Week 13 Essay

Women's Roles in European Fairy Tales

This week I chose to read the Librivox Grimm's Fairy Tales unit, and for this essay will focus on the stories of Rapunzel and Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty). These are two stories that most people in America are likely familiar with because Disney has made movie versions that have been insanely popular. 

Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959)

found on 50sMovie

Disney's Tangled (2011)

found on Amazon

The original versions (the Grimm's versions) of these stories are not exactly the same as in the movies, however, they do subscribe to the same general roles of women that many in today's society still agree with. Women are portrayed as generally helpless and in need of saving, usually by a handsome prince (though the 2011 Disney version of Rapunzel portrays her as a more confident, capable, modern young woman). In the time of these stories' creations, women were subservient, submissive, and seen as being less than men. That idea of women's roles and abilities was then taken into the "New World" when Britain colonized North America. Women were once again placed into a role of doing housework, obeying their husbands, and being reliant on their husband to take care of business. They did not usually fend for themselves, and for the longest time were not allowed to have jobs, vote, or participate in government. Even today, women are not truly equal to men and are subject to objectification and treatment as the lesser sex. 

Sleeping Beauty

by VPdessin, found on DeviantArt

This week's stories kept with the theme of women as dependent on men. In Rapunzel, she does not take it upon herself to find a way out of her brick and mortar prison. She does not stand up for herself or try to escape on her own. When she finally meets a man and decides she's ready to leave, she still relies on him to save her. She does not fight back against Dame Gothel, she just waits for her prince to come. As for Briar Rose, she was a young girl (only 15) and was not told of her impending doom by her parents. Instead of educating her so that she may protect herself, her parents (mostly her father, the king) just burned the kingdom's spinning wheels. Then, on the day she is destined to fall into her 100 year sleep, they leave her alone! 

Rapunzel

by Alicex2, found on DeviantArt

These stories also portray villains as women. Many old stories portray women as inherently evil to justify their treatment of women (who are also sometimes worshiped as goddesses, but still seen as having incredible tempers) as second-class citizens. In both of these stories, there is an evil witch who brings doom upon the young, beautiful maiden and her family. Still, I enjoy these stories, and understand their portrayal of women because of the time when they were written. As for today's society and women's portrayal in media/writing/etc. there really is no excuse. I'm just saying. 

Women's Rights

by Malala Yousafzai, found on the Sojo Blog

Week 12 Essay

This week I read the Celtic Fairytales unit which takes stories from Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892). My favorite stories were Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, Connla and the Fairy Maiden , and Beth Gellert. I liked this unit, though the way it was written made it a little hard to read. I felt like I had to read each sentence, sometimes more than once, and decipher it before moving on and establishing the overall meaning of what I was reading. I felt like I had to start over a few times and go back. I listened to the audiobook then read the story with a few of the stories and that seemed to help. I think the only information people should be aware of is that the stories are written in a way that sounds like a Celtic person talking out loud or singing.

This unit fit with my overall goals of the class because it taught me about Celtic folklore, but it didn't align much with my storybook. However, I really liked the different take on Snow White. I learned that Celtic fairy tales have a lot of strange takes on children and how to raise and protect them. It This unit is really different from many of the mythology units, its more like a storybook and that was pretty fun. This unit was not my favorite so far, but I like the Celtic stories. I think i'd like to hear them read aloud by someone of that descent, just to see if when read aloud by them, the stories really did sound like songs.

I was surprised by the Brewery of Eggshells story. It was nothing like what I expected, but still managed to tie in to the title. I liked that it dealt with mischievous little elves and showed them as troublesome, generally unkind creatures. People today tend to think of them as adorable, cherub-looking creatures who make cookies and are very ethereal. Celtic folklore sees them differently, and I can't remember why, but i've always aligned them more closely with a dark nature than a light one.

Santa's Evil Elf

by user Dront, found on 3DTotal Forum

Week 11 Essay

This week I finally got to read about Britomart and I was not let down. She was a total badass! I really liked the readings and felt like she could be a role model for just about any little girl. She embodies female power, strength, honor, confidence, and ability to perform tasks that are normally considered to be masculine or only for men. I think my favorites were probably the one I used for my storybook (How Britomart Fought with Six Knights) and How Britomart Walked Through Fire. I liked these because they showed Britomart fighting against seemingly impossible tasks to stand up for what she believes in and help others in need. There weren't really any stories I didn't like, though the ones that focused on her love for a man she'd never met aren't my favorites (I guess i'm cynical in that way). I think the stories, particularly the first, could use a little background and explanation of some of the characters. For instance, what's the deal with Florimell? Is she important, does she have a back story related to the princess? I think this unit is fine without further information before you get into it.

This unit fits perfectly with my goals for this class for a few reasons. The first is that it fits in perfectly with what I plan to write about in my storybook and has a truly strong female character. I feel like these stories foster empowerment, which is what I as a woman, and as a social work major, strive for. I hope to empower others in my future and stories like this would be great. I hope to tell my child this story one day, male or female, to teach them important lessons about women, equality, and confidence (while also being a fun tale of knights and wizards). It also fits because I wanted to learn about mythology and folklore from around the world and I haven't heard a whole lot of English mythology, oddly enough.

