Reading Diary Week 4: Persian Tales

Below I have presented my favorite stories from Persian Tales.

            The first story that I read that I thought was interesting was called, The Wolf and the Goat. This story started out as a wolf disguising himself as a mother to 4 baby goats and so they let him in. He then takes 3 of them and is planning to eat them, the mother goat fights back and ends up saving her babies and killing the wolf. I think the central message that is being taught in this story is to not try and pretend to be someone else to get something because it will more than likely come back to haunt you. In this story the goat prevailed and the wolf was punished for his decisions.

            The next story I thought was interesting was The Wolf-Aunt. This story was interesting because it was about a man, his wife and their seven daughters who had nothing but all worked very hard. He came across what he thought was his long lost sister one day and she was full of wealth. She invited him and his family in and gave them all the food and clothing they could imagine. It turned out that the long lost sister was actually a wolf that was trying to “plump” his family up to eat them. The wife and seven daughters escaped but the wolf ended up eating the husband. This ending was very abrupt and kind of shocked me; I thought they were all going to escape. I think the overall message to take from this story is that you need to listen to those you trust on things.

            Another story I read that was interesting to me was The Praying Baker. In this story a king’s ring was lost but while in the possession of a baker so the king gives the baker ten days to find it or to replace it by the dollar amount. A fish swallows the ring, and on the eve of the ninth day the baker and his wife decide to have fish as his last meal. His wife cuts open a fish and then the ring falls out, the baker rushes it to the king and he is rewarded with many riches. I think the overall message of this story is to stay humble and work hard in what you do.

            The final story that stood out to me as I was reading this was The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck. This story was interesting to me because it was about how a poor brother was out on a quest to search for his luck. Along the way people ask him why their luck is not there. He says he will ask his luck when he reaches him. He eventually does and his luck is sleeping in a cave, so he wakes him up and asks all the other peoples question but not his own. As he leaves and travels back he tells them all the solution to their problem and it turns out he ends up getting eaten by a wolf. One trend that I’ve noticed in a lot of these stories is that there is a wolf character present.

Essay Week 3: Establishing Creativity

I really enjoyed this week’s unit for several reasons, the first of which is because I think the stories had a really good flow together. One important aspect of a story that encompasses several other smaller stories is that they contain a nice flow and one does not seem abrupt. I noticed that they all seemed to encompass ideas that were similar and had the same sense of storyline.

 Something else that I enjoyed about this story was that there were stories

that were about animals, I really enjoyed reading these stories and felt that I was able to truly engage myself in the stories because they involve stories that obtain things I enjoy.

            One of my favorite stories from this unit was the The Wonders of Saint Berach, I really enjoyed this story because I felt that it taught a great lesson. It showed us that even when someone wrongs you, you need to somehow find a way to forgive him or her and move on. I think that is a very hard lesson for people to sometimes understand and perform because we find it so easy to hold grudges against people and not let things go and move on.

            One thing that I feel potential readers should know before reading this story is that it is written in “very old English”. So then because of this some of the ideas and words are hard to understand. Now this should not deter people from reading this because it is a great story and holds a lot of creativity that should be appreciated by many.

Source: Flickr

            I think it is important to challenge yourself on readings that are difficult in order to grow as a reader and then you can apply that new knowledge to stories that you will write in the future. Overall I think this was a great unit that offered a wide variety of options to pick from, I look forward to the next unit!

Storytelling Week 3: The Mother Cow

Once upon a time there was a mother wolf with her baby, he had just been born so he was solely dependent on her. She went out hunting for food for them one evening and never returned, the baby wolf was so distraught that his mother was gone, he had no idea where to turn.

Source: Flickr

 (The mother wolf before she passed)

 Before he had been born his mother was always trying to stalk and prey on a mother cow and her calf, but she was never quite able to catch them. The cow resented her for trying to kill them and wished doom upon her.

