Friday, December 4, 2015

Week 11, Storytelling, Birds of Immortal Feathers, Portfolio





 Yggdrasil and Merlin found on hrefngast.deviantart.com



Now under the heavy curse of Melusina, Nathan had embarked on the first step to free her and her sister, Melior, from their imprisonment in the Fae Realm on the estate of Count Raymond of Toulouse. Only the sword of their grandmother, Nineve, the Lady of the Lake could lift the curse laid upon them by the jealous Morgan LeFay. Nathan was the perfect fool for Melusina to use.  Morgan LeFay, spiteful sprite that she is, had put a curse on the sisters when they attended a festival on the property in the Middle Ages.

Morgan had done this in order to avoid competing for attention of a man, Accolon, and she cursed Melusina and Melior in a jealous fit. Accolon being a  bit of a rogue made a jealous Morgan quite unpredictable.The two girls got stuck in a faery realm that no one else had been able to see or perceive for almost 800 years, except for the pure of heart, Nathan the Seeker and his brother Daniel who also had become trapped there.

Melusina's problem was that she and her sister were trapped. It's was a complicated situation. The only person who could fix the problem was Merlin.The girls needed Merlin to revoke the fairy spell that Morgan LeFay had cast that kept them trapped. The problem for Merlin wass that he also had been trapped and was sleeping in a magical tree,Yggdrasil, in a magical cave in Avignon, France. He was put there by none other than Nineve, Melusina's grandmother. Nathan would need the magic of the talisman that is Excalibur to wake up Merlin, who is sleeping in the tree Yggdrasil the world tree. The sword Excalibur belongs to Nineve, so Nathan had to go get it for Melusina's plan to work.

Melusina  had seductively given Nathan her list of plans. "I know you will want to get married right away, so I will need you to do this. Wonderland is the most romantic place for a honeymoon. Once you have found Grandma Nineve's stargate you can go in. It's always unlocked there. Her home will most likely be under a spell, but no worries, love! Get the sword Excalibur, which she keeps on the wall above the fireplace. Here are the symbols to the stargate portal to get to the magical dimension where Merlin will be sleeping. Once he is awake bring him here through the portal with these symbols. He will break the faery spell keeping me prisoner. Then he can surely marry us as repayment for waking him from Grandma Nineve's nasty spell."

Nathan  had lovingly agreed to go on her quest and set out on the journey. Nathan first traveled by horse to Avignon from Toulouse. Nathan's only driving force was thinking about his love for the beautiful Melusina, and how to retrieve the sword from Nineve, the Lady of the Lake. He had almost four days ride to think about these tasks. Luckily for him, being a Seeker came in handy and fate would bring him an opportunity for more adventure!

Scattach the Shadow had also found herself  on adventure and was out looking for some elven cattle for a nice snack. They make the best butter and cheese. Scattach met up with Nathan as he was reaching the lake where Nineve dwells. Nineve was often here in the winter but not the summer. Thankfully she is not always home, which was exactly what Melusina was counting on when she sent Nathan to get the sword during the summer month of June. In his excitement he spooked the herd of elven cattle and angered Scattach.

"What the heck do you think you are doing?" accused Scattach in her angriest voice she could muster.

"I am on a quest for my true love. I have come seeking something. Forgive me and my rude manners please," Nathan calmly and politely offered.

"Hmm. Sounds fun," Scattach replied. She was busy sizing the man up to decide if she was going to attack him or keep talking to him. He seemed intriguing enough. Scattach is known as The Shadow. She is the greatest warrior of all time. She is an Immortal from the times of Atlantis. She is called The Shadow because she moves so fast. She is six foot tall and has fiery red hair.

Nathan being a man of few words walked to the edge of the calm waters of the lake and just stepped right in. Scattach followed him curious at what this guy was doing. They walked into a stargate portal that took them to Nineve's home. The portal was a thin fluid-like opaque veil that on the other side was a cave of quartz crystal illuminating from within itself. Nineve lives beyond the cave of quartz and in an amazing world where gods and goddesses dwell. A gorgeous city of light!

