Week Eleven Reading Notes Part A - Hiawatha

Source Story: The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855). Web Source.

• "The Four Winds"
• After killing the great bear Mishe-Mokwa, Mudjekeewis' name is changed to Kabeyun and he becomes the West Wind. He gives the other three winds to his children - the East Wind is his son, Wabun. Wabun brings the sunrise and makes things beautiful but is lonely, until he finds a beautiful but lonely human maiden. He romances her with his beauty and then turns her into the Star of Morning, and now they can be seen walking together in the heavens.
• "The Four Winds (cont.)"
• The North Wind is given to his strong and fierce son, Kabibonokka, who brings the snow and the freezing of the lakes and forces everyone to migrate southward. But a diver (duck) remains with fish he has caught and logs for a fire, and despite Kabibonokka's best efforts to freeze him, and then to beat him in wrestling, Kabibonokka cannot defeat him. The South Wind is given to Shawondasee, who is fat and lazy and careless, and who brings about summer and crops and birds. Shawondasee falls in love with a beautiful maiden dressed in green and with yellow hair, but is too lazy to woo her. One day her hair is white like snowflakes, and he thinks his Northern brother has stolen her from him, so he sighs his sadness across the plains, and the maiden is blown away, because she was a dandelion all along.
• "Hiawatha's Childhood"
• A woman named Nokomis falls from the moon and gives birth to a daughter, whom she warns to be wary of the West Wind. The daughter does not listen and lets the West Wind seduce her, but he abandons her when she gives birth to their son, Hiawatha. She dies of heartache, so Hiawatha is raised by Nokomis, his grandmother, who teaches him everything. He learns how to talk to birds and animals, and Iagoo makes him a bow, with which he kills a red deer buck on his first try.
• "Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis"
• As an adult, Hiawatha learns of how his mother died, and decides to confront his father. He goes to the land of the West Wind, and he and his father sit and talk for many days. Hiawatha pretends to be happy to see him only to ask what his weakness is. His father says the only thing that can harm him is a specific black rock, and Hiawatha tells his father the only that can hurt him is the bulrush. Then Hiawatha tells his father that it was his fault that Hiawatha's mother died, and his father admits it.
• "Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis (cont.)"
• Hiawatha and Mudjekeewis fight violently, but reach a stalemate because Mudjekeewis is immortal. So Mudjekeewis admits that he was only testing Hiawatha's courage, and when Hiawatha is old and ready to die, he will instead become the North-West Wind. On the way home, Hiawatha stops to buy arrows and meets a beautiful but enigmatic maiden, named Minnehaha or Laughing Water, about whom he does not tell Nokomis.
• "Hiawatha's Fasting"
• Hiawatha goes into the woods to fast and pray for the "profit of the people." Mondamin, a friend of man dressed in green and yellow and sent by the Master of Life, shows up after Hiawatha has been fasting for several days and wrestles with him. They wrestle for three nights in a row, and then Mondamin announces that the Master of Life will give Hiawatha victory, and Hiawatha will get what he prayed for.
• "Hiawatha's Fasting (cont.)"
• Mondamin tells Hiawatha he will come and wrestle him once more, and after Hiawatha wins he must strip Mondamin of his green and yellow clothes, bury him, and watch over his grave until he comes up again and reaches for the sun. Hiawatha, though he has been fasting for a week and has refused Nokomis's food, wins the fight and follows Mondamin's instructions. Mondamin comes back as a corn plant (dressed in green and yellow) to serve as food for the people and fulfill Hiawatha's prayers.
• "Hiawatha's Friends"
• Hiawatha had two friends: Chibiabos, who was the greatest musician of all time, and Kwasind, who was the strongest man. When Kwasind was young everyone called him lazy - his mother asked for his help with the nets but he was too strong and broke them all. His father asked for help with hunting, but Kwasind broke the bows. Still, Kwasind cleared the path of fallen trees for his father, and dammed the river and caught the King of Beavers for the other young men.
• "Hiawatha's Sailing"
• Hiawatha asks all the trees and the hedgehog for parts of themselves to help him build a magical canoe. They agree, albeit unhappily. Then Kwasind clears the river of all logs and sandbars, and Hiawatha can sail it without paddles because of his magical canoe.
• "Hiawatha's Fishing"
• Hiawatha sets out to kill the King Sturgeon, but the sturgeon keeps sending other fish to grab his line and try to pull Hiawatha down. Finally, after the other fish have failed, the sturgeon swallows Hiawatha, the canoe, and the squirrel friend who is along for the ride, in one bite. Hiawatha, inside the sturgeon, kills it by attacking its heart, then the squirrel and some seagulls help him get out of the now-beached and dead fish. He instructs Nokomis to work at night turning the fish into oil for winter so the seagulls can eat it during the day as thanks.

"Westward, Westward, Hiawatha" painting by M. L. Kirk from Wikimedia Commons

Week Ten Reading Notes Part A - "Eskimo"

Source Story: "Eskimo Folktales" by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921).

