Reading Notes: Italian Popular Tales, Part A

Italian Popular Tales Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/07/italian-language-of-animals.html)

Depiction of the eventual Pope and son

The story begins with a father whose son has been away studying at school for the past ten years, when he received a letter from the son's teacher claiming that he needed to take his son back as he could not teach him any more. Upon the son's return, his father set up a large feast to celebrate him even inviting many different powerful noble men from all across Italy. The noble men all gave speeches like in most ancient feasts, but once they were done on of them asked the son to tell him one thing that he had learned in his ten years of schooling. The son claimed to have learned the language of various animals including: dogs, frogs, and even birds. The whole crowd erupted in laughter at the answer and all left almost immediately. The father was mocked for being so proud while the son was made fun of for being a fool. The father became so enraged at this that he ordered two of his servants to go out and kill the son. After they did this they were supposed to bring back his heart, but they could not do it and instead decided to bring back a random dog's heart instead. After this the boy flees for a long time until he came across a rich treasurer's castle and asked to stay inside as he had been on the move for some time. Upon his arrival though a group of dogs came to gather outside the castle and as the son understood them he found out that a large group of assassins were coming to attack the castle that very night. The treasurer set up the guards to eliminate the assassins and was so grateful to the son that he offered his daughter's hand in marriage to him on the condition that he couldn't come back until a year and three days had passed. Next, the boy met the king's daughter and was able to help her finally sleep by calming the frogs in the nearby pond as she had thrown a cross into the fountain, so after removing she was saved and also offered to the son in marriage. The son finally left and went to Rome where he made three new friends along the road only to be followed by a flock of singing birds. The son finally interpreted what they were saying as they were trying to pick the new Pope and suddenly it landed on the son who shortly after became Pope. The newly-ordained Pope summoned all the people he had helped as well as his father, who instantly wept as he realized he was wrong, and they lived together in peace.

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part B

English Fairy Tales Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/03/myth-folklore-unit-english-fairy-tales.html)

Depiction of Henny-penny having the "sky fall down"

Before getting into the actual telling and plot of this story it is interesting to note that each of the characters have a sort of second name after their own that rhymed with their first name. For example. one of the main characters of this story is know as "Henny-penny," or "Cocky-locky," and I will omit the second name for ease of reading / referencing. To begin, Henny was going around in her local cornyard when suddenly she was hit on the head by something from above. This led Henny to call out that the sky was falling and that she needed to go to tell the king, so she set out to and on her way first met Cocky who was a rooster and after Henny had told him what she was going to do, he gladly joined along. Next, Henny and Cocky kept going along the path to the king when they encountered Ducky who followed Cocky's suit for after he heard about Henny's mission he too wanted to tag along. Then, the three continued along the path to the king when they encountered Goosey who did the same as the two prior and joined the party to tell the king that the sky was falling. The last animal the party encountered was Foxy who after being asked by the group the same line of questions, told them that they were all headed the wrong way to get to the king and offered to show the group the right way there. Foxy lead the group to a nearby cave and offered them to come through one by one and killed them each as they came down. This happened in the reverse order the animals joined the party until Cocky was bitten twice and Henny knew something was wrong so she ran home and never got to tell the king that the sky is falling.

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part A

English Fairy Tales Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/03/myth-folklore-unit-english-fairy-tales.html)

Visual of a skein

This unit begins with a woman making five pies in her kitchen with her daughter and when the mother took the all of the pies out of the oven she noticed that they all had been overcooked. Because of this, the pies all had too hard of crusts to eat, so the mother told her daughter to go and set the pies up on the nearby shelf so that they could go soft over time. The daughter instead decides that since the pies were going to eventually soften up then surely she could eat them now despite their hard crusts. After only a moment the daughter ate up all five pies with their hard crusts and it was not until dinner that the girl's mother called her to bring a pie as they likely had softened up by now. When the daughter went to go check the shelf that her mother told her to set each of the pies on, she looked and saw only the five plates that they were supposed to be on top of. She turned to her mother and lied to her saying that none of the pies had softened up yet to save herself. The mother decided she was going to have one of the pies regardless of the softness of the crust, and the daughter finally cracked telling the mother that she had in fact eaten all of the pies. The mother began to spin around and sing that her daughter had eaten the five pies. The king was heading down the street and overheard the singing only to ask her if he could marry her daughter. His only caveat was that she had to spin five skeins everyday or he would have her killed. The daughter did get to enjoy the high life until it came time to make the five skeins until an imp came to try and help, but was eventually banished with a simple rhyme.

