Reading Notes: Little John

This week is an exciting week as I am a huge fan of readings from the UK and Ireland. The opportunity I have this week to read these stories is exciting. I went through my usual steps to picking out a story by going through and checking out all that was available. I set my sights on the Robin Hood series for this week. I have always been a big fan of Robin Hood and I was excited to read through the Robin Hood stories. I ended up going with the story Little John. This ended up being a ballad and it was a really fun read. The youtube video was awesome to have. It really brought the ballad to life. I am a big music fan so listening to it made it that much better for me.  The beginning of the ballad is a fun time. I love the detail that Little John is actually a large muscular man. That gave me a little chuckle. As the ballad continued, I never lost interest in it and it continued to get better and better. I loved the parts of the ballad with dialogue as it gave the ballad some more personal feeling which is always fun to have in stories in songs. The only problem I had with the ballad was the language that was in use. The language was a older english and the phrasing and wording of the ballad confused me at times. It took me a few read throughs to completely understand what was going on in the ballad. The fight sequence that occurs is interesting and a pretty detailed one for a story like Robin Hood but it doesn't take away from the fact that Robin Hood is one of the best characters, in anything, ever. The ballad itself was fantastic with multiple scenes that were funny, dramatic and interesting. I definitely recommend Robin Hood stories if you have not had the chance to read through them before.

The Disney portrayal of Little John https://images.app.goo.gl/mxPVwUwDADTkzt55A

Bibliography: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/robin-hood-little-john.html

Week 11 Story: Jealous Cat

Gerald was a family cat. Gerald was just your normal house cat that was just living the dream. He had all the food he would ever need and all the time to sleep and do absolutely nothing all day. Gerald was the king of the house. No one could take him off his perch, in the window, as he looked over his beautiful kingdom. This was all about to change though.
Gerald had been the main cat for a number of years and this was the result of constantly taking out the competition. Anytime a cat or any other pet would show up in the house, Gerald would take care of the competition within an instant. Gerald had no time for other pets to take up his me time. Gerald would just lead them into the woods in the backyard and they would never be seen again. His family became skeptical of Gerald and proceeded to take a stand against their own cat. Gerald's family came home one day with a young cat named Jeff. Jeff was an upbeat cat that Gerald saw as a threat and knew that Jeff would take his spot as the favorite cat. Gerald knew the threat was extremely real and that Jeff had to go.
The day had come for Gerald to go through with his plan. Gerald woke up and had that look in his eye. The look that meant someone was going to die. Gerald waltzed around the house looking for Jeff but he was nowhere to be found. Gerald began to be furious as there was no sign of Jeff in the house. What Gerald did not know is that Jeff had been hidden by the family. Gerald's family knew that if Jeff was left alone that he wouldn't survive. Gerald continued to search and get more mad. Finally, he saw Jeff. Jeff had escaped his room after the family explicitly told him not to leave. Gerald knew it was his time to strike.
Gerald led Jeff into the woods as usual and the plan was for Jeff not to come out. Gerald led Jeff deep into the forest and convinced him to go over to a log that Gerald had been using for the past few years. The log was big and heavy and no animal has ever been able to escape its rath. The only problem was is that Jeff was a trickster. Jeff began to head towards that log with Gerald in close pursuit, but Jeff turn the tables. Jeff spun around and sent the log at Gerald with force and it actually caught Gerald instead of Jeff.
Jeff walked back to the house where the family was frantically looking for Jeff as they knew something bad was going to happen to him. All of a sudden the family heard scratching at the door. It was Jeff!! Jeff had survived, against the odds, the attack from Gerald! The family was ecstatic but also torn as Gerald was now the cat that was no longer here. It was Jeff's world and we were all living in it.

