Extra Reading Diary: Europa's Fairy Book

Okay obviously I love this unit because it is more stories that are so familiar to me and that I really love. I really like reading different versions of stories that I know because it is so cool to see how the differ across different cultures. This week I read the Italian fairy tales and several of the stories were very similar to the stories in this unit, however they each had their own different details. It was so cool to be able to compare some of the Italian stories to the stories in this unit (Europa's Fairy Book).

The cool thing about reading this unit this week is that I got to read another version of Beauty and the Beast, one of my very favorite stories. This version of Beauty and the Beast was more similar to the story that I remember from my childhood, but still had some differences. It was really cool to compare it to the Italian version though. In this version the Beast is an actual furry beast unlike in the Italian story. In this version though the beast dies, and when Bella sees this she runs to him crying saying that she had come to love him. It is with her declaration of love that the beast comes alive and changes into a prince and they live happily ever after. I loved this version of the story, because Bella fell in love with the Beast of her own volition. In the Italian story I did not like how the monster persuaded him to marry him so that he could be lifted from the curse. I liked the idea of Bella and the Beast actually making an honest connection.

Cinderella the Movie

I also really liked the story The Cinder-Maid. Obviously this story is a version of Cinderella. I really loved this version. It was very similar to the story of Cinderella that I know which includes the step sisters cutting off their toes or heels to try to fit into the slipper. I liked how this version of the story didn't include a fairy god-mother really, but instead the hazelnut tree and the birds in it helped to get Cinderella ready for the ball. I also really liked how this story featured three different balls. It was cool to see the repetition and progression of the story that some of the childhood versions of this fairy tale leave out.

Reading Diary B: Italian Popular Tales

The stories in the second half of the unit Italian Popular Tales are a little bit darker than the first half. The first half was filled with fun and engaging fairy tales. Each of the stories had a happy ending. The second half of this unit is not like that. The stories do not all have a happy ending. I still really like them though. They are really interesting and a lot of them have religious backgrounds.

Pilate looking about as creepy as the story
would suggest (Happy nightmares to you)

One story that really stayed with me was the story An Incident in Rome. This story kind of gave me the creeps honestly. It was pretty cool at the same time. It definitely had an air of mystery all throughout it. The image I had of the carter coming across a man deep in the ground, reading over and over a piece of paper and not responding when he was spoken to was so weird and creepy. I thought it was even more mysterious when he finally answered and wrote his name on the carter's back. The idea that the carter came out of the cave looking like he had aged fifty years was really kind of scary. It indicated to me that the man in the hole had done something bad, and that going down there had almost sucked the life out of the carter or something... really creepy. Of course this story ended up having a religious background when the man in the hole was revealed to be Pilate. This story was so weird, but it really stuck out in my mind because of all of the mystery that surrounded it.

I also read The Story of Crivoliu. This story was also weird. Within the first two lines there was a mention of incest... gross. I kept reading however, and was really intrigued. It ended up being a story with a religious background as well. When Crivoliu found out the circumstances of his birth, he being a man of faith, left his home of his adoptive parents and went to go do penance for his parent's sins (incest, seriously, gross). Long story short Crivoliu ends up becoming the pope, and his parents come to confess their sin from long ago, and Crivoliu says that he is their son, has spent many years doing penance for them, that they are forgiven, and should come live with them. Really nice and pope like of Crivoliu, but honestly kind of weird. The whole basis of the story was just so weird that it stuck so heavily in my brain. This unit definitely took a strange turn from the Beauty and the Beast story.

Reading Diary A: Italian Fairy Tales

Beauty and the Beast

I love these fairy tales in the Italian Popular Tales unit! These stories are exactly the type of stories I think of when someone says the words fairy tale. I really loved that several of the stories were familiar and that I got to read Italian versions of some of my favorite stories like Beauty and the Beast. There were also several stories which were completely new to me, but they all read very distinctly like the fairy tales I read as a child.

