Myth and Folklore Blog

Photo by  Constantin Popp  on  Unsplash Image:  Story source: Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915). The Smart Woman Chief: Men and women did not know each other long ago, the men were put in one place, and the women in another. The men were made strong, but the women were not.  The women were the smartest, they knew how to craft things and create clothing.  One day an old man was traveling and he noticed there were women. The women were frightened, they didn't know what animal was trying to come to them and laid down to hide. The old man saw them laying and assumed they were dead. The woman tricked him and used her dead weight to let her arm slap his face and make his nose bleed.  They both ran and he lost them, he was very angry and this is how women found out about men. The woman chief called to the men and asked their chief if they wanted to have wives. She knew they would agree, and called them to a feast in their lodge. The wom...

  Photo by  Dennis Buchner  on  Unsplash The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die :  Japanese Fairy Tales  by Yei Theodora Ozaki, with illustrations by Japanese artists (1905). Santana was nervous, she was departing on her first ever plane trip alone! Her father had recently moved to Hawaii and she was away at college and could not visit him. She had always been afraid of heights and so when she found out her dad was moving away, she knew it was going to be hard for her to see him. He knew she was iffy about coming, he probably thought she would not. It was his 50th birthday this weekend, and she knew she had to be there.  "Sorry if I seem so nervous, I grew up in California and we just drove everywhere. Never a need to fly haha. Just don't think I am freaking out.... I am totally fine." Santana giggled nervously to the man sitting next to her on the flight. He looked over at her and noticed she was talking. Taking out an AirPod he said, "Is this g...

Book Illustration The Goblin of Adachigahara Story source: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki Characters:  Cannibal Goblin- took the form of an old woman in Mutsu.  Priest- traveler needing a place to stay for the night Many travelers would disappear and never be heard of again. It was rumored that the place was haunted by a cannibal goblin. They whispered of the dreadful stories and did not dare to go near the dreadful spot at night. One day a buddhist pilgrim walked, and no one could warn him about the haunted spot. He was tired and needed a place to rest. He saw a cottage and stumbled over to it. He saw an old woman and called to her for a place to stay. She said she had no room to offer to him, but he insisted he would be fine sleeping on the floor. She was reluctant but said yes and offered him a poor welcome, but had rice.  The woman went out to fetch more firewood, and told the man to not make any noise and not to move at all. She told him to not go into...

Photo Source Story: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki, with illustrations by Japanese artists (1905). The Story of the Man Who Did Not Wish to Die Characters : Sentaro- His surname meant millionaire, but he was not that rich. He is scared of death. Shin-no-Shiko- He was the most able and powerful rulers in history. He built so many large palaces, the great wall of China and had everything. He then wanted the Elixir-of-Life to live forever. Jofuku- The Elixir-of-Life allowed for whoever drinks it to live forever. Sentaro had heard the story of it from history, and he felt the need to go on a quest. He asked a hunter he met where the elixir of life is held and where the hermits who kept it resided. The man could not help him. Sentaro went to the shrine to pray for 7 days. Jofuku appeared in a cloud and told Sentaro that his desire was selfish and not easy to grant. He believed Sentaro was not ready to live a hermits life since he was used to comfortable living. He answers the ...

 Looking back I am happy with my progress so far, I think I am doing a good job expressing myself and using my work to be creative and come up with new things as well. I haven't done many extra credit options, but I have a feeling I may have to once things get busier with midterms and things like that. I have been attempting to change my blog and my storybook because I don't love how it looks, but I think that I can definitely do something to make it better.  Looking forward I am going to try and write better stories for this class, I feel like I am focusing a lot of my writing energy on Indian Epics because that is my portfolio assignment and I know I need better stories for that. That doesn't mean my Myth and Folklore stories don't need to be equally as fleshed out though.  I got this Gif from Giphy I think this is very self motivational because I am prompting myself to know that continuing to stay on top of my work is important!

  Photo from  Cheezburger   1. Feedback in . I think I am not receiving as many comments on this account as I am with Indian epics. However, this could just be because I am writing a storybook and so the people have nothing to comment on since I am not writing stories for it quite yet.    2. Feedback out . I think I am leaving decent comments for the other students, I am not sure what I can do better but I do want to give better advice on projects.    3. Blog comments .I do think that my introduction post is a good way to get to know me, I could maybe add more pictures and details about my personal life, but I think I am doing a pretty good job as it is.  4. Looking forward . I think I want to make more changes to my introduction maybe include pictures of stuff I have mentioned in my post? that could help.   5. Image.  Hehe I like this cat picture because they are sharing a milkshake and they're fluffy :)

I am super proud of the work I have done for this class. I have tried to pick stories that are the most interesting to me and I think it has paid off. I feel as though I have really challenged myself with the storybook project and with the topics I have chosen from readings. I am not as happy with my layout of my blogs as I am with the Indian Epics blogs I have made. I am having a hard time formatting the websites in a way that I like for Myth and Folklore. I need to do a little bit more work for my storybook project I think, and I think I want to create my own drawings similar to the ones I have found online. I think that having my own drawings as graphics would elevate the experience. My favorite reading so far I think has been the Chinese fairytale unit because it was so fun and it felt like I was getting told some story in passing as a kid.  Image by  Cassie Tucker I chose this picture because I found it looking through cryptid maps, this drawing by Cassie Tucker is so fun...

