Extra Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

For the extra reading diary for Week 7, I've decided to do Chinese Fairy Tales (well, half of it).

My favorite story was Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies. As someone with both cats and dogs back home -- not in Norman, unfortunately, my apartment doesn't allow pets :( -- I love hearing people argue about which pet is better. Dog and cat lovers can be almost as hostile towards each other as their pets can! In this story, a dog and cat go to get a ring back. The dog helps the cat across the river twice so that they can go get it. But on the way back, there is a house in the way. The cat goes over and gets to the house first with the ring, so he gets all the praise. The dog sadly gets beaten, while the cat doesn't say anything. Of course it would be the cat who does something mischievous and gets away with it!

Cats are always into stuff! 

Photo credit

I also thought The Cave of Beasts was an interesting story. A father's daughters eat the eggs he selfishly was going to keep for him and their mother, even though the mom offered them some. So he takes the two youngest ones to the mountain and drops them off, cause that'll show them, right?! They happen to find a cave that a fox and wolf have hoarded loads of gold and jewels in. They kill the fox and the wolf (who don't find them by chance), and take over the cave. The father then goes back and finds the cave on accident, and the daughters and he take all the gold and live wealthily forever. 

I didn't like the ending of this story. The girls just give all that stuff to the dad? That seems kinda dumb, considering he dropped them off out there and left them to die at the hands of vicious wolves. Not a very fatherly thing to do! He should've had to beg them for forgiveness or something. One of the few times I didn't enjoy a happily ever after ending (although I rather enjoyed the story as a whole). 

Storytelling Week 7: Anansi, Fruit Dove and Fish

As he liked to do, Anansi enjoyed watching the birds fly all through the trees. He was particularly fond of the fruit doves with their bright colors as they would flash in the sunlight.

One day he wanted to fly like the doves did. So he called to one of the birds and asked to ride on his back as he flew among the treetops. The dove agreed as long as Anansi would behave himself, which he agreed to, and off they went.

Anansi's friend, the Superb Fruit Dove

When they were in the air, the dove started flying fast to see how Anansi would react. It was just what he wanted, but it scared Anansi. He dug his legs into the dove, which hurt the dove. As he saw it, Anansi had broken the agreement so he flipped over and dropped Anansi into the river.

Though he had eight legs, Anansi couldn't swim very well at all! A fish came and scooped him up and Anansi cried, "Brudda Fish, don' eat me!"

The Fish asked how Anansi knew who he was. Anansi replied he was his distant cousin. The Fish told him it was nice to meet him, but thought he would see just how true that was.

They went to the Fish's house, and he introduced Anansi to his family. Anansi was tired from all the flying he had done earlier (holding on to that dove wasn't easy work!) and came up with an idea.

"Quite da family you have brudda," Anansi said. "Say, do ya have any food?"

The Fish said he did, and made a meal only a member of his family would like to test Anansi's supposed family relation: a rather bitter mix of algae, plants and dead crayfish. It was a recipe that had been passed down in his family for generations. Once he had it ready, he offered a bowl to Anansi.

Anansi took one bite and tried his hardest to like it.

"Dat be so good brudda, just like ma use ta mek," Anansi said in his most convincing voice.

But Fish could tell he wasn't being honest, and asked him to take a walk with him. They walked towards the river, and as they got to the river bank, Fish pushed Anansi into the river.

"You ah no family of mine, brudda!" Fish cried out as Anansi struggled to keep his head above the water. And Fish went back to his family to live happily another day.

Author's Note: I used Anansi, White-Belly and Fish as the inspiration for my story. In the original story, Anansi rides a white-belly dove to get as much food as possible. He tries to steal eggs from the fish family and ends up eating the fish's children (that's why fish get eaten today). In my story, the dove is a Fruit Dove and he only rides him for fun to see what it's like to fly. He also doesn't eat the fish, he just tries to take advantage of them. He gets his just desserts in the end. Also, there isn't much dialogue because trying to emulate Jamaican dialect is actually really hard, but I did my best!

Bibliography:
Jamaican Anansi Stories, Martha Warren Beckwith, 1924

Reading Diary B: Jamaican Anansi Stories

So like I mentioned in my last reading diary, I picked one of the hardest units for Weeks 6 and 7. With that being said, I'm gonna stick with it and get this unit knocked out.

In the story Rain and Fire, there are two separate sections. The Goat is trying to run away from Anansi and realizes he can't get across the river to get away. So he magically turns himself into a stone, which the Dog sees. The Dog asks Anansi to throw the stone over to him because Anansi doesn't know it's the Goat. So he does, and the stone turns into the Goat on the other side and gets away.

