Reading Diary A: Brothers Grimm (Crane)

These are some of my favorite stories Brothers Grimm (Crane) unit.

The Fisherman and His Wife- This is a four part story. In this story, the fisherman catches a flounder that says that he is a magical prince. The fisherman lets him go and tells his wife about it. The wife demands that he go back and make a wish to the magical prince because she wants a bigger house. The flounder gives them a bigger house but the wife is not satisfied. She wants the fisherman to go back and ask for a castle, so he does. The flounder gives them a castle but the wife is still not satisfied so she demands that the fisherman go back. Her demands continue and each time it is not long before she is unsatisfied again. This continues over and over again. Finally the flounder gets annoyed and when the wife demands more, he turns everything back to how it originally was. I think the reason for this is because the wife would never be satisfied so the flounder decided that it was not worth it and turns everything back into how it was to begin with. This story shows that if you base your happiness on material things, you will never be satisfied with what you have because you will always be searching for the newer and better version.

The Robber Bridegroom-This story was quite disturbing. The woman realizes that the man that she is set to marry is actually a cannibal who planned to eat her. She finds this out by seeing him and others kill and eat another woman. She is able to escape and tells everyone of what he has done.

"Turn back, turn back, thou pretty bride,
Within this house thou must not bide,
For evil things do here betide."

"Sweetheart, the dream is not ended."

Bride. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Anderson

There was only one story in the second half of the Hans Christian Anderson unit. That story was The Little Mermaid, it was just broken up into 6 parts. I have to admit, I had never read this version before. I have watched the Disney version about a million times but I did know enough, that I figured this version would be much different. The Disney versions of fairy tales always have happier themes and are definitely less gruesome than the original fairy tales.

One of the first things that I noticed about this story was all the little details that take over the entire first part of the story. I think that it gives a good description of the setting but I feel like most of it was unnecessary. I don't think that the first part adds that much to the story as a whole.

In the Disney version, the little mermaid had a very happy ending. She ended up being able to speak and being able to live happily ever after with her prince. He fell in love with her and she was very happy. In this version, the little mermaid had to trade her tongue and her voice in order to become human. She also had to be in constant pain.

The little mermaid had to trade so much for just the slight chance that she may be able to be with the prince. In the end, the prince did not fall in love with the little mermaid and so she was not able to live as a human. It was quite a sad ending.

Mermaid. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Andersen

These are some of my favorite stories from the Hans Christian Anderson unit.

The Princess and the Pea: This story was a short one but interesting. I still am not quite sure why princesses are more sensitive to a pea being in the bed but I always liked this story nonetheless. I always felt as though I needed more of an explanation of why the princess was able to feel the pea. Are princes able to feel it too? It is all royalty? I may never know.

The Emperor's New Suit: This story made me laugh. It is funny how the emperor was so materialistic and yet he paid a large sum of money for him to end up naked in front of everyone. I also like how it took the innocence of a child to show the adults the truth behind the new suit. The truth was that he had been swindled and was left naked in front of everyone and everyone pretending to see an amazing suit. I loved it.

The Little Match Seller: This story was my favorite one in the first part of the unit. It was so sad and yet so beautiful. The little girl was able to finally be free of the cold and free from her abusive father. She was able to go with her grandmother as she died. I loved how the story, even though it was sad because she died, had her feel such joy at the end. She was happy. She was no longer worrying about anything. It was such a beautifully tragic story.

Lit match, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: English Fairy Tales

These are some of my favorite stories from the English Fairy Tales unit.

Tom Tit Tot: This story was one of my favorites. It all started with a huge misunderstanding between a girl and her mom. Her mom was baking pies and the crust on the pies got too hard, so she told the girl to sit them aside and they will come back. The girl thought that the mom meant that if she ate them, then the pies would return but the mom meant that the crust will soften once they are left sitting for a while. The girl ate all the pies and the mother was angry. She was singing about how her daughter had eaten all the pies when a king overheard her and asked what she was singing. She didn’t want to be embarrassed and so she told him that her daughter had spun five items. He decided to marry the girl and let her live well for 11 months, then on the 12th month she must spin five items each night. A creature helped her and told her that if she couldn’t guess his name by the end of the month, then she will be his. She was able to guess his name after her husband overheard the creature say it so she did not have to go with him. I just really liked how it all started as a huge misunderstanding but it also left me wondering if the girl would end up dead the next year because no one would be helping her spin.

