Week 7 Reading Diary: Tibetan Folk Tales

Here are a few stories from Tibetan Folk Tales


The Tiger and the Frog This story tells the tale of a hungry tiger who one day comes across a small frog. The Tiger's first instinct is to gobble the frog up, but the frog declares that he is king of all frogs, saying that he can jump any distance and do anything. This little frog is even brave enough to challenge this Tiger to who can jump across a nearby river! The frog bites onto the tigers tail and uses him to jump across the river. When they get to the other side, the frog tricks the tiger by spitting up his own fur and claiming he had eaten a tiger the day before. Scared, the tiger runs away.

How the Fox Fell a Victim to His Own Deceit In this tale, a mother tiger brings a baby fox to her cave to be a playmate for her own cub. One day, this mother tiger finds a baby calf while out on her hunt, and brings it back to be a playmate for her cub as well. However, when the calf arrives, the fox becomes jealous and plots against the calf. When the mother tiger dies, the fox tells both the calf and the tiger that the other is planning on killing them. The calf and the tiger figure out that the fox has tricked them, and instead kill the fox!

The Man and the Ghost In this story, a man meets a ghost one day while crossing a river, and tells the ghost that he himself is also a ghost. The two travel together for a while, until the ghost goes into town and steals the soul of the king's son while the man is asleep. The ghost gives the man the soul in a bag, telling him to hold onto it while he attends other business. The man, however, returns the soul to the king's son and receives a vast reward.

The Story of the Three Hunters  This story tells the tale of three married brothers who all lived together in a mountain village with their sister. One day, the two oldest wives become jealous of the sister, and kill her while the brothers are out hunting. The brothers return and discover what the two oldest of the wives have done, and kill them in return.

How the Sacred Duck Got His Yellow Breast. This tale tells of a rabbit and a frog who one day find a golden pot on top of a mountain. Unable to decide who would get the pot, they decide to race to the top of the mountain the next day. The frog, however, knowing that he would be unable to beat the rabbit in a race, gathers two lookalikes to sneak up the mountain and take his place. After "winning" the pot, the frog is unable to get it down the mountain himself, and enlists the help of a duck. This duck takes his half of the pot and smears in on his breast, giving it a golden color.

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Essay for Week 6: Magic and the Supernatural in the Monkey King

The tale of the monkey king is a tale of magic and the supernatural. From the birth of Sun Wu Kung, to his ascension to a Budda, magic fills the tales of his life.

In the beginning of the story of the Monkey King, in the passage Handsome King of the Apes, Sun Wu Kung is born. This birth is far from natural, however! The future king of the monkeys is born out a stone egg, and is even made of stone himself!

The Monkey King's supernatural abilities do not end there. In the passage Learning the Art, Sun Wu Kung learns to practice magic from his priestly master. Sun Wu Kung is able to leap into the air and walk amongst clouds that form beneath his feet.

 (Sun Wu Kung: Wikimedia Commons)

Sun Wu Kung further demonstrates his magic capabilities in the story of The Devil-King.. When Sun Wu Kung returns to his home, he finds that his cave has been taken over by a devil. This devil is no match for the Monkey King's new magic powers, however. Sun Wu Kung uses magic to turn his own hairs into tiny little monkeys to attack the demon, and ends the devil once and for all with a blow from his own knife.

In Notscha, Son of Li Dsing, Sun Wu Kung once again finds himself in a battle. This time, he faces the son of a god! During this fight, both Notscha and Sun Wu Kung use magic to transform themselves into a three headed being with six arms. The fight continues for a time, until Sun Wu Kung utilizes his hair once more to make a phantom of himself, and strikes Notscha from behind.

In the final story of Sun Wu Kung, The Travellers Honoured, Sun Wu Kung and other supernatural immortal beings meet with the Buddha. Sun Wu Kung is appointed God of Victorious Strife, and ascends to his celestial abode.

Storytelling for Week 6: The Stone Monkey

Once upon a time, on top of mountainous island in the sea, lived a village of monkeys. This island was amongst a treacherous and wild sea, and its constant winds and storms made all of the islands surrounding that of the monkeys uninhabitable.

For all intents and purposes, the island of the monkeys should have been ravaged by these storms as well. However, the monkeys on this island had the blessing of the god Faarus. For each day, when the sun rose in the sky, every monkey in the village would pray upon the stone tablet of Faarus, and every night, when the sun vanished from the sky, each monkey would return to pray with the tablet once more. While many storms would form in the sea, as they approached the island they would veer off course or disappear altogether.

