sleep.

The next day I came to work on my house but to my astonishment it had been completed further than I had remembered. I thought to my self that I had finished that much work but I must have just not remembered from being so tired. Because of the lack of light in the late evening I must've not remembered what it had looked like. I continued to do some of the work and had to redo some of the work. Some of the construction wasn't built the way I would have built it so some of the structure had to be torn down and rebuilt. A few weeks of this went on and I finally finished my house.

On move in day my son and I gathered up all of our stuff and moved everything to our new house. Upon arriving at our new house we saw a ram and his child approach the house. I had thought they were there to greet us into our new house. When we approached the ram and his son, they began to unload a few things and asked us what we thought of their new house. With great confusion I asked "What in the world do you mean? This is our house that I have built for months". He seemed to be very confused and told me the exact same thing! Very confused we realized the work that seemed to be done when the other wasn't around was actually being done by one another. After a few minutes of laughing and coming to a conclusion we decided that we had built the house big enough that all four of us would be able to live together.

After a few months of us living together we were still getting along very well but I became very curious about how the ram was killing his prey to get meat because he had no claws or sharp teeth to kill with. I asked my son, "the next day when we go out to get food as the ram's son how his father kills his prey". After returning from my daily hunt I asked my son if had acquired the answer that I asked of him. He proceeded to show me how the ram would back up before killing his prey and share at them with his horns. I told my son that whenever he sees a ram back up that he must be getting ready to kill.

One evening I was preparing for dinner like I do every evening. I called for my friend and his son to come join my son and I for dinner. When they were approaching the dinner table the ram slipped on the muddy ground and started backing up. I told my son to run for the ram was about to attempt to kill us. Ever since then the ram has lived in the house while we have lived in the forest.

Mr. Phil aka the leopard

Author's Note

The original story is "The Leopard and the Ram". The story is the exact same except the original is told in the third person style instead of first person. I enjoy writing stories in the first person sense because it seems to give the character whose telling the story more of a personal sense instead of just a character without thought. 

Reading Diary B: West African Folktales

West African Folktales:

"The Moon and Stars": Anansi and his son help prisoners of the dragon escape and are rewarded by becoming the sun (Kweku Tsin), the moon (Anansi), and the stars (other prisoners)

"How the Tortoise Got Its Shell": The creation of the tortoise was made by him being smothered by a heavy pot and being rained on for months where is caked the pot and dust to his back.

"The Hunter and the Tortoise": The story is about a man finding a singing tortoise and takes her home with him but breaks a promise to her and is killed for his lying.

"The Leopard and the Ram": The story is about how the ram and leopard once lived together but the ram scared the leopard away and has ever since live in the house while the leopard lived in the woods.

"King Chameleon and the Animals": This story is about how the chameleon cheated his way into the king's position but no one would be apart of his kingdom so in reality he was no king.

"Elephant and Wren": The spider cheated in cutting down a tree with a wooden ax and on his way home tried to capture a wren for his families dinner so he could keep the elephant to himself when the elephant escaped.

"The Ungrateful Man": A hunter helped various animals out of a hole and was later betrayed by the human and sent to prison. The hunter saved the kings life and was let go and the human was beheaded.

"Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked": A tiger and a man meet in the woods and decided to live with one another. The man's friends shot the tiger and the tiger told his friend he would never harm a human unless provoked.

"How Mushrooms First Grew": Two men in debt wore robbed by a batfowl who was robbed by a tree who was robbed by an elephant who was robbed by a hunter who was robbed by a stump who was robbed by ant. The ant paid off their debts by making mushrooms for eating.

"Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies": Mybrow created a magnificent field with the use of the fairies. Mybrow told his wife where his field was on one condition, that she not answer any questions while there. When she answered the fairies asking who she was the fairies destroyed the field.

An African Tiger

Reading Diary A: West African Folktales

West African Folktales:

"How we got the name "Spider Tales"": This story is about the challenges faced by Anasi in trying to get the men to tell stories of himself instead of Nyankupon who is the chief of gods. Nyankupon told him he would tell the men of his wishes if he could collect a jar full of bees, a boa, and a tiger. Anahi did and so became the Spider Tales.