Scattach opened the locked entry. They entered the magical abode of the Lady of the Lake and stole the legendary sword Excalibur. Once they had the sword, they went to find Merlin.  When the two of them arrived at the cave entrance they looked around. Scattach the Shadow was on high alert knowing that they were walking into a serious situation. What a strange day!

Nathan called out, "Merlin! Wake up! It is time to go!" The sword Excalibur was glowing inside its gem-encrusted sheath and casts colorful lights all across the cave.

Inside this enormous cave is the world tree, Yggdrasil, and sitting on its limbs were all types of birds.
Morrigan the Crow was there, next to Merlin the Falcon and Freya the Hawk, and Thoth the Ibis. All of them were asleep and put here by Nineve. All of the birds in the tree became awakened and began to transform to their human body form.

 Nathan took the opportunity to grab Merlin and get back to the stargate portal to Melusina! Nathan wass not really thinking about how things would change now that he had awakened a tree full of Immortal Birds! He wass just thinking about heading to Wonderland for his honeymoon. O frabjous day, calooh calay! 






Bibliography-This story is part of the King Arthur unit. Story source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).
This story is part of the Welsh Fairy Tales unit. Story source: The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas with illustrations by Willy Pogány (1908).
 Author's Note- This story is an adaptation of the story when Nimue/Nineve, the Lady of the Lake, puts Merlin to sleep in under a rock. Some of the legends say he is in a cave, some say he is in a tree. In either case he is asleep and not dead. I am choosing to tell the story about what happens when Merlin wakes up for yet another adventure!

 I also added the half unit story that I read this week called The Stray Cow that is part of the Welsh Fairy Tales Unit. These stories have helped me to pull together the continuing adventures of Nathan the Seeker.The story of the Stray Cow is fun. The Lady of the Lake has cattle and one of them falls in love with a farmer's cows. People don't usually get to see the cows, but this lucky farmer steals one and is blessed with prosperity because of the lucky cow. When the farmer decides it is time to butcher the magical cow the Lady of the Lake shows up to get the magical cow and the farmer loses his wealth.

The part that I used from The Passing of Merlin  is where the Lady of the Lake emerges from the Lake and Merlin falls in love with her to his own undoing, much like how Nathan falls for Melusina. Also, I focused on the place to find Merlin where Nineve put him so we could wake Merlin up. In the story of The Stray Cow I brought in the Lady of the Lakes cattle which had attracted the attention of another Immortal, Scattach the Shadow. She helps Nathan to get the sword Caliburn (Excalibur) and joins in the story.

Portfolio

Welcome to the Portfolio Page of the Fallen Master.

For this portfolio project I am including the stories that I am having the most fun with reading and writing. The styles and stories are varied, just like a bag of Skittles candy. The main character is a man named Nathan who leads a magical life, he is a seeker. Nathan's journeys across time will take us to some interesting places and we will meet some whimsical people. Some, like Nathan's wife, Melusina, are immortals but Nathan does not realize it until it is too late. Will Nathan manage to pass the initiation with some magical intervention or will he like so many others fade into obscurity a nameless and forgotten Seeker, looking for the secret to life immortal?


The Fall of Atlantis
Before the time of the Great Flood, was the time of Atlantis when rebelling humans built the Tower of Babel to start a war with the heavens.
sakomar.blogspot.com
Symbols for Nathan

Found on travellerspoint.comToulouse,France
This is the story of how Nathan meets his immortal wife, Melusina. She is a River Goddess that is trapped by a fairy spell on the property of a medieval knight from the Crusades.
Yggdrasil and Merlin found on hrefngast.deviantart.com
Birds of Immortal Feathers
Have you ever wondered what happened to Merlin? Nathan and his new friend Scattach the Shadow travel through the stargate to find him....as a bird in a tree!