(Stone Tablet: Wikimedia Commons)

One day, an evil spirit came to the island of monkeys and snatched away the tablet, hiding it in a cave behind a raging waterfall. Each of the monkeys tried to pass through the waterfall, but the stream was too strong, and one by one they were washed away.

Without the tablet, the monkeys were no longer able to pray to the god Faarus. The protection from their god was lost, and soon storms ravaged the island as it those around it. Rain poured on the island all day and night, and the homes of the villagers were blown away in the strong winds. As the weeks passed, the monkeys suffered without shelter and had begun to run out of food.

All seemed hopeless, until the fateful day that a stone egg fell from the heavens onto the island. The stone egg hatched as quick as it fell, and out climbed a tiny stone monkey. The stone monkey did not stay tiny for long, for by nightfall he had grown to the size of a full grown ape.

The stone monkey spoke with the village monkeys and learned of the evil spirit who had hidden their tablet. The stone monkey quickly went to the waterfall and, due to his heavy stone exterior, was able to pass through unharmed. The stone monkey retrieved the tablet from the cave and returned to the village monkeys.

The monkeys prayed upon the tablet, and the storm dissipated from the island. Thankful for the stone monkeys help, they made him king of all the monkeys.



Author's Note: This story is based on Handsome King of the Apes in the section The Monkey King from The Chinese Fairy Book by R. Wilhelm. This story tells of a  stone monkey who is born from a stone egg. He slowly grows up, learning to walk and climb trees, until one day he becomes king of the apes by walking though a waterfall unharmed and finding a stone tablet. I added the storms and prayers to this tale to make it a little more dramatic.

Week 6 Reading Diary: The Monkey King, Sun Wu Kung

Here are a few of my favorite stories from The Monkey King

Handsome King of the Apes. In the beginning of this tale, the future Monkey king is born. This isn't a normal birth, however; the Monkey King was born out of a stone egg! The stone monkey slowly grows up, learning to walk and climb trees, until one day he becomes king of the apes by walking though a waterfall unharmed and finding a stone tablet.

Sun Wu Kung Gets His Name As the title suggests, in this section the Monkey King receives his name. One day the monkey king hears a wood chopper singing a "divine" song and believes him to be a master of the divine. The wood chopper responds that he simply learned the song from a saint, and sends the Monkey King to where the saint resides. Once he arrives, the saint gives the Monkey King the name Sun Wu Kung and teaches him many other skills.

Learning the Art After years of practice, Sun Wu Kung learns the art of magic from the saint. The Monkey Kings leaps into the air and walks several hundred feet on clouds that form below him!

The Devil-King  Sun Wu Kung leaves his master and returns to his home only to find that his cave has been taken over by a devil. The Monkey King engages the devil in combat, utilizing his new magic to turn each of his hairs into tiny monkeys to attack the devil. Sun Wu Kung takes the devils knife from him and ends him once and for all.

The  Lord of the Heavens Hearing the complaints of the Dragon-King and the princes of the dead, the Lord of the Heavens sets out to punish Sun Wu Kung. The Evening Star speaks on Sun Wu Kung's behalf and changes the lord's mind. The Lord of the Heavens instead makes Sun Wu Kung the stablemaster of the heavenly steeds.

Notscha, Son of Li Dsing Sun Wu Kung finds his new position demeaning, as he was a king on his own mountain, and leaves. The Lord of the Heavens is angered by this and sends Li Dsing, a god, and his son, Notscha to take Sun Wu Kung prisoner. Sun Wu Kung easily beats Notscha in combat, and he is given the title Great Saint Who Is Heaven’s Equal.

Week 5: Famous Last Words

Week five over already! It still seems like the semester just started, but here we are over a month in. I think I must say this in every Famous Last Words post, but it has been a very busy week! My lab classes have certainly been filling most of my time, but physiology has been creeping up on me too. Thankfully, I have Mythology to have at least one fun class.

In Physics lab this week, we continued our study of electric current through circuits. While I've already taken both Physics 1 and 2, and the concepts are not new to me, it is interesting to see the things we learned about first hand in the lab. In Organic Chem lab we learned about partition coefficients between organic and aqueous solutions. What a headache!

