Week 7 Extra Credit Reading: Saints and Animals

For this week's extra credit reading, I skimmed through the Biblical unit, and I found the Saints and Animals Unit. The most interesting chapter to me was the Ballad of Saint Felix.This story is from the Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900).

The Ballad of Saint Felix

 I liked the way the story was formatted. Since it was a ballad, the story was written like a song. There was a rhyming scheme with perfect paragraph breaks. I actually read the ballad out loud, and there was a nice rhythm to the ballad. Overall, the story of Saint Felix was quite interesting. An emperor was slaying all the Christians in the land. Being a Bishop, Felix was a target in the Emperor's persecution. To escape the Emperor, Felix dressed as an old beggar and pass through the soldiers undetected. He runaway as fast as he could until he couldn't run anymore. He then found a hiding place in a crack of a wall. Luckily, a spider saved Felix's life by creating a thick web that covered the crack. The soldiers never found Felix. Felix survived in that wall because everyday a Christian lady would pass bread through the web until the persecution was over.

I liked this story mostly because it deals with the persecution of Christianity. It's unbelievable to think that people were jailed, tortured, and even put to death because of their religion. Even more unbelievable is the fact that persecution due to religion still occurs today.

Saint Felix. Source.

Week 6 Extra Credit Reading: Russian Folktales

For this week's extra credit reading, I read through the Russian Folktales unit. The stories came from Russian Fairy Tales by W.R.S. Ralston (1887).

The Headless Princess

This story was so scary to me! I felt like I was reading a horror story! A little boy sees a princess remove her head to was her face and brush her long hair. Afraid of what he saw, he ran away. The princess fell ill, and died. Her dying wish was to have the priest's son to read to her for three nights. The boy received his order but was terrified! He told his grandmother of his fears, and she advised him to take a knife and to draw a circle around himself. He was advised to not pay attention to any horrors. So he was reading to a coffin that had the body of the dead princess when all of the sudden she comes to life and tries to attack him! She couldn't break through the circle though. The next night she set the church on fire, but the boy remained protected by the circle and continued reading. I could just imagine the deadly, horrid face of the princess trying to attack that poor boy! I think I would die of fright.

 The Fox-Physician

When I read this story, I thought it would be about a fox that acted as a doctor, which it kinda was, but I was disappointed in the ending. Long story short, a man was climbing a magical cabbage stalk while holding an old woman in his sack. He dropped the sack, and the old woman fell to the ground. Her bones broke in a million pieces. A fox told the man that he would be able to cure the woman. He just needed butter, oatmeal, and a bathroom. The man fetches the ingredients. The fox did his work then left. To the man's surprise, the fox ate the butter and oatmeal, and left the old woman's bones in the bathroom. I wish there was more to the story such as the fox needing answers to riddles to fix the old woman or maybe some magic.

The Fox Physician. Source.

Week 5 Extra Credit Reading: Cupid and Psyche

I've read through a couple of people's storytelling, and I've noticed that Cupid and Psyche (from Tony Kline's Apuleius's Golden Ass) was a popular story. Therefore, I decided to read it myself.

Cupid and Psyche

It was a very interesting read since it was so fairy-tale like! Psyche fell in love with the god Cupid, but she never saw his face because they always met in the dark. It did remind me of the classical Beauty and the Beast story. It appeared that Cupid was hiding in the dark to hid his hideous features when in fact he was hiding because he was Venus's son! Of course when Psyche found out that she was in love with Cupid, it all goes down hill. They marry and Venus is outraged. The chapter that stood out to me the most was Venus and Psyche. Venus absolutely hates Psyche! In fact, in the chapter it described how Venus would physically abuse Psyche by pulling her hair and dragging her by the ear. Owch! At this point of the story, Psyche was pregnant with Cupid's baby, so it really surprised me that Venus was beating Psyche, knowing that she could potentially hurt the baby (then again that was probably her goal). Venus assigned Psyche ridiculous tasks such as mixing beans and seeds together and telling Psyche to separate the ingredients again. Honestly, this chapter reminded me of how my ex-boyfriend's mother used to treat me when I was dating him. Not sure why she didn't like me since I was always respectful, but I always forced to oblige his mother by performing tedious tasks. The theme of crazy or evil mother-in-laws is so common, but I also thought it was exaggerated until I dated my ex-boyfriend. Luckily, I left that relationship.

Psyche and Cupid. Source.

Week 4 Extra Credit Reading: Adam and Eve

For this week's extra credit reading, I read through the Biblical Unit of Adam and Eve. The specific story that I read was called The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909). The chapter that caught my attention the most was the Fall of Satan.