Reading Notes: Nursery Rhyme, Part B

Nursery Rhymes Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/nursery-rhymes-jingles.html)

Depiction of the cat with his fiddle

The main theme across these tellings is that they are all in a sort of sing song type of pattern as they are all defined as "rhymes," with certain rhyme schemes that differ between each of the stories. The first telling is a much shorter story than most of the others in this unit and revolves around the teller describing his son, John. His son had gone to bed, but left on his pants as well as only one of his shoes.

The next story has each of its verses begins with the phrase "Cock a doodle doo!" This was due to the main character of the story being a rooster calling out. The rooster starts out by explaining that his "dame," had lost her shoe as well as his master had lost his fiddling stick. The next verse describes that his dame does not know what to do with his master not being able to find his fiddling stick. The third verse repeats the first verse, but instead of the master losing his fiddling stick he instead found his fiddling stick. Then the dame begins to dance as the master has his fiddling stick and begins to play for the rooster and the dame. The final verse wrapped the story up with the dame still unable to find her shoe and left to bed unsure of what to do next to find her shoe.

The next story is a classic rhyme with many different characters quickly being introduced to many different wacky characters. This is also quite a short story as well and begins with a cat and his fiddle being introduced. Next, their is a cow who had jumped over the moon being introduced. Then, a small dog is introduced who laughed at all of the sites and chuckled to himself. Lastly, the story wraps up with the last characters being introduced as while all of these characters were being introduced a dish chased after a spoon.

Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes, Part A

Nursery Rhymes Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/04/myth-folklore-unit-nursery-rhymes.html)

Depiction of Simple Simon

The main theme across these tellings is that they are all in a sort of sing song type of pattern as they are all defined as "rhymes," with certain rhyme schemes that differ between each of the stories. The first in this set is centered around two young children who were taken from their homes. These children rename anonymous in the story as per the speaker in this story. Both of the children were left out in the woods by their kidnappers and they remained there late into the night. They became sad as they realized their situation especially as the sun went down. After some time of crying, the two children "...lay down and died." After this a group of red robins came to spread strawberry leaves on the two children all throughout the day singing out about the "Poor babes in the wood!"

The next story is much shorter as it revolves around someone known as the Crooked Man who goes out and about encountering many different crooked objects and animals from a coin he finds on the road to the cat he purchased with that caught a similar mouse. After this whirlwind of crooked animal and objects the Crooked Man went back with his new friends to his crooked house.

The next story revolves around a character known only as Simple Simon. Simon begins by approaching a local pie man at a fair and asking him to let him have a taste of his pie. The pie man asked Simon for to show him that he has money to pay for it before letting him try his pies, but Simon tells the pie man that he does not have any money. So Simon went out to go fishing to make the money for some pie looking to catch a whale inside his mother's pail that was filled up all the water he had.

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part B

Eskimo Folk Tales Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/03/myth-folklore-unit-eskimo-folk-tales.html)

Depiction of the beast spirit

The story begins with two men, Papik and the brother of his wife, Ailaq, who both are fisherman by trade and would always go out to hunt seal together. Every time the two went out for a hunt, Papik would not catch anything, while Ailaq managed to always catch a seal. Each time this happened, Papik grew more jealous of Ailaq until one day only Papik returned in absolute silence. Later that night, Ailaq's mother came and confronted Papik claiming that he had been the one who had killed her son. Papik denied it vehemently, but the old woman became almost delirious as shes began to threaten Papik that one day she will eat him alive as she believed that he had killed him. She went out to the nearby shore and covered herself in a large blanket before letting the tide come up over her so that she may pass away to become a ghost for the purpose of exacting revenge on Papik. Because of this Papik had decided to stop hunting as he was terrified of this threat until one day he went out on the ice to hunt only to be attacked by a large spirit like a bear. The spirit tears Papik to shreds then makes its way through the village for everyone to notice its the old mother based on the bear pelt nd human bones. This legend was passed down by those who wanted to tell a tale of forewarning of killing someone else without just cause.

