Reading Diary B: English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales:

Henny-Penny:
So when I was first reading through this story, it reminded me of the game "telephone."  You know, where one person says something, and it gets passed along. It also reminded me of how gossip spreads - one person may say something but then as word spreads, people tend to not examine the actual situation but accept it as truth.  I'm not sure if that's what the author intended for this story, but I think the author did a good job of illustrating how destructive it can be.

Molly Whuppie:
This is an interesting story.  So far, I think I like the second half of the English Fairy Tales unit more than the first.  This story was neat since it highlighted how clever and brave Molly was.  I also had heard the "Fe fi fo fum..." rhyme when I was younger, but I never knew where it was from and now I do!

Johny-Cake:
I had already read this story before since I used it as a part of my storybook but before that, I hadn't heard of it.  It's interesting and thought it was a strange idea of a cake running away.  I wonder how the author came up with that.  Anyways, I'm not sure if the author intended for this, but my take-away was that you shouldn't brag or be overly confident - Johny-cake certainly was, and it led to his demise.

Mr. Miacca:
Wow, this story is pretty sickening.  The thought of cannibals, and a boy trying to run away... I wonder why the mom knew about this but didn't do anything - maybe she just thought it was a tall tale? Kudos to the boy for being clever enough to escape twice.  Hopefully he stays safe from now on.

Fairy Ointment:
I have also read this story before since I used it for my storybook.  When I read my storybook, I focused more on the magical abilities of the ointment and how cool it'd be to see new things that were possibly always there! When I read it this time, I focused more on the character she was now able to see and that outcome.  I think it's sad that she was blinded over the whole incident - I don't think she was ever told not to use the cream so it's a shame she was punished for it.

"Prince Arthur and the Fairy Queen" by Johann Heinrich Fussli

Source:  Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales:

Tom Tit Tot:
Wow, this was a very strange tail.  It started with the pies and the girl eating them all, then it ended with her rising her life in order to have flax.  I didn't really understand what character was giving her this quiz on his names - was it an animal or what?  Thank goodness she got it right.

The Rose Tree:
Wow, this is quite a twisted tail as well.  The girl lost candles so the step mother killed her, dissected her, and then fed her organs to her father?  That is so disgusting.  I wonder what point the author was trying to make with this story.  It was dreadful.

The Old Woman and Her Pig:
This is a strange story as well (common theme).  I wonder why the author chose to write a story about a woman getting home and not focus on the journey as much as trying to make the journey sound catchy.  It was like a sing-along while reading it, but I hate all the death and destruction at the end of the story.

Binnorie:
Wow, all of these stories are weird.  I'll probably keep on saying that.  It's really sad that one sister would kill the other over a guy.  Obviously it's very painful to have the guy you love choose someone else, much less your sister, but killing the sister was very drastic and sad.

Cap o' Rushes:
Awww, this is a good story.  I love how Cap o' Rushes did not brag about getting along so well with the master's son and was so humble about the whole thing.  It stinks her wedding food had to taste so bad though - I feel like that is extreme to make everyone have nasty food just to make a point to her father.  Perhaps just his food could have been un-salted?  Anyways, I really like how everything came together at the end.  This was a wonderful tale!

A map of England

Source:  Wikipedia

Week 10 Storytelling: Kingdom Split

                Once upon a time, there were two brothers who were both trying to reign over a kingdom.  One of the brothers, Chase, was older and more selfish but the younger brother, Sam, was more reserved but much more caring.  One day, Chase decided that he wanted to make a giant lake in his yard so he ordered his workers to go through the village and take everyone’s water from their wells and kitchens in order for him to have a giant lake to go wake-boarding on.  Although it seemed like a fun idea, Sam knew that the people of his kingdom needed water to stay hydrated and survive.  Thus, he tried to persuade his brother to make it a community lake so all could come and drink from it or to make his lake more of a pool so that it didn’t require as much water.  Chase refused and ordered his servants to make the lake twice as large.  Thus, Sam ordered his own servants every night to return most of the water that had been confiscated.  Every morning, when Chase woke up to go to the lake, he didn’t remember exactly how much water there was originally and just assumed there wasn’t much water to begin with.  Thus, the kingdom survived based off of Sam’s plan.

