Storytelling Week 14: The Dragon and the Lion

The Dragon and the Lion were the very best of friends. An unlikely couple, but they were still as close as could be. One day, when the two were enjoying a gazelle together, Lion looked to Dragon and asked her to a race.

"But Lion, I can fly and you can only run on land. Even if we raced on land, my great limbs would carry me farther, faster! But if you really want to, why don't we race from here to the cave of the mountain?" Lion nodded his head and the two finished their meal. After a short rest, the two stood at the starting place.

"I am sorry that this will not be a fair race Lion, but remember, you are the one who called for it." Dragon said with a gleeful tone. Dragon did love to win and let all around know that she won. She was a proud beast, but still very kind.

"You worry about getting yourself to the finish line and I will worry about myself." Lion purred to his friend.

The race began and, as Dragon had predicted, she went very far very quickly thanks to her large wings. Lion raced on foot, his thunderous steps rattling the lands around. Dragon looked back at one point and could see no more than a speck of her dear friend. She looked forward again and spotted a rainbow in one of the clouds nearby. Dragon loved rainbows. She loved to play in them and watch as they colored her scaly skin. She flew over and played in the rainbow, completely forgetting about the race. Dragon played and played until the rainbow was wrapped around her and no longer in the sky. Only then did she look towards the earth and see Lion only a few feet from the finish line.

"Oh no! I forgot about the race! No worries though. I am fast enough to still make it!" Dragon thought to herself as she flew to the finish line as fast as she could. She flew with all her might but, in the end, Lion came out victorious.

"How did you manage to beat my dear friend? I am the fastest beast in all the land and sky!" Dragon exclaimed.

"Slow and steady wins the race my friend." Lion purred and the two left the cave to go on another adventure.

"Sarah, that is one of the weirdest stories I've ever heard. You know a lion couldn't beat a dragon in a race! No matter what!" Gregor whined as Sarah closed the storybook.

"You are question a lion beating a dragon in a race, but not the fact that the dragon wrapped itself up in a rainbow... Seriously Gregor." Sarah laughed and shook her head. 

Author's note: This story is based off of Foolish Animals from the La Fontaine unit. I kept most of the story the same, just changing the relationship of the two main characters and the setting that they were in. I also, of course, added in the Strike siblings because it just wouldn't be my story if they weren't there!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Reading Diary Week 14: La Fontaine

La Fontaine Unit

1. Foolish Animals- The Tortoise and the Hare was one of my favorite stories as I child. I always thought the tortoise was so clever! The Ass in the Lion's Skin was funny but sometimes it is a little difficult to read the stories because of the flow. I like rhythmic fables where they have a specific beat to them, I couldn't find it in this story. Another reason I love fables is because they have such clear morals.

2. More Foolish Animals- Poor puppy lost his bone just cause he got excited about his reflection! The city mouse and the country mouse is a classic! I think it was in one of the first units too. I have heard the story of the cat and the monkey as well. This story was in a previous unit too I think.

3. Foxes- Okay, this unit has definitely been given before because I also remember the story of the fox and the grapes. Again, I love the morals of these stories!

4. Birds- Stories about birds always crack me up because the birds are always so foolish. I think it is interesting though, how they are portrayed as  being so foolish when really, most birds are pretty smart. I am not saying they are the smartest, they just aren't as ridiculous as these stories make them seem.

5. Insects- I noticed that the gnat in the last story is actually a mosquito. I wonder why they call it a gnat... I also think it is interesting how insects are personified. They are show very closely to how they are as actual bugs where other creatures are given a stereotype and that is how they are written in stories.

6. Foolish People- I wonder what if the golden egg was actually supposed to be made of gold or if it was "golden" because it was an unusual golden color that was sought after. The pumpkin story was really interesting. I like how the man thought about what it would be like if he changed things but then decided they were better as they were.

7. Foxes and Wolves- These stories were just as I would expect from stories about wolves and foxes and other animals interacting with the two. Both are such cunning and clever creatures, though the wolf is stronger, so they show a good balance for the other.

8. Horses- I was curious how the horses would be shown in these stories. They are both strong and regal but horses aren't too smart. I think it is interesting that they are considered so highly over foxes and wolves but really, foxes and wolves are much smarter than horses.

9. Dogs- There are so many kinds of dogs, I wonder if they will all be written int he same light. Yep! It seems that domesticated dogs are seen as fat and not as wise, much like the rich and high in status were stereotyped in the older days. But the wolves were seen as poor but cunning and willing to do whatever to get some food.