I didn't know there was so much magic in Jamaican lore, which would make sense since I'm pretty sure voodoo is pretty big down there (I could be wrong).

Anyway, in the second half of the story Anansi invites Fire to his house (yes that kind of fire) even though his wife, who is a bird, says that's a horrible idea. Fire tells Anansi he can't get there without some dry brush to walk on. Anansi's wife continues to plead with him not to do that, but he does it anyways. Sure enough, when Fire comes around he burns everything except Ground-Dove, Anansi's wife. I like the humanization of Fire in this story while still maintaining the physical properties of actual fire.

Anansi's hut (recreation)

I also focused on Spider Marries Monkey's Daughter. I realized Anansi is a weird dude, because he never seems to want to marry other spiders. He just marries or whatever he does whoever he wants. Species don't seem to matter much in the Jamaican stories! But whatever, they're just stories, and logic doesn't matter!

Reading Diary A: Jamaica Anansi Stories

For Week 7, I've decided to do the Jamaican Anansi Stories unit. I don't really know why I picked it, I kind of just wanted to see what Jamaican English was like in a story.

Anansi the Spider

Okay, so this might have been a bad idea. The first story I read, Tying Tiger, was pretty hard to read. The basic gist is that Brer Nansi (which is apparently a spider of some sort?) wanted some mangos from the Tiger's tree. The Tiger told him no, so he made up a story about a law being passed that the owners of mango trees must tie themselves to them because of the storm coming up. So he tied the Tiger to the tree and ate his mangoes. Eventually Anansi (Nansi) tries to take advantage of the tiger and gets found out and kicked out.

This might not be the most helpful diary I've ever done for anyone that reads it. Trying to understand Jamaican dialect is pretty hard when you can't hear them say it out loud.

The next story that stuck out was Long-Shirt. Anansi, Tacoomah and Tiger were a band and went to a place where no one had clothes except the head leader. He had a long shirt on. Anansi wanted his shirt, so after they had played everyone to sleep he went and took it. After it was found that the shirt could talk, he traded the shirt with the goat. The goat then ran and ran and buried himself in the dirt. But the head leader found him, and cut off his horn. They threw all the wet slops on him, and he wrung everything out except his beard. That's why goats smell so bad!

These stories are interesting. But they are extremely difficult to comprehend (to me). Trying to get the storytelling section done in a reasonable amount of time will be pretty hard I imagine, just because of how long it took me to understand just these few stories on my first read through!

Extra Reading Diary: Folklore of Laos

For the extra reading diary, I chose the Folklore of Laos unit, mainly because it is such a small country and I was curious as to what kind of stories could come out of an area like that. Here are my thoughts.

So I kind of skimmed around the titles and the first one that caught my eye was The Man In the Moon, partially because I love Kid Cudi and it reminds me of his album, Man on the Moon.

Kid Cudi's Man on the Moon album

But regardless, the story is an explanation for the face on the moon seen on the light side. The basic premise is that a blacksmith got tired of being a blacksmith one day. So he asked a wise man who controlled everything to be a stone on the mountain, then several others things, until eventually he asked to be the moon. The guy got tired of the blacksmith asking to be different things, so he got stuck being the man in the moon. Thus you have the face on the moon. Kind of an interesting way to explain how it got there!

Then I read The Origin of Lightning, because I was kind of curious how they would explain lightning based on the last story. Basically a man's wife dies and is reborn as a young girl. When it came time for her to marry, her husband came from heaven in the form of an old man. Her wreath (symbolizing who she would marry) landed on his head and everyone made fun of him. But he and his daughter rose into heaven. The father of the girl tried to shoot them down, which is what is really happening when lightning strikes.

I really didn't enjoy that story too much, it was super confusing trying to figure out who was who and what was what, but that's probably the first story I've read all semester that I didn't really understand! 

The other stories were kind of interesting, but to conserve the amount of space this takes up, I won't go into all that! 

Week 6 Storytelling: The Jewel of Fate

At this point, Takeuchi was worn out and embarrassed at his shortcomings. How could he lose the Jewel? It was the only thing he was supposed to take care of, and he had failed. He could never show his face in the capital again. Unless he could somehow get it back, perhaps? No, that is hopeless, he thought to himself.

So there was only one logical course of action -- suicide. In Japan, one's honor is the most valuable possession he or she can have. Lose it, and it doesn't matter how many worldly possessions you have, none of them matter. Without honor, you are lost.

Takeuchi, being a high minister in the courts, knew the customs of his land very well. His heart was dead-set on ending his life on this night. But he was not aware he was being followed by a young fisherwoman, Tamatori. She had always been quite fond of Takeuchi, but never acted upon it for fear of banishment from the realm.