In Mythology and Folklore this week, I read the story of Twenty-Two Goblins. I really enjoyed this tale. In it, a king named "King Victory" attempts to remove a goblin from a graveyard as a favor to monk who has been bringing the king a very generous tribute. However, each time the king attempts to remove the goblin, the goblin tells the king a riddle. When the king guesses the riddle right, the goblin runs off back to a tree. This happens many, many times!

I took the Twenty Two Goblins tale The Four Brothers and used it as the basis for my storytelling post this week. In the original, there are four brothers who each know a different type of "science." One brother can add flesh to bones, the second can add skin and hair to flesh, the third can add eyes and organs and the final brother can bring the organs to life. The four brothers bring a lion to life, which kills them all! In my tale, The Two Thieves, it is instead two thieves who bring a dead man to life in hopes of learning the location of secret treasure.

(Thief: Free Vector Graphics, Pixabay)

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Here is a question for my fellow Spanish students!

Hola clase. ¿Qué hizo el año pasado?




For those who chose a different language to study, here is the English translation:


"Hello class. What did you do last year?"

Essay for Week 5: Magic and the Supernatural in Twenty-Two Goblins

Magic and the supernatural appear frequently throughout mythological and folkloric tales, and the story Twenty-Two Goblins is no exception. In almost every riddle told by the goblin, there is some element of magic or supernatural beings. Of course, even the goblin himself is a supernatural being! The "goblin" is actually a creature that is possessing a corpse in the graveyard.

In The Three Lovers, a beautiful farmer's daughter has three suitors of whom she cannot choose to marry. Unfortunately, the farmer's daughter becomes ill and passes away. One of her suitors, however, travels far and learns of magic to bring the dead back to life. He gathers her remains and brings her back to the world of the living.

We see both supernatural beings and magic in the tale Brave, Wise, Clever. When Moonlight, the daughter of a king's counsellor, is kidnapped, three men who seek her hand in marriage attempt to rescue her. The clever man builds a magic flying carriage to get the men to where Moonlight was being kept, while the brave man then slays the giant that had taken her.

In the tale The Four Brothers, we hear a story of, as the title suggests, four brothers, each of whom has a different magic skill. Although the brothers in the story refer to their skills as "sciences" that they have learned, these powers are clearly supernatural.The first brother can add flesh to the skeleton of any animal. The second possesses the skill to add skin and hair to any flesh. The third brother says that he can add eyes and other organs to any creature with flesh, skin and hair. The final brother has the most impressive ability; he can bring the creature to life. Unfortunately for these four brothers, they bring a lion to life who promptly kills them all.

Storytelling for Week 5: The Two Thieves

Once upon a time, in an ancient kingdom, there lived two thieves. These thieves mostly spent their days pickpocketing in the market square, or stealing candlesticks and jewelry from the houses of the wealthy while they were away. However, the two thieves were not picky about how they made their living; if they saw an opportunity, they would almost certainly seize it.

One day, the thieves saw a wealthy looking man from a foreign kingdom enter the marketplace. The thieves were certain they had spotted an easy target, and they closed in on the man to steal his belongings. While one thief distracted the man by pretending to be a beggar, the other swooped in from behind and surreptitiously lifted the man's coin purse. When the thieves opened the coin purse, they found not gold, but instead a map. Examining the map, the two thieves saw that it outlined the surrounding area. Looking closer, they noticed an "X" scrawled onto the map as well as a single word: "treasure."

Never missing an opportunity for monetary gain, the thieves set out to the location marked on the map. When they arrived, they found a small crypt containing a single stone casket and a series of levers on the back wall.

"Surely if we put these levers in the correct position, the treasure will reveal itself to us." said one thief to the other. "If only this man was alive to tell us what he knows."

"I may have an idea." replied the other thief. "Grab the skeleton from the casket and let us return to the kingdom."

The two thieves took the skeleton to a wise scientist in the kingdom.

"We need to speak to the man to whom this skeleton belonged." said one of the thieves to the scientist. "Is there anything you can do for us?"

"I can add flesh to this skeleton, but I cannot add skin or hair." replied the scientist. "For that you will have seek a colleague of mine."

The scientist added flesh to the skeleton, and the thieves quickly left to seek out the scientist's colleague. The next scientist they found added skin and hair to the flesh covered skeleton, but he was unable to add organs. The thieves sought out a final scientist, who completed their corpse with all the organs needed for life, but the corpse still did not breathe.

The thieves lastly sought out a mystic who lived in a tall tower in the kingdom. The thieves brought the corpse to the mystic and asked him to return life to this long dead man.

"I can provide you a potion that does what you ask," said the mystic. "But beware, life is not so easily returned."

(Potion Bottles. Wikimedia Commons)

Eagerly, the two thieves poured the potion into the mouth of the corpse. Instantly, the corpse sprung to life. The newly resurrected man began yelling in a language that the thieves could not comprehend, and immediately grabbed the two of them. The thieves were not weak by any mans standards, but despite their struggling, they could not overcome the seemingly supernatural strength of this resurrected monster. The man lifted the two thieves off their feet and threw them out of the mystic's tower. As they plummeted to their demise, the thieves forsook their greed.


Author's Note: This story is based on The Four Brothers from Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder. This story tells of four brothers who each know a different type of "science." One brother can add flesh to bones, the second can add skin and hair to flesh, the third can add eyes and organs and the final brother can bring the organs to life. The four brothers bring a lion to life, which kills them all!

Week 5 Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

Here are a few of my favorite stories from Twenty-Two Goblins

Introduction The beginning of the tale tells of a brave king, King Victory, who discovers that a monk who frequently brings him a gift of fruit has actually been hiding gems inside. In return for the monk's generosity, the king promises the monk to help him with a task. As asked, the king travels to the cemetery at midnight to meet the monk underneath the fig tree. The monk tasks the king with retrieving a corpse from a nearby tree, but when he does, it speaks to him! The "goblin" hiding in the corpse begins to tell the king a story.

Brave, Wise, Clever In this story told by the goblin, a princess named Moonlight says that she will only marry a brave man, a wise man, or a clever man. When it is her time to marry, her mother, her brother, and her father find three different brave, wise, and clever men and each promise her to one of them, not knowing that the other two had already promised her to someone else. When the princess is kidnapped, and the wise man finds where she is, the clever man gets them there, and the brave man kills her kidnapper. The king correctly decides that the princess should marry the brave man.

The Three Delicate Wives Once again, the goblin tells the King another story. This time, the goblin tells of a king named Virtue-banner who had three princesses as wives. One of his wives is wounded by a falling lotus-petal, while another is burned by  moonbeams! The final wife is hurt by a sound in the distance. The goblin puzzles King Victory which princess was the most delicate, and he correctly answers the wife hurt by sound.

The Girl and the Thief This story tells the tale of a grand merchant's daughter, Pearl, who falls in love with a thief right before he is executed. Pearl had before refused to marry any man, so her father pleaded with the king to release the thief, but it was of no use. The goblin asks King Victory if the thief laughed or wept before his death, and the king correctly answers both.

The Four Brothers This story from the goblin tells of four brothers who each know a different type of "science." One brother can add flesh to bones, the second can add skin and hair to flesh, the third can add eyes and organs and the final brother can bring the organs to life. The four brothers bring a lion to life, which kills them all!

Week 4: Famous Last Words

Wow, I can't believe it has been a month already. It's interesting counting through the weeks in these "Famous Last Words" posts. This week, like so many others, has been very busy! I've been stressing trying to get all my studying done for my Principles of Physiology test on Tuesday, and complete my Organic and Physics two labs.

I had an interesting lab involving circuits this week in my Physics lab. It was curious to see how much of an impact that a tiny little metal resistor could have on the current that would flow through our circuit. In Organic Chem lab we purified the ethanol from a yeast and sugar mixture that we set up the second week of our lab. It was cool to get a small glimpse into how ethanol was created and distilled!

Mythology and Folklore, as always, kept me busy with reading and writing lots of fables and tales. I chose to read Tutinameh, or Tales of a Parrot. this week. This story tells about a parrot who distracts a woman from leaving to visit her extramarital lover each night by telling her a different story. Most of the tale is about the individual stories that the parrot tells, but the ending is surprising when the woman's husband returns.

(Amazon Parrot. Wikimedia Commons)

My best writing this week was probably done in my storytelling post. I concocted a tale based on The Nobleman who Concealed a Snake in His Sleeve. This story tells the tale of a nobleman who, one day while hunting, happens across the frightened snake. The snake convinces the nobleman to hide him from another man trying to kill the snake. However, after he helps the snake, the snake calls him a fool for trusting him and says that he will kill the man. The nobleman distracts the snakes and crushes his head with a rock. In my tale however, it's a tiger that the man hides in his house, and let's just say it's not quite as easy to crush a tiger as it is a snake.

