Week 6: Betrayal Hidden Within

As a young boy I grew up in a family of wealth. I was never in need of anything. New clothes, new house, fresh food, fresh clean water, I had it all. But an ailment took hold of my parents one day. As they grew more and more sick I became more and more worried. I started to lash out and just buy things of luxurious taste. Soon my parents had passed, and I had blown through all of the money that was left for me. Now in debt and lonely I had no purpose. I began selling my possessions and finally I sold the house that I had grown up in. Just when I thought I couldn't find my way I stumbled upon the beach. As I looked out I felt a need to leave, not just leave, but travel the world. There was a spark, a spark to explore new things, new places. So I hopped on a ship, the captain promised three meals a day and that any treasure found there would be a part of it tossed my way.

Traveling the sea was not the most pleasant thing. Out on the sea for months at a time there would be harsh weather, pirate battles, and even the occasional crew death from illness. But one day there was an island off in the distance. It was not very big but we decided to dock near it and paddle towards it.

"Take a stroll around the island boys, the night is yours, do with it what you please. we set sail at dawn" said captain Gimmer.

"Aye" shouted the crew in unison.

The sun began to set and we gathered firewood to cook our food and drink around. The fire was lit and began to burn hot and bright. The flame got hotter and a rumble shook beneath our feet. The Island was moving. It began to shrink and dive into the water.

"It's a whale that ye be standing on" Yelled the captain from the ship. "Get back the the boat"

The crew scrambled and got to the boat, I was still stumbling from one too many drinks round the fire. The whale was under water now, I grabbed ahold of a piece of driftwood as I sank below the surface. "Help!!" I shouted as I resurfaced but the crew had already left. The ship was gone and I was afloat.

After a day I hit land. A real Island this time, and a sight to behold, I found that my crew had landed there as well to avoid the storm coming in. As I walked closer I was unseen. I overheard a couple of the crew members and they were talking about the whale.

"Ah the newbie was tricked successfully. Now we don't have to worry about sharing the wealth nor stealing his."

I was shocked to hear this, especially from the crew member that I was most close to. I quickly came up with a plan.

I snuck aboard the ship at sunset, Found the captain in his quarters and revealed my plan.

"Aye boy, you're alive! But how, I saw you sink before my eyes?" said the captain.

"I surfaced moments later but the crew made you think I was gone"

In shock the captain listened to my request, "Lets leave this untrustworthy crew here upon this island" I said.

"But boy we couldn't make it with just the two of us you see" replied the captain.

"We will make it, and a new crew that is more trustworthy is bound to appear upon land."

We left and found the new crew, as we sailed we gained more treasure than ever because the crew turned everything in to the captain and waited for him to distribute the wealth evenly. I traveled many years with this crew until one day I could afford a ship of my own. The ship was a small enough ship for a crew of ten. And so that's what it be, A crew of ten and me set sail and traveled the rest of our days.

The sunset that I see every night as I sail the rest of my life

Photo Provided by Flickr

Author's Note: This story's idea came from the Sinbad reading. The First Voyage was a story that stood out to me the most because that is how Sinbad began his long journey. The fact that the whale was the island was a detail in the original story. Sinbad was lost at sea and found an island to land upon. As he wandered the island he found civilization and they took him in as one of their own. Later on in the Second part of The First Voyage Sinbad is reunited with his old crew and his captain is relieved that he is not dead. Sinbad was not Betrayed by the crew in the original story, I just thought that it would be a good way to switch up the story. I thought that it turned out to be a good story in the end because Sinbad still got to travel the sea like he wanted to and got his own boat in my version of the story.

Bibliography: "First Voyage" By Andrew Lang from The Arabian Night's Entertainment: Web source 

Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha Part B

In Part B I really enjoyed how the majority of the stories are about Siddartha, one because I really enjoyed reading the Siddartha book, and two because they have some great messages in the stories that he is in. I feel like the stories are peaceful and really just show that if there is a struggle going on in your life or if you see a struggle going on in someone else's life that it is a good thing to help yourself or the person you see. I really like this message and I feel that using the peaceful way of living that Siddartha shows in the stories in different characters in my stories will make the character more liked by the reader. I think that another thing to work on in my stories would be to change up the dialect a little and maybe inter mix some of the different types of dialect. Not in a confusing way but just in a way that could potentially make the story a bit more interesting.