One of my favorite stories was the very first one Zelinda and the Monster. It is the Italian version of beauty and the beast, which is one of my very favorite fairy tales. I loved getting to compare this story with the Beauty and the Beast that I know and love. There were no dancing and singing teapots like in the Disney movie, but there still was the air of magic in the palace. Zelinda and her father were served dinner by invisible hands! The beast is different in this story as well. Instead of being a big hairy bear like beast, the monster looks like a dragon. What a thing to imagine! 

I also really liked the story How the Devil Married Three Sisters. This story was funny and really clever. I loved that the third sister was able to outsmart the devil and save her two older sisters in the end. I would definitely be interested in rewriting my own version of this story, maybe from the youngest sister's perspective. I really liked how this story had a happy ending that didn't rely on a woman being saved and married by a prince or a king. Instead it is a story about a smart girl who is able to outsmart her devil (literally) husband.

Extra Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

Alice falling down the rabbit hole in the 1951 Disney adaptation

I love Alice and Wonderland! I remember reading the book as a kid and thinking it was so magical! I watched the Disney movie all of the time with my sisters, and when the live action movie directed by Tim Burton came out my little sister (a giant Tim Burton fan) and I were so excited! I was really excited to read this unit, and it didn't let me down. It was a great short version of the story, and all of my favorite scenes were in it!

I really love the first part of the story Down the Rabbit Hole (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). I love reading about Alice's first moments seeing the White Rabbit, and falling down the hole. The beginning of the story is so fun because it's her very first delve into the world of Wonderland, and she is just so filled with wonder and curiosity. I love the description of her falling through the rabbit hole. It is so dreamlike and slow placed, and really sets the tone for the rest of the story.

I also just really love the way that Lewis Carroll uses so many parentheses. His writing style is very casual, and the parenthetical phrases feel like he is speaking to you directly, giving funny little side remarks or letting you in on little secrets. It makes the story so much more personable and fun to read. His writing is just so incredible. He does such a great job of creating this wonderfully curious and whimsical character of Alice. She is so instantly likable and embodies the wonder and imagination of childhood. I think his writing style and characterization is what absolutely makes the story of Alice and Wonderland so completely wonderful. I am so glad I decided to read this unit because it's been years since I've read the book and I had forgotten how magical and whimsical the story was.

Reading Diary B: Celtic Fairy Tales

This has been one of my favorite units so far. The stories are so fun to read. Every single one is different, and each has an element of magic, mystery, or a lesson to be learned. I have loved these stories.

Ivan and the Farmer

From the second half of the unit, one of my favorite stories was The Tale of Ivan. In it a man leaves his wife so that he may make wages for them. He works for a farmer, and for three years he sacrifices his wages for a piece of good advice. During this story, each time he received a piece of advice, I tucked it into my mind knowing that they would come into play later in the story. When he finally leaves to go back home to his wife, he follows those pieces of advice so well that it ends up saving his and his friends' lives. This story was so fun to read and I loved how the advice that was given was applicable later in the story and we were able to see how it changed the outcome. The final piece of advice is something that I believe is very applicable always "Honesty is the best policy." I find that being honest results in more rewards and better outcomes than lying ever does, and this sentiment is even shown in the story. I think this story would have been a good story to tell to children in order to show them the importance of listening to and heeding good advice.

I also really liked the story Beth Gellert, mostly because I really love dogs. This story shows how faithful and loyal dogs are, and it made me really happy to read a story about a dog protecting its owner's child. Although it was really sad that the dog was killed, I still thought the entire sentiment behind it was so sweet.

Reading Diary A: Celtic Fairy Tales

I love this unit so much! The stories are so magical and fun! I love that these stories are so easily recognizable as fairy tales. Many of them have all of the same components as a modern day fairy tale. These are especially exciting to me though because I am a fan of Celtic history and culture.

The first story Connla and the Fairy Maiden, was one of my favorites. I really liked the bones of the story and I could see myself writing a more detailed and slightly different story based off of the original. I really liked the dynamic between Conn the King and Connla, his son. I almost wish that this story would be turned into a novel that I could read. I would love to know more about the fairy maiden and her Plain of Pleasure. I think adding more detail about life there and who she is as a person/fairy would add even more to the story.

