Reading Diary Week 14: Fables of La Fontaine

This week I'm reading "Fables of La Fontaine" by Elizur Wright.

This week I'm reading "Fables of La Fontaine" by Elizur Wright and W.T. Larned in the European readings unit.

All of these stories in this unit were really fun to read. I kind of looked ahead at part B of the readings and thought that it was kind of cool how most of Wright's stories were about animals, but Larned had kind of a mixture of stories about people and animals, so they were really entertaining and enjoyable to read through. Since there were a lot of little rhymes and stories within each section, it made it really fun and easy to read.

One of my favorite stories in this unit is "Foolish People". The title caught my eye because I always think it's fun to read stories that describe people as being silly or foolish, so I thought that this one would be funny right off the bat. There are three different stories within this section, "The Hen With The Golden Eggs", "The Acorn and the Pumpkin" and "The Miller, His Son and the Ass", which was by far my favorite.

"The Miller, His Son and the Ass" is about a miller and his son going to the fair in order to sell their donkey. They put him on a pole in order to keep him smelling fresh so that people would want him, but no one was actually interested. A lot of people made fun of them and shamed them because they thought that they believed they were better than everyone else and, finally, the miller decided to not sell the donkey at all and just went home and did what he want.

(The miller, his son and the donkey)

Storytelling Week 13: Strelka Bar

The bartender noticed that the man who had been sitting at the bar for the past few hours just kept looking sadder and sadder. He was hesitant to go up and talk to him, especially since it was 1 am and he knew he had a lot of cleaning to do before he could go home, and he really didn't want to stay past 2 am. He went around gathering cups from the empty tables, and tidying up the almost empty bar, but couldn't shake the feeling that the man needed someone to talk to. He looked at the clock, saw that it was 1:30, sighed and went and sat on the stool next to the man.

"Hey man, are you okay? You look pretty upset"

The man looked up at him with tired, sad eyes, and said "I've made a really big mistake".

They sat in silence for a moment, then the man continued his story.

"I'm just so tired. So tired of being treated so poorly. My wife hates me and does everything she can to make my life miserable. On days that I know I'm going to be busy, I kindly ask her to make me breakfast, and she says no and calls me a thief. If I say that it's okay that she doesn't make me food, she does it and tells me to eat it all, but still calls me a thief. If I ask her to help me out on the farm, she refuses, but if I try to go do it, she goes out there to work and makes me leave her alone. I could only take so much hatred and so much misery in my life, so I took matters into my own hands.

I was out walking yesterday morning and picked berries. I came across a huge pit and was feeling very sorry for myself, and decided I thought my wife deserved to pay for the way she's treated me. I returned home and told her that she shouldn't go out and pick berries in the forest, which I, of course, knew she'd do because it was the exact opposite of what I told her. So she went out and I lured her into the pit, and she went in and couldn't get out. It just felt so nice to go home and not feel so unwanted. I had a quiet evening after, but started to realize that I should probably check on her. This morning, I went to the pit and put rope down, and much to my surprise, a demon came out, terrified. He said that an evil woman had eaten all of the other creatures down there. I was scared, so I dropped the demon down and came here. I just don't know what to do. I'm supposed to protect and cherish my wife, but I left her down in a pit, and I really don't feel bad about it. I don't want to be married to her anymore, but I also feel wrong keeping her in the pit forever, kind of. Well, maybe not, but I should, right? What do I do?"

The bartender was very perplexed and realized that the man was more sad at the thought of having his wife come home. He had heard about this evil woman and knew that the man was better off without her.

"I think that you need to do what makes you happy, even if it means leaving her down in the pit forever."

The man smiled and said "That's exactly what I was thinking."

So the man finished his drink, left the bar, and lived happily ever after without worrying about his evil wife.

(Men at a bar)

Bibliography: This story is based on the story "The Bad Wife" in Russian Folktales by W.R.S Ralston in the British Unit. 

Author's Note: This story stood out to me immediately because the wife hated her husband so much, but didn't seem to have any particular reason for doing so. She would do the opposite of what he said, for example, if he'd ask her to wake up early, she'd sleep late, if he wanted breakfast, she wouldn't cook it for him, but if he didn't want breakfast she would, and basically did anything she could to defy him. He was out sulking one day and found a pit, and decided he didn't want his wife in his life anymore. He decided to tell her to not go for a walk in the forest to pick berries, fully aware that she would do the opposite and go for a walk. He lured her out into the forest and trapped her in a pit. He went back and checked on her and ended up pulling out a demon who was terrified of his wife being down there, because she had eaten all of the other demons. I thought it would be fun to make it seem like the husband was drinking in a bar because he was sad that he got rid of his wife, when in reality he was just sad at the notion that he might need to bring her home.

Reading Diary Week 13: Russian Folktales Continued

This is the second half of the Russian Folktales by Ralston.

My favorite story from this second half was "The Headless Princess". I noticed the title almost immediately, because "The Headless Princess" would definitely make you look twice, and the whole ended up being really good.

There was a priest who had a son, and the son went every day to reading and writing lessons. He would pass by the palace on his walk home, and one day he saw the princess getting ready for bed. The way she got ready for bed, however, was very strange. She would take off her head, wash it, braid her hair, then put her head back on. The little boy, of course, was in awe about seeing the princess taking off her head.

He decided to tell everyone about what he had seen, and shortly after, the princess became incredibly ill. She told her father that in the event that she should die to make sure that the priest's son read the psalter over her for three nights. Sadly, the princess died and her father sent for the priest. He asked if he had a son, and when the priest said yes, he explained that his son would be reading the psalter over the princess.

The boy returned to his lessons the next day and complained to his teacher that he thought he was in a lot of trouble because he had to read the psalms over the princess who he believed was a witch. The old woman explained how he could trap and kill the witch should she try to attack him.

Sure enough, when he went to read over her body, she came out of the coffin, but couldn't do anything because he had done exactly what his teacher had told him to do.

The princess ended up face down in her coffin, her father found her and demanded to know what happened. The boy explained everything and the king had his daughter be disposed of properly to get rid of the witch, and rewarded the boy with a lot of money and land.

I thought this story was really mysterious and interesting to read.

(Evil Princess)

Reading Diary Week 13: Russian Folktales

This week I read Russian Folktales by Ralston.

There were so many good stories to choose from in the European Unit, but the Russian Folktales caught my eye pretty quickly and I wanted to read them, since I have never heard any of these tales before. I really enjoyed each and every one of the readings!

One of my favorite stories, however, was "The Bad Wife". The story is about a wife who is terrible to her husband. She constantly gripes at him, doesn't think he deserves anything good and did anything and everything to get on his nerves. The husband just kind of put up with her anger and let her do her own thing. The husband, however, caught on pretty quickly that his wife would just do the exact opposite of what he said, and used this to his advantage. He would tell her to not cook him pancakes, because "he didn't deserve them", and the wife would cook him pancakes because she thought that she was defying him.He would tell her to not go out and cut the hay, and once again, she would do it because she thought that it would make him mad. Even though it sometimes worked to his advantage, he was still upset that he had a wife that hated him so much.  He was very frustrated at the fact that she wouldn't just do something he asked, and decided to go out and pick berries. On his walk, he decided that he was ready to get rid of the wife who hated him so much. He returned home and told her to not go out in the woods to pick berries, so she did. He tricked her into going into a pit and left her there for eternity.

(Mad Wife)

Storytelling Week 12: The Quaker's Story

The quaker was very excited. He had prepared an elaborate meal and was very much ready to eat it. He turned around to look at his impressive spread and quickly realized that something was different about his table, and was very perplexed about it. Something was missing, and he couldn't figure out what it was. He thought must just be going crazy, his table seemed to have a full spread. He ran through a mental checklist, to make sure that nothing was actually missing and that it was all inside his head. He had his napkins, plates, silverware, meat, but something was definitely missing. He looked around, scratched his head, then finally he realized what was wrong. His bread and cheese was gone! That was his favorite part of every meal and it was nowhere to be found. How could it have just disappeared? He shrugged it off, thinking that he might have just forgotten to get it from the store, it had been a very long day and he was tired.

