Reading Diary A: King Arthur

Growing up, I was a big fan of King Arthur, so I've chosen it as my unit for this week's reading diaries/storytelling post!

I couldn't start this unit off without covering the Drawing of the Sword. This is hands-down the most recognized story of King Arthur and his exploits. The summary is this for those who haven't heard of it.

Basically, Uther Pendragon died, and England had no king. Naturally, lots of knights wanted to become king, but Merlin made sure only the true king would rule. So he sealed a sword, Excalibur, in a stone which could only be drawn by the person who was destined to be king. So that everyone had a fair shot, they held a tournament to win a chance to pull the sword. Arthur's brother, Sir Kay, rode to the tournament to enter, but realized he had forgotten his sword. Arthur went back home to get it, but the door was locked. So his thought process was pretty much, "He doesn't have a sword, there's a free sword in the courtyard, I'll just take that one." He rode up casually, grabbed the sword, and rode off to take it to Kay.

Excalibur in the stone. 

Now Kay took the stone to their dad, Sir Ector, and claimed he drew the sword himself. But Ector made Kay swear on a holy book and say where he got it from, to which he responded that Arthur gave it to him. Ector went back with the two to where the stone was and tested the brothers. Kay strained, but couldn't get it. Arthur slid it out easily, even though he wasn't even a knight as Kay and Ector were. 

After he drew it, Kay and Ector kneeled before him, which confused Arthur. Ector then told Arthur he wasn't really his son, but that he was the son of Uther Pendragon, and Merlin had simply brought him to Ector when he was born. Ector made Arthur promise that he would make Sir Kay his seneschal of the lands. Arthur assured that he would for as long as he was in power.

After this had happened, they went to the Archbishop to tell him what happened. Arthur drew the sword again in front of some of the knights, who were angry such a young boy should be king. He did it once again in front of everyone, and then he was declared the rightful king. 

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Storytelling Week 10: Thunderbirds Abound

A long time ago in the far North, thunderbirds lived prosperously. After a while, there weren't that many of them (four to be exact). They decided to make their home on the top of a mountain overlooking the Yukon.

Once they had made their home safe and sound on the mountaintop, their numbers gradually grew more and more. The parents would fly down from high up the mountain and wreak havoc for the locals. They would take livestock, huge amounts of fish from the lake, and even a fisherman or two. Because of their actions, they developed a horrible reputation.

Now you must keep in mind these birds were massive. Much larger than any bird the locals saw on a regular basis. They flew with such speed that their curved, razor-sharp talons would flash in the sky like lightning cracking in the clouds. Their screeches were so loud that it could be heard extremely far away and echoed across the still, Northern landscape. This is why the natives called them thunderbirds.

How natives saw the thunderbirds.

One day, a hunter grew tired of his wife and children living in fear for their lives because of the winged beasts. After all, it hadn't been safe for them to do the things they needed to sustain themselves for quite some time. So he took his bow and a few larger-than-necessary arrows and headed towards the thunderbird nest. 

When he got there, he was shocked to find not one nest, but many nests, all filled with growing thunderbirds. He realized he wouldn't have enough arrows to kill all of them, so he improvised. He figured these birds couldn't fly just yet, so he took out his trusty flint and rock and tried to spark the nests. After he got the first one to catch, he repeated the same thing with all the other nests. He watched contentedly as each nest burned, and he felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he realized his peoples' troubles were gone. He started towards his village to tell the people what he had accomplished. 

What he didn't realize is that there were still more thunderbirds flying around away from where they usually were. By the time the birds were back to their nests, the hunter was long gone. They cried out feverishly, but realized finding and killing whoever did this wasn't worth dealing with until their numbers grew again. So the thunderbirds wait patiently, circling the mountain and surrounding areas for food. They cry out often and loudly to remind the people they are there. And this is why the thunder on the mountain seems to crack so often.

Author's Note: I chose The Last of the Thunderbirds as my story inspiration, from the Alaskan Legends unit. In the original, the hunter goes to the mountain and kills all the birds with arrows. There's also no mention of them sounding like thunder or anything of that nature, I just added that in there cause it seemed like something a non-advanced civilization would make up to explain thunder or lightning. 

Bibliography:

"The Last of the Thunderbirds."

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Reading Diary B: Alaskan Legends

So continuing with the Alaskan Legends unit, here are my thoughts on a few stories.