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part A

Eskimo Folk Tales Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/03/myth-folklore-unit-eskimo-folk-tales.html)

Depiction of men during the great flood

The story begins by explaining that the forefathers had told tales of how the world came to be back before the invention of writing even and that the tales their elders have told them since they were children were to be heeded. The creation story began with the Earth falling from the sky including the mountains and hills. It was only then that man came from the Earth being birthed from it as infants who had relied on the Earth's sustenance. No one knwos how man and woman came to be or how they aged, but they created clothing for these children and because of this grew in number rapidly. Now established the humans desired companionship and more specifically dogs. They went out with leashes and called to the dogs who all came hurrying to them, but after this the humans began to have children of their own and this is when they began to grow exponentially in population. These men and women knew not about death and all lived to be extremely old to the point of blindness and immobility. All the while, these men and women lived in the darkness as they had not ever seen the sun, for the only light they had was the water that they burned in their lamps inside their homes (water apparently burned and glowed in this ancient time). Although these humans did not die they were eventually killed by a great flood that washed all the way up to the tips of mountains in some places thus wiping out many of the humans. During all of this calamity to older women argued until one of them wished for both light and death as the humans had not experienced either yet and so it came to be like a wish almost. Now with both light and death the humans felt complete and could go out and experience this world in which they had come from.

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley and Great Plains, Part B

Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/mslakes-creation-chitimacha.html)

Depiction of the boisterous rabbit 

This story begins with a rabbit, known as Wabus, who was know for being a boaster, and wanted to open a medicine lodge so that everyone would think he was some kind of medicine man. So one day he and his wife were going around and found a perfect little hill in which they could potentially make a home and began constructing a wigwam up on the hilltop. He then created a path each way down from the hill so that he could see anyone who approached his newly built home. Upon finishing the wigwam, Wabus told his wife he was going to go out and dance, but instead circled the property and checking each individual path to see if anyone could have been watching him. Wabus found nothing during this search so he came back up to his wigwam and began his dance. Just as Wabus came back up to his home, Panther was lurking up the hill just after his check and hid nearby to watch Wabus and his wife's dance so that he may pounce when they least expect it. Wabus sang to his wife as he was going through and opening up his medicine bag and as if he knew that the Panther was nearby, he mentioned in his song that he was a good runner and that the Panther would inevitably be unable to catch him if given the chance. Wabus, feeling confident due to his new setup on the hill, told his wife he was going to go out and hunt, but when he went down the hill Panther pounced on him. Wabus turned and started going back up the hill, but Panther caught him in a flash and jeered that he thought that no one could catch him, but he was able to and asked "Now who is the fastest runner?" Before Wabus was able to crack back at Panther, he was eaten up whole despite being such a confident, little rabbit.

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes, Part A

Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/mslakes-creation-chitimacha.html)

Depiction of The Earth-Maker

The first tale in this unit covers the creation story where it begins with a being referred to as the "The Earth-Maker," who came to and noticed that all around him was nothing but a void. This caused much pain leading The Earth-maker to cry and then instantly took action by taking a small amount of matter from where he was sitting and threw it down from his place, but nothing seemed to grow on it and it just simply turning. The Earth-Maker tried to add grass by doing the same thing and taking it from where he sat and throwing it down onto his creation, but still it was not effective. Next, The Earth-Maker created a man, who was known as Tortoise, to be this place's first inhabitant that would coexist with the men he also created for this new planet. When The Earth-Maker sent Tortoise down to his creation he gave him only one task which was to "bring order into the world," as their were malicious spirits trying to destroy The Earth-Maker's delicate creation. He sent Tortoise down with only a knife, but Tortoise began to instead cause war, so after a short time The Earth-Maker sent the next creature down, which was the Hare who began having a philosophical struggle with "his grandmother," who was the mother of The Earth-Maker (his father) and pleaded that he wanted the humans to live forever like himself. Hare's grandmother explains that how can Hare make the humans live forever if The Earth-Maker could not while creating them, and Hare began to realize that without death that the humans would inevitably run out of resources and space on The Earth-Maker's creation. After seeing the death of the people on the creation, Hare accepted the way in which The Earth-Maker and went to the edge of this creation where the fires raged all around the edge.

