Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales Part B

In this story, an old, ugly, little fellow went to DAME Goody's home to ask her to come care for his wife's baby as she was sick and could not do it herself. She hopped on the horse with him and they went to the fellow's cottage. When the wife handed the baby over she gave DAME Goody an ointment and told her to rub that on the baby's eyes when he started to open them. She was curious as to what that ointment did so when she rubbed it on the baby's eyes she also rubbed it on her right eye. She saw everything much more elegant and realized that she was in a house of pixies. 

DAME Goody caring for the baby

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The next day when she was home she went to the store and noticed the little fellow was going from stall to stall and nobody seemed to notice. When she saw him she went up to him and he realized that she had put the ointment on her eye as well. When she told him what eye she had rubbed it on, the little fellow struck her on the right eye and she became blind. 

Bibliography: Fairy Ointment from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales Part A

This story is a lot of repeating but each time they add one more thing to the sequence of things that must happen in order for the pig to jump over the stile. The woman could not go home until the pig jumped over the stile.

Illustration from the storybook

Source: Flickr

Example: From end to beginning

The cow ate hay and gave woman milk.

The woman gave the milk to the cat.

The cat began to kill the rat.

The rat began to gnaw on the rope.

The rope began to hang the butcher.

The butcher began to kill the ox.

The ox began to drink the water.

The water began to quench the fire.

The fire began to burn the stick.

The stick began to beat the dog.

The dog began to bite the pig.

The little pig in a fright jumped over the stile.
Bibliography: The Old Woman and Her Pig from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Reading Notes: Alaska Part B

A man married the only woman that they knew of at the time and she lived in the south. A while after they married the son of the headsman went to the south to get the woman and grabbed her by the shoulders. When the husband awoke he noticed what was happening and grabbed his wife by the feet. They both started to pull in different directions and the woman's body broke in half.

The son of the headsman took the top half of the woman's body up north and her husband took the bottom half to the south. They each completed the rest of the woman's body by carving wood to make the body complete.

The woman in the north was great at sewing and needlework but not so great at dancing because her legs were made of wood. The woman in the south was good as dancing but not needlework because her arms were made of wood.

So to this day, all the women in the north are skillful with their hands and the woman in the south are good dancers.

Bibliography: The First Woman from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson

Image source: Alaskan Eskimo women from Wikimedia Commons 

Reading Notes: Alaska Part A

Man burst out of a pea pod when he stretched. He stretched and moved his arms and legs and realized that he was full-grown and there was a hole in the bottom of the pod that he came out of. The ground was very soft and was moving under his feet, which made him feel uneasy, so he stopped to get a drink of water from a pool underneath him.

He saw a black figure flying towards him and it turned out to be a raven. The raven moved his beak up to the top of his head with the help of his wing. When he did that, he became a man. He was shocked at what he saw and started looking at Man from all different angles.

Raven went to get Man some berries so that he could eat and came back four days later. When he came back they went to the river and they molded animals out of clay. Then Raven would flap his wings over them four times and they would come to life.

When he was done with the animals, he created a girl so that Man would have a companion.



Bibliography: The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson

Image Source: Black Raven from Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Apache Part B

In this story, Porcupine needed the help of Buffalo to get across a stream.

Buffalo offered Porcupine several different ways that Porcupine could get on him, but Porcupine said no because if Buffalo moved then he would fall off.

So porcupine said that he would just get inside him and cross the stream the way.

While Porcupine was inside Buffalo, he was gnawing at a large blood vessel which caused Buffalo to collapse when he got across the stream.

When he was about to go out and find a flint, Coyote heard him talking to himself and he convinced Porcupine that the one to butcher Buffalo should be the one who is able to successfully jump over him.

Coyote won that and he got to butcher Buffalo. He gave porcupine some of Buffalo's organs for him to go wash off and Porcupine ate some while he was at it.

When he came back he Coyote checked his mouth and saw some food remains which led Coyote to kill him.