Spinning wheel by Enfo. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Cap o’ Rushes: I really enjoyed this story because it does have such a happy ending. A father asked his three daughters how much they loved him. When one daughter told him that she loved him as much as fresh meat loves salt, he sends her away thinking that she does not love him. She begins working for some people as a maid. She didn’t want people to know who she was. They just called her Cap o’ Rushes. The people she’s staying with ask her if she wants to go to a dance. She says she doesn’t but dresses up and goes anyways. She does this a couple of times and tells everyone that she is not feeling well and that’s why she does not go. She finally reveals herself to the Prince that had fallen in love with her and they were to get married. Cap o’ Rushes made them make the food with no salt. Her father attended and when he ate the tasteless meat, he realized that she truly did love him. The ending is so sweet and I like how everything worked out for Cap O’ Rushes. I was just never really sure on why she waited so long to let everyone know that it was her that the prince had fallen in love with.

Reading Diary A: Native American Marriage Tales

Here are some of my favorite stories from the Native American Marriage Tales unit.

Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman: In this story, both the grizzly and the doe are married to Chickenhawk. The grizzly decides to kill the doe and puts her in the fire. The doe children realize that their mother has been killed so they decide to kill the grizzly children. They then give the children to their mother, the grizzly and she cooks them without realizing. Once she realizes what she has done, she goes after the children but she ends up dying. This story caught my attention because of the amount of revenge that went into it. The children get revenge for their mother. The other mother tries to get revenge for her children. It ends up with the doe children making it safely away. It has the worst animal be killed and the doe children are able to escape with their lives.

Grizzly bear. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Splinter-foot-girl: In this story, a girl is born from the leg of a man. He pricks his leg on a thorny plant and then after it swells, a child crawls out of it. All the men love the little girl and refuse to let her be married to Bone-bull, who has become quite persistent about having her as his wife. After refusing a number of times, the men finally agreed that she was able to be Bone-bull's wife. After a while, they grew to miss her and decided that they wanted to get her back. They get her back and then the rock wants to marry her. They again refuse this marriage. They give in again with the intentions of using the animals again to bring her back. This story is so intriguing because of the lengths that everyone will go for this girl. Her fathers fight like crazy to get her back and the ones who want to marry her fight just as hard. It makes you wonder what it was about the girl that had everyone willing to fight over her.

Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

The American Indian Fairy Tales Unit was a bit hard to read, mostly because of the names. I think that having the meaning of the names after them throughout the stories made it so much easier. So, here is one of my favorite stories from the American Indian Fairy Tales Unit.

How the Summer Came: Iagoo tells this story about a time when there was no summer. The North Wind caused it to be winter all the time. The people used to imagine that above the clouds in the sky, there were birds and it was warm and it was called summer. O-jeeg's son came across a squirrel who told him about the warm place above the sky and so he went to try to convince his father to find the place so that they could experience warmth. O-jeeg agreed and met with all the animals. They came up with a plan. They manage to break open the sky and free the seasons. O-jeeg could not get away fast enough and he was caught. He risked his life so that his son could experience a different kind of world. I think this story shows how much a father loves his son. I like how it shows that the stars are his father laying on the floor of the sky as a reminder. It is a very sweet story. I feel like this is a story that has such a good moral ending. O-jeeg and the animals risked their lives so that the people, in the world where it was winter all the time, could live a better and happier life. They could experience the warmth of the sun. The story made it seem like O-jeeg knew he wasn't coming back, at least that is what I got out of the story, and the fact that he still went is such an amazing and brave thing to do. It shows how much his son and the other people meant to him.

Snow-covered trees. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: American Indian Fairy Tales Unit

Here are some of the stories that I liked the most from the American Indian Fairy Tales Unit.

Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind
This story is quite interesting. It shows a sort of rivalry between Ka-bib-on-okka, the North Wind, and Sha-won-dasee, the South Wind. People loves the South Wind but did not like the North Wind. The North Wind was not kind and was feared by most. Shin-ge-bis appears to be the only character whom is not affected by the North Wind. He does not fear him like the rest. I love the bravery that he shows when he refuses to let the North Wind ruin his day.

"Ka-bib-on-okka, ancient man,
Come and scare me if you can.
Big and blustery though you be,
You are mortal just like me!"

The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds
Iagoo begins to tell this story about a hill that carries the little boy and girl up into the clouds. He is telling this story to the children and it reminds me of all the times I would listen to my grandparents tell stories to all us kids. He is telling them of a time when the animals roamed free with the people. Two children were playing in the water and decided to climb up a hill and they fell asleep. The rock rose up and everyone was trying to figure out how to get the children down. All the animals tried but it took the little worm to be able to climb up and return with the children. This story shows that it doesn't matter how small you are, you can always make a difference.