"We can get the Jewel together!" Tamatori exclaimed just as Takeuchi had drawn his sword. "Just don't give up yet, there's still a chance to find it."

"I suppose you're right," Takeuchi agreed. "Where do you think it is?"

"I see a light shining through the waters not far from here," Tamatori explained. "We should head there as quickly as we can to ensure no one gets there before us!"

So the two made haste towards a small island not far off the shore. Just on the other side of it, they could clearly see the Jewel of Fate broadcasting its glorious light through the shimmering waters towards the heavens.

"We must figure a way to swim down there without alerting the beast that guards it," Takeuchi stated calmly, "or surely we shall both perish on this night."

Thus the two devised a plan. Tamatori would swim down to grab it, then bring it back halfway to the surface where Takeuchi would protect them both with his blade and successfully restore his honor. Once it was agreed upon, the pair dove into the depths, using the light from the Jewel as a beacon.

When she got close enough to grab the Jewel, the vicious sea-dragon Mizuchi brought all manner of grotesque creatures towards Tamatori to hinder her from bringing the Jewel to Takeuchi. She struggled to maintain her hold on the Jewel as the monsters of the deep attacked her in unison.

Mizuchi, the sea-dragon.

(As depicted in Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers)

But at that exact moment, Susanowo had been watching these events unfold. He had always had a particular hatred for Mizuchi, so he found this the perfect opportunity to anger the dragon. As Tamatori swam up, he summoned a powerful whirlpool which surrounded Tamatori and Takeuchi, ensuring their safe return to shore.

The two then headed back to return the Jewel to its rightful place. Along the way, Tamatori made her love for Takeuchi known, and he deemed her a Princess he would be honored to call his wife. And the two lived on a great many years together, she a Princess, and he a man with his honor intact.

Author's Note: I used The Quest of the Jewel as the basis for my story. In the original, Tamatori goes to get the jewel by herself, and ends up killing herself to protect it because dragons can't interact with anything dead. This seemed a bit cruel to me, as she sacrificed her life for a man who may not have necessarily deserved it (he did lose the jewel after all). Also, I added in the presence of Susanowo; he wasn't involved in the original story at all, but I thought it'd be an interesting twist to include another famous Japanese god.

Bibliography:
Romance of Old Japan
E.W. Champney and F. Champney
1917

Reading Diary B: Japanese Mythology

For Reading Diary B, I will be going over some things I found interesting from the Japanese Mythology unit.

The first thing that stuck out to me was The Labors of Yamato, mainly because it was almost half of the unit (five stories). I focused on two of them: The Demon Boar and The Grass-Cleaving Sword. One thing that's interesting about this series of stories is they are intermixed with riddles that help tie some of the story together.

Anyways, in the Demon Boar, Yamato can't find the Island of the Golden Apples so he was pretty upset. He couldn't find anything that he really wanted to do; the hunt didn't excite him anymore. Until someone mentioned a demon boar that no one could kill. The high priestess warned him that he wouldn't be able to hurt it except for at its tail. So Yamato sent a whole army to kill this thing. Everyone died, except for him. He eventually got stuck between the boar and a cliff, so he hid behind a tree. When the boar walked past, he cut off its tail and forced it to run off the cliff to its death.

The story was good, but what really makes a better story is the details. Just a few examples: a scent of thyme floated on the breeze; mighty mountains loomed their time-scarred battlements against the cloudless sky. These are just from one paragraph, so you can see how the story is just lined with descriptive phrases.

The Grass-Cleaving Sword is similar to the Demon Boar in terms of details. Every other phrase is a descriptive one, describing either the atmosphere or what's actually happening. This story really showed how one of Japan's gods was able to conquer the elements, something the Japanese hold dearly in terms of their connection with nature. Yamato's people are caught in the middle of a raging fire. They are also being trampled by stampeding deer. Eventually the fire surrounds the men. Yamato takes his blade and cuts down a lane of grass to separate the fire. Then, the wind starts blowing the fire towards the enemies that were pursuing Yamato and his men, and they succeed in defeating the enemy. Thus, The Grass-Cleaving Sword.

Yamato and Susano'o

Reading Diary A: Japanese Mythology

For Week 6, I've chosen to do the unit on Japanese Mythology. I went to Japan my freshman year of high school and had a blast, but we didn't learn too much in terms of mythology or ancient tales! So when I saw the chance to read more in-depth on Japanese culture, of course I jumped at it. Here are my thoughts on a few of the stories from the first half of the unit.

