Reading Notes, Russian Fairy Tales: Part B

These notes are from a few stories in the Russian Fairy Tales reading part B.

(The Witch Girl)
In a village there was a witch that came in a different house and killed all its members.  One day a coassack asked to stay the night in a families home and they said he could only if he did not fear death.  He was not afraid and kept watch while the family slept.  At midnight  a witch dressed in white climbed in the window and as she was about to sprinkle death the cossack chopped off her arm and she ran away.  The next day the family was overjoyed to find that they were all still alive.  They went around to the other houses to check on the families and one family's daughter was ill.  The cossack saw the sick girl was missing an arm and knew immediately that she was the witch.  He told them what happened, was awarded a great sum of honey, and the witch girl was drowned. 

(The Two Friends)
There were two friends who were so close they regarded themselves as brothers.  They made a pact that whoever got married first would invite the other to his wedding whether they were alive or dead.  One day, one of the friends fell ill and died.  When it was time for the other friend to get married he went to his friends grave to invite him to his wedding.  When he invited him, the dead friend came out from his grave and asked him to have a drink with him.  At first he resisted  but finally gave in.  While drinking the first drink, 100 years passed.  After the second drink,  200 years passed.  And then after the 3rd drink 300 years had passed and the friend said that was enough and it was time to go marry his bride.  However, when he came out of the grave, he found that everything was different.  He ran to the village, and it too was different and he knew no one.  He went to the priest and told what happened and the priest checked the records and sure enough 300 years ago a groom disappeared into a graveyard and his wife to be eventually married someone else. 

Graveyards and Death. A common theme in the Russian Folk Stories.  Web Source.

Bibliography: Russian Folk Tales by W.R.S Ralston.   

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales: Part A

This weeks notes are from the Russian Folktales Unit.  There were a lot of different stories in Part A, and these notes consist of a few that I found most interesting and that I could see myself using for my story this week. 

(The Dead Mother)
There was a couple that had a baby.  Shortly after, the mother died and the husband was at loss how he was going to take care of, and nourish the baby.  So he hired an older woman to take care of it.  However, nothing she could do would calm the baby and it cried all day and did not eat.  One night, the baby suddenly stopped crying and the old woman found this quite odd.  It continued to happen and so she began to watch and found that someone was coming into the house at night and going to the baby's room.  She alerted the husband of this and so he brought in others to stake out one night and see who it was that was coming every night and calming the baby.  That night when the person came in, they shown a light and saw that it was the dead mother.  They were terrified and when the mother saw that she had been seen she looked down at the baby and disappeared.  They then saw that the baby was dead. 

(The Water Snake)
There was a girl bathing in a pond.  While she was bathing a snake laid upon her robes and would not get off of them unless she agreed to marry him.  She agreed knowing it was not possible for her to marry a snake and she went home and forgot about it.  A few weeks later, tons of snakes went to her cottage and drug the girl back into the pond.  When they reached the water they all turned into men and women.  She lived down there for three years and had two children.  One day she went to visit her mother and said that when she came back she would cry out for her husband to come and get her.  That night while the girl was sleeping, her mother went to the pond and cried out for her daughter's husband and when he came out she chopped off his head.  The daughter found out about this and was very distraught.  She sent her daughter to be a wren, her son to be a nightengale, and herself a cuckoo. 

Water Snake.  Web Source. 

Bibliography: Russian Fairy Tales by Ralston.  

Reading Notes, Through the Looking Glass: Part B

These notes are based off "Queen Alice". 

At this point Alice is a queen and sitting on either side of her are the Red Queen and the White Queen.  They converse quite a bit.  The Queens started questioning Alice's skills like whether she can do math, say the ABC's etc.  The Queen began telling Alice about a horrible thunderstorm they had and became distressed and then said she was very tired.  Both Queens soon were asleep on Alice's shoulder and she was unsure what to do next.  Alice then suddenly was standing in front of a door with words "Queen Alice" above it.  She knocked and knocked but no one came.  Finally, and old frog came and asked her what she was doing.  Alice explained and then they started singing a song.  Alice got into the door and there was a banquet going on with lots of guests and the Red and White Queens.  They told her that she had already missed the soup and fish but to sit down and carve the joint.  Alice had never carved a joint before and was nervous.  The Queens then introduced her to the foods and they all seemed to be alive.  It ends with The Queen about to tell a poem about the fish. 

