Week 7 Storytelling: The Lucky Cricket and the Starving Children

     One dark night, cold and pouring rain, a cricket clamored out of his home in a pile of crumpled old newspapers and set out in search of food for his four-hundered and sixty three children. Edward became an only father when his beloved wife, Matilda, passed away giving birth to their last son. Disgruntled from the death of his wife and forced to provide for all his children alone, Edward was, as you can imagine, in rough looking shape. His face was covered in black stains acquired from his full-time position at the factory. His hands were rough and worn, and his eyes were glazed over like he had been sleep deprived for three weeks, in fact he had been sleep deprived for three weeks!
     Edward was not the kind of guy to ask for help. He was capable of finding food for his yougins’ on his own. He finally came to a place that seemed to glimmer with hope! It was a Taco Bell!!! If he was lucky he would be able to find a freezer with food or collect enough crumbs to feed his children. He set out to start the search, but it was not long until suddenly became enshrouded with a dark shadow and as soon as it had started it had ended. Edward has been squished by an employees shoe. 

Jiminy Cricket in the original trailer for Pinocchio

    All of Edward’s children were at home starving and they hadn’t a clue what to do or how to get some food. One of the cricket siblings piped up and said, "I had a dream, that our father has died!” Next a sister spoke and said, "I had a vision about where he is I can lead us to his body.” The cricket siblings set out to find their father and search for food. When the arrived at Taco Bell and found their father deceased on the cold tile floor all the children wept, with the exception of the youngest child who said, “When I was born and I killed my mother I inherited the power to bring people back to life. So, I shall now bring Papa back to us.” Conjuring up a spell the youngest cricket worked his magic and soon the father sprang back to life. 

     With his children at his side the father led the children to a Cheesy Gordita Crunch with No Baja Sauce and Substituted Beans for Beef and everyone was happy!

Authors Note: For this weeks reading I choose to retell the story How the Wives Restored their Husband to Life. I choose to retell this story because I believe it went nicely paired with my storybook project theme of the undead. This story was very interesting and started off with A man who had three wives. The man set out to feed his wives and while he was away he decided he want to get an ox so he tracked the ox far away. When he took his arrow to kill the ox another ox came from behind and killed him too! The wives starving at home did not know what to do. One of the wives dreamt their husband was killed by an ox, another led them to his body and the third resurrected him from the dead. The woman fought over whose food he would eat first. When the man was able he said I will eat the food of the wife that brought me back to life because she is the one that allowed me to eat again.

Storybook Project Number One

Hey Guys,

I just finished up my first storybook project story. If you are interested you can check it out here.

Let me know what you think!

Week 7 Reading Diary: Congo Unit

This week I choose to do the reading unit for the Africa Unit: Congo. I am very excited to do this unit because my storybook project is going to be based on stories of the undead. This section is going to be very helpful in learning about the African traditions of the Undead and other rituals! Below is a list of some of the stories that I particularly like while reading this Unit and a description of the stories.

Reading A:

How the Wives Restored Their Husband to Life:
A man set out to feed his three wives. He want to get an ox so he tracked the ox far away. When he took his arrow to kill the ox another ox came from behind and killed him too! The wives starving at home did not know what to do. One of the wives dreamt their husband was killed by an ox, another led them to his body and the third resurrected him from the dead. The woman fought over whose food he would eat first. When the man was able he said I will eat the food of the wife that brought me back to life because she is the one that allowed me to eat again.

The Twin Brothers:
Once upon a time a woman gave birth to twins who were full grown at their birth... ouch. The daughter of Nzambi was ready for marriage and all the creature that had breath as for her hand in marriage, but she refused them all saying she did not love them. One of the Twins set out to marry the women which he did. He then set out to a town where no man returns for some reason. When he arrived their he was eaten by a women. Then his twin brother came to the city and the people thought he was the brother and was married to Nazambi's daughter. He also soon set out on a journey to the town where no man returns. He killed the woman and brought his brother back to life along with all the people who had died there. Then the first twin killed the second for a disagreement.

Reading B:

How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi's Daughter:
Nazambi was in a predicament. She need fire from the heavens, but did not have a way to get it. Her daughter was very beautiful so the Spider, the sand-fly, the rat and the woodpecker all promised to help for a reward. Each of the creatures played their part in helping Nzambi receive fire from the heavens but she gave her daughter to the Spider. The others creatures were jealous and complained so Nzambi said I can't give her to you all so I will give her to none. Instead I will pay you all her value. And so Nzambi's daughter was still unmarried.

