Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno, Part B

For the second half of the Dante's Inferno unit, I found "The Giants" story to be the most interesting. This one stood out because of the mention of Nimrod. He was responsible for the construction of the tower of Babel. I learned more about the tower of Babel than I have before, so I thought that was cool. I did not realize Nimrod was giant sized which was why he was with the other giants. In the second half of this unit, I found it odd that mythical creatures were included in the nine circles of Hell. Examples of the mythical creatures found are centaurs, minotaurs, and, of course, giants.

I think the description of Nimrod was pretty fascinating. First off, we are informed he is a giant which is not clear at first because of the dark conditions. He was compared to a tower which I think is ironic since he decided to build a the tower of Babel. In addition to this sin, he only speaks gibberish. His head is also compared to the size of a pine cone which would not have made much since if there was not an explanation in the author's note. Since the note had a link to a picture of the pine cone, it was much easier to visualize how big Nimrod's head actually was in the story.

Bringing in mythical creatures like giants is such a cool way to make stories larger than life, literally. In my writing, I would really like to be able to bring in magical creatures. This would take some planning because a world has to be created where a creature like this makes sense. Otherwise, the magical creature would stick out like a sore thumb. Descriptions like in this story really help the reader truly imagine and see the immense scope of the creature. The more descriptive I can be in my writing, the easier it will be for my readers to understand how my creatures look like in terms of the story.

Bibliography

The Giants, Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

Image Information: Giants by Gustave Dore, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno, Part A

For this week's choice from European literature, I chose Dante's Inferno for the unit to read. I have often heard of Dante's Inferno and the many circles of Hell, but I have never gone to read through the story. This led me to choosing this unit out of curiosity. The idea of Fallen Angels has always intrigued me, so the title of this chunk of the story immediately stuck out to me.

In this story, the setting is immediately set as they approach a castle that is radiating red light. We soon learn that this redness is from the eternal fires from down in Hell. This creates an eerie setting as the main character is guided close to the city of Dis. Painted in our description, we see that the castle is surrounded by a moat and the walls are made of thick iron. Thousands of fallen angels inhabit this place. I think this detail is important because mentioning the fact that angels and not humans live in this place help add to the suspense being created by the scene.

The next part of this tale is the main character and his guide getting stopped by the angels. They are not allowed to enter this fortress. Since they were stopped by the angels, this adds to the ominous feeling that the reader observes coming from these beings. Why were they the first to question why these two travelers were wanting access? I think it is odd that they got stopped trying to enter this place. I think that entering should have been a much easier objective whereas leaving could have been the more difficult part of their journey.

The guide did his best to talk his way through the guards, but this was all to no avail. All of these elements of confusion and mysterious characters add to the unsettling vibe that is created.

Bibliography

The Fallen Angels, Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002).

Image Information: Fallen Angel, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Fairie Queen - Britomart, Part B

The tale of two knights really brought in action to the story of Britomart. This interaction was different than the rest because this was finally the big reveal. Britomart had to fight her future husband, Artegall, as he was bent on getting revenge on Britomart for winning a competition and stealing his place. Artegall and Britomart did not realize they were the people they were looking for, so the fight ensued. This fight began with Scudamour, as he was rife with jealousy since he thought Britomart took his beloved Amoret. In this fight, Scudamour was quickly dismounted from his horse, so the real chunk of the action was between Artegall and Britomart. Britomart was forced off her horse to fight with Artegall. Actions phrases like "recoiled," "thrusting forward," and "wheeling round" helped bring the fight to life in my mind. 

The climax of this fight for me was when Artegall got a hefty blow on Britomart's helmet. This knocked the helmet off of Britomart's head, and her face was exposed. The description that followed really slowed down the action and increased the importance of this event. I felt like I was watching  this scene happen in slow motion with the helmet falling off and Britomart's golden hair falling out.  This was a really interesting writing effect that I would like to somehow replicate in my own action writing. Scudamour and Artegall saw her face and hair and were immediately phased. They apologized for their actions, and this interruption was enough for all of the misunderstandings to be explained.

The descriptive words in this story were used in a very effective way. Beginning with words to describe the different movements of the action and fighting taking place to the specific details of Britomart, all were used appropriately to direct the reader to what was important in the scene. I hope to figure out how to narrow my scope when writing stories.