• "The Coming of Men"
• The earth was created by falling from the sky, and then men crawled up out of the earth as little children. Eventually a man and a woman were there, and man grew to be many on the earth, and man got dogs and did not know how to die. There was no light or day, other than the light in man's homes. The earth was too crowded, so a great flood came and drowned many. Then two old women talked about whether it was better to have death and light, or no light and no death. The former was chosen, and light came about because, when man dies, he becomes a star in the sky.
• "Nukúnguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak"
• Nukúnguasik lived among a set of many brothers who would bring him food since he had no wife. One day he discovered one of them creating a Tupilak (a magical creature created with the intent to harm someone) and telling it to kill Nukúnguasik. Nukúnguasik startles the brother to death, then returns home. He goes out with the other brothers looking for the dead man, and leads them to him, where the Tupilak is now eating his body. They bury him and go on with their lives.
• "The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son"
• An old woman is taken care of by her village, and one day they give her the cub of a bear they killed. She raises it as her son and it grows up well-loved by the whole village. When it is older, it begins hunting with the men of the village to find food, but the men from a faraway village want to kill it, despite the old lady making a collar to mark it as friendly. One day the bear kills a man in self-defense, so the old woman tells it that it must leave her, so that nobody will be able to kill it. They both weep, and the woman marks the bear with oil before he goes. From then on, it was said that sometimes people would see a bear as big as an iceberg, marked with oil.
• "Qalagánguasê, Who Passed to the Land of Ghosts"
• A boy's whole family dies and leaves him a paralyzed orphan. He begins to see ghosts, and one day he sees several ghosts, including his sister. They tell him that if he doesn't tell anyone about them, he will stop being paralyzed, but as soon as he starts to feel stronger, he tells everyone and is immediately paralyzed again. The village ties him up and leaves to go to a singing contest, and the ghosts of his parents show up to take him to become a ghost with them. He goes willingly and becomes a woman ghost.
• "Isigâligârssik"
• A bad wizard steals Isigâligârssik's wife, so Isigâligârssik challenges him. The wizard stabs him, but Isigâligârssik goes home and puts on his childhood dress, which has healing powers and heals him. Then he takes a tiny bow and arrow and has a shootout with the wizard, who he kills. He gains his wife back and they live happily ever after.
• "The Insects that Wooed a Wifeless Man"
• A wifeless man is detested by all the women because he always sleeps in too late to go hunting. One day he goes out in the evening anyway, and helps a Noseless One whose kayak was overturned. After that, he does not struggle with his old sleepiness and becomes the best hunter around, and he gets the best wife. But she nags him until he tells her what happened, and then his sleepiness returns. His wife runs away and he chases her, and she sends a bunch of insects to try and seduce him. When this doesn't work, he crawls into the cave she is hiding in and she combs his hair and tells him to sleep until spring. When he wakes up, she's gone and so is the winter, and his kayak has rotted from old age.
• "Makíte"
• A man named Makíte is bad at hunting and hears that his wife is going to leave him, so he runs away to live along in the mountains. He meets a lone-dweller there who has floating lights in his house, and he threatens to kill the lone-dweller if he doesn't say where he got them. He tells Makíte that they are on top of a faraway hill. They get into a fight and Makíte kills the man, then goes on and meets some dwarves. He witnesses a fight between the dwarves and the inland-dwellers, who fight by sending waves of water towards each other. The dwarves win, and Makíte builds a house with them, and gets some of the floating lights from the hill, and lives there forever.
• "Atungait, Who Went A-Wandering"
• A man named Atungait leaves his wife to find a strong woman to go on a trip with. He finds one, and they travel around on his sledge, meeting several strange groups of people. They meet one group who is all lame, and he steals their copper plaything. They use magic to send an avalanche of stones after him, but his strong woman ties leather to the back of their sledge which stops the stones. After this, he tells the woman to stay there while he flies to see which way home is. When he arrives home, he sees his wife with another man. She says she hasn't kissed anyone, so he kills her, but the man she was with admits to kissing her, so he lets the man live. Then he marries the strong woman.
• "The Giant Dog"
• A man had a giant dog, who could catch whales and narwhals and on whom he and his wife could ride. He gave the dog an amulet that made it hard for the dog to die. After the dog killed and ate someone in their village, the man had to move somewhere else with the dog. A stranger came with three dogs as big as bears to kill it, but the dog killed all of them, and the dog also often killed inland-dwellers and brought their legs back to his master, which is why inland-dwellers are so afraid of dogs.
  

