Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales, Part B

Hi there guys!

Okay so the story I will be doing my notes over today is kinda a creepy one.... not like super creepy, but the picture they use really freaks me out. So I will insert it below ha ha.

(Creepy Dwarfs illustrated by John D. Batten)

So what on earth is this story about? Well it is about a woman who had twins that she cared for a nursed. Some strange things occurred in the town, but he mother always checked on her twins and they were always okay. Everyone in the town became suspicious though because the twins never grew. They stayed the same size for a very long time. So, the woman went to seek advice and was told to boil a hens egg, clean it out, fill it with porridge, take it outside, and listen to see if the twins were truly babies or not. When she did this she heard them talk as if the were adults. The wise man had told her if they did this to run inside and snack them and thrown them in the lake. She did this and goblins came and saved the dwarfs and returned the mother her real children. 

Yeah like super creepy....

Why would the dwarfs even want to be with the mother?

Where were the real twins at this time?

Why is this story so creepy?

Moving on from that, the language was actually pretty easy to follow and understand. The story was fairly short too. Overall, it was written very well. I like how there was actual factual history in the text. This included the location of the story. That is a great idea to include that and a hyperlink so the reader can do more exploring. 

To end these notes I just want to emphasis I will NOT be retelling this story. In the case that I were to retell it, I would answer some of my questions (see above) and make it less creepy. Maybe not have goblins haha.

Bibliography: 

Celtic Fairy Tales, Part B, Brewery of Eggshells by Joseph Jacobs. Retrieved from Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbooks

Learning Challenge: A Jar of Smiles :)

Feel Free To Smile

This is my ongoing post of things that make me smile. I hope it brings some joy to whoever comes across this! If you do look through it, please comment with some links or ideas of things that make you smile! This has been so fun to work on, so I highly suggest making one of your own!

10 minutes of cute puppies playing (link):

(Pups Playing from youtube)

A baby deer and a link to 30 cute baby animals (link):

(Baby deer from Bored Panda)

Just some pictures:)

(Baby Fox by Creative Commons)

(Sunset by Creative Commons)

(Golden in Snow from Wiki Commons)

(Westie Pups from Wiki Commons)

(Happy Pup made with Cheezburger)

Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales, Part A

Hey guys!

So this week I read a few of the Celtic Fairy Tales from the Celtic unit. They were pretty easy to read language wise and actually really enjoyable. I want to focus most of my attention on the story of Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree in these notes. I found this story to be the most captivating and most intriguing.

Just a quick summary:
There is a mother and daughter. One day the mother went to a well and a trout was swimming in it. She asked the trout if she was the most beautiful and the trout said no, her daughter was. The mother got angry and faked being deathly ill. She said the only cure was to eat her daughter's heart and liver. Her husband instead sent his daughter away with a prince and got his wife a goat heart and liver. The mother thought her daughter was dead until a year later when the trout informed her she was still not the most beautiful. She demanded to see her daughter and she traveled by boat to see her. The daughter locked herself in her prince's castle, but the mother demanded her to stick out her finger. The daughter did this and the mother poisoned her with a dart. The prince put the body of the daughter in a room locked away and got remarried. The new wife found the key to the room, unlocked it, and pulled the dart out of the daughter. The daughter woke up and everyone was happy. The mother was told by the trout a year later she was still not the most beautiful. This time the daughter poisoned her mother with the help of her prince's new wife. They all were happy after that.

Lets start with the main characters.....it is a mother and daughter who are named Silver-Tree(mother) and Gold-Tree(daughter). Why are they named this? Yeah I do not really know haha. I wish I did. I spend a bit of time researching and couldn't find anything about it. I can assume the silver represents less worth than the gold (which plays into the story later), but I have no idea about the tree part.

I did find out that trees are REALLY significant in Celtic mythology and lore. There are over twenty types of trees that all represent something. Overall, trees are spiritual beings that withhold magic. If I retold this story I would want to be more specific about the kind of tree. Here are some cool trees!

• Willow Tree: Seeing and prophecy (to replace gold-tree because she always knows when her mother is coming to see her or hurt her???)
• Ash Tree: Timeless and beautiful 
• Heather Tree: Secretive 
• Apple Tree: Young love, good wishes, and desire
• Elder Tree: Moon magic and feminine powers

Last thing I want to talk about is why the trout? If I retell this story, I will make it a salmon. This is because in Celtic mythology the salmon is actually the fish of knowledge. Read more here! I have no idea what a trout is haha.  

That is all for these notes, but I am excited to retell this story!

(Addiction to Cheezburger cont. created with Cheezburger)

Bibliography: 

Celtic Fairy Tales, Part A, Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree by Joseph Jacobs. Retrieved from Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbooks

Story Lab: Twine

(My Exact Reaction: made with Cheeseburger)

Hey guys! I made my first TWINE!!!

If you have read a few of my more personal goal post you may know that I have wanted to do this for a while. I finally did it! It is easier than I thought, but also not super simple. If I had to suggest something it would be to test the story every few slides. I wrote my whole story and put the caption in the wrong place. I put it as a tag soooooo don't do that haha.

Overall, it was so much fun. I won't be using it again most likely, but it was pretty cool. I still don't know how to save the file, so I will include a link, but I don't know if it works. The Twine is based of off the story called The Stars in the Sky by Joseph Jacobs. Basically in the story a girl goes on a round robin adventure to find the stars. In the end it is just a dream, but you don't know till the last moment. I used this exact plot in the my twine, except I cut the adventure down a bit. I didn't want to get too carried away with my first twine in case I messed up! If you want to read the original here is the link!

