Week 11, Storytelling, Birds of Immortal Feathers, Portfolio

Myth-Folklore Unit: King Arthur

THE PASSING OF MERLIN

Welsh Fairy Book: The Stray Cow

 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.

www.scs.illinois.edu

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 2, Storytelling, The Fall of Atlantis, Portfolio,

http://www.crystalinks.com/atlantis.html

The Fall of Atlantis

Before the time of the Great Flood there was an epoch of time called Atlantis, like how there was a medieval period of time. The days of the Atlantean period were full of advanced technology and astounding architectural accomplishments. A time when the gods and angels walked the earth with man. Atlantis also became full of corruption and greed. The law of the land went from a state of balance of peace and abundance for all to a state of imbalance and the rule of a few over many. People during the declining times of Atlantis became slaves to the elite and were forced to work in unsafe conditions, worship false gods, be separated from their loved ones and go without food or pay. The people became unsettled and started a rebellion to try to bring them back to a state of balance.

The huge towers and monuments that had been built to honor the gods, like the great Tower of Babel, came under attack because the people were losing faith in the powers of the gods to protect them from the tyranny of the elite ruling class of Atlantis. One of the tallest towers became a tool to shoot weapons into the sky. The rebelling Atlanteans were aiming to reach the heavens, the abodes of the gods with their death rays and atomic weapons that their anger and hatred had built. To start a war with heaven.

As with most times when mortals go meddling in the affairs of the gods, things did not end well for the rebelling people of Atlantis. The gods of the heavens sent the angels who were immortals to handle the affairs of the mortal humans of earth when the declining of Atlantis began. The angels became attached to the mortals because of how beautiful the women were. The human women were like a sweet and forbidden fruit for the angels. The angels angered the gods with their choices and the gods cast them out of the heavens as a consequence to their behaviors. Basically, the gods in the heavens took the ability to time and space travel through portals away and the angels could not go back home. They became known as the fallen angels because they fell from grace of the gods when they mated with the women of earth. The time of Atlantis soon came to an end known to us as the Great Flood. The flood was a consequence to the rebelling humans of Atlantis that started the war with the Tower of Babel. Only a certain few lived through the event to tell the tales of the world-changing events of the war with heaven that caused the fall of Atlantis, the fall of the great Tower of Babel, the Great Flood of epic proportion. Mankind fled in diaspora to many parts of the earth to survive and start over again. The languages on earth became scrambled and people lost the ability to communicate with each other. They  also lost a great wealth of technology.

Some of the survivors of the fall of the tower and of Atlantis  cleverly disguised still live on today. They are known in certain circles as the Immortals.This handful of random survivors, the Immortals appear to live forever, while some others have been killed or have died. They all still have amazing magical powers and treasures. Today we know of their myths and legends as gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines. One of those Immortals that survived was a woman named Nineve, the Lady of the Lake. Her bloodline still exists today, and you have heard of  her most likely in legends of Merlin and King Arthur. Nineve survived the earth's changes and helped to build a new civilization on earth and pass on sacred knowledge like others of her time, such as Thoth the Scribe,  Melchizedek the Priest, Scatthach the Warrior, Parashuram the Avatar of Lord Vishnu and a handful of others. 

 Seal of Melchizedek found at sealofmelchizedek.com

Author's Note: I started this story not knowing where it would lead me. I love the old stories in the Bible, the ones that are so old they come from some other ancient culture. I think the Tower of Babel is a story that actually happened but happened during the time of Atlantis. The Bible also tells us about the fallen angels.The original stories found in the Unit for Noah told the stories from the books of Genesis in the Bible. I tried to keep the main idea of the fall of the Tower of Babel being the fall of Atlantis, when people were sent all over the earth and were unable to communicate for a while.

In my story The Fall of Atlantis, I chose to start the beginning of Nathan's story, a  Hero/Seeker character I have created to retell old stories. It is meant to be an introduction or backstory to the stories to come in the Portfolio I am creating.  Melusina is Nathan's wife who comes from one of those branches of the family tree of Nineve. She exists today in legends from medieval French and English tales of the Merovingian bloodlines. It is said that the royal bloodlines of the Merovingians  are cursed with the line of Melusina the mermaid, a water goddess, but she has lived since the times of Avalon, after the fall of Atlantis. Her story is tied to a Seeker named Nathan that wanders into the path of Melusina unknowingly during the late nineteenth century in France and becomes enchanted by her beauty and magic. Together they set off on an adventures to find treasures left behind by some Immortals, and to take treasure from those immortals who still live!

Bibliography: These stories are a part of the Noah unit. Story source: The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg(1909).

Week 4, Storytelling, Book of Thoth, Portfolio

Vatican Library libguides.slu.edu

Before the time of the fall of Atlantis, there were many gods and goddesses that roamed the earth, or so we are told in many old documents. Many of these old documents, are hard to find. Most were burned in the great fires of Alexandria. Some books remain yet to be found, but certain ones are held by the Library of the Catholic Church. The book Nathan wanted to find was about the ibis-headed god Thoth and his emerald tablets. The ancient Egyptians held him sacred in their myths as a scribe, and deity of the moon and magic.