Image of a dog sled from Wikimedia Commons

Week Nine Reading Notes Part B - West Africa

Source Story: "West African Folktales" by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

• "The Moon and Stars"
• Anansi and his son Kweku Tsin are captured by a dragon one day while they're out hunting. The dragon takes them back to his castle where they are guarded (along with many others) by a great white rooster. Kweku devises a plan to distract the rooster and make a ladder to climb up into the heavens, using a bag of bones and a magical fiddle to keep the dragon at bay as they climb. The gods make Kweku into the sun, Anansi into the moon, and all the others into the stars.
• "How the Tortoise Got His Shell"
• The gods decide to throw a party, so they send Klo (the tortoise) to get some wine from the chicken. Klo is very fast, and he gets there quickly. The chicken and the tortoise fight for the right to the wine and the palms that produce it. Klo wins, but there is too much wine for him to carry in his pot, so he drink all the leftover wine, then slings the pot onto his back along with all the trees. Being drunk, he is too slow getting back to the party and finds himself locked out in the rain for two months, during which time he dies under the weight of the pot. When they find his body, the gods are able to bring him back to life, but the pot had so melded to his body that it became part of him, and that's how tortoise got his shell.
• "The Hunter and the Tortoise"
• A hunter finds a singing tortoise in the woods, and takes her home to sing to him every day. She agrees with the condition that she will only sing to him, and not to others. But of course he tells everyone about it, and tells them they can kill him if it turns out that he's lying. They agree that, if he is telling the truth, he may punish them however he sees fit for disbelieving them. But the tortoise doesn't sing in front of them, because of the agreement they made. After they kill the hunter, the tortoise finally speaks, and explains that the man brought it on himself.
• "The Leopard and the Ram"
• A leopard and a ram mistakenly choose the same place to build their house, so they decide to live together. When Leopard realizes that Ram brings home as much meat from hunting as he does, he asks his son to find out how Ram kills animals. Leopard's son and Ram's son reveal to each other how their fathers hunt, and Leopard gets the information from his son that Ram backs up a bit, then rams forward with his head to kill an animal. One day, the rain makes the floor very wet, and Ram slips backwards. Thinking Ram is about to kill him, Leopard takes his son and flees into the woods, despite Ram's calling out to him. This is why rams are domestic (they continue living in the house) while leopards are wild (they flee into the forest).
• "King Chameleon and the Animals"
• The animals decide they need a king, but because they cannot agree on one, they decide to have a race to determine their ruler. The first one to sit in a certain stool should be the king. Hare, the fastest, makes it to the stool first, but finds that Chameleon has hidden himself on Hare's tail and jumped off at the last second to steal the seat. The other animals honor their agreement to make him king, but they are all unhappy with the outcome, so they leave Chameleon lonely forever, with no subjects to rule.
• "Elephant and Wren"
• The king tells all his subjects that anyone who can cut down a certain large tree with only a wooden axe will receive an elephant as a reward. Spider takes the challenge, but secretly uses a steel axe instead. However, he doesn't want to share the elephant with his family, so he ties it to a tree while he tries to catch a wren to give them to eat while he hides the elephant in the woods to eat by himself later. He fails at catching the wren, and the elephant escapes.
• "The Ungrateful Man"
• A hunter comes across a pit with a serpent, a rat, a leopard, and a man all trapped in it. He helps them all out, despite thinking that the man was the only one he should have saved. The serpent repays him with a powerful antivenom for snake bites (which must be mixed with the blood of a traitor), the leopard supplies him with meat for many weeks, and the rat brings him a bundle of riches. The man from the pit, however, only becomes envious of the hunter and mooches off of him until he finds an opportunity to do him wrong. He wrongly accuses the hunter of stealing from the king, and the hunter is sentenced to death. Before his execution, however, the hunter is able to save the king's son from death by a snakebite using his antivenom mixed with the blood of the ungrateful man, who they kill for being a traitor. The hunter is set free and given many riches.
• "Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They are Provoked"
• A tiger and a hunter befriend each other and take turns staying at each other's homes. The hunter's father dies, so the tiger and his cub come to visit to console their friend. As they are leaving, some of the hunter's friends shoot the tiger, who fortunately does not die, but worries that his friend has betrayed him. The tiger pretends to be dead to see what the hunter will do. The hunter is deeply grieves and stays by the tiger's side all night, crying, to protect the body. The tiger reveals that he isn't really dead and explains what happened, then promises to never attack a man unless the man provokes him first.
• "How Mushrooms First Grew"
• A pair of brothers racks up a lot of debt, but they decide to try to pay it off honestly by farming. A bird eats all their seed, so the debt transfers to the bird. The bird tries to lay eggs to sell, but a silk tree's branch smashes them, so the debt goes to the tree. The tree tries to make silk to sell, but an elephant takes down all the pods, so the debt goes to the elephant. A hunter kills the elephant, so the debt goes to him. A tree stump trips the hunter and breaks his leg, so the debt goes to the stump. A colony of white ants (termites) eats through the stump, so the debt goes to them. They all pool their money to buy linen thread, which they weave into pieces of cloth to sell to pay off the debt. They sometimes lay this cloth out on their anthills, and people call it "mushrooms."
• "Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies"
• Farmer Mybrow sets out to make a field next to the home of some fairies. The fairies help with whatever task he begins (clearing the field, planting, etc.). He keeps the field and the fairies a secret from everyone, even his wife. But eventually his wife finds out the location and goes there to gather some firewood, after promising her husband she won't answer any questions she hears there. She pulls an unripe ear of corn from a stalk, and the fairies ask what she is doing. Forgetting her promise, she tells them she is pulling down an ear of corn. The fairies immediately help her with her task, pulling down all the crops before they are ripe and ruining the field.