The Fall of Satan

In this chapter, God created Adam and asked for all the angels to pay God's new creation reverence and homage. Satan, God's greatest angels with magnificent wings, refused to give respect to Adam. Satan felt insulted that he, an almighty angel, had to pay heed to a naked creature made out of dust. To Satan, there was no reason for God to create man when he had so many angels surrounding Him. God demanded Satan to pay respect to Adam because Adam had more wisdom than Satan. I thought this next part was interesting. In order to test this theory, Satan challenge Adam into a contest of naming God's animals. Satan couldn't remember the names of the ox, cow, camel, and donkey. Adam, on the other hand, was given clues by God by hinting the first letter of the animal's name. In the end, Adam won. Satan was outraged and still refused to pay heed to Adam. He broke his promise, but God wouldn't have it. God forced Satan to acknowledge man's superiority over the angels. Satan lashed out on God in which God threw Satan out of the heaves, making Satan the fallen angel. From that point on marked the eternal battle between Satan and man.

God exiling Satan from heaven. Source.

Week 3 Extra Credit Reading: Italian Tales

I read through the Italian Popular Tales unit by Thomas Frederick Crane for my extra credit reading this week. It was quite interesting to read common themes in Italian culture such as the themes of inner beauty and of deception. The two stories that stood out to me the most were Zelinda and the Monster and The Man, the Serpent, and the Fox.

Zelinda and the Monster

This story reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. An old man had three daughter in which his youngest daughter was the most beautiful and the most kind. She was also the father's favorite. The other two daughters were jealous of their little sister's beauty. The father went out of town to find a dress, a shawl, and a rose for his three daughters. He could not find a rose anywhere though. Suddenly, he found a rosebush and plucked one of its rose buds. An angry dragon appeared and threatened to kill the father or to fetch him his daughter. The father gives the dragon his youngest daughter, Zelinda. The dragon fell in love with Zelinda and made her his wife which broke the curse (he was actually a youthful man).

The Man, the Serpent, and the Fox

This story was interesting to me. A man found a snake stuck under a rock. The snake asked for the man's assistance, and the man freed the snake. However, the snake threatened to eat the man. There was a debate of whether the snake should eat the man or not even though the snake promised the man that he wouldn't eat him. They asked a horse and a dog whether they snake had the right to eat the man, and they both replied yes. Then they asked the fox. The fox asked the snake to lead him to the rock where the snake was stuck. The snake crawled under the rock once more to show the fox the exact position that made the snake unable to move freely. The fox then asked, "are you stuck, serpent?" The nodded. The fox then answered, "then stay so always!"

Snake and Fox. Source.

Week 2: Extra Credit Reading Diary

For my extra credit reading, I read through the Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. This unit appealed to me because I took a Native American history course during my sophomore year, and I realized that I enjoyed learning about Native American literature and stories.

There were two stories that caught my attention: The First Fire and The Moon and the Thunders

The First Fire was about the first time fire was sent down to the Earth through thunder striking the bottom of a sycamore tree. The animals all over Earth wanted to retrieve the fire so that everyone could enjoy it's warmth and light. Therefore, several animals attempted to climb into the base of the sycamore tree and bring back fire, but failed. It was interesting to read how the animals attempted to catch the fire, yet suffered from sever consequences that are still visible in those animals today. For example, the raven flew too close to the fire that its feathers turned black. The screech owl clashed with a blast of hot smoke that his eyes became red. The hooting own and the horned owl couldn't conquer the soot from the fire, and it left white rings around their eyes. I liked how this myth explained the physical characteristics of each animal through their attempts to obtain fire. In the end, the water spider was able to retrieve fire by spinning a web, and carrying a lump of coal on its back. From there on, there was fire on Earth.

The Moon and the Thunders interest me because it explained how the moon and sun interacted with one another. I love hearing every culture's stories about the moon and sun. The moon and sun are powerful forces that symbolize life, wisdom, beauty, and time. In this story, the sun was a young woman who lived in the east while her brother was the moon who lived in the west. During the nighttime, a man would court the sun, but the woman would never see his face. So one night, she grabbed ash and rubbed in on the man's face so that she could identify who her secret lover was. When nighttime came, she realizes that the moon had dark spots on its face. The moon was so embarrassed that his sister found out that he was her lover, that he vowed to always be on the opposite side of the sun. That;s why the sun and the moon alternate between daytime and nighttime.

The sun and the moon. Source.