Extra Reading Diary: Nursery Rhymes

For the extra reading diary, I chose to do the Nursery Rhymes unit, mainly to see if I remembered them correctly.

The first section I really read in-depth was the Riddles section. There were a couple that stood out to me.

THOMAS A TATTAMUS took two T's,

To tie two tups to two tall trees,

To frighten the terrible Thomas a Tattamus!

Tell me how many T's there are in all that.

The answer is two (2 t's in "all that").

This one has a clever answer as well!

ELIZABETH, Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess,

They all went together to seek a bird's nest.

They found a bird's nest with five eggs in,

They all took one, and left four in.

These are all the same person, just called different names.

I also read through the Paradoxes section, and they were all pretty interesting. This one in particular stood out to me.

THE man in the wilderness asked me

How many strawberries grew in the sea.

I answered him as I thought good,

As many as red herrings grew in the wood.

This paradox was interesting because of the use of the red herring. It's a logical fallacy used in an argument to distract your opponent by bringing something up that's irrelevant to the discussion at hand. In this paradox, the red herring fallacy is exemplified by an actual red herring, which I thought was super interesting. Paradoxes are cool, man. 

Just one example of a pretty common paradox.

Storytelling Week 11: Morgan le Fay's Plot

Author's Note: I'm including this author's note at the beginning of my story (from the unit on King Arthur) to add context to it because I'm writing this from the perspective of Morgan le Fay, King Arthur's sister (or half-sister, there's a weird relationship going on there), as she plots to kill him. The italicized portions of the story represent passing time not from Morgan's perspective, and the text in "quotes" is her dialogue to other characters. So without adding anything else to this, here goes!

                                                                                                                                                                   

I've had it with Arthur. I can't stand him any longer. Everything always goes his way: the sword in the stone, killing the tallest Knight in the land -- which he wouldn't have done had that insufferable Merlin not stepped in -- and this the final straw, slaying my beloved Accalon. But no more will he escape the fate he so clearly deserves. Finally, I will have my revenge on him!

I can't do this while I have to be here, so I must request of Queen Guenevere permission to leave.

After asking the Queen for permission to take her leave, which the Queen grants, Morgan heads towards where the King is staying after a hard-fought battle.

My time has finally come. There will never be a more perfect opportunity than right now. All I have to do is get past those blasted nuns watching over him. Wait, are they going to wake him up to tell him I'm here?

"Don't wake the King! I'm sure he's lacking for rest after such a fierce battle. I will wake him when I think he's had enough sleep, so you can go now."

Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Arthur is a fool for leaving his protection up to a group of silly nuns. What makes him think they could stop anyone from getting to him?

Morgan makes her way towards the King's chambers, where she finds him in a deep sleep.

I swear by the gods I have the worst luck. Of course Arthur has Excalibur close by! How then shall I slay him when he has the power of that sword in the palm of his hand? What did Merlin tell him? Oh, how could I forget?! The true power of Excalibur lies not within the sword, but its scabbard! Without it, Arthur is truly vulnerable.

With this realization, Morgan stows the scabbard under her cloak and makes haste to the forest. Arthur awoke and discovered his scabbard missing, and together he and his fastest men chase after her. Morgan escaped using some of her magical prowess, and quickly went to her own country of Gore and fortified her towns and castles. 

Well, it looks like I missed the chance to kill Arthur once again. But there is one more idea I've been pondering. After such a bold attempt, Arthur would never be expecting a gift of apology from me. Let me see what I can throw together to do away with that swine once and for all.

Pulling out every magical spell she can think of, Morgan enchants a mantle of the finest quality with a deadly spell. The particular spell she's imbued within it is one that will cause the first person to put it on to be reduced to a pile of ashes. 

Morgan le Fay

by DeviantArt user, mari-na

There's no way the King can see this coming. Arthur's end is at hand!

"Bring me one of my fairest maidens to deliver this gift to His Majesty, the King! Make sure no one puts this on but him, do you understand me?

"Quickly now, make your way to Camelot to the King's Court and deliver this gift with my sincerest apologies."

Now the only thing left to do is wait for the news of Arthur's demise. I can hardly wait.



Bibliography:
King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).
Story Source: King Arthur and Morgan le Fay

Additional note: I didn't change the story up very much because I didn't particularly want to write a story that ends up with King Arthur getting murdered, mainly because he's one of my favorite legendary characters. So the essence of the story is the same, the format it's delivered in is different!

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.