Image of a tortoise from Public Domain Pictures

Week Nine Reading Notes Part A - West Africa

Source Story: "West African Folktales" by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

• "How We Got the Name: 'Spider Tales'"
• Spider was jealous of Nyankupon for being the subject of all the folk stories, so he asked for all the stories from then on to be called Anansi stories, after him. Nyankupon agrees on the condition that Spider bring him a jar full of bees, a boa constrictor, and a tiger. Spider uses his cunning to trick all the above creatures and brings them to Nyankupon, so after that the old stories were called Anansi (Spider) Tales.
• "How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race"
• Father Anansi, who possesses all the wisdom in the world, becomes angry with some men and decides to punish humanity by reclaiming all the wisdom he has shared and placing it in a pot, then hiding the pot on top of a tree. He hangs the pot from his neck, and therefore he cannot climb the tree to hide it there. His son, who has been watching, suggests that he carry the pot on his back. Realizing that his son has more wisdom than he, Anansi throws the pot down, breaking it and releasing all the wisdom across the world to humans.
• "Anansi and Nothing"
• Anansi and his rich neighbor, named Nothing, go to town to find some wives. On the way, Anansi trades clothes with Nothing so that he appears rich while Nothing appears poor, so Anansi gets many wives and Nothing gets only one. When they get home, Anansi's wives realize how poor he is and leave him for Nothing. Anansi tricks Nothing into a deathtrap, killing him. Nothing's first wife is heartbroken and makes food to share with all the children of the land so that they will cry with her, which is why children are often said to be "crying for Nothing."
• "Thunder and Anansi"
• Anansi and his family have no food and are starving, so Anansi goes in search of some coconuts, only to find an underwater cottage where Thunder lives, who gives him a magic pot that provides food out of nothing. Afraid that the pot's magic will run out, Anansi keeps it from his family, allowing them to starve while he fattens himself up. His son, however, shapeshifts into a fly and spies on him, then takes the pot to share with his family. Anansi's wife, in anger, accidentally destroys the pot while cooking a meal to share with all the hungry people in town. Angry, Anansi goes back to Thunder and tells him the tale, whereupon Thunder gives Anansi a magical stick that beats him to a pulp. Anansi is left feeling remorseful for being so foolish.
• "Why the Lizard Moves His Head Up and Down"
• A king offers his three daughters as wives to any man who can discover their names, which Anansi does through trickery. He tells the name to his friend Lizard, who agrees to act as his herald when he meets with the king. However, since Lizard is the one who actually says the names, the king gives him the princesses instead of Anansi. Anansi frames Lizard for the crime of killing the king's rooster, and pours boiling water into his mouth to make him unable to speak. When the king's men find him, he can only bob his head up and down and is unable to defend himself, so the princesses are taken from him and given to Anansi, and since then all lizards bob their heads up and down.
• "Tit for Tat"
• During a terrible famine, Anansi's oldest son discovers a good hunting place where he finds meat to sell in the village. Greedy, Anansi uses trickery to track his son to his hunting place, then drives him off in order to kill all the animals himself and sell them to become rich. His son returns the trickery, though, by creating a fake god to scare Anansi into leaving behind all the meat, which his son then takes to sell, becoming rich and eventually telling the story to all the neighbors, which shames Anansi into temporarily giving up his evil ways.
• "Why White Ants Always Harm Man's Property"
• During another terrible famine, Anansi finds a dead antelope and tries to take it home to his family to eat, but Wolf and Leopard steal it. So, he tricks them into letting him hang them from a tree by promising to sharpen their teeth for them, then takes back the meat and hosts a huge party right in front of them where the whole village eats the antelope meat. Later on, a family of white ants (termites) passes by and helps Wolf and Leopard escape their bonds, so the two animals offer to prepare a feast for the white ants a few days later. Anansi hears and dresses his own children up as white ants, and they go and eat the feast themselves. When the real white ants arrive, Leopard and Wolf assume they are really Anansi's children and kill all of them but the father, who in anguish vows never to help anyone again, and only to destroy.
• "The Squirrel and the Spider"
• Anansi uses trickery to steal the crops which Squirrel has so carefully tended, by pretending that the fields were his all along because he built a roadway to them, where Squirrel always came by the trees. He and his family carry away all of the crops to sell them, but a huge storm makes them drop their crops to hide. When they return, a crow has his wings spread over the crops to keep them dry, whereupon the crow claims the crops as his own and takes them to sell himself, leaving Anansi with no reward for his theft.
• "Why We See Ants Carrying Bundles As Big As Themselves"
• Anansi and his son both need rain to make their fields grow, and a dwarf comes along to his son and offers his help. The son taps the dwarf lightly with two small sticks, which makes it rain. Anansi, thinking to make the dwarf produce double the rain, beats him so hard with two large sticks that he dies. Anansi tries to frame it on his son, but his son is too clever and tricks Anansi into taking the dwarf (a close friend of the king) to the king himself. The king is angry and has the dwarf's body magically sealed in a box which is placed on top of Anansi's head to carry forevermore. The only way to get rid of the box is to get someone else to carry it for him. Anansi tricks Ant into carrying it for him, which is why we always see ants carrying such heavy loads.
• "Why Spiders Are Always Found in Corners of Ceilings"
• Anansi's family has a magnificent harvest, but Anansi wants it all to himself, so he tricks his wife and son into leaving for awhile, telling them he'll be gone on business, and when he returns they will all feast together. Really, he stays and eats half the harvest himself. His son discovers that someone has been stealing from them and sets up a rubber man, to which Anansi gets stuck. Out of shame when he is discovered by all the townspeople for stealing from his own family, he shapeshifts into a spider and hides in a corner of the ceiling, which is why spiders always hide there.
• "The Grinding-Stone that Ground Flour by Itself"
• During a great famine, Anansi's cousin discovers a stone that grinds flour of its own accord, next to a stream of honey, but he only ever takes enough to feed his family. Realizing that his cousin's family is not starving like everyone else, Anansi tricks his cousin into showing him where the stone is. Rather than only taking what he needs, and against the stone's begging, Anansi takes the entire stone from village to village, carried on his head, and sells the flour, making a lot of money. But when he tries to take the stone off his head at the end of the day, it refuses, and instead grinds him up, which is why we often find lots of small spiders under huge stones.