This represents Siddartha as Buddha

Photo provided by Pixabay

Bibliography: "The Life of Buddha" by Andre Ferdinand Herold from The Life of Buddha

Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha Part A

While reading The Life of Buddha the main thing that stuck out to me was how the plot would never seem really too terrible. It was a calm setting almost always, even when there was a problem. So I think something to focus on while writing my next story would be to maybe switch it up a little and write a story that is more calm than dark and intense like I have been writing. Another thing that I think would be fun to throw in to the mix would be to write with the style that they were writing with. The "O" when addressing a person was interesting to read. I do remember reading Siddartha and reading the strange text like that but I think it adds a different touch to the story. I would like to point out that there was a lot of detail and it was never looking at the negative sides of detail. I think this week I would like to focus on adding more detail to my stories because while I have written a lot with dialect I think more detail will help.

The Peace that is felt through less negative detail

Photo provided by Pixabay

Bibliography: "The Life of Buddha" By Andre Ferdinad Herold Webtext

Week 5 Planning: The Trickster Revelations and Heroes Rising

The intro to my storybook is most likely going to be along the lines of a trickster (or two) coming in to the scene as two separate entities. Meaning they'll start off in a place where they are not aware of one another's presence. As I have seen in the readings, the mythology tricksters have been Gods mostly and have the ability to bend the laws of reality. In the Native American tricksters stories the tricksters were portrayed as animals and didn't exactly have the power to bend reality but instead had silver tongues to talk their way to anything they desired.

The Wikipedia website shows the same characteristics of the tricksters portrayed in the stories. It gave me more insight to how they were used symbolically.

As for the Heroes of the story book they will be men and not Gods, I think that being mortal gives the stories more edge. I really enjoyed the Achilles stories from last weeks readings and thought it was interesting how the plot showed that Achilles could die if he chose the wrong path. There are a couple ideas that I have in mind for the heroes, either Sam and Dean and the Grimm brothers, or I will make my own heroes.

The story book needs to start off with the heroes not aware of the task that will become of them, meaning defeating the tricksters. But the tricksters know of who the heroes are and are afraid in a way that they will be killed by the heroes. This will cause the tricksters to do everything they can to prevent their demise but in the long run will fail and not be able to stop the force of the mortal beings. Overall I am excited to start my storybook this next week.

The mortal man being watched by the trickster from the shadows.

Photo provided by: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "Trickster" by Multiple Sources from Wikipedia

"The Slaying of Hector (end)" by A.J. Church from Homer's Iliad 

Reading Notes: Voyages of Sinbad Part B

Some things to consider after reading the part B for the Sinbad reading, one being to continue the story through my next stories. So as one is ending leave a little bit of detail to make the reader want to read more into the next story. I am also wanting to maybe do one story as the first person narrative and I have an idea of how I would like to do that. I've seen a couple ways that I could do that. Another way that I want to incorporate ideas from the Sinbad stories would be to make sure that there are multiple places that the characters visit to keep the interesting plot. I enjoyed reading how Sinbad would sail his ship to one place and then sail it to another or the ship would get destroyed and he would have yet again another near death experience. Lastly, exaggerating characters in shape and size or in abilities made the story pop. The giant birds in the fifth adventure was a good touch to the fear that they felt.

Sinbad Surviving in his unplanned Ways

Photo Provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: "Voyages of Sinbad" by Andrew Lang from The Arabian Nights' Entertainment. Websource

Reading Notes: Voyages of Sinbad part A

With the stories for this weeks reading I chose Sinbad because I have always heard different versions of Sinbad and they are always interesting. One thing I enjoyed about part A of the reading was that it was in a first person perspective. It made the detail stand out more. When explaining the islands there was background bits added into the story about the things they did before settling down to relax. Another thing I liked was that the way it was portrayed was as if the events were happening to a real person. It seemed like they were all valid things that were happening to Sinbad but his reactions to the situation were what any normal human being would do. Something to keep in mind would be to make sure to add a human factor to my stories.

