Reading Notes: Myth-Folklore Anthology

Origin Story: The Moon
Comes from Laos of Southeast Asia.

• First character introduced is a blacksmith who is unhappy with his work and wants to be a cool stone on a mountain. The wise man grants him his wish to become a stone.
• Another man comes and starts to cut out the blacksmith from the mountain and now he no longer wants to be a stone, he wants to be a stone cutter and so the wise man grants him his wish.
• However, he grows tired of being a stone cutter and wishes to be the sun, which the wise man again grants. But the sun was warmer than his original job, the blacksmith. So he wishes to be the moon.
• The moon does not satisfy him either as the sun is always shining on him and we once again wishes to go back to being a blacksmith. However, the wise man did not grant his wish, and he remained the moon forever.

The Hare that was not Afraid to Die 
Written by: Marie L. Shedlock.

• Buddha is reborn again as a rabbit and lives in the woods with a monkey, jackal, and otter. 
• Rabbit instructs them to feed beggars the next day from their personal stash of food. 
• Monkey, Jackal, and Otter all find or steal food from somewhere else to provide instead of from their own. 
• Rabbit having only grass decided that if needed he would offer the beggar his own flesh. 
• Sakka, the king of the Gods hears of this and decides to put Rabbit to the test. He first visits the monkey, the jackal, and the the otter and tells them all that he would see to it the next day. 
• Once Sakka gets to rabbit, he is ready to sacrifice himself among the burning coals, however when he throws himself upon them, they are cold.  
• Sakka then reveals himself to rabbit and says "oh wise Hare, be thy virtue known to all the ages to come" and he daubed on the moon the the signs of the wise hare. 

The Wise Hare 

The Eight Forked Serpent of Koshi

Romance of Old Japan, Part 1: Mythology and Legend by E.W. Champney and F Champney. 

• begins with Susa-no-wo seeing a chopstick floating down the river making him believe that there were other people living in the mountains above him. I really liked the intro to this, I thought the chopstick idea was a clever way to introduce the characters that are coming up. 
• The language in which the characters spoke in was difficult for me to understand at times but I could still get the main point of what they were saying.  
• Both Ashinadzuchi and Tenadzuchi were kissing their last of eight daughters goodbye before the 8 forked serpent, just like all their other daughters had. I thought it was ironic that the couple had 8 daughters, just like the monster had 8 heads. 
• Susa-no-wo agrees to kill the monster for Kushinada's hand in marriage in return.  Her parent's agreed and Susa-no-wo turned his future wife into a comb before proceeding to kill the monster in order to keep her safe. 
• He filled 8 troughs with alcohol in order to drunken the serpent before his arrival.  His plan proved to be successful in that the serpent drank the alcohol and became drunken, and then laid down to sleep. 
• while the serpent was sleeping Susa-no-wo slaughtered the monster into 1,000 pieces where inside he found a magical sword. (could change the ending to where he keep the sword instead of giving it to God). 
• Susa-no-wo transforms Kushinada back into her true self and they are married. 

The Indian who Wrestled with a Ghost

Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson

• Great element of suspense throughout the whole story. 
• The image portrayed of the Native American woman is creepy and made me feel a sense of uncertainty. 
• The story overall was very descriptive and I had a very clear image of the setting in my head unlike previous stories I have read so far. 
• I thought the battle scene between the man and the skeleton was very intense and I liked that as the skeleton drew closer to the darkness he grew stronger and vise versa.  
• I want to use qualities that this story had in my own writing such as lots of description, details, and suspense. 

A burial scaffold as mentioned in the story.

The Three Roses

From The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis 

• I really liked this story and could see myself retelling it.  At first it reminded me of a mix between Cinderella and The Beauty and the Beast.  
• I thought it was interesting how the mother was willing to give up the daughter so easily and made it seem like she valued her other two daughters more even though they seemed like spoiled brats. (like in Cinderella). 
• I thought the part about Mary nursing the basilisk for three days was a little odd and would probably change that- maybe to something like doing certain tasks, or grooming the basilisk. 
• I loved that Mary got a happy ending with her prince! Reminded me again of Beauty and the Beast. 
• I would probably add something about the other sisters being jealous and maybe even a lesson about not being greedy. 

Three Roses.