Alice and the sleeping Queens.  Web Source. 

Bibliography: Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There By Lewis Carroll.

Reading Notes, Through the Looking Glass: Part A

For my reading this week I wanted to continue with my Alice and Wonderland theme so I chose Through the Looking Glass.

I didn't remember that Humpty Dumpty was in Alice and Wonderland so I decided to focus these notes on the Humpty Dumpty part of the reading.

(Humpty Dumpty)
The first part of this reading was very funny.  Alice approaches Humpty Dumpty and they share some conversation before Alice mentions the poem and Humpty Dumpty thinks that Alice has been spying on him.  He is completely unaware that there is a book about him.  He is sure that he would never fall off the wall and does not want to get down.

(Humpty Dumpty Cont.)
Humpty then asked Alice how old she was and she replie seven years and six months.  Humpty says that she should've stopped growing at seven and Alice said that was not possible.  Humpty said it was possible with two people.  Alice quickly changed the subject and Humpty got angry when she mistook his cravat for a belt.  They then talked about unbirthday presents and he asked her to subtract one from 365 and show him the math.

(Humpty Dumpty cont. again)
Humpty and Alice continued to carry on conversation and combining words to make new ones.  Then he said that he was going to recite a poem for Alice.

(Humpty Dumpty end)
Humpty recited the poem for Alice and then told her to leave and that he probably wouldn't remember her because she looks like everyone else.  Alice walked away saying how mean Humpty was but didn't get to finish her sentence because a loud crash shook the forest.

Alice with Humpty Dumpty. Web Source. 

Bibliography: Through the Looking Glass, and what Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.

Reading Notes, Alice in Wonderland: Part B

These notes focus on "A Mad Tea Party" from Part B in the Alice in Wonderland unit.

(A Mad Tea Party)
Maybe I just haven't seen the movie recently enough to remember how Alice talks, but in the readings she is very sassy which is continuing to surprise me, but that I also find quite funny.  In my story this week I definitely want to carry this over.  The first part of this scene was mostly back and forth between Alice and the Hare.

(A Mad Tea Party Continued)
This part continued with dialogue between Alice and the hatter were they told jokes and riddles with each other.  Specifically, about time.  The mouse also woke up in the scene and told a very short story about three girls who lived in a well, and again, Alice made sassy comments about it.

(A Mad Tea Party End)
The last part of this story involved more dialogue between the three character's and the doormouse finishing his story of the three girls in the treacle well.  Alice thought the story was quite absurd and got offended and walked off saying it was the stupidest tea party she had ever been to.  As she walked away she came to a door in a tree and decided to go through it.  This is where she enters the the garden of the Queen. 



Bibliography: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

The Mad Tea Party. Web Source. 

Reading Notes, Alice in Wonderland: Part A

I was so excited to see Alice in Wonderland in this week's reading options because I have always loved how whimsical and fun the story is.  For this section of notes I want to focus on a part of the story I was less familiar with- "Pig and Pepper".

(Pig and Pepper)
The first part of this story was very interesting.  Although I do enjoy the story of Alice and Wonderland, I couldn't tell you the last time I actually watched the movie so a lot of this reading was a refresher for me.  The fist section of this story goes through how Alice meets the Cheshire cat. 

(Pig and Pepper Continued)
This section of the story begins with a conversation between Alice and the Duchess about why the Cheshire cat is smiling so much.  I found it comical and was also surprised by Alice's bravery in just coming on and in and striking up a conversation.  The cook continued to throw pots and pans everywhere towards the Duchess and her baby and Alice jumped up and begged him to stop.  After singing and throwing the baby around violently, the Duchess gave the baby to Alice and said she must go get ready for croquet with the queen. 