10. Cats- I love cats but I know how they are written. They are tricksters or they are spoiled. They sometimes have magical properties about them but they always manage to get into trouble! Which is exactly what happens in these stories. I still love them!

Week 13 Storytelling

Once again, the Strike siblings apologize for their inconveniencing of anyone. They were sucked up by a black hole and decided to go run around in it for a while. They should be back next week.

Week 13 Essay

So for my unit this week I read Russian Folktales. I felt compelled to read this unit because one of my roommates is majoring in Russia and is ALWAYS talking about Russia, so I thought I would learn a little about the culture so that I could understand her a little more when she talks about things. One motif I noticed in almost every single story were corpses. There were always corpses or witches or warlocks or some dead corpse running around causing problems. I also noticed that women are not really portrayed in a very positive light.

I’m not really sure why Russians are so fascinated with corpses. I thought it was interesting that every time, except once, the corpses were evil and trying to kill people. I wonder if the idea of the corpses being evil sheds any light on how Russians feel about the afterlife. Maybe they think that once you die, since your soul is no longer in your body your body is just a vessel that can run around and do evil things? I don’t even know if that is anything the Russians believe. I will probably go and talk to my roommate and find out how Russians actually feel about death and the afterlife.

I also noticed that the women in these stories are usually not particularly good. They are either witches running around at night and killing innocent townsfolk or terrorizing their husbands and then getting sent to Hell. I know that in some cultures women are seen as unequal to men, but in these stories it makes it seem like the Russian think that women are all just evil witches. I wonder if the women in Russia are just rougher that women of other cultures and so are shown as evil in the stories.

Vasilisa. Russian Fairy Tale

Week 13 Reading Diary A: Russian Folktales

Russian Folktales

1. The Dead Mother - That was such a sad and heart breaking story... first everything is all nice and happy and then the mother is dead, leaving the father all alone with this newborn baby. He tried to care for it and have an older woman help him so that he could bring it up the best he could. If the town had just not been so nosy and left the child alone at night, I wonder if the baby would have stayed alive. I also wonder why the baby died. If it was actually because the towns people saw the dead mother or if the child died of different causes.
2. The Treasure - This was such a cool story! It made me so happy that the old man got to have a proper burial for his wife! Even if all of the towns folk were just greedy. And I am even happier that the pope was punished for being such a horrible person! When I was reading it I thought that the Devil might show up to the pope and reprimand him for pretending to be the devil, but I think being forever stuck in the goat skin works too!
3. The Bad Wife - I am actually really surprised that the peasant came out victorious! I am used to the hero having some serious problems along the way but he actually managed to have a happy life after sending his wife to hell. I am also surprised he survived the imp! I was worried it would do something to exact revenge on the peasant for tricking him! Great story!
4. The Three Copecks - This story was a little odd. I enjoyed it, but it was still odd. It was all very disjointed. The only thing it had in common was the boy. It did make me happy that he saved the kitten! I thought it was sweet and something very good came out of it! And the kitty gets to live and eat rats and mice all the time!
5. The Miser - So i'm not sure if the miser ended up getting a lot of money because they scared the wits out of the robbers and the Rich man still did pay him a single copeck, or what... This was a little confusing. I did find it funny that the miser basically tortured Marko as he pretended to be dead just to get a single copeck.
6. The Water Snake - This was an interesting story. I liked it but there wasn't very much to it. I understand where the mother was coming from to save her daughter and kill the snake, but the daughter was happy and so it was really sad that she killed him!
7. Friday - Moral of the story? Don't piss off mother friday. I wonder if they have deities for all of the days of the week.
8. Wednesday - I'm not sure what the point of this story was... I wonder why the days of the week are so mean... I can understand Monday, because I generally dislike mondays... but why the others? I'm not sure I entirely understand when they are even. Are they deities or demons or what?
9. The Leshy - Again, odd story but entertaining.  It would be nice to know what a Léshy was going into the story but it was still entertaining! I am happy the girl made it back to her family after three years even if she didn't remember them...
10. Dnieper, Volga, and Dvina - Creation story!!! I don't know anything about Russian history or culture, my roommate is majoring in Russian so I thought it would be cool to learn a little about it. I love reading stories like this because I learn a little about the culture. Like, now I know that there are three rivers called the Dnieper, Volga, and Dvina and that the first one runs faster than the other two and the second two run to the bottom of the sea where the first one remains closer to the top!
11. Emilian the Fool - I wonder why the fool wanted red things so much. And why he kept lying on the stove... I'm happy that he got some good luck in his life since everyone seemed to tease him. It would be pretty cool to have inanimate objects do your bidding just by asking them!
12. The Witch Girl - I liked this story! It was really short but I was really pulled into! I thought it was really smart how the person figured out who the witch was really was. I wonder how he thought of that...
13. The Headless Princess - I am impressed that the little boy was able to stick to what his granny told him and not look behind him. I am starting to notice the the woman either dies or is the cause of the problem. I wonder what that has to say about how the Russians of this time think of women.
14. The Warlock - I think this is one of the first stories I have read so far where the woman saves the day! Well, she doesn't really save the day, just her life and she got some money. But this was a good story! It was interesting, and engaging.
15. The Fox Physicians - I feel like there is usually a moral to most stories, but i'm not sure what the moral to this story was...
16. The Fiddler in Hell - I liked this story! I could see a clear moral in it. I thought it was cool how the pots of money kept refilling even if someone took so much money out of them. I bet the poor who got some money from it were very happy about that. I keep forgetting these are Russian folktales. They really just seem like most of the other folktales I have read before.
17. The Two Friends - Some friend the dead guy was! He made the first guy lose his wife and live three hundred years so that all of his friends and family and everyone he ever knew was dead! That is horrible!
18. The Shroud - If she had just put the shroud back, she would have been fine! I'm not saying she deserved to be taken off by the corpse, but she kind of deserved it...
19. The Coffin-Lid - Well that would be an interesting day. Seeing a corpse running around, saving two boys with that corpse's shroud, handing over a dead man to the authorities, and then being rewarded greatly all in one day pretty much! I find it interesting that they always use an aspen stake to nail down the corpses that keep rising. There are also a lot of stories with rising, evil corpses.
20. The Two Corpses - I thought this story was hilarious. Granted, if I was actually in that situation, I would have probably soiled myself at the sight of the first corpse and just passed out after seeing the two corpses fight each other until they were no more.
21. The Dog and the Corpse - I really want to know what is the fascination of Russians with death or corpses at least. The larger portion of these stories is about corpses... If I was that dog I would have been pissed too! The master just left him there to fight, not caring whether he lived or died! I really liked this story though. I wasn't sure what was wrong with the dog and I thought it was interesting that they gave the dog such passionate emotions because of what happened to him.
22. The Soldier and the Vampire - This was a really good story! I loved how the soldier tried to befriend the warlock a little so that he could figure out his secrets and save the people! But again, I want to know about the Russians' fascination with corpses and dead people coming back to life.