Lake Macquarie

Source:  Wikipedia

                A few months later, Chase decided that he wished for there to be 100 puppies in his castle so he ordered his servants to go and confiscate enough dogs to satisfy his need for cuddles.  Thus, the servants went around the kingdom and collected everyone’s puppies leaving children very upset and parents disgruntled.  Sam heard that the kingdom was very upset over losing some of their favorite pets and tried to reason with his brother.  Sam pointed out that puppies are hard to potty-train and if they aren’t given enough attention, can become ill-behaved dogs.  Again, Chase refused to listen to his brother and hoarded all the puppies in his castle for weeks.  Then, Sam came up with a plan.  He decided to put the cow manure all over the Chase’s favorite rug in the castle and thinking it was from the puppies, Chase would want them all gone and the puppies could return to their original owners.  Thus, Sam asked a townspeople who particularly wanted their puppies back to do the honor and the next morning, all of the puppies were freed and the kingdom was happy once again. 

Author’s Note:  This story is loosely based off of the Grizzly Bear and Coyote story written by Shuswap.  The story is a part of the British North America unit and is from Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson and was published in 1917.  My story is pretty different in terms of setting and characters from the original story, but the storyline remained the same.  In the original story, a grizzly bear wanted darkness and winter for most, if not all, of the year and the coyote knew that wouldn’t be good so he continually countered the grizzly bear to save life on earth.  

Reading Diary B: British North America

British North America:

Turtle and Thunder:
That was certainly and abrupt and unexpected ending.  It's sad that the people who he thought could help him were killed and that he took no one else's help.  I wonder if there was meant to be a moral for this story or not.  It was certainly strange and I'm not sure why it's still around.  It was interesting, but I honestly just don't get the point.

The Making of Lakes and Mountains:
Again, it's an interesting story, but I just don't get the point.  This one at least explained why there are mountains and lakes - but that was such a side element to the story, that I feel like they would have emphasized it better.  I wonder if the bears wanted to eat the woman or capture her or what.

Coyote and the Salmon:
This is a strange story.  Maybe it's more common for the British North Americans, but I usually thought of coyotes as cunning and now in these stories, I see them as being in charge and powerful creatures, respected by others.  With that being said, they were totally tricked by the salmon which is strange.  I don't normally think of fish as cunning or creative.

Salmon

Source:  Wikipedia

Nanebojo and the Geese:
This story was unexpected.  I didn't think that the geese would get away at the end.  After all, Nanebojo was cunning enough to trick the geese and it's nice that he supported his grandmother.  He'll be in for a rude surprise when he gets back and there are no geese.  Those geese that escaped will know better than to cross him again.  At least he's already off to get more so they should be taken care of.

The Adventures of Nanebojo:
This kid has the worst luck.  Between this story and the last one, he has serious animal-catching issues.  I feel like he should trust his grandmother to know more and to be able to help.  Maybe he should have done the hard work of building a cabin and let her try to catch food since she is probably very wise.

Wolverene and Rock:
The wolverene was somewhat asking for it.  He should not have rudely disturbed rock the way he did.  He got what was coming to him.  I still feel bad for him.  Cool visual of the storm though - I love rain and thunderstorms, so it was nice to read about them.

Reading Diary A: British North America

British North America:

Beliefs:
This story wasn't even really a story.  It was strange.  Not bad by any means, but it was just basically stating the belief that there were five worlds.  I have never heard this theory and wonder if some people still believe in it today.  It is sad that when "afraid of nothing" came to earth, that a lot of people would get sick and die.

Creation of the World:
This is a pretty interesting explanation for the world.  At the end, I was confused that what we call earth was created since I thought that was where the chief's daughter came from in the first place.  I guess not, but it's a neat story.  I've said this for other tales, but I like it when the ending is an explanation of why things are the way they are today.  This certainly is a fun explanation for an earthquake.