The Origin of Winds is an Eskimo legend from the Lower Yukon. To keep the summary short, a doll that a man and his wife made adventured to the edge of the world where the sky and the earth meet. The sky is a wall according to this story, and the doll found a hole in the "sky wall" and cut a bigger hole with his knife. He told the East Wind to blow through the whole sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, and sometimes not at all. He repeated this 4 more times with the west, southwest, south, and northwest. And then he returned to his village.

And finally, to keep the topic of origins going, I read The Boy in the Moon. A boy falls in love with his friend's sister. One day the girl climbed a ladder to the sky. The boy saw her after being yelled at by his brothers (I'm not sure if this kid is in love with his sister or is in a different family entirely), and chased after her. She floated away, and the girl became the sun and the boy became the moon. The sun and moon are in opposite sides at all times because no matter how much the boy pursues her, he can never catch up to her (the sun).

They're never together.

Source

Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

For Week 10 (only a few more weeks to go!), I'm doing Alaskan Legends for my unit of choice.

The first story I really enjoyed was The Origin of the Tides. There have been lots of stories that explain why nature works the way it does, but this was the first one I've seen that explained the tides, which I thought was super interesting! Basically, Qa (Raven) found a rock in the middle of the earth, built a house under it, and put a hole and door through it that controlled the levels of the ocean. When it was open, the low tide would come in. When it was closed, high tides were in. I thought this was a clever way to explain why the tides work the way they do since they didn't know about the moon controlling it at the time!

One thing I found curious as well was the fact that Raven is what I gathered to be their God character. In the beginning of the unit, he is described as a bird that can change into a man whenever he wants. It also turns out that Raven was responsible for creating everything, from the ground man walks on to the animals that live in the world. Kind of an interesting animal for them to choose as God!

I also liked Bringing of Light by Raven. For a while, only the light of stars lit up the northern land. The shamans tried to bring it back, but Raven (disguised as a young boy) mocks them and says he can bring it back easily. Raven found the reason there was no light in his village, and stole the ball of light from a man who lived alone in a hut. As he flew away, he broke off pieces of the light, mixing dark and light throughout. Again, this is a really interesting way to explain the ways their world worked. We now know why Alaska has long stretches of darkness and daytime, but that must have been really odd for them back then!

The Midnight Sun in Alaska, where it doesn't set for nearly two and a half months.

Credit: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Extra Reading Diary: Apache Tales

For the extra reading unit, I chose to do half of the Apache Tales unit.  Here are my thoughts.

First thoughts on reading Culture Heroes and the Owl was, "Wow, that language is weird, and kind of hard to read." Which is probably what most people think when they read the story for the first time. The hoop and poles game is something I'd never heard of.

Drawing of the Apache hoop and poles game

I also learned that owls aren't very fond of magic according to the Apache people!

After reading a few more stories, I realized I have no idea how to pronounce their words. I tried multiple different ways to say them, and the letters just don't add up to something that makes any sense. I'd have to talk to an Apache who speaks the language to properly understand it I'm pretty sure! I'm definitely glad I chose Cherokee as my language, the syllables always follow the same general rules, and vowels are always pronounced the same, which I don't know if I can say for Apache!

Storytelling Week 9: An Unlikely Relationship

Back in the day, Flint lived up in the mountains. He had such sharp edges, and was responsible for killing many animals. Not only Flint, but all those like him. Because of this, all the animals hated him (and all the other Flints too). None hated him more than the Rabbit. He was the chief of his people, and had seen many of them fall victim to Flint's bladed sides.

Rabbit was a lot bigger than the other rabbits, that's why he was chief!

So one day, Rabbit decided to go to Flint's house to get revenge on him. He knocked on the door and was surprised to find Flint was old and decrepit.

"Yes?" asked Flint in a raspy, broken voice.

"Are you the one they call Flint?" Rabbit questioned.

"Why, yes I am young fella," Flint replied. "What can I do for you?"

At this point Rabbit was having second thoughts about his revenge plan. How could he, in his good health, cause harm to someone as old as Flint? Wasn't he taught to respect the elders?

"Are you okay?" asked Flint, snapping Rabbit out of his daze. "Why not come inside and have some dinner, I'll make you a salad and you can tell me what you want."

This caught Rabbit even more off guard. He was offering him dinner, and not even meat -- a salad!

Flint seated Rabbit at his table, prepared the salad, and put it in front of Rabbit. It had everything Rabbit loved: carrots, lettuce, spinach, everything! Now Rabbit was beginning to feel guilty about wanting to kill Flint at all. He seemed like a nice guy.

