Week 5 Reading Diary: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

For my reading diary this week I decided to focus on Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories. The selection of stories is from Mackenzie's Egyptian Myth and Legend, and it includes both mythology and folklore. The book consists of the retelling of Egyptian legends, and not direct translations of the ancient Egyptian texts. 

(The God Ra)

Creation: I personally found this story very interesting because I saw it as kind of a directory of all of the Gods and Goddesses in ancient Egypt. The story really introduced a lot of Gods and Goddesses and told what they are known for. Since I am not very familiar with ancient Egypt, this was extremely helpful for me. Ra is the Creator and he is overall the most important person because according to Egyptians he made Earth and Heaven and pretty much gave us life. To me he is the most interesting God of all.

The Sun’s Journey: the story began in kind of a dark manner speaking of slaughter and I was not really sure what to expect for the remainder of the story. When I think of the sun God I think of happiness so I was taken a little off guard. The story took a huge turn when it showed Ra getting praise from everyone and all of the higher ups. It shows that he is loved and is the light and the happiness that I expected him to be. Overall, the story was pretty challenging for me to understand. Like I said above I am not familiar with ancient Egyptian stories so reading the language was challenging for me.

Storytelling for Week 4: The Life of a Fish

(Flickr)

Once upon a time deep in the lake there lived a little fish named Frank. The lake was filled with hundreds and hundreds of exciting and interesting fish of all shapes and colors. All of the fish were very friends and Frank had many friends. He lived alone and loved to swim around the lake and do a lot of exploring. He was a very adventurous fish, and was always trying to experience new things.

One day as Frank was taking a casual swim about the lake he noticed a weird shadow come about in the water. As he looked up to the surface he knew it was coming from the outside. Since he is a very curious fish he knew he had to investigate so he quickly swam up to the surface and looked out. To his surprise is a was a man, and then suddenly that man chucked an object into his lake. Frank stared at the man and when the man finally noticed Frank, he smiled and nodded. Frank took this gesture as the man saying he would not harm him and that he was a friend.

Frank had never experienced this form of kindness from a human before. Usually they only visit the lake to pollute it or to cause raucous that disturbs all of the fish in the lake. Frank immediately decided to investigate the object the man threw into the lake. He came upon the object with hesitation. It was a large, tan, and round object that smelt delicious. He eventually found the courage to taste this object and found it to be delicious bread! Frank had eaten bread before but none so delicious and he had never seen so much of it. He was so amazed and thankful for the man and his kindness, and to Frank he would forever now be known as the baker because of the delicious bread he made.

Frank bought the bread back to the rest of the fish in the lake and he was seen as a hero. Everyone was in awe when he told them the tale of the nice baker. Then, to his surprise the baker returned every single day and discarded another loaf of bread. Frank and the baker had truly become friends and they saw each other every as it became tradition that Frank would need him and retrieve the bread.

However, one day the baker seemed very distraught and Frank was concerned about his friend. He knew something was wrong so he stayed close to the surface for the rest of the day in case anything happened to the baker. Soon he saw the baker on top of a cliff over looking the lake. He stood there for a very long time and Frank was very confused about what he was doing. He quickly went and got the rest of the fish in the lake to get their opinion. When they returned to the surface the baker was still on the cliff, but now he was on the edge above the lake. Then all of a sudden he leaped off the cliff. Frank didn’t know why he was doing this but he knew he had to help! On his order he and the rest of the fish formed a raft and actually caught the baker and let his go to safety on the other side of the lake. The baker looked at Frank in amazement, and their friendship was stronger than ever. They and found a great friend in each other.

Authors Note: I wrote this story, The Life of a Fish, in the perspective of the fish. It shows his side of the story and how him and his friends saved the bakers life.

Bibliography: This story is based on The Story of the Baker and the Grateful Fish. It is part of the Persian Tales unit. Story source: Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).

Week 4 Reading Diary, Continued: Santal Folklore

For this diary I have decided to read stories from the unit Santal Folklore. The stories in this unit come from an enormous collection of Santal stories translated into English by C. H. Bompas. Below are the stories that I found to be most interesting and worth sharing to my readers.

The Monkey and the Girl: this was a very unique story. It first caught my attention because it was about monkeys, and as I have previously stated in my blog I love animals. Once I started reading the story it took an odd turn with a girl wanting to marry a monkey. This is very unlike fairy tales in the United States because the girls in those tales always marry a prince charming. Then, the story got really dark really quickly with the girl being burned alongside her monkey love. The moral of the story was that the girl had a monkey heart and that explained why she was so infatuated with the monkey in the first place. 

(sati / suttee ceremony)

The Tiger’s Bride: this story started off strange as well because a woman needed help and for some reason the only option was to marry off her daughter in exchange for help. This story has a lot in common with the story above because once again the girl was married off to an animal. In this story it was a tiger. Once again, the story grew dark because the bride ran away and the tiger was beaten by his friends until he ran away as well. Neither of these stories had a happy ending and they seem like more of a warning.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Persian Tales

For this reading diary I decided to focus on Persian Tales. I read a collections of fairy tales translated from the Kermani and Bakhtiari dialects of the Persian language by David Lorimer and his wife Emily Lorimer when they were living in Iran during the 20th century.

