Mythology and Folklore

As I was interested in reading some of the stories from the European unit, I decided to get ahead and see what stories were available. I was intrigued by the Italian section as it was meant to have a twist to some fairy tales. The story I read was Water and Salt, a story originally from Sicily. I was not sure what the original fairy tale was as I had never heard any story that resembled the plot from this story. The ending was unexpected as I was expecting the solution to be more clever than just have the king miss not having salt in his food. I thought there might be some lesson about how salt and water do not mix, but I guess the ending was meant to be simplistic as it is a fairy tale. I also wish that there was more elaboration on the magician in the story. Why did the daughter have to invite three kings? How did the magician know about the salt and water situation? Who is the prince the princess is marrying? Why did the king so easily agree to not serve salt and water to the king

This week on twitter I began to follow my high school district twitter account. I always to keep up with the daily news of my high school and city, and twitter is such a easy way to do so. Additionally, I also began to follow Trae Young. It was so exciting to watch him as a freshman lead our basketball team, and now he is doing so well in the NBA. I am excited to support my fellow sooner as his career goes on in professional basketball.

Prince Browchel, the son King Cyngen Glodrydd, was a boisterous boy who enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. One day, while hunting in the English Midlands, Browchel came across a beautiful deer. The deer's antlers were prominent, and the beauty of the deer could not be overstated. As such, Browchel pursued the deer along with his pack of dogs. Yet as he and his hounds were chasing after the deer, they found a beautiful woman on her kneed and praying. Standing beside her was the beautiful deer glaring at Browchel and the hounds. Browchel was not deterred by this strange sight. He order the dogs to chase after the deer, but the dogs resisted. They seemed to be in some trance and began to back away from the maiden. Now all to himself, Browchel approached the woman and deer by himself. Cautiously he approached her and asked her who she was. "I am the Princess Melangell, son of the King of Ireland. I have remained in the woods for the last 15 years so that I may pray in peace. My fath

Similar to Part A of the Welsh Fairy Tales, Part B is a collection of short stories. A story that caught my attention from Part B of the unit was Melangell's Lambs. Reading the story made me somewhat surprised as there really were no lambs in the story. This is because the animals in the story are hares, or rabbits, and not lambs. However, because they were saved by Melangell, they were later referred to as her lambs. Perhaps there is just a cultural reference that I do not get, but this certainly surprised me when I was reading the story. Researching the Kingdom of Powys revealed to me that it was originally located in what is known today as the English West Midlands. Moreover the name Powys is of Latin origin and means dwellers of the country side. There really is not much significant of the kingdom other many battle and feuds that are part of their existence. Researching Melangell revealed to me that she is fact a saint who was venerated in 590. She even has a church dedicated t

Like many of the other units that I have read in the weeks prior, the Welsh Fairy Tales is a collection of short stories. I was attracted to the unit as I have always been interested by King Arthur, and thus the first story in Part A of the Welsh Fairy Tales caught my attention. Arthur in the Cave was an intriguing read as it explored his story years after he lived. I like how the story was set up to where the reader was kind of traveling back in time to revisit King Arthur and his knights who have been sleeping for a 1000 years. I do wish the story elaborated more on the sorcerer as there is much more that could be detailed there. Perhaps the sorcerer is Merlin or a descendent of him? I feel like this could tie in other facets of the King Arthur world into the story. Moreover, I think there could be more details on the Welshman. He does not even have a name in the story, and there is not much known about him other that he sold cattle for a great profit and was meandering through Lond

There was once a hunter who had a loyal German shepherd named Max that he considered to be his best friend. Now Max was extremely loyal to the hunter, always guarding the hunter and his daughter throughout the night. It was important for Max to do his job as the forest they resided in was full of wolves looking for their next meal. As such, Max was a vital part of the hunter's life as he went off to hunt for food thus leaving his daughter to herself. One day, the hunter decided to head to the forest in hopes of finding food for him and his daughter. It had been a long winter and food was often scarce to find. As he normally he did, the hunter ordered Max to watch over his daughter while he was gone hunting. For hours the hunter remained in the woods, hoping to find some deer, rabbit, or animal that he could bring home. Finally, after dutifully searching for a target, the hunter took down a massive deer to return to his household. However, as he returned to his home, he noticed some

Similar to Part A of the Celtic Fairy Tale unit, Part B is a collection of short stories. While the story I read in Part A was more focused on the supernatural, the story I read in Part B, Beth Gellert, was grounded to realistic events. Overall, the story was quite sad due to the tragic ending of the story. Once the Prince saw that the dog had blood in his mouth, I can have had an inclination that he would blame the dog for supposedly murdering his child. Being a big dog person, this made the ending of the story even more sad to read. Perhaps in a potential retelling of the story I can portray the dog as a hero who is able to be rewarded for his actions of saving the child from the wolf. Researching Gellert on Google has revealed that the story has more significance than realized. There are portraits depicting the dog saving the child, and there is even a grave in the village of Beddgelert, Wales. However, this grave has no historical significance as it was meant more as a tourist att

The Celtic Fairy Tales unit is a collection of short stories from the books of Joseph Jacobs. While the stories were written in 1892, they are overall quite easy to read as they are written in modern prose. Specifically, I focused on The Horned Women of the stories offered in Part A of the unit. Reading this story was somewhat confusing to keep up with due to the many rituals and of the witches, but I seemed to get the basic understanding of the story. I was left wondering why exactly the witches decided to come to the home of the mistress and begin weaving. It is all very peculiar and perhaps my inability to understand the witches ceremony may be due to my lack of knowledge of Irish culture. Also is there any significance with Slievenamon, the home of the witches? I also wonder if there is anymore to do with the Spirit of the Well. For example, does the Spirit of the Well have a history with witches. Are there more stories detailing the relationship between the spirit and the witches