"How wisdom because the property of the human race": Anansi grew angry with the humans and took their wisdom away and stored it in a pot. He took the pot far into the woods to hide it at the top of a tall tree. He was unable to hide the pot because it was hanging around his neck and kept him from climbing the tree. After watching, Anansi's son told him to carry it on his back. Angry, Anansi threw the pot down anti broke, releasing the wisdom back into the world.

"Anansi and Nothing": The story is about Anansi and Nothing. Anansi was poor while Nothing was very wealthy. They went to the town to find wives. While they were on their way they switched clothes so that Anansi would be able to get wives. Announce, dressed in elegant clothes, gathered many wives while Nothing only acquired one. When arriving back at their respective homes, Anansi's wives were upset because of his small hut. Anna's wives went to Nothing's palace. Anansi became angry and left killed Nothing.

"Thunder and Anansi": Anansi goes out to find food when he sees a palm tree across the water. He takes an old boat out to the tree to obtain the nuts from the tree. Missing the boat and falling in the water, Anansi dives into the water and meets Thunder. He gave him a magic pot that had plenty of food in it. Being selfish, Anansi hid the pot from his family. They later found it and destroyed it.

"Why the lizard moves his head up and down": Anansi sets out to obtain the names of the the king's three daughters so he can marry them. After finding the names he tells the lizard the sound them so the king may hear. The king then gave the lizard the daughters. Anansi becomes angry and frames the lizard of a crime. The king then takes the wives away from the lizard and gives them to Anansi.

"The squirrel and the spider": The spider stole the squirrels land to later have the profits from the land stolen from him by the crow.

Palm trees of Africa

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fable:

Aesop (Winter): Page 1: The lost kid tricks the wolf into playing a song for him for the wolf ate him causing the dogs to return and chase the wolf away. The second story is about two ducks that took the tortoise on a ride in the sky by hold a stick with his mouth between the two ducks. He let go to brag and fell to his death.

Aesop (Winter): Page 2: I the first story the dog and cock are friends. They go on a trip together and when the cock wakes up he is tempted by a fox to come down but the cock tricks the fox into meeting the dog. In the second story an eagle takes a sheep into the air so the jackdaw attempts the same thing. The Jackdaw is then tangled in it's wool and the farmer cuts off it's wings.

Aesop (Winter): Page 3: An ass and farmer were traveling home off a mountain when the ass thought the quickest way home was down the side of a cliff and plummeted to his death.  The third story is about two people laying under a tree that shades both of them but still complain about how it has no fruit.

Aesop (Winter): Page 4: A stork was caught by the farmer with a group of cranes that had stolen from the farmer and the farmer punished the stork as if he were a crane. The farmer captures a pig, the pig squeals and the sheep question him to why he makes such a noise.

Aesop (Winter): Page 5: The story is about a grasshopper disturbing and owl during her daily rest and the owl tricks the grasshopper into coming into her hollow and eats him.

Aesop (Winter): Page 6: A monkey was asked to dance for the kings celebration and the camel got jealous and tried to beat the monkey's performance. In the camel's clumsy dance he made the other animals mad and was driven off.

A bust of Aesop

Storytelling for Week 5: The BIG Lie

Hi, my name is Linda. I live just outside a small village named Hich a Hich with my aunt. Most of the time we get along fairly well and have a good time with one another. There was one day that I was chasing squirrels through the forest outside of my house. I was looking up at the squirrel jumping through the trees and did not see the log that was crossing my path. Before I knew it I had fallen and I could feel a burning pain in my leg where I had scraped my shin. I went to my aunt for some ointment for my scrape when she proceeded to tell me she had none but handed me two eggs to take to the drug seller to trade for some ointment.

Once I was on my way to the drug seller I was looking all around and out of nowhere a squirrel jumped in front of me as if he were taunting me. I just had to chase him and when I did I fell into a hole in the ground because I wasn't looking where I was running. I had to come up with a story fast. There is no way I could tell my aunt that I had broken the eggs she had given me the same way I had injured myself in the first place. As I walked further toward the town I came up with countless stories that I could tell her. After all the stories were made up I decided to combine them all for the best story of all time.