The Fetish of Chilunga:
Interesting "Urban Legend". This story is about a place where a fetish rules in the form of a princess. He demands that people treat him nicely and if they do not they will be imprisoned until the do so by offering gifts to him. A white man did not believe in the spirit and laughed as he brought gifts to the holy place. Then the gifts disappeared in front of him and he believed.

Below is a YouTube video I found Title A Story A Story. Take a listen to these beautiful traditional Congo Stories!

Essay Week 6: Asia Mythology and Folklore

This week I read Tibetan Folk Tales for the Asia Unit in the Mythology and Folklore Un-Textbook. I found this reading to be very fun to read. In fact, it may be one of my favorite things I have read this semester! I can definitely see the appeal to Asian Mythology. I imagine one could spend a whole semester talking only on Asian Mythology and Folklore! In the Tibetan Folk tales Unit I most definitely had some favorite stories which you can see here. I really choose this reading because I initially saw that in this Unit was some magic and I just could not resist. Looking back on my decision I could not be happier about the decision! I especially loved that at the beginning of each story was a Tibetan Proverb. It was very interesting to here these proverbs, even though some of the did not make a lot of sense until I read the story with it. My favorite story and the one I choose to do my storytelling post over was The Man and the Monkey. I found this story to be incredibly interesting. At first I was perplexed by the story and why the man would want to kill the monkeys after they had saved him. It seemed like many of the Tibetan stories were focused on the “ingratitude” of man. This is definitely a Unit that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in animals, magic, and folklore!

Tibetan Family Attending Horse Festival

Week 6 Storytelling: The Man and the Bear

              Once there live a man and his family who lived in a small city on the west coast of North America. The man was about middle aged, probably mid forties. He was tall for an American, standing over most of his peers, his hair showed signs of turning grey from stress and he had hideous large framed bifocals that outlined his eyes. He did not speak much, but his presence spoke much about him. His face was scarred with ancient war injuries and his facial expression gave a sense of emptiness. Still he was always protective of his family and his heritage. The man was in northern Oklahoma on his way meet with a realtor who was showing him some properties in a very desirable neighborhood. The man was moving to Norman, OK from the West coast for his new job in the oil fields to better support his family. 
              While he was on his way to the third property the man stopped by a pristine lake and decided this is where he would like to live! He went over to an old picnic area to take a nap in his tent. While he was sleeping the ground beneath him shook; the earth melted beneath him and he slid into the lake. Unable to swim he called for help!

Brown Bear, Ursus arctos in Norway

              Nearby the water with his family was a large and strong bear. He had the strength of twenty men, but was shorter then the average bear. Unable to swim himself the bear said, “Hold on I will use my wits to save you." The bear thought and thought about how to save this drowning man, when it suddenly became clear. He stood behind a tall  and ancient tree and roared back on his two back feet. Using all of his might the bear slammed against the tree until it fell into the water next to the drowning man. the Bear clamored out onto the fallen tree’s gargantuan trunk and rescued the man from his sure demise. 
             Grateful the man thanked the large bear. Saved from drowning the man found himself quite tired and decided that before he continued he was going to rest for a while. The man was severely tired from his struggle to survive, but could not get to sleep because the bear's family was making too much noise as they were playing Frisbee. Angry at the bear's family and with his desire to live in this beautiful area, he devised a plan to rid the place of the bears and move his family from the west coast to this new location.
            Once the Bears fell asleep for the night the man decided to capture the bears and use them as bait and food for the winter. He also though of how wonderful the bears warm skins
would feel as they kept his family warm throughout the winter!

The Man and the Monkeys & The Ingratitude of Man: 
For this story I decided to combine two of the stories I read in the Unit Tibetan Folk Tales. This story of The  Man and the Monkeys which I really based the storytelling on is describe below. You can see other descriptions from this story here. This story starts out with a man entering into the Garden of Eden. A beautiful place he eats some food and decides to take a nap in a tree. While sleeping he turns over and falls into the lake below. A monkey nearby sees the man struggling and tries to rescue him. Unable to do so he say if only I were taller and stronger I could help you. For many days the Money lifted stones to become strong until he was strong enough to help the man. He helps the man, but it was not soon after until the man begins to think the monkeys are too loud and decides they should all die so he can live in a peaceful place. So he shakes the trees they are sleeping in and they all fall to their death. The End. 

