Story Lab: Crash Course Myths

This week I decided to do the Crash Course Myth videos, which are a set of three videos from Crash Course about mythology (of course). There are three videos: the first one talks about mythology in general (how it’s defined, how it can differ from religion [or not], etc.), the second video talks about how myths are studied and interpreted, and the third is about the idea of the hero and how some people characterize the hero.

Screenshot from the first video (source)

The first video is exactly how it sounds: it gives a pretty good breakdown of what exactly mythology is, what influences it, what all can be learned from it, etc. Something they stress is that myths are old, and come from many different sources. They make sure to mention in the video that if they’re discussing a myth the viewer recognizes, but some details don’t seem right, it might just be they’re using a different source than the viewer has.

Notice they quote John Green! (source)

The second video actually gets into the theory of myth. It talks about how to analyze it and the theories about myth that people have developed. Basically people have been analyzing myth and its theory since Plato and his comrades. The idea that myths were created to explain scientific events, and that they were about real, ordinary people whose deeds were exaggerated until they were gods, has been around for centuries. As more was discovered about ancient civilizations, the more the idea of myths was reworked.

I don’t know who the sword belongs to, but I know where the shield and hat come from! (source)

The third video is about the Hero. The person in the myth or story who’s the main focus, the good guy who’s going to save everyone. Joseph Campbell created the theory of the Hero’s Journey, which is highly influential. Campbell noticed that in many stories from many cultures, there are basic events the hero must go through. The hero will journey away from home and towards adventure, then return home at the end, wiser and presumably in the same physical condition they were in when they left.

Reading Notes: Popular Italian Stories, Part B

For my second reading this week, I decided to continue with Thomas Crane’s Italian Popular Tales and summarize The Language of Animals.

Reading Notes

• A father had a son who was in school for ten years, and finally finished.
• The father threw a great banquet in honor of the son, and invited many important people to come.
• At the banquet, someone asked the son what he had learned, and the son responded that he had learned the languages of dogs, frogs, and birds respectively.
• This was met with ridicule, and the father was so upset at the shame the son had brought upon their name that he ordered his son killed.
• However, the servants he ordered to do the deed faked it, and the son fled the country.
• Eventually the son came to the house where the treasurer of the prince lived, and was granted lodging.
• A multitude of dogs gathered outside the castle; when asked, the son, understanding the language of the dogs, explained it meant that a hundred assassins would attack the castle that evening, and that the appropriate cautions should be taken.
• Soldiers were placed around the castle, and sure enough thieves tried to attack, but were defeated.
• The treasurer tried to give the son his daughter in gratitude, but the son refused, saying he would return in a year and three days.
• The son left, and came to a city where the king’s daughter couldn’t rest because the frogs in the fountain croaked so much.
• The son learned that the princess had thrown a cross into the fountain, and as soon as it was removed the girl recovered.
• Again, the king wanted the son to marry the princess in gratitude, but he refused, saying he would return in a year and three days.
• The son left and headed for Rome, making friends with three men along the way.
• One day they all took refuge under a tree to sleep, and a flock of birds flew to rest on the tree and woke the men with their singing.
• When asked, the son said that the birds sang because one of the men was to be the new Pope; a dove landed on his head, and sure enough he was made Pope.
• After he was made Pope, the son sent for his father, the treasurer, and the king to come before him.
• All three were sure they were in trouble for some sin they had committed, but the son had them all discuss their deeds.
• He then turned to his father and told him that he had ordered him killed because he said he understood the languages of a few animals, but the other two men were very grateful that the son had such knowledge.
• His father repented, the son pardoned him, and they lived on.

Source

Reading Notes: Popular Italian Stories, Part A

For my last Reading A, I decided to summarize the story called Water and Salt, from Thomas Crane’s Italian Popular Tales.

Reading Notes

• A king had three daughters, and one day he asked them to prove their love for him.
• One daughter said she loved him as much as her eyes, the second said as much as her heart, and the third said she loved him as much as water and salt.
• The king was angry at this last answer, and ordered her killed.
• The other sisters helped fake the death of their sister, and she was left in a cave.
• A magician who worked for another king found her and took her back to his house;  the king’s son fell in love with her, and they were to be wed.
• The magician told them to kill him before their wedding day, to invite three kings, including the girl’s father, and that all the guests but her father must be given salt and water at the dinner.
• Meanwhile, her father was regretting his decision and initially didn’t want to go, but decided to to avoid any political upsets.
• The day before the wedding, the magician was quartered, and his blood sprinkled all over the place; where his blood was became gold and precious stones.
• At the banquet, the king struggled to eat because he had no water to drink and no salt for flavor.
• They all told stories, and the king talked about his daughter.
• At that point, the bride went and put on the dress she had been wearing when he ordered her killed, and pointed out how important salt and water were after all.
• The king begged her forgiveness, which she gave, and they all lived in contentment after that.

Source

Famous Last Words: The last class day before Dead Week

So, it’s the second-to-last week of this class, and here I am, scrambling to get extra credit. (Story of my life it feels like.) I decided to do the “Famous Last Words” post because it seemed like a good way to just write.