He stood back up a total of three times with Coyote having to go back and kill him. On the third time, Coyote did not come back and came back later with his children.

Porcupine had taken all the food to the top of a tree and told Coyote and his children to lay at the foot of the tree and he would throw them food. However, he threw a backbone at them and killed them all except for the youngest one because he saw it coming and ran.

He climbed up the tree with Porcupine and when he sat on a branch Porcupine knocked him off and he fell into the canyon and burst.

Picture of Porcupine;

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Coyote and Porcupine from Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard

Reading Notes: Apache Tales Part A

In this story, Naiyenesgani turned corn into snakes several times before the Pueblo Indians realized that he was a true medicine man.

The Pueblo Indians told him about a sinking hole that kept taking his people and they never came back.

So Naiyenesgani went over to the sinking hole and made 4 different colored hoops. When he threw the first hoop in the water it made a hole in the center. As he threw the others in, the hole got bigger and bigger until there was no more water left.

 A ladder was sticking out and when he went in the sinking place there was an old man and woman.

He filled the place with smoke and started telling the people to come out from behind the doors that they were in.

As they came out he told them to follow him and when they went back up the ladder he told them to go home.

Taos Pueblo

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Naiyenesgani Rescues the Taos Indians a part of Jicarilla Apache Texts edited by Pliny Earle Goddard

Reading Notes: The Jealous Wife

A man had two wives. One was younger and one was elder.

I can only imagine that his wives were jealous of the other at times. He went away for some time and while he was gone, the wives decided to get ready for him by going fishing and getting some fish to cook. The elder wife went first. The younger wife went second and her son was brighter than the elderly wife's son.

That made the elderly wife jealous and she sharpened a razor throughout the day. She planned on using the razor to kill the young wife's son while the boys slept.

She killed the boy while they were sleeping and the next morning when she went to move the body she realized that she killed the wrong boy and she killed her son.

When she realized it was her son, she took him and ran into the forest. When the husband got home and found her missing he went to go look for her in the forest and they found her and killed her too.

Forest 

Source: CIA

Bibliography: The Jealous Wife by Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett

Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit Part B

A Story About the Little Rabbits

Brer Rabbit had several chilluns who were well behaved and listened to their momma and daddy. They kept their clothes nice and clean and they listened to everything that they said.

One day, Mr and Miss Rabbit were both out of the house and the children were playing hide and seek when Brer Fox stopped by.

The chilluns looked very fat to Brer Fox and he needed an excuse to be able to gobble them up.

They were very skittish and kept an eye on Brer Fox.

So Brer Fox asked them to break off a piece of the big stalk of sugar cane. The chilluns could not figure out how to do it until a little bird started singing a song that told them how to break off a piece of the sugar cane.

Since that did not work, Brer Fox needed another excuse to eat them, so he told them to grab a sifter and go down to the spring and fetch him some water. Once again, they couldn't figure it out so the birdy sang them a song with instructions on how to get it done.

Since that didn't work, Brer Fox told them to put a big stick that he had found on the fire. Once again the birdy started singing and told them how to do it.

Brer Rabbits chilluns pushing the log and the birdy telling them how to do it;

Source: Flickr

As soon as they got that stick on the fire, Brer Rabbit came home and the bird flew away.

Brer Rabbit offered Brer Fox to stay and have a snack but Brer Fox went ahead and left.


If the chilluns would not have been able to complete any of those tasks, Brer Fox would've had the perfect excuse to eat them. However, thanks to the bird, he never had that opportunity.

Bibliography: A Story About the Little Rabbits from the book Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris

Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit Reading A

Brer Rabbit and the Calamus Root

Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox are trying to catch each other.

At first, they talk but they keep a good distance between them as Brer Rabbit claims that he has fleas.

Brer Bear was giving Brer Fox a hard time because he wasn't friends with Brer Rabbit.

They made plans to have dinner together and when Brer Fox got there he just hid on the side of the house and Brer Rabbit saw his tail so he knew he was there.