Bibliography

Two Knights, Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916)

Image Information: Two Knights, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Fairie Queen - Britomart, Part A

In "How Britomart Walked through Fire," the most interesting character to me is Britomart. To give some background to this character, she was raised to have the same skills as a warrior. She is strong and powerful, yet she still has a soft side. She saw the image of the warrior she was meant to one day marry, and the thought of never seeing him made her depressed. To try to remedy her depression, she and her caretaker decided to go out into the world to find this warrior; talk about taking control of your own destiny! And not only did they decide to go look for him, but they disguised themselves as knights to keep their identities safe. Britomart was able to keep up this ruse as she is willing to fight where she sees a need for it, and she is not half bad at participating in a fight.

At the beginning of this part of Britomart's tale, she was a bit hot-headed and raced out to battle a giant to save a man being chased by the giant. This mere choice to rush the giant made the giant flee from Britomart. While Britomart was searching for the giant, she came across a knight strewn across the ground in a heavy bout of sadness. Compassion came over Britomart, and she bravely offered to help this knight get his lady back from an evil enchanter. Britomart was bold and courageous when she entered the castle of the wizard, even going so far as walking through a wall of fire.

I like Britomart so much as a character because of the way she already is. She is independent and willing to do what is right to help those in need. She goes out of her way to make sure justice is had, and she takes charge of her own fate. She does not sit idly by when bad things are happening. Instead, she is one of the first people to take on a fight even if it appears to be a losing battle.

Bibliography

How Britomart Walked through Fire, Stories from the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod, with drawings by A. G. Walker (1916)

Image Information: Britomart, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Beowulf, Part B

The second tale that I found worth mentioning from the Beowulf unit was the story named "Seeking Grendel's Mother." This story had Beowulf and his group of warriors in hot pursuit of the terrifying mother of Grendel. Grendel was a monster from the first half of the unit that was a giant and had the ability to put all people within a certain range into a sleep from which they could not easily wake. Beowulf was the only one able to fight off this sleeping spell and was able to fight Grendel. Unfortunately, when Grendel returned back to his cave, his mother wanted revenge for the damage Beowulf had inflicted upon Grendel. So she went on a rampage in the hall and stole back Grendel's arm. Beowulf followed her trail all the way to an evil looking lake. Here, he departed from the rest of his comrades and decided to embark into the pool of liquid on his own. On his way down, he found a multitude of weird deep sea monsters that eerily watched him. Throughout his descent, Beowulf had to fight off many of these creatures before he finally made it to the cave where Grendel's mother lived.

The setting of this part of the tale is through the woods to the lake and down into the lake. The writer of this story did a beautiful job of creating an eerie atmosphere that Beowulf had to face when he decided to go into the lake. Each sea creature is new and different from the rest. I appreciated the phrase, "evil glance from its glowing eyes of red or green or sapphire blue," as this showed me what Beowulf was seeing. I imagined dark nothingness fully surrounding Beowulf, but in the midst of everything, I could see glowing orbs of various colors watching Beowulf in the deep water. Being able to visualize something like this shows that I was able to get fully into the words of this tale which is why I think it was successful.

Bibliography

Seeking Grendel's Mother, The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry

Pitz (1933)

Image Information: Deep sea fish, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Beowulf, Part A

From the first part of the Beowulf unit, I chose the story called "Beowulf Lands in Daneland." This title caught my attention as I have recently been watching a show on Netflix where the characters in that show go to Daneland. In the story from the unit, Beowulf and his companions are crossing the sea to get to their destination of Daneland. There are many terrors in the sea that they must pass through on the way there. When they finally got to the beach of Daneland, they were approached by someone guarding the beach. The guardian of the beach asked them who they are and where they came from before allowing them passage in the land. When being investigated by the guardian of the beach, the group told him that they were there to help the king of Daneland. In this same exchange, the guardian told them of Grendel who came to raid the land. With this, they were able to proceed.

The tale of this part of Beowulf’s story was very descriptive in a lot of ways. The main way that stood out to me was all of the detailed visual descriptions. These descriptions created a useful setting for me, so I could understand what the group was going through during their travels. The details about the monsters in the sea stood out to me initially when I was reading through the story. Mentions of “slimy coils,” “shaggy manes,” and “horny claws” definitely painted a picture of the horrors this group was experiencing during their long nights on the sea. Luckily, this group was able to make it safely across the sea without any harm done to them. I would like to be able to write stories where the words create feelings in the readers. I do not want to just tell them how the characters reacted to something I am describing; I want them to feel what the character does.