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

Chinese Fairy Tales (From the UN-Textbook)
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/china-favorite-of-fortune-and-child-of.html)

Depiction of the Prince's daughter

The tale begins in Ancient China, where a high class prince has a daughter that has what is known as "ill luck." Fast forward to when this daughter was to be married and a large gathering of many noble men such as princes and counts all came to offer her their hand in marriage. Among these many noble men there was a lowly beggar who somehow found himself at this event and also joined in offering his hand in marriage to the prince's daughter. The daughter decided she would select her husband by casting out a red ball of silk and whoever catches it among the gathered men will get to marry her. Before throwing out the ball of silk, the daughter noticed that the lowly beggar had a dragon crawling through his ears and popping out his nostril and instantly knew that this man was someone who had luck on their side. She threw the ball of silk right to the beggar who caught it much to the dismay of her father who exclaimed that he would not allow such a thing to happen. His daughter insisted that this man had luck on his side and she hoped it would cure her ill luck, but her father cast her out only for her to move into the beggar's hut and marry him. After some time, the beggar came to his new wife and told her he was going to leave to get a fortune for them and she agreed as she believed in this lucky man. Eighteen years past and the beggar was still gone, the daughter barely hung in patiently waiting for her husband to return some day with a fortune and only stayed alive during these hard years by having her mother secretly give her money behind her father's back. The beggar had become a powerful emperor with many riches in this time and came back to retrieve his wife to take her to their palace. She did not recognize this now powerful emperor and was confused when he asked her if she took another husband or wanted to, and after his wife denied it he revealed himself. The two went happily to live in their new palace, but sadly his wife, who had always been a victim of ill luck, fell sick and died only eighteen days after moving back in with her husband.

Reading Notes: West African Folktales , Part B

West African Folktales unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-west-african.html)

Depiction of the spider Anansi

This first tale begins by establishing that the men of the world only told stories of the "chief of gods," Nyankupon. This upset the selfish Spider named Anansi went to Nyankupon pleading to have the men of the world tell stories of him rather than the mighty god. Nyankupon agreed to Anansi's request on one condition, he must bring him three offerings: a jar of live bees, a boa constrictor, and a tiger. Anansi descended onto Earth to begin collecting these three animals for Nyankupon and first went to where he knew a number of bees would be. Anansi began conversing with the bees as he thought they would not be able to fly into his jar that he had brought, but after explaining his deal with Nyankupon, the bees happily flew into his jar. Anansi set out the next day looking for the next offering, a boa constrictor, and grabbed a long stick before coming to a place where one lived. Anansi began feverishly talking to himself claiming that the stick was longer than the snake and then that the snake was the same size repeatedly. The boa constrictor came out of its home to see what the commotion was and asked Anansi what was troubling him. Anansi asked to measure the snake against the long stick he had brought with him and the boa gladly agreed. Once the snake laid himself out next to the stick, Anansi instantly tied the snake to the stick using his webs and promptly sent the second of his offerings to Nyankupon. The next day, Anansi set out for his last offering feeling inspired as he was so close to his goal. He brought with him a needle and thread and after sewing one of his eyes shut, he set out for a tiger den. Upon reaching the den, Anansi began to sing and shout until the tiger came out to see what all the commotion was. Anansi began to ask the tiger if he could see the wonderful sights that he was seeing, but the tiger saw nothing. Anansi explained that after sewing his eye shut that he began to see the most wonderful things, which convinced the tiger to have Anansi sew both of this eyes shut. With the tiger completely blind and helpless, Anansi sent the final of his offerings and returned to Nyankupon. Nyankupon, impressed with all of the tricks that Anansi was able to come up with to obtain such a difficult items, agreed to let all tales of old to be known as Anansi tales.