Once I had arrived back at my aunt's house I told her my ingenious story that I created. I told her that I had misplaced the eggs when I got to the town and looked around hard until I found them fully grown into a chicken inside a woman's house. I told the woman to give my chicken back and to pay her for the work the chicken had done for her. We agreed that I would receive a substantial amount of rice in pay for the chicken's work. I strapped the rice to the chicken's back and we left from the village.

On the way back we stopped because the chicken's back was aching. Some men told me to place a burnt walnut shell on the back of the chicken and it would heal her. The next day when we woke up there was a fully grown walnut tree growing out of his back. The earth around the tree was good so I planted watermelons and muskmelons for growing. I cut a watermelon open and lost my knife. The melon was so big that I found an entire town inside of it and hidden deep within the town was my knife.

After telling my aunt of this great story she began to laugh so hard that she fell down. Once she stopped laughing she told me I wasn't to be trusted to go to town with eggs alone again.

The chicken as in the story 

Author's Note

This story is based off of the story "The City of Nothing-in-the-World." The original story is told in the third person narrative style of an all-knowing narrator. The story is the same with a few aspects of it shortened. Some of the details that were toward the end of the story made the lie seem to drag on and on with no end. The girl hurts her leg and asks the grandmother for ointment. The grandmother gives the child two eggs to take to the drug seller for ointment. After returning from the trip is when the child tells her aunt about all of the wild things that happened on her trip. I decided to tell the story in this style to give a more personalized feel for the child and what really happened along with why she lied. I also added the aunt's reactions to her story. The original story didn't have any detail about why the girl chose to lie and make up the story so I added in my own reasoning for the lie. I chose the image of the chicken because it was honestly the only thing that I could find that I liked. Also the chicken is the cause of the whole made-up story.

Bibliography

 "The City of Nothing-in-the-World" translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer from Persian Tales (1919). Web Source: UNtextbook

Reading Diary A: Persian Tales

The Wolf and the Goat: This story begins with a goat talking to her four children, Alil, Balil, Ginger Stick, and Black Eyes. She was leaving the house when she warned the children to not let anyone in to the house. She told them she would slip her paw under the door when she came home to show it was red to prove it was her. If the shown paw was black then it was the wolf. The wolf overheard what happened and died his paw red. The mother came home to find all but one of her children stolen and went to find the wolf. Upon meeting they agreed to fight. The Goat took gifts to a man that sharpened her horns while the Wolf took lesser gifts to the dentist to get his teeth sharpened. The dentist, being upset, took the gift and pulled the teeth of the wolf. The goat then tricked the wolf into jumping into the river and killed him by gutting him.

The City of "Nothing in the World": The story starts as a girl falls and scrapes her knee so an old woman gives her eggs to take to a man to get ointment. The remainder of the story seems as if it is about how when people tell a lie the lie continues to grow until it gets to be outrageous.

The boy who became a bulbul: This story is about a boy and his father when they go off to cut thorn branches. The stepmother tells them to make a bet on who could cut down the most branches. The father cheats and cuts his son's head off. The daughter finds out and brings the boy back to life as a bird. The bird then kills the stepmother and gives candy to his sister.

Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy: This story is about how the Mouse got her tail cut off and was sent running around to eight different people when each one would tell her to bring something from someone else for the dead wanted.

Arash the Archer

Week 4: Storytelling

Hello. My name is Anpu. I live in a grand house with my brother Bata. I have raised Bata as if he were my own and now he works for me and takes care of me and my wife daily. We have a stable life where as in I go to leave my home to go to work daily while by brother stays at home to work the oxen and work the ground. My wife stays at home daily to care for the house and relax.

One day I went to work like any other day but when I returned home something wasn't right. The house was dark and I could not hear my wife welcoming me home. I walked around the house looking for my wife to find her lying on the ground. She was worn and acted as if someone had attacked her or had done her wrong. I continued to ask her what had happened. She proceeded to tell me that My brother had attacked her and fled to tend the oxen. With fury I went to sharpen my dagger and set out to the barn to wait on my brother's return home so that I might kill him in surprise.