Spider image from Good Free Photos

Week Eight Progress

1. Looking Back: Over the first half of this semester, I've found that I've actually enjoyed some of these assignments more than I expected, and I've been relatively proud of the work I've done, particularly the stories I've written. I've always enjoyed writing, but fiction - and especially fairytales and folklore - has never been something I've been good at or really even tried. I've had a good time reading most of the stories so far, and I think my note-taking strategy has fallen into a good and productive rhythm. That said, I'm not very pleased with myself in the realm of extra credit; I had intended, at the beginning of the semester, to be quite diligent at working ahead and completing extra credit work. But so far, I've not done a very good job of that.
2. Looking Forward: That said, the most obvious segue into what I plan to do for the rest of the semester is that I hope to be more consistent with the extra credit work and perhaps even begin working ahead somewhat. I think the best way for me to accomplish this would be to do the extra credit at the start of the week, rather than putting it off until the end and eventually just not doing it at all. I've been avoiding doing it at the very beginning of the week because my week is very front-loaded when it comes to classes, but it would be feasible for me to try to do more of this work on perhaps Wednesdays.
3. Image:

Image of a mountain climber from Pexels

Week Eight Comments and Feedback

This post is meant to be a reflection on the quality of the feedback that I've given and received in this class so far.

1. Feedback In: So far, I would rate the quality of the feedback I've received at around a three out of five. I appreciate that people have been quite positive and friendly in their comments, and many have pointed out the things I've done well in my posts, which is helpful to know which things I should continue doing or expand on. That said, not very many of the comments I've received have included much in the way of constructive criticism, which makes them not very useful for revising my work. I appreciate that people want to be nice, and I am certainly grateful for the compliments, but I can't know how to fix my work if no one will verbalize what's not working.
   
2. Feedback Out: I guess I would rate the quality of the feedback I've been putting out at about a four to a four and a half out five. I've taken several writing workshop classes for my minor, so I've had a fair amount of experience with offering constructive feedback on writing. I make an effort to point out things that could be improved and offer solution to address them. That said, I think my comments have been lacking in providing anything constructive that doesn't pertain to the writing/storytelling (i.e., I know I haven't given much feedback, if any, on website structure and appearance or anything along those lines), so that might be something for me to look for in the future.
   
3. Blog Comments: I've enjoyed reading other people's blog posts, stories, and introductions a lot. I'm a huge fan of getting to know people, so it's been really fun to see their introductions and get a sense of who they are, then see that come through in their writing. I'm hopeful that my blog offers a similar sense to those who read it.
   
4. Looking Forward: Moving forward, I'll make an effort to pay attention to the actual websites/blogs and their structures and offer feedback on those things as well, rather than limiting myself to just commenting on the writing and the stories themselves.
   
5. Image: I chose the following image because I really like the idea it puts across. External feedback is helpful, but taking the time to self-reflect and provide your own constructive criticism is important, too.

Image from Cheezburger

Week Eight Reading and Writing

After looking back through my website and blog, I realized that the website was just far more pleasing to the eye, whereas my blog was looking a little frumpy (Actually, it reminded me of the kind of website I'd associate with the early days of the internet, before people figured out how to make websites look nice. Oof.), so I made some changes and I'm now much happier with its overall appearance. I also moved the navigation bar from the bottom of the page to the right side, which will be more convenient for my readers. I did not make any changes to the website, however, because I think its layout is fine as is, and the layout has been mentioned positively in a few of the comments on my wall, so why fix what ain't broken, right?

I am fairly happy with the way my stories have been coming out so far, and I'm content with my reading notes strategy - it's a little hefty, but I feel like it gives me a good foundation when I'm working on writing the stories. My stories have been pretty varied so far, so it'll be interesting to work on my project, since it has not only a unifying author, but a unifying theme as well. For the storybook, I chose the story that I felt would be the most difficult for me to rework first (i.e. the one that would be the most different from the original), so that I could get it out of the way and have plenty of time for editing if need be. I do have a few areas in the story that I feel could use some revision, though I will probably wait for some feedback from others before beginning, as I'd like to hear some second opinions. Still, I think I like how the general tone and themes of my storybook are coming along, despite my few issues with story number one.