When I was doing brainstorming for the storybook project, I read the Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi. This story originally intrigued me because of the way the gods are depicted. Rather than being omnipotent beings, they are depicted as very human-like and having many problems similar to what mortal people experience. One of the only differences that I could tell from gods and humans was the size of the gods. They are massive beings, with the serpent in this particular story being described as 

having a tail that drags "over eight valleys and as many mountains.” Perhaps because their gods were so much like the Japanese people is why they related to them so much. Who knows! 

Also, that paragraph above this one and I couldn't get it to format right, so that's kind of unfortunate. 

:(

Izanagi and Izanami from what I could tell was Japan's creation story (as every culture has). Izanagi is the God of the Heavens, and his wife, Izanami, is the Goddess of Love. Together they created the earth, moon and sun, along with every living creature that inhabits the world. In this story, the islands of Japan are children of the couple as well. But of course, no creation is complete without some sort of conflict. One of their daughters, Amaterasu, was put in charge of the High Plain of Heaven (which she accepted quite eagerly). One of their sons, Susa-no-wo was put in charge of the Moon and the seas (he wasn't too happy about this at all). 

Izanagi (link includes many other important gods and goddesses)

Eventually, the gods get upset with Izanami because they felt she treated the mortal humans as equal to the gods. They tried to banish her to a life of mortality, so she fled to a mountain and gave birth to the Fire God, Kagu-tsuchi. Knowing he was evil, she then birthed the God of Water to calm Kagu-tsuchi's fire whenever he got too angry. Then she died. Izanagi tried to revive her, but he was unable to. Thus he lived the rest of his life in despair. 

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Leave any comments, questions, or concerns here! Or if you just wanna chat about anything in general, I'd be down for that too!

Extra Reading Diary: Persian Tales

For the extra reading diary, I chose to do Persian Tales, mainly because of two reasons: 1) I had no idea about most of the other options, and 2) werewolves were mentioned and werewolves are awesome. So here goes. 

The first one I read was The Wolf and the Goat. The first thing that stuck out to me was the rhyming in the story; it kind of made it seem like a kid's fairy tale (which it may be, I'm not sure). Edit: it is a fairy, so there's that. Basically, the premise is the wolf kidnaps (ha, get it KIDnaps) the young goats and starts to make a soup. The mother goat throws some dirt in it and challenges the wolf to a fight. The goat makes a present to take to a guy so he'll sharpen her horns and he does. The wolf fakes a present to trick a dentist into sharpening his teeth, but the dentist pulls all his teeth out. The wolf and goat try to jump a river, but the wolf falls in because he drank too much water and then the goat rips his stomach open. Kinda gruesome all things considered when you think of the light-hearted rhyming and such. 

I enjoyed The Wolf-Aunt a lot more than the first one, because the first wolf story was surprisingly lacking in werewolves. Luckily, this one has a werewolf in it! Hooray! The premise of this story is a man slaves day after day to provide for his wife and seven daughters. Maybe he should've realized he couldn't support them before he had seven of them. Anyways, one day a woman appeared in front of him and said she was rich and would support them. They sent their daughter over there to offer a gift and she saw the woman was a wolf. The wife told the husband about this but he wouldn't listen. They go, but when the husband goes to bed the wife (wisely) takes the kids and gets the hell out of dodge. The wolf then ate the husband, the end. Pretty quick ending. But I'd say he got was coming, should've listened to his wife. 

Sketch artist rendering of the husband's "sister."

Storytelling Week 5: The Three Not-So-Delicate Wives

After a while, the goblin spoke up and offered a story to the king. This is what he told him.

So there was an honorable king named Virtue-banner who had three beautiful wives. One, Crescent, another Moon, and another named Star. The king loved them all dearly, and would do whatever he could to make them happy. They were some of the most delicate women in the entire land, something Virtue-banner valued highly.

The king was playing with Crescent one night, and a flower petal fell into her lap. She immediately began to scream bloody murder as if she was in excruciating pain. The king wasn't really sure what was going on, it was only a flower pedal! Surely she couldn't be serious! She asked if she could turn in for the night as she didn't feel well, so the king begrudgingly agreed. He asked his top physicians to look after her and find out just what exactly her deal was. So fifty of his men went to assist the queen.

Queen Crescent overreacting, per usual.

As the king pondered what had just happened, he came upon his other wife, Star. She was tired from all the commotion that had occurred earlier with Crescent, and soon had fallen asleep on a couch with the king. As she was sleeping, she too began to scream as if in pain. The king tried to awake her because he thought she was having a nightmare. She was most definitely awake, but could not be soothed. The king pleaded with her, "Star, my dear, what is the matter?" But she could only muster the strength to point at her arms. Virtue-banner looked her arms up and down but saw no signs of any injury whatsoever.