While sitting behind the barn door waiting for his return home, I heard him enter the barn and two of the oxen spoke to him warning him of my ill wishing upon him and that I wish to kill him. Bata ran hastily out of the barn, dropping the milk he had collected. After running a great distance Bata prayed to the god to stop me from chasing him so that he may converse with me to understand what my rage was about.

A great river was brought to us swarmed with crocodiles so that I would not cross it. I explained to Bata why I was so enraged by telling him that my wife told me Bata had attacked her and continued to tell her that he had been treated badly and that he wished them harm and continued to harm the wife. Bata explained to Anpu that is not what had happened that Anpu's wife approached Bata wishing Bata to come onto her because she admired his great strength but Bata denied her and told her to never speak of this for Anpu was like a brother to him. I forgave my brother and asked for him to return home but he refused saying he must now leave. I returned home with so much rage for my wife that I killed her where she sat and wept for the loss of my brother.

A dagger such as the one used in the story

Author's Note

This story is strongly based off of The Two Brothers: Part One. I chose to write this story as if it were being told by Anpu instead of third person. I wanted to give a deeper feeling of the way Anpu was effected by the events that took place in the original story.

Bibliography

The Two Brothers: Part One by Donald Mackenzi, from Egyptian Myth and Legend (1907). Web Source: UnTextbook

Reading Diary B: Ancient Greek Unit

The Two Brothers: Part One:
This first story is the introduction of two brothers named Anpu, the oldest, and Bata, the youngest. Bata is like a servant and son to Anpu and does all of his daily chores and respects him like a father. One day Bata went to the house to ask Anpu's wife for help. She denied but then came onto Bata. Bata quickly shot her down and she waited until Anpu arrived home and told him Bata had attacked her and spoke badly of Anpu.

The Two Brothers: Part Two:
The story begins with Anpu hiding and waiting for Bata's return to try to kill him. The oxen warn Bata of Anpu's wishing and warn him to run. When he runs Anpu chases him and Bata wishes the gods to divide the two brothers so that he may talk to his brother. Bata tells Anpu what really happened and Anpu returns home and kills his wife while Bata leaves his home land.

The Two Brothers: Part Three:
This story is about how the king caught the smell of Bata's hair and became hooked. He sent out of men to retrieve the woman and bring her back. After her arrival and the king's knowledge of how the acacia tree held Bata's soul, the king sent out a party to cut down the acacia tree and destroy it. Once Bata's brother found out about the happening he went to the tree sight and found a seed and put in water and brought Bata back.

The Two Brother's: Part Four:
The story begins with Bata's spirit being inside a sacred bull. Bata's wife realizes this and decides to have the bull slain. From the blood drops two new trees sprang up. Bata realized the trees had Bata's spirit in them and had them cut down. While Bata's wife watched she swallowed a piece of the wood. She became pregnant and the child grew up to actually be Bata who sentenced her for everything she had done.

Acacia Tree

Reading Diary A: Ancient Egyptian Unit

Creation: This story is about the creation of earth according to Egyptian myth. Nu was the king of everything before the earth as we know it was created. Nu gave birth to Ra, who later became stronger than Nu. Ra was the god that commanded to creation of the earth as we know it.

Ra and Hathor: This story is somewhat like the story of the great flood from the bible. Ra became very disappointed by the human's actions and sent Hathor to destroy them. After many people were killed Ra changed his mind and calmed Hathor by flooding the Nile and getting her drunk which led to the celebration of the red flood

The Sun's Journey: I'm confused on what this story is about but to me it seems as if the sun god must travel through twelve different areas throughout the night

Osiris: Osiris came to rule over earth after the passing of Ra. He created law and order to the land. He also made the human race more religious and civilized. Osiris's brother, Set, tried to take over the world because of his love for warfare opposed to peace but failed.

The Death of Osiris: This reading is exactly what it sounds like. Set created a plan to kill Osiris and take over his kingdom. Set tricked Osiris to lay in a box that fit his body perfectly and had his men quickly put the lid on the coffin and nail it shut then fix it closed with lead. A battle broke out then Set's men took the coffin to the Nile to have it sent down the river so be lost forever.

