Week 15: Writing Review

My favorite part about the writing was being able to create my storybook, and the opportunity to create retellings of the UnTextbook stories.  I did choose the storybook project option, and I do not regret it one bit.  I was able to bring out, implement, and improve on my creative side.  Prior to this course I was so analytical and matter-of-fact about my writing.  During the weeks, I was able to literally put whatever came to mind into a blog post and publish it for feedback from my peers.  I look at the Portfolio project being for someone who really enjoys the Untextbook.  As you suggested in the reading instructions, creating an "anthology" of the different units could also help shape someone's Portfolio.  

My only suggestion concerning blog commenting, would be to not be afraid of being honest.  No one can get better at writing, or really anything at all, if they are not receiving constructive criticism and being challenged to better themselves.  I am happy to have had some great classmates who were able to provide me with adequate feedback that I feel brought my storybook project to a whole new level.  

This class has definitely improved my writing.  Although we were encouraged to be creative, the class was still expected to practice good grammar, language, and writing skills.  I wasn't the best at theses skills in the beginning, but each week I found myself improving.   Although majority of my future writing will be in lab reports, it won't bother me much to reach the extensive length requirements.  The assignments of this course were short in nature, but there were enough of them to write a novel!

Although I did enjoy the reading aspect of the class more, the writing became easier throughout each week. Looking back now I am proud to see what I have accomplished!

Week 15: Reading Review

The reading for this class was my absolute favorite part.  My advice to future students would be to do the readings any time you come across some free time.  I would personally take my iPad to work, wait for some down time, and would knock out some of the reading.  I would then save the writing for later while going back over the stories I had read.  I would advise getting ahead on the readings so that there is more time to find a plot that you like, then begin brainstorming for the Storytelling assignment.  

In the beginning of the course the reading diary was the hardest assignment for me. My first post was me basically rewording the plot.  This was way too time consuming and took away from what the assignment was truly about.  Towards the end I would pick a few stories that really stood out to me, then wrote my reactions over what was occurring in the text.  Being able to go back and see how the readings affected my emotions gave me an idea on how I want my own stories to affect readers.  

Regarding the UnTextbook, I that it is an amazing piece of work so far.  I can only imagine what it will become in the future!  The notes within the text were the biggest factor for me during the semester.  Since we are jumping from section to section each week, the brief introduction helps smooth out some bumps in the road we may encounter while reading over different cultures.  I am no expert so there were many times I would be reading a section, not fully understand what the text was getting at, and the notes cleared any questions I had!  I think the idea of creating an "anthology" of different themes is a great idea.  This would allow students to create themes in their writings, and this could possibly help them with their semester long project.  

Week 11 Storytelling: Tricky Goblins in Trevglwys

There was once a time where mythical creatures such as leprechauns, ghosts, elves, goblins, and just about any thing you could think of lived among men.  In the defense of man was the wizards of each town.  Anytime a creature decided to play a trick on a human, a man or woman could visit a wizard for advice on how to settle the situation.  Now there was also a region called Treveglwys where interactions between man and creatures was especially prevalent.  One of the better known tales pertains to when the goblins curiosity was sparked on what it would be like to raise a human child.

In Trevglwys there was a maiden, and her merchant husband, who had a beautiful set of twins.  The mother loved her twins tenderly, but she also obligated herself to her neighbors in sickly times.  When she received calls it was normally in the afternoons after the merchant had returned home.  One day, though, there was an emergency at the home of a neighbor over the hill.  It was early afternoon, and the merchant had not yet returned, but the messenger insisted that this was a fatal situation.  The maiden checked on her twins, who were fast asleep, and decided that she would make an exception this one time.  She hurried to her neighbor's not realizing that the messenger did not return with her.  On the way home she noticed a small creature crossing the road in the blue coat similar to what the messenger had on.  This struck a little odd to the maiden, who soon remembered her twins, and she hastened her pace home.  When she arrived home, her twins appeared to have just woken up from their nap and she was relieved.

A few weeks passed, and the the merchant and his wife began to become suspicious of their children.  There were times, while the maiden was in the next room, that she would begin to hear conversation when it was only her and the babies at home.  After being fed and cared for the twins would become uninterested in her, and this was last bit of peculiar behavior persuaded her to visit the town wizard.  

She arrived to the wizard's home and pleaded her case.  He reminded her that the harvest of rye and oats was near.  He directed that before the reapers were to visit her home, that she must make a small amount of porridge and place it in an eggshell.  She was to act as if this was her food donation, and that if the children begin speaking nonsense they were not her own.  She was to then take them to Lake Ebyr and throw them into the water.  If they do not speak at all, like infants should, then they are her children and not to do them harm.  

Within the next few days, the day of the reap came.  The maiden followed the wizards instructions and made some porridge in a hen's eggshell.  Once it was finished she walked to the door of her home as if to greet the men.  She stood for a second at the door when one child exclaimed:

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"Acorn before oak I knew,

An egg before a hen,

But I never heard of an eggshell brew

A dinner for harvest men."