But she continued to insist, "My arms are burned, make it stop, please!" The king asked more of his physicians to aid her as they had done with Queen Crescent, and they took her to her chambers to find the source of her non-existent burns. The king's frustration continued to grow. So he went to find his third wife, Moon, in hopes of salvaging what was supposed to be a relaxing night.

He called her name, and she appeared from her room at his wish. Virtue-banner tried to begin to explain what his night had been like, but as soon as he started to talk, she too began to scream. Virtue-banner had had it with these faux displays of pain from his wives, as nothing ever appeared to be wrong with them! He asked what was wrong, and she explained she could hear a grain mill grinding in the distance.

"That's odd," he thought, "There aren't any grain mills for miles around, what could she be talking about?" But she insisted her ears were in pain. So once again, the king told his physicians to take care of him, as he had expended all patience he had for the day. And he went to bed alone, frustrated, and exhausted from the days goings on.


"So which was the most delicate?" the goblin asked King Triple-victory. The king pondered this question for a long time.

"There is no correct answer to this question," he explained, "as they were all imagining things. None of them actually had anything wrong with them, outside of the very obvious mental disorders they have. So my answer is none -- none of them were delicate, just crazy."

And the goblin snuck down and returned to his tree for the king to fetch for the sixth time.

Author's Note: I used The Three Delicate Wives as a basis for my story. In it, the three queens are each affected by the things that I used in my story, but they are all actually physically harmed. I changed my story to reflect a more realistic world in which the only ailments they suffer from are mental. And rather than being patient and understanding, the king gets more and more frustrated as the story goes on, which I felt was a more proper response to what would've seemed like plain ridiculousness.

Bibliography:
Twenty-Two Goblins
Arthur W. Ryder
1917

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins

For Reading Diary B, I will be continuing my thoughts on Twenty-Two Goblins. Here are the stories I chose for the second half of the unit.

The first story I read was the Snake's Poison. A man loses his wife, and thinks if he gives everything to the Brahmans and searches the countryside, he'll eventually find her. He stumbles upon a house where a kind woman gives him food. He sets the food under a tree and goes to wash up. While he's doing this, a hawk kills a snake which drops poison in his food. After eating the food, the man goes to the kind woman and tells her to get a doctor or she will be a murderer. He eventually dies and the goblin asks the king who was to blame? The king says the dead man is to blame for he accused one of the virtuous people of killing him. Then the goblin runs back to the tree.

Now at the end of every story, the goblin runs back to the tree. That's gotta be super frustrating for the king, having to walk back and carry him every single time. But that's just me musing over the situation.

Did the thief weep or laugh when he saw the merchant's daughter approaching him at the stake? This is the question posed by the goblin in the Girl and the Thief. A merchant has a beautiful daughter, and everyone pines for her hand in marriage, but she hates the idea. Eventually a thief ravages all the cities. He amasses much gold and jewels.

How I pictured the thief enjoying his spoils.

The king tries to go find him, and eventually does. He takes his army to the thief's place and the thief just goes bonkers on an entire army. But the king wrestles him down and takes him to the city alive. Of course, the merchant's daughter falls madly in love with the thief. To summarize, because this is getting lengthy, the daughter asks Shiva for two things: for her father to have a hundred sons for when she kills herself, and to bring the thief back as an honest man. Shiva grants both, and they get married and yadda yadda. The king then answers the goblins question thusly: the thief wept from grief for he couldn't repay the merchant's kindness and laughed from astonishment because the girl chose him over kings. Then the goblin goes back to the tree AGAIN. What did I take away from this story? Women are unpredictable! Haha. 

Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

For Week 5, I've decided to read Twenty-Two Goblins because the description said he talks in riddles and I absolutely love riddles. So here are my thoughts on the first half of this unit.

The goblin Vetala hanging in the tree (unit picture)

The first story I enjoyed was the story of the Three Lovers. In it, a girl dies and the three men who had been vying for her hand in marriage each did different things. One takes her ashes and sleeps with them in the cemetery, one takes her bones and dips them in the Ganges River, and the third wanders the country. The third one finds a spell to bring her back to life, and the three men end up fighting even more. So the goblin asks the king who deserves to be her husband, which he answers by saying the man who slept with her ashes in the cemetery deserved to. That definitely wasn't the answer I figured it would be, but it makes sense when you think about it.