Week 6 Reading Diary: Tibetan Folk Tales

For this weeks reading I choose to read from the Asia Unit: Tibetan Folk Tales. List below are some of my favorite sections from this reading and a brief description about the readings.

Reading Part A:

The Ingratitude of Man:
A man traveling along saved a mouse, a snake, a crow and a man. All of the animals he saved were grateful except for the man. The crow to repay the man who saved him found so fine jewelry and gave it to the savior. The other man, who had been rescued, reported the theft to the king and the savior was sent to prison. Starving to death the mouse gave the man food to repay his debt to the man and the snake found a way to set him free. The man who was saved was ungrateful, but the other animals were obviously much more grateful to their savior.

Tibetan Proverb - Whatever you have promised make it not as

 changeable as a loop in a string, but as firm as a line on a rock.

The Two Devils:
Really great, but somewhat long story. In a kingdom seven sons of the king met a woman and a yak, who were actually two devils in disguise. The seven sons asked the woman to marry them and she agreed. Each year one of the brothers would die starting with the oldest. When it came to the last son the town decided to ask a fortune-teller what to do. The fortune-teller found out the woman and the yak were the devils and said this is your problem. The town killed the woman by stone and set both of them on fire.

Reading Part B:

The Three Hunters:

The Man and The Monkey

In a village lived three brothers and a sister. All of the brothers were married to a wife. The wives of the two oldest brother became angry at the sister for an "unknown" reason. They decided to plan to kill the brothers' sister. The men went on a hunt and the Two oldest brothers wives decided now was the time to kill her. The men on their way home stopped to rest. A songbird sang the same tune over and over and one of the brothers said that sounds like our sister. He said to the bird if you are my sister hop onto my hand and it did. the men cried for they knew that their sister was dead. When they returned home the youngest wife told the men what had happened and they killed the two big wives and partnered the youngest.

The Man and the Monkeys:
This story was very interesting! It starts out with a man entering into the Garden of Eden. A beautiful place he eats some food and decides to take a nap in a tree. While sleeping he turns over and falls into the lake below. A monkey nearby sees the man struggling and tries to rescue him. Unable to do so he say if only I were taller and stronger I could help you. For many days the Money lifted stones to become strong until he was strong enough to help the man. He helps the man, but it was soon after until the man decides the monkey are too loud and decides they should all die so he can live in a peaceful place. So he shakes the trees they are sleeping in and they all fall to their death. Lovely.

Essay Week 5: India Mythology

This week I read Twenty-Two Goblins from the India Reading Unit in the Mythology-Folklore Un-Textbook. I thought this reading was super fun! I loved the India Unit of the Un-Textbook and found both the readings I did from this section to be the best readings thus far! I can definitely see why someone would want to read India Epics forever! In the Twenty-Two Goblins Unit I definitely had some favorite tales which you can see here. I really enjoyed the layout and the style of this unit. The idea that this king would go back again and again to get the body and bring it to the priest was really cool. I though the goblin character was also really interesting in his character development. In this reading unit there was some very strange stories. One of my favorites was the Three Delicate Wives who were bruised by a flower petal, burned by the moon beam and hurt by the sound of a pestle; very interesting reads! Overall I really enjoyed this reading and I think it would be hard to improve on it. Going into this reading unit it was exactly as I expected it to be from the synopsis, but at the same time it was so much more (like I was saying the back story in this unit was very poetic).

Shiva Statue, Bangalore

Another thing I was very impressed with in the Twenty-Two Goblins Tales Unit was its shortness. It took me almost no time at all to read the unit! I think the stories themselves were a little longer than average, but this made it possible for fewer stories and I think made the unit an easier read. Plus, because the actual stories were longer they had more detail in them and that just adds to the fun! I was very impressed with the readings and I am so glad that I was able to read this as a part of my Mythology and Folklore Course. This is definitely a unit that I would not want to see disappear!

Week 5 Storytelling: The Perfect Match

Once upon a time in a very large and prestigious kingdom live three mighty men. Each one of the men possessed a quality that challenged even the greatest men in the kingdom. The queen who had just turned fourteen was in search of a suitor. Her father had passed away when she was a child and her mother had recently died from the bubonic plague leaving her two children with out parents or relatives. This made the eldest daughter the Queen of the kingdom and the youngest daughter princess. The royal council gave the queen two months from her coronation to find a husband. So the queen set out on her mission to find true love and find herself a husband.