As for my favorite of the images I've included in one of my reading notes posts, you won't be too surprised when you find out that it's this picture of my cat:

Actually, I believe that if Atticus had a Tinder, this would be his profile pic. But cats don't have Tinder and neither do I, so I'm posting it here for all of you to enjoy. (You're welcome.)


Looking forward, I'm excited to get the next couple stories for my storybook published, and to see a few more of the readings (I've really been enjoying learning about the differences and similarities between folklore from all over the world during all different time periods!).

Week Seven Story: The Turtle and the Fisherman

Once upon a time, a young turtle with a kind heart loved to swim in the open seas. She would catch the currents and ride the waves, splashing happily and without care. Now, one day, this young turtle was slicing through the waters at what she thought was a safe distance from a little island; fishermen seldom came out this far. However, she suddenly felt a net tightening around her little shell, hoisting her upwards out of the water, and she quickly tucked her legs and head inside out of fear!

Peering out of her armor, she glimpsed a handsome young man hauling another net - this one filled with flopping fish - into his boat. Poking her head out just a little, she cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Excuse me, kind sir. I know that you are a fisherman, and that this is how you live," she began, "but seeing as how I am but a young turtle, and very small, I wonder if you might release me? There is not much meat on my bones, as you can see."

The man thought for a moment, and then he denied her.

"Turtle soup is my very favorite meal," he explained without a hint of remorse, "and even if I cannot eat you yet, surely you shall grow, and then you will make a very fine soup."

Seeing that pleading would get her nowhere, the little turtle sought a different tack.

"But, good sir, then you would have to keep me in water, and feed me, and keep me safe," she ventured, "lest I should dry up, or grow too thin instead of becoming fat for eating, or be stolen by your neighbors."

The man plopped himself down next to the netted turtle and seemed to become very perplexed, but he said nothing as he thought. After a good little while, the turtle spoke once more.

"Perhaps," she suggested, "you might let me go, and I can go about the business of fattening myself up right here in the sea, and it will not cost you any time or work. Then, once I've gotten quite large and delicious, I will come back and meet you here again, and you may make me into soup and eat me. This way, you won't have to feed me any of the precious fish you catch, and I may enjoy a year or two more of life before I perish, if perish I must."

Although this plan seemed good to him, it did occur to the man that perhaps the turtle would not come back, and then he would have no turtle and no soup. So, he still refused to cut the turtle loose, saying, "You turtles are clever creatures, and this is certainly a trick."

Desperate to return to the sea and terribly afraid of losing her young life, the turtle began to spin for the man a story. She told him of a beautiful princess - the daughter of the sea god, no less - who lived richly and lavishly in a shimmering palace under the sea, and who was searching even now for a handsome fisherman to keep her company and become her husband. At this, the fisherman puffed out his chest, as he supposed himself to be the handsomest fisherman on his island at the very least, and he believed himself quite deserving of a beautiful princess and endless riches.

"If you'd like, I could take you to her," said the turtle casually, "but alas! These heavy ropes will hinder me from showing you the way, as I cannot swim with them tied around me like this!"

Greedily, the fisherman agreed to cut off the netting which ensnared the little turtle, only tying a thin string from one of the turtle's flippers to keep from losing track of her while they swam. But as they dove deeper and deeper, the man found that he could not swim as far as the turtle, and needed to go back up for air. Letting go the string briefly, he kicked up towards the surface, but when he again dove down, the turtle was nowhere to be seen. After a good deal of time in searching, the man returned to his boat, only to find that in his absence, seabirds had eaten the majority of his fish. So he went home with no fish and no turtle, and he was altogether very sad about missing out on his favorite soup.

The turtle, meanwhile, sought out a friend to help her cut off the string, and then happily returned to her peaceful life, though she never again ventured quite so close to the shore.

*Author's Note: This story is based on the story of "Uraschimataro and the Turtle," which is a traditional Japanese folktale. In the original, the fisherman is merciful to the turtle and lets her go, and many years later the turtle saves him from a sea storm and takes him to live with the daughter of the sea god as her immortal husband. However, at long last he discovers that time has passed faster than he thought, and everyone he loved is dead. In a moment of foolishness, he loses his immortality and ages three hundred years in a few moments, then dies. In my story, I wanted to imagine what would have happened had the turtle been captured by a less kind fisherman than Uraschimataro, and what she might have done to win back her freedom. 

Bibliography: "Japanese Fairytales" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901). Web source.

Image of a turtle from Max Pixel

Week Seven Reading Notes Part B - Lang

Source Story: "Japanese Fairytales" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).