Outside of this class, I don’t exactly do a lot of writing. I do no writing at work (apart from emails), and while I do need to write some things for my language classes, it’s more about my ability to translate them than to focus on the writing. I think my best writing this week was definitely finishing up my Storybook with the epilogue. It might have run a little long, but I’ll make my revision project for next week to go over it and shorten it a little. I think it came out pretty well. I’ve had the idea on how to end my Storybook for a while, but I didn’t want to write it out before I finished the other stories, so I didn’t have it fully fleshed out until I sat down to write. I’m fairly happy with it.

I feel the need to mention something Dr. Barnes said last week as well, since it’s relevant. As I’ve mentioned, she’s a psychology professor at OU, but she’s also a published author, and teaches some writing classes in the Gaylord College of Journalism. During a lab meeting last week, someone asked her if she formed parasocial relationships (one-sided relationships) with the characters she writes in her books. Her immediate response was, “No, I am their god.” After we all finished laughing, she explained that writing a novel is more revision than actual writing, and it’s hard to form a relationship with a character who you can make disappear at a moment’s notice. Whether or not the character makes it to the final version of the book depends on what Dr. Barnes (and her editor) decide. 

I’m not saying this is how Dr. Barnes looked when she said that, but it kinda is. (Source)

Now that it’s the last class day before Dead Week, the familiar panic is starting to set in. Hopefully this is the last time I have a Dead Week as an undergrad (Dear god please let this be the last), but I feel a lot of pressure from myself to study, especially for my science class, since I really need to pass that one. (I may or may not be procrastinating preparing for that final by working on stuff for this class...)

Let the Dead Week panic begin!

Because I’m suppressing all feelings of panic. Zoidberg understands. (Source)

Story Lab: Fiction and its Influence on Real Life

This week, I decided for my last Story Lab that I would be doing the Stories and Friends activity. This consists of two TED Talks: 

The danger of a single story, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

(screenshot from the source)

And Imaginary friends and real-world consequences, by Dr. Jennifer Barnes

(screenshot from the source)

Both of these TED Talks look at how stories influence real life beliefs and attitudes, but they approach it in different ways: Adichie from her personal experience, and Barnes from a scientific standpoint.

Adichie explains her experience of growing up in Nigeria, and how reading stories by European authors influenced her early beliefs in childhood. She also discusses how, now that she’s an adult and an author, people will often generalize the stories they hear about one culture to the entire culture. For example, she talks about how a character in her book is a male who is an abusive father. She had someone come up to her after a discussion who said he had read her book and thought it was a shame that all Nigerian men were abusive fathers. (Her response was that she had just read American Psycho, and she thought it a shame that all American men were psychopaths). 

Adichie’s overall point is that people will take the single story they hear about something and will assume that anything they encounter in real life fits that story. Essentially, she is describing how stereotypes work. At the end of her talk, she emphasizes that it’s important for people to have more than just the “single story,” so that they can broaden their views and not base things on the assumption of one story.

Barnes, as I said earlier, approaches things from a scientific view. In her TED talk, she explains how the relationships people form with fictional characters work, and how this affects someone’s feelings and behavior. Essentially, with both fictional characters and celebrities, we see them in situations we wouldn’t see real-life people in (vulnerable moments, private moments, etc.). People form strong attachments because of this, but it’s a one-sided relationship (to paraphrase Barnes, I know a lot about Taylor Swift, but she doesn’t know I exist). To show this, Barnes and her grad student Jessica Black conducted an online survey. To summarize, they found that people cared more if a fictional person they strongly connected with died than they would if someone they knew casually in real life died. This is because of the one-sided relationship, called a parasocial relationship.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I actually work in Barnes’ research lab. There are several different experiments being done, but the idea of the parasocial relationship tends to be a topic in many of the experiments. As a psychology student I find this area fascinating. I knew Barnes as a writer before I knew her as a psychology professor, and this was one of the first TED Talks that introduced me to her as a professor. It’s all very exciting research, and I’m hoping I’ll get to contribute in the future.

Reading Notes: Europa Fairy Tales, Part B

For the next reading, I’ve decided to take notes over The Swan Maiden, from Joseph Jacob’s Europa’s Fairy Book.

Reading Notes

• A hunter would do most of his work at night, and one night was waiting in some bushes near a lake.
• Suddenly, he heard the sound of beating wings, and seven women appeared dressed in robes made of feathers.
• The women took off their robes and started splashing and playing in the lake; all were very pretty, but the youngest one caught the hunter’s eye, so he stole her robe.
• After the women had their fun, they came out of the water and put on their robes, except for the youngest sister of course.
• She and her sisters searched, but when it came close to dawn her sisters told to face whatever fate awaited her, and flew away.
• The hunter revealed himself, and insisted that the woman would marry him; he took her home and hid the feather robe, and together they had two children and were happy for a time.
• One day, one of the children found the robe, and showed it to her mother, who told her children to tell their father that he could find her “in the Land East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon;” the woman put the robe on and flew away.
• When the hunter came home, the children told him what his wife said, and he set off immediately to look for her.
• After some days of wandering, he came across an old man, and told him of his mission.
• The old man revealed himself to be the King of the Beasts, and summoned the beasts of the world.
• However, none of the beasts knew where this land was, so the King told the hunter to go speak to his brother, the King of the Birds.
• When the hunter found the King of the Birds, the King summoned all the birds of the world.
• However, none of the birds knew where the land was, so the King told the hunter to go speak to his brother, the King of the Fishes.
• So the hunter found the King of the Fishes, who summoned all the fishes of the world.
• When asked, one dolphin said he had heard of the Land East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon, but all he knew was that it was near the Wild Forest.
• The hunter went to the wild forest, and came across two men arguing; when they saw him, they asked him to help settle a dispute.
• The men were brothers; their father had passed, and left them a cap that made the wearer invisible and shoes that could take the wearer wherever he wanted, but they couldn’t decide who could choose what to have.
• The hunter told them to race to a tree and back, and whoever came back first would get first pick.
• However, as soon as the men took off running, the hunter put on the cap and shoes, and took off for the Land East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon.
• He found his way to the King of the Land, and told him he was there to retrieve his wife, the king’s youngest daughter.
• The king told the hunter he could have his wife back if he could pick her out from her sisters, and summoned all seven of his daughters into the room, looking very similar to the other.
• The hunter was able to identify his wife by her hands, because she had marks from holding a needle, since she would sew clothing for their children.
• Once he was able to identify her, the king gave them many gifts and sent them home, where they lived happily with their children.