The Shepherd Who Found a Treasure: This was an interesting fairy tale. It was a little complicated to follow and was slow getting started, but once you understood what was going on it was very compelling. My only complaint is that he didn’t share the treasure with the other shepherd who had the dream. I think it was selfish and dishonest of him to keep is all for himself.

The Story of the Baker and the Grateful Fish: This was my favorite story. It had many different layers to it because there was trickery, kindness, and revenge. It did a good job of encompassing all of that. I like that the fish saved the baker because he was kind to them by feeding them bread every single day. They repaid him in a very decent way by saving his life in the river. I think this teaches the lesson of “treat someone the way that you want to be treated.” I also like how he got payback on his old master in the exact some way that he was once betrayed. However, the master was not able to be saved because he was never kind to anyone or anything so no one was kind to him back.

(Blog)

Storytelling for Week 3: The Plot to Kidnap

One dark and stormy night there was a band of robbers sitting alone in a pub pondering what to do with their lives. They had just traveled hours after robbing an old far in the middle of no where. However, the job didn’t pay much. They only got food from the far, about one hundred dollars, a lazy donkey, and middle aged horse. Right before they left the far they noticed an old woman by the window who had seen everything. The robbers had no choice but to take her with them. The old woman was now sitting near by in the pub so that the robbers could keep their eye on her.

The robbers knew that this job wouldn’t hold them over for much longer than a week, and that soon they’d be back to struggling to find food and stay alive. They needed money and they needed it fast. 

(Flickr)

They fast at the pub drinking their beers and silently thinking. They were the smartest bunch; after all they were robbers. Finally, the smallest one spoke up with an idea. He had decided that they needed to do one huge job that would pay off big and quick. However, he didn’t really have the details planned out on how to go about this.

Then, another lad spoke up reminding the rest of the men that there was a wedding tomorrow in the next city over, and that is was a very rich family. At that moment they were all thinking the same thing. They were going to kidnap the bride and hold her for ransom. The thought of this freighted all of them because until then they had only been involved in small crime like robberies. Kidnapping was a whole other level but they didn’t have a choice. They needed to do this in order to survive. They knew her parents would pay just about anything to get her back safely.

They had no time to prepare or plan. They needed to head for the city now because it would be about a day’s travel on foot. They were confident that they had the strength and man power in order to make this job successful, and they would figure out the rest on the way.

Authors Note: I wrote this story, The Plot to Kidnap, as a prequel to the story The Captive Woman. It is about how the robbers in the story plotted to kidnap the girl, and also how they came to travel with the old woman and the magical donkey. I wrote this because I had questions when I was reading this story so I answered my own questions.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story The Captive Woman from the Unit: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche, written by Apuleius and translated here into English by Tony Kline.

Week 3 Reading Diary, Continued: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

As I continued my Reading Diary for Week 3 I decided to focus on Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche, which is from a Roman Novel, The Golden Ass, written by Apuleius and translated into English by Tony Kline. Below are the two stories that I found most interesting.

The Captive Woman: When I first heard of Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche I thought it seemed like a common fairy tale. However, to my surprise it started out nothing like that at all! This first part of the story was extremely dark with a girl being help captive for ransom. The language was much more horrific than any fairy tale I had ever read before. I found myself wondering why these men needed to kidnap this girl for money and what brought them to this earlier in their life. I think it was a really good way to set the story up because it definitely did get my attention and left me wondering what was going to happen to the girl and the old woman. I was also curious to find out why the old woman was with them in the first place.

Her Dream: This particular story tugged at my heart strings and really gave me an emotional connection with the girl as I learned more about her story. The story started seeming a little more similar to fairy tales I had read in the past when I learned that she was taken from her wedding which is something I have heard before. I really felt bad for her when she said she had dreamed of her beloved dying, and I was curious about what the fate of her fiancé was.

(Cupid and Psyche, Roman sarcophagus)

Week 3 Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

For my reading diary this week I decided to focus on the stories of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Down the Rabbit Hole: I have seen the movie many times since childhood. As I began to read it was very interesting because I was very aware of the differences from the movie. Alice falling down the rabbit hole was a huge part of this story and described in such detail. I remember it in the story as happening very quickly. I feel like the written story painted much more of a picture for the reader and really kept my attention at all times. I find myself wishing I hadn’t seen the movie before I read the stories. It’s not as fun to read knowing what is going to happen next.

(Illustration by Sir John Tenniel)

Advice from a Caterpillar: When I was a kid the caterpillar was always my least favorite character because for some reason I thought he was a little creepy. As I am reading this story now I do not really find him creepy, instead I find him much more mellow. However, he is still one of my least favorite characters in the story. I still find it very odd that the caterpillar is smoking hookah. It is a children’s story and hookah does not really promote a good behavior, which makes the caterpillar a bad role model. It was interesting because I did not remember the caterpillar being the one to make Alice grow so it was interesting to read something unexpected.