Mythology Blog

For this week's story assignment, I decided to do a story lab since I haven't done many of these. Of the listed options, I chose to read through some of the posts on the "Advice to Writers" site, and I was not disappointed! Some of them were funny, others were kind of abrasive but they all had a little nugget of wisdom to offer. Of the ones I read, I found a couple that I liked because they seemed like good writing advice, but I found more that I liked because they seemed like good life advice. Here are the two that I liked the most. "Be a Good Steward of Your Gifts" Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours. -Jane Kenyon " The Useless Days Will Add Up to Something " The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs...

Hi there! For this weeks reading I chose to do the first Lang Unit because the stories come from all across Europe. I was immediately drawn to the first story in the unit, "The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots," because I have seen Puss in Boots as a character in other works but had never heard his story. The picture to the left, is an illustration for the Mother Goose Story Book version of the story. This is the moment that the cat calls for the kings carriage to stop and save the "Marquis of Carabas" from drowning. I would like to use this picture and others of a similar style if I use this story for my writing this week. Speaking of which, here are my reading notes for this story: A miller left his property to his sons  The mill to the older son, a donkey to the middle son, and a cat to the youngest  The youngest says he will likely starve since all he can do is make a muff out of the skin of the cat To save his own skin, the cat comes up with a plan and tel...

Hi there! I don't know about anyone else in this class but I am busting my butt to finish these assignments up so I can get an A in the class. Staying in the holiday spirit, I am so thankful for the extra week (Week 15). Because of it, I don't have to cram a bunch of extra credit assignments into next week, but instead can work on mostly standard assignments. I also caught a previous assignment that I did, but didn't do the declaration for so that was a nice treat to start this week off with. I took the time to read through the announcements for the last seven days, and that has thankfully helped me understand how class is working over the next couple weeks and what finishing up looks like for me. As I was looking through said announcements, I was completely distracted by the blurb about St. Catherine. My full name is Catherine and I come from a Catholic family, but I had never heard of her in detail. So I spent quite a while reading about her on Wikipedia and found out t...

For my second reading this week I chose the Mabinogi or the Mabinogion. I chose it because the description sounded interesting and the stories didn't seem to be any that I knew. I didn't realize that all of the first part of the unit was about the same character, but I am glad that it was. I haven't read many stories this year that are that continuous so I found it refreshing. I chose the picture above because this is what I imagined the horse that Arawn was ridding when he entered the clearing. Because this is such a long story, I would likely only write a story based on a portion of it. Because of this I chose to take notes over "Pwyll Goes Hunting" and "In the Stead of Arawn." Here are the notes I took while I was reading: Pwyll, Prince of Dyved, Lord of the Seven Cantrevs of Dyved Pwyll wanted to go hunting and chose to do so in Glyn Cuch He got to Glyn Cuch let his dogs go and started after them He hears other dogs barking that aren’t his...

Hi! For my first reading this week I read Aesop's Fables. I have always thought these were fun stories and enjoyed some of the lessons they teach. One in particular that I read was about listening to one's parents which I think is really important, because that is how we learn to be adult and keep ourselves safe. However, this story was told from the perspective of two lions, a father and son. The father tells the son when he is young not to go picking a fight with humans because he will lose. Later when the little lion is older, he disregards what his father taught him, and goes looking for a man to grapple with. When he finds the man, he is tricked into putting his paw in a trap and to get free he loses his claws. While this is a great lesson, I thought it was kind of backwards. If anything I think that humans would be wise to avoid picking a fight with lions. So if I were to rewrite it I would put the characters in the opposite position. I would have a father tell his ch...

This week I chose to read the Celtic Fairy Tales (2) unit which included the story of "The Children of Lir." Here are the notes that I took while reading: The five kings of Ireland met to decide who would be the king ofthem all. King Lir thought it would be him but King Dearg was named instead. King Lir didn’t yield to Dearg, but instead returned to his home. Instead of letting the other kings kill him, Dearg sent King Lir his three daughters (or sisters?) Lir chose the eldest who gave him four children and then died Dearg send him Oifa, the first wife’s sister, and they were married Oifa did not like Lir’s children because she was jealous of their father’s affection for them Oifa tried to have them killed, but when that didn’t work she turned them into swans After turning them into swans she goes to Dearg’s court and when he asks her where the children are she says the Lir was afraid to send them Dearg sences that something is up and sends a messenger to Lir...

Hi! This week I chose to read the “Fairie Queen: Britomart Unit” upon the suggestion of Laura, our professor, and I was not disappointed! This unit is about the female knight Britomart. In the story she has set out to find another knight that she saw in a mirror that Merlin gave her father. On the way, she runs into Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon. I just so happen to be writing my storybook about Merlin from the King Arthur legends, hence the reading suggestion from Laura. I loved the story over all and can’t wait to read the next half of the unit. Until then, here are some of the notes I took over the first half: How Sir Guyon Met a Champion Mightier than Himself Arthur and Guyon ridding around “to relieve the weak and oppressed, and to recover right for those who had suffered wrong” Out in a field some knight comes riding towards them Shield golden with lion on it   Guyon wanted to have the honor to joist the approaching knight   This is apparently not ou...

Hi there!  For the second reading this week I chose to read the stories in the Great Plains unit. These stories come from    Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson. I chose to take notes over the story A Tradition of the Calumet which tells of their use of a ceremonial pipe. Here are those notes:  Lived in the North by a lake and along a river  Many warriors "the Mysterious One"  Great nation, hunted widely   from the "Big Water in the Sunrise" (The eastern coast possibly?) to the "Mountains in the Darkening Land" (Mt Laurel and others in that chain)  Chiefs and old men hold a council  Runners come to the council  Council decides they will attack the Great Nation for "scalps and horses" A big white bird flew in and landed above the chief's daughter  She heard a voice  "Call all the chiefs and worriers together. Tell them the Mysterious One is sad because they seek the...