Source

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm, Part A

This week I decided to read some of the Grimm Brothers stories, and took notes over a story that seems to be a twist on Cinderella: the first part of Allerleirauh, from Margaret Hunt’s translation of the Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm.

Reading Notes

• A king had a beautiful wife with golden hair, and it was said that her equal couldn’t be found on Earth. 
• However, the queen became ill, and just before she died she made her husband promise that he wouldn’t marry again unless he found someone who was as beautiful as her and with the same golden hair. 
• He grieved for some time, but eventually was told that he must take a wife again so there would be a queen.
• Now the king and queen had a daughter, who when she was grown looked exactly like her late mother.
• The king realized this one day, and decided he would marry his daughter, horrifying everyone.
• Trying to put off her father, the daughter demanded that he have three dresses made for her: one as golden as the sun, one as silvery as the moon, and one as bright as the stars.
• She also demanded a mantle made from the skin and hair of a thousand animals, and that one of each of the animals in the kingdom had to contribute toward it.
• However, the king ordered all the dresses and the mantle made, and though it took a long time, it was done.
• He presented everything to his daughter and told her the wedding would be held the next day.
• That night, though, his daughter took three of her treasures: a little golden spinning wheel, a golden ring, and a golden reel.
• She also packed up the dresses and put on the mantle, darkening her face and hands with soot.
• She walked away from the castle and continued walking until she found a great forest, and found a tree in which to rest.

Source

Week 13: The Fairy Meeting

     It was traditional for this group of friends to gather once a month to drink and talk. They had to be mindful of where they met; after all, they were fairies, and while they were friendly towards humans, they didn’t want anyone coming across them. They changed up the locations where they met, but no matter where they had the same ritual. They’d conjure up mushrooms to sit on, and have lively discussions while drinking.

     Tonight, the topic fell on humans who couldn’t keep quiet. The fairies had plenty of stories about that, of course.

     “Remember that one old fart we found asleep on the ground?” groused one fairy. “We took him back to the palace, showed him around, then when he fell asleep again we took him back to the same spot and left him enough gold for the rest of his life! And what did he do? Told his wife the instant he got home! I tell you, I don’t think we should give gold anymore. It would be quicker just to give the humans the cockle-shells first!”

     “Oh now, some of them aren’t so bad,” said another. “Remember that little boy I told you about? I left him a sixpence under a stone in the wall every day, and he never told a soul willingly. His dad threatened him, that’s the only reason he told. And I think he likes the shells anyway; he still takes them.”

     The first fairy gave a snort. “That just means this starts early, when they’re young. I still say humans can’t be trusted.” The fairy took another swig of their drink.

     “What about that mother with the child?” piped up a third fairy. “Remember? We’d visit her at night to sing and dance, and left her some money for her trouble. Then she got married and had a baby, and told her husband all about us one night!” 

     The first fairy nodded vigorously. “My point exactly! I mean, we had to change the baby to set a warning, otherwise humans will do whatever they want. Not that the warnings seem to mean much. Humans still talk!”

     “Oh, it’s in their nature to talk,” said a fifth fairy. “And there are some who keep quiet, rare as they may seem. They just don’t make it known, of course. Let’s not give up totally on humans.”

     At this point, it was getting time for them to wrap up their meeting. Everyone gathered their things and left, some on foot, some in the air, and some on the backs of corgis. All that was left was a ring of mushrooms.

Source

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales, Part B

For this week, I decided I like to read more of the short stories about fairies, from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories, by Peter H. Emerson.

Reading Notes: Robert Roberts and the Fairies

• Robert Roberts was a hard-working carpenter who could never resist talking.
• One day, a little man came up to him and told him to dig under a certain tree, and he would be rewarded.
• Robert Roberts did, and found a box of gold; he visited twice more, and found a box each time.
• However, as he grew rich he started to boast about his “mysterious friends,” and eventually he confessed it was fairies that were giving him the gold.
• The next time he went to the tree, which was located near a hill, rocks came rolling down and barely missed him.
• Robert Roberts ran from the tree and never went near it again.

