Week 7 Reading Diary: Chinese Fairy Tales

I chose to read the Chinese Fairy Tales unit this week.

In the story about The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck, it is so cool to me that the daughter saw dragons crawling out of the ears of a boy and that that meant he had good luck. I love cultural symbols like dragons in your ears!

I can't imagine my husband leaving and me not hearing anything from him for 18 years! I don't think I would be able to stay faithful to him that whole time. What if he had died or remarried? But I'm glad the princess was able to because it worked out well for her for a whole 18 days before she died. This was a funny story because it was so matter of fact.

In the story about The Cave of Beasts, its funny to me that the father's reaction to his daughters eating his eggs was to lead them to their death in the woods. He must get really angry when he's hungry. But once the daughters find precious jewels, then the father is all too happy for them to come home.

The Panther story definitely reminds me of The Three Little Pigs.

I like stories that explain everyday things that we don't think about unless prompted. In the story about Why Dog and Car Are Enemies, we learn the backstory of their relationship.

The picture of the nine-tailed fox in The Foxfire story reminds me of Pokemon.

The lifestyle and cultural that is described in The Talking Silver Foxes sounds so traditional and communal. I really like the images of the sacrifices and gatherings.

I think it's cool that the boy is homeschooled in The Retribution because I was homeschooled!

In The Night of the Battlefield, I really didn't understand why the man's body came apart. Come to think of it, I really didn't understand the story at all. Besides the dismemberment, nothing really happened.

In The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away, I liked that it reminded me of Rapunzel. I also liked that the villain was an ogre instead of a witch. This would be a fun story to retell for my storytelling assignment.

The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge  really confused be because I didn't understand how the sorcerer had tricked them, which was the entire ending.

Week 6 Essay: The Seductress vs. The Housewife

In the Labors of Yamato, women played two very different and contrasting roles. On the one hand, Benzen, the sea goddess, is mysterious, seductive, and not trustworthy. But on the other hand, Tacibana, Yamato's wife, is obedient, loves him unconditionally, and would sacrifice herself for him.
These roles paint two negative pictures for the roles that were available to women in Japan in the early nineteen hundreds. Women  could either be promiscuous temptresses or kowtowing, opinionless housewives. Speaking as a women and gender studies minor, I think it is infinitely sad that these are the ways that the authors chose to portray the women in this story.

One good point for the roles of women is that at least Benzen was independent and pursued what she wanted. I don't condone lying or stealing, but she did achieve her desires in the end. But what really irked me was that Tacibana knew her husband was off gallivanting around when he was looking for that golden apple, and she didn't seem upset by it. She never confronted or accused him of the poor treatment he was doling out.

Tacibana's strategy seemed to be that if she was meek and didn't whine, her husband would stop his infidelity and come back to her. So she minded her own business in the home, trying to be the perfect housewife.

 

(Image information: "Good House Keeping," an American magazine 1908) 

And then when she saved him from the fiery forest, she seemed sure that she had proved her devoted love to him. But he didn't leave Benzen until she stole his mighty sword. So it wasn't even his choice in the first place to leave his lover.

With that, this story might be about how little power men actually have in regards to some women like Benzen. So in order to feel powerful, they exploit the other women in their lives like Tacibana. I have so many possible theories about the situation that I'm not really sure.

To be fair, women haven't always been portrayed well in other stories we've read for this class. But for some reason, probably the cheating, the gender roles stuck out to me like a sore thumb in this story, and I have to say that I wasn't a fan of that.

Storytelling Week 6: The Miniature Mermaid

Once upon a time, a young man loved to spend all of his time at the beach. His name was Ian, and he made sandcastles, collected shells, and took long walks up and down the shore. But most of all, he snorkeled in the shallow waters to look at the sea creatures. Fish darted past colored all the shades of the rainbow. Tiny crabs clicked their claws at him, and pink sea anemones waved in the gentle water.

Ian was obsessed with the placid nature and tiny stature of the sea life he observed, and the only thing he wanted in the world was to become like the sea creatures he watched.

One day, after he had slipped on his mask and snorkel, he was skimming through the shallow water when he saw a new creature, one he had never laid eyes on before. But he knew what he was looking at because he'd heard his grandmother tell stories about them.

 

(Image Information: "Portrait of a Mermaid" by CaperGirl42.)