It was pretty tough to find a female knight that wasn't sexualized, but I liked this one:

Sophia, Female Knight

found on Wikia

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 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 7 Essay: Magic and the Supernatural

This week's essay topic: 

Magic and the Supernatural. Magic and supernatural elements are important for many mythological and folktale traditions. What examples of magic and supernatural elements did you see in this week's stories? What kinds of characters used magic? What did they use magic for? Were there supernatural characters or events in this week's stories? What role did these supernatural characters or events play in the plot of the stories? Would you say that magic and supernatural motifs were dominant elements in this week's readings?  

Shia LaBeouf Magic Gif

Found on Gifs of Things 

This week's readings came from the Tales from the Congo unit, which were taken from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898). Themes of magic and the supernatural had a heavy presence in this week's readings, and was even featured in the story I chose for this week's storytelling assignment. They featured "fetishes" which are spirits as well as physical objects infused with their powers. Stories featuring these include The Fetish Sunga, The Fight Between Two Fetishes, and The Fetish of Chilunga.  In The Fetish Sunga, a female fetish gets involved with the narrator's uncle and makes him a huge meal which he has trouble interpreting and says the smell alone satisfies him. However, when she presses him to eat and drink, he only drinks the wine which hurts her feelings so she deprives him of his ability to speak. In The Fetish of Chilunga, a male fetish named Boio who speaks both human and bird. One day, when a woman is out and about, she tells Boio to quiet down, angering him. He binds her hands in invisible rope, this leads to a strange practice of binding the hands of women who are sold as brides to ugly men until they consent to he marriage. They also involved women with powers of vision through dreams, guidance, and necromancy. The stories also feature gods and goddesses with supernatural powers. It seemed that all sorts of objects could be imbued with magic or supernatural powers, also many different types of characters could use magic. Characters like regular wives, gods/goddesses, and animals could all have powers. Many used their powers for good, it did not really seem that there were many stories involving a lot of black magic or evil-doing associated with those powers. Sure, some tomfoolery went down and some bad was done, but overall I felt like the stories this unit used magic and the supernatural to add to the fun of the story. It was great.

Week 6 Essay

This week I chose to read the Japanese mythology unit and thought overall it was a really cool unit. I loved the story of Izanagi and Izanami (part 1 & part 2)! This creation myth was not only neat , but truly beautiful. The imagery in this story was phenomenal and I could really imagine the settings. Plus, the love story between Izanagi and Izanami is one of loyalty, devotion, and unfortunately, grief. I felt compelled to keep reading this story and as such definitely enjoyed it. I also liked the story of The Heaven Descended (part 1 & part 2). It wasn't a super happy or sickly sweet love story. Instead, it started off as a love story and ended up telling a tale of jealousy, mistrust, and anger. I thought Ninigi was a total ass for acting as he did and was surprised to see a trial by fire being used in Japanese mythology. I've never read much Japanese mythology, but I guess I saw that as a mostly Greek/Roman practice. Either way, the idea of asking a divine being to keep you safe to prove your honesty/truthfulness as you walk through a wall of flames, is very intriguing. The only thing about this reading unit that I just couldn't seem to get down with was the mix of verse and prose. Sometimes I would get confused or frustrated while reading and have to stop for a minute or move on from the section I was reading. It was also pretty difficult to find pictures of Izanami, which surprised me. With other mythology units I was able to find an abundance of images of the gods and goddesses discussed, but not so with Izanagi and Izanami. It seems there are only 2-3 images (and they're old) of this heavenly couple. There wasn't even very much fan art. It was just really strange to me.

Japanese Family Tree of Gods

found on this Japanese myth site

Week 5 Essay

Arabian Night Design

found on Wallpapers Wide

This week I chose to read the Arabian Nights reading unit from the un-textbook. I really enjoyed this week's reading! The first half of the unit was so exciting and fun to read! I loved the story of Scheherazade! It was dark and strange, full of vengeance and scheming. I really liked it. That's what I based my storytelling assignment on for this week. I also enjoyed the second half of the unit where I got to read the tale of Aladdin and the magic lamp! I love the Disney movie, Aladdin, and was excited to see what was different between the two. I liked that there were actually TWO genies in the original story of Aladdin! After reading it, I couldn't help but wish another movie would be made, a live-action one that would depict the original tale. How fun would that be?

Anyway, I was particularly interested because most of the original fairy tales that Disney bases their movies off of are far more graphic, dark, strange, and twisted than what we see on the big screen or on our TVs at home. I like the original stories because they were told to teach a lesson and that is why they often included scary themes. They wanted to scare children into acting properly and heeding their warnings. Plus, times were different back then, more brutal. It makes me glad I live in the time that I do, but definitely makes for some interesting reading.

