Myth and Folklore Blog

Image from Map Mania  Some interesting sources I may want to check out: Cryptids of North America The Monsters You Should Never Find Cryptid Database Research in Cryptozoology Episodes/ Stories to Include: My thought right now is focusing on North American Cryptids because there is a geographical aspect to this. I want to take the readers on a journey/ safari as we search for proof of Cryptids existing. I think the POV of the author is just a curious scientist or excited park ranger that wants to prove to their coworkers or the world that these creatures exist. A fun road trip vibe in a suburban car on the hunt of some truth. The pathing could be as follows:  -Bigfoot/Sasquach -Jersey Devil -Chupacabra  (Possibly the Oklahoma Lake Monster)  The overarching story is just the ability to prove that these creatures are real and how to find them, looking at what people have seen in the past, the lore behind the cryptids and what proof others have found of the existence or...

  Photo from Travel and Leisure My Cryptid Safari Blog

Story: The Punishment of Fallen Angels  Photo: Wikipedia   Azazel and Shemhazai decided that one day they wanted to go on a road trip, they work so hard and yet they get no praise for all of their dedicated hard work.  "Azazel," said Shemhazai, "Why can't we just go to earth and walk among the humans? Surely they will show us a good time." They both went to ask God for a week off. After all, they were angels, and the corruption of vacationing on earth's fine beaches shouldn't impact them too much. "God... do you mind if Shemhazai and I have a teensy weensie break?" Azazel asked shyly, "we have been working so hard watching over these insolent humans that never follow any of our rules and we just need a break. We've seen how much fun the beach looks! Even Noah had a nice drink of merlot and got to sleep, can we just go for a week? Pleassseeeee."  God was ashamed with his two angels, they were supposed to be happy with the condition...

Photo: Wikipedia Story Source: The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) Noah took the book of necessary wisdom which was given to Adam by the angel Raziel that all celestial and earthly knowledge was recorded. God gave Adam the Torah, the angels were envious of the wisdom he had drawn from the book and sought to destroy him. The envy they had was so great, they stole the book from him and threw it into the sea. After Adam died, the book disappeared and appeared later to Enoch in a dream. He memorized the book and hid it again. God sent a message to Noah via Raphael with the holy book, Noah took and studied it and once he did he could build the ark successfully. Once the ark was built, all of the sinners tried to take entrance to the ark, but the beasts watching the ark attacked them and many of the sinners died there rather than to the flood. The hot scalding rain burnt the skin of the sinners, they tried to use their children to block the water from coming. Seven pairs of ani...

  Photo by Wikipedia Commons Bibliography: The Story of Noah  from the King James Bible When Noah was born he resembled the children of angels in heaven according to his father Lamech. His mother cried and Enoch came and told her that her son will survive the great punishment of the earth that will come. The curse brought by the sins of Adam ceased with the appearance of Noah. As Noah grew up Uriel was sent to him so he would know how to save his own life. Raphael was told to put a fallen angel in chains, the fallen angels wanted to occupy earth after all the humans were erased from it. The angels came to earth and could not contain themselves from sin. The angels had sons that were having visions. Shemhazi suspended himself for penance between heaven and earth as god pardons the sins of Israel. The offspring of the angels were the giants and they were known for strength and sin-fullness. The descendants of Cain were sinful and depraved, they new neither toil nor care. ...

   Photo by  Brooke Cagle  on  Unsplash Feedback is something important that every person needs in order to succeed. This allows for growth and the ability to make your work better because a fresh set of eyes is looking upon it.  The first article I read was  Be A Mirror  this incorporates the growth mindset we talked about at the beginning of the class as well which was interesting to circle back to. This article lists 5 qualities to foster a growth mindset, those being: be specific, focus on what the reader is doing, focus on the process, make sure it can transfer, and take yourself out of the feedback. I think this is interesting to think about, being a mirror to stay focused on what is in front of you and not other things you can pull into the feedback. React directly based on what you are reading and go from there.  The second article I read is called  How to Give Feedback Without Being a Jerk  this article says that a feedback...

  Photo by  Matteo Badini  on  Unsplash      The topic I ended up wanting to focus on are Cryptids . I just find them absolutely fascinating and always have even as a kid. Going more in depth on this I will focus on three different Cryptids. Focusing in on specific stories that I enjoy will be difficult, but I figure you gotta start somewhere.  I could go three different routes with this specific topic. I could either pick one cryptic and find three different variations of the creature: for example, I could pick a lake monster specifically and focus on different tellings of that one cryptid. Two: I could pick a specific region of the world or country to focus on. For example: The west is very popular for cryptids including Bigfoot, Tahoe Tessie and Trinity Alps giant Salamander. Or the United State's cryptids specifically which there are many of. Websource for Lake monsters . Three: I could go on a sort of " cryptid tour " or expedition where I g...

  Photo from Wikimedia Commons   Patroclus walks up to Achilles nervous about what he should say. He cared for Achilles a great deal and did not want him to put himself in the line of fire. Nervously pacing back and forth in front of the tent, Patroclus was practicing what to say. "Patroclus," Achilles said with a sigh, "I can see you pacing in front of my tent. Would you like to come in and discuss with me whatever is bothering you so." Patroclus stopped in his tracks, realizing this was a bad idea but he came in the tent with a smile. "Hello Achilles, it's been a while... how are you?" Patroclus said half smiling. "Patroclus, we ate lunch together an hour ago. What is causing your distress. I don't like your energy right now." Achilles stood up and walked over to his friend touching his shoulder. Patroclus refused to look Achilles in the eye.  "Achilles, please don't go into battle. You don't have to, it will be the death o...