Possible Styles for Storytelling

Topic: The topic for my storybook will probably be lessons learned through Native American storytelling. I know I can find many stories with endless amounts of resources to the actual meanings of each story. My goal is to find different stories about atlas four different lessons to be learned through the stories by Native Americans. Finding the perfect stories to use and the specific styles will be my biggest challenge that I have throughout writing this storybook. On book I would like to use is How the Summer Came and The Origin of the Tides

Bibliography: 
1. The Origin of the Tides, from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911)
2. How the Summer Came, from American Indian Fairy Tales, by W.T. Larned (1921)

Possible Styles:

Animals as Storytellers: I think it would be quite easy to write these stories as an animal because most of them are either in an animals perspective or it is a story about a specific animal. Telling the story from a different viewpoint would give me opportunity to give different aspects to the story to make it more creative. It would allow me to choose different animals that would have different outlooks on different stories to tell their side of the story.

First Person: First person would be an interesting style to use beaus most Native American stories are in the third person story telling style. Also telling the story from a different view point would give an interesting new view on the story and give me room to play with different details of the story and its meaning.

Third Person: This would be an interesting style to use for the same reason as the first person. Most Native American stories are originally written in the third person storytelling style because they were passed down by word of mouth in a third person sense of style. I could use this style by writing from an all knowing third person storyteller or by a third person that is looking in on the situation but is telling the story as the way they saw it.

Legal Argument: I think it would be interesting to rewrite these stories in a setting as if there were two people arguing against one another for legal reasoning to figure out an outcome and to present their case for the happenings. This style would allow me to create a story with new details while allowing me to give two sides to the story and letting me portray what should have happened vicariously through the "judge's decision". By doing this I would be combining the first and third person style of storytelling.

Native American Storytelling

Essay: One of the Best

The use of the term hero has a broad area of uses. Most people think of a hero as someone out of a comic book or someone that saves hundreds of people's lives. My definition of a hero would be someone who completes something that is against their character in a good way or someone that accomplishes something for the good of himself and/or the people around him. This stories of Odysseus are what I would consider a rounded hero. He saves his land from being taken over in the war and then he fights through many hardships on his way home. He does all of this while keeping his men calm and preparing them for the worst but still giving them the courage to fulfill their task at hand. Some of the character's of the epic may not see Odysseus as a hero but as villain form their view but everyone always has atlas two ways of viewing a story. I haven't read the Iliad but have only read clips and reviews of the epic literature. I have thoroughly read and studied the Odessey and time and tim again Odysseus portrays himself of never being afraid of anything and being this aggressive, brave person while inside he questions everything about himself. He also knows that many of his men will die if not all of them and maybe even himself but he still has the drive to return home to his family and his land that he calls his own. Later in the epic he returns home and fulfills many tasks along while the one his own wife gives him to prove that he is himself. All that Odysseus goes through and is still driven to the very end is what I would classify as a hero. 

Odysseus in one of his last tasks

Storytelling For Week 3: Misunderstood Men

Hi, my name is Polyphemus. I am a greater known as the cyclops. I live on the Island of the Cyclops. Here we are very blessed by the gods and have very prosperous croups. Zeus blesses us with all the rains we could ever need. Our land is so rich that we never have to work it and we still have the best crops. Our society is so calm that we need no laws to control. We only make up our family rules. The reasoning for our bountiful lands were that the gods felt sorry for us because they forgot to give us two eyes and only gave us one which made our depth perception seem almost absent.

One day I was doing my normal chores of rounding up my sheep and bringing them to my cave for milking. These sheep weren't just any sheep. My sheep were very well fed and had the thickest wool. I brought the sheep in for milking and curdled half for storing and saved  the other half for drinking. After all of this was done I sat next to a fire I built and notice strange men in my cave. I asked them who they were and why they were in my cave. The leader of the group then threatened to take over my land and kill every cyclops that lived on it. I didn't much like this so I ate two of his men. After doing so I went to sleep knowing that none of his men were strong enough to hurt me.

