Mythology and Folklore Blog

Stealing from the Sun (Black Running Shoes from MaxPixel ) Trevor had been traveling for months. He had graduated from college and was taking a year off to just see the world. On a mountain hike, Trevor got incredibly lost. He'd been walking for days and had run out of water completely. Finally, he saw a strange looking cabin in the distance. It was a bright yellow color with orange trim. Knocking on the door, Trevor hoped against hope there would be someone inside who would let him spend the night.  "Hello? Is anyone home?" asked Trevor. The door swung open to reveal an ancient looking old man dressed in clothes to match his colorful home.  "How can I help you, young man?" asked the old man. "I was wondering if you had some food and water. Maybe a place to stay for a night. I've been walking, lost, for days and have run out of food and water," explained Trevor. "Of course, of course, come in," the old man replied

The Red Eyed Duck (Horned Grebe from Wikipedia Commons ) Plot: The Old Man was walking on his travels when a group of ducks persuaded him to stop. They wanted him to sing so they could all dance. The Old Man acquiesced and told the ducks that the next song was a medicine song and they must keep their eyes closed or they will turn red. As the ducks kept their eyes closed and danced around he would beat ducks that came near him with a bat and kill them to eat later. One little duck could feel that there were less ducks around and opened his eyes. He warned the remaining ducks and they flew away. That little duck's eyes were forever red and it became a horned grebe. The Old Man took the remaining ducks and roasted them on a fire. He then fell asleep. A coyote came along and saw the ducks and ate all the ones roasting above the fire. He then found the remaining ones roasting under the fire, ate their insides, and filled the skin with ashes. Then he left. The Old Man woke up and s

The Theft from the Sun (Arapaho Leggings from Wikipedia Commons ) Plot: There was an Old Man who was on a journey and went to the Sun's lodge. There the Sun said they should go hunting for deer meat. The Old Man agreed. The Sun showed the Old Man his special leggings which set fire to brush so that the deer would flee and could be easily killed. The Old Man decided he wanted to steal the leggings after seeing their usefulness. The two went hunting and that night the Old Man stole the leggings and walked as far from the Sun's lodge as he could. When he woke up he found that he was back in the lodge. When the Sun asked why he had the leggings he said he used them as a pillow. The Old Man repeated this thievery the next night only this time he ran as far as he could. Again he woke up in the Sun's lodge because the whole world is the Sun's lodge. The Sun told him since he wanted the leggings so much he could have them. The Old Man took them and went to set fire to t

For this week's story lab, I explored the Writer's Write website and read three different articles. My thoughts on each will be summarized below. Overall I liked this site a lot. There were so many different types of articles about every aspect of writing. I will say that there were so many ads on the site it took forever to get pages to load which was a disappointment. (Bookstore from Pixabay ) 45 Ways to Avoid Using the Word Never  This article is mostly just a list of adjectives to use instead of very. For example, instead of saying very tired, say exhausted. I chose to read this article because I know that I sometimes fall into the very trap. I just get lazy and don't want to think too hard about another, stronger word so I just put in very. To combat that I can definitely come back to this article when I feel stuck to give my writing more oomph. The 17 Most Popular Genres in Fiction  I was interested to read this article because there are so many genres I have

How Sickness Entered the World (Ladder Snake from Wikipedia ) Plot: There used to be no sickness in the world. Instead, everyone lived long healthy lives until it was time to meet the Great Spirit. There was an old medicine man who heard much from the Great Spirit and was widely regarded. He was getting very old and was too tired to meet the Great Spirit and asked two young men to meet the Great Spirit's messenger for him. The two men agreed and while they were waiting for the messenger a large snake approached. Frightened of the snake the men beat it to death. They waited and no messenger came. They went back to the old man and told him what had happened. The old man was dismayed for he knew the snake had been the messenger. When he told the men they had killed the messenger they became afraid and moved the body to another tribe's camp. Over and over men moved the snake's body from camp to camp. The snake's mate was enraged and laid an egg at each camp which the

The Plant that Grows in Trees (Mistletoe from Wikipedia Commons ) Plot: Mistletoe used to grow on the ground like other plants until a bird moved it to the trees. A thunderbird could not find any berries so it came down to the ground and ate the berries from the mistletoe. After eating, the bird thanked the plant. The mistletoe was very sad and told the bird he would die anyway since he is the only plant with berries all year long. The thunderbird took pity on the plant and carried it up to the mesquite tree and placed it there. The plant was grateful but was saddened that he would survive and his seeds would fall to the ground where they would grow and be eaten by animals. To this, the thunderbird said the seeds would stick to the tree and would grow in the trees. In this way, the thunderbird saved the mistletoe from other animals and now mistletoe grows on trees. Lesson: The Tejas legends which I read for Part A had a lot of origin stories like the one I described. A lot of t

Why Cats and Dogs aren't Friends (Cat and Dog Fighting from Wikipedia Commons ) There once was a man and a wife who lived in a village. They weren’t rich but they weren’t poor either. One day, foolishly, they decided to sell a valuable gold ring to increase their riches. Unbeknownst to them, the gold ring was magic and ensured that its owner would always be of comfortable wealth. After selling the gold ring they quickly became very poor. They were so poor that they were unable to provide filling meals to their pets: a dog named Rigby and a cat named Holly. “We’re starving Rigby. It’s been months since we’ve had a filling meal,” complained Holly. “I know. If only we could get the gold ring back. Things would be better,” replied Rigby. “I know!” exclaimed Holly. “We could get the ring back. The new owner lives just across the river.” “You know they keep the gold ring locked in a chest. How would we ever get it back?” Rigby questioned. “I’ll catch a mous

Retribution (Chinese Water Carrier from Wikipedia Commons ) Plot:  There once was a boy named Ma who lived with his father. From his window, he can see the terrace of his neighbor Old Wang. One day Ma saw from his window Old Wang watering his flowers. Then he sees a water boy offering to help Old Wang water his flowers. He waves him away but the water boy climbs up anyway. Old Wang and the water boy struggle and Old Wang pushes the water boy away where he falls and dies. Worried about being discovered, Old Wang carries the body to the water edge and leaves it there. Ma decides to say nothing. Everyone in the village assumes he slipped and fell to his death. Nine years later, Ma sees the water carrier going into the home of the wealthy Lis. He had come back to earth to be reborn into the Li family. Seven more years pass and the young Li has grown into a small child and is playing with his pigeons. The pigeons land in Old Wang's garden where he is watering his flowers. The boy

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies (Cat and Dog Fighting from Wikipedia Commons ) Plot: There once was a man and wife who had a golden ring. This ring was lucky and ensured that whoever had it would always have enough. The couple did not know this and sold the ring. They began to become very poor. Distraught, their dog and cat hatched a plan to get the ring back. The dog suggested the cat catch a mouse and force it to gnaw a hole in the chest where the ring was and bring it back to the cat. The cat and the dog set out for the house where the chest is. They encounter a river and the cat rides on the dogs back across it. The cat catches the mouse and makes it do their bidding. The cat carries the ring in its mouth and the cat and dog cross the river together. On their way home the dog has to run around the houses in the village on the ground but the cat climbs on top of the houses and runs across them to get home. The cat gets home first and is praised by its owner for bringing home go