Click Here to Play

Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales, Part B

(Young Lassie on a Fish by John D. Batten)

Hey there!

When I was reading through the stories in part b of the More English Fairy Tales unit, I stumbled upon a story called The Stars in the Sky. If you have happened to visit my blog before, you may know that my project is called Star Stories for Children! So, obviously I was super interested in reading this story.

I was hopping to get some great new ideas, especially for the conclusion. This story really helped me imagine being a kid again and running around in my vivid dreams. So for the conclusion of my story I really want to speak to that. I still want to keep it as the reader is the traveler, but maybe set a tranquil mood where Vela can explain what happened and send the reader off into a dream.

As for the notes on this story, I want to focus them on the little details that may benefit my story, or I may practice retelling this story to get ready for the conclusion!

• A girl wants to see the stars and goes on a wild goose chase to find them
• She ask many people, but she never sees them
• She is told to go on a horse and then on a fish
• The fish drops her off at stairs, but she can't seem to get to the top where the stars are
• She falls of and hits the water and cries
• She wakes up in bed wailing all alone

Some ideas:

• Make it a happy ending where she does find the stars! Maybe even Vila and link my story haha;)
• Make it a young kid who climbs many things to visit the stars.
• For my story I would love to have this same kinda story in the conclusion, but focus mores on the ending. Vela will drop the reader off in bed and the reader will wake up to the sun rising. 

Bibliography:
More English Fairy Tales, Part B, The Stars in the Sky by Joseph Jacobs. Retrieved from Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbooks

Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales, Part A

Hey there!

So, I just read some of the English fairy tales and have picked one called Tattercoats to focus on. I selected this story because it is very similar to Cinderella. I wanted the opportunity to sit down with the story and really compare and contrast it. Also, I am currently addicted to Cheezburger so here is a picture I made.

(Pumpkin Pupper made with Cheeseburger)

Tell me that is not the cutest puppy ever. No there are no pumpkins in this story, but there are pumpkins in Cinderella. So, there is the first contrast ha ha!!!

Anyways, in Tattercoats there is a girl who's grandfather hates her. He hates her because during her birth her mother died and her mother was his favorite daughter. He is also rich, but he is a huge jerk. He refused to see his granddaughter. Over the years she is mistreated, hungry, and has no nice clothing. No one takes care of her except one servant.

That in itself is pretty different from Cinderella. There are no evil sisters or an evil step mom. Saddly  no talking and singing mice. I really was hopeful for a cute singing animal. Moving on though....after that set up, the rest isn't too far off. Tattercoats can't go to the ball that a prince is having to pick out his wife. She goes to a field and actually meets some guy who tells her to go to the ball with him (he was impressed by her flute). This guy is actually the prince. He tells the king this is his wife and she magically transforms and is then wearing a pretty dress. Happy ever after. 

So, if I were to change this, I would add significantly more cute and fluffy animals. Other than that, I love this story and want to keep it pretty similar!

Bibliography:
More English Fairy Tales, Part A, Tattercoats by Joseph Jacobs. Retrieved from Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbooks

Learning Challenge: All Smiles Jar :)

(The Earth is a Ball, made by Cheezburger)

Hey guys!!!

My plan for the next week or two is to write down a couple things that make me smile everyday. I will do this in a blog post saved as a draft and share it after a week. I plan to spend some time finding videos and pictures that make me smile. This will be perfect for when we are all stressed out for finals!

If you have any pictures that make you smile or any quotes comment them or comment the link!

Growth Mindset: Get Comfortable With Being Comfortable

(My Mantra, created with Cheezburger)

Hey there! This is my mantra or motto. I actually have been using this for a couple of years now and I love it. I am a dancer, so anytime I do a tryout or go to a class I remind myself of this. You have to do a lot of uncomfortable things in your life, but you just gotta remember that they are producing growth and change. From working out to going on interviews, things you aren't used to are not really comfortable situations. So, get comfortable with it! 

Extra Credit Reading Russia: Part B, The Fox-Physician

(Fox by Wikicommons)

Hi there guys!

So this story was very unexpected and quite jaw dropping to say the least. So get ready for a trickster fox and a dynamic plot.

Summary:
There was an old man and woman who planted cabbage. The old man's cabbage grew really tall...like to the sky. Actually, to the heavens. So, this old man climbs all the way up to the heavens and is super pumped. He comes back down and gets his old woman and throws her in a bag to take her up. They get halfway and he accidentally DROPS THE BAG. Aka....she dies. Oh but no fear because a fox physician is there to save the day. He tells the only man to give him oatmeal, butter, and her body. The fox demands that he should be left alone in a bathroom. The man waits outside while the fox "saves" the old woman. Well does he save her?.........Well......he eats her. Yeah. Plus this fox eats the oatmeal and butter. So, now the man is wifeless, foodless, and poor. The fox gets away.

What was my initial reaction?

(Screaming Hamster by Eurokek)

Was I surprised?
Okay to be honest I was expecting a trickster story because it includes a fox, but I was not expecting it to be that tragic. It was also kinda random in my opinion. Like why did they plant cabbages? Why did the old man not let his wife climb up herself? It is just a lot of whys. So, yes I was surprised by the ending and I wish it would have ended happier.

Would I retell?
Probably not. While yes it does contain a fluffy cute animal.....the animal eats someone and I just don't know if I vibe with that. If I did retell it I would be taking that part out. Maybe the fox would actually save the day. Who knows, but this story is not high on my retelling list.

Bibliography:
Russian Folktales: Russian Fairy Tales, Part B by W. R. S. Ralston. Retrieved from Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook.