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!

Week 13, Reading Diary, Reading Diary A, Myth-Folklore Unit: Dante's Inferno

Myth-Folklore Unit: Dante's Inferno

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Inferno: The Furies and the Heretics

I really enjoyed reading this unit. I had not read it before, I have heard about it of course because it is so very famous and influential in religious ideas. People had told me that trying to read it would be difficult and you can't understand nor appreciate the work unless you know the people that he meets in the different circles of hell. Admittedly, I did not recognize all the names, but I did know most of the people so far. I like how at the end of this snippit, Dante see's the graves of the heretics...

...'Here are the arch-heretics, with their followers, of every sect: and the tombs contain many more than you might think. Here like is buried with like, and the monuments differ in degrees of heat.' ...

I can only imagine the list of people who might have been thought heretics at this time. Lest we forget that even Jesus was condemned a heretic...

Inferno: Limbo

You do not demand to know who these spirits are that you see. I want you to learn, before you go further, that they had no sin, yet, though they have worth, it is not sufficient, because they were not baptised, and baptism is the gateway to the faith that you believe in. Since they lived before Christianity, they did not worship God correctly, and I myself am one of them. For this defect, and for no other fault, we are lost, and we are only tormented, in that without hope we live in desire.'

I like this part of the story too, where it talks about how these people are down here not because of sin, but because they were not baptized. Some people are down here because it wa before the time of Christianity. This one really gets me. I find it hilarious and I am sure Dante did too, because the early church fathers who basically invented the religion as an amalgamation of all different religions and ideas had not really critically examined the issues that heaven and hell bring to the picture.

Week 12, Reading Diary A, Myth-Folklore Unit: Alice in Wonderland

Found on blog.hwtm.com

Myth-Folklore Unit: Alice in Wonderland

Wonderland: Pig and Pepper (end)

CHAPTER V. Advice from a Caterpillar

'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. 'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. '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.

'I don't much care where — ' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

' — so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. 'What sort of people live about here?'

'In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on, 'And how do you know that you're mad?'

This has always been a favorite part of the story for me. If you don't know who you are when the hooka smoking caterpiller asks you, and you don't know where you are going then it's perfectly acceptable to be going to have a tea party with the mad hatter. To be among the mad. I am excited about adding this part of the story to my story. I think when Nathan and Melusina go to Wonderland for their anniversary they will meet the Chesire cat and the hooka smoking caterpiller.

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

'Who are YOU?' said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice 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.'

I think if we get to have the caterpillar meet with Nathan and Melusina and get them to say aloud who they are it might be fun. They are on their honeymoon so they can say fun things like, I am married! I am ....a seeker....I am....etc.

I want this piece of the story to kind of wrap of my portfolio stories. The first story has to start in the fall of Atlantis, and the last part of the story is when Nathan is seeking the Emerald tablets. Wonderland is where Nathan and Melusina go after they wake up Merlin and Melusina is set free, so Nathan and Melusina get married and they head to Wonderland for a honeymoon. 

Aphrodite (Goddesss of love, beauty and marriage) can maybe play a part in the story too. She is represented by a white rabbit. I think instead of a man white rabbit, I will use a woman, Aphrodite who shape shifts into a rabbit. She is the person waiting to take the newly wedded couple to Wonderland. (and of course she will have a watch and be running on time...)

Week 11, Reading Diary, Reading Diary A, King Arthur

Myth-Folklore Unit: King Arthur

THE PASSING OF MERLIN

• Sir Pellinore, brought a damsel of the lake to Arthur's Court, and when Merlin saw her he fell in love with her, so that he desired to be always in her company....whom some call Nimue and others Vivien, and wherever she went, Merlin went also.

Okay cool, now we meet the immortal Lady of the Lake, the owner of Excalibur. She has the sword as it was returned to her upon the death of King Arthur. Nathan has been sent to retrieve the sword by his immortal soon to be wife Melusina. Nimue is Melusina's maternal grandmother. Melusina and her sister Melior have been magically trapped on a piece of property owned by the crusader family of Raymond of Toulouse, and Nathan is on an errand to find the sword in order to free Melusina. 

• The damsel laughed in secret at Merlin but made use of him to tell her all she would know, and the wizard had no strength to say her nay, though he knew what would come of it. For he told King Arthur that before long he should be put into the earth alive, for all his cunning. 

Like Nathan, the seeker, the pure of heart, even the powerful Merlin is defenseless against the guiles of the women of the line of the lady of the lake. The river goddess woman are unstoppable when they decide on doing something.

