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-...