Bibliography

Beowulf Lands in Daneland, The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry
Pitz (1933)

Image Information: Beowulf sailing to Daneland, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part B

From the second half of the Great Plains unit, the story that stuck out to me was the tale of the "Coyote and Snake." In this story, a coyote was walking along one day, and he was abruptly told to stop. He did not see anyone in his pathway, so he was initially confused by who had spoken to him. The coyote eventually found who was speaking him, and it turned out to be a snake. The snake told the coyote to go around him, but the coyote thought himself too good to be bothered. In result, he told the snake to get out of his way. The snake did not agree this was how things were supposed to go, so he warned the coyote that if he stepped over the snake, then he would kill him. The coyote decided he would take the chance, so he stepped right on over the snake. The snake bit him, and by the end of the story, the coyote was dead.

Why this story was different to me from the rest was because of its length. This week, I was wanting to focus on honing my skills of writing proficient and short stories. This story was another great example of how I can take important events in a story and relay them appropriately to a reader. Another useful part of this story was the exchange between the coyote and snake in dialogue. By creating dialogue between characters to tell the majority of the story, the reader gets to have more of a feeling of what the character's personality is like. We can tell from the characters' words and actions that each individual feels like they have the right to stay where they are, but in result, pride gets in the way. I like that the moral of this story was to check yourself if you are not in a humble mindset because that is ultimately what got the coyote killed.

Bibliography

Coyote and Snake, Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913)

Image Information: Rattlesnake by Gary Stolz, Wikimedia 

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part A

The first story I chose from the Great Plains unit was "The Eagle's Revenge." In this story, there was a hunter that had just shot a deer. When he went to go collect the deer, he found that an eagle was already eating from the dead deer. To get to the deer, the hunter shot the eagle. By doing so, he was able to take the deer he shot back to his village where he told his village that he had also shot an eagle. People were sent back to collect the eagle as well, and there was a dance of the eagle held. During this dance, a strange man joined the event and began telling a story of how he had managed to kill a man. Each time he had finished a story, someone in the village died. After the strange man left, the village folk later found out that the strange man was the brother of the eagle.

I appreciated the telling of this story because it was so simple. Even though the story was simple, the idea and events still managed to be related to the reader. I struggle with writing stories that are of such a short length, and I really would like to be able to get a whole story across in only three hundred words while including everything that I think is important to the story. This story shows me that maybe when I am writing stories, I am trying to relate too many events in one go. So to help my writing, I need to focus on what I think are the highlights of the story that I am trying to tell. I usually like to include a lot of details to make the story more realistic, but maybe this approach is overkill for the stories that I am trying to tell. I should try better to just get straight to the point, and then I can work on fleshing out the story more at a later time.

Bibliography

The Eagle's Revenge, Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913)

Image Information: Eagle, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folks Tales, Part B

The second story that I chose from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit was Kanagssuaq. This story told of  a hunter that went out after a long season of starvation and cold and found a great place to find seal in the sea. Soon, he was out catching something every single day which was wonderful for his tribe. As the toil of everyday work got to him, he wondered about meeting the great Kiliteraq while out on the ocean by himself. Kanagssuaq wished to meet Kiliteraq as he had heard that Kiliteraq was a mighty hunter. There happened to be a chance occurrence where Kanagssuaq was able to meet Kiliteraq out hunting. While this happened, Kanagssuaq told Kiliteraq where to go hunting for seal, and this resulted in Kanagssuaq needing to help Kiliteraq get his tow line in check faster. Kanagssuaq did so and was later rewarded with nice hunting equipment from Kiliteraq in exchange for being helpful.

This was a pretty simple story, but it left some good feelings since the help was rewarded. This is not always the case in real life. Obviously, Kanagssuaq did not help Kiliteraq to get something from it. He was just doing this to be a nice person, but the fact that he was rewarded on top of that was a nice addition. Making interactions between characters for being good people is a nice trend that I think could be used more in storytelling. The fact that they got to share a common trade was also nice to create a amicable sense of camaraderie. Helping people out is a nice way to make friendships, and this was a decent way to give a story of someone who was supposed to be super great at hunting and showing that even he could use some help. This is a friendly reminder that even the best in our trade can still use a helping hand.