Next was the Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother. I've been wondering what the Sanskrit names are, since the translation names are things like Lovely and White and Clean-cloth. As I read through, I really questioned White's thought process. He decides the best sacrifice to the goddess is his himself, so he somehow manages to cut off HIS OWN HEAD. Then, his brother sees him dead in the temple and he cuts off HIS OWN HEAD ALSO. What is wrong with these people? The wife of White decides she's gonna off herself as well, but the goddess saves her. She promises to revive the men, but Lovely puts the wrong head on each body. The riddle is "which one is truly her husband?" The king says the one with her husband's head. I actually got that one right.

The riddle for the last story I read, Food, Women and Cotton, is "which out of the specialists in food, women or cotton is the cleverest?" Basically, each shows to a king how specialized they are in their respective fields. The food specialist doesn't eat the rice because it smells of corpses, as it was grown near a cemetery. The women specialist is disgusted by a woman in his presence because she smells of goats, as she was raised on goat milk. The cotton specialist can't sleep on a bed covered with seven quilts because a single hair touches his body. The king tells the goblin the cotton specialist is the cleverest, because he couldn't possibly know the hair was there, while the other two could know about the problems with their specialties. I definitely got this one wrong!

Storytelling Week 2: The Cruelty of Achilles

Now Achilles was in mourning over his friend Patroclus, still, though he had just slain the mighty Hector. His anger towards the Trojans burned deep within him, for Patroclus had been his dearest friend. The glory of taking Troy would be his, yes, but at what cost? His soldiers viewed him as a leader, a warrior, but hardly as a friend like dear Patroclus had. After he had dispatched Hector, Achilles had dragged him behind his chariot, his mare effortlessly gliding across the plain in front of the wall as the lifeless body of Hector dragged behind him.

Atop the wall, King Priam had watched as his noblest son was humiliated in death. He was both angered by Achilles' actions and saddened because no man could avenge his son against the mightiest of warriors. He paced thoughtfully, wondering how he could possibly retrieve Hector's body to give him a proper burial. 

Meanwhile, the gods had convened to watch Achilles' battle with Hector. When they saw him take the body back to the Greek camp, Zeus became angry with Achilles.

"Go to your son at once," Zeus commanded Thetis, "And tell him it is my wish that he return the body of Hector to the Trojans."

         Thetis listening to Zeus' commands for Achilles.

So Thetis made hastily for the shores of Troy where Achilles had taken the body of Hector. "My son, you must allow Hector the proper burial," she said. "Zeus has sworn his wrath upon you if you refuse. Listen to what the king Priam will offer for ransom." Achilles reluctantly agreed.

The king loaded up his chariot with the finest jewels, trinkets and cloaks he could find. At high noon the following day, he ordered the gates of the mighty wall open and made his way to the Grecian camp. Achilles had awoken with the sun, his mourning over Patroclus robbing him of peaceful slumber. He waited patiently for the king to arrive to hear his proposition. In no time, the king had entered the camp.

Soliders led the king to Achilles' tent, for they had heard the night before of his intentions. Achilles ushered the soldiers out so the two men could discuss in solitude. Priam's offer was simple: keep the chariot and everything in it, but give him Hector's body intact so as not to refuse him the burial he deserves. As he was listening to Priam's offer, Achilles mind began to wander back to Patroclus' death. He recalled the Trojans spearing him in the back, and taking Achilles' arms from his body. A fiery urge for vengeance crept into his belly, and Achilles became incensed. 

"No amount of gold or jewels can bring back my closest friend," Achilles explained. "Therefore, no amount of gold or jewels will bring back your proudest son."

Zeus had been watching intently as Achilles and Priam conversed, and soon became furious with Achilles' disobedience. He sent down a crack of lightning just outside Achilles' tent as a warning for the mistake he was about to make. But proud as he was, Achilles paid it no mind. He left the tent in a rage.

He went outside to where Hector’s body was laid, grabbed his sword and cut the limbs of the body, furthering the prince’s humiliation in death. Once he had spent all of his anger, he grabbed a torch and lit the body where it was, completely destroying the chance for a proper burial. Priam watched in despair as the remains of his son rose towards the gods in a plume of black smoke. 

As soon as he was done, he fled. Thetis, though she wished not to anger Zeus, hid her son as he ran, for she loved him dearly. Achilles wasn’t seen for many years, and the Greeks suffered a tragic defeat at the hands of the Trojans, for they had no warrior who could match Achilles’ strength and leadership. 

