Week 11 Reading Diary A

This week I chose to read Britomart: Faerie Queene, below is a summary of the first part of the unit.

Britomart happens upon Sir Guyon and his squire who she beats at jousting, but unfairly so since their lance was enchanted. She was searching for Artegall, the champion knight of justice. Guyon and her fight as a test of strength then he joins her and Prince Arthur on their quest.

The trio comes upon a big forest where a white horse ridden by Florimell rushed upon them. She is attacked and the two male companions rush to save her. She leads them toward a castle where 6 Knights were ganging up on 1 poor dude. Britomart ran in to rescue the guy and found out the reason they were beating him up was that they wanted him to leave his wife for another lady and he wouldn't do it. Britomart made quick work of them and they threw their swords at her feet. 

The knight joined Britomart and they all entered the castle (Castle Joyous). They came upon the lady of the castle who took a liking to Britomart (thinking her to be a young male knight). The lady snuck into Britomart's room at knight to try to get a glimpse of what hid under that armor, but she awoke and freaked. The lady's Knights ran in and one of them shot Britomart in the side with an arrow. Brit's companions came in and a great fight ensued. After they won, they left the castle 

We find out in "The Magic Mirror" that Britomart is in love with Artegall. As it turns out, she had seen an image of him in a magic mirror and fell deeply in love, though she refused to show it. Merlin made the mirror to show anything as long as it had to do with the person looking into the mirror. 

After seeing Sir Artegall in the mirror Britomart grew ill. She was lovesick. Britomart's nurse, Glauce, took her to see Merlin in the hopes that he could cure her. Merlin told her the knight's name and that he lived in the land of the faerie queen. He told her that she'd help him win the crown and reign with him. He'd have a son and a long succession of kings from his lineage would rule. She felt much better. 

Britomart vowed to journey to the land of the faerie queen and find her love. 

One night, Britomart found herself in a fierce storm. She hoped to take refuge in a castle that belonged to a churl named Malbecco, but he wa mean and refuses. She decided that when she could, she's punish him. She tried to enter the pig pen but was blocked by a group of Knights. She told them to let her in or shed fight them, which pissed one of them off. They fought and she won. She told them of how Malbecco had treated her and they all decided to burn down the building. Malbecco decided he'd rather let them in then lose the building so he did and served them dinner. The next morning Britomart was off again. 

When they left, Malbecco sicked a giant on them like a total tool. However the giant was a coward and flees from the knights. They went into the forest in search of the giant, but instead found a sleeping knight. His name was Scudamour and he told them that his lady had been taken by an evil enchanter who wanted her for himself. Britomart vowed to save her. They came to the enchanter's lair and stopped at the entrance where a wall of flames blocked their entry. Britomart, undeterred, put her shield in front of her and marched through the fire. Scudamour tried to do the same but got scorched. She explored many rooms but didn't find the maiden. 

Wall of Fire 

Found on dreamstime 

Week 10 Essay

This week I chose to read the Eskimo Folk-Tales reading unit from the un-textbook. I enjoyed the readings particularly because they were strange and fun to read. However, they did seem to end pretty abruptly and in ways that were almost unsavory, like there had to be more to the story than what I read. My favorite stories were definitely The Insects Who Wooed a Wifeless Man and Nukúnguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak. The insects story was so bizarre, but humorous almost and definitely an interesting read. I even used it for my storytelling. The story of the Tupilak was interesting because it discussed a demon-like creature that is created by a human in order to do harm to someone for them. Many cultures have creatures like this in their mythology, and I wished the story told more about the Tupilak itself, but enjoyed it none-the-less. The ending to this story was like I mentioned before; strangely abrupt. It seemed like there was more to it, but there wasn't. It just ends with the brothers going home and the main character living for many years before dying. I would have liked to learn more about the Tupilak or see some cool pictures of it in the story, but I think the background information provided was good, and was motivated to search for more information on my own.

Carving of a tupilak (spirit), Eskimo, collected in Angmagssalik, E. Greenland, 1931-2. National Museum of Denmark, Department of Ethnography

Found on Crushevil

This reading doesn't really have a whole lot to do with my storybook, but as for my overall goals in this class, it fits in well. I took this class because I love learning about mythology and all the weird and cool stories associated with that, including odd creatures of all sorts. These stories had magic, elementals, revenge, and all sorts of other good stuff that kept me intrigued. I learned that Eskimo folk tales have similarities in cultural points (such as the importance of having a wife and being a provider), but definite differences to many other cultures i've read about and an importance of connection with nature. I like stories that focus on our spiritual or energy-based connection with the Earth and everyone around us, because I like to think we are all connected to each other and to the world around us in some sort of weird, beautiful way.

