Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes (Part A)

This sin;t my typical Reading Notes style, but the main thing I would want to consider doing is rewriting pieces from the Tales and Proverbs sections in the same style as the two Songs sections. What can I say, I like rhyming!

There's also a piece in Songs, Part One about Johnny and I have the urge to redo it in the style of the "Keke Do You Love Me' song.

via Wikimedia Commons

Story Source: Nursery Rhymes

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales (Part B)

2. The Headless Princess

• Synopsis:
• A boy coming back from his lessons peeps into the princess' window
• She takes her head off
• The boy tells everyone what he saw
• The princess becomes suddenly ill
• She tells her father that if she dies, he should have the priest's son read the psalter over her casket for three nights in a row
• This boy is the boy that saw her through the window
• The princess dies
• The boy is asked to read the psalter
• The boy tells his grandmother about what he saw and what he has been asked to do
• His grandmother gives him some instructions to stay safe
• Take a knife and draw a circle in the ground
• Read your psalter, but whatever you do, don't look behind you
• The boy obeys his grandmother and is protected when the princess rises from the dead each night and attempts to attack him
• At the end of the third night, when the sun rises, the casket does not close behind the princess when she falls dead again
• The king comes to the church and sees his daughter's body face down in her now open casket
• When the boy tells the king what had happened, he orders a stake be driven through her heart
• The boy is heavily rewarded for surviving
• Possibilities
• That wasn't the daughter
• possession/impersonation
• the real daughter is found after they put the stake through the heart of the one in the casket

6. The Two Friends

• Synopsis:
• Two friends agreed that whomever got married first would invite the other to his wedding, dead or alive
• One of the friends died
• When the living friend got married, he stopped by his buddy's grave and invited him to the wedding
• His friend came back to life and convinced him to have a drink at his "place" before the ceremony
• They shared a total of three drinks
• For each drink the groom had, 100 years passed in the world above
• Possibilities
• Explore the story of the groom being reintegrated into society 300 years in the future

10. The Dog and the Corpse

• Synopsis:
• A man goes out hunting with his dog
• On the way home (after dark) they encounter a living corpse
• The dog attacks the corpse when it rushes them and the hunter makes a run for it
• The next morning, the dog returns home and tries to bite him for the betrayal
• The dog continues to hate his master for a whole year
• They have to chain him up to keep him from attacking
• The dog breaks loose one day and tries to kill his master
• The dog is put down
• Possibilities:
• I just want the dog to live
• Maybe he could get adopted out?

Ghost
via Max Pixel

Story Source: Russian Fairy Tales, W. R. S. Ralston

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales (Part A)

1. The Dead Mother

• Synopsis:
• A couple is happily married
• The wife dies in childbirth
• The father hires an old woman to care for the child
• The child will not be soothed
• At night, the baby sleeps, well, like a baby despite crying uncontrollably all day
• The nanny decides to stay up one night and try to figure out what it is that calm the child
• She hears someone go into the baby's room and the crying stops
• She tells the father about this
• The father and his men decide to hide in the baby's room over night to try and catch the person who has been coming in to nurse and soothe the child
• When the person enters, the men spring out and shine a light on the intruder
• It's the mother, dressed in the same clothes she had been buried in
• Possibilities:
• What if the mother is a vampire???
• How do the people react to finding her?

8. Wednesday

• Synopsis:
• A woman goes to bed after deciding to get up early and finish her work in the morning
• She forgets to cross herself before going to sleep
• This apparently summons a demon into her home
• She discovers that the demon wants to kill her and manages to banish it
• Possibilities:
• I want the demon to just be genuinely helpful
• It's just lonely and wanted to help

Little Demon Dude Just Doing His Best
via Pixabay

Story Source: Russian Fairy Tales, W. R. S. Ralston

Reading Notes: American Indian Fairy Tales (Part B)

1-3. The Boy who Snared the Sun

• I just want to see the boy get pulled into the sky by his lasso.

4-6. How the Summer Came

• There is mention of a great flood in this culture too
• There has to be some truth to it

7-8. Fairy Bride

• I would love to write about the girl's point of view as she goes to the fairy world and gets married

Fairy Bride
via Pexels

Story Source: American Indian Fairy Tales, W. T. Larned

Reading Notes: Hans Christian Andersen (Part A)

Note: These are all very famous tales, so I didn't feel the need to include a synopsis with these reading notes.

1. The Princess and the Pea

• Inverse what the prince is looking for
• Princess are too sensitive
• Mom keeps trying to set him up
• He puts a pea under the mattresses
• If she complains, he refuses her
• He falls in love with a street girl
• Forgotten royal lineage so she ends up being okay to wed?

