Week 10 Story: The Dolphin Stolen by Indians

There was a happy dolphin who lived in the lake outside an Indian tribe. The dolphin often leaped around in the water because he was very content with his life. The Indians who were troubled with the hardships of living off the land took note of this and made a plan to capture the dolphin in hopes he would bring some of his happiness to the tribe.


That night, as the dolphin leaped out of the water, the Indians threw a net around him and brought him to shore. Dolphin's fellow dolphin friends quickly took notice of his his absence and set out to find where he had gone.  As they were spying upon the village they saw that the happy dolphin had been captured and was being held hostage.  Unable to rescue him themselves because the Indians would surely know what they were trying to do, they relied on their land friend dog, for help.  

The next day dog ran into the Indian's tribe and started knocking things over, running as fast as he could through the tribe and wreaking havoc.  This was enough of a distraction for the happy dolphin to make his escape.  While the Indian's were doing all they could to capture dog, the happy dolphin was able to escape and jump back into the water.  

The happy dolphin and his friends celebrated and played together in his safe return.  They then migrated away from the Indian tribe never to be caught again.  The tribe continued in their misery for the rest of time, and the dolphins celebrated for eternity. 

The Happy Dolphin. Web Source. 

Author's Note: My inspiration for this story was taken from "The Woman stolen by Killer Whales" from Tales of North American Indians by Stith Thompson.  In the original text, a Native American Woman was washing her hands in the water when a killer whale grabbed her and drug her down to their killer whale home.  The woman's husband found out and made a plan with shark to rescue her.  The shark distracted the killer whales and during this the woman was able to escape and go back to her husband on land.  I changed the story to where a dolphin was captured by humans instead of the other way around.  

Reading Notes, Marriage Tales: Part B

The second half of these tales was very much like the first.  The first story entitled "The Dog Husband" involved a young girl who had a dog that she was very fond of.  At night, the dog would become a man and sleep with girl.  After some time, she became pregnant.  When her parents found out, they were very ashamed and left her to die.  The crow took pity on her and told her to listen for crackling fire and then go to it.  She gave birth to 5 pups and was barely able to take care of them because her father had killer her dog lover.  However, her pups transformed into humans and became great whale hunters.  Eventually the people moved back to where the girl and her children were because of the bounty in whales and the boys became chiefs of the tribe. 

The last story in this series was called "The True Bride".  This story involved an evil stepmother, her true daughter, and her step daughter.  The stepmother was very mean to her stepdaughter and sent her out in the middle of winter to collect berries even though there were no berries at that time.  The girl went anyway and on her journey came across a house with four men.  The four men had her shovel snow off the roof where she found plentiful berries.  They also gave her fine clothes and the ability to spit gold.  When she returned, the stepmother sent her real daughter on the same quest in hopes that she would return with the same things.  The daughter was haughty to the four men and instead returned with only berries, and the ability to spit foul smelling toe nails. 

The chief's son married the gold-spitting girl because she was very valuable.  After some time, she became pregnant and the husband was called away for a meeting at the time of birth.  The evil step-mother helped deliver the baby, however when the baby came out, it would fall through a hole she cut in the floor and instead handed the wife a cat.  This happened again with a snake.  It was then decided that the wife should be killed because of her weird children and that he should marry the stepmother's real daughter.  She was cast into the lake, but before she drowned, the four brothers rescued her, told her about her real children, and transformed her into a goose.  Eventually with the help of her loyal dog, all was found out and the step-mother and real daughter were hung.  She who spits gold, her husband, and children lived happily. 

The Loyal Dog responsible for She Who Spits Gold's happy ending. 

Web Source. 

Reading Notes, Marriage Tales: Part A

The first story in this series of marriage tales was called "The Piqued Buffalo-Wire".  This story was very odd in my opinion and a little hard to follow.  Essentially, a man took advantage of a female cow and later she bore a human son.  The son then went on a quest to find his father, which he eventually did.  When the son brought the man back to his cow mother, she turned into a woman and they lived happily for quite some time.  That was until the husband struck the wife with fire and her and her son ran away.  The father then went on a quest to find them.  He had to correctly identify his son four times in order to win them back.  He guess incorrectly on the fourth guess and was trampled to death by the herd of cows.  However a piece of his bone was recovered and with the use of a sweat lodge he was restored to life, and he, his wife, and his son lived happily and started their own native tribes.

The next story called "Bear-Woman and "Deer-Woman" was also interesting.  The Bear ate the deer and brought the head back to the deer's children.  The children immediately knew that is was their mother's head and in return smothered the bears children to death with smoke.  They then ran away from the bear and crossed the river by a crane's neck.  When the bear followed, the crane dropped its neck halfway across and the bear fell to her death.

Out of the remaining stories in this series, I found "The Woman Stolen by Killer Whales" to be my favorite.  I could see myself retelling this story for my story this week. 

Killer Whale. Web Source. 