"I have something to confess, Flint," Rabbit started. "I didn't come here just to stop by. I was planning on killing you because of all you have done to my friends and family."

Flint sighed. "I knew that's why you were here as soon as I opened the door."

"Then why did you let me in if you knew I was going to hurt you?" Rabbit asked incredulously.

"Everyone must meet their fate," he explained. "I always knew what I was doing was wrong, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter. It's the only thing I'm good for. And for that I truly apologize. Now before we actually become friends, I suggest you finish what you came to do."

Rabbit reached for the weapons he had brought, but couldn't do it. He realized Flint wasn't truly bad after all. Rabbit told Flint that he would die at some point, but not until it was from old age.

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to your kind," Flint said. "You have my word that I will never hurt anyone like you again. But you must not let them know that you didn't kill me. You can tell them you got your revenge on me, but on one condition: come visit me once a week for dinner and just to keep me company."

The Rabbit enthusiastically agreed, and went back and told his kind that they would never have to worry about Flint hurting them again. And that's how Flint and Rabbit became friends.

Author's note: I liked the story Flint Visits the Rabbit, from the Cherokee Myths unit, so I decided to create a new version where instead of the two being bitter enemies, they ended up as unlikely companions. I think my story has a happier ending than the other one, even if it's more unrealistic. But a talking flint and rabbit are unrealistic in the first place, so it all works out!

Bibliography:
Myths of the Cherokee (1900) by James Mooney

Reading Diary B: Cherokee Stories

So in continuing the second half of the Cherokee Stories unit, I just want to focus on a couple stories that I liked.

I found The Race Between the Crane and Hummingbird particularly amusing. In it, a crane and hummingbird are both in love with the same woman. She says whoever flies around the world back to her can marry her. She did this because she preferred the hummingbird and figured he could fly the fastest so he would surely win. The hummingbird is fast, but the crane can fly all night. The hummingbird takes the lead at the beginning a few other times, but ultimately the crane wins the race since he doesn't have to rest for a night.

Now you're probably thinking, "What's so special about this story? The crane marries the woman, the end."

Right?

Wrong. The woman decides she would just rather be single. THAT'S the end. I love stories like this that have an ending that's just so atypical from what you expect!

Although, I don't know, that's a good looking crane.

I also liked Red Man and Uktena. The Uktena is a giant snake that had previously been a man. But anyways, two brothers go hunting. One went to go find deer to hunt, and came upon a man being choked by Uktena. The hunter shot and killed the beast. It rolled down the hill, dead. The man who he had saved was the Red Man of Lightning. He promised to give the hunter a medicine so that he can always find something to hunt. He made a fire using wood from a tree that had been struck by lightning, and gave the medicine to the hunter.

He told him that the hunter's brother would be sick when the uktena scale was near, but gave him a cure for the sickness as well. The next day, the brothers went hunting and had no trouble finding game at all. 

I liked this one because of the oppositeness of the other story. In the first one I discussed, there is a twist ending. In this one the story ends how you expect. Both make for good stories!

Reading Diary A: Cherokee Stories

ᎣᏏᏲ! That's hello in Cherokee, pronounced osiyo (oh-see-yo). It wasn't even a question what unit I was going to pick for this week, as soon as I saw Cherokee Stories I knew what I had to do! 

I don't think I'm gonna go too in-depth on the stories this time, but I did want to see how the language compared to the language I've learned. I spent 3 semesters learning Cherokee as my foreign language, which in reality won't really help me in the future, but I'm terrible at Spanish, and I heard French is hard. So I chose Cherokee and it was one of the best decisions I made because the professor was my favorite professor at OU so far, besides possibly Al Eschbach. 

The first use of actual Cherokee names starts at the first story, How the World Was Made. Now, I learned lots of words and phrases. But never have I seen Cherokee phonetically written like this name -- Gälûñ'lätï. I don't even know how to pronounce that. Semi-related, my Cherokee name was ᏌᎶᎵ, which is pronounced saloli (sah-low-lee), and means squirrel! We got to pick our own names, so after I got stuck trying to pick a name, I asked a girl at a party I was at and the first thing she said was squirrel. So that became my name for 3 semesters! 