 The miniature mermaid wore shimmering shells in her iridescent hair, and where her legs should have been, she had a green-scaled tale. She was the most beautiful sea creature Ian had ever laid eyes on.

The mermaid acted as though she wanted to speak to him but was afraid of his giant-like size. And so Ian got an idea. If he could only shrink his body down to her size, then surly they would fall in love and live happily ever after! Ian tried to explain this genius plan to her before waving and swimming off.

Back on shore, he knew who he needed to speak to about his situation. His grandmother's knowledge of mermaids was extensive, but she was also quick to make a potion to heal your ailments.

Ian hurried to his grandmother's house to explain his predicament. His grandmother's white hair was combed into a neat bun, and she listened attentively as he spoke.

Once he had finished his tale of true love, his grandmother said, "My dear Ian, what should happen if I shrink you, and then this mermaid doesn't fall in love with you? Will you be happy in the ocean alone?"

That thought hadn't even crossed Ian's mind. He was young, muscled, and handsome. Why wouldn't she fall in love with him? But to appease his grandmother, he enthusiastically told her yes because he loved to watch the sea creatures before he even met the mermaid.

With that, his grandmother presented him with a shrinking potion and gave him a hug goodbye. Ian hurried back to the white sand beaches and the clear blue waters. He swallowed the vial of blue potion in one gulp, and instantly, he shrunk down to three inches tall.

Gleeful, he hopped in the water and swam to find his mermaid love. Once he spotted her, he waved frantically. She swam up to him, her eyebrows crinkled.

"Why did you become so small?" she asked.

"I became small because I had to tell you I was in love with you," Ian said.

"With me?" she asked.

He nodded vigorously.

"Well, if you're in love with me, then you should fetch me something to eat."

Ian happily went and found her some seaweed to eat. When he returned, she had another task for him. On and on this continued, until the mermaid had entirely changed Ian's conception of what true love was. He now believed that he was put on this earth to serve his mermaid day and night, and he was happy to do so.

In the end, Ian got what he wanted because he became small like the sea creatures he adored, and the mermaid got what she wanted because she was tired of always having to do her chores. But no one was in love with anyone else.

Author's Note: This story is very loosely based on The Labors of Yamato, in which he finds a woman in a sea grotto and falls in love with her. She says he must prove his love by finding the golden apple. This proves very difficult for him, but once he finally accomplishes it, he brings it to her. In return she steals his sword, and never loves him, and Yamato returns to his wife. The Labors of Yamato is part of The Romance of Old Japan, Part 1: Mythology and Legend by E. W. Champney and F. Champney (1917).

I chose to tell this story in Ian's awestruck manner about the sea life because the creatures are so beautiful. My main goal was to paint a picture of the ocean in the reader's mind. I chose to keep the way the mermaid tricked the man, but I removed the man's wife as a character because I didn't like that she was cheated on.

Week 6 Reading Diary: Japanese Mythology Unit

For this week, I chose to read the last half of the Japanese Mythology unit.

In the story of The Labors of Yamato, I have absolutely no idea what "Goddess of Deathless Love" means. I wonder if that got translated funny.

I really like these descriptions of food. They sound very ethereal. "Sweet ambrosial sake they poured into cups of frail-stemmed sea-lilies. Heaps of gem-like fruits gleamed on plates of opalescent anemones."

It's so funny to me to think about hearing people speak like they do in this story during the modern day. And the things they ask of each other are so outlandish.

 

(Image information:"Benzaiten" by Fabio.)

 It was really interesting to me to learn that this statue is the goddess Benten because I've been seeing her for years and never knew who she was. It's been cool to learn more about her story.

Once I found out that Yamoto had a wife and was still pursing the goddess anyway, I liked his character a lot less. His wife is pining for him, and he's off looking for golden apples.

But then we find out that Benten is only trying to trick him to get his sword. I sort of feel like he deserves that.

In the story of the Demon Boar is pretty much the best sentence ever: "Valiantly the pack drove upon him, only to be tossed instantly in air and to fall, tusked through the entrails, in pools of gore." I've never heard anyone use tusked as a verb before, but I'm a fan!

The sense of time and place is very confusing in these stories. The characters are in one location, and then in the next sentence, they've moved somewhere entirely new. But we're not given the progression of actions that led them there. So it's hard to know the relationship between the places. 