Bibliography

Kanagssuaq, Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921)

Image Information: Arctic Ocean, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part A

The story I chose this week was "The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son" from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit. How this story went was a lady was taken care of by her village. The hunters of the village often gave her food and other supplies, so she could take care of herself. One day, they brought the lady a bear cub that had just had its parent killed for food. The bear cub was still alive, so she took care of the bear cub and raised him as her own. The people of the village brought her plenty of food to support both her and the bear cub. This bear cub got accustomed to human speech, so he began to understand the words spoken to him by the lady. The cub got to play with the kids of the village. When the bear got too big for the kids, he began to play with the adults. He also got to go out on hunting trips with the hunters. Unfortunately, people from other villages saw the bear as a threat and tried to attack him. Eventually, this got to be too dangerous for the bear, so the lady had to send the bear away for his own safety.

The aspect I liked about this story is that a lady was able to take in a bear cub. I think it would be super cool to have a bear just around that you can keep in your house without being worried about being harmed. Additionally, she did not go and catch this bear for her own selfish reasons, she was taking care of an orphaned bear cub that needed someone to help him through this hard time of his life. This story of taking in an animal that would not be better off on its own is nice to read, and I liked how the bear was able to become integrated into their village life.

Bibliography

The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son, Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen with illustrations by native Eskimo artists (1921)

Image Information: Polar Bear Cub by tableatny, Flickr

Reading Notes: Filipino Tales, Part B

The second part of the Filipino Tales unit was much more lively and had more creation stories to explain why certain things of the world are how they are currently. A lot of these stories used personification which I think could be fun to try in future stories. The story I liked best was "Why the Ocean is Salty." In this story, there was a giant world builder, Ang-ngalo, who made the world for God. While he was going about his business one day, he saw a beautiful goddess on the other side of the ocean. She beckoned him to her and asked of him a request. On his way through the ocean, Ang-ngalo made caverns in the ocean floor through result of his footprints. The goddess was the goddess of darkness, and she was quite tired of her dark accommodations in the world. She asked the giant to build her a purely white mansion to help liven up the place. He went about building this mansion for her, but the only material that white was salt. So this is what he built the house with for the goddess. Ang-ngalo employed millions of workers to carry the salt and help him build the house. The salt had to be transported across the ocean which disturbed Ocean's peaceful sleep. To make all the noise stop, the Ocean sent waves to destroy the building of this house, and all the salt sank into the ocean. This explained why the ocean is salty today.

Why I liked this story was because there were two influential goddesses that were able to affect a lot of change in the world. Just because the goddess of darkness asked, millions of people went to work to create her a beautiful mansion. In contrast, just because the Ocean was annoyed after so much time of building, she just destroyed millions because she could. This is strength and power without apology. More female characters would be well suited to take on these characteristics that are often given to men.

Bibliography

Why the Ocean is Salty, Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Image Information: Salt mounds, Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Filipino Tales, Part A

This week I read the first half of the Filipino Tales unit. The story I found most interesting was the "The Monkeys and the Dragon-Flies." I like how this one went because there was a clever end to the story. This story began with a dragonfly trying to get shade from the hot sun. Unfortunately, a monkey found him in the shade on a tree the monkey had claimed. This resulted in the monkey telling the dragonfly that it could not stay on that tree. Obviously, this upset the dragonfly, so she went to tell her brother which was the king. This began the callings for a war since the king's sister had been so insulted by the monkey's rude behavior. This war began with monkeys seeming to be at an advantage because they brought sticks to the fight while the dragonflies arrived with no weapons in sight. The fighting began with the monkeys ordered to hit the dragonflies out of the sky. As a clever strategy, the dragonflies were ordered to land on the foreheads of the monkeys. This quick wit helped the dragonflies win as the monkeys still kept to their command and tried to attack the dragonflies while they were on the heads of other monkeys. This resulted into many blows on the monkeys heads which brought their ultimate demise.