• "Schippeitaro"
• A boy goes in search of adventure, and comes upon a forest village where a girl is about to be sacrificed to the Spirit of the Mountain as an annual ritual. The boy overheard some cats the night before in the area where the sacrifice was to take place talking about "Schippeitaro," who turns out to be a dog in the village. So, the boy hides the girl away and puts the dog in her place, so when the Spirit of the Mountain (who is really a giant cat) comes to eat the girl, the dog instead bites him, and the boy cuts off his head. They then kill several of the other cats who are with the Spirit of the Mountain, and everyone lives happily ever after.
• "The Crab and the Monkey"
• A good, hardworking crab finds some rice and agrees to share with a monkey in exchange for a seed for a fruit tree, which grows to bear lots of good fruit. The monkey returns and steals all the good fruit and throws down only the rotten or unripe ones for the crab, so the crab tricks him into dropping some of the good fruit he has stolen, which she takes into her house. The monkey beats the crab in anger and almost kills her, so her friend the wasp nurses her back to health, then enlists a mortar, and an egg to help get back at the monkey. The egg explodes in his face and hits him with shell fragments, the wasp stings his nose, and the mortar falls on his head, killing him. The crab lives happily ever after.
• "The Magic Kettle"
• An old man finds a kettle, which turns into a tanuki. He doesn't know what to do with it, so he sells it to a tradesman. The tradesman, upon learning the kettle's trick, gets the tanuki to agree to travel with him and put on shows for people, which earns the man a lot of money. Eventually, he feels bad for earning so much money and not doing anything for the first man, so he returns the kettle to him with 100 pieces of gold. They both live happily ever after.
• "How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished"
• In a forest where hunters had killed everything else lived a family - a tanuki, his wife the fox, and their son. The tanuki pretends to be dead and his wife magically transforms into a man to sell him for his hide, then uses the money to buy food while he escapes. This works, so the next time they trade roles, but the tanuki whispers to the buyer that the fox is not really dead, so the buyer kills her and the tanuki keeps all the food to himself, not even sharing with his son. Eventually, the son realizes what happened, so he makes a bet with his father that he is his father's equal in magic. The bet is that the son will transform into anything, and the father should be able to figure out what it is. But instead, the son hides, and a king passes by. Thinking the son has transformed into a king, the father jumps on the king, whose soldiers catch him and kill him. The son (probably) lives happily ever after.
• "The Slaying of the Tanuki"
• An evil tanuki mistreats an old man, so the man catches him and intends to cook him for dinner. But while the man is out getting firewood, the tanuki tricks his wife into releasing him, then kills her and cooks her instead, magically making himself look like her afterwards. He tricks the man into eating his own wife, then reveals himself and runs away. The man is, of course, very upset, and his friend the hare agrees to help him avenge his wife's death. First the hare plays a trick on the tanuki, where he eventually ends up setting the tanuki's back on fire and then spreading pepper into the wound to make it hurt more, but the man says the tanuki's evil can only be stopped by killing him. So, they make two boats - one wooden, one clay - and invite the tanuki fishing. He takes the bigger boat, which is the clay one, and the hare takes the wooden one. The hare breaks the tanuki's boat open and drowns him, then the hare and the man live happily ever after.
• "Uraschimataro and the Turtle"
• An old couple has one son named Uraschimataro, who is an excellent sailor and fisherman and often sails further out to sea than anyone else, despite their warnings. One day he catches a turtle, but he lets it go when it begs for its life. Years later, a storm sinks his ship and nearly kills him, but the turtle shows up and offers to save his life. Rather than going home, the turtle takes him to the palace of the sea god, where the princess of the sea asks Uraschimataro to stay with her and become immortal. He agrees and they live happily for a long time, but one day he remembers his parents and misses them dearly. The princess does not want him to go, because she knows he will never return to her. Still, she gives him a small box and says that, if he can avoid opening the box, he may visit his home and the turtle will bring him back to her palace when he calls for it. But when he gets home, he discovers that it has been three hundred years, and his parents are long dead. He opens the box, hoping it is the counter-charm to a curse that is making him live this bad dream, but instead it undoes his immortality, and he ages three hundred years in moments. He calls for the turtle, but it does not come, and he dies.

Image of a turtle from Pixabay

Week Six Reading Notes Part B - Sindbad

Source Story: "The Voyages of Sindbad" from Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