2. The Emperor's New Suit

• Narrative from the swindlers' POV
• The getaway during the parade

6. The Little Match Seller

• The girl must live!
• What if someone in the house takes the trash out and sees her?
• She could get adopted!
• Yes, I like this

The Little Girl
via Pixabay

Story Source: Andersen Fairytales

Reading Notes: American Indian Fairy Tales (Part A)

2-3. Shin-ge-bis Fools the North Wind

• Synopsis:
• The indians go north the fish in the summer
• when the north wind (winter) starts to approach, they head back south
• One decides to stay
• The north wind is angry that anyone would dare to defy him
• The north wind tries to destroy the indian
• it doesn't work
• Possibilities:
• Told from the North Wind's point of view

4-5. The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds

• Synopsis:
• A little boy and his sister go swimming
• They come out of the pool of water and climb onto a rock
• They fall asleep
• The rock magically grows as tall as a mountain
• Their parents can't find them
• The Coyote determines that they are at the top of the mountain
• None of the animals can jump high enough to reach the children
• The inch worm arrives and offers to climb
• It takes him a month, but he gets to the top and wakes the children
• The kids come down safe and sound
• Possibilities:
• From the Inchworm's perspective

via Flickr

Story Source: American Indian Fairy Tales, W. T. Larned

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales (Part B)

3-5. The Cock, the Hen, and the Fox

• Synopsis
• A widow and her two daughter live on a small farm
• They are poor
• They have a rooster and seven hens
• The rooster dreams of a fox one night
• His favorite hen calls him out for being afraid
• The rooster then tells her two stories about how dreams can sometimes be real (ish)
• The rooster goes about his day, ignoring the dream at the insistence of his girlfriend (?)
• While he's singing one morning, the fox approaches
• The fox tells him he just wants to enjoy his music
• He flatters the rooster
• The rooster goes back to singing and gets attacked
• The hens scream as the fox runs away with the rooster
• The widow and her daughters hear the screaming and chase the fox
• The whole damn village ends up chasing him
• The rooster tricks the fox into speaking, but when he opens his mouth the rooster flies up into a tree
• Possibilities
• Any story about dreams being real
• Fox's perspective
• What if he really did know the roosters father?
• What if this widow is the same one from part A?

Source: Pixabay

Story Source

Canterbury Tales, Eva March Tappan

Reading Notes: Canterbury Tales (Part A)

Canterbury Pilgrims by Thomas Stothard
via WikiMedia Commons

1-2. The Unknown Bride

• Synopsis:
• A knight fails to uphold his vows
• Should be out to death
• The ladies of court save him from punishment by their favor
• He shall not be put to death fi, in a year, he can discover what it is that women want most
• He travels the country asking women what they want most
• No two answers are the same
• He happens upon a group of young women dancing in a field
• They Scatter
• When he reaches the clearing there is only an old hag there
• She tells him the answer to his question in exchange for a promise to do the first thing asked of him
• He agrees
• All women want to rule over their husbands
• The knight returns to the queen's castle with his answer
• It is correct
• The old lady demands he fulfill his promise to her in front of the whole court
• She wishes to marry him
• At first, the knight protests, but gives in
• There isn't much happiness at the wedding
• His new wife calls him out for being inna bad mood
• The old women asks him if he would rather have an old, but faithful wife or a young, but cheating one
• The knight realizes that maybe things aren't so bad afterall
• He kisses his bride and she transforms into a beautiful young women
• The ones he had first seen in the field?
• They live happily ever after
• Possibilities
• Told from the woman's point of view
• Who are her friends?
• What were they doing in that forest?
• Why did she want to marry the knight?

9-11. The Revelers

• Synopsis:
• Three men were drinking in a tavern when they heard a bell outside
• The bell was for a funeral
• The squire and bar keep told them that death had been running around killing people
• The three men swore to go hunt death down and kill him
• On the way, they ran into an old man
• He pointed them in the direction of death
• Death was not by the tree, but a pile of gold was
• The youngest was sent back into town for bread and wine
• While he was gone the other two devised a plan to kill him so they wouldn't have to share the gold
• Along the way, the lone man came up with a plan to poison the other two
• All three men ended up dead, so no one got the gold
• Possibilities
• Was the old man death?
• Was the gold even real?
• What if it was the magician from stories 6-8?

Story Source:

Canterbury Tales, Eva March Tappan

Reading Notes: Fairie Queen (PartB)

1. What Britomart saw in the Enchanted Chamber

• Synopsis:
• Britomart is in a chamber in a castle (See readings from Part A)
• A parade comes through the room
• Many different attributes, plus the Maiden
• Love, Fear, Hope, etc.
• Parade circles the room 3 times
• Parade exits into an adjoining chamber
• Possibilities:
• Explore more into why each attribute was present
• What happened before they entered the chamber?