The next day I woke up and ate two more men after gathering my sheep. This angered the man so much that he finally called for a truce. I asked him what his name is and he said Nobody. After we had a talk he proceeded to tell me that since we had a truce he would not kill me but would still kill everyone else! After I finished my days work I returned home and ate two more men. After this Nobody gave me a generous amount of wine and me being the nice fellow I am took the wine and happily finished the entire bowl. I passed out drunk from the wine. Later that night I woke up to a burning stick driven through my eye. The men had finally tricked me and overcame my powerful strength. I called for my fellow cyclops but when they came I had told them that Nobody had hurt me so they left. After I eventually lifted my door and left to tell the other cyclops what had happened they all left for the ocean. These actions by Odysseus made my father,Poseidon, very angry. I asked my father to make sure they did not return home eon favorable conditions. After this my life has never been the same

Odysseus gauging Polyphemus' eye

Author's Note:

This story is based off of the readings 1-4 from reading A in the UNtextbook of Homer's Odyssey. The original story is based off of first person reflections and actions from Odysseus. The story begins with Odysseus arriving at the Island of the Cyclops. Odysseus and his men explore the cave of Polyphemus and become trapped inside when Polyphemus arrives home. Polyphemus is angry with the men and eat a few of them. My story then follows along with the original story with the exception that Odysseus was the cruel one and Polyphemus was just protecting his home against the foreigners. I thought that since the original story was in first person that my story should be written in first person  because every story has two sides. I also thought the story should explain why they were given the land they had and why they behaved the way they did.  In the original, Polyphemus is describe as an animalistic being with no sympathy for the humans. In my version I described him as being more protective than animalistic and having a much more human side. The image I chose is form a museum gallery depicting the scene of Odysseus and his men gauging the eye of Polyphemus while he was passed out drunk. 

Reading Diary B: Homer's Odyssey

My second reading diary this week is over Homer's Odyssey. In the first reading, Ghosts of Erebus, Odysseus and his men arrive at the House of Hades and begins their Journey to locate Teiresias. The men must sacrifice lambs and let the ghosts drink from the blood to be able to converse. In the second reading, The Ghosts of Elpenor and Teiresias, Elpenor asks Odysseus to go back to the Circe's island and burn his body with his armor. He later talks with Teiresias. Teiresias tells Odysseus to not touch the flocks of Helios or he will encounter great trouble on his way home and if does make it alone he will find his land under rule by someone else and his wife will be taken by another man. Odysseus would also kill off the suitors and run away to a foreign land. In the next reading, The Spirit of Anticleia, Odysseus sees his mothers ghost and talks with her and tells him that his wife is still waiting for him along with his son while his father grieves in a rural place alone awaiting his son's return. She proceeds to tell him she died from yearning for him for so long. The next four readings are about Odysseus meeting various famous people in history and of battle and them telling Odysseus of their fall and asking him about their living family members. The last reading, The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis, is about when Odysseus leaves the House of Hades and sails pasts the Sirens Island. The Sirens tempt Odysseus to come to the island but he had his men stop him to the mast and plug their ears with candle wax so that they were unable to hear the Siren's song. The next part is about the swirling seas around the home of Scylla. When the men reach Scylla she grabs four men and eat them.

Odysseus and the Sirens

Reading Diary A: Homer's Odyssey

The Odyssey is about Odysseus's journey on his return home from the Trojan war. The first four readings are about the encounters of Odysseus and his men along with the troubles encountered and their escape. The main cyclops mentioned is Polyphemus. Odysseus and his men enter the cave of Polyphemus where they are captured by this cyclops that eats multiple men. The men create a scheme to escape the cave of the cyclops by gouging out his eye so that he will open the cave for them to escape. Polyphemus is a large vicious man that doesn't have any civilized traits about him. The next reading is the curse of Polyphemus. Polyphemus calls on Poseidon to curse Odysseus and his men to where they will have troubles and not return home safely. The next four readings are about Circe and Odysseus's encounters with her. Circe enchants half of Odysseus's men and turns them into pigs. On the way to rescue his captured me, Odysseus encounters Hermes who gives him a drug to make Odysseus resistant to Circe's enchantments. Circe is a conniving woman who lures men into her home to turn them into various animals. Odysseus takes the drug given to him. This leads Circe to believe Odysseus is unable to be persuaded. Unable to take over Odysseus, Circe sleeps with Odysseus and lets his men go and treats them well where they stay for a year. The last reading is about Circe telling Odysseus he must go to the House of Hades and speak to Persephone about his future.