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories, Part B

Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories Unit from the UN-Textbook
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-ancient-egyptian.html)

The legend begins with the creation, when the world was only water and known as "Nu," that a shining egg came upon the waters and thus came Ra the strongest of all the gods. Within Ra was "Khepra" at dawn and "Tum at eventide" when Ra commanded the lands to rise above the waters and they obeyed. After creating several gods, with Shu and Nut being the most prevalent, Ra then created all living beings including man and went in their form to live among them for many years. Ra was given a powerful name at the beginning of the creation by Nu as it blessed Ra with his power and if any other being were to know it they would be able to become as powerful as Ra himself. This name went unknown for many, many years as the gods lived both in their heavenly domain and among the humans. One of the gods living among the humans was the god Isis, who disguised herself as an enchantress to disguise herself to fit in with the humans. Meanwhile, Ra still led over the kingdom of Egypt as he had created all of the land and its many bounties, especially the mighty Nile River. While Ra was seen as the absolute king, Isis was envious of Ra and his superior power. Isis wanted to learn of Ra's secret name as she knew it would be an instant way to become as powerful as the great god Ra himself. She concocted a plan and managed to capture a sample of Ra's saliva as in his old age he began to not use the best manners. After obtaining the sample of saliva, Isis created a magical serpent that was invisible to man and gods alike as it was made from the strongest of gods own saliva. Isis sent the serpent after Ra and it struck him with a menacing blow instantly. Ra went down in shock as the venom began to run its course. Ra began to cry out at what could have attacked him so lethally and calls for his children (the gods that is) to gather to witness and potentially aid him. After arriving, most of the gods grieved as they knew their creator was in grave danger, but Isis stayed composed and began to ask Ra if she could know of his ancient name so that she could "become as powerful as you to heal you." This was all part of Isis' plan as she watched Ra struggle and make more decrees about how much he did for the world. Isis inquires again and Ra is finally desperate enough to make the deal and tells Isis his ancient name. Isis becomes extremely more powerful and feels it, then returns the venom from Ra and cheers at the crowd of her devious plan to become the equally-most powerful god.

The Egyptian goddess Isis 

Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha, Part B

"Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse (Part Two)

(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm)

The next part of this legend picks up with Siddhartha still in the woods after his confrontation with Gotama the supposed "Buddha," and subsequent deep thought about the spiritual world as a whole. Siddhartha is feeling like a new man after his "Awakening," finding joy all around him as he walked through the woods. It wasn't until Siddhartha found a nearby hut that things began to go awry, when Siddhartha began to have strange dreams about his old, hometown friend Govinda as Siddhartha likely felt guilty for leaving behind his friend. The next day, Siddhartha made it to a city close to his hut and met a wealthy, beautiful "courtesan" named Kamala. Siddhartha became interested by her instantly as she could be almost a sort of learning experience for him as he had spent so much time focusing on his internal being. After getting cleaned up after being a Samana for years, Siddhartha goes back to Kamala asking to be taught her physical world way of love. She agrees and also sends Siddhartha to join a man named Kamaswami, a local businessman who was to teach Siddhartha more about the material world. Siddhartha quickly found the world of business to be trivial and found himself learning more and more from Kamala as she understood the spiritual world like Siddhartha did. Siddhartha and Kamala grew close and knew so much about one another, but it was always apparent that they were never actually in love with one another as that was Kamala's job to love, while Siddhartha was merely trying to "test the waters," so to speak of love in the real world. Years go by and Siddhartha finds himself sucked into this life of business through Kamaswami and companionship through Kamala, when he finally has a moment where he thinks of all of the time he had wasted delaying his search for enlightenment. Siddhartha begins having nightmares and seeing imperfections in the world that once kept him occupied all those years such as his graying hair or Kamala beginning to age. The part ends with Siddhartha leaving without telling anyone to find this enlightenment and Kamala eventually finding out only to be carrying Siddhartha's child.

Siddhartha and Kamala

Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha, Part A

"Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse (First Part)

(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm)

This legend begins with a wealthy Brahman named Siddhartha, who lived in ancient Indian village. Siddhartha had many things going for him as he was wealthy, educated, and  handsome, but his father who is a religious leader in the village does not want him to go and learn new things as Siddhartha wanted to join with a traveling group of clerics in town. His father kept refusing and ignoring Siddhartha, but he stayed in his place even as his father slept until he was finally given permission. Siddhartha begins his journey with the Samana, the name for this priest group, and takes up there way of life by starving almost and wearing only rags to destroy all ego within himself. Siddhartha does this to escape the rigid, forced nature of his religious father and village, and after some time he hears of someone known as "Gotama the Buddha," to have appeared as they had overcame their own ego. Siddhartha, with this hometown friend Govinda who had joined him on his Samana journey, went to seek out this person as they wanted to learn from his newly enlightened teachings. Once they had arrived they were welcomed in instantly among Gotama's followers and began to take part in his teachings, until Siddhartha once again began to doubt the message despite Gotama's deity-like aura. Siddhartha questions Gotama only to be told that Gotama was far superior at this sort of religious knowledge, and following this Siddhartha leaves the camp and his hometown friend behind. The first part of this legend then comes to a close with Siddhartha exiting the camp and in the nearby woods contemplating all of the different teachings he has studied until he realizes that the enlightenment he is searching for cannot be taught, but instead must come from within.

Siddhartha book cover (by Hermann Hesse)

Reading Notes: Noah, Part B

Noah and The Ark unit by multiple authors (from the UN-Textbook)
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-noah-and-ark.html)

The second part of this reading began in Paradise with Adam and Eve getting visited by Samael and his son, where Eve promises Samael that she will watch over the child. After the boy began to scream and cry following Samael leaving, Adam first killed him and then tried to cut him up into pieces and eat him in an attempt to stop the sound. God gives Adam a powerful book, known as the book of the angel Raziel, that becomes long-lost over time after only being found and then re-hidden by Enoch. This was until God gave this book to Noah prior to the flood as it contained instructions for the ark among many other things. The water for the flood then came, but in order to cleanse the Earth and punish them properly the water was heated incredibly before falling from the sky. Despite all of these harsh conditions, Noah's biggest problem was taking care of everyone/everything on the ark for a year as the animals became more and more restless over time. After forty days, the flood water ceased and began to go down little by little until a year passed, and Noah finally returned to land once God accepted his offering of animals. God gave Noah and his descendants permission to eat animal meat now as well as set up a vineyard from a vine that Adam brought from Paradise. Noah began to overindulge in his new vineyard and became drunk and passed out naked. He was dicsovered by his three sons and since his son Ham did not look away and cover his father, all of Ham's descendants were cursed by God. Following this Ham and one of the other sons, Japheth, left Noah and built a city of their own before all of the new world was divided up and given to the three sons: Ham being given the South, Japheth the North, and Shem between the two in the middle.

Noah and his three sons building the Ark prior to the Flood

Reading Notes: Noah, Part A

Noah and The Ark unit by multiple authors (from the UN-Textbook)
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-noah-and-ark.html)

This legend begins with the a man named Noah, who God favored despite seeing how evil man on Earth was and wanting to destroy them. God tells Noah that he plans to flood the Earth to rid it of the violence and evil of man, so Noah needs to build a giant wooden ship of specific dimensions. On this ship he is to bring two of every animal on board as well as his family to begin anew. On the seventh day the flood water came and Noah boarded his newly-built Ark with his family and animals where the flood raged for forty days. Noah began sending birds to monitor the water and for land, first a raven then a dove. Noah told his sons to "be fruitful and multiply" as God had told him to and they respected his wish each of his three sons creating large families. They all journeyed west on land and made a new city with a large tower, which upon seeing God scattered the city and "confounded their language." Next the legend goes back to discuss the birth of Noah and how man came to get to the point to where God felt they needed to be flooded. In the midst of a curse and famine Noah was born unto Lamech and ceased all of this upon his birth. While all the men around Noah pursued a life of gain, Noah lived a more simple life. Meanwhile the fallen angels who began to become part of the Earth with the women of Cain. On top of this there were other mortal families acting against God thus setting the stage for the devastating flood to come. The legend ends by circling back to Noah and his building of the massive Ark, while highlighting what kind of man he is in the eye's of God.