Jeff running back from the woods https://images.app.goo.gl/yLFAD6TscSRPx5yz7

Author's Note: I decided to go off the Jealous Uncle story from this week. Gerald was the new uncle that was crazy and wouldn't let any other cat in the house with him. Gerald used woods as cover to kill the other cats as well as had to work a little hard to get the cat out of hiding as the uncle had to find the boy in the village as he was hidden from him by the wives. The uncle gets a hold of the boy as Gerald did and takes him into the woods. The only twist from the original story was the outcome of the trip to the woods. In the original, the uncle takes the boy to the woods and both come back alive. In my story, both cats enter but only one survives. Jeff now has the throne of the house and the fact that the boy comes back int he original story makes me feel that there will be a chance to take the throne.
Bibliography: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/heroes-jealous-uncle.html

Reading Notes: The Jealous Father

After reading the Jealous Uncle I decided to keep the jealous family member stories going with the father getting in the act. The way the Jealous Uncle went yesterday had me in limbo for what I thought this story was going to be about. I had a feeling the same thing was going to happen, and in a way it did. The father grew jealous over his sons for some reason. The father had his suspicions of one of his sons confirmed when he had returned from a hunt and saw marks on one of the wives he had. The father knew something was up and proceeded to lead the son to a rocky island to find eggs. This story sort of took the same route as the story from yesterday, but it was a little less gruesome and it seemed as the father was not a serial boy killer like the uncle was. The father left the son on the island to die. The son could definitely live a lot longer than the boys from the uncle story as there is, more than likely, a way better chance of surviving for a while on that island. The fun part of the story came to life as a Walrus came out of the water to greet the boy and comfort the boy after the events that had just occurred. I loved that the walrus is a magical walrus. The walrus asks the boy if the sky is clear which was surprising since walrus can not fly. It was interesting that the walrus acted as if the boy was his son but it didn't bother me too much from the fact that the walrus was magical. The story took a crazy turn with the death of the walrus. This was surprising as I was not expecting the walrus to die so suddenly. The lightning attack came from the son's father which was crazy to think about and the boy survived. The father was truly angry at the son as an old lady told him that there was a lot of trouble for the boy down the road and that he must prepare for the worst of the trip. The story itself was slightly different from the uncle story but still had the same storyline as the boy survived both attacks but the difference in surviving was polar opposites.

Member of the Cree Tribe https://images.app.goo.gl/SEU4srHt6iweyQhg9

Bibliogrpahy: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/heroes-jealous-father.html

Reading Notes: The Jealous Uncle

This I decided to with the hero stories of the Native Americans. I really enjoyed the stories from last week and was excited to read more stories. I read through a lot of them and came upon The Jealous Uncle. I thought it the story title was hilarious and could be a great story to be able to read and it did not disappoint. The story was nothing like I thought it would be. The story began with death. i was in aww as the uncle of the story killed both of his nephews in the first paragraph of the story. The story continued and it got to the point of the uncle having the gender of the baby hidden from him so he did not have any competition. It is an interesting concept to think about but it makes a little sense. The fact that the gender of the boy was hidden from him for so long is impressive. The uncle eventually found out and was disappointed that it would be hidden from him, but once he found out the uncle had to kill the nephew. the boy was warned and he prepared for the worst. The story took a surprising turn that was awesome for the boy. The boy used a sour cranberry that he was given to aid him when he was taken into the woods. The boy was trapped under a log and the uncle had left to go back to the village and let the boy die in the woods alone. The boy rubbed the cranberry on the log and the log opened up and let the boy free from the hold that the log had. The best part of the story came from the boy going back to the village. The boy brought wood back to the village as kind of a punch at the uncle that had tried to killed him hours earlier. This motivated the uncle even more to kill the boy which was concerning for the boy and the rest of the village if there were more boys to come to the village. The story was nothing I expected when I read the title but it didn't disappoint and it was an extremely fun read.

Yupik mother and child https://images.app.goo.gl/vBTintHBaGVMoNje8

Bibliography: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/heroes-jealous-uncle.html

Week 10 Lab

I decided to watch the language playlist of videos and I really enjoyed them a lot more than I though I would. The first video was cool as it was just a background story into the splitting of languages. I enjoyed the animation of the video as it was easy to follow and had some comedic elements to the video which made it more enjoyable. One of my favorite videos is the verb tense video. It was funny to see how complex our language actually is. The thought of trying to learn English from scratch is crazy to think about. The fact that there are so many verb tenses is crazy to think about. It makes English seem as such a difficult language that seems impossible to learn in full which is probably very true after watching the video. Having 12 verb tenses is crazy compared to some languages that only have few to none. It is funny to watch the videos and how the correspond to a class I am currently taking. The videos contained a lot of new information that I would have never thought of, but they also brought up fascinating points about language that I thought were super cool. Probably my favorite is the new word video. The crazy numbers about number of words in the English language as well as the number of words added each year. That is such a staggering number for a language as old as English. It is really cool to see how much of the English language is just a melting pot of multiple languages from across the world. Another crazy fact about language is that many countries have language academies to decide on new words. That is some dedication to language that is awesome to see and know about.