"That is not the question at all. 

Anybody could ask that. 

The only question worth asking is: 

how are we to get them down again? "

Mountain Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

These are some of the stories that I liked from the second half of the Japanese Fairy Tales Unit.

The Crab and the Monkey: This story is a good one. The monkey tries to trick the crab and steal all the fruit from her tree. When the crab tricks the monkey too, the monkey gets mad and tries to kill the crab. Luckily the crab has a friend that helps her get better and they decide to get revenge and eventually kill the monkey. The crab is really nice to the monkey throughout the story but even still the monkey is horrible to the crab. I like that the crab won in the end because she was nice the entire time.

The Magic Kettle: What made this story so memorable to me was that the man who ended up by the kettle was so honest. He was a good person because after he had made his riches by using the kettle that turned into a tanuki, he returned the kettle to the original owner and gave him part of the riches. You don't hear many stories where people are so honest and genuinely want to be fair. I really liked this story.


Uraschimataro and the Turtle: This story turns out to be quite sad. Uraschimataro goes under the sea and meets a princess and promises to stay with her. She grants him an everlasting life and he stays with her. He starts to miss his parents and asks to go visit them, only to discover that it is 300 years later and they are obviously gone. He opens the box, that which the princess told him not to, and he turns into an old man and does not return to the princess. He dies shortly after.

Turtle photo taken by Brocken Inaglory. Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

These are some of my favorite stories from the Japanese Fairy Tale (Lang) Unit.

The Two Frogs: This story is quite entertaining. The two frogs each want to go where the other is. They meet half-way and decide that they are going to look to see if it is worth it to keep moving. They help each other stand up and they look to see what looks exactly like their hometown. The problem is that their eyes are placed so that they are looking behind them and are actually looking at their home towns. They end up with a completely wrong view of what the other place is and spend the rest of their lives thinking that the two places are exactly the same. Its a shame that they did not continue on to the new place and realize it is completely different.

The Stonecutter: This story is about how if you live your life according to what materials you have, then you will never be satisfied. The stonecutter wished to be rich, but that soon became too boring for him. He wished to be a prince, but that too did not keep him satisfied. This goes on until he realizes that he likes it much better being a person and so he is changed back into a man. This story goes with the saying that the grass is always greener on the other side. There will always be someone else who has it better and so you need to learn to be satisfied with what you have. I like this story for the moral in it.

Mountains photo take by Jamie O'Shaughnessy. Wikimedia Commons

Extra Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

Since I did not get a chance to do part b of my reading dairy this week, I decided to read it for my extra reading diary post. For my extra reading diary post, I am going to tell of the stories that I found most interesting in the second part of the Chinese Fairy Tales.

Fox-Fire
A man sees a fox who was preparing the elixer of life. He steals it from the fox and keeps it thirty years. Eventually the fox gets it back. This story was a short one but I did like how the fox seemed to wait patiently to get his elixir back. He did not attack the farmer because the farmer had too much power but he waited until the farmer older and he managed to get it back. I like this story because the fox was able to get his elixir back, even if it took him thirty years to get it.

The Three Evils
In this story, a man becomes the new mandarin of the land. He is told by the people of the village that things are good except for three evils in their home. The evils are the dragon at the bridge, the tiger in the hills, and Dschou Tschu. He tells this to Dschou Tschu and he decides to deal with the evils himself. He slays both the tiger and the dragon and then to rid the village of the last evil, he decides to leave. I like this story because once he was made aware of what people thought of him, Dschou Tschu decided that he was going to go away and rid them of all the evils. He put his country over himself and did what was best for them. It was like he finally took responsibility for his own actions and did what he could to make things better for everyone.

Mandarin. Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

Here are some of my favorite stories from the Chinese Fairy Tales Unit.

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck:
In this story, a princess, whom is a child of ill luck, is looking for a husband. She chooses a beggar because she knows that he is a favorite of fortune and she believes that she could share in his good luck. The beggar goes off to find his fortune and returns eighteen years later to his wife. She doesn't recognize him so she denies his advances and this makes him happy because it shows that she is still loyal to him. Even after so long, the princess stood by her commitments and would not betray her husband. She did this even though she did not know if he was ever going to return. I love how she chose to remain faithful to her husband even though it probably would have been easier to find someone else.

The Cave of the Beasts
This story is an odd one. A mother gives her daughters eggs and tells them not to tell anyone that they ate them. The father gets mad because all the eggs have been eaten and decides to abandon his daughters. It seems quite drastic a punishment for eating all the eggs but the girls stumble upon a cave and are able to defeat the animals that live there. The father comes back because he misses the girls and he finds the treasure. They become a wealthy family. This seems quite unfair that the father could be so horrible and yet the ending appears that they become a happy wealthy family.