I also really liked the story The Shepherd of Myddvai. It also had really interesting elements. It was quite funny in a way because when she said not to hit her meaninglessly she had meant that he could not even tap her on the back or anything, and he had not known that. Because I love for my fairy tales to have a happy ending, I would have liked for the lake lady to have come back instead of leaving forever with all of her marriage offerings, but either way the story was really cool!

Silver-Tree asking the trout who the most beautiful queen inin the world is

I absolutely loved the story Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree. It was so reminiscent of Snow White and I loved getting to see a story that may have inspired one of my favorite fairy tales. It was such an interesting story and while very similar to Snow White, a lot of the details were so different and new and I really loved that about it. I could easily see myself writing my story this week over this story.

Reading Diary B: Faerie Queen- Britomart

Britomart and Sir Artegall meeting

Okay so this unit (Faerie Queen- Britomart) is still so so good. It has been one of my favorite units to date! I'm so glad that we are in the British stories section of the class because I have been looking forward to this since the class started in January.

One of my favorite stories from the second half of the unit was the very first one called What Britomart saw in the Enchanted Chamber. There was not that much action in it, but it had such awesome descriptions. People named as feelings were described, their outfits and facial expression were given in detail. It was so so cool to read about the way Hope would be dressed or how Desire would dress and look. It was just such an interesting take that I had never thought to think about. I loved the way that the happier and uplifting emotions tended to have brighter and more extravagant clothes, while the more forlorn emotions tended to wear darker, simpler clothes. What a cool and interesting idea to utilize throughout the story.

I also really loved the very last story describing the end of Britomart's quest to find Sir Artegall. (How Britomart Ended her Quest). Although it was a little cheesy, I thought it was such a cool representation of the culture created by the code of chivalry in the time of knights. I really liked the description of Britomart's actions when she realized that the knight she had been fighting was her true love Sir Artegall. It describes her as trying to lift her weapon, and being unable to, and also trying to speak hateful words but only being able to say nice things. I thought that was so interesting and such a good representation about how love and change how we behave, and prevent us from doing things that we wish we could in the heat of anger.

Reading Diary A: Faerie Queen- Britomart

Britomart by Walter Crane (1900)

Wow I love love this unit so far! I am reading from the unit Faerie Queen- Britomart. It is very reminiscent of a Shakespearean comedy, particularly like Two Gentleman in Verona or Twelfth Night. I love reading about knights and the code of chivalry that they lived by. To me this would be such an interesting period to live in. There were several aspects of the story that really caught my interest, and that I would love to write about and reimagine.

I really love the part about the magic mirror from Merlin. It is described early on in the unit in the story appropriately named The Magic Mirror (ha!). The idea of a mirror which you look into and can see things about yourself or those around you is very cool, and I love that this is where Britomart discovered the knight whom she would marry.

I really love the suspense that was created because when she saw the man and she did not know who he was. It was very romantic and a reflection of those days where it seemed that love and courtship ruled over so many things.

I also really loved the character of Merlin. I think there are just so many ways to imagine him as a person/character. I would love to be able to write a story based on the section How Britomart went to the Cave of the Magician Merlin. I love reading stories about the times of King Arthur and the magic and sorcery of Merlin and Morgan La Fey. It is so fascinating, and I would love to explore that further.

Extra Reading Diary: Apache Tales

So I'm reading Apache Tales for my extra reading diary this week, and wow! This unit is really interesting! I love that the stories are all single stories because I liked being able to read so many different stories about so many different Apache characters. I thought that it was really cool to read such a wide variety of stories in one unit. The stories in this unit were all pretty short, which is something that I always have a hard time doing in my writing. I tend to write with a lot of detail, and I really like longer stories. However there was something really neat about the efficiency of these stories. They were very too the point, and read a little bit like a non-fiction story, just like a quick retelling of events.

