Potential Project Topics

Fairy Tales in Real Life
Image from StumbleUpon

Topic: Norse Mythology

Comments: A big part of Norse mythology that I have always been interest in is the concept of Valkyries and Valhalla.  The idea that worthy and strong warriors will be carried off the battle field as souls and delivered to Valhalla seems very similar to a Heaven concept.  Although, Valhalla would be a warrior heaven, to my current understanding. 

 Possible Stories: The Sacred Archives as well as Google Books both have a multitude of stories related to Norse mythology.  Stories about Asgard, Odin, Thor, and Valhalla are particularly popular among many sources.

Sample Story: Google Books had a text called The Nine Worlds: Stories from Norse Mythology with a very interesting story about how the gods determined the placement of souls among the realms.

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story- The Judgement Hall of the Dead  

Book Title- The Nine Worlds: Stories from Norse Mythology

Book Author- Mary Elizabeth Litchfield

Year- 1894

Topic: Australian Legends and Folktales

Comments: I think Australia is a really intriguing country.  The history is very rich and somewhat deviant from the normal societal progression.  Another reason I think it’s so fascinating is because everything seems so dangerous in the outback, I think going on a walkabout would be a really challenging but thrilling experience.

Possible Stories: The book I found on Australian legends comes from Google Books.  The book has a good amount of stories in its table of contents and I am confident that I could find more sources if necessary.

Sample Story: For my sample story I read about how the platypus came to exist.  The legend behind the dawn of the platypus actually makes quite a bit of sense and I can see how the tangencies would be drawn in that order.

Bibliography Information:

Sample Story- Gayardaree the Platypus

Book Title- More Australian Legends and Tales

Book Author- Katie Langloh Park

Year- 1898

Topic:  Arabian Nights

Comments: The 1001 Nights is a very well known story across most cultures.  I think writing a storybook project about these tales would provide a lot of interesting angles.

Sample Story: In the UnTextbook unit for Arabian Nights the story Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 1 the beginning of Aladdin’s story is outlined.  I think this story is interesting and stands out in this unit because it feds into a long plot line with more time to devolve and grow as a story.

Bibliography:

Sample Story: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

Book Title: The Arabian Nights Entertainments

Book Author: Andrew Lang

Year: 1898

Topic: Grimm

Comments: The fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm were stories that were frequently told to me as a child.  The opportunity to go back and not only re-read but create something new with them would be very challenging, but in a good way.

Sample Story: The Six Swans is actually a fairytale that I’m unfamiliar with.  For purposes of this exercise I only read the first part, but the excerpt that I read was very attention grabbing and I plan on going back to read the rest.

Bibliography:

Sample Story: The Six Swans

Book Title: Household Stories from the Brothers Grimm

Translated By: Lucy Crane

Year: 1886

Essay: Jewish Fairy Tales

This week my storybook unit was the Jewish Fairy Tales section.  The section featured 11 short stories from the Jewish culture.  The overview of the unit determined that the stories come both from biblical origin as well as more recent and present times. 

Overall, I thought this unit was very enjoyable.  I could both appreciate and somewhat disliked the mixture of stories from different parts of Jewish culture.  I think my first glance opinion of this story unit was that it would be less religiously based than it was.  However, being a part of the Biblical section of the class should have clued me into to such a factor.  Perhaps a separate unit between Jewish religious stories and Jewish fairy tales in general, such as old wives’ tales and such would provide more clarification. 

Having experience wit biblical teachings and biblical stories allowed me to seamlessly understand who was being spoken about in different stories.  For example, who Noah, Abraham, the Pharaoh, and other biblical characters being placed into stories wasn’t a problem for me.  However, for individuals without that kind of experience some background information of these characters and their significance may be beneficial to the full enjoyment of the stories.    

Several pieces of different stories surprised me.  Particularly the story about Noah and Og the Giant, The Giant of the Flood, was surprising to me.  I would not have pictured the Jewish culture telling a story involving a giant in the midst of the great flood.  Also, a unicorn being present in this story threw me for somewhat of a loop.  Simply because I didn’t expect that kind of fantasy to be worked into a biblical rooted story.

Og and the Unicorn
Photo acquired from The UnTextbook

This story unit provided me with a good look into the Jewish Fairy Tales, which is what I sought to gain by reading this section.  I can see somewhat tangencies to the other story units that I reviewed during week one in their construction and voice from which the story is told. 