(Pig and Pepper End)
Alice was unsure what to do with the pig/baby creature, so she let it go into the woods and saw the Cheshire cat a few yards away.  Alice asked the cat where she should go next and the cat cunningly replied, "depends on where you want to go."  The cat then told her one way was a rabbit and the other was a mad hatter.  Before he disappeared he told her the child had turned into a pig.  Alice then walked towards the direction of the hare. 

Cheshire Cat. Web Source.

Bibliography: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  

Reading Notes, British North America: Part B

These notes are from the story 'Turtle and Thunder" from Part B of the British North America Tales. 

The story starts with a turtle who lives in a lake and keeps getting hit by something.  Every time he emerges from the water to see what it was, he sees nothing.  Eventually he asks for help. 

The deer was the first to help him.  The turtle asked the deer to see how well he could fight so the deer began to fight a tree and broke his horns.  This was not good enough for the turtle.

Next to help was was bear.  Turtle asked the same thing of bear so bear began to fight the tree but was jumping around clumsily, and again it was not enough for the turtle. 

Turtle called out again for someone to help him and this time a crowd of little turtles came forward.  Turtle asked them to show him how they can fight, and turtle was very pleased and knew they would be the ones to fight whoever was hitting him. 

He took them to his home and soon a big rock fell upon them and killed them all.  Turtle came out and saw a big bird overhead. He ran to his neighbor and asked who the bird was. 

The neighbor replied that it was the thunder bird and that he was very scared of him.  Ever since then, turtle stayed under the water during thunderstorms. 

Bibliography: Turtle and Thunder from Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson. 

The Turtle looking for his bully. Web Source. 

Reading Notes, British North America :Part A

These notes are over the story "Why the Sun is Bright", one of the stories in the British North America Tales. 

The story starts with a whole village moving away from its home because they were angry with one boy.  This seems like a lot of work to me over being angry, but kept reading to see what happens next.  The boy was left alone in the village with his grandma and soon they began to starve.  She told him to go snare small animals, and shoot the birds for food.  The grandma cooked the animals and made the boy a bright coat from their fur that he wore when he went to spear fish. 

The sun saw the boy everyday in his bright robe and one day came to the boy dressed in a goatskin robe with fringe and asked him if he would trade.  At first the boy said no, but then the sun said that with his robe, the boy would be able to catch more fish than he could ever spear.  He then placed his fingers in the water and immediately fish were caught on the fringe of the robe.  The boy exchanged robes after that.  Before this, the sun was pale.  But now with the new bright coat he became bright and dazzling and people could no longer look at him. 

Bibliography: Why the Sun is Bright from Myths and Legends of British North America written by Katharine Berry Judson. 

The Bright Sun. Web Source. 

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!

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.

Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit, Part B

Part B consisted of more stories about Brer Rabbit and other various characters.  These tales were entitled, Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs, Old Mr. Rabbit- He's a Good Fisherman, Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match Again, A Story about the Little Rabbits, Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear, Mr. Terrapin Shows His Strength, The Story of the Deluge, and Plantation Proverbs.

Something really unique about the Brer Rabbit Stories is that they are told in dialect from "Uncle Remus".  They are difficult to read on their own because of the dialect so it is important to either read them out loud, or listen to the recordings that are offered! For Part B, I chose the listening option and the story I enjoyed the most was Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs.

In the story Mr. Fox is tricked into the pond where the frogs live and almost drowns but manages to escape.  I enjoyed it because the last story that I wrote about in Part A, Mr. Fox was doing the tricking, so it was fun to see him getting a taste of his own medicine.

Mr. Fox almost drowning. Web Source. 

Bibliography: Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs from Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings written by Joel Chandler Harris.

Reading Notes: Brer Rabbit, Part A

I was excited to see Brer Rabbit as an option for the reading this week because I grew up with this tale! My parents used to read it to me all the time and I remember enjoying it very much as a child.  I was surprised however to see it under the "African Tales" origin.  I did not know that this story comes from African history. 

Part A consisted of 8 parts including Brer Rabbit and the Calamus Root, The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story, Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace, How Mr. Rabbit was too Sharp for Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox is "Outdone" by Mr. Buzzard, Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure, Mr. Fox Tackles Old Man Tarrypin, and finally The Awful Fate of Mr. Wolf.