The queen called a kingdom wide competition for her hand in marriage. She staged the competition to be the most competitive competition the world had seen and to demonstrate the talents she thought would lead to the perfect husband. These talents would be demonstrated by two different events and each event would be taking place on a different day.

The first event she choose was a test to demonstrate strength, for only a man with strength would be able have her hand in marriage. To test strength the queen set up a quiz. Whom ever had the highest score on the quiz would win this challenge. The men competing were perplexed.

“What is the purpose of a quiz?” They questioned the queen, “This does not demonstrate our strength... we should be lifting stones are fighting each other.”

“I am not interested in your physical strength.” The queen responded. “I am looking for a husband who has strength of mind; for only someone with a strong mind will be able to hold my attention for life.”

Irritated by the queen’s deception the men agreed to take the quiz. They took their seats in a great reading hall and began their test of strength. Before they began the queen was curious about how the men would test against her own strength of mind so she too took the exam, but in secrecy. When they finished the exams were scored and the winner of the event was sealed in an envelope and would not be announced until the final day. The next day the second event began at noon. The event was to take place in a large open field outside the castle gates. When the sun was highest in the sky the competitors lined up to take their positions in the field. In front of each of them men sat a five foot rope and an egg. The queen arrived on horse back and looked at the men.

Empress Elizabeth of Austria

“This is an event of endurance. If you are to have my hand in marriage then you must be able to demonstrate both patience and endurance. For this event you will hold each end of the rope in each or your hands. I will come and place the egg in the center of the rope and the man who can balance the egg the longest on the rope shall be the winner of the competition!”

The men began the challenge, but no winner was declared. None of the men were able to hold the egg longer than a second after the queen placed the egg on the rope.

“This is an outrage, no one would be able to complete this task!” The men exclaimed!

The queen upon her horse took the rope in her hands and asked her maiden to place the egg as she had upon the rope. For twelve hours the queen rode around the castle with the egg in perfect balance.

 When the time came to announce who would have the hand of the queen and become the king of the kingdom the queen stood up in front of her loyal subjects and announced the winner of the competition.

~ ~ ~

Who was the winner of the competition?

~ ~ ~

The queen announce that she had won the competition and would not be married to any of the men. She was the perfect match for herself. 

Her sister on the other hand choose to marry the strongest women in the kingdom because that is what she was attracted too. Go figure. 

The Three Delicate Wives: So I was originally inspired by the story of the Three Delicate Wives as described below, but I ended up adding many more elements to the story. Once I really got started writing I enjoyed the story to much and didn’t want to limit it to the one story. I would like to think of the final product as a nice mixture of many of the stories from this unit. 

This story begins at a distant land where there is a king with three wives. When the king saw his first wife a lotus flower landed in her and she was severely bruised by this instantly. The second wife was lying in bed with the King and when the moonlight shone on her skin she was severely burned! Crazy, I know Right! It gets better. The third wife is walking down a corridor an hears the pestles and the sound alone gave her bruises. OMG IKR?! So that is the story, of the three delicate wives and when the Goblin asked the King who was the most delicate the King answered The one who was bruised by the sound of pestles for she was the only one that was hurt by something that was not physical.  

Week 5 Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

For this weeks reading I chose from the India Unit Twenty-Two Goblins!  Listed Below are some of my favorite sections from the reading this week. Unfortunately because I have chosen to read another tale from the India Unit I have effectively left out the Middle-East Unit. While I wish I could do both I am still just so infatuated with the India Unit and Buddha Tales that I had to stick with it. Plus I can always go back and read the Middle-East Unit on my own!

The King and The Goblin

Reading A: 

Goblins: Brave, Wise, Clever: These stories are starting out very uniquely. I think the whole idea is interesting and I am excited to see what the conclusion of these stories are! I choose Goblins: Brave, Wise, Clever because I could really draw a connection to the tale of the Deathly Hallows! Being a big Harry Potter fan I really loved to see this connection. So this story is about the King who is trying to bring a goblin, that has taken over a dead body to a monk. The king has promised to do this. While the king is carrying the body the goblin tells a story and at the end of the story the King is forced to answer the riddle, of sorts. If the king answers correctly the Goblin will return to the tree the king found him at and the king will have to start his journey over again. If the king answers knowingly incorrectly then his head will explode. I think these are excellent stories!