Week 10 Storytelling

Day Dreaming about Bug Beauties 

Once upon a time there was a very lonely man who lived by himself and could not find a wife because he was not a very good hunter and he almost never woke up before noon. The women in his village ignored him and would hide away in their homes when he walked through the streets. He didn't mind the bachelor life at first, but after a while he grew bored and sad. He longed for a wife more than anything, and found himself drifting off in day dreams often, imagining a life for himself with a beautiful woman by his side. 

On one occasion, while he rested under a tree, the man found himself caught up in a dream that he'd had many times before. Women were throwing themselves at him, offering to be his wife and he was overjoyed because he could have his pick. However, this time, the women were a little... different. 

In his dream, the man sat in his home on his comfortable little chair and waited patiently for the women he heard whispering on the other side of the tapestry that separated his living room area from the kitchen. His anticipation and excitement grew as his dream self imagined what beauty hid behind the cloth. Then he heard a small, feminine voice ask, "Are you ready dear?" He clapped his hands and eagerly replied, "YES! YES! Please come talk to me my beauties!" 

The first prospective wife was a crane fly. She flew up to his shoulder and talked into his ear, " will you have me as your wife? I'd love to be yours forever!" He tried not to shudder and calmly replied, " I'm sorry, but your legs are just too long and your eyes are so far apart! I don't think I can take you as my wife." With that, she flew off, disappearing behind the tapestry. 

Crane Fly

found on FCPS

Next, a centipede crawled out from the kitchen. Its legs worked furiously and it quickly spiraled up the man's leg and sat up on his lap. "Take me as your wife!" the centipede exclaimed. The man was disgusted, and said, "Oh, gosh no! I'm sorry, but you have just too many legs and your coloring just doesn't suit me." The centipede looked disappointed as she scurried back behind the curtain and out of sight. 

Centipede

photo by ALAMY, found on telegraph

"Surely," thought the man, "this must be a joke. Why are all of these women bugs?!" The man scratched his head and shook it back and forth. When he looked up, he was surprised to see a snail had slowly made its way to his lap. Slowly, she scooted up and came to a stop on his hand. He held her up to his face and she smiled and said, "Please take me as your wife. I would be sweet to you always." The man almost felt bad, but replied, "I'm sorry. I just can't. You are too slimy and slow. You just wouldn't make a good wife for me." She looked to the ground and he lowered her there gently so she could slink away. 

Snail

by Mad Max, found on Wikipedia

Before the snail had made her way back to the doorway, something blue began running quickly toward the man. He couldn't make it out, but felt very nervous as it approached. Suddenly, it jumped with great speed and landed on the man's lap. He looked down and saw a great blue tarantula gesturing with its front legs, apparently trying to get his attention. "Hey! Hey! Take me! Let me be your wife!" she shouted excitedly, her front legs waving wildly in the air. The man grimaced, he hated spiders. "Ew! No!" he yelled, "You are so gross and hairy! I could never be with someone so hairy! You would never make a suitable wife!" The spider was offended and quickly ran off. 

Cobalt Blue Tarantula

found on SVSU

The man was stunned and couldn't believe these insects really thought they could be his wife! What was going on? Then, something fell and startled the man, waking him up. "Whew," he said with relief, "Thank God that was only a dream!" With that, he got up and shook the bugs that had crawled on him in his sleep off. Feeling curious and uncomfortable, the man looked at the ground where he'd been laying, and there, in the shade of the tree was a crane fly buzzing around, a centipede scuttling up the tree, a snail in the grass, and a big blue tarantula looking back at him. He made a strange, fearful noise and wiggled, trying to get the feeling of the bugs off of his skin. From that day on, he no longer day-dreamed under that tree and he promised he would be better. He began getting up early and practicing hunting in the hopes of finding a human woman that he could be worthy of. 

Author's Note:

My inspiration for this story came from the story of The Insects That Wooed a Wifeless Man which was taken from  Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921) and included in the Eskimo Folk Tales Reading Unit in the un-textbook. I liked the story because it was really strange and fun to think of a bunch of bugs offering to be someone's wife. I used a couple of different bugs for fun and because I thought they were pretty. Who doesn't want a pretty wife? Beauty is, after all, in the eyes of the beholder. I also changed the setting and a few other small things about the story, but over all I stuck with the original. Also, I tried to give the bugs some personality which wasn't done in the original, and I didn't make them laugh after he denied them, like they did in the original. I hope you liked it! 