Week 12 Essay: Beowulf

This week I read half of the Beowulf unit. I had intended to read the entire unit but then the day got away from me and I ran out of time. There wasn't really a whole lot to notice for this unit, even just half of it. I did really like the imagery of the royal colors and I suppose I could talk about how the Queens were portrayed in the story. I found it very interesting. I am still going to go and actually read the entire unit because I really want to know what happens!

So, I always love when stories or books give a lot of imagery, especially with royal clothing. I say royal clothing because there are normally specific colors associated with the kingdom, which for some reason fascinates me. I found it interesting how the kingdom that Beowulf was from, their colors were gold and red I think. Gold is such was such a sought after material that the fact that they used it as their jewelry and colors suggested wealth and the red would suggest power. When Beowulf goes over seas to Daneland, the colors the king and queen wear are very different. I don't remember exactly what colors but I do remember that the queen wears silver bands of jewelry instead of gold. The king still wears a golden crown, but he is the only one wearing gold. When I read it, it suggests to me that this land is poorer that Beowulf's, wearing silver which is not as precious as gold.

One other thing I noticed from the story was how the queens were portrayed. I feel like in most stories about great Kings and their warriors, the queens are only in the background. They are something coveted by other kings and fought over and won. They can persuade their kings, but other than that, they don't have a lot of power. Now I know this is not the case all of the time, it is just a stereotype of those stories. In this story however, the queens represent more than just an object. They are important in honoring the warriors before they leave for an important mission. They also represent peace and unity, since most queens were married off to unite kingdoms and make peace. I thought it was cool how both of the queens had titles along with their names. The first one was Queen, whatever her name was, The Wise and Fair, and then the Queen of Daneland, The Beautiful.

Queen in Beowulf

Week 12 Storytelling: The Great Graggle

"Who are you and why have you placed yourselves upon our shores?" bellowed the shore guard.