Author’s Note: I used “The Ransoming of Hector” as the basis for my story. Instead of Priam getting his son back, however, I put forth a scenario in which Achilles refused his offer, thus risking the wrath of Zeus. This is a critical point to consider when reading my story, as Zeus is all-powerful to the Greek people. To anger him is to almost certainly be inviting death, one way or another. I think my version highlights different attributes of Achilles, not only his anger, but his belief that he wouldn't be defeated by anybody, even Zeus. In the original, Achilles accepts the ransom of gold and jewels, and the Greeks and Trojans have a 9 day respite from battle to give Hector a proper burial. This is an important part of Greek culture in the setting of Troy vs. the Greeks, as a proper burial allows the deceased to be given coins to pay the ferry toll. I doubt Achilles would have ever done what I said he did just because while he is a fierce warrior, he does respect the traditions of his people and their enemies, but in my interpretation, Achilles is a slave to his anger a lot more than he is in The Iliad. 

Week 4 Storytelling: The King's Kindness and the Green Jewel

One day, King Sneferu grew bored of sitting in his palace doing kingly stuff. I mean, he could only do so much work before it became rather tedious. So he called his chief scribe in to ask for some ideas of things that could cure his boredom.

"Dude, I'm so ridiculously bored I'm losing my mind in here," said Sneferu. "I need some ideas of things to do."

Now his scribe knew the king pretty well, and knew his interests well. The scribe had a laundry list of things the king enjoyed doing, but he had done all of them fairly recently, and surely something he had done before wouldn't make him any less bored. But then, the scribe thought of an idea in the back of his mind for the king to do.

"Go out to the lake, Your Highness," the scribe suggested. "Pick some girls from the kingdom to row for you, that way you can enjoy their beauty and relax at the same time. Maybe take some lunch and just spend the afternoon out there."

The king stroked his regal king beard as he thought of whether he wanted to do this or not.

Metal representation of what Sneferu's beard may have looked like.* How regal.

After some internal deliberation, Sneferu decided his scribe was probably right, as he usually was. "Right you are, dear friend," he said. "Fetch me some beautiful women and send word to the docks to have a boat prepared for my departure within the hour."

Sneferu and the women the scribe found set out on their relaxing day on the lake (relaxing for the king that is, the women were rowing for him). After a while, one of the girls suddenly stopped rowing. The king immediately asked what was going on because as most of you know, if more people are rowing on one than on the other, the boat starts turning. Sneferu got kind of mad because the sun was in the perfect position and now it was ruined. 

"What in the name of Ra is going on?" the king exclaimed. 

One of the girls responded, "The driver lost one of her jewels." 

"And?" questioned the king incredulously. "What concern is that of mine?"

Now the girl who had lost her jewel spoke up, explaining, "This jewel is one of my most prized possessions, Your Highness. It was given to me from my mother, who is now with Osiris in the underworld."

When he heard this, the king felt bad for the girl, for it was partially his fault she had lost it. So he offered to find it for her in the lake. She tried to decline, but the king insisted. He told them to drop the anchor so they wouldn't drift away, and after taking off most of his clothes, jumped into the water. He dove and dove, much farther than he had expected it to be. 

After what felt like ages, the king surfaced with the girl's jewel in his hand. The girl was ecstatic and thanked the king profusely. The king handed her the jewel under one premise: come back to the palace with him and be his wife, for she was beautiful. Of course she agreed. 

When they got back to the palace, the story was recounted time and time again of the king's courage and dedication to helping the girl. Once the night crept around, the scribe went to bed immediately. He had a long day ahead of him tomorrow; after all, the hieroglyphics to cement the story in history wouldn't write themselves. 

Author's Note: I used the Green Jewel as reference for my story. My last few stories have been pretty seriously written in terms of the language I used and the content, so I wanted to write a little more light-hearted story. I changed the ending mainly, because in the original the scribe whips up a fancy spell to split the lake, and that was just a little too magical for me. Hope you guys enjoyed!

*Disclaimer: he may or may not have actually had a beard.

Bibliography:
Egyptian Myth and Legend
Donald Mackenzie
1907

Reading Diary B: Ancient Egypt

Continuing the Ancient Egypt unit, this will either be really long or not long at all, I haven't figured it out yet, mostly because the second half of the unit is literally three stories divided into eight sections.

So let's get this underway. The first story to focus on is The Two Brothers. The first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that Bata does whatever Anpu want him to (his older brother). Bata is a loyal brother to him. Sadly, as happens so often in old tales and myths (thinking along the lines of Jezebel), Anpu's wife tries to sabotage Bata by saying he attacked her. Anpu plans to kill him, but the oxen he takes care of start talking to him, which makes it sound like Bata is tripping on something.