Goblins: The Three Delicate Wives: Wow! What a quirky story. So this story begins at a distant land where there is a king with three wives. Already contrary to the so called “normative” culture of America, but that is a little ethnocentric of me... anyways the story continues with the king visiting each of his wives. When he saw his first wife a lotus flower landed in her and she was severely bruised by this instance. The second wife was lying in bed with the King and when the moonlight shone on her skin she was severely burned! Crazy, I know Right! It gets better. The Third wife is walking down a corridor an hears the pestles and the sound alone gave her bruises. OMG IKR?! So that is the story, of the three delicate wives and when the Goblin asked the King who was the most delicate the King answered The one who was bruised by the sound of pestles for she was the only one that was hurt by something that was not physical.  

Reading B: 

Goblins: Father and Son, Daughter and Mother: What an amazing little story. I loved the ending to this one. It starts out as all the rest of the tales. The king takes the body infested with the Goblin and carries it to the monk. On his way to the monk the Goblin tells the King a story at the end he has a riddle. In this story a Queen and her daughter are traveling in the woods. Without a husband the Queen and daughter fend for themselves and hide from robbers. A father and son are in the woods hunting when they come upon footprints. A small set and a large set. The men agree when they find the women the Son shall have the person with the small footprints and the Father shall have the women with the large set. When they find the women they ultimately marry them, but as a twist the daughter actually has bigger feet then the queen. So sticking to the agreement the Father marries the daughter and the Son marries the Mother! Pretty Funny. So the Question is What are the relation of these two couples offsprings? The King caring the goblin was stumped. The goblin let the king in on a secret. The monk was going to kill the king to get magical powers! Page Turner indeed!

Conclusion: Okay. So the monk is killed by the King because the Goblin told the King the sham Monks plans to become King of the Fairies. For this the God Shiva rewards the King by promising him the world and giving him a magic sword where while he has it everything comes true!

Week 4: Famous Last Words

Wow! What an amazing week for Mythology and Folklore! I am excited to announce that I am now “Linkedin” so to speak on the social-media site Linkedin. The more I go through my Junior year at the University of Oklahoma the more I am finding myself wanting to push boundaries and expand myself to new possibilities of social networking. I think the online sphere has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity, but I also realize that online cannot do it all. I have started a new project at the Oklahoma's Archaeological Survey, on the University of Oklahoma’s Campus, working with Oklahoma’s Longest Site also known as 34JF1! I am excited about this opportunity to broaden my horizon and begin my journey as a well connected student.

On the subject of websites I have just finished up my introduction page for my Storybook project. If you are interested you can check it out here. I have titled it Diaries of the Undead: Global Edition. It needs a lot work and a little bit of polish, but I am proud of it overall so far.

Jataka Tales: Buddha

Famous Last Words:
This week, Week 4, I have read the Jataka Tales Unit by Shedlock. I absolutely loved this unit, it was the best unit I have read yet. I would definitely recommend the reading. I was really inspired this week from the India Unit. When I enrolled in this course I was not really sure what to expect. In all reality if I expected anything it was probably a course more along the lines of greek and roman mythology. Not at all am I saying that would have been bad, I love me some Greek Mythology. I am happily surprised thought at this course overall. I have fallen in love again with short stories and if you had asked me if I were interested in Buddhist mythological stories two weeks ago I would have said no. Easily, the Jataka Tales Unit has become my favorite unit I have read. It has inspired me to stay on the India Unit and read Twenty-Two Goblins! I am excited for this new adventure and I will make sure to update you about it in my next Famous Last Words Post. I really enjoyed rewriting a tale from the Jataka Unit called The Poisonous Trees. This tale was really inspiring to me. It included many of the virtues of Buddha. If you would like to read my retelling of the story you can check it out here.

It looks like everything is going smoothly from here. The semester is in full swing now and big projects for the end of the semester are underway. This is week 4 of 16 so we are now 1/4 of the way done with this semester and I am 1/8 of the way done with my Junior year! Looks like things are beginning to fall into place. Lets just hope it stays that way.

Week 4: Storybook Introduction

Hey guys, I just finished up my introduction for my Storybook Project. You can check it out here! Let me know if you have any comments about it or if you really liked it or really hated it. 

Thanks.