Reading Notes: Ellen’s Luck

• Ellen, a good and pretty girl, was walking in her town on a Sunday when she passed an open gutter and saw a copper coin laying there.
• After that, every Sunday she found a copper in the same gutter; Ellen would hoard her money.
• One day, her mother found the coins, and Ellen told her where she got them.
• After that, Ellen never found another copper, no matter when she walked past the gutter.

Reading Notes: The Fairies’ Mint

• A miller noticed one day that something was off in the mill; he felt that someone was working in his mill in the night. 
• He and a friend decided to investigate one night.
• They went to the mill near midnight, and were surprised to see that it was clearly running. 
• The miller crept to a window and saw little men operating the mill; while he couldn’t see what they put into the millstones, what was coming out was not flour, but coins.
• The miller immediately unlocked the door and ran in, and the lights went out suddenly, and there were sounds of people running. 
• When the lights came back on, the mill was empty, except for the cocker-shells lying all over the place.
• After that, the miller left the fairies alone to mill their coins, even when many people reported seeing the mill operating at midnight.

Apparently corgis were how Welsh fairies preferred to travel. (Source)

Reading Notes: Welsh Tales, Part A

To kick off this week’s reading, we have three short stories about welsh fairies from the Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories, by Peter H. Emerson. These all have the common theme of why you don’t talk about the nice things fairies do for you.

Reading Notes: The Old Man and the Fairies

• Back when one could see fairies dancing in the Welsh mountains, an old man who was traveling back from the fairs fell asleep in a small valley, dropping his bag by his side.
• When he was soundly asleep, some fairies came along and carried both him and his bag under the Earth.
• When the old man awoke, he found himself in a gold palace surrounding by dancing and singing fairies; the fairies showed him around the palace and danced around him until he fell asleep again.
• When he was back asleep, the fairies took him back to the same valley, so when he woke up he thought he had dreamt the whole thing.
• However, when the man tried to lift his bag, he could hardly move it, because it was full of gold.
• He eventually managed to pick it up, and he went home to his wife.
• When he got home, he put the gold in a box under their bed; his wife nagged him incessantly about where he got the gold, until he finally told her.
• The next morning, when he opened the box, instead of gold he found the box to be full of cockle-shells.

Reading Notes: Tommy Pritchard

• On his way to school, Tommy Pritchard thought he heard someone singing on the other side of a stone wall; when he investigated, he moved a stone and found a sixpence underneath it.
• After that, every morning on his way to school Tommy would look under the same stone, and every day he would find a sixpence.
• Eventually his father noticed that Tommy always had money, and worried that Tommy was stealing from someone. 
• Tommy refused at first to tell his father where the money came from, but relented after his father threatened to beat him.
• After that, Tommy always found cockle-shells in the place where he had once found the sixpence.

Reading Notes: Kaddy’s Luck

• A tall young woman was constantly visited by fairies in the night; the fairies would sneak through the keyhole into her room, and while she could hear them dancing and singing around, she never saw them, just the small amount of money they left her each time.
• Eventually the woman married a tall young man, and they had a big child.
• One night, they went to a fair, and went to one side of the fair to listen for the fairies coming.
• While they waited, the woman told her husband about how the fairies used to visit her and leave her some money.
• When they got home, everything with their baby seemed normal, so they went to bed.
• But the next morning, the mother found that her baby was now very small, and the child never grew very big, for the fairies had changed the baby out of spite.

The cockleshells the characters from the first two stories found (Source)

Story Lab: Writers Write

This week I decided to do a story lab, specifically about writing. I looked at the Writers Write website, which has all kinds of blog posts about types of writing. From explaining how to write to analyzing writer’s habits and techniques to little tips and tricks for when someone has writer’s block, it’s got a lot of stuff on there to help anyone write anything.

So without further ado and in no random order, here are some of the posts I found interesting.

This post was written shortly after Stan Lee passed. Stan Lee gave out a lot of writing advice over his life, and they complied six of his quotes. The top one listed is a piece of advice I’ve seen floating around the internet in various quotes: “write what you love to read.” This falls in line with the advice of “if you can’t find a story you like, write it.” If nothing else, it’s encouraging.

This is pretty interesting advice: basically, by figuring out what a character’s to-do list would be, whether mundane or dramatic, it can help a writer figure out how to advance the plot. As the post suggests, the list could be incorporated into the story at some point, whether as a major or minor plot, or not at all. This can help define what the writers call “story goals,” the solid plot structure.

The website also gives practical advice, like explaining the exact difference between a memoir or an autobiography. Basically, an autobiography is more historical, usually written by someone famous, and will often rely on records to tell the story. A memoir is more based on memory, can be written by anyone, and there’s usually more of an emotional connection in the story.

And of course, the formula for writing a good tragic love story. Basically, two star-crossed lovers, with something forbidden that stops them from getting together, they fight their feelings but can’t stay apart, etc. etc. Nothing like a good simple formula to provide the backbone for a love story, especially if someone isn’t in the mood for a happily ever after.

Honorable mention to the post about the writing habits of various authors, specifically how many words they aim to write each day. Fairly insightful, and also a little disheartening to know that some people aim for 10,000 words a day (Michael Crichton is insane). Honorable mention also to the post about how J. K. Rowling isn’t a good writer, which I’m taking with a grain of salt because I feel like they’re just picking on Rowling’s writing style. (I’m currently relistening to the books again and I will fight anyone who says she can’t write.) (Also this is coming from a company that made itself sound redundant.)

Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales, Part A

To start the week’s reading, I decided to take notes over the story of Gold-Tree and Silver-tree, which is like a twist on Snow White with a dash of Bluebeard thrown in. This story comes from Joseph Jacobs’ Celtic Fairy Tales.

Reading Notes

• A king had a wife with the name of Silver-tree, and they together had a daughter they named Gold-tree.
• One day, Silver-tree and Gold-tree went to a well where a trout resided; Silver-tree asked the trout if she was the most beautiful queen in the world.
• The trout told her no, that Gold-tree was.
• Enraged, Silver-tree went home and lay sick in her bed, and vowed that she wouldn’t become well until she could get Gold-tree’s liver and heart to eat.
• When the king came home that night and was told that Silver-tree was ill, he asked what he could do to make her well, and swore he would do anything.
• Silver-tree demanded the heart and liver of Gold-tree to eat, and be well.
• As it happened, the son of a king had come to visit and asked for Gold-tree’s hand in marriage; the king approved and sent Gold-tree on her way abroad.
• The king then sent out his men to catch and kill a goat; he took the heart and liver from the goat and gave it to Silver-tree, who became well.
• A year later, Silver-tree came by the well again and saw the trout, and again asked the same question.
• Again, the trout told her that Gold-tree was, and that Gold-tree was married to a great prince abroad.
• Silver-tree went to her husband and begged to let her go to see Gold-tree, since it had been a year since she’d seen her; the king agreed.
• Silver-tree steered the ship herself, and they arrived in a short amount of time to Gold-tree’s new home.
• Gold-tree’s husband was out hunting, and she saw her father’s ship coming.
• She told her servants how she was worried about her mother trying to kill her, and they agreed to lock her in a room where her mother couldn’t get at her.
• When Silver-tree got off the ship, she cried out for Gold-tree, who told her she was locked in the room and couldn’t get out.
• Silver-tree begged Gold-tree to stick out her finger so Silver-tree could kiss it; when Gold-tree did, Silver-tree stuck a poisoned thorn into Gold-tree’s finger, and she fell down dead.
• When Gold-tree’s husband came home, he was greatly distressed and insisted on Gold-tree being laid to rest in a locked room, rather than being buried.
• After a time, the prince married again, and his new wife had access to the whole house except for that one room.
• One day, he left the key lying around, and his new wife took it and entered the locked room, to discover Gold-tree.
• As the new wife examined her, she took the poisoned thorn out of Gold-tree’s finger, and Gold-tree came to life again.
• That night, the prince was delighted to discover that Gold-tree was alive again, and when his new wife offered to leave, he instead said that he would keep both of them as his wife.
• At the end of the year, Silver-tree went to the well and found the trout again, and again asked if she was the most beautiful queen in the world.
• Of course, the trout told her that Gold-tree was still alive and doing fine.
• Once again, Silver-tree went to her husband and begged to take a ship to Gold-tree’s new home to visit her, and was given permission.
• Once again, the prince was out hunting, and Gold-tree recognized her father’s ship.
• When she told the second wife that her mother was coming back to kill her, the second wife proposed that they go meet Silver-tree.
• Silver-tree came ashore and offered Gold-tree a drink she had prepared, but the second wife told her that it was custom in their country for the person who offered a drink to take a sip first.
• Silver-tree tried to fake it, but the second wife struck the cup so that some of the drink went into Silver-tree’s throat, and she immediately fell down dead.
• Silver-tree’s body was taken home for burial, and Gold-tree, her husband, and the second wife lived long after this.

Silver-tree preparing to stick Gold-tree’s finger through the locked door (Source)

Week 11: From the Girl's View

      The little girl was happy.

     It was always a fun time when she and her brothers could walk upright on two legs and dance and sing. This was their time, time that belonged only to them. 

     As the only female, her brothers had demanded that she be the one to look out for their mother. They knew eventually they should probably reveal to their mom that they had human forms, not just dog forms, but for now they wanted to keep this to themselves. It was their secret, only shared with their siblings. Sometimes she could convince one of her brothers to keep watch for a bit so she could dance, but today she was content to just watch.

      Unfortunately, she hadn’t noticed that her mother hadn’t moved in several minutes, and so everyone was surprised when their mother came bursting in. She chastised them for never showing that they could change into human form, and insisted that they couldn’t become dogs anymore. The little girl and her siblings were upset for a while, but then got over it. At least in human form they were taller, and if they occasionally changed into their dog form when their mom wasn’t around… Well, what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

      The little girl knew their history, that her father was a shapeshifter who lived as a dog by day, then would turn into a man at night. When her mother had gotten pregnant, her parents, out of shame, abandoned her and convinced the village to move away. Her mother had given birth alone, and raised the girl and her brothers alone. Her father was dead, killed by her grandfather before they left.

      Now that the girl and her brothers stayed in human form all the time, their mother started to teach them how to hunt, and her brothers proved to be highly successful at this. The girl kept the house while her brothers were out, and helped deconstruct their kills. When they became successful at whale hunting, she would take the fat and treat it for household use.