• put forth all her Powers and told Merlin how she longed to see the wonders beneath the stone, and, in spite of all his wisdom, Merlin listened to her and crept under the rock to bring forth the strange things that lay there. And when he was under the stone, she used the magic he had taught her, and the rock rolled over him and buried him alive, as he had told King Arthur....— now that she knew all the magic he could teach her.

I wonder if this is how Nathan and Melusina will wind up, after he passes the initiation and retrieves what Melusina is after. What exactly is it that she is after? Why do we need Excalibur? and what about the other swords, Joyeuse, and Cortana?

Week 9, Reading Diary, Reading Diary A,Myth-Folklore Unit: California and the Old Southwest

Myth-Folklore Unit: California and the Old Southwest

Sunrise Mount Shasta California


For my reading diary A this week I chose to read the folklore and myths from the California and southwest because they appeal the most to me. I grew up in the southwest, but my heart is in the northwest. I really like the readings by the Pima Indians The Creation of Mankind and the Flood Pima (Arizona)
After the world was ready, Earth Doctor made all kinds of animals and creeping things. Then he made images of clay, and told them to be people. After a while there were so many people that there was not food and water enough for all. They were never sick and none died.
This is a neat way of explaining death. I am intrigued by the Earth Doctor. I would not at all be surprised to find Doctor Who behind all this! LOL.
Earth Doctor made a hole through the earth with his stick, and through that he went, coming out safe, but alone, on the other side.Okay, this screams of a wormhole, time travel! I have been waiting for this!
The people began to increase in numbers, just as they had done before, but Elder Brother shortened their lives, so the earth did not become so crowded. But Elder Brother did not like the people created by Earth Doctor, so he planned to destroy them again. So Elder Brother planned to create a magic baby.The screams of the baby shook the earth. They could be heard for a great distance. Then Earth Doctor called all the people together, and told them there would be a great flood. He sang a magic song and then bored a hole through the flat earth-plain through to the other side. Some of the people went into the hole to escape the flood that was coming, but not very many got through.

I am speechless about Elder Brother and this magic baby whose screams shake the earth. Unless, this is the atomic bomb that we read of in the Bhagavadgita. I fully believe that happened and this could be a great way to explain it. I have often believed that the desert of the southwest is very connected to India and Egypt, as well as the Mayans. It sounds to me like they opened a portal and left.

The other story I really enjoyed from this half of the unit is the 

Old Man Above and the Grizzlies Shastika (Cal.)

Little Daughter climbed up to the smoke hole and put out her arm. But Little Daughter put out her head also. She wanted to see the world. Little Daughter wanted to see the rivers and trees, and the white foam on the Bitter Waters. Wind caught Little Daughter by the hair. Wind pulled her out of the smoke hole and blew her down the mountain.

This sounds to me so much like she went through a stargate portal. It sounds like where she came from they sure had a lot of power too, since her dad can make a bear look down and walk on four legs and no longer talk to humans. Actually it doesn't even sound much like little daughter is human, but her and the bears made humans. 

Week 7, Reading Diary A,Tibetan Folk Tales, Reading Diary

Tibetan Folk Tales

Tibet, Plateau of: yaks grazing in desert area of the Plateau of Tibet
 www.britannica.com

I chose to read the Tibetan unit because I do not know much about their folklore. I would like to work my character Nathan into more stories. I think I may be able to bring him in to retell the story Covetousness. In Nathan's first story he is on his way to find his treasure, the emerald tablets, but this story of Covetousness could come before or after Nathan being at the Vatican. I could use his wife Melusina to tell the parable as a warning to his greed.

Tibetan Folk Tales: Covetousness

Now the moral is, "First, people shouldn't be greedy when there is plenty for all (the fox wanted all the meat to eat for a year and tried to ruin the bow and got killed). Second, you mustn't do what you aren't fitted for (the elephant tried to do what the rabbit was doing and got killed). Then the four men begrudged the three and the three begrudged the four, so they all died.

Week 6, Reading Diary A,Week 6, Storytelling, Myth-Folklore Unit: Brer Rabbit,Reading Diary

Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit  leahstps.wordpress.com

Myth-Folklore Unit: Brer Rabbit

I have several reasons why I chose this unit this week. First of which is because I loved the Disney movie Song of the South when I was very young. Of course due to it's unflattering content, it has not been popular available in a long time.  So I thought as an educated  adult I would like to re-examine the story and view it not from the eyes of an innocent child that loved everything Disney animated. Also because I am not familiar with much of the Asian and African stuff. So I tried to do the Anansi stuff, which I recognized as something from my childhood also, but it was when it was a children's theatre who acted a lot of this stuff out with animals and props. I tried to read it and found that I might still need thee props to understand it. The words were too hard for me to really grasp. I found this unit easier to understand. I still had to read it out loud to get the effects, and it makes me chuckle...