This story stuck out to me as a more appealing read compared to the other tales in the unit. This one was about a tale of battle with no super graphic descriptions. The other tales in this unit often had a female basically up for sale to a manipulative male by a manipulative male or had fairly graphic violence as a key plot to the story and often towards a female. Violence was still a point to the plot of "The Monkeys and Dragon-Flies," but it seemed to at least be for a reason and it was not as cruel as the others. Since violence is not my main goal when writing stories, if I must include it, I would try to minimize the description as this story did.

Bibliography

The Monkeys and the Dragon-Files, Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921)

Image Information: Dragonfly, Wikipedia

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part B

From the second part of the Japanese Mythology unit, I was drawn into this world by the first story I read. In this story, Yamato is enthralled by the many wonders and delights of Benten, a sea goddess. This was the story of a man who had apparently gotten tired of having a faithful and loving wife, so he went off in search of something else. For some reason, his wife's constant devotion to him was somewhat of a burden. This is not at all the reason I was drawn to this story. Why I liked this story was because of the way the story was told.

The visual details of each part of this tale were vividly described in a way that made me think about and see things in a new way. Colorful words like emerald and golden brought new layers to the elements that were part of this plot. This painted a picture that truly helped to bring this story to life. I had not realized until now how few stories really emphasize these details in favor of explaining more in depth what action or dialogue is happening. These details are what really help to flesh out a story and bring an image into the reader's mind. I personally cannot fully immerse myself into a story if I cannot picture how the world looks in my mind.

Adding meaningful and compelling visual details is a method I would like to strengthen in my writing. I need to consider that if I cannot picture what is going on by the words I have written, then this will be even harder for the reader to piece together. Of course, creativity is a key value to making sure there is enough description for the reader while enough flexibility for the reader to also use their imagination.

Bibliography

The Labors of Yamato: The Grotto of Love, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Benzaiten, Wikimedia

Reading Notes: Japanese Mythology, Part A

The story I liked this week was The Miraculous Mirror from the Japanese Mythology unit. I thought the character of Amaterasu was unique for the various powers she possessed. The power she had that contributed to the majority of this story was her light giving abilities. She was the Sun Goddess that brought light to the land. Unfortunately for her, Susa-no-wo decided to come crash her party for no real given reason. This frightened Amaterasu so much that she went into hiding and with her went the light of the land. To get Amaterasu back out in the world, the people and gods had to work together. By the help of the Goddess of Laughter, they coaxed Amaterasu slowly from her hiding place. Together, they convinced the Sun Goddess that there was a better goddess outside. This was where the mirror came in because they "showed" her the rival goddess in the mirror. In actuality, the mirror showed the Sun Goddess a reflection of herself. This trick was enough to get Amaterasu out from the cave and the cave was sealed behind her. In result, the people got what they wanted which was light back to their world.

The elements that I would like to incorporate from this story would be the interaction between the gods and common people. They create a dynamic where when together, they are stronger. The will of the people brought about the inclusion of the Goddess of Laughter, so their need and want for the Sun to be returned helped to push the story forward in a direction where the light would be out in the open once again. The fact that they used a mirror to convince Amaterasu to leave the cave is a reminder that even simple items can play an important role in a story like this.

Bibliography

The Miraculous Mirror, Romance of Old Japan, Part I: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

Image Information: Sun Goddess painting by Utagawa

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part B

The second story that I enjoyed from this unit was The Wizard and his Pupil. As for many people, magic is an item of intrigue. This was what began the series of events for the main boy's story. He was drawn to a wizard and wished to be this wizard's apprentice. The wizard teaches the boy a good deal and then teaches him his best trick. This is the trick that is really a con. The wizard turns himself into an object to be sold. The boy sells the object and transforms himself back into a human and leaves wherever he was taken after being bought. This way, the cunning wizard is able to make a lot of money with the only cost of it being transforming himself. The only catch is that the boy must keep watch over a specific item each time the wizard transforms to make sure the wizard is not lost forever as that object. 

The young boy left the wizard's house after the wizard had changed into a horse that was sold and went home to his mother. Here at his mother's house, the boy convinced his mom to help him pull off this same trick that the wizard had shown him. This all went well until the wizard showed up to buy the boy, in his house form, that was for sell. The wizard was upset because the boy abandoned him. Once the wizard bought the home and took the key which was the boy's way back to himself, the boy transformed into a bird and flew away. This led to a series of transformations that I thought were clever whilst the wizard was chasing the boy trying to be undetected. At one point, the boy even changed into a rose. I would like to incorporate magic into my stories, and maybe characters that can transform are a nice way to do so. By the end of this chase, the apprentice had outperformed his master, and the apprentice lived to see another day whereas the master did not. I can understand why the master was upset, but this tale expresses that sometimes it is better to leave things alone than try to get revenge.