Week 5 Essay: Rags to Riches

In the Turkish Fairy Tales reading unit, I thought that the two types of settings contrasted nicely against each other. Almost every story first showed the poor youth in a wilderness setting, and then the story was about the youth's progression into nobility and wealth.


I pictured these stories in a world like the Disney movie Aladdin because I've never been to Turkey.

(Image information: "Stock Aladdin Arabian Palace" uploaded by Greyfaerie4.)

At the beginning of the Fear story, the youth is sitting at home with his mother. I pictured a modest three-room home in an area with wildlife. By the end of the story, the youth has become the shah, the king,  and he has a forty-day long marriage feast. It's a strong contrast between a humble lifestyle and the wealth of a king that so many people dream of. It also reminds me of diversity apparent in Mark Twain's The Pauper and The Prince. 

In the story about the Fish-Peri, the youth begins as an orphan, who is poor and hungry. He becomes a fisherman to put food on his table, and he catches a very special fish, a fairy. The fairy puts his home in order, and he wins her hand in marriage by performing amazing tasks for the king. Once he marries her, there is once again a feast that lasts for forty days and nights. This story shows the disparity between those who have too much food and those who don't know where their next meal will come from.

Finally, in the Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife fairy tale, we open with a poor woman and her daughter. The mother takes in the community's washing and the daughter does embroidery to make a meager living. The girl makes her way to a beautiful palace and finds a prince in need of her help. Once she helps him and he hears the story of the struggles she has endured, he marries her and brings her mother to live with them in the palace.

The contrasting settings in these Turkish fairy tales really helped highlight the recurring theme of rags to riches. 

Week 5 Storytelling: The Wizard's Apprentice

Once upon a time, there was a teenage boy who idolized wizards and magic. The boy, Ethan, had grown up reading wonderful stories about witches and wizards and the magnificent quests they journeyed on. He had obsessed about their vast powers and enchanting spells. All Ethan wanted out of life was to become a wizard.

But the wizards he read about we old, and he was young. Most wizards had long gray beards, and he couldn't get a single hair to grow on his chin. But most importantly of all, the wizards he read about could do magic, and Ethan had no magical abilities.

Until one day, he was at the market with his mother, and Ethan saw an old man with a long gray beard. As Ethan watched, the wizard made a dove disappear. Ethan's jaw dropped. He had found a wizard at last!

(Image Information: "Wizard Gray Magician" uploaded by OpenClips 2013.)

Ethan went running up to the wizard and begged the wizened man to teach him how to perform magic. The wizard happily took on an apprentice because he was growing old and sore. The wizard taught Ethan all he had ever dreamed of. He learned to perform transfiguration, to concoct potions, to speak to beasts, and to move objects around at his will.

Once the wizard had taught Ethan everything he had to teach, he presented a final test for Ethan.

"If you have truly been a good apprentice and learned everything you could, you will be able to turn me into a beautiful staff and sell me at an auction," the wizard instructed. "But keep one small gem from the staffs handle in order to turn me back."

Ethan nodded enthusiastically, and with a wave of his hand, his master became a gleaming gold staff, plated with rubies and sapphires. He carefully plucked a single sapphire from the staff and pocketed it before carrying the staff to the nearest auction.

The staff was very popular and sold for 10,000 gold coins. Ethan was very excited and was sure this would please his master.

With the displaced sapphire in his hand, Ethan waved again and his master became a human again. The auctioneer and the bidders were very angry at the loss of the golden staff, but Ethan could run very quickly. He took the 10,000 gold coins, and calling to his master to follow him, Ethan high-tailed it out of the auction house.

But because the wizard was old and frail and was still recovering from the transfiguration, he couldn't run fast enough and was swarmed by the angry mob of bidders.

Once Ethan had escaped, he turned back, expecting to see his master. But the wizard was no where to be seen.

"Oh no! What have I done?" Ethan lamented.

A little white dove landed on his shoulder and cooed reassuringly.

"Don't fret my dear wizard, your master was old and his time had come. He only wanted to leave you with money to support yourself before he crossed on to the next life. Rejoice at your good fortune, and morn your master respectfully."