Source: Wikipedia

Story Source: Fairie Queen- Britomart

Reading Notes: Fairie Queen- Britomart (Part A)

2. How Britomart Fought with Six Knights

• Synopsis:
• Britomart, Sir Guyon, and Prince Arthur are riding in the woods
• A girl rides across their path on horseback
• She's escaping a man
• Guyon and Arthur follow to help the girl
• Britomart keeps on her path
• Britomart comes upon a castle and sees 6 knights ganging up on one
• She breaks up the fight
• It's because the poor sap getting beat up wouldn't give up his wife to pledge loyalty to the other six's lady
• Britomart refuses to renounce her love
• The 6 attack
• Her enchanted spear subdued them easily
• She agrees to enter the castle to claim her reward for winning the battle
• Possibilities:
• Re-write like a high school bullying scene

8. How Britomart Walked through Fire

• Synopsis:
• Chasing a Giant
• FInds a knight
• He is sad
• His wife has been kidnapped
• Offers to help
• Goes to evil wizard's castle
• Protected by seemingly impenetrable fire
• Britomart charges the fire and is allowed through
• The knight can't follow
• Britomart explores the castle
• No signs of life
• "Be Bold"
• Possibilities:
• These stories are all one big tale
• What if it's a game of Dungeons and Dragons?

Source: WikiMedia Commons

Story Source: Fairie Queen- Britomart

Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee (Part B)

2. The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals

• Synopsis:
• The animals (mammals) challenged the birds to a ball game
• Soccer/Handball?
• The animals bragged a lot
• Bear (Captain, Strength)
• Turtle (Physical Resolve)
• Deer (Speed)
• Two smaller animals were rejected from the team, so they went to the birds
• The Eagle (Captain) accepted them
• They were given wings
• Bat
• Flying squirrel
• The two new animals won the game for the birds
• Possibilities:
• Write about the game as if it were a sportscast

Source: WikiMedia Commons

11. Snake Boy and Snake Man

• Synopsis:
• Two Stories
• Snake Boy
• Boy brings hunted birds to grandma
• Rest of family gets jealous
• Boy turns himself into snake
• Snake Man
• A hunter isn't supposed to eat squirrel
• Reasoning unclear
• Hunter eats Squirrel
• Hunter turns into snake because he ate squirrel
• Possibilities:
•   Relate this to the rest of the snake stories

Story Source: Myths of the Cherokee

Reading Notes: Myths of the Cherokee (Part A)

2. The First Fire

• Synopsis:
• The world was cold
• The gods created fire
• They placed it on an island in a tree
• Because of the water, the animals sent 4 different birds
• None succeeded
• All were left with some type of physical marking as a result of their attempt
• Next, two swimming snakes crossed the water
• Both attempts failed
• Finally, the water spider went to the island
• She made a basket out of her web
• She carried a coal in the basket back to the mainland
• The world had fire
• Possibilities:
• Any 1st person POV

6. The Deluge

• Synopsis:
• Talking Prophecy Dog
• Build a canoe
• Flood
• Only the family on the canoe survived
• Possibilities:
• There have been quite a few readings now that have mention some type of "Great Flood"
• Perhaps there's some truth to the stories since they appeared independently in multiple regions
• Deluge/Noah's Ark/etc. told from God's point of view
• Dog backwards is God. Coincidence? I think not!

Source: Pixabay

12. Flint visits the Rabbit

• Synopsis:
• Flint has been killing animals
• Rabbit offers to kill Flint
• He invites Flint to come see his home
• When Flint falls asleep, Rabbit drives a stake through him
• He explodes
• Possibilities:
• Make this the same rabbit in all of the stories
• Combine

Story Source: Myths of the Cherokee

Reading Notes: Stories from Congo (Part B)

2. How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi's Daughter

• Synopsis:
• The earth goddess had a beautiful daughter
• One could only marry the daughter if they could bring her fire from the sky god
• The spider recruited the turtle, rat, woodpecker, and sandfly to help him retrieve the lightning
• The spider built the rope to climb up
• The Woodpecker pecked a whole in the sky
• The Turtle retrieved the bamboo
• The Rat got set on fire (and survived)
• The Sandfly spied on the sky god's council so that the other animals would know where the fire was hidden
• The spider presented the sky fire to the earth goddess and claimed her daughter
• The other animals began to argue over who should really get the goddess' daughter as they had all helped
• The earth goddess decided to give each animal the dowry promised and keep her daughter single to prevent fighting
• Possibilities
• What if the daughter married ALL of the animals?
• Lots of these stories involve multiple wives, so why not multiple husbands?
• Rewritten from the Sandfly's point of view

