Mythology and Folklore MLLL 3046

Totem Pole Vancouver on  Flickr This is a continuation of my Pacific Northwest American Indian unit notes. I chose this unit because I have been to the Pacific Northwest three times. Each time I did some outdoor activities, and I absolutely loved the climate, foliage, and land. This helped me envision the imagery in these tales. Some of the stories in the second half had a different feeling than the first half of the unit. Often, they were more action-packed and the storylines sometimes went in bizarre directions which made it difficult to remember what exactly happened. Also, I noticed that a lot of the paragraphs were shorter and that sentences were often choppy and clipped. I prefer the writing style of the first half of this unit. One of these strange tales was a Nez Perce story, Cry-because-he-had-no-wife . The story title is the main character’s translated name, and he really does cry through most of the tale. Because of this, I did not find him to be a ve...

The lodge I visited on Lake Quinault. Image on  Wikimedia For this week, I decided to read the Pacific Northwest American Indian stories unit. I chose this unit as my father lived in the Pacific Northwest until recently, and I visited the area three times. On one trip, we drove all the way around Olympic National Park. Lots of places, such as Quinault Lake, are rich in Native American history. Anywhere I went in Oregon and Washington was so beautiful. There are mountains, rivers, coasts, trees, creeks, waterfalls, etc. everywhere. Reading these stories, it was easy to picture the scenery that they portrayed. A lot of the tales in this unit were creation stories as told from various tribes. Perhaps the most interesting was the Atsugewi tale of a Silver-Fox and a Coyote. The relationship between these animals was interesting, and I would like to know more about how it came about. In this creation story, the Silver-Fox serves as the Creator. He and the Coyote ...

Image on  Flickr Once upon a time when the Earth was new, there was only one season, Winter. The people of Earth, whether of the plains, the mountains, or the oceanside, lived in fear of the North Wind. As the Earth was still so young, there was still plenty of magic in it. The North Wind possessed some of this magic and was so powerful that he could shapeshift into the form of a human. The waters of the Earth were always icy, if not completely frozen over. The ground was caked with snow and thus mostly infertile. Earth’s people made thick clothes and large fires to battle the North Wind’s blows, and they questioned why they were subjected to such harsh conditions. Perhaps you know the tale of the great O-jeeg who brought down the Summer from the heavens so that Earth’s peoples could enjoy its warmth. Brought down also were Spring and Autumn. These four seasons have since shared the responsibility of watching over the Earth. The North Wind was most di...

The Plough on  Wikimedia This is a continuation of my American Indian Fairy Tales unit notes. Like the last section, this one is narrated by Iagoo, a wise old man who tells stories to the village’s children. Morning Glory is a curious little girl, and she was mentioned in the last section, as well, and her brother is Eagle Feather. Something that I like about this unit is that whenever there is a Native American word the author will put the English after it, even if the word occurs multiple times throughout the story. This is helpful when dealing with readings from other languages. One of the lengthy stories in this unit is How the Summer Came . It is a legend that also has a number of origin stories within. In this tale, a young boy lives on the Earth at the time when all of the animals get along with humans and there is only one season, Winter. Hearing that an Eagle had flown close to a crack in the sky and had felt warmth coming from it, the boy ...

Evening Star image on Wikimedia This week, I chose to read the American Indian Fairy Tales unit. This unit was the most intriguing one that I have read this entire semester. The imagery is so vivid and I can clearly picture the land the Native Americans were living on in these stories. This unit has a narrator, Iagoo. Iagoo is a favorite of the local children who come to hear his stories, and he is also the most knowledgeable person of the lands and how the Earth was made. So, many of these tales and legends are origin stories. The stories in this unit were longer, so overall there are fewer stories in this unit than the units that I had read previously. The tale of Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind is interesting in that the North Wind and South Wind not simply personified, but they are actually portrayed as people. When the South Wind blows, he brings along flowers and gives life to the valleys, and he is the depiction of the perfect Indian summer. When...

Image on  Flickr There once was a young boy named Archibald. He was naughty and a nuisance to his fellow classmates, so they never wanted to play with him. Archie, however, was bigger than most of the other children and bullied them into letting him join their games. The other children never wanted to invite the bully to their birthday parties, but since Archibald’s parents were important government officials, the children’s parents always felt obligated to invite the naughty boy, too. Archie’s parents ignored their son’s rude manners and allowed him to do as he pleased, further encouraging his bad behavior. One of Archibald’s classmates, Ginny, was set to have a fantastic birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Ginny never let Archibald around and told her parents that she would simply refuse to go to her own birthday party if he was to be invited. Ginny’s parents were aware of the officials’ poorly behaved son and agreed to exclude him from the invite list. With this, Ginny...