Week 10 Reading Diary B

This week I chose to read the Eskimo Folk-Tales reading unit from the un-textbook. Here are my two favorite stories from the second half of the unit.

The Eagle and The Whale 

Whale and Eagle

by Joe Wilson, found on Antiques2Jewelry

• There are two daughters who don't want to marry, so they are given an eagle and a whale to marry. The eagle swooped down and scooped its prize up. Each day it would bring her a narwhal or a walrus and each day she would work on a rope to lower herself down from the perch. 
• Soon, the brothers of these girls began to miss them and set about making crossbows. A young homeless boy accompanied them when they set off to retrieve their sister. She lowered herself down and when the Eagle tried to come get her, they shot at it with arrows. None could hit it until the little boy released his arrow and killed it. 
• The other sister lived with the whale who was very fond of her, but she grew homesick. She longed to see her brothers and they missed her too so they made a boat and set out. However, they realized their boat was weak and had to break it down and start over. The wife of the whale meanwhile asked to go outside, but he would not let her and had tied a string around her to keep her in his grasp. The wife somehow made it just outside the cave and tied her string to a rock. The whale wanted her back in so he pulled the string, bringing not his wife, but a big rock. He was furious and came after her. Her brothers picked her up in their bigger, better boat and as they ran off she left a trail of clothing to which the whale pounced on and caused much commotion. However, the last piece he jumped on was in shallow water and the whale ended up beaching himself. 

Ángángŭjuk

• I'm going to call the main character Ang. 
• One day Ang went missing and his father blamed his mother. She asked him to wait and not kill her until they talked to someone who could consult with spirits. He had many wizards try to find his son, but none did. Then, a spirit came and told him that Ang was between 2 great cliffs and being taken care of by 2 inland people. Ang's father and his wizard buds went to find his son. They found him and a wizard put the people to sleep and rescued Ang. The end. 

Week 10 Reading Diary A

This week I chose to read the Eskimo Folk-Tales reading unit from the un-textbook. Here are my two favorite stories from the first half of the unit.

Nukúnguasik, who Escaped from the Tupilak

• I'm going to refer to the main character, "Nukunguasik" as Nuk from now on.
• Okay, so Nuk goes to an island he hasn't explored before and happens upon one of his brothers. He goes to see what's going on and hears the brother telling something to bite Nuk to death! Nuk now knows his brother is creating a demon-type creature called a Tupilak to kill him and slaps him, asking, "Yeah, but where's Nuk?" This scares the bejeezus out of his brother and he falls over dead. After this, Nuk sees the Tupilak sniffing his brother's dead body, but instead of taking care of it, he runs off scared. He returns home to his other brothers and as time goes on the brothers wonder where their other bro is. They search for days, and finally find him being nibbled on by the Tupilak. They bury their brother and go home. Nuk lives on as the oldest brother for many years and that is where the story ends. 

The Insects that Wooed a Wifeless Man

Insect Army

by John Scalzi, found on Planet Books

• There once was a scrub who didn't have a wife, harassed the local women, and overslept during hunting season. One day he was kayaking and came upon one of the noseless ones.. people who lived beneath the earth. The great man offered him much, but he felt inapt to accept it. They told him how to quit being a scrub and turn his life around. The next day he got up early and went hunting. This became a daily habit and soon the women of the town began talking to him. 
• One day, a blowfly romantically said, "Take me!" and the wifeless man said he would not because the blowfly gets food from the muck heaps. The fly left and more whispering was heard before another fly came out. The fly offered itself to him, but he said no because it had big weird eyes and laid eggs all willy-nilly. Next, a cranefly offered to be his wife, but he denied her because her legs were too long. Next came a centipede and she too was denied by the man, this time because she has too many legs, her body clings to the ground, and her eyes are ugly. A gnat came next and was met with, "no thanks, you bite." 
• He then sees his wife and she brushes his hair until he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he realizes he's been in a cave the whole time and is now rotten with age. 

Week 9 Extra Reading

This week I chose to read the American Indian Fairy Tales Unit for my extra reading, instead of writing an essay (mostly because I didn't do either of the reading diaries). These stories were taken from American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921).