The Book of Thoth
Since the time of the fall of Atlantis, the Book of Thoth has been lost to many, except for the god who hid it and the chosen ones who protect its secrets of immortality.

The Emerald Tablets secretofthevine.com 



Week 15, Reading

Reading

In this course my favorite readings were the ones in the beginning that were the classics that I had not had the chance to read before. I also really liked the last few weeks of the reading choices, the European and British units. I had read some of those before, but not all of them. 

For the reading diaries, I liked to copy and paste the parts that really caught my attention in the original story. Sometimes I wanted to use bits of the exact story, or I just used the key ideas for the story. I tried to write it like it was a diary that no one else was reading but me. I tried to capture my inspiration at the moment from reading the story. It was easier to do on the readings that I liked the most.

I found that doing the readings was easy to keep up with, but it took more time and efforts to do all the writing for the class. Even the comments. I would usually take one day a week to be able to do the weeks assignments. I don't know if it was just a lot of writing for me because I was trying to do it all in one day or if it's just my perception.

I like that the readings are varied and you can choose from many things to read for the week. I would recommend to future students to take advantage of the assignment in the beginning where you have us map out what we want to read. I think having a goal and checking yourself is helpful. I forgot a few weeks into the course that I had created a roadmap for myself. It was good that midway you made us do another one. I tried to stay closer to that list and found it was helpful.

Week 15, Reflections

Reflections

I cannot believe how fast this semester went. I am relieved it is coming to an end and yet sorta sad to see it all go. I had a great time in this class. I felt like a kid in a candy store without a budget. Being able to read such great literature, which is inspiring and always makes me want to write, and then getting a chance to retell the story however I choose. I learned a lot about language and grammar from making endless mistakes. I love that even though I must have been driving the instructor insane with making the same mistakes over and over, she cheerfully urged me on to fix the problems and keep going. I think this helped me greatly even in my other courses. A few weeks ago I had a ten page paper due in all of  my other classes. When I had to set down to write them I was hyper aware of where my problems are and I double checked on them, and had the links to look it up because of this course. What a blessing!

I love to read and write, but I had not really been doing much of it until this class. It forced me to get back into things that I enjoy. I had so much fun reading everyone's stories. I think what I did the best at in this class was letting my imagination run wild. I like the stories I wrote, but I feel like they are the readers digest version of what they should be. I hope that I can take the time to take the stories to the next level. I did sign up to take the Indian Epics course next semester and I look forward to working hard to doing a better job with the things I struggle with in this course. Life is such a work in progress.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Week 12, Storytelling, The Honeymoon in Wonderland

Found on blog.hwtm.com
 The Honeymoon in Wonderland

Merlin officiated the nuptial vows and no sooner had he done so than Nineve, Lady of the Lake, showed up with Scattach the Shadow through the portal. Daniel, Nathan's brother and Melior, Melusina's sister were also present at the impromptu wedding ceremony as well as many other Immortals, Gods and Goddesses and all types of magical beings  who kept arriving through the stargate portal during their ceremony. News travels fast in the world of magic.The stargate portal is a magical way to travel through time and space dimensions. Often it appears to non magical beings to look like a pond or sacred well. Water has a magical transitive ability to shift energies if given the correct symbols used to direct the travel.

Merlin is still under the spell of Nineve, even though more than a millenia has passed, he shows no anger towards her. Nineve, on the other hand, was quite taken aback by the strange gathering. "Quite the dramatic show old friend!", Nineve sneered at Merlin. Nineve a glorious River Goddess dressed in her shimmering gauzy gown glaring haughtily at Merlin dressed in his shiny robes of a similar fashion. She is already plotting her next move to outsmart her old wizard friend.