The tale that I could see myself retelling this week would be The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story.  I like this story because it one of the specific stories that I really remember as a child.  It turns out that is is also the most famous of the Brer Rabbit stories so that makes sense as to why its the one I remember the most. 

In the story, Mr. Fox creates a tar baby from "turkentime" a sticky substance resembling tar.  Mr. Fox then hides and waits for Brer Rabbit to come along.  Eventually, Brer rabbit comes along and tries to talk to the tar baby, and of course the tar baby doesn't respond because it is made of tar.  Brer Rabbit becomes frustrated and ends up punching the tar baby and getting stuck in the tar.  Mr. Fox comes out from the bushes and laughs and the story ends with the narrator saying some say that the Judge came and freed Brer Rabbit and others say he didn't.

I am excited about potentially retelling this story, as it brought up sweet memories from my childhood!

Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby. Web Source. 

Bibliography: The Wonderful Tar Baby from Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris.

Reading Notes: Bengal, Part B

Reading B of Bengal was just as enjoyable to read as Part A.  The folk tales in Part B consisted of The Ghostly Wife, The Story of Brahmadaitya, The Origin of Rubies, The Ghost who was Afraid of being Bagged, and The Bald Wife. 

My favorite of these tales was The Ghostly Wife.  This tale was very much like The Brahmin-Ghost that I wrote about from Part A.  However The Ghostly Wife had some significant differences that I found enjoyable. 

In the The Ghostly Wife, the wife of the Brahman is thrown into a pit by a woman ghost and the woman ghost takes her place. 

At first the Brahman and his mother don't notice any differences but eventually the mother starts to notice the wife doing strange things such as doing chores too quickly and sticking her limbs through walls to deliver objects to her. 

After the mother caught the wife with her foot in a fire she knew she had to be a ghost so called upon and exorcist.  The exorcist burned turmeric and immediately the ghost came forward and confessed telling them where they could find the real wife.  The real wife was rescued and they loved happily ever after. 

I thought this story was interesting because in The Brahman- Ghost story no one knew that he had been replaced by a ghost and even when he tried to tell people they did not believe him.  In this story I liked that they mother began to pick up on that the wife had been replaced by a ghost. 

The Ghostly Wife. Web Source. 

Bibliography: The Folktales of Bengal by Rev. Lal Behari Day.

Reading Notes: Bengal, Part A

The stories in Part A of Bengal were really fun to read.  My favorite story out of the few was The Ghost-Brahman.  In this story there is a poor Brahman who was having trouble getting married.  He begged for money and that he may find a wife.  He eventually succeeded in scraping together enough money to pay for the wedding and was married.

After bringing his wife home he realized that he had no money to support her, or his mother so he went to distant countries to collect money.

That night, after he left a ghost that appeared to be Brahman appeared to his wife and his wife wondered how he had returned so soon.  The ghost told the wife that he had already gotten money and continued to live with them, controlling the household.  After some years, the real Brahman returned and was confused to find another like him in the house. The ghost treated the real Brahman as a stranger and asked what his business was.  The real Brahman, angered, said the same thing to the ghost.  The real Brahman was cast away and did not know what to do.

He went to king after king and no one thought he was the real Brahman. The Brahman who weeped every day as a result was noticed by the cowboys.  The coyboy king wished to see him and the Brahman told him his sad story.  The coyboy king agreed to help him and brought both the real Brahman and ghost Brahman together.

He told them whichever could get themselves into a tiny phial would be declared the owner of the household.  The ghost quickly made himself into a small creature and put himself inside the phial.  The king put the lid on the phial to where the ghost could not get out and told the real Brahman to throw the phial to the bottom of the sea and to go back to his mother and wife.  The Brahman lived happily ever after and had many sons and daughters.

I really enjoyed this story and the trickery at the end was very clever.  I could see myself retelling this story later in the week!

The Brahman with his mother and wife. Web Source. 

Bibliography: The Brahman-Ghost from The Folktales of Bengal by Rev. Lal Behari Day.  