The Boy who Snared the Sun

American Indian Fairy Tales, p. 106

by W.T. Larned, found on Internet Archive

• The story of a mischievous little boy and his older sister who took care of him and made him a bow so he could learn to shoot.
• The little boy is in need of a warm coat! It's chilly outside! He tried to kill a bird, but had not yet mastered the bow. For days he practiced, and finally he killed 10 birds which he brought to his sister to sew him a coat out of. With his new coat in hand, the little boy asked if he could go searching for other people. Surely they were not the only two people on earth! 
• The little boy goes on his search, but grows tired and decides to sleep in a sunny little patch. While he's sleeping, the sun shrinks the fresh skins of his coat. The little boy is pissed and vows to get revenge on the sun. The boy laid down for 20 days and thought up a plan to get his revenge. He asks his sister to make him a noose to catch the sun. She used her hair to make a rope which he put between his lips and turned into metal somehow. He took the noose and placed it right where the sun would rise, and he caught it!
• When the sun didn't rise like normal the animals got restless. The west wind pleads to the animals to cut the cord. None of them could figure out how until the War-Eagle chimed in that he knew just what to do. He flew and woke the Dormouse. The coyote tells the dormouse to save them all by cutting the sun loose, after all, the dormouse was so big that if some of him burned away there'd still be plenty of him left. The dormouse is not a smart animal. He went and nibbled on the cord, slowly burning away as he did, until the cord was cut and all that was left of the dormouse was the little mouse we all know today. 

How the Summer Came

Summer

Found on Pixabay 

• A squirrel tells a boy to shoot an arrow in the sky and bring summer down to Earth. A group of men/animals travels to the top of a mountain where they jump up and crack the sky open. They jumped in and found a beautiful oasis. They brought spring, summer, and fall back down to earth as well as some birds, but one of the travelers was captured by the sky-dwellers and did not return to Earth. However, the nice weather was there to stay.  

The Fairy Bride 

Wonderland Native Princess

by Cindy Thorrington Haggerty, found on Fairies World

• Neen-i-zu = chief's daughter
• They try to protect her, but she likes to wander off and walk by herself. She's a romantic and a dreamer. 
• Puk-Wudjies = mischievous little fairies, tricksters
• Neen-i-zu wants to visit the land of the fairies. She comes up with a song to sing to them, and hears it echoed back.. she thinks. She begins fantasizing about a life with the fairies, but her mother continues to bring her back to reality and insist she marry a hunter. 
• Her mom arranges for her to marry a man from the tribe, but Neen-i-zu doesn't like him. She dresses in her bridal outfit and heads to the hills for what may be the last time. However, she never returns. She vanished into the land of the fairies and became a fairy bride after all. 

Week 8 Commenting Review

I feel like the longer comment requirements for the project commenting have really made us connect more with each other. I like that the regular blog comments are only 60 words because I feel like we don't have to add as much "fluff" to our reviews of each others' storytellings and other assignments; we can just get to the point. These comments include things like specific errors, things they thought went well, ideas about how to do things differently, and sometimes questions that help me understand if I've left some important information out. Those questions really help me evaluate my author's notes, by the way.

The comments on my storybooks are longer, but because those stories are longer, they require more discussion. I have felt like these were very helpful, especially those left on my Isis story because it has helped me see what people are looking for and what interested them the most. I want to make sure my stories are engaging, which is why this week's project assignment has taken so long because I've pretty much decided to just rewrite most of my Isis story to reference a better story and add more focus on the goddess. I feel like the project comments are incredibly useful and go well with the project assignment weekly tasks.

The easiest part about commenting, for me, is to point out strengths and things I really connected with. I like telling people things they do right. The hardest part is when I do not engage well with the story or just don't like it (usually because it's just not my style of story). It's harder for me to finish those stories, which means by the time I get done. I just don't feel like commenting about it because there may be nothing wrong with it, I just didn't care for it. I've done a lot of commenting on other peoples' work throughout college because OU requires a liberal arts education and a certain amount of papers for many classes. As for my major, social work, we do a lot of peer editing because our papers are EXTENSIVE. Many of them are research based and a minimum of 14 pages. They have to be written in APA style and are weighted heavily in our classes, so we do a lot of peer editing outside of class. The commenting in this class is great to me because we don't have to read super long stories, so I can stay interested. Plus, they aren't weighted like a midterm or final would be, so we don't feel as pressured to nitpick. I think the commenting component of this class is good.