Essay Week 4: The Many Reincarnations of Buddha

For this weeks reading I read the Jataka Tales Unit by Shedlock. I have to say that I really did enjoy reading these stories. Because of how fun the stories were I think I have decided to read another Indian Unit, but I have not chosen yet which one. I obviously had some favorites from the reading that you can see here, but in reality it was very difficult to choose just a couple of readings to pick as my favorite. I think one of the most enjoyable things about this reading unit was the take on the different animals that were the reincarnation of Buddha! It was very fun to find out the moral of the story and see how everything panned out. I also really liked that all of the reading were under 800 words. This made reading a breeze because I was able to take pauses if I need to and the stories did not get too long and boring. They were kept short and pretty understandable for the main point. This is something that I had trouble with in the Odyssey Unit. 

Buddha: Philosophers of the Axial Age

I think this reading would go really well with pretty much any other reading about Buddha. In terms of background information that I would have wanted I think some more insight into Buddhism Philosophy in the introduction would have been useful. I think I understood the readings pretty well, but it may have been more enhanced with some more general knowledge about Buddhist Philosophy. I found the readings so interesting that I ended up doing some research on my own anyways!

I was not expecting to do a reading like The Jataka Tales Unit, but I am very happy it has found its way to me. They are simple and straight forward reads and they could be very easily compared to Aesop's Fables. I would highly recommend reading either one of the Jakata Tales Unit Readings!

Week 4 Storytelling: The Virtue of Listening

A long time ago, in a village quite far away lived a simple beggar and his pet parrot. The beggar lived in a humble shack about ten miles outside of the small village and had been blind since his birth. His parrot was his eyes and the two of them had a bond that was stronger than any other force on Earth. The beggar was elderly; his skin sagged on his face and left his forehead with three distinct wrinkles. He had a shiny baldness to his head, but he had a wonderfully long white beard that flowed down to his weak knees. On his shoulder he held his parrot and in his hand he held a short wooden cane. Much like the elderly man the parrot too was growing older. He could no longer fly and spoke in short and sometimes inaudible squawks.

The elderly man knew much wisdom, but his words were not headed by young travelers. Everyday the man would sit on the side of the road that lead straight into town. He sat under a shady tree with a used pale bucket. Leaning against the bucket was a sign that read, “Alms for the poor.” As weary travelers came upon the old man he would try to strike up conversation. Some of the travelers would stop and listen to the elderly man while others would ignore him completely and continue on their path. If the travelers stopped to listen to the beggar, he would give them advice and if they did not stop he would give them no warning. 

“I know of the secrets this forest offers.” Said the beggar.

“Secrets... Secrets.” The man’s parrot would squawk.

"If you see a red haired mermaid sitting on the shore of a small lake just before the entrance of the town do not listen to her stories!” He warned the travelers, “she will try to lure you to her cave where she will devour your soul.” 

The knight and the mermaid, by Isobel Lilian Gloag, c. 1890

All the travelers who were kind enough to listen to his stories thought he was mad! Why would a mermaid want to eat a persons soul and besides mermaids don’t even exist. Travelers would continue on their way, but none would make it to the village. A humble merchant traveling to the village stopped to listen to the elderly beggar. He gave alms to the man and headed his words. When he came upon the mermaid he ran as fast as he could into town while plugging his ears. As he was running he saw the cave the old man described. There were bones stacked up high and the was a road that ran from the cave to the entrance of town. He also saw three burly men near the cave. Two of the were ripping belts and belongings off dead bodies while the other stood guard. When the merchant arrived at the towns entrance the towns-people were shocked. 

"How did you make it past the soul eating mermaid?” The village questioned. They were baffled by the simple merchant for not one person had made it to the village in over seventy-five years! When the merchant told his story of the elderly man and his advice the towns people became fiercely angry.

“You mean there is a man that was telling you to avoid the cat?” The Towns people asked.  

“Well... yeah and I’m sure glad he did. He has saved my life and my soul.” The merchant answered. 

To investigate the merchant’s claim a handful of towns people followed the road back to the elderly man, but instead they found nothing but a note. It read:

Dear Towns People. I know what you have been up to. 

I have finally found a man that is willing to listen. 

You will no longer be able to take the belonging of these murdered people,

just like my brother from seventy-five years ago.

I have sent out my parrot to alert the emperor of your wrong doing

and I now have someone who will believe me. 