A Cave by Remi Jouan. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary B: Turkish Fairytales

This is one of my favorite stories from the second half of the Turkish Fairy Tales unit.

The Wizard and his Pupil: This story was one of my favorites mainly because it took a very odd twist that I was not expected. A boy spent time searching for where he actually wanted to be. He had run away from everywhere else and his mother had ran out of options. He decided to go with the wizard and he learned many things from the wizard. I feel that the boy got too cocky and I was sure that it was going to backfire against him. When his mother gave away the key when he turned himself into a bathing establishment, I thought that it might be the end of the boy. Then he was able to turn into many other things and when he turned into the millet pulp and the wizard turned into a cock and ate up all the millet pulp. I thought that the story would have been good to end there. The boy was cocky and the wizard got his revenge. The story took another twist and the wizard had missed one grain. The one grain was enough for the boy to return to his youthful self and he then killed the wizard. Good things happened for the boy but I did not think that the story should have gone like that. I still think that the wizard should have been the one victorious in the end but it did catch my attention by going in a direction that I was not expecting.

The wizard talking to the boy's mother from the Turkish Fairy Tale Unit

Reading Diary A: Turkish Fairytales

These are some of my favorite stories in the Turkish Fairy Tales unit.

Fear: A boy is told by his mother that she is fearful, so he sets out on a journey to find Fear. He goes through numerous situations in which most people actually would be fearful, and yet he still does not experience fear. He was determined to find it and searched in many places and asked many people. At the end, he finally experienced fear when the bird flew out of the lid. I liked that this boy experienced all these things that most would find fearful, and yet he was not scared until a bird jumped out at him in the end. It seems that if he was not afraid at any other point in the story, that he wouldn't be afraid of a bird. I guess that different people fear different things and what is not scary to one person may be terrifying to another. It was an interesting story.

The Fish-Peri: In this story, a fisherman catches a fish that turns out to be a maiden. They plan to wed but a Padishah did not want the fisherman to have the woman. He wanted to be the one to wed her. He gives the fisherman all these seemingly impossible tasks but the fisherman and the maiden come up with ideas in order to accomplish them. They are able to get married finally. I liked this story because it shows what extremes some people will do in order to be with those they love. The maiden helped the fisherman in every aspect and so they were finally able to be together. I like it when people stay together even when there are so many obstacles in their way.

Fish. Photo taken by Brocken Inaglory Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: Persian Fairy Tales

I chose to read Persian Fairy Tales. These are a few of the stories that I liked the most.

The City of Nothing-in-the-World: This story was fascinating to me. It starts off with a girl who shins her knee and goes to look for cooling ointment but her aunt does not have any. Her aunt tells her to take two eggs and to go trade it for the ointment. On the way she loses the eggs and then ends up doing a sort of exchange with everything that she ends up with. It was a creative story but it was hard to follow at times. I liked it though because everything was so unexpected in every part of the story.

Susku and Mushu: This story caught my attention because of the flow that it had. It started when the beetle falls into a pot. Then her husband, Mushu, pours ashes on his head. The story adds animals which add their part to the story and it repeats itself over and over again. It made it fun to read because I felt like I could read the stories faster and faster each time.

Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy: This is a story about a half-boy. His father had been given 4 apples to give to his infertile wives to each have one and they will be able to get pregnant. One wife only ate half of the apple and therefore gave birth to the half-boy. The half-boy is disowned but at the end of the story he is able to rescue his siblings and gain his father's love. I like stories where the person that nobody put any thought into, is the one that saves everyone in the end. I like when the hero of a story is the one that nobody would suspect.

The Half-Boy

Reading Diary B: Saints and Animals

Here are some of the stories from Saints and Animals.

The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe: Ailbe was abandoned by his parents and raised by a wolf. He was then taken by a prince and the prince raised him. Ailbe then had to save his wolf-mother from the hunters and made a promise to her that nobody would hurt her or her children. I liked this story because it shows a love between mother and child. Even if the mother is a wolf, she still took care of the little boy and I like how he was able to return the favor in the end. He kept his promise that nobody would harm his wolf family.

Saint Francis of Assisi: I liked this story because of how they described Saint Francis. He had a smile that made everyone feel better even though most people in similar circumstances were not able to remain smiling. He wanted to be poor so he could be like Christ. I found that interesting that somebody would want to be poor. Saint Francis could also calm the animals down. He was able to turn a wild wolf into a neighborhood pet. He was feared but then the people grew to love him. It shows that even the scariest of things could possibly have some good in them. Saint Francis was kind to everyone and found himself at home among the beasts in the wild. He was able to bring animals and people together in harmony.