These phonetic differences could be because of the inconsistencies in how Cherokee is pronounced. Like most languages, there are dialects that change based on where you live. So it could just be the way the dialect of these people was spoken. Although after a quick search, the pronunciations used in the Cherokee Dikaneisdi (dee-ka-nay-ees-dee) or word list. So that would explain the pronunciation.

The Cherokee Syllabary

I did like how most of the stories were animal based, like Why the Possum's Tail is Bare. We didn't learn a lot of history in my classes, but we did learn how most of the main animals are said in the language. I do know they were a big part of Cherokee culture. That is clearly reflected in their legends. 

I'm gonna save my analysis on individual stories for tomorrow's post, I wanted to switch up my reading diary this time! 

ᏙᎾᏓᎪᎲᎢ! (Till I see you again)
The pronunciation for the above is, by syllable or character (each character is one syllable), doe-nah-dah-go-huh-ee. Cherokees say till we meet again, or till I see you again rather than goodbye because goodbye implies you won't see each other again, while they believe they'll see each other again regardless of if it's this life or the next. 

Commenting Review Week

This is my favorite part of the class, honestly. I love reading people's comments on whether or not they enjoyed my writing! I think all people that enjoy writing look forward to feedback, whether it's good or not, because it makes us better writers. 

I think I look forward to your (Laura's) comments the most on storybook posts. Does it suck to have so many mistakes pointed out? Kind of, yeah lol. But in the end it is all so we put forth the best content we can that's both interesting and engaging, and informative. It's a nice change of pace from traditional classes where if you get something wrong, it's just WRONG. With this class, we get the opportunity to improve on stuff. I think that's awesome. 

Sometimes, this is how I'm feeling reading comments.

Source: reactiongifsarchive

The commenting that helps us connect the most to each other is the introduction comments. It's nice to see if people share the same interests, or have been to similar places. It's a great way to connect with otherwise anonymous people (anonymous meaning you don't know who they are in real life). 

Writing Review Week

After 7 weeks, we've all written quite a bit, both for our Storybooks/Portfolios or just for the storytelling of each week in general. It hasn't been the easiest for me to keep up with everything on top of all my other classes, but I'm working my hardest on it for the most part!

I'd say my best writing so far was the first part of my storybook. I had the source material and info on Virgil and all that good stuff, but creating a new storyline for something so set in stone like Dante's Inferno was pretty difficult.

My biggest challenge that I face as a writer is switching between the different writing styles I work with on an every day basis. For this class, I use AP Style, but add so much more content. In most of my other classes, I have to use AP Style, but I have a time limit for each script that I write, meaning I have to write a coherent story that fits within ~40 seconds (sometimes ~1:30, depending on the format). So switching between concise and lower reading level stories and fancier works like with my storybook has been a bit of a challenge.

The journalist's most important resource, AP Stylebook

I don't really have any particular strategies for how to write a story, I kind of just make stuff up on the fly. I do usually like to have an ending in mind, mainly because I feel like it's easier to write up to a conclusion, rather than writing nonsense that kinda just ends. 

Also, I've enjoyed the ability to write in different levels of seriousness, if that makes sense. What I mean is that I like writing serious stories with serious characters and endings, but it's also a nice change of pace to be able to write goofy or sarcastic stories as well. 

Welp, I think that's about all I have to say about the writing so far!

Reading Review Week

So after 7 weeks in the course, I, and everyone else, have read lots of stories. There have been some that I really enjoyed, and some I was just kind of meh about!

I think my favorite units were Homer's Iliad unit and Ovid's Metamorphoses, mainly because I've always had a particular interest in Greek and Roman mythology, so it was great to read stuff that I was fairly familiar with.

Unfortunately for me, my Storybook topic won't be covered until later on in the semester! I'm really looking forward to the Dante's Inferno unit, though. I'm kind of interested to see how much I'll be able to change the story if I decide to do the reading diaries and storytelling for Inferno after doing so much work on my Storybook!

Screenshot from my Storybook

The other units that I read were all pretty good as well, I just wanted to specifically mention the ones that I enjoyed the most! 

In terms of note-taking, I haven't really taken any notes! I usually read the units as I do the storytelling and reading diaries, so really the diaries are kind of my way of keeping notes! It helps me comprehend the stories better because I give feedback to anyone that cares to read them. If I can't give clear and concise feedback in the diaries, then I haven't read the unit well enough! 

Overall, while this class is some of the most writing I've ever had to do so far, it's definitely been one of the more enjoyable ones just because of the creativity I can express through my writing and everything else.