Styles

Witches in Fairytales: Styles Brainstorm

Topic: My storybook will be about witches from different fairytale/legends from around the world. My goal is to find four witches from 4 different fairytales. One story that I would like to write about is the story of a Russian witch named Baba Yaga. Another story I would like to include is the English fairytale of The Old Witch. I do not think I will have too much trouble finding more stories about witches. My only concern is that some of the stories I found were more recent folklore stories (I found some from the 70s) that I may not be able to use.

Possible Styles:

Story Time: I like the idea of having a babysitter telling the kids that she is babysitting stories about the witches. When she first arrives to the house, the kids are running wild and misbehaving. Most of the witch stories that I found involved naughty children and had some type of lesson at the end of them. The babysitter could use the witch stories as a way to scare the children into behaving.

Travel: I could create a character who is studying the folklore of witches. In order to learn more about these witches, he travels to each country/ place of origin and have one of the locals there tell him the stories about their famous withes.

Witch Convention: I also like the idea of all of the witches from different stories gathering together at a “witch convention.” At this convention, the witches can swap their stories. The witches could tell the stories from their point of views. Maybe the original stories were all one big misunderstanding and the children or adults in the story are the real villains and not the witches.  

Fairytale Children: Like the “witch convention” idea, I could have the fairytale heroes/ heroines come together and tell their stories of escape from these witches.

Fairytale Academy: This idea is similar to the story time idea. The framework could be that the boys and girls that attend a school in a fairytale land have to give a report on witches. The children could tell the story of these witches in the form of a research project/presentation for their class.

 

  

Bibliography:

Baba Yaga, from Old Peter's Russian Tales, by Arthur Ransome, [1916], at sacred-texts.com

The Old Witch, from More English Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs, at sacred-texts.com

(Baba Jaga illustrated by Iwan Bilibin, 1911)

 

 

Extra Reaing Diary: Ovid's Metamorphoses 1

Myth-Folklore Unit: Ovid's Metamorphoses 1

Deucalion and Pyrrha

This story about Jupiter (Zeus) and his brother Neptune (Poseidon) flooding the earth reminded me a lot of the Biblical story of Noah and his ark. Like God, Jupiter was angry with the mankind and their selfish and wicked behavior that he decides to flood the earth to teach all of mankind a lesson. I found the part about the animals to be the most interesting aspect of this section of the tale. I enjoyed reading the descriptions of the dolphins in the trees and the wolves, sheep, lions, and tigers swimming together in the oceans trying to survive the flood. I also enjoyed the message at the end of this section. The story ended by showing the resilience of mankind and how when faced with great diversity, man can pull together and create something out of nothing.

Jupiter sees Callisto

This portion of the book shocked me! After reading the first part of this, I was not expecting a rape. It was a little unsettling how casual it was. First Jupiter sees Callisto then he stakes her out, hopes his wife doesn’t find out, then proceeds to disguise himself and attack her. Once people find out that she is pregnant, Callisto is banished away and Juno, Jupiter’s wife seeks vengeance on her. This scenario reminds me of the rape culture of today. Usually, it is the victim who is blamed for what happened to them and not the attacker. Instead of being angry with Jupiter, Juno is mad at Callisto for giving birth to a son and “making public my Jupiter’s crime.”  In a way, I feel that the scars that Juno left on Callisto’s face represent the physical and emotional scars that attackers leave behind on their victims.  

(Callisto and Jupiter)

 

Storytelling Week 3: A Sister's Wrath

Dear Diary,

It has always been clear that Psyche is the favorite daughter. Her beauty is talked about all over our town and surrounding countries. She has even been named the Venus of the mortal world. Everyone loves Psyche and her gentle naivety but I find her arrogant and ungrateful! I am older than she is and just as beautiful but I am praised and worshiped? No! One day, my parents and all of the country will see that I am the sister to be praised!

 

Dear Diary,

My sister Psyche has suffered an ill fate. Her beauty and sweet naivety has made her unwanted by every man near and far. They have compared her to a beautiful statue; to be looked at and admired but not to be touched. Our sister and I have married fine men while poor Psyche sits at home still a virgin. Father has consulted the oracle of Apollo. He has told my dear father that he and mother must take Psyche high on a mountain crag and let her meet her doom. Although my sister does annoy me at times, the news of my sweet sister‘s fate has deeply hurt and saddened me.