Source: Daily Clip Art

Story Source: Stories from Congo

Reading Notes: Stories from Congo (Part A)

2. How Nsassi (Gazelle) Got Married

• Synopsis:
• Nenpetro had two wives
• They each had a daughter
• They grew up to be very beautiful
• He decided to not accept a gift in exchange for his daughter's hands in marriage
• A potential suitor instead had to guess the daughters' names
• The Antelope came and offered a gift of cloth in exchange for the princesses
• He's denied and challenged to guess their names
• He leaves, trying to think of a way to learn their names
• Nsassi, a prince, comes to ask for their hands
• He too is challenged to guess their names
• Nsassi was so upset at not being able to marry the princesses that he didn't notice that he had left his dog behind
• The dog heard the princesses names and ran home to tell his master
• He got hungry, stops to eat, and forgot the names
• He went back to the town and slept
• The dog heard the princesses' names again in the morning when they gave him food
• He got thirsty on the way home, stops to drink, and forgets the names
• He returned to town again and slept
• The dog heard the princesses' names for the third time the next morning when they brought him food and water
• This time, he made it all the way home to his master and told him the names
• Nsassi and his dog returned to the town to claim his brides
• They became thirsty and stopped to drink... and forgot the names
• The dog went the rest of the way to the town on his own, and heard the names again
• Nsassi went to the town and claimed Nenpetro's daughters
• This angered to the Antelope who tried to fight him, and lost
• He got eaten
• Possibilities:
• Rewritten as a first person
• The Antelope or the Princesses' perspectives could be more original
• What if the Antelope married one daughter and Nsassi married the other?

An Impala Drinks Water
Source: WikiMedia Commons

8. How Kengi Lost her Child

• Synopsis:
• Nenpetro had two wives, Kengi and Gunga
• They each worked on separate farms to supply food for the family
• Gunga took some beans from Kengi's field
• (Cue "Witch's Entrance" from Into the Woods because I'm a theatre nerd)
• Kengi freaked out and made her promise that going forward anything born on the farms would belong to to the farm's owner, and they would not try to take anything from the other's farm
• Kengi went over to Gunga's farm and asked for some tobacco to smoke to help with her pain
• While she was there she gave birth to a child
• Since the kid was born on her farm, Gunga kept it (according to the agreement)
• Kengi (essentially) took Gunga to court over it
• Gunga got to keep the child
• Possibilities
• This is the second story featuring Nenpetro and his two wives
• What if both daughters from story two are biologically Kengi's?
• Gunga is infertile or has a daughter that is not as beautiful as Kengi's daughters
• Rewrite the story two from the "ugly" daughter's point of view

Story Source: Stories from Congo

Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories (Part B)

1. The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder

• Synopsis:
• Thunder was a mother sheep and her son was thunder
• Whenever the young ram would become angry he would run around town causing destruction
• His mother would call after him, telling him to stop
• He wouldn't listen
• People complained and the king banished the duo to the outskirts of the bush
• This didn't work as the lightning would still set fire to the fields and make its way into town to burn farmhouses
• People complained again and the mother and son were banished to live in the sky
• Possibilities"
• Rewritten from the mother's perspective

5.Why Dead People are Buried

• Synopsis:
• The Creator was very fond of his people and didn't like it when someone died
• He decided that all bodies should be placed in a compound and covered in wood ash and they would come back to life after 24 hours
• He sent the Dog to deliver these directions to the people
• The Dog got distracted by a bone on his way to the village
• After the dog didn't return, the Creator sent a sheep to deliver the message
• The sheep too got distracted by some grass on the side of the road
• When the sheep finally delivered his message, he had forgotten the specifics and told the people to bury their dead in the ground
• When the dog returned to his mission, he did remember the details, but since the sheep had already given the wrong message no one believed him
• Possibilities:
• First Person Perspective
• Dog
• Sheep
• Village Person

The Dog gets Distracted by a Bone
Source: Pixabay

8. How the Tortoise Overcame the Elephant and the Hippopotamus

• Synopsis:
• The tortoise challenged the elephant to a contest of strength
• The elephant had to pull the turtle out of the river with a piece of rope
• The Turtle cheated by tying himself to a rock
• He untied himself right before the elephant turned back around
• Since he lost, the elephant paid the turtle 20,000 rods (currency)
• When the Turtles funds started running low, he played a similar trick on the Hippopotamus
• Because the hippo is a water dweller, the turtle tied himself to a tree
• Having lost, the Hippo also gave him 20,000 rods
• Since he had proved himself as the strongest, the tortoise was allowed to be friends with the elephant and hippo
• He wanted to live with both, but since one was on land and one was in water, he sent his son to live with the elephant
• Possibilities:
• First Person Perspective
• Elephant
• Hippo
• The Tortoise's Son
• Alternate Ending: The tortoise gets spotted tying himself to the tree vs the hippo
• Because seriously, there was absolutely no one that came to watch? Yeah right!