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sinbad, Part B

The second half of The Voyages of Sinbad was almost the exact same as the first.  Sinbad continued to go on voyages where he encountered near death experiences, made it home safely, and then got bored and decided to go on another voyage.  I thought the second half was very repetitive and a little boring.  After his sixth voyage he made it a point to go on no more because of his age but alas, he went on a seventh when the commander asked him to deliver a letter to the King of Serendib in return for his friendship.  Sinbad carried out the task, again merely escaping death and finally returned home to never travel again and live with all of his riches.

Sinbad on his 5th voyage.  Web Source. 

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sinbad, Part A

I chose to read The Voyages of Sinbad for my reading this week because in the description it said that it was much like The Odyssey, which I read last week and quite enjoyed.  It also read that many inspirations for The Voyages of Sinbad came from the The Odyssey and that was not an exaggeration! I was shocked at how similar many of the stories were between the two readings.  Much like The Odyssey, in The Voyages of Sinbad, Sinbad the main character is a merchant that loves to travel the world and collect great treasures.  Throughout this reading, Sinbad goes on 4 voyages, all of which have almost deathly encounters.  The voyage that resembled The Odyssey the most was Voyage 3, which involved a giant that held Sinbad and his companions hostage and ate them slowly.  They merely escaped by stabbing him in the eye with boiling rods in his slumber and fled the island on makeshift rafts that they had made from driftwood.  This is almost identical to a situation that Odysseus occurred during his journey home.  Part A of this reading was very exciting and I am looking forward to reading Part B!

Sinbad fleeing on a makeshift raft. Web source. 

Reading Notes, Cupid and Psyche, Part B

Venus and the Goddesses:

• Venus became very angry when she found out what Cupid had done.  Her goddesses tried to talk sense in to her but she turned her back and ran towards the sea. 

Psyche's Prayer: 

•  Psyche found goddess Ceres and asked for her protection to hide from Venus and the goddess pitied her but said she could not betray Venus and sent her on her way.  
• The same thing happened at Juno's temple and again Psyche was sent on her way. 

Venus and Mercury: 

• Venus still searching for Psyche, confided in Mercury the messenger god to get the word out and help find her.  

Venus and Psyche: 

• Psyche was found and Venus dragged her into her chamber by the hair and laughed.  Psyche pregnant, was tortured by Anxiety and Sorrow.  Venus ordered her sort a huge pile of different beans and wheat, which she would come back and check for approval.  
• A single ant took pity on Psyche and called all his ants to help sort the pile and then vanished. 

Psyche's Next Task: 

• Venus thought that the work had been done by Cupid and threw her a piece of bread and went to sleep.  The next day, Venus instructed Psyche to go get a sheep's wool and Psyche went planning to throw herself off the cliff instead. 
• A simple reed told Psyche not to kill herself but to wait until the sun set and wool would be clinging to the trees that she could collect. 
• Venus was not impressed and gave her another task to collect freezing water from am dark spring under the cliff. 

The Third Task: Task Accomplished

• The mountain was jagged with snakes and there was now way down, but Jupiter's eagle took pity on her and came to her. 
• Telling her that she would never be able to get the water herself and live, he took the phial adn filled it with water.  

The Jar of Beauty: 

• Even with the phial filled, Venus was still unhappy. She told her to go to the underworld and ask for some of Prosperine's beauty.  Psyche knew this was the end. 
• With instructions from the turret she was able to go to the underworld and back and get the jar of divine beauty.  However, she said she might as well take some for herself.  

The Sleep of the Dead

• Inside the jar was not beauty, but slumber that attacked her and put her to sleep.  
• Cupid, feeling better from his burn came to Pysche's rescue and woke her.  He went to Jupiter and asked for pity and she granted it, in return for a beautiful girl.  

The Wedding Feast: 

• With the help of Jupiter, Cupid and Psyche were married, making Psyche immortal so the wedding was equal.  
• Their daughter was born and named Pleasure. 

Cupid and Psyche's Wedding Feast. Web Source. 

Lucius and the Robbers: 

• back to the original story, Lucius the donkey became maimed during travel and the bandits said they were going to toss him over the cliff. 

The Escape: 

• Lucius escaped with the girl on his back. 

Bibliography: Cupid and Psyche from Apuleius's Golden Ass. Translated to English by Tony Kline. 

