Reading Notes: Hans Christian Andersen

Bibliography:

Hans Christian Andersen  - Story source: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).

The Mermaid

After finishing the second half of these fairytales the theme that stood out to me was tragic love. As I mentioned with the tin soldier he died and formed a small tin heart after losing his love. In the Little Mermaid the girl loves her prince so much but in the end he doesn't choose her. She still refuses to kill him, even to save her own life. 

I am going to write my story about a tragic love story incorporating both of these story themes. 

Read Notes: Hans Christian Andersen- Part A

Bibliography:

Hans Christian Andersen-- Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872)

Little Toy Soldier

I chose to read the fairytales. While I was already familiar with most of these stories I love them so much that I could not resist revisiting them. 

The story of the Little Tin Soldier was the most interesting to me. I just loved how the little toy maintained his love and composer throughout the whole story and eventually melted down into a heart. 

I think I would like to base part of my story around this little man hanging on to dignity and love for his girl. My story will be a fairytale, full of whimsy and unrealistic endings.  

Reading Notes: Inferno- Part B

Bibliography:

Inferno - Story source: Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002)

Harpy

As I already mentioned, I love Donte's Inferno. 

The theme that I want to use is the journey. It kind of reminds me of Alice falling down the rabbit hole and meeting a bunch of strange creatures. I love that so many creatures and people appear in this story. I think planning a story around someone traveling around with guide who continuously meets new and exciting people. 

Reading Notes: Inferno- Part A

Bibliography:

Inferno- Story source: Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

Donte's Inferno by Gustave Doré

Donte's Inferno has also been one of my favorite poems and when I saw it on the reading list I knew this was the story I had to read this week. 

I love the language of this reading. It's all very big and poetic. I wish it would be something I could duplicate but I'm not sure that I could. 

The rings of hell are something that have always intrigued me. I would like to write my own story and incorporate the different levels in my own manner. Perhaps just someone traveling the earth and meeting all the different characters. 

Reading Notes: Celtic Tales-Part A and B

Bibliography:
Celtic Tales- by Joseph Jacobs

Hunting Jackals by Samuel Howitt

Beth Gellert- this is the story that stuck with me most from these readings. This story was incredibly sad and as someone who loves dogs the chance to rewrite this story with a much happier ending really intrigues me. I also recently just acquired a new puppy so I think I could draw some inspiration from that as well. 

I would like to incorporate the feel and flow of these tales.  They are whimsical and read similar to nursery rhymes. 

Reading Notes: English Tales-Part B

Bibliography:

English Tales- English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, published in 1890.

Gingerbread Man

While I was again familiar with most of the themes the story I enjoyed most was the Johnny Cake story because it reminded me of the gingerbread man. The story of the gingerbread man was one of my favorite tales growing up as a child. I am a sucker for nostalgia so I am hoping to use this theme with the themes from the sisters story I mentioned in my first reading notes post. I doubt I actually use a gingerbread man or Johnny Cake but something similar.  

Reading Notes: English Tales-Part A

Bibliography:

English Tales: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, published in 1890

Fighting Sisters

For my reading notes this week it was one story that really stood out to me. While I enjoyed all of them, most of them are very similar to famous tales or stories we have read for this class already. 

I really liked the story of the fighting sisters, Binnorie. I'm not sure why this story is the one that stood out to me, but I think writing a spin off this particular story would be great fun. Scorned sister because the prettier sister got the man. I'm sure this premise of many movies and many novels but I think I will really enjoy writing a story about this particular tale.

Reading Notes: The Song of Hiawatha-Part A

Bibliography:

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hiawatha's Departure 

As a child I had a cassette tape that played the song of Hiawatha and I remember listening to it endlessly and loving the way it sounded more like a song than a poem.  After reading it again for this course I was struck with the same sense, this poem flows and reads beautifully. I wish I could write a story to reflect that but sadly, I'm horrible at poems. 