Dear Diary,

My sister and I have seen our dear baby sister Psyche! She is not dead as we had been lead to believe but instead, is living a life of grand luxury and comfort with a mysterious young husband who I am sure is handsome. While my older sister and I are torn away and separated from our home country and bound to wretched men, our youngest sister lives like a Goddess! A Goddess with more clothes and riches than she can possibly need! She even has the wind, Zephyr, at her command! I know in my heart of hearts that she is longing for this mysterious husband of hers to make her a deity! Then, her beauty will truly be of the Gods’. She does not deserve this high honor and must be stripped of it and of her riches! We, as the eldest sister deserve this good fortune for I know that we would make better Goddesses. Because of this fact, we have devised a plan to ruin our undeserving little sister by stripping her of these clothes and riches. We will show her that we are her older sisters and not her slaves or servants! She will be punished for her arrogance!

(Psyche and her Jealous Sisters)



 

Author's Note: This retelling was based on Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche, specifically part 7  The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters. I took inspiration from a storytelling that I read from a classmate last week. He wrote about Cupid's mischief in the form of diary entries and I thought it worked really well with this unit.  

Bibliography: The story of Cupid and Psyche is contained in a Roman novel entitled The Golden Ass, written by Apuleius and translated into English by Tony Kline.

Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche: Reading Diary B

Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

I am so glad that Cupid and Psyche lived happily ever after! I was so worried that Venus/Aphrodite was going to ruin everything. Venus took her jealousy a little too far. I understand being jealous of Psyche’s beauty because people started worshiping her but torturing a pregnant girl is a little much.

Psyche's Prayer

I truly felt bad for Psyche in this part of the story. No matter how hard she prayed the Goddesses just couldn’t help her. In this chapter, I noticed that loyalty plays a role in this story. We first see it with Psyche and her sister and then again with Venus, Ceres, and Juno. Ceres and Juno both felt for Psyche but because of their family ties they cannot go against Venus. Another example of loyalty I found was in The Third Task between Jupiter’s eagle and Cupid. The eagle decides to help Psyche because his loyalty to Cupid. The last example of loyalty that I found was in The Sleep of the Dead. In this part of Cupid and Psyche’s story, we see loyalty between Jupiter and Cupid. Although Cupid has played many tricks on him, he still helps Cupid cheerfully helps Cupid.

Venus and Psyche, Psyche'sNext Task, The Third Task

The task parts of this love story reminded me a lot of a story I read about a King and a boy who wanted to marry the King’s daughter. Like Venus, the king made the young boy complete three tasks to prove he is worthy of the princess’s hand. The three tasks also reminded me of one of the stories I found while I was brainstorming topics for my storytelling project; it too involved tasks in order to prove worthiness. When the ants helped Psyche with the first task, I was reminded of Rumpelstiltskin when he helped the girl spin the straw into gold. Overall, I really enjoyed this story and I may even read more about Lucius story about how he turned back into a human.  

 

(Cupid and Psyche's Wedding, by Raphael)

Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche: Reading Diary A

I am surprised to say that I actually really enjoyed the first half of Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche. The beginning started out kind of slow but when the story of Cupid and Psyche began the reading became a million times better. The similarities between Cupid and Psyche’s story and the Beast and Belle’s love story is what drew me to this story but, I think I may prefer Cupid and Psyche to Beast(Adam in his human form) and Belle.

The Jealousy of Psyche’s Sisters

No fairytale is complete without an evil villain and there is no better villain than the evil sisters/ stepsisters. I do not know why I like evil sisters/stepsisters (maybe because I am an only child) but I really enjoyed Psyche’s sisters. Nothing gets a villain’s wrath going better than jealousy. Psyche’s sisters’ evil scheme was a bit extreme but, when the green monster of envy strikes, it can make you do some crazy things. I found myself becoming angry with Psyche as she started to fall for her sisters’ tricks. I understand being loyal to family but I just couldn’t believe that she would so easily believe her sisters’ lies about Cupid. If Psyche’s husband really wanted to harm her, then he would have done it a long time ago. Psyche’s naivety was frustrating at times but, naivety is a typical trait among damsels in classic fairytales. I was glad to see that Psyche did finally stand up to her sisters and get her revenge by tricking them just like they tricked her.