Reading Notes: Cupid and Psyche, Part A

The Captive Woman:

• Lucius, the hero of the story has been turned into a donkey and stolen by a band of robbers and being used as a pack mule. 
• One night the robbers come back with a beautiful girl that they kidnapped from one of the rich families in order to get ransom money.  They told her not to fear for her life, they  just wanted money.  
• The girl cried and cried and began to torment herself, and the old woman that was sent to comfort her became angry that she may may ruin her bandit's chance of getting money. 

Her Dream:

•  The girl explained that the kidnapping had taken place on her wedding night, and that she had had a dream about it as well where the bandits kill her lover. 
• The old woman comforted her and said not to let a dream disturb her.  Dreams that come in the daytime are proven to be untrue, and nightmares often signifies the opposite.  The old woman started to tell her "an old wives tale". 

Psyche's Beauty and the Anger of Venus

• The story starts with a king and queen who had three beautiful daughters, the youngest being so beautiful that human speech could not describe her.  People bowed to her as the goddess Venus. 
• Word spread of Venus's human state and people came far and wide to see her.  Venus's shrines and temples became abandoned as there was no need for them anymore.  
• Venus herself was angered by all the praise going to a mere mortal girl.  She swore that she would reap no joy from using her name and that she would regret her beauty. 
• She summoned her wicked son, Cupid who goes around at night with his bow and his arrow ruining marriages and committing shameful acts.  She told him to doom Psyche with a wretched man, who would become nothing significant.  

The Oracle of Apollo: 

• Even with Psyches beauty, no man wished to marry her.  Her sisters became married to royal men and she was left at home alone.  
• Psyche's father, worried about anger from the gods prayed to the oracle of Apollo that they would send a man to marry her.  Apollo replied that if the girl were married her children would be evil serpents. 
• Psyche went to her dreadful wedding and told everyone to leave her as she was actually going to her funeral.  After everyone left she was whisked from the mountain top by a zephyr and laid down in the valley on a bed of flowers. 

The Magical Palace: 

• Psyche awoke to a beautiful  palace, made by divine hands. 
• Exploring she found beautiful treasure and wealth, and a voice spoke to her saying it was all hers and to go to her room and bathe, and her servants will ready the feast when she is ready.  All the servants and voices were invisible. 

The Mysterious Husband: 

• During the night her "husband" came and took her virginity and then left and voices spoke to her for several nights consoling her solitude.  
• Psyche's family, mourning her aged greatly and lamented in sorrow. 
• Psyche's husband said that her sisters (who think she is dead) will one day come to the cliff and yearn for her and that if she answers she will bring utter ruin to herself.  She promised to behave and ignore them.  She was sad thought and wished to see her sisters and ease their sorrows. 
• Her husband agreed to let her sisters come visit but again urged her not to listen to what they had to say or she would again be ruined. 

The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters: 

• Psyche showed her sisters all her wealth and treasure and her sisters became envious and questioned her husband.  They then became very angry that they have suffered a great deal while she has lived in paradise and said they would return and punish her arrogance. 

Psyche's Husband Warns Her: 

• While Psyche's sisters planned her murder with their parents, her husband warned her once more that if she examine his features she will never see him again.  The sisters were coming and he warned her again.  However, she wept for her sisters and giving in, he let Zephyr bring them. 

Fears and Doubts: 

• Psyche's sisters tricked her into killing her husband in his sleep. 

Psyche's Husband Revealed: 

• As she drew her blade, she saw that her husband, was actually Cupid.  She admired him and fell in love with him anymore.  However, oil from the lamp fell on his shoulder and woke him and he flew away and told Psyche that his mother told him to give her a wretched marriage, but that he disobeyed her and made her his wife instead.  He said he would take revenge on her evil sisters and never see her again. 

Psyche's Despair: 

• Psyche returned to her sisters, and both of them tried to leap off the cliff to become Cupid's new wife, and they both fell to their deaths on the jagged rocks. 

Psyche fawning over Cupid. Web Source. 

Bibliography: Cupid and Psyche from Apuleius's Golden Ass. Translated to English by Tony Kline.