Story Source: Nigerian Folk Stories

Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories (Part A)

1. Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King

• Synopsis:
• The king was excellent at war strategies and won many battles
• Prisoners became slaves
• He had lots of enemies, but no one could defeat him
• One rival went to the town witch and offered her riches in exchange for the king's death
• The witch disguised herself as a beautiful maiden
• She went to a festival where she was seen by the king
• He found her so beautiful, he proposed that night
• She went to visit the king and fed him food laced with a sleeping potion
• The king falls and the witch decapitates him
• She takes his head with her when she leaves as proof
• The rival king sees the head and decides to attack the now unprotected village
• It's a slaughter
• Possibilities:
• Rewritten for modern times
• I'm thinking a bad-ass, James Bond-esque assassin

Daggers by anndr
via DeviantArt

3. The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull

• Synopsis:
• There was a very beautiful girl who refused to marry any of her parents suitors
• They were all old and ugly
• She swore to only marry someone as beautiful as herself
• A skull from the spirit world heard of this girl and Frankenstein'd together a perfect male body in which to pursue her
• The girl sees him in the market and immediately takes him home
• He asks for her parent's blessing
• They initially refuse, but eventually give in
• The couple leave to go back to the skulls home country
• The girl just thought it was a far off village
• Upon reaching the spirit world, the skull reverts back to his original form
• The girl wishes to go home
• The skull forbids it
• She meets the skull's mother, a weak old woman and befriends her by helping with chores around the house
• The old woman feels bad for the girl and has grown quite fond of her
• The people of the spirit realm are cannibals and are going to eat the girl
• She arranges to have a breeze carry the girl home on the condition that she obey her parents going forward
• The girl agrees
• She gets home and marries one of her parents friends
• Possibilities:
• I would love to rewrite this story from the Skull's Mother's point of view

9. Why a Hawk Kills Chickens

• Synopsis:
• A hawk sees a beautiful hen eating corn
• He lands and proposes marriage
• She accepts
• The Chicken and the Hawk move to the Hawks Home
• A Rooster, that had had feelings for the hen for a few months decided to win her back
• She runs away with him
• The Hawk sees this and is Angry
• When the hawk complains to the king about the Hen's behavior, her family is ordered to return her dowry
• They are poor and can't afford to return it
• The hawk is given permission to kill a chicken whenever he feels like it instead
• Possibilities:
• I would definitely want to consider redoing this tale from a first person point of view
• Hen
• Hawk
• The animals could be rewritten as humans in a soap opera style piece

Story Source: Nigerian Folk Stories

Reading Notes: Khasi Folktales (Part B)

1. The Leap of Ka Likai

• Synopsis: 
• Ka Likai is a widowed, single mother who remarries in the hopes of providing a better life for her daughter
• The new husband becomes jealous of Ka Likai's love for the child
• He kills and cooks the girl and feeds her to her mother
• Ka Likai throws herself off of a the cliff of a waterfall in her grief
• Posibilities:
• An alternate (happier) ending
• Told from the daughters perspective
• Maybe a little TOO gruesome if the plot remains unchanged
• Epilogue where the mom and/or daughter come back to haunt the husband

2. What Caused the Shadows on the Moon

• Synopsis:
• The moon (in human form) abandoned his family (fire, water, sun) to consort with demons in the underworld
• He came back and asked for his youngest sister's (the sun) hand in marriage
• His mother refused
• The sun found out about his proposal and she threw hot ashes on him and scarred his face
• Possibilities:
• I actually like this one, minimal changes to the original story.
• What if the mother had agreed to the marriage?
• What if all of his sisters teamed up and went "John Tucker Must Die" on him?
• What about the other sisters lives?
• The other two standard elements are earth and air. Perhaps they are the older sisters husbands?