(Psyche and her sisters)

 

MythFolklore Storybook Topics Brainstorm

Topic: Mermaid Stories from around the world
Comments: When I thought of mermaid stories, I used to think of Disney's The Little Mermaid. When I was in middle school, I had the opportunity to read the Grimm Brothers' version of the story and it was completely different from Disney's version.
Possible Stories: I searched the Un-Textbook for Mermaid stories and found the Hans Christian Anderson version. I also searched Sacred Text Archive and found some stories about sirens as well. I didn't realize there were so many different mermaid and siren stories.
Sample Stories: I searched the Sacred Text Archive and found an interesting story about a king who promised a mermaid his first born son.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Mermaid and the Boy
Book Title: The Brown Fairy Book
Book Author: Andrew Lang
Year: 1904


Topic: Fairies
Comments: I have always loved Fairies, Nymphs, and Elves. I am very interested in learning about the different types and interpretations of Fairies from around the world. I know that there are many different types of Fairies and I am excited to learn about how Fairies vary from culture to culture and region to region.
Possible Stories: I found some cool stories about the Peris (Fairies) from Turkish fairy tales. I also looked at Sacred Text Archive and found some cool Irish and Scottish Fairy stories. I also found some things about Fairy revenge that would be fun to write about.
Sample Stories: I found an awesome story about Water Fairies who disguise themselves as gold rings floating in the water and capture women and children.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: Water Fairies
Book Title: Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales
Book Author: George Douglas
Year: 1901

Topic: Elves
Comments: As I mentioned above, I really love Elves. My favorite Elves are the Elves from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books/movies. I love that they are tall and graceful as opposed to the more common imagining of Elves being tiny creatures.
Possible Stories: I know that there are many stories of Elves from around the world. I look at Sacred Text Archives and found stories about Scandinavian Elves and French Elves from Brittany. The story about the Elves from Brittany described the Elves' rituals and dancing.
Sample Stories: On Sacred Text Archive, I found a story about French Elves from Brittany. The story describes them as mischievous little creatures whose song and dance lures in humans who hear it and make them dance and sing until they cant any longer. The king and queen in the story are afraid that they will be lured in by the Elves' song until they discover that the wooden spoon that the king is holding wields some magical power over the Elves.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Hunchback and the Elves
Book Title: Folk Tales of Brittany
Book Author: Elsie Masson
Year: 1929

Topic: Witches
Comments: As a Harry Potter kid, witches and wizards are a big deal to me. I remember watching this movie called The Witches and being slightly terrified but completely intrigued. Anjelica Huston was one scary witch when she took off her "human face." I also liked watching movies about good witches. Practical Magic is one of my favorite movies! I've always wanted to dress up as a witch for Halloween and fly off of my roof like Sandra Bullock did in the movie.
Possible Stories: I found a book called Aradia (The Gospel of the Witches) on Sacred Text Archive that claims to be the real sacred text of traditional witches from Italy. There were many more stories about witches and witch craft but I couldn't quite narrow them down to one that I would want to use.
Sample Stories: I searched Sacred Text Archive and the Un-Textbook and found a cool story about two girls and an old witch who hire them as servants. I found the story interesting because it felt like a combination of Hansel and Gretel and one of Aesop's Fables because it involved a witch in an oven and it had a hidden moral towards the end of the story.
Bibliography Information:
Sample Story: The Old Witch 
Book Title: More English Fairy Tales
Book Author: Joseph Jacobs
Book Year: 1894

(Illustration by John D. Batten)



Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

 

As you may be able to tell, I greatly enjoy Aesop’s Fables. I do not know why but, I am really drawn to Aesop’s simplistic stories. There is something about the way the fables are easy to understand yet they still teach significant life lessons. These lessons have a way of relating to not only a younger audience but an older audience as well. One of my favorite things about Aesop’s fables is the use of animals as the main characters. My favorite character from this particular part of Aesop’s Fables is the fox. In all of Aesop’s stories, the fox is almost always the trickster. I love the character of the fox because no matter how hard he tries to trick others, there are times when his antics backfire.

Although cats are not my favorite animals, I really enjoyed the cat storied from this unit. My favorite cat story from this unit is, The Cat-Maiden. I love the fact that this is a story about shape-shifting! As soon as I read it, I instantly thought of Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter (I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Hufflepuffs unite!). I’ve always thought it would be cool to be able to shape-shift into another animal. The reason behind Venus changing the cat into a maiden was great. The question of whether or not a person can change their nature is a great one to ask and using the platform of a shape-shifting cat was a great way to present this topic to both young children and adults alike.  

(Professor McGonagall in cat form)