The next day, he walked home from work quickly. He was hungry, and made sure that he grabbed bread and cheese from the local market so that he could enjoy it with his meal. Once again, he laid everything out, turned around for one second, and his cheese and bread were gone again. He looked everywhere, but it was no where to be found. The quaker began to get angry and closely inspected the area around him to find clues as to who was taking his food. He looked closely at the floor and saw small dog prints. He realized he had there was a small hole in the wall on the other side of the kitchen, and that a dog must have been sneaking into his house at dinner time and making off with his cheese and bread. He kind of admired the dog for having the nerve to sneak into his house, but his admiration quickly turned into anger again.

(Dog stealing food)

The next night, he was determined to not let the animal take his food. He tried to cover the hole up, but didn't have any tools to do the job well, so he just thought that he would scare the dog away. He wasn't exactly sure what he would do should he confront the dog, but he was tired of his bread and cheese being taken. You see, his religion believed that you must not put your hands on any one of God's creatures, and he fully intended to follow that rule. He would just make sure that the dog didn't take the bread and cheese and hopefully scare him enough so that he never came back.

The man waited and waited, but there was no sign of the dog. He left his hiding spot to run to the bathroom, and when he returned he found the dog in the middle of his kitchen, bread in mouth. The dog froze, the quaker froze, and the two just stared at each other for a second, until the dog decided to make a run for it.

The quaker got very angry, probably more angry than he had ever been in his life. He started yelling after the dog, but after realizing it wasn't going to stop, he started chasing after it. He got angrier and angrier because he couldn't catch up with the dog. As he was running, he saw large sticks, and picked them up to throw at the dog in hopes that he would stop. All of a sudden, he tripped over a large tree branch, and broke all of his bones. After his accident, the quaker realized his mistake, and vowed to never chase after an animal again.

Bibliography: This is based off the story "The Dog and the Quaker" by Sir Brooke Boothby.

Author's Note: This week I read Aesop's Fables and was having kind of a hard time finding a story to write about since some of the fables are very hard to understand because of their language. I really liked the story "The Dog and the Quaker", so I decided to expand more on it. The story is about a quaker who constantly has his bread and cheese stolen by a dog. Normally, he might have punished the dog for taking his food, but the Quaker religion believes that no one should put their hands on one of God's creations. The Quaker religion really promotes finding non-violent solutions to problems, so the Quaker didn't actually believe in harming the dog at first. So, once he finds the dog, he tries yelling at it, but once that doesn't work, he resorts to throwing things at it and ends up breaking all of his bones. He kind of defies his religion and does what he wants and ends up suffering the consequences. It was fun to create an entire story about "The Quaker and the Dog" and elaborate as to why he might have been so upset by the dog taking his bread and cheese. I would think that I'd be pretty mad if my food was being stolen too. It was an interesting story and fun to write about!

Reading Diary Week 12 English Aesop Fables Cont.

This is the second half of the readings for the week over the English version of Aesop's Fables by Sir Roger L'Estrange,  Sir Brooke Boothby and James Davies.

The second half was probably my favorite part, simply because there were three whole sections over dogs. First of all, I found the titles of the different sections really funny. The title "Yet More Dogs" actually made me laugh out loud because I'm pretty sure the author was just thinking "Well, we have "Dogs" and "More Dogs", so might as well make the next one "Yet More Dogs"". I like how they used humor in naming each of the fables. My favorite section is probably "Dogs", because of the story "The Faithful House-Dog". 

"The Faithful House-dog" is about a man who tries to trick a dog to leave his owner's house. The dog isn't fooled though, and stays with is owners. I also really like the next story, "The Dog and the Crocodile". The crocodile tries to trick the dog so that he can eat him, but the dog is too smart and outsmarts the crocodile. 