3. U Ksuid Tynjang

• Synopsis:
• U Ksuid Tynjang is a demon cursed with never ending itching
• The itching could only be stopped by human touch, but he was too ugly for people to come willingly
• He kidnapped lost travelers and forced them to rub his body
• If you refused, you would be tickled to death
• 2 sisters and their brother get lost on the way home from a fair
• The sisters are captured but the brother escapes
• The brother returns home and he and his parents request the gods help in saving the sisters
• One god is thought to have left them the axe that the sisters find
• The sisters use the axe to kill the demon
• Demons can't truly die, so he comes back as a vine in the forest
• Possibilities:
• What happens after the sisters escape?
• The sisters simply trick the demon into releasing them
• There's a way to break the curse?
• A la beauty and the beast

4. What Makes the Lightning

• Synopsis:
• The humans had a yearly festival (similar to those represented at modern day Renaissance Festivals)
• The animals saw the humans merriment and decided to have a festival of their own
• The Lynx, U Kui, brought a beautiful silver sword to show off
• U Pyrthat, the thunder giant, asked to borrow said sword
• His dancing and drumming got so intense that he scarred all the animals away and unintentionally stole the Lynx's sword
• The flashing of the sword and banging of the drum are thunder and lightning
• Possibilities:
• This story wasn't that interesting, I don't have any ideas.

5. The Legend of Ka Panshandi, the Lazy Tortoise

• Synopsis:
• There was a pool of water so clear that the stars would use it as a mirror to gaze at their own beauty
• An ugly and lazy turtle swam in the pool nightly
• One of the stars noticed the turtle and fell in love with her, being too far away to notice her ugliness and laziness
• Although he was warned against it, the rich and handsome star came to earth and married the turtle
• When he realized how lazy the turtle was, and that she would not change, the star left her
• The turtle is now used as a warning against being a lazy wife
• Possibilities:
• What if the turtle HAD changed for her husband?
• Is there a reason the turtle is so lazy?

6. How the Cat came to Live with Man

• Synopsis:
• A cat lived with her brother, the king (a tiger)
• The tiger was too lazy to bring home his leftovers from hunting, so the cat had to hunt mice and frogs for herself
• This was considered peasant's work
• The cat attempted to discuss this predicament with her brother, but he grew angry at its mention
• The tiger had guests over and ordered his sister to light the hookah (tobacco)
• This too was considered peasant's work and a great dishonor
•  The cat said there was no fire in order to avoid the task
• The tiger sent her to the human village to get more fire
• The cat got distracted my the village children petting her
• The tiger grew angry at her delayed return
• This led to abuse when she did eventually come back
• The cat decided to live with the humans instead of facing her brother's wrath
• Possibilities:
• The Cat could overthrow her sick brother and become queen
• What if the roles were reversed?
• A first person point of view from either the cat or the lion would be interesting

7. How the Tiger got his Strength

• Synopsis:
• All of the animals, and mankind, had equal strengths and were un able to live in peace
• The gods decided to resolve the issue by giving each species a gift
• Humans: Beauty and Wisdom
• Tigers: Craftiness and Silent Walking
• When man returned home, his mother asked him to go back to the gods and request the gift of strength as well
• The gods agreed and told him to return the next day
• The Tiger had been eaves dropping and decided to take the gift of strength for himself
• When the man returned the next day and the gods realized they had been tricked, they gave man the gift of skill instead
• Possibilities:
• What if the gods had known the tiger was an imposter?
• Rewrite from the man's point of view
• Epilogue where the human encounters the tiger after receiving the gift of skill 

8. Why the Goat lives with Mankind

• Synopsis:
• A goat was eating leaves in the forest and was approached by a tiger
• In her fear, the goat told the tiger that she was eating a tiger rather than eating leaves
• The tiger saw the goats beard and mistook it for a weapon or sign of strength and ran away
• The goat, upon realizing what had happened, began to complain that she was not actually as strong as the tiger believed her to be
• When the same tiger saw the goat later, he hid in fearThe tiger overhears the goat complaining about her lack of strength and kills her to restore his honor
• Other predators began hunting goats
• When they neared extinction, the goats asked the humans to protect them
• Mankind said they would protect the goats, but only if they came to live in the villages with them.
• Possibilities
• I think this story could be told from the tigers perspective
• Could this tale be linked to the one before it?
• What if the Tiger from stories 6, 7, and 8 (as well as some stories in part A) were all the same Tiger?

Baby Goats (They're so CUTE!!!)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

9. How the Ox came to be the servant of Man

• Synopsis:
• Mankind was being wasteful and would not survive as the population grew
• A god sent an Ox to correct the problem with a message to the humans
• On the way, a crow landed on the Ox's back and ate the bugs that were pestering him
• As a way of repaying the crow of taking care of his bug problem, the ox agreed to not tell the humans to stop wasting food
• The left over food is what the crows would eat
• When the ox told the god what he had done, he was punished and banished
• The ox, having nowhere to go, returned to the humans and offered to be their servant in exchange for food and shelter
• Possibilities:
• How would that same god feel about today's society?