Illustration of Noah's Ark

Reading Notes: Homer's Illiad, Part B

Homer's Illiad retold by A.J. Church (from the UN-Textbook)
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-iliad-retold.html)

The second portion of the Homer's Illiad reading begins right where the previous had left off, over the dead body of Patroclus. After an intense battle between the Trojans and the Greeks over the body, Hector took off his arms, but his body was rescued by a fired-up Ajax. Hector put on Patroclus' armor that he had gotten in the fight, which was formally Achilles' armor. He charges at Ajax and the others due to their jeers in his new armor, but this upsets the god Zeus. The battle rages on over Patroclus' body and Menelaus had Antilochus go and inform Achilles of Patroclus' death in an attempt to convince him to come and fight the Trojans. Upon hearing the news Achilles was heart-broken and cried out so much so that his mother Thetis came to ask what was bothering him. Upon hearing his request to fight and die as it is prophesied that he will shortly after Hector's death, Thetis went to get new arms for Achilles from the god Hephaestus. Zeus then sent Iris to tell Achilles to go immediately to the fight as his presence alone would cause the Trojans to retreat. Athene equipped Achilles with a large shield on his back and a fiery halo. Achilles shouted three times shocking both sides and causing a frenzy of panic. The Greeks were able to get Patroclus' body back to Achilles tent so that he could mourn. Hector insisted on fighting rather than staying within Troy's walls and Achilles was making way to the city gates. Achilles would have gotten in if not for Apollo intervening and switching place with a Trojan general and transporting safely back in the walls while sending Achilles after a phantom clone. All the Trojans rushed into the gates except for Hector, while Achilles argued with the Apollo phantom. Old Priam, Hector's father, begged Hector to come back into the city walls as he was so important to the city. Hector stopped and thought about the idea of staying outside of the wall and what the outcome would be until he sees Achilles charging at him. Hector instantly runs away to the city gates with Achilles gaining on him, which caused the gods to meet and discuss what Hector's fate would be. As Apollo helped Hector evade Achilles running around the city gates several times, Athene finally appeared to Achilles and assured him a victory over Hector. Athene then took the shape of Hector's brother and came to him to make him feel as though he could face Achilles. They exchanged spears and when Hector asked for another the clone vanished, so they charged to fight one another. Achilles being the far superior warrior landed a fatal blow on Hector and fastened his body to his chariot to drag to the ships. Old Priam struck with grief contacts the gods and sneaks into Achilles' camp after sending a massive ransom for Hector's body. As Old Priam slept that night in Achilles' tent, Hermes came to him and urged him to flee the camp thus ending the Illiad.

Achilles fighting Hector outside the gates of Troy

Reading Notes: Homer's Illiad, Part A

Homer's Illiad retold by A.J. Church (from the UN-Textbook)
(http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-homers-iliad-retold.html)