This is a ship to Represent the Sailing Done by Sinbad 

Photo Provided by United States Coast Guard

Bibliography: "Voyages of Sinbad" by Andrew Lang from The Arabian Nights' Entertainment Websource

Week 4 Story: Achilles' Own Path

Before the great war started Achilles was preparing for a long hard fought battle. On the outside one could see how fierce and brave the warrior was, but on the inside Achilles was tired. Tired of the battling with nothing more gained than that of gold and treasures. He was angered by the fact that his name was not the name of the king. He wanted to be seen as a true warrior, a true leader, and the only way for this to be was to be king. King Agamemnon could see the anger of his most prized warrior. He feared that there would be consequences for this anger.

King Agamemnon said to Achilles "What is it that bothers you Achilles?" in a tone not so pleasant to the ears of the warrior. "What more is there to gain from this war? Are you not pleased already with the riches that you have?" asked Achilles. The King was now angered as he was questioned. "Matters that do not concern you shall not be of worry to you" replied Agamemnon. "The fight is not worth the gain, I shall not lose men to this atrocity" said Achilles in anger "Have you not enough?" The king now furious being questioned "Do not forget what has been given to you"

Achilles' blood boiled with hate at this point "You would be so ignorant as to take the earnings of your greatest warrior?" Agamemnon replied "Ha! My greatest warrior would know thou place and not question thy King. I shall take what I have given to thou and none will be returned. I have other warriors fit to lead my army into battle"

Achilles could not bear to listen to this king of his any longer. He said "Do as you will but thou will not like the outcome." As he walked away and went back to his home. He began to gather his belongings, told his wife to do the same as they were leaving that night. His wife was one of many gifts from the king as a show of appreciation for all Achilles had done. He feared the king would take her away from him.

As they began their journey, the moon lit the path for them. After hours of travel a horn could be heard from a distance. Not one, not three, but five blows from this horn. It signified a betrayal of the king. This infuriated Achilles for he had not betrayed anyone. He knew what was coming and hid his wife in the nearest city where they would begin their new life. "I must go away and resolve what has become" Achilles told his wife. She pleaded for him not to leave but knew he would anyway.

Achilles camped out in the middle of the path from one city to another, the King finally came and saw him sitting in the path. The king had brought a handful of men, a handful being 100 warriors. Achilles stood "Brothers, do not give into this mans greed, as he is not seen as a pure being in the eyes of the Gods" before he could finish the king interrupted "Kill him!" but not one man flinched. They respected Achilles for leading them into so many battles before and saving their lives time and time again. "You see king, no matter how powerful you see yourself to be, I am the leader. The true leader of the Greeks. Defy me and I will take what is rightfully mine." as these words were spoken the King trembled, The warriors turned on the king and tied him in binds. Achilles had one of the warriors fetch his wife and bring her. They went back home and Achilles gained his rightful place on the throne after all the people were pleased to see Achilles as the new king. There he ruled and was not a king of greed but brought peace and prosperity to all of his people.

Achilles with Wife and Son after Claiming the Throne

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Authors Note: This Story was created as a different perspective of what it would be like if Achilles left the King and defied him because Achilles wanted to be remembered in history and to get his way he had to do an unimaginable act against the king. The original story was from Homer's Iliad and ideas were brainstormed from the original story of The Quarrel. The original had the king taking back what he had given Achilles and then angering him more so but still proving his point. 

Bibliography: "The Quarrel" by A.J. Church from Homer's Iliad Websource

Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad Part B

For the Part B reading in Homer's Iliad I focused on the style of the story. The style was detail given with a lot of belief. I found it strange that the people would put their belief so much in the Gods that they believed the Gods intervened so much that they controlled the outcome of the war. Given the details though, it made sense to have the Gods intervene. The detail of how everything unfolded in the story was a lot, sometimes it seemed like a lot of it was unnecessary but while I perceived it this way I saw the purpose of it. The purpose was to make sure that there was not any questions as to why the decisions were made, it made more sense to add the detail than to leave it out and confuse the reader/listener. How the story ended was a little abrupt and did not leave much detail on who won the battle of Troy but it did include a text link to more reading and history on the battle which was nice. If there is an abrupt ending to one of my stories I would probably be likely to leave a link to more reading about the information given.