Storytelling Week Two: The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog

Throughout the course of one’s live, there will be many relationships that any given individual will encounter.  Friendships, love interests, acquaintances, enemies, frenemies, the list can go on and on.  Sometimes the role another person may play will change; relationships are a scale that people continuously flow in and out of. 

In a hypothetical scenario let’s outline a situation in which Derrick and Cassie are a beautiful and lovely couple.  All is right in the world for Derrick and Cassie and they could not be happier.  They are loved by all their mutual friends, none more so than Andy.  Andy helped to construct the two of them into the lovely couple that they became and watched their friendship blossom into a lovely relationship.

However, when times got hard for Derrick and Cassie, they got really hard.  The pair was struggling to find happiness together and simply couldn’t find the light they once had.  So, being logical Cassie suggested they break up and find their own happiness again.  Derrick wanted to whine and complain about Cassie’s suggestion claiming, “he could change,” but many a woman has heard that line, many a time.  So Derrick and Cassie were no more.

Cassie, being the logical of the two went to her trusted friend Andy for advice on the break-up.  Cassie wanted to continue on with her life in a positive direction and thought the help of her friends would be a good influence on her happiness.  Derrick however was still in his moan and complain phase.  In his infinite knowledge he decided to find his happiness out at the clubs and bars.  The clubs and bars where he spent many a drunken night making a fool of himself and getting thrown out by the bigger and bulkier bouncers. 

Finally, Derrick was dirt poor having spent all his money going out just to get thrown out.  So he returned to Andy’s house to finally seek guidance on what to do with his life.  When he knocked on the door Andy let him in, being the good guy that Andy was.  Cassie was already there spending time with Andy. When Derrick walked in and saw her he thought it was a sign that they were meant to get back together.  Cassie regretfully informed him that she had found her own inner happiness and was in a place comfortable without a relationship. 

Derrick continuously hounds Cassie for reconsideration and attempts to change her mind.  So much so that Cassie is at the point of a hissy fit every time Derrick comes around.  Sometimes, break-ups are for good, and this is a fact that should just be accepted.    

Author’s Note:  This story is a loose rewrite of the Jewish Fairy Tale The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog.  In the originally story the cat and dog begin as good friends.  However, when winter rolls in the cat and dog begin to struggle and the cat being ever so cunning decides to go live with Adam.  The cat details that their split should be like a business pact and they must never see one another again.  When the dog shows up at Adam’s unsuspectingly it becomes clear that they will quarrel endlessly.  I decided to re-write this fairy tale because I felt the original made the cat out to be entirely at fault and being a cat person I wanted some kind of reconciliation for the clear “dog person” writing that was contained in the original piece.  I changed the story from animals to people, and changed the friendship into a relationship.  These changes were made in order to illustrate that sometimes relationships simply don’t last and that sometimes things will fall apart. The change from animals to people hopefully makes this story more relatable and the message can be more apparent to the average reader, that is if the message I conveyed was the intended message.

Difference in Persona
Photo taken from: furrytalk.com

The Quarrel of the Cat and Dog comes from the book Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa, published in 1919, accessed via Sacred Text Archives

Jewish Fairy Tales Reading Diary B

The second portion of the Jewish Fairy Tales story unit was equally as interesting as the first section.  Once again there were characters that I was familiar with because of their presence in other biblical stories, and then there were characters that seemed to be coming out of absolute no where.

One of the stories that I found to be most interesting was The Rabbi’s Bogey-Man.  This story was almost like an old age Jewish version of Frankenstein at times.  As I was reading the story I was wondering if this was one of the origin stories for the concept of the bogeyman as a horror figure.  Although, in this version the bogeyman receives life like qualities by a Name parchment that it blessed by the Holy Man.

One story that was included in the collection was called TheHiggledy-Piggledy Palace.  Which stood out to me not because of anything significant in it’s content.  Which, is not to say it wasn’t a good story, that just not the reason I’m pointing it out.  This story stood out to me because almost all the other stories have titles that make you directly recall what the content was.  The titles directly reference a certain character, place, or act in the story.  Except for this one, which I thought was somewhat odd.

Overall, I’m glad I chose this story unit as my first reading unit for this class.  I thought these stories were all rather well written and each was interesting in it’s own light.  Having not read any short stories in a while I think these were a refreshing change to the materials I typically read for school and other purposes.

Frankenstein
Promotional Photo of Boris Karloff
Photo Attained through Wikipedia