Coyote

I particularly liked the stories Coyote Secures Fire and The Man Who Helped the Eagles. In some of the stories I felt a little confused when they referred to characters. Sometimes because I wasn't sure who a character was, and sometimes because there was so much pronoun usage. In these two stories though, I found the message to be really clear. The story about Coyote was especially great. It was a really surprising story, I did not expect any of the actions, so I was really entertained throughout it. I really just loved how all of the stories in this unit are like little snapshots. They don't have too much detail nor are they too wordy. They are complex stories sometimes but are presented very simply. I really liked that, and I felt like it gave my imagination a lot of room to make up my own details about the story.

Reading Diary A: Native American Hero Tales

I am reading Native American Hero Tales this week! Wow, they are so awesome. I really love the Native American stories because they are always so detailed and clever. I love how many of the stories connect back to nature and the earth around us. It is such a reflection of the respect that the Native people felt for the earth and the living things on it.

Hupa woman and child. Photograph taken by
Edward Curtis

I really liked the story Bluejay and His Companions. It had so much action! I typically find that Native American stories are really focused on the detail and the beautiful imagery inside of the story, and less focused on this action, but this story was not like that! Bluejay and his companions really did go on an adventure of sorts (not of their own volition of course). I loved that the story was predictable in the way that each after each escape I knew they would come across a new village with a new challenge to find their way out of, but had no idea what that challenge would be. It made the story so easy to follow because their was that sense of repetitiveness in the plot. However it was still so interesting because the challenges were new and exciting each time!

I also really liked the story about Dug-From-Ground. This was another story that focused a lot on action and less on the descriptive imagery. It was still very full of detail and I was able to make a clear picture in my head of the story as it happened, however the action was awesome and so interesting! I felt so engaged. I think that sometimes stories that lack any sort of action can be boring and hard to read, so I loved that these stories really brought a lot of action into them.

Extra Reading Diary: Tejas Legends

Wow I love the Tejas legends. They are so magical feeling. I also really love how filled with action many of them are. Sometimes I find that stories do not seem to have exciting actions and storylines, but many of these definitely do. They are so full of suspense, which I think is such an important thing to exist in a story. It keeps readers interested and wanting to finish the story. It also creates this sense of nervousness and excitement for what is going to happen next.

One of my favorite stories in this unit is When the Storm God Rides, I mean wow, what a story. It is, like so many Native American stories, centered around nature and animals, and very full of beautiful descriptions. However, it also has incredible suspense and action. I love that the story describes hurricanes and why they exist. The last hurricane that is described in the story is so full of excitement and danger. I was so enthralled while I was reading it.

Native American tapestry featuring moccasins

I also really enjoyed the story A Tribe that Left its Shoes. It was an origin story like so many Native American stories are and it was just such an interesting story. It described the origin of orchid flowers. Like the story When the Storm God Rides, this story also had quite a bit of excitement and suspense. A volcano erupted on the island where the Indians lived and they had to evacuate their homes. Many of them died. This part of the story was so action packed that it just made me want to keep reading. I was quite pleasantly surprised because I find that origin legends and myths are often not very action packed or suspenseful. The Tejas stories manage to teach as well as the be fun and exciting stories.

Creating suspense and excitement in stories is something that is really important to me in my writing, and I hope that I will be able to use what I read this week to help me write a better action filled story for my storybook story about Medea.

Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

Wow I really love how descriptive the stories in this unit (American Indian Fairy Tales) are. There is so much detail in all of them, and I love all how so much of it is tied into nature. The people are described with similes comparing them to animals, or to landmarks. Its such an interesting way to utilize detail I think, and I love that it just really is reflective of Native American culture. In all of the detail there seems to be such a reverence for the natural world and its creatures.

I really loved this description of the daughters of the hunter from the story The Child of the Evening Star.

Their hair was dark and glossy as the wings of the blackbird, and when they walked or ran, it was with the grace and freedom of the deer in the forest.

The sentence is so elegant and I think that the description is really beautiful. I can picture the scenes in this story so well because of these descriptions. They also give the story kind of an ethereal feel, I think, which to me is really fitting in this particular story because the girl is protrayed as being so beautiful, so kind, and very wise. She chooses her husband based off of his heart and how beautiful he is inside, and not at all based on his outward appearance.