"I-we are," Gregor was a little out of breath from fighting the sea monsters and storm and horrible waters that had ravaged the ship as they entered the port, "sorry, out of breath a little. We are Sarah and Gregor Strike with several of the best elite Federation troops. We heard about your little Graggle problem and we were wanting to help. You see we-" the shore guardian raised his hand to stop Gregor.

"Follow me. I will take you to see our king." Gregor smiled at Sarah, who gave her brother a thumbs up. The group followed the shore guard through dead and deescalate forests. There was no life around them. Everything was burnt to a crisp or dying from starvation. The ground was cold and hard, the air was foul and thick, the once great land of Daneland was dead.

The hike was finally over and the group approached a disintegrating castle. The shore guardian spoke with the guard at the door for a moment and then bid his farewell. The door guard knocked on the large wooden doors until a small scribe appeared. The poor boy looked terrified of everything and skinnier than a stick with meat on it. The guard talked to the boy for a moment and then the boy ran back inside.

"Are we going to be able to speak with your king?" Sarah asked the guard, who rudely ignored her.

"I would answer her. She doesn't take well to being ignored." Gregor mentioned.

"I do not speak to lowly wom-" WHAM! Sarah sucker punched the guard before he could finish his sexist comment.

"What was that again?" The guard righted himself and wiped the blood from his mouth.

"The king will be here to greet you all momentarily. Please be patient."Gregor coughed in a poor attempt to cover his laugh.

"Thank you kind sir." Sarah walked back to her brother and winked at him. That was how she got stuff done.

"You didn't really need to punch him, did you?" Gregor whispered.

"Maybe, maybe not." Sarah responded.

The boy soon returned with an old man draped in silvers and purples and an only slightly younger woman behind him dressed in the same colors, bright red braids of hair hung on either side of her head.

"Welcome my friends! I am King Claudes and this is my queen, Queen Flora The Beautiful. What has brought you to my lands?" Gregor stepped forward and explained the situation again and the king and queen nodded.

"I will not wish you luck, since I believe your quest is a suicide mission, but I will wish you good passage to the other world and a warm place to rest for the night. Come! We shall place food in your belly and wine upon your tongues!" The king turned and everyone followed.

"I love when we find planets stuck in the medieval age. It is so much fun to play knights!" Gregor confessed to Sarah.

"I know! Me too! Wait till we pull out our big guns and scare the crap out of that Graggle!" The two talked about their odd enjoyments and then moved on.

There was a great feast that night with the last of the Daneland people, to honor the great heros that had come to "save" the land.

One of the remaining Daneland knights had a problem with that however.

"And where have you all been for the last twenty years? Why are you just now making it to us? And why would they send the bounty hunters that are the laughing stock of the galaxy? I don't trust them. I say, we throw them out and never let them return!" A few hoo-rahs of agreement sounded, but the croud was silent otherwise.

"First of all, we only just received a distress signal from this planet. If we had known anytime earlier in the past twenty years, we would have come then. Second of all, I don't see you getting out there and doing anything about this problem, Sir. Third of all, we are the most well known, well respected, most kick-ass and take names, duo you will find in this section of the galaxy. The fact that you, a single person on this small planet, so far away from where we do most of our work, know who we are, just goes to show how well known we are. So, if you want us to leave, then we will. But, if you know who we are, then you know what we are capable of, and I don't think you really want that." Gregor sat back and sipped his wine as Sarah took over defending the crew. She was the one who was better at that sort of stuff. Gregor just wanted everyone to get along.

"My dear Sarah, I am sure the words of one replaceable knight has not upset you too much. His words do not reflect the feelings of us all. Please, sit and enjoy the rest of your meal. When you are finished, I shall show you to your rooms." The king sat, the knight sulked, and the merriment resumed.

Author's note: this storytelling is based on Beowulf. I only read half of the unit and I didn't manage to get the big fight, otherwise I probably would have retold that one. I actually stuck pretty close to the original story line. Warriors, lead by Beowulf, go to Daneland (I couldn't think of a better name so I just didn't change it...) are met by the shore guardian after going through all sorts of hell to dock the boat. The guardian takes them to the castle, they talk to a boy from the castle who fetches the king, and then the king takes them in and eventually there is a feast. At the feast, there is a knight who has problems with Beowulf and calls him a coward and a failure. Beowulf informs him otherwise. The king settles the argument and the feast continues until everyone goes to bed. Really I just changed the names of some people and added my spacey, futuristic flair.

Beowulf on the Ship