• "Fifth Voyage"
• Sindbad buys his own boat and sets sail with some other merchants. They come upon an island with a roc's nest, and, despite Sindbad's warnings, the merchants hack open the egg and eat the baby roc. The parent birds sink Sindbad's ship, and Sindbad is washed ashore on another island, where an old man tricks him into carrying him around all day and night on his shoulders to reach the best fruit.
• "Fifth Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad makes some wine while carrying the man around for days, and the man drinks the wine and becomes drunk enough that Sindbad is able to throw him off and escape. He comes upon a trading vessel, and the captain takes him and tells him that the old man was the Old Man of the Sea, and Sindbad is the only one who has ever survived him. They teach Sindbad how to trick monkeys into throwing down coconuts from the high trees, and then Sindbad amasses many treasures and returns home.
• "Sixth Voyage"
• Sindbad embarks again and a storm shipwrecks the crew on an island covered with the bones, shipwrecks, and treasures of innumerable seamen. He outlasts all his crew mates because he eats less than they do, then realizes that a river on the island goes underground through caves filled with gemstones. He builds a raft, collects a bunch of treasure, and sets off on the river into the caves.
• "Sixth Voyage (cont.)"
• After eating the last of his food and passing out, Sindbad awakes to find that some kind men have pulled him from the river and he is at last above ground. They take him to their king - the king of Serendib - and he relates his tale and enjoys many days there. Then the king gives him gifts and a message/gift to take back with him to the Caliph, and sends him on his way home.
• "Sixth Voyage (end)"
• Sindbad gives the gifts and message to the Caliph, who asks whether the king who sent them was really as rich and powerful as he says he is. Sindbad assures him that he is, then goes home with presents given him by the Caliph.
• "Seventh and Last Voyage"
• Though he has decided never to go sailing again, the Caliph demands that he return to the King of Serendib to return the gesture by giving him gifts. On his return voyage, his vessel is taken by pirates, who sell him into slavery. His new owner gives him a bow and arrow and tells him to kill and elephant, which he does, and they bury it to come back later for its tusks.
• "Seventh and Last Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad kills an elephant a day for two months, and then the elephants kidnap him and drop him off in their own elephant graveyard, which is full of elephant skeletons complete with tusks, so that he will stop killing them. His master is thrilled and admits that the elephants have killed tons of their slaves before, and Sindbad is the only one who has survived. He sets Sindbad free and gives him a fortune in thanks, and sends him back to Bagdad. The Caliph is happy to see him back and records all his adventures, and Sindbad stays in Bagdad forever.

Image of an elephant by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

Week Seven Reading Notes Part A - Lang

Source Story: "Japanese Fairytales" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).

• "The Two Frogs"
• Two frogs dwell in Japan, one in Osaka and one in Kioto, and both happen to decide at the same time that they wish to travel and see the other city. They meet at the top of a mountain just by chance, and decide to peer off from the mountain towards the cities they intend to visit in order to decide if the journey is worth it. However, they mistakenly each look at the city they are from instead and, each believing the city they intend to visit is the same as the city they are from, they simply go home.
• "The Stonecutter"
• A stonecutter's wishes of becoming a rich man are granted. Then his subsequent wishes of being the next great thing continue to be granted, and he is in turn a prince, the sun, a cloud, and a large stone, only to become a stonecutter again and be content with his own life.
• "The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet"
• A once-rich but now impoverished couple has a daughter of surpassing beauty. They both die, but before she passes the mother entreats the daughter to keep her beauty hidden beneath a wooden helmet to keep herself safe from men who might do her ill because of it. She does this, and works for a rich man and his ailing wife, until their eldest son catches a glimpse of her with her helmet tilted back and begs to marry her. His parents protest, so she says no, but after her mother comes to her in a dream to urge her to get married, she consents. Before the wedding, she and the maids attempt to take the helmet off, but it will not come off, so she gets married in it. When the marriage ceremony is finished, it breaks off and pours precious stones on the floor. She and her husband live happily ever after.
• "The Envious Neighbour"
• A poor old couple has no children, so they dote on their dog, who finds a treasure buried in their yard. With their new riches they treat him even better than before, but their envious neighbor begs them day in and day out to borrow their dog so he can find a treasure, too. When the dog instead digs up stinky old bones, the neighbor kills the dog and lies about it to the owners, who are heartbroken. The dog comes to the old man in a dream and tells him to cut down their tree and use it to make a mortar, which ends up turning rice into gold. The neighbor borrows the mortar, but it turns his rice into smelly berries and he breaks and burns it. The dog comes again in a dream, and the old man takes the ashes from the mortar and sprinkles them on a bare cherry tree in front of the Daimio, which causes the tree to fill with blossoms and the Daimio gives him rich gifts. The neighbor takes some of the ashes to try it as well, but instead the ashes blow into the Daimio's eyes and he has the neighbor arrested.
• "The Sparrow with the Split Tongue"
• A kind old man and his mean wife live in a mountain, and the old man saves a sparrow from a raven. He takes good care of the sparrow, but while he's gone his wife catches it and cuts its tongue, and it flies away. He searches for it for a long time, and after finally giving up, finds a little house with a maiden who says she is the sparrow, and who gives him food and drinks and a choice between a large chest and a small one. He takes the small one and goes home to find that it is filled with treasure. His wife is angry that he didn't pick the big chest, so she goes to the little house and demands a gift, and chooses the large chest. It turns out to be filled with snakes, who kill her.
• "The Cat's Elopement"
• A cat named Gon falls in love with a cat named Koma, but their owners each love their cat too much to sell it to the other. So the cats elope, but a dog attacks them, and Koma hides while Gon steels himself for a fight. Instead, the servant of a princess saves him and takes him to live with the kind princess. Gon kills a snake who is in love with the princess and annoys her constantly, so she takes excellent care of Gon. One day, he finds Koma being harassed by another tomcat, and saves her, then takes her back to the princess, who happily takes Koma in as well. The princess marries as well, and both couples have lots of children and live happily ever after.

Here are two more personal photos of my very lovey cat, Atticus. You're welcome.