Mythology and Folklore

Godfather Death ( Wikimedia ) Story Lab Week 14: Storybook Research New Story for Retelling:  Brothers Grimm: Death's Messengers I needed a story to base the final chapter of my storybook on and so I decided to do Storybook Research to find a source for retelling. I wanted this last chapter to reveal the narrator, who is also the final trickster Reynard has to face, Death. I searched the UN-Textbook and the first story I found actually fit perfectly. I found the Brothers Grimm: “Death’s Messengers” Story. Within the first part death is injured and a young man helps him so death promises to send messengers before he comes for him himself. I think this part of the Brothers Grimm story will be a flashback within a dream in the Storybook Project. Reynard will take the place of the man and the dream will recall a past arrangement between Tricksters. As the story continues the young man grows old and is surprised to see death, who then claims that he sent many messengers in the f...

Bearskin ( Wikimedia ) Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Hunt), Part B Bearskin: · Soldier experiencing same problem many veterans in the United States face, could be modernized to a scenario like that or to be even more intense a soldier returning from Vietnam · Interesting dialogue for the fancy guy, might be fun to try and replicate · Ah, fancy pants is the devil · Moral of the story so far: money talks · I like the generosity of this character, but generosity is easy when you have unlimited money, potentially interesting twist if he only has so much money to last the seven years, still gives it all away and then still receives riches in the end · Hilarious that the devil has to clean Bearskin · This is a pretty grim ending, the two older sisters just go and kill themselves and then the devil gloats, potentially re-writing option for a happier ending Hans the Hedgehog: · Very little explanation / exposition here as to ...

Allerleirauh ( Wikimedia ) Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Hunt), Part A Hansel and Grethel: · Wild that the mom’s first instinct is to abandon the children, is she actually the witch or related somehow? Might make an interesting retelling · Ah, Step-mother, maybe even more likely that she and the witch are in cahoots · Interesting that he uses stone’s to find way back, I had always heard it as bread crumbs but I suppose the creatures of the forest would eat that · This story has a really nice balance of narrative description and dialogue keeping the plot flowing, some descriptive imagery details might enhance it though. · Ah, here are the bread crumbs · And the birds ate them, there we go · First interaction is interesting, no explanation given for why house is made of food · Interesting that she forces Grethel to take care of her brother and make him fat, this story seems to lack a little bit of dialogue here between ...

Sun Wu Kung ( Wikimedia ) Week 13 EC Reading: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung, Part A Handsome King of the Apes: · Wonder if this mountain rock burst could be referencing a volcanic eruption, would also explain the idea of a high rock mountain in the middle of the ocean. Also explains supernatural creative gifts, as volcanoes certainly have plenty of that (ie making islands) · Explanations and occurrences for the gods are always funny, “This magic rock monkey is shooting light beams from his eyes, no biggie though” It could be fun to retell this story and any others like it making fun of this aspect or even just having the gods speak to each other as teenagers would now. Would also be interesting to do a modernized retelling where the monkey king is just an angsty teen and the heavens they rebel against are their parents. · All of the sudden there are now other apes, wonder if this is in references to humans as apes or just monkeys, or even some hybrid · ...

Chanticleer ( Wikimedia ) Week 13 Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part B Nun’s Priest’s Tale: The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox: · Interesting perspective on the widow’s poverty, almost funny to imagine the flipside of not having things like the fact that she would never have to deal with gout. Reveals much about the culture, I am reminded of a certain sect of Christianity from about this time that was focused on making things as plain and unornate as possible in order to make it more holy · Puritans, duh, I wonder if this woman is a puritan · Oddly enough this is the first encounter this semester with stories of barnyard (esque) animals. · I like the description of the fox in Chanticleer’s dream, creates a powerful defamiliarization and forces the reader to imagine a fox in a new way. This helps give the fox a sense of power in the mind of the reader and puts the reader into the perspective of the Cock. Might be interesting to try and include t...