Bibliography

The Wizard and his Pupil, Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).


Image Information: Rose, PxHere

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales, Part A

The story I read this week was called The Fish-Peri. This was an intriguing read because I have not read many stories with shape-shifters in them, so I was not fully expecting the twist in the story. The story opens up with a man going fishing. He ends up finding a fish that was so much better than the rest that he decided to keep this fish. I do not go fishing very often, so I have never quite thought myself that I would want to keep a fish that I had just caught from the open water. This was where the story got a bit odd to me. Since he did not have a tank, he put the fish in a well which seems a hard place to observe the nice fish. 

When the man leaves and comes back, he realizes that his house had been clean, but he did not know who would have cleaned his house since he lived alone. We as readers probably already assume that the fish is the one that cleaned the house, but how? This continues to happen for multiple days until finally the fisherman decides to pretend to leave but stays hidden by the house. He then sees the fish turn into a beautiful woman, and he grabs her fish skin and throws the skin into the fire where she is freed from turning into a fish. For some reason, the woman that was a fish agreed to become the fisherman's wife. This woman was quite a beauty to all men that saw her, so eventually the Padishah wanted her to be his.

The Padishah asked the fisherman to do several impossible tasks to keep the woman as his wife, and reasons unknown to myself, the woman helped the fisherman. There are many possibilities as to why she helped him, but if I were her, I would not want to help him. The fisherman had captured her, burned her fish skin, and then asked her to be his wife. All of these events combined would make me want to leave that man as soon as possible. Maybe she agreed to help him, so she would not be owned by the Padishah whom was a stranger to her.

Since the woman decided to help the fisherman, this led to many unbelievable things that happened. I am curious as to the magic she had possessed. She was able to transform, and she had a powerful friend that could be asked to complete each impossible tasks that the Padishah asked of the fisherman. These hints of magic are what I would want to incorporate into a story. I would want to try to explain the magic of each event a little bit more though, so the reader gets a better understanding of what truly is possible in that world.

Bibliography

The Fish-Peri, Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).

Image Information: Fish, Pixabay

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part B

The second portion of The Voyages of Sindbad were just as adventure filled as the first. His last handful of voyages did beg the question as to why Sindbad would ever leave the safety of his country again after all he had been through. Sindbad explains at the beginning of each voyage that the desire to explore the world and gain riches is what drives him forward for each journey. However, the last voyage he went on was different, and this caught my attention.

This voyage was notable from the start. Sindbad had finally given up his life on the sea to stay grounded with his friends and family in his home country of Bagdad. Unfortunately for him, the Caliph requested, which really meant more of commanded, him to go to offer presents to a rich man on an island as a gracious thanks for the rich man's previous gifts. Since Sindbad had been their means of contact before, the Caliph specifically wanted Sindbad to go. So Sindbad goes, but due to pirates, he gets sold into slavery. Surprisingly, Sindbad takes to slavery pretty well, so apparently he was treated more humanely than I have been taught slaves are treated. This led to him hunting elephants for their tusks to make profit off the ivory. The characters that really caught me off guard were the elephants. I was not sure why they decided to deal with Sindbad non-violently. They surrounded him, took him out of a tree, and placed him in their graveyard. Sindbad attributed this to the elephants not wanting to be killed anymore, so they gave up their dead. As a human, this did not make sense to me. Revenge often seems to be the path that humans lean towards, so maybe this is why the elephants' behavior seemed odd to me. Their choice did ultimately lead to their extended survival for a time, so maybe the elephants made the right choice.

Bibliography

Seventh and Last Voyage, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898)

Image Information: Elephant by Michelle Gadd/USFWS

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad, Part A

This week I read the first section from The Voyages of Sindbad unit from the Un-Textbook. This unit had a lot of daring adventures for Sindbad to go on, and he gained so much knowledge about how the world worked in many different ways. The story I found most compelling from this unit was the second voyage Sindbad went on during his life. I appreciated his wit and ability to test fate.