Polyphemus the Cyclops

Topics: Brainstorming for Ideas

Topic: Cherokee Folklore
Comments: I really enjoy the different folklore stories that are told by Native Americans and their different beliefs on why different aspects of the world are what we see them as. I would like to look more into these readings because of my family's heritage in the Cherokee Nation.
Possible Stories: In the Un-textbook there is an entire section just on Cherokee Myths that I have found to be very interesting to read. There are also many Cherokee website that have myths that have been passed down.
Sample Story Comments: When searching for material to use for the myths of the Cherokee people I found that many of the websites that post myths are actually created and maintained by the Cherokee Nations.
Bibliography Information: 
Sample Story: How The World Was Made
Book Title: Myths of the Cherokees
Book Author: James Mooney
Year: 1900

Topic: Apache History
Comments: The Apache Indians were some of the most feared Native Americans because of their fierce tactics in battle and how well trained they were on horseback.
Possible Stories: Again the Un-textbook holds an entire unit on Apache Indians and their stories of greatness. When searching on Wikipedia I found a detailed history of conflicts between the Apache and various tribes along with the U.S. and Mexico.
Sample Story Comment: In the Un-textbook there is a story about the beginning of the Apache people and their fortunes that they were given.
Bibliography Information: 
Sample Story: The Emergence
Book Title: Jicarilla Apache Texts
Book Author: Pliny Earle Goddard
Year: 1911

Topic: Odysseus's Adventures
Comments: This subject has intrigues me ever since I studied the Odyssey in high school.
Possible Stories: One possible story that is one of my favorites is the story of the Odysseus's interaction with the Sirens.
Sample Story Comments:
Bibliography Information: 
Sample Story: The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis
Book Title: Homer's Odyssey
Book Author: Translated by Tony Kline
Year: 2004

Odysseus and the Sirens

Topics: Grimm Stories
Comments: I really like the Grimm Tales because they are the original version of all the modern day fairy tales that we all know except they usual have a dark ending to them that isn't so happily ever after
Possible Stories: One possible story to use would be one of the most well know of Snow white
Sample Story Comments: The story of my choosing has a few small differences where the queen tries three different times to kill Snow White but never is able to. The queen ends up dying from her own anger and rage.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: Snow-White
Book Title: Household Stories by The Brothers Grimm
Book Author: Translated by Lucy Crane
Year: 1886

Essay: The First Justice for Crime

The stories of Noah were some of the first known stories about laws that were placed among the human race and the justice that followed the disobedience of those laws. The first story was about the flood. God had told the people to behave and to stop their wicked ways but no one would listen to these warnings. God brought down the floods that wiped the Earth clean of people and of the sin that was brought by the wicked ways of humans. The later stories tell of the restructuring of the human population and how the evil began to arrive again. One of the stories began with Noah being tricked into drinking the "poisoned" wine from the serpent, better known as satan. The drinking of this wine caused Noah to behave like a monkey and behave abnormally. Not much justice came form this story though. Another later story was about the tower of Babel. The people of Shinar tried to build a tower to heaven to see what it was like. God didn't like what they were doing so in order to stop the construction of this great tower he scrambled their languages and scattered them across the Earth. The final story began with a few of God's angels asking for permission to walk among the people on Earth. After long thought and argument he agreed to left them rome within the human population. After countless acts of temptation the angels ultimately gave into the submissiveness of the women. Their punishment for this action was that their children would be known as the giants and the would be forced to live among the people and not return to heaven. This unit was primarily filled with stories and crimes of characters and God's punishment for those crimes based on what he sees fit.