Here are some gifs I think might make you smile! You rock! Try not to forget that, I know sometimes things can be difficult, and I often struggle to be confident in myself, but you are awesome and you can do the thing!

Demi Lovato, telling the truth 

found on Favim

Edward Scissorhands agrees

found on Lights on Open Sky

If you haven't watched Jenna Marbles on Youtube, I highly suggest you do. She's hilarious.

Found on Tumblr

Week 8 Writing Review

Looking back over my storytelling posts, I can definitely pick out some that are stronger than others, but I think my favorite so far might be from week 5, titled The Betrayal. I picked this one because the comments on it helped assure me that i'd achieved my goal of surprising people and making them think about things from a different point of view. Often it is very difficult for people to see all sides of a story, so I like writing my storytelling posts from the perspectives of different characters, apart from the protagonist/narrator. Going into the second part of the semester my goals are to continue writing stories that I would find fun to read, to continue having fun writing the stories and doing most of the readings, and stick to my routine of getting reading diaries done over the weekend or by Monday so I can get a little ahead by doing the storytelling and the Wednesday assignments on Tuesday while i'm at my practicum.

King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway with their regalia.

Found on Wikipedia 

Photo taken from The Betrayal (link in previous paragraph)

Other students have really given me some cool ideas about types of stories to write, styles to use, and how I could take something they did and fit it to my style. They have also given me good feedback and helped me see how these stories could be perceived by others. This is especially true because I dig macabre, dark humor and old stories from writers like the Brothers Grimm and Edgar Allen Poe so I get really into the darker writings and some people might not be into that or might be able to help me relate those to a larger audience. They've helped me spot grammar errors and question my motives or execution of my motives so that I can connect better with more people. Their comments and the ability to write creative stories has helped me be more creative in my writing for other classes and for all of my applications that I have to do (for Tanzania, Grad School, Scholarships, etc.).

I think my biggest challenges as a writer are trying to keep grammar, sentence structure, etc. in mind when i'm "stream of thought" writing. This is when i'm really inspired and am thinking really quickly about what I want to write, so I just type it as fast as I can so I don't lose it. The problem with this is that I don't think about all of the technical stuff and so I have to edit a lot and I just really don't like editing. However, when i'm inspired, I feel like I can really get some good stuff going. This doesn't just relate to fun, creative writing but also to my professional and/or academic writing. For instance, i'm writing a research paper about the use of art therapy with dementia patients and i'm really interested in it, so it doesn't feel as intimidating or monotonous as when i'm researching or writing about something i'm not particularly connected with or aligned with.

Week 8 Reading Review

Having taken your Indian Epics class, I can really say that even though I enjoyed the texts for that class a lot, I have LOVED the readings for this class. I don't think there has been a unit i've disliked so far. I particularly enjoyed the Egyptian, Greek, Congo, and Arabian Nights units, though some of the stories in the Japanese mythology unit were really cool too, like the stories of Izanami and Izanagi as well as the story of The Heaven Descended. I've found that for units where I plan to use a lot of information from them for storytelling and storybook assignments, I prefer to take notes on most or all of the stories from the unit so I can reread my reading diary post and have all the information I need later on. This has become really helpful with my writings about Isis for my week 7 storybook assignment. However, for other units that I don't plan to use as heavily, it's nice to focus on 2-3 stories that I really enjoyed and take heavier notes for those.

My reading diaries have been essential in my storytelling and storybook assignments. I use them every time. They also give me ideas of what sort of outside information i'll need to write a good story for my storybook. I use a lot of sources for my stories (which is why my bibliography for Isis was so long), and having my bulleted lists from my reading diaries really helps me get my thoughts together when i'm writing.

I used to read a lot for pleasure, but since college have had little time to do so. However, I used reading as a fun way to escape from real life and get lost in another place as a different person. I like stories with lots of descriptive imagery and stories that take place in places where magic exists so the stories i've read in this class have been a nice break from all the stuff I have to read for my other classes (which means dry textbooks and LOTS of research articles).

My Hat is a Very Good Hat

from Animal Capshunz, found on Vayagato

I chose to include this photo because I like it and it makes me happy, but also because it was from a really fun story from the Congo unit, How the Gazelle Got Married. This story was just a lot of fun to read and was a nice example of something that I enjoyed reading without having to use it heavily in class. I got this from my week 7 reading diary B.