Sincerely, The one who lived

Authors Notes: For this weeks Storytelling post I chose to retell the story of The Poisonous Trees from the reading unit Jataka Tales. TO start I will say that I was inspired in part by some Harry Potter Scenes. This story was about Buddha who was reincarnated as a merchant. He led a caravan of 500 into a forest. Before they entered the forest he warn the people traveling with him that there are fruit in the forest that are deadly if eaten. Before they eat any fruit they promised to first ask the merchant leader if it was safe to eat. Some of the caravan traveled ahead of the others and soon came upon a village. Before the entrance of the village there was a tree that appeared to be a mango tree. Before getting approval from the Buddha about weather or not the fruit was safe to eat some people ate the fruit while others waited. When the Buddha arrived he explain how the fruit was from the what-fruit tree. This tree’s fruit looked exactly like the fruit of a mango tree. The Buddha gave the men who ate the fruit a remedy to cure them. The villagers were outraged! They expected to find dead men and take their belongings. Instead they found the caravan of people. When they asked the merchant how he knew

Jataka Tales Unit. Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock (1920).

Week 4 Reading Diary: Jataka (Shedlock)

For this weeks reading I choose to read Jataka Tales Unit by Shedlock. Below is a brief description of the stories that I found the most enjoyable from the Jataka Tales Unit.

Buddha Statue, Mihintale, Sri Lanka

Reading Part A: 

The Parrot that Fed His Parents: I found this story to be especially beautiful. It was about a Parrot flock who would fly to a rice field everyday to eat and take their fill. One parrot, the parrot king and also the reincarnation of Buddha, would take his fill and then also take more back to his home with him. The farmer began to take notice and set a trap for the parrot king. When the farmers caught the parrot king they questioned him about why he would take more than he needed. They asked him if he was just greedy storing the food away? He answered I am not greedy. I take food to my parents who are no longer able to fly to get their food and I also take food to the young who are not able to get food either. Moved by the parrot-kind’s story the farmers let the parrot go and told him they could have all the rice they would like.

The Bull that Proved His Gratitude: This was another story that I found very beautiful from the Jataka Tales Unit. The story started off with a young bull, the reincarnation of Buddha, and and older women who took care of the bull like her son. The bull was very grateful for her care that she had given him began to notice that she was struggling with money. He set out to find a job to help her. He came upon a merchant who was trying to pull 500 carts. The merchant could not do it and offered the bull 1000 Pences to pull the carts. When the bull received the money and gave it to his “mother” she saw that he was tired and run down from pulling all the carts. She gave him a bath and oil and a drink. He had shown his gratitude and she was gracious for his work. 

Reading Part B:

The Dreamer in the Wood: This story was a lot like Aladdin. The King of Gods, Sakka, wanted to test the Buddha to make sure he was good of heart. The Buddha was ask to wish for three things and those things the King of Gods would grant. Because the Buddha lived a peaceful life he asked for 
1. To be free of three bad things (Malice, Hatred and Greed). Sakka asked why these things were bad and after Buddha explain Sakka asked for the his next wish.
2. Buddha asked that no disease come to this place (a forest)
3. “Let no creature ever be harmed for me in body or in mind”.
Sakka had failed to exploit Buddha as not good of heart. 


The Poisonous Tree: This was a fantastic story about a tree called a what-fruit tree. Its fruit is deadly poisonous, but it looks exactly like a mango tree. The Buddha, leading the group, warned the caravan that in this forrest grows fruit that is deadly “do not eat these fruits.” Some in the caravan raced forward and did not listen to the Buddha. They ate the fruit while others waited. When the Buddha reached the tree on the outskirts of a village he explained that it was poisonous. He gave the men whom had at the fruit a remedy to help them recover. The villagers were perplexed that no one in the caravan had died and they questioned how the Buddha knew the fruit was poisonous. Buddha stated - 

"When near a village grows a tree
Not hard to climb, 'tis plain to me,
Nor need I further proof to know,

No wholesome fruit thereon can grow!" 

Jataka Tales Unit. Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock (1920).

Week 3: Famous Last Words

To start off this weeks Famous Last Words I want to give you all this amazing website called Zombiepedia. It is really going to help me with making this storybook project go more smoothly. I have decided that I am going focus on historical text from around the world. I think the text from Zombiepedia are going to really intensify the website and make it very personal to myself.

Zombie Walk (2006)

Talking about the Website. I have just finished creating it and if you’re interested you can check it out here.