(A man and his dog)

I also really liked the stories about the cats and weasels. I think it's interesting how the author kind of looped the two of them together. They are similar, yet so different. I thought that the story "The Battle of the Mice and Weasels" is really funny, because you don't really think of the two fighting. The thought of two little mice and weasel armies is really funny and entertaining. 

All of Aesop's Fables were really fun to read. I really enjoyed the British reading unit. 

Reading Diary Week 12: British Aesop Fables

This week I read the English version of Aesop's Fables by Sir Roger L'Estrange,  Sir Brooke Boothby and James Davies.

I really liked the English version of Aesop's fables and they were really fun to read. I thought it was really interesting that most of these stories had titles about animals, but then the stories that followed, which were often by different authors, just had "more" in front of the title. It's like they just picked up the last author's story from where they left off. For example, there is the story "Foxes", then the story right after it is "More Foxes".

My favorite story of Aesop's Fables is "Fables About People". I thought the story "The Dog and the Quaker" was really good and really unique. It was also really funny and I liked that the author made sure it rhymed, even if the words didn't really seem like they were in the right order. The story talks about a dog who stole a Quaker's bread and cheese. Normally, the man would have done something about it, but the Quaker religion didn't believe in people putting their hands on one of god's creatures, and if a person did that they would be punished, so he wasn't supposed to harm the dog. The man, however, was really upset that the dog stole his food and decided that he was going to punish the dog anyway. He yelled at the dog and ran after him, but ended up breaking his own bones.

I thought that this story was really humorous and entertaining and very fun to read.

(Man Chasing Dog)

Storytelling Week 11: What Happened To Jack's Wife?

"I'd like to start out by saying that I do love my wife. My actions may seem to prove otherwise, but I love her and this has just been a huge misunderstanding" Jack said quickly and nervously to the police officer. He was sweating profusely and didn't know if it was from the crazy London heat or how scared the police officer was making him. He kept thinking about the huge mistake he made and where his wife might be, which was making everything worse.

"Sir, you sold your wife. For a minikin pin. You essentially sold another human being, which is pretty illegal. Please explain how this is a misunderstanding and why I shouldn't take you to jail right now. Why would you do that to your wife?"

Jack fidgeted under the police officer's harsh stare. How could he explain that he didn't mean for this to happen? What if the police officer didn't believe him? He didn't want to go to jail. He just wanted to find his wife, take her home and forget that this entire thing ever happened.

Jack took a deep breath and began his story.

(Man being questioned by police)

"I had a very long day today. I had to work in the heat from 6 am to 6 pm, and I was just ready to go home and eat dinner and spend time with my wife. I got home, however, and she wanted to go out to dinner, because she too had a long day at work and didn't want either one of us to have to cook. I personally didn't want to leave the house, but I reluctantly agreed, and we headed out to one of our favorite neighborhood diners. We had a lovely meal and really enjoyed each other's company, as we always do, and talked out our days at work and caught up. We finished up our meal and, on our walk home, I saw a street vendor selling some unusual things. I have a strange habit of collecting objects that other people don't necessarily want, like I have a few old clocks sitting around, but none of them work so my wife just ends up getting mad at me -"

"Sir, please tell me how this is relevant to your story?" the police officer said in an exasperated tone.

"Oh yes, sorry. So anyway my wife just wanted to go home and really didn't want me buying anymore junk, but I insisted on stopping. We should...we should have just gone home. She finally agreed, but made me promise to only stay for a few minutes. I approached the vendor and saw that he had a strange collection of minikin pins, which are just small pins. He had multi-colored ones, which I just knew I needed for my collection. Here's where things started getting strange. He kept looking at my wife and it was making me very uncomfortable. I was trying to get out of there as quickly as possible, but still wanted the pins. He was jabbering on about how pretty he thought my wife was and how she should come visit him, and I kept trying to give him money but he wouldn't take it. I turned around for one second to grab the pin and he grabbed my wife and said that I had just traded the pin for her. He ran off and now I can't find them. I didn't actually sell my wife for the stupid pin, I was tricked. I just want to find my wife."

