2020: Hannah's Blog

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-why-dog-and-cat-are-enemies.html This week I chose Chinese Fairy Tales. The style of these stories threw me off a little bit. There was a lot of tragedy and odd things for a fairy tale. The most bizarre story was the Cave of Beasts. I suppose in Chinese culture, the man of the house receives the "best" first, thus I understand his anger when he finds out the children ate all of his duck eggs. But did he really need that many duck eggs to himself? The mother in the story reminds me of my own in terms of putting her children's needs first. This is the strangest story, though, because the father gets SO mad about these precious duck eggs that he tosses just two of his many daughters into the wild where they could have been eaten alive. Instead, they lucked out and trapped their potential predators and looted some valuables they found... to which their terrible father takes as his own when he finally decides he misses his ...

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/goblins-conclusion.html For my second reading this week I tried to sample other stories, but they just weren't catching my attention such as the Twenty-Two Goblins story. I enjoy story within a story plot, especially with this plot twist of a conclusion.  First of all, I'm really bothered not knowing the answer to the last riddle. I need answers! Especially because that was such an almost-maybe-I-don't-know incest bomb.  I notice there's a strong sense of marriage loyalty from these stories. Righteousness was discussed in this part more than judgment of people's quality.  The best part of this unit was the goblin taking akin to the king, even though he didn't know the answer to the riddle (bummer). He helped the king and it was really cute. On the same note, I wish there was an image for this goblin. I currently think of the creatures from Spiderwick Chronicles and I don't think that's accurate....

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/goblins-brave-wise-clever.html This week I chose to Twenty-Two Goblins because the overview captured my interest mentioning a goblin that tells riddles. I thought it would be a fun read and indeed it was. I have to say the story is quite odd overall and I would like to know how certain things came about. Such as, choosing fruit to be the carrier of gems, or why the goblin resides in a corpse (creepy!). I'm not familiar with Indian folklore, much less so than Greek mythology. One thing I noticed that I'd like to look into were the names of the characters. They would sometimes be named after objects or just something you wouldn't expect a name to be. Like, "Crescent", "Five-cloth", "Moonlight", etc. I wonder if they have any specific meaning, because within the story it doesn't seem so.  The recurring theme in the goblin's riddles are "who is the most  or best-suited  type of person...

Cupid and Psyche Apuleius http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-apuleiuss-cupid-and.html http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/apuleius-magical-palace.html This is the first mythology story I've read that I want to keep reading thus far. I'm actually excited to read the next part because I'm eager to know what happens. The language style is a lot easier for me to read than some of the older English versions of mythology/folklore stories.  It was interesting to read the overview after reading the stories. Cupid and Psyche was compared to the love story of Beauty and the Beast, which I wouldn't have thought of right away while reading. I only know the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast and not the original tale. In that case, I would disagree that the love stories are similar--but I'm interested to read the original story to see if there are stronger connects. I would go as far to say the story of Cupid and Psyche remind...

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/iliad-rousing-of-achilles-cont.html I had a bit of trouble finding something other than fables that interested me in the reading choices. The main reason is I have a hard time reading the older language styles, but it's also something I wish I was better at.  One thing that struck me funny about this story was how the gods and goddesses have their favorites among the mortals. It's almost like they play chess with the people.  Also, I know it's just a story but it bothers me how Hector could speak so eloquently with a spear through his neck. Props to him.  I was often confused with the characters since names were brought up with little to no reference, shows you just about how much I know about anything mythology. I saw the name Achilles' and remembered the famous Achilles' heel situation so I'm a little bummed none of that went on. Nor did the Trojan horse come about.  And why is Zeus so pissy about...

http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/aesops-fables-foxes-part-2.html I picked Aesop's Fables for my reading this week. The last time I read Aesop's fables were the kid's version in grade school. For awhile, I thought they were cute stories made up by adults to implicitly teach bits of life lessons across to children. Reading them now, I enjoyed reading both the narrative version and the prose version. Honestly, I would've been caught up in the language of the prose alone, but reading the narrative first helps for a quicker understanding of the prose--and then you realize how witty the short poems are!  A fun thing about fables that I've thought I had forgotten but is oddly stored idly in my memory: the symbolic nature of each animal. For example, a lion is a majestic king. The Ass is gentle and dumb. The fox is snarky and sly. Each animal has a character that many people would be familiar identifying with due to stories like Aesop's. I wonder how ...

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3: _ Ovid's Metamorphoses III ________ Week 4: _Jewish Fairy Tales________ Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: __Ancient Egyptian Myths_______ Week 6: ___Arabian Nights______ Aladdin was stuck in our old van's DVD player at one point so you better believe it's etched into my brain.  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/110830840817747066/ Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7: ___Stories from Congo______ Week 9: ____Tibetan Folktales_____ Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10: _Eskimo Folktales________ Supernatural stories from the Inuit? I'm in. Week 11: _Pacific Northwest________ Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: ____Beowulf_____ Week 13: ____Celtic Tales_____ Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: __Brothers Grimm (Ashliman)__...