This story followed Sindbad out to an island where he got deserted while he took a nap. Luckily, he found a massive egg that caught his attention. Soon after, a gigantic bird known as a Roc landed on the egg and over him. Quickly coming up with an escape plan, he tied himself to the bird's leg with his turban. This was a nice piece of quick thinking and luckily for him, this strategy worked as he was carried off the island the next morning. I often do not put enough worth in characters being given a decent amount of luck to help drive the story forward. Couple luck with wit, and you have a combo of characteristics that makes a unique tale. I would like to include luck more often into my stories. This is a nice parallel to life because sometimes, things do just work out for the best.

The last half of this voyage ended with Sindbad in a ravine with snakes easily capable of swallowing an elephant. He again got lucky in the case that the snakes only came out at night. His wit helped him at night as he used a rock to cave him in successfully in a crack between rocks. This ravine was full of diamonds. Some were so big that they could have easily been as large as someone's head. This made getting into this specific ravine more desirable, so merchants would toss chunks of meat in there, so the large birds would pick them up with diamonds. So again, with his same technique as before, Sindbad secured himself to a piece of meat and got carried to the bird's nest where the merchants found him. The diamonds he brought with him secured his safe travel back to civilization. Using a simple recurring action is nice because this shows how an ingenious move can be used over and over again for different applications.

Bibliography

Second Voyage, The Voyages of Sindbad, Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Lang

Image Information: Roc, by E. J. Detmold

Reading Notes: Saints and Animals, Part B

The story I chose from this part of the Saints and Animals unit from the Un-Textnook was the The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe. This story had a very nicely rounded out introduction, middle, and conclusion. The story wrapped up nicely as there was a parallel between the beginning and the end of the story. I enjoy when a story comes full circle. Great writers often use this technique. If they use this strategy well, once they have written half of the story, the plot of the next half is already mapped out for them.

This story reminds me a bit of the Jungle Book with how Saint Ailbe was raised by a wolf in the wild. The main difference here of course is that Ailbe was found by a Prince and civilized. This came to be useful for the wolves later in the story as Saint Ailbe was able to save his wolf family from being killed and hunted once he recognized his wolf-mother. This is a great growth and development story for Ailbe as he was initially cast out by a family that did not love or care for him. Shortly after though, he was taken in by two quite different families that grew to care for and adore him. Even though his first real family was a family of wolves, they cared for him more than his own biological parents ever did. To drive the story forward, the part where Ailbe was taken by the Prince was a double edged sword. This was both good for Ailbe because this is how he learned to be human and became a member of society with great influence. Of course, the downside is where he was taken away from his wolf family that had protected and cared for him since he was a baby abandoned in the wilderness. I appreciate the aspect of acceptance and willingness to save those that are different from oneself. 

Bibliography

The Wolf-Mother of Saint Ailbe, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900)

Image Information: Wolf, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Saints and Animals, Part A

For this week's reading, I chose to read about saints and their encounters with animals. I am fond of animals myself, and I was curious to see the story of saints interacting with animals as I have not heard many types of stories about animals with saints. From the Saints and Animals unit from the Un-Textbook, I enjoyed the story of Saint Kentigern and the Robin. I have not heard many stories of saints in general, so this was the most exposure I have had to saints in one sitting. This was interesting to me because I got to see the "powers" of saints given to them by their God. Most stories that I have heard or read before about people with powers are about heroes or people with magic. The unit about Saints and Animals was a refreshing twist on the hero story where people with religious powers are being used for good and not displayed in an unfavorable light.

The story of Kentigern showed the nature of jealousy in the boys in the story. They wanted to be loved and adored as Kentigern was in the eyes of Saint Servan. This was an important part of this story to help drive the plot forward. In result, this want drove them to make unwise choices to try to get Kentigern in trouble. Kentigern was smart, patient, and tolerant when it came to dealing with the meddling of the other boys. First, the unruly boys put out the great fire and the next time, they killed an innocent robin to do their best attempt at getting Kentigern blamed for these happenings. Luckily for Kentigern, he had already been blessed with some abilities like being able to light a fire and bringing the robin back to life by the grace of his God. This saved Kentigern both times from the spiteful boys that were trying to ruin his life.

Bibliography

Saint Kentigern and the Robin, The Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900)

Image Information: Robin, Wikimedia Commons