     When they had a visiter, the girl knew who it was. Her mother had told them how Crow had helped her when she was abandoned, leaving a few embers that could be coaxed into a fire. Now Crow had come to investigate what was the source for all the dead whales on the beach.

     The girl and her brothers gave Crow all the food she could eat, but it was the girl’s idea to not let Crow take anything with her. She wanted some privacy for her family for just a little longer, before their existence was revealed. But Crow managed to smuggle some whale meat back to the village, and once the village learned that the brothers were such good hunters, they decided to move back and allow the brothers to be their chiefs.

     The girl was okay with this. After all, now they had more protection, and she had people to talk to that weren’t related to her. But sometimes she missed the days when it was just her and her brothers, dancing in human form before becoming dogs again.

Source

Author’s note: This isn’t my best work, but oh well. While it’s specifically mentioned in the story that there are four boys and one girl, after the mother discovers that her children can have human form, she isn’t mentioned again. The focus is on her brothers and their great ability to hunt. I thought it would be interesting to look at how the girl felt about everything. 

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part B

Today’s story is interesting, and is called The Dog-Husband, and is from the Tales of the North American Indians, by Stith Thompson.

Reading Notes

• In a village, a girl had a dog that she was very fond of, and that often slept at the foot of her bed.
• However, what no one knew was that at night, the dog would change into a man, and would lie with the girl, then change back into a dog before the sun rose.
• The girl eventually became pregnant, and her parents, deeply ashamed that a dog had gotten her pregnant, convinced everyone to put out their fires and tear down their house, and moved away.
• But Crow took pity on the girl, and hid away some coals for her so she would have fire.
• The girl eventually found the fire, and shortly after gave birth to five dogs: four male and one female.
• Since her dad had killed her dog, the father of these pups, she had to care for them by herself; to survive she had to dig up clams and shellfish on the beach.
• Some time passed, and the dogs grew fast and strong.
• Eventually the mother noticed that when she left the house, she often heard singing and dancing while she worked on the beach. 
• The fifth time this happened, she dressed up her clam-digger in her clothes and snuck around to the back of the house.
• She found that the dogs had all changed into human form, and that the boys were dancing and singing while their sister kept watch.
• She scolded her children, and from that point on they kept their human form.
• As the boys grew, their mother made them weapons and taught them to use them to hunt.
• From catching birds the boys quickly graduated to catching whales, and were very successful in this.
• One day, Crow noticed the smoke arising from the place where the old village had been, and let curiosity take her there.
• She saw all the whales lying on the beach, and met the grown children, who fed her as much as she wanted, but told her if she wanted more food she would have to come visit them again.
• The sister instructed Crow to cry and pretend they were dead when Crow made it back to the current village, but Crow told them the truth, and had a piece of whale meat as proof.
• Everyone in the village talked it over, and decided to go back to the old village.
• The boys became chiefs of the village and kept it supplied with whales.

Souce

Reading Notes: Mississippi/Great Lakes, Part A

For this week I chose to read The Origin of Winnebago from the Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. “Winnebago” is a name that’s given to a group of people by another group of people.

Reading Notes

• Manabush was walking along and became hungry, and saw a bunch of waterfowl in a lake. 
• He tucked away his medicine bag that he had, then took a roll of bark and put it on his back before walking back by the lake. 
• Catching the attention of the birds, they asked him where he was going; Manabush said he was going to have a dance, and invited the birds to come with him.
• He led the birds away from the lake, then arranged the birds around him and told them to close their eyes and sing and dance, proclaiming that the first one to open his eyes would always have red eyes.
• He grabbed the birds by the neck one by one, until a small duck opened his eyes and saw what was happening.
• The duck screamed a warning to all the other birds, and they ran away to the lake.
• Manabush grabbed the small duck, and warned that he wouldn’t kill the bird, but it would always have red eyes and be the laughing stock of the other birds, and pushed it into the lake, taking its tail off.
• Manabush took the birds he’d killed and buried them with a fire on top to cook them, with only the feet and heads exposed.
• Because Manabush was tired, he told his thigh to keep watch and fell asleep.
• After a while, Indians come along and steal the birds to eat, then rebury just the heads and feet to make everything look like before.
• Manabush eventually woke up, and discovered that his birds were gone. 
• When he asked his thigh why it didn’t wake him, his thigh said it also fell asleep because it was tired, but pointed out the Indians moving away in their canoes.
• The Manabush called the thieves winnebagos, and so the Menomini have always called any thieving neighbors winnebagos.

Members of the Ho-Chunk people, called the Winnebago by some. (Source)

Tech Tip: Troubleshooting Comments

Sadly, despite how often we rely on technology, technology often fails us. Like right now: for some reason, Blogger thinks I’m not signed in, and so I can’t leave comments on peoples’ blogs!

As one can see, Blogger is acting like I’m not signed in, which is weird, since I’m signed into my Google Account on two different Safari pages, along with Blogger and Google Docs. I didn’t get to publish any feedback comments last week since I ran out of time to try to troubleshoot, but I suppose this week I have no excuse. At least I get extra credit from it.

So, my first step. I’m going to try to close all the tabs and log out of my Google accounts, then sign back in. Let’s see how this works.

Me in front of my computer 99% of the time (Source)

And that didn’t work at all.