Scales of Justice

Storytelling for Week 2: The Babbling City

A long time ago in a land much different from today there lived two brothers of very old age but still in good health. The oldest brother's name was Bill and the second brother's name was Joe. Bill was seen as the more mature older brother that everyone looked up to. Joe was the younger brother that did anything Bill said to do but was still looked highly upon by the community. These two men lived in a great palace of a house on the highest hill that overlooked the city. This community was filled with curious citizens that questioned many things that God did when creating the Earth. They met in many town meetings to discuss these things that they wanted answers to and went to God periodically to question the thoughts behind the creation.

One day Bill went to Joe and asked him the most curious question. Bill asked "what do you think is beyond the clouds?" Joe answered back "I don't know, brother. I've never put much thought into it but now that you ask I am quite curious as well." Bill responded, " Do you think that the great heavens of our god lie beyond the clouds"? After spending much time conversing over the subject the two men decided to get opinions from the townsmen. The men went amongst the remaining townsmen and questioned them as to what is behind the clouds and if they would be willing to build a tower to explore. After all of this interrogating the two brothers went to the town meeting that was being held and asked if the townspeople would help them build a tower on top of their house to explore the further reaches of the sky beyond the clouds. A strong majority of the people agreed to the task and began collecting material to build the tower with. To build the tower the people used brick that was burned to harden it and slime was used as a mortar to weld the bricks together.

After a few months the tower was built nearly a mile high. God then came down to check on his people and saw the partially built tower and decided that there was no way they would see his home without his admittance through the front gates. On one of the best days of construction Bill and Joe stepped back to view the tower being built and decided it was a beautiful creation. As the two were talking, God was sitting on top of the tower and threw tiny rocks off the top but only hard enough to get his point across. The rocks struck both of the men, as they were working, on top of the head and they began talking a strange language to one another. One by one God threw rocks at each worker until he had hit each and every worker. Now there were hundreds of languages being spoken and no one spoke the same language. Construction of the tower came to a halt and everyone was very confused and decided to move to various places around the world and begin their own countries.

Tower of Babel

Author's Note

I chose this story because I thought I could tell a new story from a completely different vantage point to create an interesting post. My goal was to create a new reasoning for why there are different languages in the world and why they are scattered throughout the world. Also my goal is to add more personalization to the story by adding in characters with attributes closer to today's type of people and how they would talk and act. The reading this story came from was "The Tower of Babel." In the original story, God confused the people of Babylon so that they would not be capable of working together to make the great tower to reach the heavens. In creating this story, I thought it would be better to create some type of reasoning for why everyone could not speak the same and also why they ventured off into different parts of the country. Most people know that origin of the original story but do not question its accuracy. Many of these stories were passed along by word of mouth and had variations in their accuracy. Knowing that this story is most likely completely inaccurate I felt like it would be a fun variation the original to explain some happenings early in our history. 

Bibliography

The King James Bible, Book of Genesis 10-11

Reading Diary A: Noah

I chose this unit because it is filled with stories we have all heard time and time again. The first reading "The Ark" is obviously about how GOD came to Noah and told him to build the ark along with specific dimensions and which animals to bring. "The Flood" talks about how for forty days and nights the heavens were opened up and water ran out. It continues to tell the story of how it took over a year for the waters to subside. In the reading "Noah's Sons" GOD tells about his promises to next flood the Earth again and gives them a token of the covenant better known as the rainbow. Also in this reading is the first mentioning of someone in a drunken state. Noah seems to be a well known alcoholic of wine. The reading also tells of how Satan came to curse the vineyards that Noah was growing. Satan said that if Noah would drink enough to become drunk he would act as if he were a monkey. In "The Tower of Babel" the story is told of how the different offsprings of Noah divided into different groups and took over various parts of the land. GOD came to the people of the land of Shinar because they were building a tower to reach the heavens and split them up across the earth and gave them all different languages so they couldn't communicate with one another. In "The Birth of Noah" a story is told about how Noah was born and a prophecy was told by an angel to the father of Noah that Noah would be the one chosen to build an ark but be the only one on it along with his three sons and wives when the earth would be wiped clean. Noah's actual name was hidden throughout life because his father believed he would be killed if his true identity was known.