The officer looked bewildered for a minute and wasn't sure if he should actually believe the story. The man seemed sincere and was actually tearing up at the thought of his wife being gone.

"Sir, don't you know how crazy that story sounds?" the police officer said quietly.

"I know, but you have to believe me".

All of a sudden, the officer's partner wandered into the room and stated, "Another street vendor saw the vendor grab his wife and run off, so Jack is innocent. Sir, we are so sorry and are going to do everything we can to get your wife back".

Jack was elated and was led out to the waiting room until another detective could come get more information about his wife.

Bibliography: This story is based off of the poem about the man who sold his wife for a minikin pin in the British Nursery Rhymes Unit.

Author's Note: The rhyme about Jack selling his wife for a minikin pin is actually very short and gives very little detail about anything. The poem goes "Jack in the pulpit, out and in, sold his wife for a minikin pin". I thought that this rhyme was really funny and different since it does involve someone trading his wife for a minikin pin. Since it is so short and is only 14 words and gives very little background information or information about what happens in the future, I thought it would be fun to expand on it and turn it into a story. I'd like to think that Jack wouldn't really want to sell his wife for a minikin pin on purpose and would have done it on accident. It was kind of hard to come up with a way where someone could accidentally sell another person for an object, so it kind of made sense to turn it into a kidnapping story where Jack was tricked into giving his wife to the vendor for the pin. I'd assume that the police would have a hard time understanding why it happened, so having him questioned by the police seemed like a good place to start the story.

Reading Diary Week 11: Nursery Rhymes Continued

Today I did the second part of the British Nursery Tales readings by Andrew Lang.

The second half of this unit was really interesting. My favorite section was the "Love and Matrimony" rhymes, just because I always think that nursery rhymes about love are funny and unique. A lot of these rhymes were also kind of dark, which I thought was different because you'd think that nursery rhymes about love would be super upbeat and positive. I also didn't recognize most of the rhymes, besides Jack and Jill, so it was kind of cool to go through and read the different rhymes. many of these rhymes are short and sweet, which make them very easy and fun to read. The "Jack and Jill" rhyme was exactly the same as the one I heard growing up, which isn't very surprising since it's a very short rhyme. I think it's funny because it doesn't really seem like a love rhyme, since it just ends with them tumbling down the hill. I thought that the rhyme about the husband selling his wife for a "minikin pin".

(Jack and Jill)

There were so many rhymes in this unit and they were all very unique and had a lot of character to them. I thought it was different that a lot of them didn't actually rhyme or make any sense. They used a lot of language that I didn't understand, so that made it kind of confusing when it came to reading some of the poems, but that could be due to the fact that I don't understand the British slang. I enjoyed reading this unit.

Reading Diary Week 11: British Nursery Rhymes

This week I read Nursery Rhymes in the British Unit by Andrew Lang.

A lot of these nursery rhymes were very different than those that I grew up with. I found some that I've heard different versions of before, but a lot of them were new, which made them fun to read. I was kind of surprised to find that a lot of them were a bit darker, which is unique since nursery rhymes are meant for children. I realized, however, that a lot of the rhymes that I grew up hearing were also dark, but they weren't very blatant about it and just had hidden meanings, like "Ring Around The Rosy" is about the bubonic plague.

The rhymes that I found to be really interesting to read were those in the "Charms and Lullabies" section of the readings, since they were also very dark and it's weird to think about trying to get your child to go to sleep with such dark poems. I thought that the poem "Bye Baby Bunting" was one of the most unique poems. It talks about a father going to hunt for an animal and get its skin to wrap the child in.

In contrast, the rhyme that tries to quiet a baby was very heartwarming and didn't contain any dark elements at all. I like that it talks about a parent would do/give anything to their child in order to make them happy.

(Picture from Hush-a-bye, Baby, or Rock a bye baby)

I liked this unit a lot overall. These stories were different than the stories that I've for this class so far, so it was a great way to mix things up.