Image on  Wikipedia This is a continuation of my Monkey King (Asia) reading notes. I chose to read about the journey of the Monkey King because it is a story known by everyone where my boyfriend is from, Hong Kong. He keeps trying to get me to watch movies about the Monkey and the various gods associated with him, but they all look so cheesy! :’-D While reading the second half of the Monkey King’s story, I realized that he is a very different character than what I imagined he would be. I originally assumed that he would be a character widely respected by other gods and goddesses. However, the Monkey King is really a pretty unlikable character. He is constantly doing whatever pleases him and does not think about how his actions affect other people. He also thinks so highly of himself that every time he has dialogue, I am instantly annoyed. The Monkey refers to himself as “venerable”, demands a high-status position in the heavens, and eats all of the Queen-...

Image on  Flickr For this week’s reading, I chose the Asian Monkey King unit. I decided to read this tale because it is one continuous story when most of the units are made up of multiple stories. Also, my boyfriend, Yat Fan, is from Hong Kong. He has told me about the Monkey King before and keeps telling me to read Journey to the West, which is about the Monkey King’s journeys. I thought that that sounded like a big time commitment, so reading this unit is a good compromise. From this unit, I learned that Buddhism began in India and then made its way to other parts of Asia. This particular adaptation of the story is from Chinese folklore. It begins by explaining the origin of the Monkey King. Before reading, I did not know that the king was made of stone and that he was born by being hatched from an egg that emerged out of a sacred rock. After he had lived three hundred years as the king of his fellow apes, he began contemplating death. Considering how sad the pr...

Image on  Picky Wallpapers In Mythology and Folklore, I am mostly happy with the progress that I have made so far. I am completing all of the assignments by their due dates, and for the last two weeks I have been planning out my weekly schedules. This is helping me keep all of my classes organized. Although I have not missed an assignment in any class, I am more comfortable with writing out my weekly plans. The assignments that I have enjoyed most are the readings, because you get to choose what you want to read. The epics can be a little tedious, so my favorite are the short tales, like Aesop and Bidpai. They are easy to get through, and you learn important life lessons. I am also excited about the beginning of my Storybook project. I have not done any extra credit assignments for this course, yet, and would definitely like to if I have a chance to get ahead. Looking forward, I will continue to write out my weekly schedules. I am also goi...

Image on  Growth Mindset For the feedback that I am receiving for Mythology and Folklore, it is mostly shorter comments of praise. I would like to be receiving more substantial feedback of things that I could work on. I have used a few suggestions from these comments to improve by storytelling. I appreciate it when other students let me know that something is unclear, because I want my writing to be of good quality. The most useful comments that I have received have come from Ms. Gibbs. Looking back through the comments that I have received, I see a pattern of people praising my blog format and my author’s notes. I take the author’s notes very seriously, as others probably have not read the original stories that my tales have been inspired by. I want the reader to clearly understand what happened in the original stories and how mine differ. I am getting to know certain people’s profiles and projects for this class and for Epics of India. I...

The Fox and the Crane on  Wikimedia Overall, I am pleased with how I am doing in Mythology and Folklore. At the beginning of the semester, I was a little worried about the course load for this class and for Epics of India, which has the same format. The assignments are not hard, but they are time-consuming. I usually work over thirty hours a week, and my shifts almost always start at 4:30 a.m.! So, I am frequently very tired and I have to push myself to get work done. My favorite post from this class has been the Introduction to my Storybook, In the Seven Woods. It is a project inspired by the collection of one play and a number of poems by the famous Irish poet, W. B. Yeats. I have always been interested in Ireland, since it is the only place that I know for a fact I have family from. My introductory post sounds intriguing and I am looking forward to working on the stories for the project in the coming weeks. For the weekly Storytelling, the reading n...

Image on  Gratitude Anansi was a great spider who excelled in trickery. This was long ago when spiders only had two eyes. He obtained his food by putting up a bright, shiny net that attracted his prey, whether or not he was already full. Anansi was hindered in his deceitful, greedy ways, however, by his own son, Kweku Tsin. Good of heart, Kweku Tsin frequently foiled his father’s plans. If he caught his father lying, he would tell the truth. If his father put up a net to catch prey when he was not hungry, the young spider would take it down. Thus the father and son lived in animosity for some years. One day, after his son had removed one of his nets from a smartly located position, Anansi grew fed up with his son’s actions. For this, Anansi sought out the chief of gods, Nyankopon. He spoke flatteries to the god and asked him, “Good chief, I am but trying to procure food for myself, yet my ornery son keeps taking my nets down. Perhaps this is because ...

Image on  Wikimedia This is a continuation of my Week 7 Reading Notes on the West African Folktales. As I mentioned in my previous set of notes, I chose these tales because one of my best friends is from Ghana and I would love to know more about her culture. As the last set of notes were about Anansi (Spider) and his trickery, the majority of the second sections of stories were not about Anansi and were more like Aesop’s fables. A lot of these tales had important morals to be learned, and some of them were origin stories. I really love reading about origin stories because it is interesting to learn about how peoples from long ago perceived the world around them and made sense of things. I am also in an Archaeology course right now, so the course material from these classes bleed into each other in a way. The first tale in this section, however, was still about Anansi and his son, Kweku Tsin. I think the contrast between father and son is interesting, and I ...