The ways to say "Hello" in different languages. https://images.app.goo.gl/Shxfh1QriuvopsAU7

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrWYQjLLbXchDJp7Z_BzshUOT7tuk845Q

Reading Notes: Iktomi and the Turtle

For the second reading of the week, I decided to keep the turtle theme which is funny that the Sioux have multiple turtle stories in the collection. This one is a tad different from the first one I read in the sense that this story has a lot more first person throughout the story which is awesome. It gives a more personal feel that I like to have when I am reading these stories. The funniest part about the turtle theme is that one story actually has turtles in it. This story actually has a huntsman named turtle. It is a slight twist, but it is hilarious to think about. The story starts out sad and I feel bad for the turtle as he didn't kill anything to provide for his family which is always sad. The story continues as the turtle walks home with sadness but comes upon a deer that had been slain. This was a blessing as he could now feed his family. The turtle exclaimed that the spirits had blessed him with a deer. Turtle was approached, from behind, by Iktomi. Iktomi began to talk up the turtle as the turtle was very down on himself after not being able to kill anything for food. The story continued as Iktomi and the turtle talked about the deer and the failed hunt that had happened for the turtle. The challenges that came up were awesome as the challenge was for the deer. It was a jump that was the challenge which is interesting for what was on the line. The challenge came late as well which the turtle had no choice but to take it as he had already started his jump. The turtle lost the challenge which was a little sad to read as he had already gone through the emotional rollercoaster that was the hunt. The surprise of the story was the turtle sitting in the tree as Iktomi went into the creek with the food. The kids were stressed as their father had fallen in and died in the creek. The story ends very abruptly which stunk but overall it was a solid story that I enjoyed for the entire time.

The cooking of the venison in the creek https://images.app.goo.gl/7u6Txs5X8L5s9DMN8

Bibliography: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/sioux-iktomi-and-turtle.html

Reading Notes: The Boy and the Turtles

I am so excited for this week's readings as it is Native American week! I love Native American art and stories. They are always so creative and fun to read no matter how short or long the story is. It was a difficult decision on what story to read and how good those stories were going to be. After a long deliberation with myself I decided on the Sioux stories as I thought they were unique and really fun to read. The first story I decided on was the Boy and the Turtles. One thing I noticed immediately when reading was the fact that it was mostly from a third person perspective. I am usually not huge fan of reading third person as it isn't as personal as first person, but the the author does an amazing job with creating a story that effectively uses third person. The story started very normal and seemed it was just going to be a story about a young boy hunting and faced some adversity as he couldn't find any turtles until he went to a lake that his tribe was very familiar with. It seems normal until what comes out of the water. Little men began to come out of the water which is a tad disturbing and scared the boy as it should have. The story continued as the boy left and after a few conversations, warriors were sent down to the lake to see if the boy was lying. The warriors saw the same thing and were as scared as the boy. The boy was given a seat in the council and that seat was a seat of honor. The boy was also given the name "Wankan Wanyanka" which means he sees holy. The story itself was very interesting with the crazy turn it made. I wasn't expecting the drastic turn that occurred at the lake. I was expecting something to happen, but not to the effect of little men coming out of the water. I really enjoyed the weird twist the story had. It gave the story some more information to be able to analyze as not every story has a turn like that. I am definitely glad I chose this story section as it is going to be an awesome time to be able to read these stories.

Turtles sunbathing at a lake https://images.app.goo.gl/8pYCyPG1GQ2TiB4a9

Bibliography: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/sioux-boy-and-turtles.html