I want to portray the family aspect of Hiawatha. I love his interactions with Nokomis as a child. I also love that he faces off with his absent father. I have one of those myself, so I can relate to his feelings and may attempt to incorporate that into my story. 

What I really intend to do is use the beauty of the language and descriptions to write my own story. 

Reading Notes: Apache-Part B

Bibliography: 

Jicarilla Apache of New Mexico, collected and translated by P. E. Goddard

American Bison

My favorite part of reading these stories has been the adventure aspect and the use of the buffalo. Several of the stories revolved around the buffalo and it makes me want to write a story an adventurous bison out to help people. 

I say out to help people because that seems to happen a lot in these Apache stories. They are either warring with someone or trying to help them. I prefer the hero aspect. I also like the use of all the animals in these stories as well. Similar to the Chinese tales I read previously. 

My story inspiration will for sure be the bison and his adventures. I will incorporate some fun other animals and people (from the stories) to meet while he roams. 

Reading Notes: Apache-Part A

Bibliography

Jicarilla Apache of New Mexico, collected and translated by P. E. Goddard

Hoop Dance

While these stories were probably the most difficult for me to read I did find them interesting. 

I liked that the hero of the story was helpful but also a trickster. He was just a hero, he was also fun. 

The use of hoops and the number four was a common theme in the stories. I would like to do more research on why four is such an important number to Apache stories. The hoops appear to be for playing but they are featured prominently. 

Unlike most of the stories we have read previously, these do not all have a happy ending with a beautiful wife and the animals are not good. In so many of the stories read earlier in the class the animals have been mostly wise and helpful. In the Apache stories, they are killing humans and causing problems. It was a nice change of pace. 

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales-Part B

Bibliography:

Chinese Fairy Tales Story sources:The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

                                                                     The Lucky Fox

The main themes continued in these stories as the previous half. Luck, Fortune, and misfortune are themes that are very prevalent in the Chinese fairy tales. 

I really like the use of animals, especially the foxes. I want to write my story about a magical fox searching for luck. 

Magic and sorcerers were another main character in the stories and I think using magic in my story will also be fun. 

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales-Part A

Bibliography: 

Chinese Fairy Tales- The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921)

                                           The Seven Lucky Gods by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

The theme that struck me the most in this series of stories was their use of luck and fortune. It is clearly a big part of Chinese tales, and because of that it seems necessary to use it in my own story. 

I personally really enjoyed the story of the Panther and the little girls because it reminded me of Red Riding hood and it would be fun to further play with that story. 

I also liked the story of the dad leaving his girls in the wilderness, they killed the fox and wolf to become people of great wealth. There is a lot of unique attributes to these stories that will allow for a great creative story. 

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology-Part B

Bibliography: 

Japanese Mythology  Story source: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

                                                                  Trials of Hercules

The theme that stood out to me in these stories was how hard Yamato tried to work to win the love of the fair goddess. It reminded me a lot of the trials of Hercules. It also stood out that after everything he worked for he lost what he loved most. 

Love seems to be one of the biggest themes in these tales as with most tales, but these stories were very soft, gentle, and sweet. 

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology-Part A

Bibliography: 

Japanese Mythology:  Story source: Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

These stories are so much like traditional fairytales it is very easy to see where the ideas for them originated. 

I was also surprised by how similar the Japanese mythology was to Greek and Roman and mythology. It is cleared that the tales all borrowed from each other. 

I liked how Ninigi received three gifts from the gods, it reminded me of Sleeping Beauty. 

The theme that I find most intriguing is the family bond and the fairytale like elements that result in slaying dragons and happy ever after. 

                                                                   Goddess Uzume

Reading Notes: Persian Tales- Part B

                                                                          Betrayal

Bibliography: 

Persian Tales  translated from the Kermani and Bakhtiari dialects of the Persian language by David Lorimer and his wife Emily Lorimer. 