Now for the next step: trying to clear out my web browser’s cache. I have a Mac laptop, so I use Safari most of the time, including for the page I specifically have open all the time for this class. Hopefully doing this won’t erase all my history, as I’ve done in the past…..

Well, that didn’t do anything either.

My face right now (Source)

This is a very weird issue. If I click on someone’s link to their comment wall, it tells me I need to sign in.

From Brady’s comment wall

But when I click on the “Sign In” link, it automatically directs me to my home page on Blogger, no sign in required.

Well, one last thing I can try: using a different web browser. I prefer to use Safari for most everything I do, but I have Chrome installed because what doesn’t work with Safari usually works with Chrome. 

From Elyse’s blog

Well, that worked! Hopefully it’ll keep working in the future (and I’m still not sure why Safari suddenly decided to be annoying), but for now I can prove to everyone that I’m trying to provide feedback!

Story Lab: Research for my Storybook

Confession: I already have an ending planned for my Storybook, but I don’t yet have a 3rd story to tell.

Me right now. (Source)

Fortunately, since I have the option to do a Story Lab this week, that means I have the chance to dig around and see if I can find that third story!

It’s fine, everything’s fine (Source)

So far, in my storybook I’ve discussed Greek and Grimm mythology. I’d kind of like to branch out into a non-Western culture, but that might be difficult to do; I’m struggling to find stories that are both long enough and that appropriately feature a textile in some manner.

At any rate, there are some stories that I can look into for my third story, such as:

Rumpelstiltskin

(source)

Rumpelstiltskin, of course, is one of the more popular stories that involve a textile of some kind. A miller tells a king that is daughter can weave straw into gold, and the daughter is locked into a room full of straw and a spinning wheel. She’s desperate enough to accept the help of a strange little man, including agreeing to give up her first born. 

A main reason I don’t want to use this in my storybook is that this is a Brothers Grimm story, and I already have the story of The Six Swans. Plus, while the Six Swans story isn’t as popular, Rumpelstiltskin is, and I want to have more obscure stories in my storybook (because personal preference). But if I can’t find anything I’m satisfied with, then this will be something to fall back on. 

The Emperor's New Clothes

Ah, to have that self-confidence (Source)

Like Rumpelstiltskin, this story is also very popular. In a sentence, two con artists manage to convince a king that they can create a fabric that only certain people can see, and the king goes walking around naked before a small child points out that, in fact, the emperor has no clothes on.

Again, like Rumpelstiltskin, this isn’t quite a story I think I want to include in my storybook, because it is so popular and I’m also not sure on how I would introduce it into my story, especially because the point of the story is that the fabric doesn’t exist. But it is a textile story, technically, which is why I looked into it.

Donkey Cabbages

(Source)

So this story has a weird title, but it’s another Brothers Grimm story so that should be expected, I’d say. To try and summarize, a huntsman shows kindness to an old beggar woman, who tells him how to obtain a cloak that will grant any traveling wish and a bird’s heart that, when eaten, causes a gold coin to appear next to the consumer’s pillow. The man does so, and roams about with the cloak, until he reaches a castle where a witch lives with her beautiful daughter. The witch threatens her daughter into obeying her plans to steal the bird’s heart and cloak, which they do successfully. The plan ends with the man stranded on a mountain, although he’s able to get down thanks to a cloud. When he makes it back to solid ground, he finds himself in a cabbage patch that contains two types of cabbage: one that will turn the consumer into a donkey, and one that will turn someone back to human. 

The man gathers up both types of cabbage, and makes his way back to the castle in disguise. He feeds the first type of cabbage to the witch, her daughter, and a maidservant, and all three are turned to donkeys. He sells them to a miller with instructions on how to treat them (basically, treat the old woman donkey the worst, the maidservant somewhat better, and the daughter the best). Later, the huntsman returns to find the old woman dead, and the other two miserable. He feeds them the cabbage to turn them back human, and ends up marrying the daughter.

The cloak in this story definitely fits the theme that I’m looking for, but again, this is another Grimm story, so I’m reluctant to do it. Additionally, this is a relatively long story, and I had a lot of difficulty cutting down the Six Swans; I’d rather not have to go through that again!

The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

(Source)

So in China, there was the Goddess Weaver who constantly wove at her loom, until she happened to look down and see a herdsman working. She fell in love with him, but her mother, angry at this and that her daughter neglected her duties, separated the two. The Goddess Weaver stopped weaving the Silver River (the Milky Way), which threatened the world. As a compromise, the two were separated by the River of Heaven, but once a year, magpies form a bridge for them to cross, and the two get to meet for a day.

As it turns out, there’s also a Chinese saying, “a goddess’ robe is seamless,” which originates with the Goddess Weaver. She showed a court official that, because of her loom, her robe was seamless, made without needle or thread. This is now a common idiom to express that something is perfect.

I think I like this story to use the best, because it’s a different culture, and the name of the character is the Goddess Weaver. I think this is the one I’ll end up using, I just have to find a decent source to use.

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part B

Today’s reading comes from James Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee, and is about a race between a hummingbird and a crane.