Nathan had spent his life almost like the character in the movies called Indiana Jones. He traveled around searching for the treasures of antiquity to learn more about the culture and lives of the amazing people that lived before us. He was obsessed with finding what seemed to be the key to what he was searching for, the Emerald Tablets, the philosopher's stone. He had traced the clues all the way to Rome. Looking around the dizzying sights of the repository of knowledge, he heard a hearty chuckle, and he turned around.

"Why are you laughing at me?" said Nathan.

"Because you read these worthless writings," answered the priest. "If you would read writings that are worth the reading, I can tell you where the Book of Thoth lies hidden."

Nathan was shocked to hear the old man claim to know such esoteric facts, much less say them out loud. Well, whispered really, because they were sitting in the musty old Vatican Library, after all. Nathan was there to procure information on a most sought after relic, but he was puzzled at how an old leathery Catholic priest would come to hold this sort of knowledge. Some things we just never get to know.

"How do I know that what you say is true?" Nathan queried.

Image of a box philipcoppens.com

When the priest had taken the money that was agreed upon before the clandestine meeting, he said ominously to Nathan, "Be suspicious of anything that fulfills all our heart's desires."

The Book is at Koptos in the middle of the river.
In the middle of the river is an iron box,
In the iron box is a bronze box,
In the bronze box is a keté-wood box,
In the keté-wood box is an ivory-and-ebony box,
In the ivory-and-ebony box is a silver box,
In the silver box is a gold box,
And in the gold box is the Book of Thoth.
Round about the great iron box are snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things, and above all there is a snake which no man can kill. These are set to guard the Book of Thoth.

The old man handed the information on the paper to Nathan. Tingling with excitement, Nathan headed out to find the lost box and bring this all-encompassing search for immortality to an end. Against the wishes of his wife and family, he would not stop until he accomplished this near impossible mission. But he had prayed too long and hard, and had too much success already to believe he should abandon his fool's task. Indeed, he felt that his God was on his side because of all the sacrifices and promises he made to God if he would just let him find this one thing. Feeling as if his life's work was the single most important thing in the world, Nathan should take the time to quickly call his wife from the airport in Rome, before he makes a quick trip to Egypt to fetch his treasure, to share his great news, but maybe he should wait until he had even better news to share with his gorgeous wife, Melusina.

Thoth, a god of ancient Egypt.  www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk

Author's note: The original story The Book of Thoth: Part One is exciting to me because I have always been fascinated by the Egyptian God Thoth and his Emerald Tablets.Thoth is  the ibis-headed deity that is a scribe and known for his great knowledge that he brought to earth. In my story I inserted the directions to find the tablets and used the exact wording of the Book of Thoth used in the original version. I also find it interesting that there are so many myths using the symbol of a magical box, or an ark that may or may not hold sacred tablets, such as the Ark of the Covenant that holds the Tablets of Moses, the famous box of Pandora that held all sorts of things, etc. it must be an ancient archetype.

 I am having fun lately telling  old stories in a modern twist, which is what I tried to do by updating the when of this story. In the original version there is a character named Nefer-ka-ptah that I have renamed Nathan, and his wife Melusina is Ahura in the original story. There are three parts to this story, and I only concentrated on the first part of the story, how Nathan finds the information of how to find the emerald tablets. Nefer-ka-ptah finds the tablets in the original tale, and when Thoth finds out that they are stolen he seeks revenge on Nefer-ka-ptah and his family. I aim to change the fate of the seeker Nathan so that his meeting with the magician Thoth will be more colorful. More like time travel. Death ends the adventure too soon.

Stay tuned for more episodes of what adventures lay in wait for Nathan. I really like the character Nathan, the Seeker. I would like to use him throughout the portfolio assignment in his many travels across space, time and adventure! He is THE fallen master (the name of my blog).






Bibliography:
Egypt: The Book of Thoth: Part One


This story is part of the Ancient Egypt unit. Story source:Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).

Week 7, Storytelling, Symbols for Nathan, Portfolio

Found on travellerspoint.comToulouse,France

Nathan and Daniel were brothers and best friends. They spent most of their time growing up together traveling with their parents who were archeologists. Naturally, the boys also developed a curiosity of the ancient world and its mysteries and stayed in the family business of studying antiquities. Nathan and his brother Daniel accepted adventurous job positions to find any links to the lost Templar Treasure and anything that could link old Crusaders to King Solomon's lost treasures.Nathan, the younger of the two brothers, was always the kinder-hearted boy.