Bata leaves after he explains to Anpu that he is upset he tried to kill him without letting him tell his side. So for once, Bata gives Anpu the orders. He tells him to go find him under an acacia tree where his soul will be when the time is ready.

Acacia tree

The gods give Bata a beautiful wife, but then say she'll die a quick death, which is kind of messed up if you ask me since they gave her to Bata so he wouldn't be lonely. What's the point of that? Also, later in the story she goes back to where the king is at, and the acacia tree gets cut down. So not only does Bata get his wife taken, but he also dies. He lives and dies a couple of times, and eventually becomes the king of Egypt so this story actually had a happy ending, which was nice. 

I'm going to cut the post here for brevity because if I don't it'll end up being about 800 words, but I thoroughly enjoyed this unit. The stories were interesting and seemingly humanized the gods in a way that the Greek myths didn't, as far as I'm concerned. 

Reading Diary A Week 4: Ancient Egypt

For week 4, I've decided to read the section on Egyptian myths. The list of gods in Egyptian culture is pretty extensive, so I realize I won't get to all of them, but here are the ones I've chosen to focus on.

The first one I liked a lot was the Secret Name of Ra. I thought it was interesting how rather than being immortal, all-powerful gods, they (specifically Ra) are portrayed like humans, growing old and decrepit. The way the gods are depicted makes me see why the Egyptians put so much faith in them; the stories about them make them so relatable.

The gods also have their own desires and personalities as we see in Isis. She's willing to kill the most powerful god, the one who started everything, just so she can hear his secret name and take his power. This perfectly captures certain aspects of humanity. Some are willing to do whatever it takes to rise to power.

The next one I found interesting was the story of Osiris and how he rises to power. Osiris is described as a king amongst men, one who ushered mankind into a civilized age. With Isis' help, he taught the people of Egypt how to grow wheat and fruit so they could have a steady supply of food instead of having to constantly hunt for food. It is explained that Osiris then went out in the world and persuaded the men of the world to give up their evil ways with gentle words. That's not something you often hear when talking about gods in mythology, so it was a nice change from death and rage!

Osiris, commonly depicted with green skin and holding a crook and flail.

Lastly, I liked the King of the Dead section. This is the first time in the unit that Osiris is mentioned as being in a mummified form. He tells Horus, Isis' son, to avenge his death at the hands of Set, Horus' uncle. In a series of battles, Horus defeats Set, but loses an eye in the process. It is also explained that Ra sent down Anubis to piece Osiris back together. He then becomes the god of the underworld, the Judge and King of the Dead. 

Horus is often depicted as a hawk or falcon. 

Brainstorming Styles: Week 3

So for the storybook project, I've decided to do something with Dante's Inferno. Here are a few ideas I've come up with. 

1) First-person account of certain portions of the trip as told by Virgil. We all know Virgil is Dante's guide through Hell, but the story is told by Dante, from his perspective. I think the first three levels, with an emphasis on Poets and Philosophers because Virgil was a poet. I think this style would have to be a frametale, with Virgil adding certain aspects that Dante didn't mention. 

2) I could do an anthology from the perspective of those actually in Hell. Like in the section on Furies and Heretics, there are characters named individually, rather than being a nameless addition to a particular division of Hell. Perhaps a divided storybook with first-person accounts of what certain people did to deserve their punishment and how long they've been there (based on the estimated time of their death and when Dante actually wrote the Inferno). 

The Remorse of Orestes, as he is tormented by the Erinyes

3) Charon is the ferryman to Hell. Now, everyone who enters the gates of Hell have to ride his ferry to get there. As the ride to Hell would often be one many people would regret being on, one would imagine Charon's riders would be remorseful and share their stories with him. He is a cruel driver, as Virgil explains to Dante, but that doesn't mean he can't hear and occasionally respond to people's stories. This would allow for tie-ins to other stories or characters involved in Dante's journey through the circles of Hell. 

4) Some people have it easier, in a relative sense of the word of course, than others in Hell. For example, the people in the first circle (Limbo) live in an "inferior version of Heaven." Now, to get to the lower levels where the truly evil sinners reside, one must go through every level preceding. A first-person account from either a person in a higher level watching as others go further, or a person destined for the lower levels lamenting his sins as he watches as his punishment gets continually worse. An account from one of the final three, Judas, Brutus and Cassius, as they realize where they are destined would be an interesting way to do it. 

These aren't necessarily ordered in any particular preference, these were just the order I thought of them. 

For reference: Dante's Layers of Hell

Bibliography: 

The Inferno

Dante Alighieri

1317

Charon (mythology). Website. Wikipedia

Mythology-Folklore Unit: Dante's Inferno