The Calamus Root

This link will take you to the story I just sampled and pasted here...

Bimeby, one day, atter Brer Fox bin doin' all dat he could fer ter ketch Brer Rabbit, en Brer Rabbit bein' doin' all he could fer ter keep 'im fum it, Brer Fox say to hisse'f dat he'd put up a game on Brer Rabbit, en he ain't mo'n got de wuds out'n his mouf twel Brer Rabbit came a lopin' up de big road, lookin' des ez plump, en ez fat, en ez sassy ez a Moggin hoss in a barley-patch.

Wow, I am so amazed at the ability to write words as they would sound in broken English with a distinctly  thick Southern Plantation era accent. It is not often as a student that we get the opportunity to use such creative license to butcher up our language and things work out okay. That being said, I would like to try this,  and I will smile and watch my spell check do backflips. I always found it cool to read an author who had a style that they used that would set them apart in their writings, but my teachers always said I needed to know the rules before I could break them, become famous and then I could do it my way. This is cool though, because it captures a historical time in our country. The words used here bring such a visual, of course helped along if you have ever been to the south, or watched the Disney version, or read the books etc. 
All prior knowledge aside, the anthropomorphic characters remind me of the old cat and mouse routine aka Tom and Jerry. Another of my childhood favorites. The inner child in me still does, but the adult me is humored by the adult male friendship that is actually happening. These cartoons and stories share with us the  inner workings, psychologically speaking, of two grown men. 
This reminds me of my own personal experience when I was in my twenties. I worked at the Center for the New Age in Sedona at the time. Best job ever, for many reasons. One of which was the people I worked with. All women, they were so kind and brought donuts and were uplifting etc. One day I was leaving work and had stopped by to pick up my ex-husband from his place of work. He worked at a yummy  joint called Moondog's Pizza where the staff was all male. I sat like a fly on the wall waiting for Mick to be done and ride home with me. Watching the most appalling display of men smacking each other, calling each other names, just brutal. They were best friends. If my ladies acted like that to me, things would quickly end badly. If his guys had acted like my lady friends it would also take a strange turn. 
This story strikes me as such powerful imagery and subtle psychology of the times. The struggle for the alpha-male position in a group of animals. They are all part of the local community that enjoys the banter that men enjoy. If something actually did happen to one of the characters it would be sad, they would miss them, the sheer sport of the bantering. The counter psychology of telling Brer Fox not to throw him in the sticker bush, roast him or other horrible things instead is another example of using reverse psychology.

Brer Rabbit: Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure

Bimeby, one day wiles he wuz gwine 'long de road, old Brer Wolf come up wid 'im. W'en dey done howdyin' en axin' atter one nudder's fambly connexshun, Brer Wolf, he 'low, he did, dat der wuz sump'n wrong wid Brer Fox, en Brer Fox, he 'low'd der wern't, en he went on en laugh en make great terdo kaze Brer Wolf look like he spishun sump'n.
The animals who would otherwise be natural predators like a rabbit, bear, fox, buzzard,turtle and a wolf are exchanging pleasantries and inquiring on each others families. Quaint. I think this is a clever use of the pack to have a pecking order, yet familial ties. The little country community comes complete. Except the part where the rabbit cooks the wolf.

Week 5, Reading Diary A, Folk-lore of the Holy Land, Reading Diary

www.quranicpath.com

This story is part of the Holy Land Folklore unit. Story source:Folk-lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish by J. E. Hanauer (1907).

Moslem Cosmogony (cont.)

Then, in order that the angel might have something to stand on, Allah created a great rock of green emerald which He commanded to roll in beneath his feet and support them.

Thus, as I have explained, the world rests upon the shoulders of an angel, and the angel upon a great emerald rock, and the rock upon the horns or shoulders of a bull, and the bull upon the back of a great whale, and the whale or dragon swims in a great sea which is upborne by air, which is surrounded by darkness. The heavenly bodies shine at certain seasons through the darkness, but what there is beyond the darkness Allah knows!

First of all, I spent last week being blown away by the boxes of magical things, and the Emerald Tablets of Thoth as well from Egyptian myth. It was a surprise to me right away in this unit to find another reference to such things. Granted, the emerald rock that Allah makes is a little different, or is it? I enjoyed this units readings, though I am now looking at the Patriarch Abraham a bit differently. 