With this the dove flew away, leaving Ethan rightfully grieved but also pleased with his good fortune. He had become a wizard at last.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by The Wizard and His Pupil , from the Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales book by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany from 1913. In the original story, the young boy keeps running away from school and begs to be the pupil of a wizard. The wizard teaches the boy how to transform things, and they essentially have competitions to see who is better at magic. In the end, the boy turns himself into grain, and the wizard turns himself into a rooster to eat up all the grain. But the boy turns back into a human quickly and rings the roosters neck.

In my version, one of my mains goals was that I wanted to have the apprentice and the wizard get along better. So I chose to tell it in a more awestruck manner than the tricky way the original is told. But I liked the death scene at the end of the story. So I had the wizard sacrifice himself for the boy's happiness.

Week 5 Reading Diary: Turkish Fairy Tales

This week I chose to read the Turkish Fairy Tales unit.

The first story is about a young boy who goes on a journey in search of fear. It really seems to back up the saying "Courage is the absence of fear."

But it seems like a cop out that he wasn't afraid of corpses or sea monsters but that he was startled by a bird. I was expecting something more exciting.

I really don't understand the Wizard-Dervish story. If the dervish wanted the prince to marry his daughter, why didn't he just say so instead of beating him and carrying him all over the place.

The story of the Fish-Peri (fish fairy) reminded me a lot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the way that the king asked the youth to do impossible things like hatch donkeys from eggs and bring him an infant who could already walk and talk.

(Video information: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" clip, 1975.)

The Crow-Peri story is reminiscent of the Fish-Peri story in that they have similar plot elements. It's funny to me how the king thinks its totally fine to ask the youth to run his errands. It really shows the entitled mindset of some royalty. 

The part of The Imp and the Well where the story teller talks about all of the cat's body parts is just plain silly.

I like that coffeehouses are mentioned throughout these stories. I'm not sure what an old Turkish coffeehouse would look like, but I've been picturing them like Grey Owl in Norman.

The Wizard and his Pupil might be fun to rewrite for my storytelling assignment.

The last story, Kunterbunt, certainly felt like a dream because it didn't make any sense!

Comment Wall

Please feel free to leave comments here about my blog in general or about my Storybook assignments. Thanks!

Week 4 Essay: Wisdom Through Riddles

Wisdom was a central theme in this week's reading unit, Twenty-Two Goblins. In the story, a king was trying to accomplish the task assigned to him by a monk. The king was supposed to bring a dead body to the cemetery. But there was a goblin living in the dead body that was hanging from a tree who tried to trick the king with riddles.

(Image information: "The Goblin in a Tree" by Perham W. Nahl 1917.)

Each story was part of a greater story, and the riddles at the end of each story underscored the overall theme of wisdom. Because while the king was on a quest to complete his assigned task, he was also on a quest to discover the true motives of the monk, and he did this by impressing the goblin with the correct answers to the riddles.

In the beginning, the riddles were fairly similar. They were questions like if three lovers all contributed to bringing a dead girl to life, which one deserves her as his wife? The king would then say something like that only the man who slept by her lifeless body each night deserved to marry her because that is the role of a husband. I definitely guessed that answer before I read it. But over the course of the story, the goblin's riddles became trickier.

A more difficult riddle was about a Brahman who died because a snake's poison dripped from his mouth into the Brahman's food that was given to him by a charitable man. But the snake was dying in the claws of a hawk when it happened. So who is to blame for the Brahman's death? I thought it would be the hawk because the snake couldn't help what he did while he was dying, and the charitable man was only trying to be friendly. But the hawk was already trying to kill someone. But the king said that the Brahman himself was responsible for his death because he accused the charitable man of poisoning him. That seemed a bit severe to me. Nonetheless, the riddles made me really contemplate the characters and the themes in order to  gain wisdom about the situation.

All throughout the story, the king had the knowledge necessary to vanquish evil, but he thought that the goblin was evil and was who needed to be defeated. So even though the king could answer almost every riddle, he still gained knowledge from his quest.

Week 4 Storytelling: The Second Chance Wedding

Once upon a time, near the river bank, a husband and wife had a beautiful daughter, Tiana. She had long, dark curly hair and skin the color of milk chocolate. She was of an age to wed, and many men pursued her. There were three men in particular who made the strongest advances, Anthony, Paul, and Colin.