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Essay for Week 4: Tricksters and Fools of Tutinameh, or Tales of a Parrot.

Throughout mythological and folkloric writings, many examples of tricksters and fools can be found. The Persian story series The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801) is no exception to this trend. Both in the overarching tale, and the individual stories told by the parrot, fools and tricksters appear.

The Nobleman who Concealed a Snake in His Sleeve In this story told by the parrot, a snake tricks a nobleman into hiding him from an enemy. This trickster approaches the nobleman and, seemingly frightened, begs the nobleman to hide him from his potential killer. After the nobleman agrees to hide the snake in his sleeve, and once the snake's enemy passes, the snake tells the nobleman he is going to kill him! Some may call the nobleman a fool, and the snake certainly seems to think so, going so far as to call him a "blockhead", but in the end, the nobleman manages to distract the snake and kill it with a rock.

(Source: Flickr)

Of the Merchant and the Barber In this tale, the barber makes a major fool of himself. It begins with a wealthy merchant, who having no children of his own, decides to distribute his amassed wealth among the orphans and the poor. That night, the merchant has a vision in his dream telling him he shall be rewarded for his generosity. The vision tells him that he will appear to the merchant as a brahmin the next day, and that the merchant is to strike him on the head at which he will turn to gold. When this happens, the barber witnesses it and foolishly believes that striking any brahmin on the head will turn him to gold. This of course, causes much trouble for the barber.

We not only see tricksters and fools in the stories told by the parrot, but also in the overarching tale itself. Night after night, each time Khojisteh wishes to leave to her lover, the parrot tricks her into staying by telling her stories. Throughout the story he acts as if he only wants to help Khojisteh, but as soon Miemun returns, the parrot immediately tells him what has happened, upon which Miemun kills Khojisteh. The parrot is truely the ultimate trickster in Tales of a Parrot.

Storytelling for Week 4: The Man Who Hid a Tiger

Once upon a time, in a small house amongst the mountains, there lived a man. This man kept to himself mostly, tending to his plants and and livestock, only visiting the nearby town on rare occasion for flour, sweets, and other such things that he could not make himself. However, to call this man a hermit, as did many of the children in the nearby town, would be inaccurate. Indeed, he was self reliant, and it was a fact that he mistrusted the governments of men and their ever encroaching townships and cities, but the man appreciated company as much as any other man, and was not unknown to chat with the store clerk in town.

One day, while the man was working in his garden, he heard a series of footsteps behind him. When the man turned around, he was shocked to see not a person behind him, but a tiger who seemed just as frightened as the man.

"Please!" said the tiger to the man. "You must help me. There are men following me; they are trying to kill me! Will you please hide me in your house until they pass?"

"Now wait a minute," said the man to the tiger. "Why are these men pursuing you? Surely you must have offended them in some way."

"They have accused me of murder, but it is a lie!" replied the tiger. "For years I have lived in peace in the forest, but now these men desire to expand their home into my own, and as such have devised a way to get rid of me forever!"

"Very well." said the man. "You can stay in my home until these men pass. It seems the sins of man in the name of expansion have no end."

In short time, the men that the tiger spoke of appeared at the home of the man. The man approached them and asked "Can I help you all find anything? I don't get a lot of visitors around here."

"We're looking for a tiger who killed one of our friends." replied one of the men shortly. "Have you seen it?"

"No, I don't believe I have, but you might try at the next house down the road." replied the man.

Frustrated and annoyed, the men left without another word.

 (Tiger. Wikimedia Commons)

The man returned to the tiger and said: "The men who were hunting you have left, but you are welcome to stay for tea and a snack."

"I really must be going," said the tiger. "But I believe I will take a snack for the road."

Before the man could reply, the tiger leapt up and devoured him whole.

"Only a fool would trust the word of a tiger over his fellow man."

Author's Note: This story is based on The Nobleman who Concealed a Snake in His Sleeve from the The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801). Web source. This story tells the tale of a nobleman who, one day while hunting, happens across a frightened snake. The snake convinces the nobleman to hide him from another man trying to kill the snake. However, after he helps the snake, the snake calls him a fool for trusting him and says that he will kill the man. The nobleman distracts the snake and crushes his head with a rock.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Tales of a Parrot

Here are some of my favorite passages from Tutinameh, or Tales of a Parrot.