Word got out and spread through the forest that the mother wolf had vanished and more than likely been killed, so the mother cow knew she had to do something. She knew that she hated the wolf and never thought she would have to help but the day had come. She gathered her baby and they ventured across the forest to find the baby wolf and retrieve him and take him in as her own. This was difficult for her because she knew his mother was always trying the plot her death, but she couldn’t stand to see a poor and helpless baby alone and scared. The mother cow explained that they were only there to help and that she hoped he would allow him to be his new mother. The baby wolf accepted the offer joyfully, he knew this would be the best choice and he was endlessly grateful to the mother cow for saving his life.

All of the other animals in the forest were shocked and surprised that two animals that were so different could love each other but they all felt that there was a lesson to be learned from this. The whole feeling of the forest changed from this example that was set, there was no longer any fear present, all of the animals were able to live pleasantly with each other. The baby wolf and cow grew up together and became best of friends and they loved their mother very much.

The End.

Authors Note: I am retelling the story of The Wonders of Saint Berach, in the original story a wolf was so incredibly hungry that she ate the mother cows baby. They were then forced to accompany each other because they both had qualities to offer, they learned how to protect and provide for each other. I decided to change this story up a bit and put a different spin on the characters, I didn’t want the wolf to eat the baby so I took that part out. I also decided to add in another baby wolf that would play a substantial part in the retelling of the story.

Bibliography: The book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abby Farwell Brown (1900)

Reading Diary: Week 3: Saints and Animals

Below I have presented my favorite stories from: Saints and Animals

One of the first stories I read was Saint Kentigern and the Robin (part 1), I really enjoyed this part of the story because it teaches a good lesson on that it is not a good idea to try to frame others when you feel jealousy towards them. I think that a lot of the time is seems easier to make someone fail who is doing well than to work harder to improve yourself. When you think about it though, that option is in no way furthering yourself but actually halting your own progress.

Another story that I really enjoyed was Saint Comgall and the Mice (part 1) and I really enjoyed this story because originally they were trying to tempt the swans with food and really did not give off a good impression. However the leader of the group gave off the impression that he loved animals so the swan felt comfortable with him.

A story I found that was interesting in this overall story was The Wonders of Saint Berach. I found this story to be interesting because it was about a wolf that was so incredibly hungry that he ate a mother cows calf, and he did so without any thought process. If he had known how important the calf was to the mother then maybe he would have acted differently but he allowed a feeling to trump all other things. After he ate the calf, the wolf and the mother cow were brought together and told to now be mother and son. The wolf was to protect her and she was to be his new gentle and nurturing mother. I enjoyed this because even after all of the anger that was present, they were able to come together and forgive and live a life in harmony together.

This was the final story that really caught y eye in the story of Saints and Animals, The Ballad of Saint Felix. This story was about a Bishop that went in to hiding while there was no peace; he disguised himself to get away. He hid for many months and a spider was able to spin a think and strong web that could protect and house him while he was in hiding, a girl who praised him brought him food over the months of hiding, and when there was finally peace again he came out of hiding. This story was interesting because it showed that he was able to pretend to be someone else to run from the problems that were currently happening. I feel a lesson to take from this story is that even when there are problems present it is important to face them instead of running from them.

Famous Last Words: Week 2

Famous Last Words

Overall I feel that there are certain areas that I can improve on in my writing. I personally feel that I have never been that strong of a writer so I look forward to this semester to improve on my writing. I think that creative writing is the most fun type because it allows you to really branch out from what you may be traditionally comfortable with writing about. It also really pushes you to dig deeper and see that there are so many other options of how you can express your feelings. One of the main things I have always felt I need to improve on is when I write I include far too much detail, it is really had for me to be a clear and concise writer so that is something that I am hoping to improve on in this class this semester!

So far my semester is going pretty well, I think that with senior year comes a lot of stress and challenges as you are preparing yourself to enter in to the “real world”. Out of my five other classes that I am enrolled in for this Fall ’14 semester they are all business classes so I really haven’t had any material crossover from this class to those. I really have found this class to be very interesting though so far, I think it is so intriguing to read these stories that are so old and creative and to try and guess what the ending will be, and then most of the time I find myself to be very surprised. Mythology writing is interesting to me because this is the first time I have ever read anything from the genre, it is so different and really allows the writer to elaborate on the main theme and develop it in to a full story.

Source: Flickr