Overall, I thought this reading unit was well put-together and organized. I enjoyed the readings and none of them felt like they were boring or tedious to read. Also, unlike with the Ancient Egypt unit, I didn't feel like there was really any missing information. I didn't need a whole lot of back-story because these stories didn't deal with ancient gods and goddesses from a far-off religion. Instead, it told stories of adventure, magic, and strange love (that whole.. let's kidnap the princess and prince every night and scare the crap out of them until they divorce thing.. yeah, that was really shady).

Bibliography:

1. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).
2. Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).

Week 4 Essay: Ancient Egypt

This week I was excited to read the Ancient Egypt reading unit because I've always been interested in Egyptology. Ever since I was little I've been fascinated by their mythology, culture, landscape, language. Just about every weekend growing up we would get up early on Sunday and go out to breakfast at Steak and Eggs before hitting the local garage sales. We would spend all morning hunting for bargains, which for me meant books. I would scour the sales for books about anatomy, animals, Egypt, and weird facts. So, naturally, this reading unit was right up my alley.

I began the reading eagerly, but found it hard to continue reading after i'd been reading for a while during the first story. This story told the Egyptian creation myth which is a wonderful and interesting topic, however because it was written or adapted to be a condensed version of the story it came off as tedious and confusing. I often felt lost and had to reread a section to make sure I had the gods and goddesses straight. I took notes, marking the name and status of each god/goddess as well as how they were related to aforementioned gods/goddesses. This helped, but it did not make the story more easy to read and I ended up feeling relieved when I finished the story. I think some further explanation or notes might help, or maybe some diagrams or pictures that can map out some of the tangled situations present in the myth.

That being said, I enjoyed the rest of the stories immensely! I was particularly interested in the story titled, "The Secret Name of Ra" because in other religions and cultures words of power are often featured and names are seen as holding the key to someone's power. I also just enjoyed the story because it was entertaining and strange.

Speaking of Ra, I found a funny picture of him and thought i'd share it:

Ra is Smexy and He Knows it

Made by XanaGirl33 on DeviantArt

Week 3 Essay: Ovid's Metamorphoses II (Books 5-7)

Secret's in the Sauce

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Found on Red Hook Flicks

This week I choose another story from the Classics reading unit and went with Greek Myths: Ovid's Metamorphoses II (Books 5-7). I very much enjoyed this unit, as I expected I would. My favorite readings were the stories of Prosperine (who I learned was the same person as Persephone) and Dis as well as Procne's Revenge. The overall story of Prosperine is not a happy one, but it did inspire me to learn more about Prosperine and who she became later on in her role as Queen of the Underworld. It also made me wonder why Cupid chose Prosperine to be he wife of Dis. As for Procne, I did not enjoy the story much because it is a horrific story, but got a weird since of justice served at the end and also liked that it went on to explain why a few birds look the way they do. Origin stories have always been of interest to me.

I felt like this unit was somewhat lacking in background information. I'd have liked to have a sentence or two about many names who popped up in this story and who they are/what their significance is. For instance, I ended up Googling who Ceres was as well as who Typhoeus and why they could influence the weather. I also thought the sing-song nature of the stories made them more difficult to read and understand, but was grateful that the entire story was not told that way.

This story was chosen because it featured females that I knew were powerful, however they were often not portrayed as such and many times were made victims in their stories. I suppose this is how many strong women are thrown into the light. Their power is often not known and their ability to create great change not realized until something terrible happens and they have to demonstrate their abilities in response. I am possibly going to write about strong females for my storybook, so I chose this set of stories based on that. I learned a lot from this reading because, apart from Medea, I had not read the stories of the other women (I was slightly aware of Persephone's story).

Week 2 Essay: Cupid and Psyche

This week I chose to read Cupid and Psyche from the classical stories reading unit option. I'm glad this was the story I picked because it really was a lot of fun to read. At first I was worried it would be a chore because it had over 20 chapters, but I found that it was a fast read and kept me interested. I knocked out both reading diaries relatively quick because I was so engaged and genuinely wanted to move on and read the next section. I liked that this story had elements of other stories i've read in it, particularly elements similar to Cinderella. I also liked that it was classically Greek, that is to say that there are so many large personalities and the gods are causing mischief like they always seem to do. Plus, it featured Venus, a vengeful but very interesting goddess. I'm thinking about integrating her into my storybook but am not sure just yet if I am going to.

Psyche and Amor, also known as Psyche Receiving Cupid's First Kiss (1798)

by François Gérard, found on Wikipedia

I enjoyed this unit and as such wouldn't change much about it. The story is great and the snippets of background information given before each section were a big help! I appreciated the links to wiki pages about the characters, the pictures, and the quick blurbs about details we might need to know to better understand what's going on in the story. The only thing I really wish I could change about this unit is the introduction/ending that focuses on a kidnapped girl, an old woman, and a donkey-man/hero. It just seems kind of random and unnecessary to me because we don't really know much about this donkey-man or any of the other captives. For that matter, we don't know much about the kidnappers; why are they doing this? What's their story? Anyway, I think it would be nice to just cut out those bits and focus entirely on the Cupid and Psyche story (but that's just my opinion).

Check out Alicechan's rendition of Cupid and Psyche

Found on DeviantArt