 Achilles and Ajax Strategizing War Plans

Provided by Wikimedia Commons 

Bibliography: "Homer's Iliad" as told by A.J. Church Webtext 

Reading Notes: Homer's Iliad part A

For this reading I found it interesting that the stories reminded me of the movie Troy. I could really see the movie playing out in my head as I read. Besides that side note the reading overall showed some great things to add to the idea of making my project. The dialogue was really intriguing at first because it was a little difficult to understand, but as the stories played out there was more understanding of what was being said. I thought it was pretty cool how the stories all came together to make one big story. One story would end and the other would continue right where the other left off. Although I have read about the Greek mythology before it just seemed like there was more added to these stories, so while I am looking through other stories I will keep in mind that creating more detail is a good way to make a story more interesting. Overall I think there is some good detail to look at in those stories and I especially like the way that Achilles' mother helps him out with talking to Zeus. The way they all come together is the main focus on this reading.

Representing Achilles taking Troy

Photo Provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad retold by A.J. Church Weblink

Topic Research: Tricksters and Heroes

For my Project I think I have decided to do a Tricksters and Heroes clash theme. While reading the tricksters stories I noticed that it is a very obvious trick that the tricksters are pulling. I want to make the Tricksters a little more interesting and do a more subtle way of introducing the tricks pulled. While doing this I would like to do a Heroes theme, where the heroes end up meeting the tricksters in different scenarios. I think this would be an interesting portfolio project.

A trickster story that stuck out to me the most was the Cherokee story of How the Rabbit Stole the Otter's Coat because rabbits have always been seen as this clever creature in many different cultures. The main focus for me would be the fact that the story was more subtle than others when it came to the reveal of the way that the rabbit stole the coat. He pretty much just had the otter hand him the coat. I think this is an important aspect to remember when writing my own stories.

The other two stories that I liked were hero stories. The story of Hercules and his labors caught my attention, The Second Labor retold by Hera on said blog. It really popped out at me because the fact that I am trying to do a Tricksters and Heroes clash and Hercules was the hero and trickster in the story was actually really cool to see, there is some possibility of that. The next hero story that I found to be interesting was Brothers Cross Paths: Winchesters Meet Grimm. All of the stories in this are great, and I still see Sam and Dean as heroes. The fact is I want to do a Supernatural theme, but I did not want to copy the idea that I have already seen. But there are great writing techniques in this that I would like to further look at and incorporate.

A photo showing how mixtures can become lights, just like ideas 

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Week 3 Story: A Graceful Protector

Back in the time of war there was a little Jewish boy who lived with his grandfather the Rabbi. This time of war was not a safe place for anyone of Jewish descent. Nazi Germany was a rising tide throughout Europe and death followed wherever the Germans went. The Rabbi was at an age now where he could not protect himself from these forces nor could he protect his grandson. The grandson, who's name was Yaniv, was only 13. He did not quite fully understand the danger of the world around him but knew that things were not safe.

Yaniv curiously asked "Grandfather, why are these men taking our friends away?" 

"Hush, do not speak of this outside where others can hear." snapped the Grandfather. 

The Rabbi knew there was something in the ancient scripts that he had seen before, it was something that he could use to keep the two of them safe in the time of war. He searched all through the night and finally had found it, the old writings there was a script. Only three families knew of the secret script and the Rabbi happened to be one of them. 

Yaniv watched his grandfather start to build a giant sculpture from clay. Curious once again he asked, "Grandfather what are you doing?"

"Protecting us." he replied

"But how will a sculpture made of such brittle material protect us?" asked Yaniv

The Grandfather ignored him and kept working, knowing that Yaniv would know in time. By morning he had finished the sculpture and the final touch was to bring the object to life. The written script that the Rabbi had was now written on to an old cloth, with the Rabbi and the child's name on the backside. This ensured that Golem would only obey Yaniv and himself. As the Rabbi placed the rolled up cloth into the giants mouth, its eyes and mouth began to glow. 

The Golem was alive, he stood up and in a loud booming voice said "I am yours to command." 

The grandfather gave it the instruction to protect him and the boy from any harm and it did just that for the span of the entire war. They set out to rescue as many people as they could and while in doing so the Golem protected them while they helped the others.

As time went on there came a time where the Golem no longer had to protect them from the dangers of the Nazis, but the golem has been passed down from generation to generation since, and still lives to protect the lives of the family. 