  Photo by  Juliet Furst  on  Unsplash Bibliography:  The Iliad  retold by Alfred J. Church (1907). Hector fears to go against the will of Zeus, he sent the armor of Patroclus to the city and but then put it on himself. This angered Zeus and lead to a threat of the arms costing Hector dearly. Zeus saw them and pitied them. The greeks and trojans continued to fight over Patroclus' body and the news was then brought to Achilles. Achilles was angered because his friend he loved most in the world was killed. His arms were taken with Patroclus' body. Athena put a shield on his shoulders to protect him going to the trench. He yelled and it sounded as a trumpet, this feared both armies and their horses. The trojans held a meeting saying they should go back to their city, but Hector refused, saying they should not shut themselves in their city, but they should go meet the angry Achilles.  Apollo saved the city of Troy or the Greeks would've taken it. Apollo ga...

  Photo by Pat Whelen on Unsplash Bibliography: The Iliad retold by Alfred J. Church (1907). How the War with Troy Began: King of Sparta had daughter named Helen, who was highly sought after. Helen got married, but the prince Paris wiped her off her feet and took her away. They besieged the city of troy trying to get her back.  The Quarrel: Agamemnon would not listen to the priest when he came to buy back his daughter. Apollo helped an old man who prayed to him, for nine days people died. When Achilles asked why Apollo would be upset at them, Calchas told him about the situation. Achilles was angry and was about to kill Agamemnon, Athena came down to stop him which he did. What Thetis Did for Her Son: Thetis went to Olympus after the 12 day feast to confront Zeus. She asked him to make the Trojans win for a while so her son could be missed, Zeus realized this could bring conflict to his marriage. Zeus deceived Agamemnon by making him dream of taking the city of Troy. The kin...

  I read the  fixed mindset  article and the  Neil Gaiman's Advice on the Creative Life  article as well.  I think for the fixed mindset article it makes a lot of sense when applied to everyone, kids, doctors and in the workplace. The issue with a fixed mindset is that it does not allow for growth in a person. I think I learned from an early age to motivate myself and work hard for what I want. I think it is hard to say that experience is shared with everyone. I know a lot of people in gifted programs suffered because teachers constantly were telling them they were smart and ahead of the curve and it resulted in stinted education and mental illness, myself included. For kids in gifted programs especially, the fear of failure and increased anxiety is evident due to the immense amount of pressure the kids were being put under for being "better" or "special" whereas the other kids were just taught normally and encouraged to learn more. I think it is interestin...

Photo by  Darren Halstead  on  Unsplash  I have absolutely no idea how I am going to narrow this down so quickly, but I will start to attempt to do so. I am having a hard time since a lot of the topics seem very promising and I am interested to start with things that call my name. I think I am really interested in focusing on a Fairy Tale possibly, I like the idea of rewriting those and I did that last blog post. That was something I really enjoyed doing. I think the idea of focusing on a Fairytale and telling the story from a villain's perspective or giving a backstory similar to how the movie maleficent gives a backstory to the esteemed villain of the sleeping beauty story or similarly to Into the Woods the Sondheim musical that shows how the characters are flawed in some way and "happily ever after," isn't quite what it seems. Resources I looked at.   Another topic I may be interested in is urban legends, I didn't realize that was an option but I am super int...

  Photo by   Edward Howell   on   Unsplash Once upon a time, in a faraway land lived a happy family. The mom and her three daughters were artists, they loved to paint and stitch and sew throughout the day together, traveling from place to place for inspiration. On the youngest sister Rose's birthday, they all set out to find a place to sit and enjoy the festivities they had planned out. The middle sister, Flora went out searching for the most beautiful place to paint a special present for her sister. She had been searching to find a Rose that matched her sister in beauty for quite some time and hoped that she might paint it to gift her as a birthday surprise.  After searching for quite some time she came across the most beautiful and plentiful Rose garden that she had ever seen. She immediately called for the sisters and they set up camp there in that garden. Flora painted and gazed over the beauty of the garden when she saw her sister Rose running through the f...

 One story I was drawn to is " the Man in the Moon ," because it is something I've always thought about. The idea of there being someone watching us from afar.  I think it is interesting that the plot of the man in the moon revolves around someone who was not content enough to be who he was. He continued to change his mind and be indecisive with what he wanted from life. The "wise man," gave this blacksmith many options to be what he wanted, and still it was not enough for him. Once he then chose to be stone, a stone cutter, the sun and then a moon the wise man became weary of his changing. He then told him to remain the moon since he wanted to be the moon so badly.  This gives a "moral of the story," to people who are indecisive and continue to flip flop which I may be guilty of. The second story in this section is the story of when Buddha was reborn as a rabbit. The hare that was buddha had many friends, and students as well, teaching them of the mor...

I chose this image because I thought it was a cool sculpture and there's not really any other reason, I just think it is beautiful and have always liked marble sculptures when I go to museums. They feel very aesthetically pleasing and beautiful Atalanta  by wikipedia  Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3:Iliad Week 4:Noah Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: Life of Buddha Week 6: Arabian Nights Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7: Japanese Mythology Week 9: Chinese Fairytales Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10:American Indian Fairy Tales Week 11: Blackfeet Indian Stories Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: King Arthur Week 13: Celtic Fairy Tales Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: Italian Popular Tales Week 15: Dante's Inferno I am interested in these specific topics...