Miemun and Khojisteh This introduction tells the story of a prince, Ahmed Sultaun, who prays and prays to the gods to bring him a son. Eventually. the creator of heaven and earth brings a son to him, who the prince names Miemun. Miemun one day finds a extremely overpriced parrot in the market, but decides to buy it after it speaks to him with wisom and seeming foretelling of the future. On this parrots advice, Miemun buys all the spikenard (a plant) in the city. Three days later a caravan from Cabul comes and buys this spikenard at five times the cost! Talk about a smart bird!

The Story of the Parrot of Ferukh Beg After witnessing Miemun's wife, Khojisteh, kill the other bird for speaking out against her plan to leave for another prince (talk about crazy), the parrot wisely decides instead to distract her with a story instead. The parrot tells the story of a similar situation, in which a wife cheats on her out of town husband while the parrot is left to witness. When the husband returns, he blames the parrot for not telling him and then plucks all his feathers out and throws him outside. Eventually, the parrot regrows his feathers and returns to convince the husband to take his wife back.

The Fowler, the Parrot, and her Young Ones The parrot tells another story in this section, this time about a parrot who is captured with her young. The parrot in this story tells her captured children to play dead so that the Fowler will release them. When the plan works, the Fowler is angered. To calm him, the parrot tells him she is a physician and worth a great sum on money. This prompts the Fowler to sell the parrot to the sick king. After making progress on his illness, the parrot asks the king to set her free so that she can cure him once and for all, but once she is released, she leaves and never returns.

Of a King and His Sons, and of a Frog and a Snake  In this passage, the parrot tells the story of a young prince who has to flee his home city after his father passes away, for his eldest brother had the intention of killing him. On his way out of the city, this prince saves a frog from the mouth of a snake. However, the prince feels guilty for stealing a meal from the snake, and instead feeds him a piece of his own flesh. Both the frog and snake feel they owe the prince, and take the form of men and join him as servants. The three men take employ in the service of a king in a nearby city, until the eventually part ways.

The Nobleman who Concealed a Snake in His Sleeve This story tells the tale of a nobleman who, one day while hunting, happens across the frightened snake. The snake convinces the nobleman to hide him from another man trying to kill the snake. However, after he helps the snake, the snake calls him a fool for trusting him and says that he will kill the man. The nobleman distracts the snakes and crushes his head with a rock.

A King Falls in Love and the End of Khojisteh In this section, the parrot tells Khojisteh one last story, telling of a king who took a princess of a nearby kingdom by force. This king did not know that his new wife had a son from a previous marriage, and when she sneaks him into the city, he instead suspects this man to be her lover. He sentences her son to death, but a sympathetic executioner saves his life. Eventually, Miemun returns and the parrot tells him all of what has happened. Miemun kills Khojisteh on the spot.

Week 3: Famous Last Words

Three weeks down, a lot more to go. This week was a busy one for sure! Between lab write ups, homework and studying I haven't had much free time. Working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday doesn't help either. Thank goodness for the grace period until noon!

This week I had an interesting lab in Physics where we drew out magnetic field lines by measuring voltage through a conducting sheet. It's interesting to talk about these magnetic fields, but it's really cool to actually draw out these invisible forces that we talked about so much in class. I did not have Organic Chem lab this week, thank you Labor Day!

 I also did quite a bit of reading and writing for Mythology and Folklore this past week. I selected another set of Aesop's fables to read this week, and expanded my analysis of "tricksters and fools" that are prevalent in Aesop's works. As you can see, a good portion of Aesop's fables involve one animal tricking or making a fool of another!

My best writing, however, was done in my storytelling post. When I read The Cat and the Birds this week, I was strongly reminded of the old Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat cartoons. In this tale, a hungry cat dresses up as a doctor to try to trick a family of birds into letting him into their house (to presumably eat them). I used this story as an inspiration for my storytelling post this week, The Cat and the Canary, also blending in elements from another one of Aesop's fables, The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox. The Cat in my story attempts to trick the Canary by dressing up in different disguises, such as a salesman and even a girl scout. The Cat ultimately fails, and instead is tricked by the Canary into meeting his bulldog friend.