This story not only has beautiful language, but I really loved the youngest daughter. I love that this story is about looking past outward appearances and delving into the character beneath the face. It is always so important to remember that there is so much more, that is so much more important, beneath the skin, and I love that the youngest daughter in this story is the one who realizes that best.

Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

The unit that I am reading this week (Chinese Fairy Tales) is really interesting to me. The stories are all quiet different. I really like how the majority of the stories spend a lot of time on the setting of the story, and how the actions of the story are set up. There were several stories that I particularly liked while I was reading however.

I really like the story called The Lady of the Moon. It's about a woman who takes an immortality potion and floats up into the sky and lives in a palace on the moon. The story does not have a whole lot of action in it, which surprises me that I still really liked it. It focuses a lot on describing the setting of the moon, what is on it, how it looks, etc. I really loved the descriptions a lot. They seemed magical and whimsical. The descriptions were so vivid that I could easily picture the scene in my head. I found myself wanting to create a story in this very setting.

Women placing silkworms onto bamboo screens

I also really liked the story The Girl with the Horse's Head or the Silkworm Goddess. This story was quite interesting, and though it was a little confusing at some parts, I really liked its ending. I loved how this story seemed to have a lot of action. I even felt a little bit of suspense while I was reading it. The story was very different as well. It was so unlike any fairy tale that I have ever read. It still had the same magic and wonder weaved into it though. I would love to read a more extended version of this story, to have someone drag it out into a full length novel, maybe.

Extra Reading Diary: Filipino Tales

The stories in this unit (Filipino Tales) are really interesting to me. The first few that I read felt really lighthearted, where no one was really punished for doing wrong. However, then there were several stories which were much darker. All of them have been enjoyable to read though, and pretty short!

Chimpanzee

I really liked the story The Enchanted Prince. It was an interesting story to me because the woman who was scorned did not exact a revenge which had a horrible outcome. She instead decreed that the prince would be made into a monkey and his subjects and town into a forest filled with animals for many centuries. However after he would be turned back into a man by the love of a woman, and live happily ever after, ruling his kingdom. I thought it was so interesting that the scorned witch had made it so that he would eventually be able to marry and rule his kingdom instead of ruining his life forever. However, it did allow for a great story of a woman falling in love with a monkey who then turned out to be a prince!

I also really liked the story The Clever Husband and Wife. It was another story that I thought was pretty strange because the husband and wife were really deceitful and had lied their way into getting money from their masters several times, but when the masters found out were not upset at all. Instead they rewarded them by moving them into their house. It seemed weird to me that there was absolutely no punishment for the couple's deceitful methods, nor was anyone upset by their lies. But it was such a different outcome than the other stories I have read about lying and deceit in this class that I ended up really liking it.

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Princess Hase and her father illustrated by a Japanese artist
in Ozaki's Japanese Fairy Tales

Okay so after reading the second half of this unit (Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)), my very favorite story is the story about Princess Hase. I think it is such a cool story, and it is a little bit reminiscent of both Cinderella and Snow White. Princess Hase had to deal with the whole evil stepmother thing like Cinderella, although her stepmother was a little more evil than Disney would probably ever allow.

The stepmother even ordered her to be taken off into the wilderness to be killed. This was when I started thinking of Snow White... Remember when the evil queen decides she wants Snow White dead and orders a hunter to kill her in the woods and bring back her heart? The servant doesn't want to kill Princess Hase, so instead he gets his wife, builds a cottage in the mountains and raises her... pretty Snow White like, right?

I loved how this story was so full of Japanese culture and tradition, but read so much like European fairy tales. I really loved the beginning of the story about when Princess Hase was a child. The early death of her mother, and her determination to follow what her mother had instructed her to do made her seem so wise beyond her years.

One of the scenes from when she was young that really stuck out in my mind was when her stepmother poisoned a bottle of wine in an attempt to kill her, but instead accidentally fed it to her son killing him. I can picture the scene so vividly in my mind of how this must have played out, and it absolutely gives me chills.