Nathan was so excited to be on a quest in Toulouse and walking the grounds where the actual Crusader Raymond the Count of Toulouse walked. He was even more excited to be given the opportunity to find something mystical and ancient connected to King Solomon. Daniel was focused on the reward at the end of this quest, a large sum of money. Nathan did not care too much about the fortune that could be a reward. What he really wanted was to find the ancient knowledge so he could know what the mysteries are all about.

 One day when Nathan and Daniel set off to  the countryside of  Toulouse France that is heavily steeped in medieval folklore. They are looking for clues to lost treasure of the great King Solomon, and they change their lives forever. As they were roaming around the grounds of an old abandoned medieval castle, Nathan found something amazing.

However, it was Daniel that found the Seal of Solomon etched  on an old keystone of a stone arch that was leading off to a wooded area. They knew they were on to the right track. As they walked into the beautiful wooded area they felt as if they were being watched.

"These woods are creepy, like there are ornery little wood fairies just waiting to catch you in their wicked little snares." Nathan softly and playfully chided his brother Nathan.

"Don't tell me that you actually think that those sweet little people would do harm?" Daniel bantered.
Daniel always felt as if Nathan could charm anyone with his smile and big cow eyes and yet, Daniel seemed to cause a reaction in people too, one of distrust.

As they were talking and teasing one another they came to a clearing in the woods and there was a gorgeous little spring lake. It felt so surreal and magical. The boys stopped and looked at each other with eyes grown large, eyebrows drawn high and mouths hanging open. The lake was not the most magical thing there. To the amazement of them both, there stood the most gorgeous women they had ever seen. The boys did not yet know it, but they were sisters. They were standing by the lake talking and giggling and waving at the two brothers. Naturally, the brothers walked over to them, and the closer they got, the more they felt as if something was not quite right.

The divinely beautiful women were kind and asked them their names. Of course they inquired what the boys were doing wandering around their magnificent home. Daniel lied and said they were just tourist and  they were lost. This little lie caused a reaction in one of the women, Melior. It was a strange little fleck of red  that twinkled briefly in her eye that set off alarms for Nathan. But he just as quickly brushed his alarm aside when he looked at his brother Daniel,who was obviously quite taken with the beautiful woman Melior.

 They all went into the home of the women and  sat down at the table where they offered the men food and drink, things got weird. The sister, Melior, who had the red twinkle in her eye, shifted her appearance and took on a more sinister look. Daniel  was too distracted to see it. All he could see was the amount of wealth all around him. Strewn about the castle hung priceless tapestries, silver candle sticks with Hebrew inscriptions, stained glass windows displaying sacred geometry and signets of Solomon's Seals, crystal goblets that seemed to emanate light from within itself, and it went on and on.  Daniel was so focused on how he would  have wealth and fame because he just found the lost treasures of King Solomon. He did not realize that he had walked into the realm of the fairies and sealed his own fate when he ate and drank what was offered by the hospitable women.

Nathan who did not speak lies,did not eat and drink with the fairies. Nathan was not consumed with greed and did not even notice or see the treasures inside the home. Instead his experience became one of a different sort of enchantment. Little did he know or suspect that his fate had changed forever.

 The other woman, whose name is Melusina, could read the heart and intentions of Nathan. She could see that he was destined to be a seeker of knowledge. So she plotted her plans to ensnare him and use him to break the spell that kept the women captive to the property. Since the women were immortals, they had been there for a thousand years give or take. Melusina, being an immortal and a magical being, needed Nathan who was pure of heart to do her dirty work. So she enchanted Nathan. She made him believe that he found a connection to the lost Templar treasures. She made him believe they were madly in love.

When it was time to leave, Daniel had become captive of the fairy realm, never to leave again. Nathan was under a spell and did not even remember his brother. He only knew  he had fallen deeply in love with Melusina. He knew  he had a new quest to set off on. He had to find the sword of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake to set Melusina free so they could be married. He knew exactly where to go and look.....

Found on hexkaba.tumblr.com

Tibetan Folk Tales: The Golden Squash 

Tibetan Folk Tales: Covetousness

Author's Note:
I chose to read the Tibetan unit because I do not know much about their folklore. I found that I really liked the simplicity and relatability of the stories. For this assignment it made it easy for me to use the morals of greed and pure of heart in the examples of the original stories for my own storyline. In the original the story is about two old men who are friends, one with a kind heart who helps an innocent animal and is repaid in great wealth, which causes the other man to feel greed and envy. When the greedy man sees how the wealth happened, he tried to reproduce the efforts, but dies out of wickedness instead of reaping benefits.

Something I changed in my story is that it takes place in France during the 1800's and not in Tibet. The pure of heart (Nathan) actually becomes a tool or a means of other people's greed. Like the people that Nathan and his brother work for to find the treasures, the brother (heart full of greed) seals his own fate by not being suspicious of the fairy offerings, or even of the fairies themselves. Soon you will see the fate of  Nathan and Melusina as she uses Nathan for her own greed, in the Portfolio of stories that I am creating.

Bibliography:This story is part of the Tibetan Folktales unit. Story source: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).