Week 9 Reading Diary: Alaskan Legends

This week I am retelling stories form Alaskan Legends.

In the story Alaska Raven's Creation there was a raven that could transform from human to raven whenever he wanted to. There was also a man that was born and came from a pea pod that the raven created. They became friends and the raven showed the man that he could make food from the clay, then the final thing he did was make a companion for the man. He sculpted a beautiful woman from clay and they lived together.

In the story Alaska: The Flood there was a raven that noticed that people near the water were being ungrateful. So he decided to wish upon them a great rise in the tide. The water rose and rose and he had to take a ladder to the bottom of the ocean to find answers. He left the eagle in charge of the tide and asked him to let him know when the tide had gone back down.

In the story Alaska: Raven and the Seals there was a raven that came across a new beach where a man lived. He convinced the man that they would become friends. Then he decided to eat the man and eat all the seals on the beach. He then hunted seals in the water and cooked them on the beach. A stump wanted some of the food so he went and sat on the hole the seals were being cooked in. The raven was so sad that he couldn’t eat the seals and cried because he was so hungry.

In the story Alaska: Raven and Marmot there was a raven that was being mocked. He went and stood in front of a marmot’s home so he could not enter. He told the marmot that he was going to have to eat him. The marmot agreed but first wanted the raven to dance. Then the raven danced again and fell dizzy so the marmot ran past him in to his home and laughed at the raven.

In the story The First Woman there was a man who traveled far away to take a woman back to his land. He snuck in a home and grabbed a woman but then her husband awoke and the two men were fighting over her. They pulled her in half and each land had one half of her. The land with the top half carved her bottom half out of wood. She was good at sewing needlepoint. The land with the bottom half carved the rest of her body out of wood and she was good at dancing.

In the story The Ghost Land there is a man who travels through a forest and looks for a wife. Once he travels along the river he returns home to this father. He tells his father of how he has found his wife so his father lays out fur coats for his wife. She comes in but they see nothing so he realizes that she was a ghost.

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Together Through Unlikely Events

Once upon a time in a village far away there were numerous animals that roamed throughout the forest. The forest that the village was nestled in was lush with green trees and had lakes of sparkling clear water. The trees served a huge purpose and that was to provide a barrier to keep the citizens safe. The barrier kept most unwanted people and creatures out.

The citizens were comprised of every animal you could think of from birds to cows to wolves to snakes. Most of the time the animals kept to themselves. They enjoyed sticking with their own kind. They found it easier to not venture in to other animal’s circles. Now there always has to be one species that is superior and top of the food chain, which was the wolf.

One of the female wolves in the village was getting ready to have a baby. Because of this she was preparing for it by collecting food ahead of time. So all of the animals knew that they had to be on high alert at this time. They all knew when in the day she would set out to hunt so they established hiding places.

Before the baby wolf was born, his mother had watched the mother cow and her calf, but she was never quite able to catch them. The mother cow knew the wolf was hungry but did not understand why she was after her.

Source: Flickr

 (The mother wolf before she passed)

Some time passed and the mother wolf of the forest had her baby. Her new baby was tiny and always had quite the appetite. The mother wolf had collected food before the birth but she was eating so much so she could feed her baby milk. She knew it was time to venture out and leave her baby alone in order to get more food. She trusted that she would only be gone a few hours and would return home to him. The baby waited days and his mother never returned. He was scared and did not know how to survive without her. Word got out and spread through the forest that invading hunters had killed the mother wolf. So now the newborn baby was left with no mother.

Many of the animals felt bad for the baby but wouldn’t go near him or help him out of fear. However the mother cow knew she had to do something to help. The cow knew she couldn’t raise the baby because she had so much anger built up towards the wolf. So she called upon her human friend the Saint to come rescue the baby wolf. He came to the village the following day and took the baby wolf in to his arms.

The Saint often brought the wolf back to the village to see the other animals. The baby wolf knew what the mother cow had essentially saved his life by calling upon the Saint.  So every time the wolf came back he thanked the cow and vowed to do anything for her. The mother cow appreciated it and befriended the wolf.

The End.

Author’s 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 cow’s baby. The mother cow had always despised the wolf because she was always trying to attack the mother cow and her helpless baby. Saint Berach bought the grown wolf and cow together to learn to live in harmony. He challenged them learn to live with and help each other. The mother cow was now a mother to the grown wolf son. 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 thought it would be interesting to have the mother cow call upon the Saint to come rescue the wolf baby and raise it. I think in this story it was useful to keep some details and to do away with some to retell a new version on the original story. I took a different spin on this story and think I have learned to recognize which details to keep in the future. I also thought it would be useful to add more detail about the setting to make it more visually appealing.

Bibliography: The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900)

Reading Diary Week 8

One thing I may change for next semester is to do a length requirement. I only say this because each week I feel that I am not doing enough and it makes me nervous. I think that may add structure to some people!

I have noticed that I have commonly used the same writing approaches each week. I find it easier to just summarize the stories. I begin the assignment each week telling myself not to summarize but then I always seem to catch myself doing just that! I do think in a way it makes things easier because then the notes for a specific story seem to flow better. Also makes it easier because when I have to go back and decided which story I want to retell for the week I can easily remember what each was about. I do think I could get a little more analytical with my notes because if I am only writing main ideas I may not be getting all I can from the story.

As we progress in to the semester I hope that I can improve on my storybook notes. I feel that one thing I want to do is not just write the main ideas but also add in what the important characters are like. This way I can better understand several aspects of the story. I feel that the weekly reading diary posts have been a help to me in the way that I have never been a strong reader or writer. I think I am able to learn more when I actually write everything out and am able to go look back at it later on.

Overall I have really enjoyed doing the reading notes each week and think that I will be able to improve as the second half of the semester begins!