The Golem Brought to Life by the Rabbi

Photo Provided by: Wikimedia Commons

The Updated version of this story can be found here: Webtext

Authors note: This story was produced from the idea of a story that was part of the Jewish Fairy Tales section of the reading. Though the actual story was a Rabbi who created a "Bogey-man" to protect himself from the king. The King saw that the Rabbi had brought an inanimate object to life and was going to have him killed if he could not do it again. So the Rabbi did but made sure that the new being protected him from the kings doings. I made this story to fit the terrible time in the lives of the Jewish culture because it brings an aspect of good to the table where they were able to fight back rather than be mass murdered by Nazi Germany. Everyone of this world is a human being and the prejudice people are ignorant and evil. This story shows the oppressed rising up against the odds. Dealt the worst possible hand in life, Yaniv and his grandfather figured out a way to turn the tide and beat the enemy oppressing them.

Bibliography: "The Rabbi's Bogey-Man" from Jewish Fairy Tales by Gertrude Landa web source

Topic Brainstorm: Heroic/ Celtic

For this Project Brainstorming I have looked over the possible topics and have chosen the four I would like to do and combine into my own storytelling style.

For the first option I chose Heroes of Myth and Legend. This is always an interesting topic for me because the way that people have portrayed heroes over time. It is an ever changing subject and will forever be interesting. The way the myths are written are interesting because theres always a new spin on some of the stories that I have heard in the past. There is always a challenge to conquer for the hero and there is detail within the stories that paints an image in my head.

The second option that I would like to focus on would be the Tricksters  section because those are diverse. Also if anyone has ever seen Supernatural they know that the trickster in the show is comical and plays a huge part in Sam and Deans life. I was also intrigued by the Native American trickster section. I believe that I will be incorporating tricksters into my portfolio!

Third, I would like to infuse my portfolio with the Greek Heroes section because of the different aspects of heroes shown. The different culture aspect shows how the heroes change over time. Another great thing is that it is Greek Mythology, which has always shown hidden messages in the stories. They were used for teaching the younger generation and also for entertainment but i have always enjoyed those stories.

Lastly, I would like to add Brothers Grimm to my list. The Supernatural/Brothers Grimm story that i read at the beginning of the semester really hooked me. Plus I have always enjoyed Grimm stories. They are dark and put new twists on old stories. Those stories will be a great addition to my portfolio and I really look forward to researching more on the Brothers Grimm.

Central Ideas Have Multiple Parts

Photo Provided by Pixabay

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part B

Part B of the reading was very interesting, some of the stories that I read were stories that I had heard before, but in a different style and ending. The way that a lot of the stories started were from hardships. They all were similar in the fact that their faith was put to the test and in time they were rewarded if they stuck to their faith. I found this interesting because it made me wonder what would happen if they did not trust in their faith. The detail in the stories was great too because there was a lot of it, and the words used to describe it were not common words. There were a couple new words added to my vocabulary while reading because I had to look some of them up to understand the context of the reading. These stories also were great because they gave me insight into what the history and faith of the Jewish culture is like. I enjoyed learning another style of writing and look forward to reading more next week as well as reading others posts on their choice of reading.

City of Jerusalem, seen in many Jewish Fairy tales

Photo provided by Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: The stories talked about in this reading section were written by Gertrude Landa from the Jewish Fairy Tales Unit in the blog section. I recommend looking over these stories in order to improve writing skills. 

Reading Notes: Jewish Fairy Tales, Part A

From Shepard-Boy to King was interesting in the fact that an unknown voice had called out his name and told him that he would be ruler of the land. David in this story seems like a very level headed guy, who really appreciates the world itself and every living thing. He was confused on why this voice called his name but realized that there was not anyone around. The fact that he is also clueless at the same time is great though. When he climbs the so called hill and finds out that it is a giant unicorn surprised me. The detail within the story is great. I could see the images in my mind because the detail painted the picture in my head. The ending was a little abrupt but it was part of the story so it worked out just fine. Showing how the unicorn bowed to the lion who was smaller showed respect, but when David became king because the deer saved his life. A big point on this subject would be the fact that it was all out of luck that David was chosen to be king.

The Unicorn that David ended up on

Photo provided by Pixabay

Bibliography: The original story was, From Shepard-Boy to King  by Gertrude Landa which showed the life of a clueless boy who became a king of the land by pure luck and did not know how he became king of the land.

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