I found all of the stories to be very dark, and involving a lot of animals, ruthless killing, and interactions between humans/animals.  A lot of the other units have involved animals and humans interacting with each other, but not to this extent.  On multiple occasions, the stories involved intimacy between them which I found very odd. 

Bibliography: Native American Marriage Tales from the book "Tales of North American Indians" by Stith Thompson. Read for yourself here!

Week 9 Story: The Slug

There once was a man named Hugo. Hugo lived in a humble house with his wife, Margot. Hugo and Margot were a very happy couple and had very little to dispute about. That was until one day, a slimy, fat slug crawled out from under the refrigerator and into the middle of the kitchen floor. Hugo and Margot, a fairly young and newly wedded couple, had never encountered a slug before, and neither of them knew what to do. They both screamed at the fat brown squishy body inching its way across the floor leaving a slime trail behind him. Hugo, not knowing what else to do quickly grabbed a bowl off the counter and tip toed over to the intruder. Carefully and with haste he dropped the bowl on top of the slug, trapping him momentarily until they could figure out what to do. Margot ran to the computer and googled "what is a brown squishy slimy insect type thing". The first thing that popped up was an exact replica of the disgusting creature trapped under the bowl. "It's a slug!" she screamed. "It says we should sprinkle salt on it to kill it!". "Oh no," said Hugo. "I used the rest of the salt on my french fries last night." Margot exchange an annoyed look at Hugo before he abruptly said "I'll grab the key's," and made a mad dash to the store.
 

Margot thought it would be a good idea to keep watch of the slug while Hugo went to buy more salt so that it did not cunningly escape.  It seemed like hours before Hugo returned, and when he finally did with salt in hand, Margot was very relieved.  However, they still had the big battle of killing the slug.  Hugo scooped a big cup of salt out of the bag and approached the bowl on the floor. "Okay, on the count of three lift the bowl and I will dump the salt." "One.......Two.......Three!" Margot quickly lifted the bowl and Hugo dumped the salt all over the little guy.  What followed was quite disgusting.  The slug began to squirm and smoke and ooze even more slime than before.  It was like it was melting like the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz! After a few minutes the slug stopped smoking and laid there in a giant gooey puddle.  Hugo and Margot learned two valuable lessons that day- 1.  It's a good idea to get the house sprayed for pests, and 2. always keep a never ending supply of salt nearby just in case. 

The Slug.  Web Source. 

Author's note: My inspiration for this story came from "My Lord Bag of Rice" from the collection of Japanese Fairy Tales written by Yei Theodora Ozaki.  In the story there was great warrior named Hidesto.  Hidesto was given the task by the Dragon King to kill and evil centipede that had been terrorizing his kingdom. This was no feat for the the brave warrior Hidesto, however when he first attacked the centipede, he found that his arrows simply bounced right off the centipede.  He then remembered that human saliva is toxic to centipedes and the next arrow he shot, he first put it into his mouth to coat it in saliva.  This arrow went right through the centipede's brain and killed him.  In return the Dragon King gave Hidesto a bag of rice that never seemed to run empty.  When reading that human saliva was toxic to centipedes, it reminded me of how salt is toxic to slugs and inspired me to write the story of Hugo and Margot.  I wanted the story to be funny and whimsical, and I can imagine a newly wed couple trying to figure out the feats of owning a house together and encountering things like gross, slimy slugs. 

Reading Notes, Japanese Fairy Tales: Part B

The first story in Part B of Japanese Fairy Tales was called "The Goblin of Adachigahara".  In this story a cannibal goblin takes the form of an old woman and tricks travelers into her home where she then eats them.  This happened to a priest and when the old woman went to collect firewood she warned the priest not to look in the back room.  The priest was unable to kill his curiosity and looked in the back room finding a horrible sight.  Skulls, dead bodies, and blood was everywhere.  He knew he was in the cannibal goblins house and that she would surely eat him when she returned.  He gathered his things and ran from the house.  The cannibal goblin chased him all through the night until day broke and she disappeared.  The priest was safe and thanked Buddha.

The priest running from the Cannibal Goblin.  Web Source.  

The next story was called "The Ogre of Rashomon".  This story was about a cannibal ogre that terrorized a Japanese town.  A band of warriors did not believe in such ogre because they had previously killed all the ogres remaining.  However one night the head warrior came face to face with the ogre and cut off his arm.  Knowing how revengeful ogres can be, he secured the arm in a strong box never to show to anyone.  One night, the warrior's childhood nurse came to him and begged to see the arm.  When he finally obliged the nurse grabbed the arm and transformed into the ogre.  However the ogre ran away, in fear of the warrior's strength and never bothered the Japanese town again. 

The last story was called "The Story of Princess Hase".  This story is about a Minister and his wife who are unable to have a child.  They worshiped at Princess Hase's altar in hopes that she would bring them a child.  Finally a child was born and they named her Hase-Hime.  The mother died when Hase-Hime was 5 and told her to grow up and be a good girl so that's what she did.  Hase-Hime's stepmother was an evil woman and Hase-Hime was a very good musician and was called to perform for the emperor.  The Stepmother tried to posion Hase-Hime but instead poisoned her own son and killed him.  More events trasnpired until eventually the wicked stepmother fled and Hase-Hime never had to deal with her again. 