Reading Notes

• Hummingbird and Crane were both in love with a woman; while she only cared for Hummingbird because of his beauty, Crane was so persistent that she finally said that the two would need to race to see who would get to marry her.
• Now, Hummingbird was very fast, but Crane could fly throughout the night; the woman didn’t know this, so she thought Hummingbird would win.
• They agreed to start at her house and circle around the earth; whoever made it back first would get to marry the woman.
• Hummingbird flew off immediately; he flew for the entire day, then stopped at nightfall to rest.
• Crane, though left behind at first, flew throughout the night, and passed Hummingbird’s resting spot; eventually he stopped at daybreak to eat breakfast.
• Hummingbird expected to still be far ahead of Crane, and was surprised when he passed Crane eating; but he quickly flew ahead again.
• As the days went on, Crane slowly gained more and more of a lead over Hummingbird, until Hummingbird was a whole day behind Crane.
• On the seventh day, Crane took his time eating breakfast, and made sure to fix himself up so he looked nice; the following morning he arrived at the woman’s house.
• Hummingbird came in that afternoon to discover he’d lost, but the woman declared that Crane was so ugly she couldn’t marry him, so she stayed single.

Source

Reading Notes: British North America, Part A

The story I chose for today is called “Why the Sun is Bright,” from Katherine Berry Judson’s Myths & Legends of British North America.

Reading Notes

• A village moved, and abandoned a boy with his grandmother because they were angry at the boy.
• To avoid starvation, the grandmother told the boy to trap small animals and shoot birds.
• The boy did as he was told, and managed to shoot many birds with bright feathers.
• His grandmother used the plumage from the kills to make the boy a brightly colored robe, which he would wear when he went to spear fish.
• The sun, as he passed overheads, saw the robe many times.
• Eventually, the sun went to visit the boy, wearing his goatskin robe as always.
• Sun told the boy he wanted to exchange blankets.
• The boy initially refused, but Sun showed that the long fringe on his blanket could be used to catch many more fish than the boy could ever spear.
• The boy immediately agreed to exchange blankets when he saw that.
• Before the exchange, Sun was no brighter than the moon; now he was so bright that people could no longer look directly at him as they once had.

Source

Week 9: Never Trust a Human

     I should have known this would happen. Even when my brothers and sisters and I were barely out of the egg, Mother always told us: “Humans are untrustworthy. Interactions with them never work out, even if they seem kind.” She always warned us to limit our interactions with humans as much as possible. She said it was how our father had died, because he had been foolish enough to trust a human’s offering of food that turned out to be poisoned.

     Still, like anyone else, I didn’t quite listen to my mother. I convinced myself that she was exaggerating. But at the same time, I didn’t get too close to humans. There was one I saw occasionally as I flew about. He lived in a forest I visited every so often. He seemed to support himself by hunting, but I knew from witnessing it personally that he wasn’t exactly a great hunter. Humans always seem to be so loud, but he was even when I could tell he was trying to be quiet. When he did manage to catch something, he was usually quite courteous in how he discarded the remains. I feasted on those remains sometimes, after I was sure he was gone.

     I think that’s why I failed to head Mother’s warning. He’d unknowingly fed me, and I felt bad for him after seeing his struggles. So when I was flying around, and saw him walking to the stream in the mountain, I knew what he wanted, and that I had to stop him. 

     The water was almost at his his lips when I knocked it away. As a hunter, you’d think he’d have more sense to investigate his water source, but apparently not. In fact, he tried to drink the water again! So I swooped down again and knocked the leaf-cup out of his hand. But I made a mistake. When the same thing happened for a third time, I didn’t notice him immediately grabbing for his bow. Right when I turned in the air to face him, his arrow shot through my chest. I was only aware of intense pain, and then the ground hitting me suddenly. 

     Humans are untrustworthy. I was trying to stop him from drinking poisoned water, and for my generosity I was killed. I can only hope others won’t suffer the same fate as me.

Source

Author’s note: this is based on How the Raven Saved the Hunter, from A.L. Shelton’s Tibetan Folk Tales. The story is told from the point of view of the hunter, who is enraged when a raven keeps blocking him from drinking from a stream. After he kills the raven, he discovers that the water is being produced from a snake, and that it’s poisonous. He grieves over his mistake, realizing he let his temper get the better of him. I decided to just tell the story from the raven’s point of view, as it isn’t addressed in the story about what causes the raven to try and protect the man. This is a short story, especially from me, but the original story isn’t very long either.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part B

My second story for this week’s notes seemed very familiar; it was also one of Aesop’s tales. It’s called How the Raven Saved the Hunter, from Tibetan Folk Tales by A. L. Shelton.

Reading Notes

• There was a very poor man who managed to make a living by hunting, but he often had nothing to eat or drink. 
• One day he went out on a hunt, and traveled for a distance.
• Eventually he came to the top of a mountain, and realizing his thirst upon seeing a stream, he made his way down to it.
• He fashioned a cup from a leaf and filled it with water, but just as he raised the leaf to his lips, a raven flew up and knocked the leaf from the man’s hand with its wing.
• The man thought it was an accident, and refilled his leaf, but the raven knocked the water away again.
• When this happened a third time, the man became angry and shot the raven dead with his bow.
• After his rush of anger, the man wondered why the raven had been so adamant about the whole thing. 
• Before he drank, the man walked a short distance upstream, only to discover the stream originated from the mouth of a great snake, and the skeletons of different animals littering the banks of the stream.
• The man was greatly upset, realizing that he had killed the raven when it was just trying to save his life.

Source