Betrayal:

The main theme I noticed in these stories was betrayal. The turtle and the fox, the baker and the woman with the children, the man and his wife: they all suffered more in life because of betrayal. I found these stories still whimsical and little hard to follow, but I like how they are a little more life like because betrayal and distrust are part of everyday life. I will spin story with this theme in mind. 

Reading Notes: Persian Tales-Part A

My first impression of these tales is whimsy. I find them all very odd and fun. Their story lines are all very different and honestly hard to follow at times.

I like the story about the boy with his bow. I think the fact that he won over a king and a country without knowing what he was doing is really funny and could easily be turned into another story.

I also like the story about the half man/brother. This story vaguely reminded me of "Game of Thrones" and I think writing a story about the black sheep of a family becoming a hero and heir would be very interesting.

                                                                        Black Sheep

Bibliography: 

Persian Tales translated from the Kermani and Bakhtiari dialects of the Persian language by David Lorimer and his wife Emily Lorimer.

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales-Part 2

The Turkish fairytales are all very similar in theme.

They consist of someone being poor, working hard or gaining a skill, and then living happily ever after.

Happily every after usually comes with a beautiful wife and husband and also a lot of money.

They really strive to teach the value of honesty, hard work, and time. It instills that that is what it takes to be successful and have your dreams.

All of these are themes I could use in a story of my own. Incorporating the the fearless boy and a journey of hard work, until he reaches the end and realizes all his dreams.

I also like the use of wizards in the tales. It helps to add a more magical feel to the stories.

                                                                         The Wizard

Bibliography

Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales-Part A

There were a couple of things that stood out to me while reading the first half of Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos.

                                                                           No Fear

In the story about fear I couldn't help but be reminded of the autistic children. I hope no one takes offense to that statement because all I mean to say is, they seem to know no fear and have boundless creativity. My cousin has so many of these traits and it always fascinating to me. I think writing the story of a fearless boy on a journey would be a fun way to represent this story. 

For the other three stories I noticed the use of forty days as a significant amount of time for celebrations or waiting periods. 

The stories also seem to center around hard task and then being rewarded with a lovely wife. I feel again this would be a cute story of a man who had to accomplish many feats to gain the most beautiful wife in the land. 

I particularly liked how all the women were disguised. I know she was a witch, but it reminded me of "Beauty and the Beast" in the way the beautiful queen comes to the door and is turned away because she is disguised as ugly. These stories pinpoint in the benefits of being kind to creatures most would ignore. 

Reading Notes: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche-Part B

In this second half of the story I once again observed strong family themes that I would like to use in my own story. I appreciate that the gods bonded together against Psyche because Venus was family. While I don't like the "evil queen", I did appreciate the loyalty.

I am a forever optimist and huge proponent of true love, so I liked the ending. The fairy tale of Cupid and Psyche getting married and blessed by the gods to become a part of the family. This is also probably a theme I will use in my story.

Happy Ever After

Bibliography:

Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche by Tony Kline- Story Link Here

Reading Notes: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche-Part A

In the telling of Psyche and Cupid translated by Tony Kline, that theme that struck me the most was that of jealousy and marriage.

In the over view Laura makes a reference to "Beauty and the Beast" and "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis. Both of which are very accurate. The entire time I was reading this first half I was struck by the similarities to both of these works. I have read "Till We Have Faces" several times and they are very similar.

I really like the fairytale aspects of this story. The sisters remind me of evil step sisters, and Venus reminds me of the evil queen from "Snow White". Which, since this story clearly was written long before these tales; it wouldn't be surprising to find it had some influence on the stories.

I intend to expound on the fairytale but I really like the theme of marriage, including the marriage dream the young, kidnapped girl has in the beginning of the story. It is a "tale as old as time", after all.

                                                          Psyche and Cupid as Lovers

The sisters being Furies is also something I picked up and would possibly use and develop further in a story of my own. I love the story of the Orestes, and could see taking some of the furies personality from there and placing into the sisters.

Bibliography:

Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche by Tony Kline; Link to Reading