Photo:  Timur Romanov on Unsplash  Story Source: The Little Hunting Dog   There once was a boy, Ernest, who lived on a farm with his parents. He had not many friends, and he kept to himself for the most part. The farm that he lived on was very desolate, not too many people around and he had to be homeschooled. One night his parents were sitting at the dinner table talking closely when Ernest walked in nervously.  "Ernest, go to sleep sweetheart," his Maw exclaimed, "your Paw and I are just discussing adult matters, you don't need to worry about."  "Maw, I am an adult though!" Ernest looked at his parents, upset that they would keep things from him like this. "We're selling our farm, son." Paw said, unable to look his boy in the eyes.  "But Paw.... what about the animals? Where will they go?" Ernest was beginning to worry because his animals were his only company. His parents looked away from him, ashamed at the lengths they had...

  Photo:  Annie Spratt on Unsplash The Little Hunting Dog *Similar story to king of the ants* A Scholar was a bit anti social, so he made his home in a buddhist temple. One night he saw two little nights enter his room. They were about 2 inches tall and rode horses the size of grasshoppers. A tiny army fought and nearly all had disappeared, but he was astonished and didn't know where they came from. His tiny dog bit to death any vermin it would find. When he woke the dog was dead. Fox-Fire A fox was preparing for the elixir of life, when the fox breathed fire into the air the man hid and when it came back down the man swallowed the elixir into his stomach. The fox saw and grew angry, from then on the boy could turn invisible, he earned much money from these gifts. One night the ball of fire leaped back from his throat, the fox took it and left.  The Talking Silver Foxes An archer killed the fox spirit's form and sold him for his pelt. He received 5000 copper pieces from ...

  Photo Source: Duck Eggs Reading Source: Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck: The daughter had bad luck, and when she was to marry she threw a ball to the suitors and whoever caught it would marry her. The beggar caught the silk, and her father was furious. Her husband went to search for fortune, and she waited 18 years. Her father would not care for her, but her mother fed her secretly. The beggar became an emperor, and saw that she remained faithful, he tested her but she stayed loyal. After she became empress after 18 days she fell ill and died.  The Cave of the Beasts: A father brought home duck eggs intending to eat them himself, but his wife offered them to the girls. They ate them and the father was angry and intended to leave them in the woods to die. He said he would take them to their grandmothers, and then left them. They went into a cave and slept there for the night. A wolf and a fox lived there and got trapped in ...

  Image by Cassie Tucker So I did some digging and I found this website which is a branch of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management that has a " Cryptid's of North America, " website. Not only is there a whole map, but there is also clippings and pictures as well as stories about the Cryptid. I am actually amazed by how cool this website is with newspapers from the 1800s and timelines of different creatures and locations on where they'd be located. You can also access federal land conveyance records from 1788 to the present and I think that is crazy. People can access photographs and field notes ranging back that far as well.  Looking into the Jersey devil is interesting, the sightings go back to 1735 and people describe the creature as half human half devil . Here is an account of a man claiming he has seen it . There is also a page on the State of New Jersey's website discussing the Jersey Devil and what he looks like.  Photo from Wikiped...

 Bibliography: Life of Buddha Photo: Wikipedia Siddhartha becomes a hermit, his family and those he loved did not know where he had gone and they mourned him. Once his family realized he had escaped they panicked, not knowing what had become of him. Siddhartha entered a hermitage with the great Arata Kalama taught a great number of disciples. He pondered the teachings, but realized that it would not bring him deliverance, so he set out in a search for another location to learn. Everyone saw him as a god, a marvelous being begging through the streets of the city. The king tried to give the hermit that all were claiming to be a god riches, but he insisted he had given up a life of riches to be peaceful. He offered half of his kingdom, but Siddhartha refused.  Maya lived among the gods and thought her son was dead when she saw him in meditative state. She wept for his life, sad that it had ended. He told his mother to not worry for he was not going to die, he was to survive the r...

  Image: Buddha on Wikipedia Reading Source: The Life of Buddha Maya dreamed and saw an elephant descending from the sky, it entered her womb. and thousands of gods appeared before her. She awoke happy and told the king how their family was chosen to be the family of one who has supreme knowledge. The king sent for a brahman to interpret her dream and he told her that her son will be distinguished by the favor of gods. Their son would be a buddha, they were happy and felt blessed at the fortune. Maya extended her hand to the sick and they were cured, the blind saw, deaf heard and every dying piece of grass she touched regained strength. Maya had to give birth in the budding flowers and so they ordained the gardens with silver and gold to make it a nice place to give birth. When she gave birth, the earth trembled with joy, they gave the prince the name Siddhartha. The child had the gaze of omnipotence, he will know all. Maya died and ascended to the sky to be received by the gods. T...