The suitors would bring Tiana gifts of sweets and flowers, and the young people would spend many evenings lounging and laughing on Tiana's front porch. Over time, Tiana became close friends with all three men, and she didn't know how she would ever choose just one to marry.

But one day, Tiana tragically fell ill. The suitor were not allowed to visit her on her death bed because she was terribly contagious. Tiana's parents wept because her condition wasn't improving. A few days later, Tiana died, and the news was brought to Anthony, Paul, and Colin.

The three men all grieved together because surely they would have rather she pick a suitor other than themselves than die at such a young age.

At Tiana's funeral, the three young men all performed tasks to honor her memory. Anthony was one of the pall-bearers, who carried her casket up the aisle of the beautifully adorned church. Paul gave a touching speech about all of the good times the young lovers had spent together. Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke. But at the end of the funeral, Colin refused to leave Tiana's side. Many friends and family members tried to pull him away and out of the church. But no one prevailed. His grief was too strong, and he felt it in such a physical way that he couldn't leave her.

That night, Colin slept in the church next to her coffin. The old church creaked eerily during the night. But nothing would sway him from his duty to Tiana.

In the morning, an angel appeared to Colin. The angel was translucent white and hovered a few inches above the floor.

"Colin," the angel said, "You have shown true devotion to your one and only love. A father figure could carry his daughter's casket up the aisle, and any friend or family member could make a heartfelt speech at her funeral. But only her true lover would spend all night with her in a creaky church. To honor your great devotion, lift the lid of the coffin and reunite with your bride."

Wiping tears from his eyes, Colin stood and opened the casket. Upon doing so, Tiana happily sat up and began to climb out. She was wearing a beautiful lace wedding dress with a long, elegant train.

(Image information: "Bride Marriage Wedding Dress" uploaded by GloriaAgostina.) 

Colin wrapped her in his arms and spun her around and around. Before they knew it, the church had filled with wedding guests, the coffin had disappeared, and wedding bells were ringing.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by "The Three Lovers Who Brought The Dead Girl to Life. Whose Wife Should She Be?" from the collection Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder with illustrations by Perham W. Nahl (1917).

In the original story, there are a lot of Indian customs involved in how the suitors bring the girl back to life. One suitor dips her bones in a river, another used magic, and a third kept her ashes. I chose to tell this story in a more simple way to make it more realistic than the original. My main goals for this story were to evoke emotions of loss contrasted with joy.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

This week I chose to read the Indian unit about Twenty-Two Goblins.


I really love the character of the king so far. He always does the right thing.


An example of this is in the introduction when he says to Patience: "Monk, why do you keep honouring me in such an expensive way? Unless I know the reason, I will not take your fruit."


I also really enjoyed the simile about the king's heart: "A brave man's heart is harder than a diamond, and nothing makes it tremble." I have a feeling this is the moral of the king's story and how he evades the goblin.


The way some of this story is phrased makes me giggle. Like how the Coral's suitors in the story of The Three Lovers "feasted on the beauty of her face."


I think it's funny how the monk who is traveling refused to eat in the house of evil, but when the little boy was brought back to life everything was suddenly okay. How was it not still an evil house?


I also find it very funny that if the king knows the answers to the riddles but says differently that his head will explode.


I really like how deep the morals of these stories are so far. For example, "Great-minded people do not waver until they have kept their promises, even at the cost of life."


In the story of the Girl who Transposed the Heads of her Husband and Brother, I think it's interesting how Spotless was so matter-of-fact about his son, White, marrying Lovely. He explained how the two were of equal birth, wealth, and social status, and that was that. There was no concern of whether Lovely wanted to marry White at all.


The way White's brother-in-law when mad with grief and cut off his own head seems very Shakespearean to me.

In the story of The Snake's Poison, I liked how the birds, the earth, and the leaves all lamented the loss of something as Hariswami lamented the loss of his beautiful wife.

At the end of the story about The General's Wife, there is a beautiful line: "No man stops in the middle of a great undertaking." I think this is a very much needed rationale for why the kind keeps going back to get the goblin and why he keeps answering the riddles correctly. It's become the principle of the thing, and if he's going to do it, he's going to do it right.

It seems very coincidental to me that in the story of The Four Brothers, they all learned skills that were related to each other. It's almost as if they planned it that way on purpose.