Nineve had been in the middle of taking her vacation in Mount Shasta, California when her magical alarms went off alerting her to when Nathan the Seeker and Scattach the Shadow stole her sword Excalibur and then used it to unleashed Merlin and other Immortals from magical sleep. Thanks to Demeter many of the Immortals have a shape shifting ability to shift into bird form from when they all helped to look for her missing daughter Persephone. Nineve used the magic spell of placing the Immortals into the magical world tree, Yggdrasil, into a magical sleep while in their bird forms. The clever woman that she is learned all these cunning skills from the great Merlin himself! With all those powerful being tucked away all this time Nineve enjoyed ruling the magical realms without their interference. Alas all good things must come to an end.

The White Rabbit carrying his pocket watch and in a loud and hurried voice shouted, "Melusina and Nathan please let us go now, we don't want to be late! Oh dear!". 

The whole wedding party followed the White Rabbit and the newlyweds right down the rabbit hole into Wonderland!"You are the most beautiful wife in all of Wonderland my dear Melusina!", croons Nathan. He feels just awestruck to be married to the Immortal Melusina. The courtship and the wedding both are a bit odd but there you have it. 

"Who are YOU?" said the Caterpillar as he took the hookah out of its mouth and addressed them in a languid, sleepy voice.

Laughing, Nathan replied, rather shyly, "I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."

Just then Nathan saw the Cheshire Cat and kindly asked, "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,"said the Cat. The Cheshire Cat giggled and started singing..."twas brillig and the slithy toves..."

The wedding party all gathered together at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and carry on for who knows how long, because time works so differently in Wonderland...





Author's Note: I chose to write this fun little story based on one of my all time literary favorites, Alice in Wonderland. I love the imagination and whimsy of the stories of the girl Alice who most likely falls asleep and has some strange dreams, but in the story goes to a world of magic. She talks to a Hookah Smoking Caterpillar, a Cheshire Cat and a Mad Hatter in her travels among many other colorful characters. Nothing is as it seems in that world.

I also have been trying to carry a theme throughout the stories in my portfolio for this class. The story is about a man named Nathan who is a Seeker of Wisdom and Knowledge. He is pure of heart and fate brings him  magical opportunities and larger than life adventures with powerful people. Nathan's story is a long journey that is only represented here in the Portfolio in small fragments. As he travels the world through time and space he will face many strange things that may sound familiar to you from other things you have read or heard.



Bibliography: This story is part of the Alice in Wonderland unit. Story source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865).

Week 14, Reading Diary, Reading Diary A,Myth-Folklore Unit: Italian Popular Tales


Myth-Folklore Unit: Italian Popular Tales
The Story of Crivoliu
www.dailymail.co.uk


So this story touched me a bit. First off, it reminded me a little of the biblical story of Moses. Then when the abandoned baby grows up to be a holy man and finally a Pope I was surprised. The story starts out so strangely, with a brother and sister incest taboo, then abandoning a baby after branding it. A fisherman finds the baby. This also seems a reference to the Christian fish symbol to me. 

This was such a strange unit as a whole. This half of the unit is really not what I expected. The last story where the Cock wanted to be the Pope. I had to look up how many Popes there had been. I thought, well of course there would be literature focused on being a Pope in Italy!  The story of the three goslings and the wolf! Whoa, I guess we know where the three little pigs and the wolf come from! They must be related. One of the stories was like the farmer in the dell. The other one was surely an inspiration for Dr. Suess. I had fun reading this last unit of stories!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Week 14, Reading Diary, Reading Diary B, Myth-Folklore Unit: Italian Popular Tales

www.etsy.com




This is such a neat story. The gist is that a woman who was stupid enough to steal from a witch got caught and promised her unborn child to the witch! The girl goes to live with the witch who raises her. The witch keeps the girl locked in the tower. This is the story known to us all as Rapunzel. I am currently learning a great deal about the medieval times and it is interesting to me how this girl gets locked in this tower by a woman called a witch. I am glad that it does have a happy ending though it is sad that the witch is most likely just a country woman who was unmarried or barren and loses what she cherished most, the young girl. The maiden to me represents teen angst and the strange ideas of love during this time to rescue a damsel, or a strange girl you find in the woods. These stories are so old, there are many kings in the land, so this is most interesting to me.