Week4, Reading Diary A, Myth-Folklore Unit: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories,Reading Diary

Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

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King of the Dead

"The lamentations of the goddesses were heard by Ra, and he sent down from heaven the god Anubis, who, with the assistance of Thoth and Horus, united the severed portions of the body of Osiris, which they wrapped in linen bandages. Thus had origin the mummy form of the god."This story is part of the Ancient Egypt unit. Story source:Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).
This passage from the story King of the Dead struck me as interesting because in all the years of reading anything I can find on Egypt, I had not read about how the origin of the mummy came about. Everyone knows that the Egyptians have mummies, but did anyone know why? I did not. 

The Death of Osiris

"He (Set) brought a shapely and decorated chest, which he had caused to be made according to the measurements of the king's body. All men praised it at the feast, admiring its beauty, and many desired greatly to possess it."This story is part of the Ancient Egypt unit. Story source:Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).
After reading the passage in the King of the Dead it reminded me of the description of the ornate coffin that Osiris becomes entombed in.  Set being the archetype of the Trickster, plays a folly on his brother Osiris that he is jealous of and creates chaos for the god/goddess in The Death of Osiris. Both of these passages bring very visual images to mind for me of mummies and sarcophagi of gold and precious gems.
Strangely, also what caught my attention is the reference to a box, or chest that was greatly desired. I cannot help but to think of the image of the arc of the covenant. Besides the biblical arc, I do believe that the ancient Egyptians had access to some technology, so my mind went to some science fiction areas with references to boxes, chests, arcs, especially in the part of the story of the wax crocodile that was put into a box, then came to life. What may have been magic to some, may have been science or technology.  

Week 3, Reading Diary A, Ovid's Metamorphoses,Reading Diary

Callisto

nihilnovum.wordpress.com Callisto being asked by Dianna to leave

I chose to read the Classic Ovid's Metomorphoses because it is a classic and I have not read it, but have translated Latin sentences into English from the great story. It is interesting  how Ovid is telling the story of many Roman myths as a seamless story to explain the accepted ideas by the Romans of his day, but in a more exciting way through verse in Latin which is not easy to do. In my first Latin course at the University of Oklahoma I started reading Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan for part of my culture points. Yes, the first series of the books are about Greek myth, but, the second part of that series is about Roman myth. I think in many ways I compare what Ovid did in his style of telling us about Metamorphoses in much the same way. An old story being told in a new way, one that we can identify with and be entertained by. I feel amazed when I read Rick Riordan's books and I am also intrigued by Ovid's stories of changes of all the many characters of the myths. 

I especially like the story of Callisto, it is a sad one, but the imagery is vivid. I like the part where Hera grabs Callistos hair and face and she transforms into a bear. This is so heartbreaking that this poor girl that was raped, gets kicked out of her career path basically because you have to be a virgin to be a part of the hunt with Dianna, then cannot even raise her child because a jealous Goddess turns her into a bear. She sadly watches her life being trapped inside of an animal. Nobody said life was fair. I find it interesting in the difference too of how in Ovid's stories, bad things happen, really bad and it doesn't end well. But in modern times, telling stories almost always requires needing a way to wrap it up nicely so it has a happy ending.

Week 2,Reading Diary A,Noah: The Punishment of the Fallen Angels

Weeks 2-3: Classical and Biblical

Noah: The Punishment of the Fallen Angels

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I chose this one because it is a story that I am familiar with through Ancient Aliens. The story seems straight out of science fiction. Yet, this is what people believe as truth as it is written in the Bible that the sons of God mated with the daughters of men. The Nephilim, the giants. Is the story prescription or description?  Where do we find the earliest version of this story?
The woman who learns and says the ineffable name of god, reminds me more of the Adam and Eve fall from garden of Eden story.
"Shemhazai saw a maiden named Istehar, and he lost his heart to her. She promised to surrender herself to him, if first he taught her the Ineffable Name, by means of which he raised himself to heaven. He assented to her condition. But once she knew it, she pronounced the Name, and herself ascended to heaven, without fulfilling her promise to the angel. God said, "Because she kept herself aloof from sin, we will place her among the seven stars, that men may never forget her," and she was put in the constellation of the Pleiades."
This block quote from the story leads me to believe that this is Ancient Summarian in origin.
I love love love the use of the names of the sons as the sounds, Hiwwa and Hiyya-as men cut or haul stones, or launch vessels, they shall invoke your names, Hiwwa! Hiyya!