 

 (Tweety Bird: Wikipedia)

Essay for Week 3: Tricksters and Fools of Aesop for Children (Winter)

In continuation of my essay last week, I wanted to further examine the element of tricksters in fools in the writings of Aesop. Looking into Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter, there are many examples of both fools and tricksters.

In The Wolf and the Kid, we see a rare instance in which an animal who is usually played for a fool takes on the role of trickster. When the young goat strays away from his flock, he is caught by the Wolf and faces certain death. However, the Wolf underestimates the Kid, and makes a fool of himself when he grants the Kid's request for the Wolf to play him a tune on the pipe before he eats him. Just as the Kid had planned, the Shepard's dogs hear this tune and recognize it as the Wolf's supper song. They quickly come running and chase the Wolf away.

In some of Aesop's Fables, a character can be a trickster for one animal, but a fool for another. In The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion, this is exactly what happens. In this tale, the Ass and the Fox are seemingly friends; they eat together, travel together, and generally get along. However, when they happen upon the Lion, the Fox offers to trick the Ass into a trap so that the Lion can eat him! After the Fox lures the Ass into a trap, the Lion reveals that he has tricked this trickster and eats the Fox instead.

The Monkey and the Cat provides another example of a trickster and a fool in Aesop's work. In this fable, the Monkey convinces the Cat to pull chestnuts out of a still burning fire by praising his skillfullness and downplaying his own. Although the Monkey promises the Cat that they can split the chestnuts when he gets them out, this trickster gobbles them up one by one as the come out. Their thievery is soon interrupted by their owner, leaving the Cat with burnt paws and no chestnuts, certainly feeling foolish.

 (The Monkey and the Cat. Wikimedia)

The Cat is once again made to be a fool in The Cat and the Birds. In this tale, the Cat tries to eat a family of birds by pretending to be a doctor and offering to help their sick. He even puts on glasses and carries a leather bag! In the end, the birds simply laugh him away.

Storytelling for Week 3: The Cat and the Canary

Once upon a time, in a small neighborhood, there lived a cat. Now this cat was well fed, mind you, but despite his regular helpings of both canned and dry food, his appetite was never quite satiated.

 You see, in this neighborhood there also lived a canary, and despite his many attempts, the Cat always fell short of reaching the Canary's nest far up in the trees. If you would have asked the Cat at the time, he would have told you himself: he would give anything to snatch that little bird up and eat him whole.

This cat was no fool, and he soon realized that if he could not get to the Canary, then his only option was to get the Canary to come to him.

It was a bright Sunday morning when the Cat appeared before the Canary's tree. The Cat rapped twice on the bark of the tree and waited for the Canary to appear. The Canary wobbled from his nest onto a nearby branch and yawned "Who is it?"

"Hello there!" yelled the cat enthusiastically. "I was wonderin' if ya' had a moment to talk about your life insurance policy. If ya'd like to come down and look at this pamphlet, I've got some great offers for ya'"

(Canary. Wikimedia Commons)

The Canary squinted at the creature below him through his tired eyes; this creature wore the attire of a human businessman, and stood on two legs as if it were such. The Canary however, was no fool either.

"Vewy smawt, awen't ya' puddy tat?" said the Canary, and with that statement returned to his nest.

"Thsufferin Thuccotash!" exclaimed the Cat. He had been confident that his plan would work. "Something musta went wrong." he thought to himself. "The disguise! That's it. It woulda worked if he hadn't seen my ears!"

The Cat once again set about creating a disguise. This time however, he would cover his head in a hat. That, he was certain, would be enough to fool the Canary into coming down to greet him.

The next day, the Canary once again woke to the sound of knocking on his tree. "Who is it?" the Canary asked once again.

"Why hello there! I'm here with the Girl Scouts of America and was wanting to see if ya' was interested in purchasing some cookies today." said the Cat.

"Suwe thing, I wouwd wove some cookies. Meet me awound the othew side of the twee." replied the Canary with a smile.

The Cat quickly ran around to the other side of the tree, and what he found was not the Canary waiting for him, but instead the Bulldog, who quickly snatched him up.


Author's Note: This story is an amalgamation of The Cat and the Birds and The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox from the Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter (1919). Web source. In The Cat and the Birds, a hungry cat attempts to trick a bird into coming out of his home by dressing as a doctor. In The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox, when the Fox attempts to trick the Cock into coming down from his perch, the Cock instead sends him to him to his friend the Dog.