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Oh this unit (Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)) is really cool so far! I love that the stories are 3-4 parts long. I really like the longer stories because I like to feel like I am able to learn about the character more, and spend more time inside of the story. 

So far my favorite story is The Man who did not Wish to Die. I really liked how within the story a good background was given into the "Elixir of Life" that the man was searching for. That one of the most powerful emperor's had searched for it and not been able to obtain it, was a great testament to how elusive and desirable this thing was.

Sentaro flying to the land of Perpetual Life from the book
of Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Ozaki, illustrated by
Japanese artists

One of my favorite parts of the story is the description of life in the land of Perpetual Life. Sentaro was so determined to live forever or for hundreds and hundreds of years at least that he had never considered that it might not be as grand as he thought. The land of Perpetual Life was beautiful, but the people in it were not happy. They had been alive for hundreds and hundreds of years, no one had died. A priest had told them about Paradise, which was only to be found after death, and the people longed so much to reach that place that they would eat and drink poison in an attempt to get sick and die. I loved the initial contrast made between the people of the land and Sentaro after he first arrived in the land of Perpetual Life. They had such different outlooks of things, and I loved how over the course of the story Sentaro begins to see how living forever is not necessarily a blessing.

I really thought Sentaro was an easy character to read about. He had the same desires as so many people have, to live comfortably and almost lavishly, and to live a long long life. However throughout the story his outlook changes completely, and he seems wiser and to have a better understanding of life and the world and gifts around him.

Extra Reading Diary: Indian Fairy Tales

For my extra reading diary this week, I read the first half of the Indian Fairy Tales. I really like these fairy tales. They are very different than the Georgian and Turkish fairy tales I read this week and last week, but still so interesting and fun. Like the Turkish fairy tales they seem to each have a lesson or a message woven into them. Its so very cool to me to be able to see the values that people find to be most important and how they weave them into stories to be used as a teaching method.

One of my favorite stories was The Magic Fiddle. I liked it in particular because the story was so full of magic. I also thought that the ending to the story was really interesting and quite a good message. After all of the ordeal that the girl is put through (she drowns in a well because of her sisters-in-law, she is turned into bamboo, was cut down, carved into a fiddle and carted around the country) she finally turns back into a human and sees her brothers and does  not react in complete anger. It says the only revenge that she took was to tell them that what they had done was wrong. I thought that was such an interesting ending to a story. I expected at the end that the brothers and their wives would be punished for their actions, but instead the girl acted with grace and not with vengeance. That was really cool to me.

The Lion and the Crane

I also really liked the first story The Lion and the Crane. This was another story that I really liked the message of. The crane does a big favor for the lion by helping him get something out of his throat, and when the lion should be showing that he is grateful to the crane, instead he responds only that the crane is lucky that he has not eaten him. The moral of the story was to show gratefulness to those who help you, and to always be gracious and kind to others. I really like that message and therefore enjoyed this story greatly. This is definitely a story that I would read to my children (when I have them, a wwaaayyyyy long time from now).

Reading Diary A: Turkish Fairy Tales

Okay, so I am really loving the Turkish Fairy Tales. They are everything fairy tales should be. They have princes, talking animals, fairies, and witches. At the end of the story everything is wrapped up into a neat little bow. These are the types of stories I would have loved to have been told as a child.

So far I really like The Fish-Peri.I love how magical the story feels. The fish is so grateful to the man for not selling or eating her, that every day when he leaves to go fishing, she changes into her human form and cleans his house for him. I also really enjoyed the tasks he was given by the Padishah. They were so random and seemingly impossible, yet the fish-maiden never batted an eye. She always had the perfect solution. I really liked how in this story it was the woman who was helping the man. So often in fairy tales the women are presented as being helpless creatures who rely on a prince charming to come and rescue them, but in these fairy tales, the women are not helpless at all. I can imagine that these stories would have given girls confidence that they are capable of solving problems themselves, and that they too can come to people's rescue.