The startled maiden gathered the children, ran to Lake Ebyr, and threw them into the water.  Creatures with blue coats immediately appeared out of the forest, and saved their goblin babes.  They decided they did not want to keep all four infants, and returned the human twins to their mother.  After this, everyone lived happily ever after. 

Author's Note:

This story was one of my favorite tales from the Celtic Fairytales unit.  I added a lot of elements to the story, especially in the beginning, because the original text didn't explain the presence of the goblins.  Towards the end of the tale I began to stick closer to the original tale.  I initially thought about having the goblins explain why they took the twins, to their mother, but in the end I decided to omit it and have the reader come up with their own reasons.  

Book title: Celtic Fairytales

Author: Joseph Jacobs

Year Published: 1892

Web Source: Sacred Texts

Week 11 Reading Diary: Celtic Fairytales

This week I decided to read the unit Celtic Fairy Tales.  Below are my notes on my favorite tales:

The Horned Women:
This story was quite interesting, and I could not imagine having twelve horned witches just waltz into my home.  I believe the rich woman was very brave, but also quite fortunate that the well spirit had reached out to her.  A question that I have, that the story does not necessarily clarify, is why would the twelve witches come into the home to card and prepare the wool the rich woman was working on?  After reading this story I began to notice the reoccurring theme of someone having to use a sieve in order to fetch some water, and in order to do so they must find a way to plug up the holes. My favorite part of the story was when the well spirit gave her the advice on how to keep the witches out when they returned.

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The Sprightly Tailor:
I enjoyed this story and applaud the tailor for being able to accomplish his task and receive his reward.  I am sort of a scardy-cat so I can only imagine his fear as he is trying to finish the trousers (as this random demon things is slowly coming out of the ground).  I almost wonder if there was something that was holding the monster in the ground, and that is what made him emerge so slowly, or was it him trying to play with the Tailor then lucked out.

Gold-Tree and Silver Tree:
Who doesn't love a princes story?  What I found interesting was that the Prince decided to keep both queens around, and that there was no dispute.  I like that this time the evil stepmother was able to be done off with and her schemes put to an end.  I do think that it is a little amusing that instead of a magic mirror, Silver-Tree was talking to a magical trout in the river.  I wonder if their names have any significance to the region the story originates from.

Beth Gellert:

Oh the age of technology!  I have actually read a version of this story where a mother kills the dog then finds a dead snake nearby.  This story is very sad for the loyal hound, but at least he was remembered and put in a place of honor upon his death.  

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Brewery of Eggshells:

I really liked how short and sweet this story was, but at the same time it kept me anticipating what was going to happen next.  Maybe it's just the mother in me, but I wanted to find out what had happened to the twins.  It was relieving when it's disclosed that they went back home with their mother, but I am left wondering what were the goblins intentions by switching out the children?  This could be possible inspiration for my storytelling this week. 

Week 10 Essay: Eskimos: Single Men, Wizards, and Paranormal

This week there were many reoccurring motifs in the unit Eskimo Folk Tales.  These motifs included unmarried men (in the beginning of just about every tale), shamans, and in some cases the undead or ghosts.  When going through the unit, one can see that all of the stories are single paged and not very long. They get straight to whatever point they are trying to make then it abruptly ends.  At first this kind of annoyed me while reading, but I had to remind myself that the tales were derived from oral stories.  I believe that since these stories stay as true to oral traditions as they can, explains the reoccurring themes.

Of the many stories that began with a man he was always unmarried and either a good or bad hunter.  Whether he could hunt was an important aspect to the Eskimos for they thrived on the animals they hunted.  Many times these men would have many brothers that either took care of him or competed him when it came to how much game they were able to obtain.  This was effective for Eskimo storytellers since this gave the audience a homely perspective when listening to this story around a fire.

Wizards, magic men, or shamans were prevalent in this unit as well.  They were mentioned many times in the text, but they were by far more prevalent in the images before the stories.  Many times you almost miss the images.  There were many that did no seem to pertain to the actual stories, and were just pieces of art the author presented.  I look at the wizards and shaman as their sort of religious belief system.  Majority of the time villagers went to the wizards for help and advice.  The wizards would consult on the "spirits" a lot of the time in order to know what to do.

                      Source          Wizards preparing for a "spirit fight."     I have no clue what this is.

Lastly, I feel like in todays society and culture we fear death (at least here in the US).  The Eskimo's, at least of this time, do not seem to have this belief system.  As explained in their creation story, The Coming of Men, A Long, Long While Ago, the first people created actually accepted the new concept of death in order to be privileged with light.  They believe that if one dies with a grudge on their heart that they were able to come back as a ghost and attack their enemies.  Much to my surprise there was a story where a man was able to bring back a zombie to attack one of his brothers.  I just feel like this unit was about more than just the stories themselves, they gave insight on how the Eskimo's routines and cultural beliefs.