The next day when they saw each other, Brer Fox apologized and invited Brer Rabbit over for dinner at his place.

When Brer Rabbit showed up Brer Fox was all wrapped up in a blanket as if he was sick and had nothing cooked for dinner

      Side note: this was clearly a trap to get Brer Rabbit inside

Brer Fox wrapped in a blanket when Brer Rabbit came over for dinner;

Source: Flickr

So Brer Rabbit leaves to go find Calamus Root and shortly after he sees Brer Fox go out after him trying to corner him, but he wasn't successful.

Brer Fox never caught him and he is not going to.

Bibliography: Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881)

Maybe I can turn this story and tell it with Tom and Jerry as the characters since they as well have a small rivalry but live in the same area. This could be fun as many of us grew up watching Tom and Jerry...

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche Part A

The Captive Woman

This story starts off with some robbers getting together, pouring wine out of golden glasses to remember their dead comrades, and singing songs to honor their God Mars. shortly after this, they fell asleep. An old woman gets some barley and the horse starts eating it, meanwhile, the donkey went to go search for some bread because he was starving and hadn't eaten. The robbers woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed their weapons and left where they had been staying. Lucius who was previously a person and had been turned into a donkey was on his third basket of bread as dawn approached. Lucius went to the stream to get some water when he noticed that the robbers were returning to the site where they had been staying. They came back with no goods, but instead with a girl who you could tell came from a very well respected family of that region. The robbers tried to calm her down by talking to her and telling her not to be scared, for they just needed money and poverty had led them to do this. They were sure that her parents would not hesitate to pay to have their daughter back. The girl was not soothed by this so they called the old lady over to try to comfort her, but nothing was working and the girl was crying uncontrollably. She was crying and telling the old lady that she had been taken from her family and deprived of the comforts that she was born and raised to. She said, why should I stop crying, for how do I even know if I will live. She finally fell asleep and after a bit, she arose suddenly and started tormenting herself violently by pounding her breasts and tearing her face. The old lady was now starting to get angry and asked her why on earth she was crying. She said, "You better not try to cheat my men out of profit or I will see you roasted alive. 

The donkey that Lucius was turned into;

Source: Wikimedia

Bibliography: The Captive Women, Translated into English by Tony Kline 

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve Part A

The Creation
God created the world for 6 days and on the seventh day when he finished, he took the day off and sanctified it. God then created Adam and told him that he was to live in the Garden of Eden and he told him that he could eat any fruit from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or he would die. God told Adam he was going to get him help and took one of his ribs while he was asleep and created a woman naved Eve. They were both naked around each other and were never ashamed.

The Fall
The serpent convinced Eve to take a fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent convinced her that she shouldn't die and it would open up her eyes to good and evil. She gave Adam some and when God found out he punished Eve by giving women the right to bring forth children into this world. Since they could now see good and evil they could now see each other naked so God made them clothes to cover up.

The Ideal Man
Adam was fully developed with extraordinary size and physical perfections. The later generations of men all had one of his characteristics, but they were not like him. He had a perfect soul and he created names for mostly everything on earth.

The Fall of Satan
Satan was jealous of how blessed Adam was and attempted to consume him with fire, but the protection of God did not allow that to happen. God made Adam and Satan basically have a standoff by asking them to name animals and the one that named them correctly was to be superior to the other one. Satan refused for humans to be superior to him and so God threw him out of the heavens onto the earth and from that moment on there have been problems between Satan and humans.

Lilith
Lilith was given to Adam as a wife but did not last long because she wanted full equality with her husband so she vanished into dust. When Adam told God he sent three angels to capture her and bring her back. They threatened her that she would lose a hundred of her demon children daily by death and she still refused to come back. She takes her revenge by injuring babies.