Creation of Earth:
I think this story is cool.  I thought it was strange that even though earth was the one who was critical, bossy, and constantly complaining, she still was able to be the one who ended up with the good stuff - never alone and surrounded by flowers and good things in general.  I think it stinks that the sun was "punished" even though he just had a super grumpy wife.  It's cool though that the sun, moon, and stars are meant to be seen by all.  I have lived a few places where you couldn't see the stars at night and certainly missed it.  I'm glad that I now can where I live now.

Origin of Rivers in Queen Charlotte Islands:
Hmmmm this story is really creative.  I definitely would not have thought of it myself.  I wonder where people get these sorts of ideas to come up with them.  It's a fun explanation for the rivers, for sure, but I can't imagine thinking of explanations like this.  Although, I wouldn't have imagined being able to make up a storybook and have done that last semester and this semester.

Grizzly Bear and Coyote:
I really like the coyote - it wasn't his responsibility to protect the world, but he stood up to the grizzly bear and did so.  I think this is a cool explanation for the seasons.  I've heard of explanations for the earth and the rivers, but I don't think I've ever heard one for the seasons, especially not one like this.  I also think it's interesting that a coyote, who typically represents slyness, represented such a good character in this story.

An Alaskan coyote.

Source:  Wikipedia

Why the Sun is Bright:

This is a cool story.  I wonder why the boy would give away a robe that he realized could catch fish so easily, though.  Too bad his whole village left him, but hopefully he and his grandmother made it.  I think it's fun that the sun got it bright colors from something a grandmother made, though.

Commenting Review Week

Being able to interact with the other students via commenting on blogs has been a wonderful way to connect with other students in the class.  I have been in a couple of other online courses and never before have I felt like I knew others in my class.  I think it's really important that you allowed us to not only comment on classwork but also introductions - reading introductions of the students gave me a better idea of who my classmates are rather than just awesome storytellers.  The comments I've received on my storytelling posts haven't been as helpful, but the comments on my storybook have been wonderful and have had enough constructive criticism to give me things to fix.  I really appreciate the variety of feedback because each person has a different thing they seem to look for in storybooks so I've gotten a variety of things to re-examine for my storybook.  I found it hard to be too constructive on short comments because they are short and also the writing is less technical in a way so there's not as much to critique.  For long comments such as comments on the storybook, there's plenty of things I can look at from introduction to stories to transitions to the other pages of the storybook that I have a better grasp of things to critique on.  If anything, I would suggest that every week or every other week, we take a look at the comments on our storybook and fix those things as well (I revise your storybook to include your suggestions to revisions but until now, I didn't even realize what great feedback my classmates had been leaving) - that might be a good assignment.  In fact, maybe every other week we comment on storybook and the other week we update our storybook or storytelling posts in response to comments from our classmates from the week before?

North Shore Port Lincoln, South Australia

Source:  Wikipedia

Writing Review Week

I have really enjoyed this class so far and one of my favorite parts in addition to being able to read such a variety of fun stories is being able to write creatively - it's so different from any writing I do for my major and I enjoy being able to put fun spins on my stories.  I don't feel like the storytelling posts are my strength - I feel like my stories are mediocre and I am constantly overwhelmed by the creativity of the stories of others' in the class.  However, I put a lot of effort into the storybook, and I feel like that is where my writing skills are more honed and there is a lot of creativity and because the storybook is so different from anyone else's, I don't mentally compare it to the storybooks of others and can easily appreciate their work as well as my own.  I have been blown away by the talent in this class - from Letters majors to Psychology major and Engineering majors, everyone has such a talent in writing creative stories which is really neat.  The feedback I've been getting has been wonderful.  Professor Gibbs - I feel like your feedback is the most helpful, hands down, but I have a feeling if I checked the comments written by my fellow classmates more often, than I would find their comments even more helpful.  The short and sweet writing strategies are also very useful and the examples are great because like many others, I learn better by example than by just reading what I'm supposed to do.

This picture is from one of my more recent storytelling posts which was a re-telling of a Cinderella-type story.  I made the story about a girl who was a friend of cats rather than a friend of turkeys and made it more modern.  

Source:  Wikipedia