This story begins in ancient Greece, where a Spartan King's daughter Helen was being married to a Greek prince of her choosing. With every prince in Greece offering their hand in marriage, Helen chose Menelaus of Mycenae who was "the chief of all of the Kings of Greece." Everything was great until Prince Paris of Troy came to Sparta and fled with Helen and an assortment of treasure. Menelaus called his Greek allies to help him take the city of Troy and get his wife back, but after nine years of siege they all but gave up leaving a small unit to stay at Troy and sending the rest to other cities. When the Greek army took the nearby city of Chryse, Menelaus' brother Agamemnon was given a priest's daughter by the name of Chryseis. The priest begged and offered money for the daughter, but Agamemnon refused. The priest prayed to the town's god Apollo and Apollo, upset with how his priest was being treated, came and fired arrows at the Greek army for days. After ten days, Achilles called a meeting to figure out why Apollo was angry and after finding out and arguing with Agamemnon he leaves the army after almost attacking Agamemnon. Achilles later that nights has his girl taken by Agamemnon as payment for Chrseis being returned to the priest. In his grief, Achilles asks Thetis to convince Zeus to help the Trojans take down the Greeks. Thetis convinced Zeus to help the Trojans thus upsetting Hera upon Zeus' return home to Olympus. Zeus finally decided to send a false dream to Agamemnon telling him he would take the city of Troy. Meanwhile in the city of Troy, Hector has Queen Hecuba make an offering to Athene. Later on, the Greek chiefs meet with Achilles following a feast and try to bribe him to come back to the Greek army as they are beginning to take heavy losses. Achilles refuses them, telling them he is leaving so that he may live to grow old rather than fight and die for Agamemnon who he despises. During the fight, Patroclus approaches Achilles wanting to use his armor and take Achille's troops to try to turn the tide of the ongoing fight. Achilles prayed to Zeus for PAtroclus to gain strength and he did so regaining the Greek ships and killing Sarpedon the Lycian. Finally, Patroclus drives the Trojan forces up to their gate but after taking out some Trojan warriors, Apollo strips Patroclus of his armor and blinds hims. In his vulnerable state on the battlefield, Patroclus was killed by Hector's spear.

Hector of Troy

Notes:
Menelaus (Umlaut on the U)
Chryse (Accent on the E)
Chryseis (Umlaut on the I)
Athene (Accent on last E)

Week 2 Reading Anthology: Reading Notes (Metamorphisis)

Pygmalion and the Statue by the Roman Poet Ovid (https://sites.google.com/view/mythfolkloreanthology/metamorphosis)

This legend takes place in the city of Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, which is also where the goddess Venus is rumored to be at following her birth at sea. In this legend Pygmalion is a talented, but lonely sculptor who has no wife for he feels women in his town are "wicked." Pygmalion begins to treat one of his ivory statues as if it his wife, and going as far as creating clothing and a bed for this statue due to how infatuated he became with his creation. Pygmalion even became affectionate with his statue due to how in love he became with it as he even began to kiss and caress the statue due to whatever connection it was that he felt with this ivory statue. When the festival of Venus arrives on the island, Pygmalion went to the ceremonial fire and after giving an offering wished for a woman "like his ivory girl," despite knowing the statue was what he truly desired. Because Venus favored Pygmalion, the fired flared up thrice and with that Venus granted Pygmalion his wish. When Pygmalion went home he gave his statue a kiss and noticed that the statue felt alive, he began to check her vitals and confirmed his theory that his statue had come to life as a real woman. Pygmalion could not believe it as his prayer had been answered, for he now had his perfect girl that he had made of ivory, Pygmalion gave thanks to the goddess Venus and she attended the eventual wedding of Pygmalion and his girl of ivory. Lastly, the two had a son following this, who was named Paphos "from whom the island takes its name."

Pygmalion and his eventual wife Galatea (The Ivory Statue)

Week 2 Reading Overview

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Adam & Eve

Week 4: Homer's Illiad

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Ancient Egypt

Week 6: Life of the Buddha

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: The Monkey King

Week 9: Ozaki

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Apache

Week 11: Inuit (Eskimo)

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Robin Hood

Week 13: King Arthur

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Ashliman (Rumpelstiltskin)

Week 15: Librivox

Disney's Robin Hood (my Week 12 Reading)

The unit that I am looking forward to the most in this course is the Middle Eastern and Indian Units as both of the topics I selected are major historical stories that I would love to research. As for topics not covered in the book, it would be nice to have a section on Aztec and Mayan mythology as it is the only mythology not listed that I know. The story I would like to look into the most is the story of Robin Hood as I am extremely familiar with the subject matter having watched the Disney interpretation near a hundred times as a kid and read the Howard Pyle Robin Hood for a report in middle school.