Eve
God made Eve from Adam's ribs because he did not want her to have any faults that she would have had she created her from another part of the body. However, it turns out that women have all of the faults that God didn't want them to have. The physical function of women is also different than that of a man because they have to be able to give birth to a child. The intelligence of a woman also matures a lot faster than that of a man. Men need women and that is why they got a rib taken from them. God made Eve when Adam was asleep because the last time he had made a woman in front of him in his presence he repelled her. When he woke up and found Eve the way that she was he found her very beautiful.

Paradise
In order to get to paradise, otherwise known as Heaven, there are seven portals that you must pass through before being admitted into Heaven. There are also 6 basic commandments that one shall follow and not break.

The Fall of Man
The serpent tricks Eve into eating a fruit from the one tree that they shouldn't eat from because she would be easier to convince than Adam. This led to the fall of man. When they ate the fruit they heard God from up above tell them that they were warned not to eat that fruit. The first thing that happened was that they saw each other naked and try to find some leaves to cover themselves up.

Picture of Adam and Eve with fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Punishment
God started punishing Adam by making shorter than what he originally was. Adam and Eve now get scared when they hear God's voice because they know that they have sinned. They hide in the forest so that God cannot see them. He punished the serpent by making it have to move on its belly rather than being the king of all animals and standing tall.

Moral: there are consequences for all of your actions.

Bibliography: Adam and Eve by Genesis and Ginzberg

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

In the story of Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal several people were fools. The tiger made a promise to the Brahman that he would not harm him if he let him out of the cage. At the beginning of the story, the Brahman eventually felt bad for the tiger and let his emotions override him, which led him to open the cage for the tiger. Of course, as soon as the tiger was out, he basically betrayed the Brahman and told him that he was still gonna eat him and he was a fool. When the Brahman asked a tree, a buffalo, and the road what they thought about the situation they basically asked him what he expected. They help everyone and never get anything in return.

I feel like that was a lesson or moral of the story. This relates to real life and I like how the author put a moral in the story. The tree is always giving shade, yet people always break its branches off. The road is always useful to everyone and everything, yet people only trample on it and wear it down. None of the three people/things that he consulted ever got anything in return for the things that they offered for others.

On the way back to the tiger's cage, the Brahman met a jackal who asked how the Brahman was doing. The Brahman started to tell his story but the jackal acted like he did not understand anything that the jackal was saying. The Brahman kept retelling the story to the jackal the whole way back to the cage and the jackal still acted confused. After retelling the story several times and the jackal "not understanding," the tiger got frustrated and went back in the cage to show him how the whole story started so that he would understand. When the tiger went into the cage, the jackal shut the cage and locked it. He tricked the tiger and the Brahman into thinking that he did not understand the story so that he could lock the tiger back in there and the Brahman would not get eaten.

What I got from this story is that tricking people will eventually come back on you and you will get tricked as well. In a sense lying and not keeping your word is not a very smart thing to do because someone out there will outsmart you just like you outsmarted someone.

A picture of the Brahman, the tiger, and the jackal;

Source: illustration by John Batten

Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal
By: Joseph Jacobs

Week 2 Reading Overview

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Adam and Eve

Week 4: Cupid and Psyche

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Twenty-Two Goblins

Week 6: Tales of a Parrot

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: Brer Rabbit

Week 9: Jamaica

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Apache

Week 11: Cherokee

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Nursery Rhymes

Week 13: Robin Hood

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Hunt

Week 15: Ashliman

I am excited about all of these units, not just one! I tried to take mythology almost 3 years ago and it has just never worked out with my schedule. It is something that has interested me for years and that I want to learn more about. If I had to pick one I would say that I am most excited for the Native American unit only because Native American tribes are such a big part of Oklahoma and its history. For week 12, I chose nursery rhymes and I also excited for that one because of how much I loved nursery rhymes as a kid ad still do. Most of the nursery rhymes that I do know are in Spanish, and there's very few that I know in English so I am interested to learn more about them. 

Cartoon picture of Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall;

Source: Pixabay

I chose a picture of Humpty Dumpty because this is one of my favorite nursery rhymes that I remember from when I was a kid. It is also a very popular one that most children know.