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Web Source. 

Reading Notes, Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki): Part A

The first story in this set of Japanese Folk Tales was called "My Lord Bag of Rice".  This story was about a brave warrior named My Lord Bag of Rice, better known as Hidesato.  On one of his adventures he came across the land of the Dragon King.  The Dragon King and his family had been terrorized by the Evil Centipede forever and The Dragon King asked Hidesato if he could kill him.  This was no feat for Hidesato, however when the time came, his arrows would not penetrate the huge centipede and they would simply bounce off.  Then, Hidesato remembered that human saliva kills centipedes.  The next arrow that he shot, he put in his mouth first and sure enough it hit the centipede right in the brain and killed him.  The Dragon King gave Hidesato many gifts including a bag of rice that never ran out. 

Hidesato facing the Evil Centipede. Web Source. 

The next story in the reading was called The Adventures of Kintaro.  This story was about a young boy named Kintaro that lived in the woods with this mother and had incredible strength.  One day, as he was playing wrestling with his friends bear, deer, hare and monkey, a general of the army say his great strength and followed him home.  At home, he told Kintaro and his mother who he was and offered to take Kintaro to the capital to be trained as a great samurai.  He did so, and Kintaro became the Chief of the Four Braves, and built a house for his mother to stay with him in the capital for the rest of her days. 

The last story of this reading was called The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die.  This story was about a man who enjoyed life and never wanted to die.  He prayed to the god Jokfu that he may find the elixr of life, and while he was praying he fell asleep and had a great dream where he was flown to the Land of Perpetual Life by a paper crane.  In the Land of Perpetual Life, noone was happy and they all wished to die because they had lived so long.  Sentaro eventually felt this way too and prayed again to go back home.  While praying the paper crane emerged from his pocket and flew him back towards Japan, however they got caught in a storm and fell into the ocean where a shark almost ate him.  Here Sentaro woke up and a messenger of Jokfu told him what happened and to be content with the life he has. 

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Web Source.

Week 8 Progress

So far I am happy with my progress in this course.  I have to admit my weekly routine could use a little work, but I do always get assignments done.  The assignments that I enjoy the most are probably the storytelling's.  I like these assignments because there is so much flexibility in them, and it's a great way to de-stress from my science classes by letting my creative juices flow. 

Looking forward I would like to continue working on and improving my weekly routine.  Sometimes I am very good about working a few days ahead and other times I can be finishing assignments at the last minute.  I would like to have a little more consistency in my approach as I finish out the rest of the semester. 

Motivation. Web Source. 

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

So far I received really great feedback on both my stories that I've written and my project. The comments that I find most useful are the ones that ask questions about the story or suggest ways I could elaborate. I like these comments as opposed to just grammatical error comments because they allow me to think outside the box and develop new ideas that I hadn't thought about before.

In return I feel like I have tried to leave those kinds of comments on other people's posts as well. Although grammar is important, I feel like that is something that is easier to fix and for the writer to realize on their own.

I really like that my blog and comment wall is an easy place where I can connect with other students in the class. I feel like both represent me very well and are a great place for people to get to know me!

Looking forward I want to continue developing my blog and project with the help of awesome feedback!
 

This feedback cat is a great example of what I talked about in the previous paragraphs.  We can't grow without feedback! 

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Overall the readings and writings throughout the first half of the semester have been going really well for me! Some weeks it is easier to retell the story that went along with the readings for that week than others, but overall I am really enjoying it! My favorite reading so far has been Cupid and Psyche.  Although rather lengthy, I was completely drawn from the first paragraph of this story to the last.  I also had the most fun writing my own story from this reading. 

So far I am very happy and excited about my class project.  I am getting to do it over a topic that I really love and that makes it so much more enjoyable and easier to write about! I think so far my biggest accomplishment in this class has been being able to translate the story of The Nutcracker in a way that people who have never seen it can understand.  I was also able to create a story within a story while doing this.  I am extremely excited to see where my project goes and what stories will come out of it. 

Moving forward I would really like to get more ahead in the class so that I am not stressing daily about the assignments due that day.  I have been able to get ahead at certain points throughout the semester but haven't been able to maintain it, and moving forward I really want to do that so I can hopefully finish early!

Cupid and Psyche. Web Source. 

I chose a picture from my reading Cupid and Psyche not only because this has been my favorite reading so far, but also because this is a painting is of a pivotal moment in the story! In the story, Psyche is unaware of Cupid's true identity and he told her that if she every tried to see who he really was she would lose him forever.  One night, she was tempted and gazed upon him with a oil lamp.  Unfortunately, a drop of hot oil fell on Cupid and woke him, causing him to flee.  To find out what happens to the fate of Cupid and Psyches complicated love story you will have to read for yourself! Here's a link to the story :)