Illustration from The Crow-Peri by Willy
Pogany

The Crow-Peri is another story that was very similar to The Fish-Peri, and I liked it equally well. In this story, a young maiden had been turned into a crow. She was helping a man to complete a series of tasks given to him by a Padishah at the demand of his jealous and vindictive lala. I really liked the element of treachery in this story, how the lala was constantly trying to influence the Padishah and force him to come up with tasks that the man would fail at. It was an added element to the story, which the Fish-Peri did not have as much of. Again I was so very impressed by how the women in this story were not portrayed as being helpless and weak, but instead contributed equally to the solving of various problems.

I cannot wait to read the rest of this unit!

Extra Reading Diary: Georgian Folktales

I loved the Georgian Folktales. They were so interesting and all of them seemed to be fable like. I felt like in each one, I was learning about the values and beliefs of the people who told them. There seemed to be a lesson in each of the stories, which I really appreciate. I love that stories can be used to instill values in children and in others.

A Georgian Prince by Grigory
Gagarin (ca.1850)

Oedipus and Antigone by
Antoni Brodowsky (1828)

One of my favorite stories from this unit was Fate. It definitely had a classic fairy tale feel. I also really liked how it dealt with the concept of fate. The entire story revolves around the idea that your fate is inevitable, and that no matter what you do to try to avoid it, it will catch up with you. It reminded me of the Greek character Oedipus. Although Oedipus's fate is much darker than the prince in this story, the basics are the same. Both Oedipus and the prince learn of their fates, and in distaste for them, endeavor to do all that they can to prevent it. In this story the prince finds the poor weaver's invalid daughter whom he is fated to marry and stabs her. However, like Oedipus, he is ultimately unable to escape his fate. He finds a beautiful woman in a palace in the woods years later and marries her. It turns out that she is the same poor weaver's daughter, but has had a change in circumstances. I like that this story is so reminiscent of Oedipus's story, but does not end in such tragedy as his did.

I also really loved the story The Serpent and the Peasant. This story had such a great message of  understanding, forgiveness, and grace. I could definitely see the religious influences within the story which testifies to their commitment to Orthodox Christianity. The snake is so full of grace and faithfulness. The peasant comes to him for help continually, and then continually acts thanklessly afterwards. He gives the snake back nothing. Even still though the snake offers his help without complaint when the peasant comes to him. When finally the peasant shows remorse for his actions and offers the snake what he had promised him. The snake acts gracefully. He forgives the peasant for his greed, for his violence, and for his thankfulness, and even says he does not want what he is due. This story to me is so representative of the faithfulness of God, and how He is there for us, and cares for us even when we turn our backs on Him. Further when we finally come back to Him, He is not vengeful or angry, but forgiving and full of grace. I love that this story seems so influenced by Christian beliefs.

Week 4: Reading Diary A- Ancient Egypt Unit

Ah, this unit is so cool so far! I didn't know much about the gods of ancient Egypt prior to starting this unit, so I have learned a lot. The gods of Egypt, it seems, had nearly as much drama as the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome.

One of my favorite stories so far is The Journey of Isis. After the death of Osiris, Isis is completely devastated. She travels all over looking for his body and the men who betrayed him. Her determination is so appreciable. I loved the detail in everything she did in order to put herself in a position to bargain with the Syrian king to take back the body of Osiris. She comes across in this story as being very loyal, very determined, and very clever. The part in the story where Set discovers that Isis has taken Osiris is pretty gruesome, but Isis's reaction was a testament to her character and the amount of love and loyalty she felt toward Osiris. She sought out all 14 pieces of his body, which had been strewn about by Set just to bury each piece in its own tomb.

Head of a Crocodile in blue glass, 4th century BCE, Egypt

I also thought the story The Wax Crocodile was really interesting. It too had a pretty violent story line, which from what I have gathered reading the stories in this unit, is pretty typical. I think the Wax Crocodile was so cool because it seemed that it might be revealing of ancient Egyptian culture. It deals with adultery and what the punishment for that sin is. That both the adulteress and her lover are killed for it suggests that the ancient Egyptians prized fidelity very highly.