Mythology and Folklore Blog

The Field of Boliauns (Leprechaun with Pot of Gold from Pixabay ) Plot: A young man named Tom was on a walk when he heard a sound in the bushes. Behind the bushes was a little leprechaun with a pitcher. Tom knew you cannot take your eyes of a leprechaun or you may lose their treasure. Tom then engages the leprechaun in a discussion about beer. The leprechaun claims that he can make beer out of heath which Tom claims is impossible. The leprechaun then tries to trick Tom into looking behind him at some cows. Tom almost takes his eyes off the leprechaun but at the last moment, he grabs the leprechaun and demands he show him his money or he will kill him. So he takes Tom to a field of boliauns and points out a specific bunch saying that's where his treasure is. Tom had to go back to get a spade so he tied a red garter around the specific bunch. Before Tom let the leprechaun go, he made him swear not to move the red garter. When Tom got back to the field he saw that every si...

This extra credit reading assignment note is from the week 14-15 reading of fairytale anthologies by Hans Christian Andersen Part A . As I am thinking about doing a suitor test focused storybook, I decided to write these notes on The Princess and the Pea . Plot: A prince wants to marry a real princess He has been going around meeting princesses, but something about them is always not quite right A girl comes in during a stormy night drenched in rain and a mess but says she is a real princess The old queen puts down a pea under twenty mattresses and tells the girl to sleep there as a test The next day the queen asks her how she slept and she says terribly because she was bruised by something The queen knows she is a real princess because she felt the pea through all those mattresses The prince and princess are married The pea is put in a museum Characters: The prince looking for a princess The old queen who devises the test The princess who comes in with the sto...

To learn about accepting negative feedback I read Why It's So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback  and Make Good Art: Neil Gaiman's Advice on the Creative Life, Adapted by Design Legend Chip Kidd . When I think back on times I was given negative feedback I almost always was upset by negative feedback. I have always been a type A perfectionist and because of that, I have a really hard time accepting criticism, especially when I was younger. I remember getting really upset when anyone corrected me in school and I used to actively avoid things like art and creative writing because what's good is so subjective that I could never be sure I wasn't going to get negative feedback. As I got older I started to see the value in critiques and began to take those kinds of criticisms less personally. As I got older and had to start giving critiques myself, I realized that the person giving them doesn't mean it personally they just want to help you. Through those experiences, I have be...

In no particular order here are four topics I am interested in possibly using for my Storybook Project. Korean Tales My mom was adopted from Korea so I have always been interested in learning more about Korean culture since I am half Korean myself. I even took a Korean language course in high school and took an online course through Stanford on Korean history. I personally prefer stories that are more fairy tale than what most of these stories seem to be but I would love to research more into it. I would love to focus more on tales with women and/or nature and less on the animal ones due to my own personal preferences. I could also possibly retell some of these stories with human characters instead of animals. Fairy Tale Villains One of my favorite new tropes in storytelling is retelling traditional fairy tales from the perspective of villains. In stories like Maleficent , the traditional villain is given a backstory and the fairy tale is told from their perspective t...

There once was a village on the edge of a large kingdom. In this village lived the beautiful and clever daughter of a poor farmer and his wife. In this kingdom, there also lived a king renowned for his riches and power. One day the king came to the village to collect taxes where he caught sight of the girl. Struck by her beauty, he went to her parents and demanded her hand in marriage. While her parents did not want to force their daughter into a marriage, they did not wish to enrage such a powerful king. They went to their daughter and informed her of the king’s demands. The girl asked to speak to the king herself. The next day the king met the girl at her home. Once again struck by her beauty, the king demanded, “Be my bride.” The girl responded, “My lord, I am but the daughter of a lowly farmer, I am not worthy of being your bride. My parents do not have any money to their name.” The king was so in love with her beauty he granted her all the jewels in the castle treasury. The next d...

Reading Notes on The Lion in Love (African Lion From Wikipedia Commons ) When I was reading all the stories this week, this one really stuck out to me even though it was so short. Plot: A lion falls in love with a girl and wants to marry her. Her parents ask the lion to get rid of his teeth and claws so as not to injure her. The lion does but then when he goes back to ask her parents for her hand in marriage they laugh at him. They were only going to marry their daughter to him because they feared the king of the Beasts. Type of Story: This story was one of Aesop's fables and its central message was that "Love can tame the wildest" But I also feel like there were some underlying themes about forcing someone to love you. Characters: Only the Lion and her Parents Ideas: Even though this story was so short it really stuck out because of the surprising conclusion to the story. I think I could definitely take this idea and make it into a longer full-length story w...

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3: ____Jewish Fairy Tales_____ Week 4: ____Cupid and Psyche_____ Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: ___Indian Fairy Tales______ Week 6: ___Twenty-Two Goblins______ Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. Week 7: ___Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)______ Week 9: ______Chinese Fairy Tales ___ Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10: _____Tejas Legends____ Week 11: ____Blackfoot Stories_____ Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: ___Celtic Fairy Tales______ Week 13: _____More English Fairy Tales____ Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: ___Brother's Grimm (Crane)______ Week 15: ____Czech Folktales_____ Going through these reading assignments made me so incredibly excited for this class! I love reading and always have since I was a kid but I feel like since college I've really let th...