The Franklin ( Wikimedia ) Week 13 Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales, Part A The Wife of Bath’s Tale: The Unknown Bride: · Interesting to compare stories with respect to their authors. From the first few paragraphs we can see how this female author shifts the power in her story to the Queen and women of the court. · The quest goal of finding what women wish for most is interesting, I wonder also how this story was received in its time · I like how this story has the dialogue embedded into paragraphs of description, might be an interesting strategy to try for my next story as I typically have been separating the two elements. I like this style though because it creates a nice cohesive feeling and flow to the story · I like the fact that the Knight does not turn away when he realizes it is not a group of young women but a crone, the opposite of what Beast does in Beauty and the Beast, might be interesting to expand upon this. · And then he does what B...

Robin Hood Statue ( Wikimedia ) Reading Notes Week 12: Ballads of Robin Hood, Part A Progress to Nottingham: · Interesting how the story changes a bit when presented as a ballad: less reliance on typical plot drivers like dialogue or action and more use of song elements like “Hey Down derry derry down” to keep the story moving along. · Interesting feeling evoked by colloquialisms that at once seem familiar and anachronistic. · Repetition here is interesting as it is the trait of Literary Narrative “Patterned Repetition” in the most explicit sense, though I’m not sure what effect it has. · This tale went from sing songy and almost Disney esque and then very quickly changed course as Robin Hood just drops all of foresters on the spot with his bow. · The story is even sing songy when discussing how they buried the men Robin Hood killed Little John: · Much like the arguing in Shakespearean pieces, this kind of dialogue always makes me laugh. T...

Lightning ( Wikimedia ) Excalibur              Arthur burst through the thicket and into the clearing. Finally, he had reached the center of the Black Forest. Fighting demons and beast throughout, Arthur had journeyed for many nights upon the request of Merlin through the evil enclave of trees. The wise old wizard had sent Arthur here in search of the most legendary sword known to man: Excalibur.             Having finally reached the center of the forest, Arthur could not find the sword, only a lake filling the large clearing in the trees with water so still it seemed a black sheet of the finest ebony. At once, the Lady of the Lake was beside him. “Go,” she whispered.             And without question Arthur knew what he must do. As a young boy Arthur had been told of the legendary sword, and that only he who is worthy would be able to walk across the dark water to reach it. With his f...

The Failure of Sir Launcelot to enter the Chapel of the Holy Grail ( Wikimedia ). Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part B Sir Galahad and the White Knight: · I like the plot development that Knights lend themselves too. Knights as characters seem love to talk about adventure and quests, and this ends up determining much of what they do in the story. There are a ton of possibilities for plot direction because nearly anything can be considered an adventure. Potential to modernize and talk about adventures of grocery shopping or other trivial things, Bird scooter as steed … things like that · This new Knight is mysterious and kind of ominous, really like the interjections of fantasy to balance out the more common stories of medieval life. · Monasteries are really cool setting for the stories that venture more into the realm of ghosts and spirits. · Fiend, devil, ghost, demon, interesting to see difference in how cultures refer to the same concept of some ma...

King Arthur ( Wikimedia ) Week 12 Reading: King Arthur, Part A The Drawing of the Sword: · This story is so English it hurts. Interesting how religious the knights are though that attending the service was a big part of their tradition. · Interesting use of what is now a common plot twist, mysterious baby brought by a wizard who is of far greater heritage than is initially understood. I wonder if this was the originator of this concept or if it is even older The Questing Beast: · Wild first introduction to Merlin. Extremely mysterious and ominous. I am curious what happened. I like the chunks of exposition on the front end with a nice amount of dialogue to push the rest of the plot forward, gives a sense of action to the dialogue. The Sword Excalibur: · This is an interesting story as well, not the origin story of the legendary Excalibur that I would have expected. I am also interested to see if this Lady of the Lake’s favor will come back to haunt Arthu...

Arctic Hare ( Wikimedia ) The Hare and the Lynx (and the Beast)              Some days ago, in a forest much like any other, a little white hare lived in a warm den with her Grandmother. They lived a happy life together tending their crops and harvesting from the forest. When the young hare had nearly reached adulthood, her Grandmother told her that she must make a pilgrimage to her native land. She was too old to accompany the young hare, but assured Hare she would be with her on her journey.             As Hare traveled down the trail she was invigorated by the exploration of new lands. Having never traveled far from her home, the new sights and smells were almost too much. But as Hare reveled in adventure, a sinister shadow lurked close behind. Hare continued to soak in her surroundings until she was lost in thought. The shadow had waited for just this moment. At once, Lynx leapt from the trees and blocked Hare’...