Now for the formal write-up:
This week I read a folklore called Ovid’s Metamorphosis. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. I had forgotten how crazy the greek and roman gods and goddesses are! The stories from this section are super easy to read, which I enjoyed, but they are also interesting. These stories do not only captivate the reader... They almost seem to enchant you. While reading I was questioning the whole time. Why in the world would a god do this? What is the meaning of the story (Never reviled until the last second). I think my best writing this week came from my storytelling post this week. For this weeks storytelling post I decided to retell the story of Io. It was my favorite story from the tells of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. When I was retelling this story I want to give it a modern twist. The story of Io was a very powerful one, and to me it contained all the necessities to a good story (all powerful gods, helpless women and a jealous wife. One of the things I liked best about retelling this story was the style I used of retelling the story in a modern or contemporary aspect. I used factors that are recognizable today that were not necessarily relevant in the culture this story was written in, such as homosexuality and the oh so clever, Ice Bucket Challenge.

As for this week, I would say classes are continuing to go well. Today something strange happened. I had three courses and every single one of them today discussed culture as a social construct and how it shapes our lives. The idea of a culture as a social construct is very interesting to me and it made me think about how people were affected by their culture and how that affected their writings. It is interesting to think that the writing of people can be so affected by culture.

Oh and BTW the game on Saturday was awesome! Hope you all had a good weekend!

Brainstorming Storybook Styles

Part I - Identify Your Topic:
My Storybook Project will be about Zombie Myths. I will be focusing on a story from the African Congo as one of my stories; Found in the Un-Textbook. I am planning on finding at least three more Myths or Folklores about Zombies or Zombie Culture that I can Retell; I think I may have some trouble finding stories I really like to Retell, but I am up for that Challenge. I have found many stories online so hopefully this aspect of of the assignment will not be as bad as I am thinking.
Bibliography: “Tales of the Zombie War,” from Apocalypse fiction and stories, by Crown Publishing Groups (2007). Web Address: http://www.talesofworldwarz.com

Part III - Storytelling Styles
1. First Person Storyteller in the form of a Diary, letter or Social Media Updates. I have chosen this style because it will allow me to look at the emotions of my characters easily and I definitely want my characters to have a strong connection to the readers. Using the Diary method I will be able to look at the life of multiple individuals throughout their individual lives at different times in history, such as the 1800’s or 2140. I would like to include a futuristic aspect to this assignment.

2. Another style I would like to consider in my storybook project is a tour guide as a storytelling style. I was inspired by another storybook project to use this style as a possible style for my project. I would like to use this style as a very easy way to transition from story to story. I think using this as a transition style would make it comfortable for the readers. For my storybook project I would transition from containment unit to containment unit that holds zombified people, or scientist working on research.

3. My next style I choose is a Television News station. I think this would be a really interesting way to broadcast the myths about zombie culture and to get a first hand review of zombie actions. I could see this storybook project style being a lot of fun to work with. I think I would actually like to do this style as a mix with the diary. I would want to use the Television Report as the introduction page and the Dairy as the other pages. For the idea of a zombie or the undead I think this style would be very well used if I used a modern day approach to the storybook project.

4. Player 1 style. When I saw this style I kinda fell in love I think. Player1vs Maya gave me a lot of inspiration for this project and I am very excited to explore more of this style. I really like this dynamic of this presentation. As an aspect of the undead, I think this would be a very neat style to do. I can definitely envision a project with a video game storytelling base.

Essay Week 3: The Gods Who Were NOT Godly

This weeks myths and folktales have included many characters that were gods and goddesses. Before reading some of this material I had a pretty good attitude towards the gods and thought of them as having goodness within them, but this weeks stories have changed this outlook somewhat. While in these myths and folktales there have been some instances of gods and goddesses being nice toward the human race, there have also been some horrific details that I would find it hard to overlook and still call godly as we know it today.

One of the first stories I read this week was the story of Io. This was one of the many stories about the Sun god, Jupiter, raping human women. I was at first shocked by the acts of Jupiter and as the stories went on I became less and less surprised by his actions. I believe in the section alone Jupiter raped three different women. Obviously this is not a act of a god that we would think of today. Instead I think we can read into the religion of people at the time these myths and folktales were created. Jupiter is one of the most powerful gods, but instead of him being kind he is feared, or should be feared, by all. He is reckless and seems to be uncaring about human life. He is filled with human qualities that he is unable to control, such as lust. I think it is interesting to see this type of behavior in  a god. Another example of gods and goddess being unable to control emotions comes from Jupiter wife, Juno. She was very upset by Jupiter raping these women... I think you could go as far as to say she was intimidated by these mortal women. Juno would call them sluts, which seems to me that she is jealous of their receive attention from Jupiter, even though they may not have wanted it. I think the reading for this week have made some very great interpretations for the cultural aspects of the people who developed these stories!

Day of Action Against Rape