Story Source: Folktales of the Khasi

Reading Notes: Khasi Folktales (Part A)

1. The Tiger and the Monkeys

• Synopsis:
• A tiger king goes for a walk
• It's hot, so he lays down to take a nap
• When the tiger wakes up, he hears a bug singing
• The tiger is so ignorant about the ways of people that he assumes the voice is coming from a group of monkeys
• The youngest monkey decides to play a trick on the tiger and tells him that it's his younger sister singing
• The tiger then demands that he marry the young monkey (Who doesn't actually exist)
• To save themselves from the wrath of the tiger king, the monkeys make a fake bride out of clay
• When the lion comes to collect his bride, they trick the tiger into decapitating his "bride" and attack him
• The tiger nearly dies and has been afraid of the monkeys ever since
• Possibilities
• Alternate Ending
• The tiger discovers the trick
• There actually is a sister and she swallows the bug in order to be able to sing for the king

A Tiger King Lounging in the Grass
Source: Flickr

2. The Legend of the Iei Tree

• Synopsis:
• There is a very large tree on a mountainside
• Its leaves are so thick it blocks out all sunlight, making the area beneath it barren
• The tree continued outward, making the entire area barren
• Everyone thought the tree was the home of a god, so no one dared to cut it down
• Eventually, the tree got so big that it threatened mankind's existence
• Finally, a group of the world's best woodcutters decided to chop the tree down
• Each morning, the woodcutters would discover that their work from the day before had been healed
• A wren stopped and offered to help the woodcutters
• They laughed at her
• After they apologized for laughing at the wren, she told them that a tiger came by every night and licked the wounds on the tree to heal it
• That night, the woodcutters set up their axes around the tree with the sharp sides out
• When the tiger came by, he cut his tongue on the axes and never came back
• Now that the tree wasn't being healed each night, the woodcutters were able to fell the tree and save mankind
• Possibilities:
• What if they just trimmed the tree to keep it contained and had an endless supply of lumber?
• What if the tree HAD been the home of a god/demon?

3. Hunting the Stag Lapalang

• Synopsis:
• Lapalang was the most beautiful deer in the Khasi hills
• His mother protected him with everything she had, but he insisted on venturing out into the open
• When a human spotted him, he gave out a hunting cry and alerted all of the villages on the mountain side to Lapalang's presence
• The humans hunted and killed Lapalang
• When his mother heard of his death, she began running over the hillside crying so mournfully that the villagers decided to rethink their funeral practices to reflect the emotion in the mother's grieving
• Possibilities:
• There could be an alternate ending where Lapalang survives, but in a way that puts his ego and vanity in check

4. The Goddesses Ka Ngot and Ka Iam

• Synopsis:
• Two Twin Goddesses decided to race each other down a mountain
• Ka Iam was overly confident about her victory
• Ka Ngot took her time finding the easier path, while her sister tried to brute force her way through obstacles, and ended up winning the race
• Possibilities:
• I'm not feeling very inspired by this story, but it does remind me of the Tale of the Tortoise and the Hare

5. U Biskurom

• Synopsis:
• The Great God sent U Biskurom down to teach mankind about tools
• Mankind, rather than listening and learning, imprisoned him
• Mankind asked him to create life, but he didn't know how
• He convinced his captors to let him return to the heavens to learn how to create life
• They agree (idiots)
• The Great God does not allow him to return to earth, so he write the instructions on a kite and sends it down to the humans
• They can't read the language the instructions are written in
• Upset, the humans decide to send up a great shout loud enough to kill U Biskurom
• This does not work
• He lets some blood drip down to earth to make the humans think they had killed him
• Why?
• Possibilities:
• Yeah... I've got nothing

6. How the Dog came to Live with Man

• Synopsis:
• A dog needed to find a product that he could sell at the fair
• He followed a strange smell into a human village
• The family that was there took pity on him and fed him
• The dog bought some of the food from the humans to sell as his own
• When he arrived at the fair and opened the jar to sell its contents, an awful smell came out
• The animals made fun of him for the awful smell and crushed his jar
• The dog appealed to the governor of the fair for those who attacked him to be punished
• The governor did not oblige him
• The dog ran away from the fair and back to the human family who had given him the food
• In retribution, the dog helped mankind hunt the animals in the forest
• The humans domesticated pigs and began insisting that the dog and the pig help in the field
• The dog didn't help and let the pig do all the work, then ran all over the field leaving his foot prints
• When the pig complained to the humans about the dogs laziness, all the farmer saw was the dogs footprints everywhere
• The farmer then punished the pig for his "false claim"
• This is why pigs stay outside while dogs stay in the house
• Possibilities:
• Alternate ending where the farmer spies on the animals the next day and sees the dog doing nothing?