St. Francis of Assisi by Guercino (1591–1666). Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary A: Saints and Animals

Here are some of my favorite stories from Saints and Animals

Saint Kentigern and the Robin: This story has two parts to it but I feel like the second part is the most significant. Kentigern is hated by all the other boys. They try numerous things to try and get him in trouble. He is smart and tries hard so they do not like him. They killed the robin in order to get Kentigern in trouble. Kentigern is able to pray and have the bird brought back to life. This story was interesting to me because of all the trouble that the boys went to in order to have Kentigern disciplined even though he did nothing wrong. Kentigern showed an extraordinary amount of patience in dealing with the others.


Saint Comgall and the Mice: I liked this story because of the irony at the end. The prince said that only the mouse can have his grains and, even though he was referring to his mother, all the mice got the grains and stole them away from him. I like that the prince would now have to beg everyone for grains because he no longer has control over them. It shows that he should have been a better person and helped out others when they were in need. Now that he is going to be in need of food, I highly doubt that anyone would be willing to help such a cruel and selfish person. He is going to experience what he made the others feel.

A group of mice. Wikimedia Commons

Bible Women- Reading Diary B

Here are some of my favorite stories from the second half of Bible Women.

 Bathsheba- This story starts when David sees Bathsheba bathing. David decides that he wants to sleep with Bathsheba and he does sleep with her even though she is married. Bathsheba learns that she is pregnant and tells David. David tries to get her husband, Uriah, to go see her. He refuses and David decides to have him killed. Bathsheba mourned her husband but still married David. This story has an interesting twist. David tries to get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba to cover up her pregnancy.
When that doesn't work, he jumps to having Uriah killed. It does not have a good ending for anybody.

Esther- There were three sections for Esther but I was more interesting in the third segment.  She exposes Haman and has the letter to kill the Jews reversed. She is such an influential figure. She is so important to the king that he is willing to listen to her requests and he even grants them for her. She manages to save herself, Mordecai, and the rest of the Jews.

Susannah- Two elders try to get Susannah to sleep with them. When she refuses, they testify that she has been with another man. She was sentenced to death based solely  on these two elders' testimony. I think that Susannah stayed quite strong during this whole ordeal and knew that the Lord knew the truth. Daniel eventually shows that the men had lied and Susannah was saved from death.

Herodias- Herodias wanted John killed. Her daughter had pleased the king and the king offered to give her whatever she wanted. Herodias told her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist. The king kept his word and had John the Baptist killed. Herodias did all of this because she had been offended by a comment that John had made. She could have had anything and all she wanted was for John the Baptist to be dead.
 
 

The feast of Herod by Lucas Cranach. Wikimedia Commons

Bible Women- Reading Diary A

Here are some of my favorite stories from Bible Women

Eve

I did not feel that it would be appropriate to do the reading assignment about the women in the Bible without including Eve. The story of Adam and Eve is such a well known one that I am not actually sure if I ever read it or just heard of it. The story went well with what I already knew and so I found it interesting that it did go so well with the stories that I have heard. I did not feel as if there were areas that I did not already know.

Sarah 

The story of Sarah is quite fascinating. She was told that even though she was quite aged, she and her husband would have a son. She thought it was a joke and laughed about it but sure enough, she gave birth to a son, Isaac. His birth was so rare and so he was celebrated.

Hagar 

Hagar was the maid of Sarah. Sarah was not able to conceive at the time and so she told her husband to conceive a baby with Hagar. Sarah grew to dislike Hagar and told Abraham to send her and her son away. This story is interesting because even though Sarah told Abraham to have a baby with Hagar, she soon regretted that decision and took it out on Hagar. They sent away Hagar and her son.

Potiphar's Wife 

This story involves Potiphar’s wife. It is odd that she does not have a name since she is so important to the story. She tries to get Joseph to sleep with her. When he refuses she tells everyone that he was the one trying to seduce her. She gets him thrown in prison. He basically goes to prison for doing the right thing and not giving in to Potiphar’s wife.

Delilah 

This story still shocks me every time I hear it. I never understood how Delilah would have been able to convince Samson to tell her the truth when it was obvious that she was the one who was betraying him. Every night that he tells her what his weakness is, he is attacked in the way that he tells her. She somehow still manages to convince him to tell her the truth and he is attacked and blinded. 

Samson and Dalila by Mutter Erde. Web-source: Wikimedia Commons