Week 3 Reading Diary: Aesop for Children (Winter)

Here are a few of my favorite stories from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter

The Wolf and the Kid In this tale, an arrogant young goat strays away from his flock and is caught by the Wolf. Surprisingly, this is not the end for the Kid, as he tricks the Wolf into playing a tune on the pipe before he eats him. Hearing this tune, and recognizing it as the Wolf's dinner song, the Shepherd's dogs race back to the Kid and run the Wolf away.

The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox Much like the Kid in the previous tale, the Cock in this story is saved through his own cleverness and the help of a dog. When the Fox feigns friendliness to the Cock and tries to lure him down from his perch, the Cock tells the Fox to meet his porter around the other side of the tree. The unsuspecting Fox is instead grabbed by the Dog the second he rounds the tree!

The Travelers and the Purse This fable illustrates a great lesson. As two travelers are walking down the road, one of them finds a coin purse filled with gold. His companion asks him to share it, but he says that he alone found it and he alone will keep it. They then hear an angry mob shouting about the stolen purse, and the man who claimed it has the nerve to say that both of them are in trouble! His companion says that the purse and the trouble with it is now his alone.

The Ass, the Fox, and the Lion Similarly to The Travelers and the Purse, someone treacherous gets there's in this story. The Fox and the Ass, seemingly friends, run into the Lion. The Fox tells the Ass that he will talk to the Lion, but when he does he offers to lead the Ass into a trap so that the Lion can eat him! After the Fox traps the Ass, the Lion instead eats the Fox.

The Monkey and the Cat In this story, the Monkey tricks the Cat into pulling chestnuts out of the fire by cleverly praising the Cat on it's skillfulness. He promises that they can split them between themselves after they get them out, but the Monkey instead eats them one by one! The cat finds himself in trouble with their owner, with burnt paws, and no chestnuts to show for it.

The Cat and the Birds I found this story pretty funny. In this tale, a hungry cat hears that a family of birds in town is sick and in need of a doctor. The cat decides to put on glasses, get a leather bag and go to the bird's house in the guise of a physician. The birds see through this and laugh him away. This reminded me of Tweety Bird and Sylvester!

The Shepherd and the Lion In this story, The Shepard find that some of his flock and missing and angrily seeks out the Wolf for vengeance. Praying to the gods, he offers to sacrifice one of his calves if he can find the one who is killing his flock. The Shepard soon finds the lion with one of his sheep in his mouth. Terrified of the Lion, the Shepard soon regrets what he sought out.

The Wolves and the Sheep In this fable, a flock of sheep are tricked into their untimely demise by a hungry pack of wolves. The wolves, noticing that the dogs always prevent them from eating the sheep, go to the sheep and instead blame the dogs for the hostilities between sheep and wolf! They claim that if it were not for the dogs, the wolves and sheep would be best of friends. Once the sheep send the dogs away, the wolves have a grand feast.

Week 2: Famous Last Words

As of today, the third week of class has started! I am thankful for the labor day holiday, it has given me some extra time to study and work ahead in some of my other classes. It hasn't all been work though! It's definitely been a fun weekend spent with friends and family.

Looking back at this past week, I've done quite a bit. I wrote two labs for Organic Chemistry Lab and another for Physics lab. My physiology class also kept me busy with reading and studying. For Mythology and Folklore I read lots of stories, wrote some of my own, and starting brainstorming for our big storybook project. I also started a twitter account this week so that I could interact with other mythology students and share cool things I found.

I've written a lot this week, but I think my best writing was once again done in my storytelling post. This week I examined the story The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, an Aesop fable that I found in the Un-Textbook. The particular version was retold by Joesph Jacobs. I retold this story, calling it, "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." I thought the city would work better for modern times, as the word "town" is now usually used to describe rural locations. I added more detail to this work, but since I really enjoyed the moral of the tale, I decided to leave the story framework
unchanged.

        (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

 One of my favorite stories that I read this week was The Hares and the Frogs. In this fable, the hares are so terrified of everything that they decide to drown themselves than live in their miserable state. However, when they get to the lake, they see that the frogs are even worse off than themselves. I think this fable is a great reminder that our problems are relative, and that our "first world problems" aren't problems at all in the eyes of some.