7. The Stag and the Snail

• Synopsis
• On their way to the market, many animals stopped to rest and catch up with their friends
• A stag was bragging about his speed and gets challenged to a race by a snail
• After the market they line up to race, but the snails family/tribe has stretched out along the entire path to the top of the mountain
• The race begins and the snail's voice never falls behind the stag
• The stag ultimately loses the race and is so exhausted he coughs up his gallbladder
• Possibilities:
• The fair is mentioned many times in this unit, could one cohesive story be made of all these tales?
• How the snail won is never clearly stated
• More detail on the strategy and its execution would be nice

Story Source: Folktales of the Khasi

Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 1-4 (Part A)

I'm trying a new organization tactic for my reading notes this week in the hopes that it won't take me 4 hours to complete. :)
I chose to do Ovid's Metamorphoses this week because I love greek mythology!

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Setting

• Mount Parnassus
• Phocis, Greece
• Near Delphi
• Possible picture?

Characters

• Jupiter (Zeus)
• Neptune (Posiedon)
• Deucalion
• Main Male
• Pyrrha
• Main Female
• Deucalion's Wife
• Themis
• Goddess of Law and Order

Plot

• Zeus is angry with how the Humans have been behaving
• He decides to flood the world
• Poseidon helps
• Deucalion and Pyrrha and the only two humans who survived
• They ask Themis for help repopulating the World
• Themis tells them to throw rocks over their shoulders
• Each rock tossed morphs into a human

Things to Explore

• This flood sounds similar to the Noah's Ark story in the bible
• Is there any truth to these stories?

This, along with the rest of the stories in this unit,  all occurred because of Jupiter (Zeus). Either directly or because of his offspring Perhaps there's a way to link them together into one continuous narrative?

Zeus. As a general rule, it's all his fault.
Source: Wikipedia

Bibliography-

Ovid's Metamorphoses, Part A

Reading Notes: Bible Women (Part A)

1. Eve, Genesis 2 and 3

• Setting: Garden of Eden
• Paragraphs are separated every 2-3 sentences
• Minimal transition word variation
• The word 'And' is used a lot
• Generally at the beginning of paragraphs
• 3rd person narration
• Combining paragraphs and using better transition statements would greatly benefit this story
• Perhaps switch the story to a first person perspective to include emotion?
• Serpent/God?

2. Sarah, Genesis 18

• Lots of 'And' usage
• The entire story is written as a run-on sentence
• The dialect used is very old time-y and borderline difficult to understand at some points
• 3rd person narration
• A more modern adaptation for the wording would make this story more entertaining and help it feel less like an assigned reading no one wants to do.

3. Hagar, Genesis 16

• Standard biblical transitions/wordings
• A first person perspective from the wife's point of view would be interesting to do
• "4 score and 6 years"?
• 87 years old
• Are Sarah and Sarai the same person?
• yes, apparently
• So many run on sentences...

4. Rebekah, Genesis 26 and 27

• So. Many. Run. On. Sentences.
• Incest???
• Perhaps and alternate ending where Rebekah refuses to marry Isaac would be entertaining

5. Rachel, Genesis 29

• Repetitive wording
• More incest
• Polygamy
• A retelling from one of the sister's perspectives would be interesting

6. Leah, Genesis 29 and 30

• Same old annoying bible writing style
• Even in Leah's own story the focus is on her sister
• Genesis seems to not understand how genetics work, or conception, or surrogacy
• I would definitely tell this from Leah's point of view. This poor girl has been getting no attention.
• Pimping out your husband for some plants. Classy.
• How has no one had daughters yet???
• Literally in the next paragraph I read...
• Maybe from the eldest son's POV... now THAT could be funny
• This is some Duggar level reproduction right here

Jacob's Flight, by Von Carolsfeld

7. Potiphar's Wife, Genesis 39

• So... Men can sleep with other women, but it's not cool for women to sleep with multiple men. Got it. -_-
• Potiphar's wife is a thirsty hoe...
• I'd definitely want to write this from the husband's point of view. Lots of emotions to explore.

8. Jephthah's Daughter, Judges 11

• I'd start by giving the girl a name
• How has every other story in this series had at least 2 children, but this guy only has one daughter.
• A modern retelling from the daughter's perspective
• Taking the veil at a nunnery rather than being a human sacrifice would be nice

9. Delilah, Judges 16

• Why would Samson not dump Delilah after attempt #3?
• Perhaps a telling from the point of view of the Philistines would be interesting

10. Hannah, 1 Samuel 1

• I don't need Elkanah's whole lineage...
• How odd that Hannah chose to promise not to cut Samuel's hair
• What would have happened if she had made a different condition?
• Are Samuel and Samson the same person?
• If not, why do they BOTH not cut their hair?