I really enjoyed the ending of the story because it was so unexpected. The goblin finally stumped the king, but then the goblin turned out to be the good guy and the monk was the bad guy! I thought that was a good twist ending.

Week 3 Essay: Repeating Morals and Motifs in Aesop's Fables

There were many different things that recurred in the series of Aesop's (Winter) Fables that I read this week. There were repeating animal characters like donkeys, lions, wolves, and foxes. There were morals of the stories that overlapped and expanded on each other. The most popular morals were ones that warned against dishonesty and being prideful. And there were plot elements like trickery and betrayal that kept cropping up. I think these things were repeated because the author thought they were the most important and the most useful at conveying his message.

The wolf appeared in stories like The Wolf and the Kid, The Wolf and His Shadow, and The Wolf and The Lion. In the first one, the kid tricked the lion into not eating him, which highlights a recurring motif characters cheating each other. With that, the moral was "don't let anything turn you from your purpose" because if the wolf had stayed on task he would have won his prize. In the second story, the wolf sees his huge shadow on the ground and thinks he is much more fierce than in reality. The moral in the story was not to "let your fancies make you forget your realities." Here the repeating theme is animals getting a big head. In the last story, the wolf steals a lamb, but then the lion steals it from the wolf. The moral of the story was that what has been won through evil will be lost because of evil. I see this story's theme as being a combination of trickery and pigheadedness.

The fox played roles in stories The Dog, The Cock, and The Fox and The Fox and The Leopard. In the former, the dog and the cock were best friends, and when the fox tried to trick the cock into being eaten, the cock tricked the fox into being chased by the dog. The moral of the story was those who "try to deceive may expect to be paid their own coin," and the repeat motif was that both the fox and the cock tried to scam each other. In the later, the leopard thought himself to be both attractive and intelligent, but the fox clues him in to his foolishness. The moral was that "a fine coat is not always an indication of an attractive mind."

(Image information: "The Fox and The Leopard" by Milo Winter 1919.)

The donkey showed up in The Ass and His Driver, The Lion and The Ass, and The Ass and The Image. The morals of his stories tended to all related to motifs of stubbornness, foolishness, and deceit. In the story about the driver, the ass was taught a lesson about the downfalls of determination when his driver let him walk off the cliff edge. The moral was that those who are stubborn and don't listen are on the road to misfortune. In the story with the lion, the lion is given regal treatment, and because the ass is jealous, he scorns the lion.The moral was "do not resent the remarks of a fool" because they don't know what they are talking about. Similarly, in the story about the image, the ass is again jealous of the treatment paid to the image and tries to take the admiration for himself. The moral was not to take credit for someone else's actions.

The lion played in The Lion and The Ass and The Lion and the Gnat. In the story with the gnat, the gnat kept stinging and annoying the lion and making the lion scratch himself. The moral was not "to let pride throw you off guard." I think this is very similar to the moral in The Wolf and His Shadow.

The culmination of this comparison is The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion because so many of these repeat characters make appearances. The fox and the ass are best friends and the fox tries to sacrifice the ass to the lion to save himself, much like in the story about the dog, the cock, and the fox. While the moral of this story is that "traitors may expect treachery," I also see a theme of trickery here.

Storytelling for Week 3: The Honest Oxen

On a dusty road, a team of oxen pulled a cart full of corn to the marketplace to sell. The oxen were as red as Oklahoma dirt with a few white splotches. They had strong horns that curled up high into the air. They were built to be working animals, and they wore a yoke over their necks that connected them to the cart of corn.

The oxen's sole job was to pull the cart for their master. So when the yoke suddenly broke one day, the oxen began to cry out for help.

"If we cannot work, we won't be fed," Mr. Ox said.

"Without our yoke, we're useless!" his wife lamented.

(Image information: "Young Oxen" from Wikimedia Commons.)

Because they couldn't pull the cart any further, they stopped in their tracks and worried. They were very concerned about where their next meal was going to come from.

Just then, Mercury, the messenger god, descended from the skies on his winged sandals. He wore a yellow tunic and a winged helmet. He produced a golden yoke from thin air, and in an attempt to comfort the worried oxen, he presented it to them.

"This must be the yoke that you have lost!" Mercury said triumphantly.

The couple of oxen sadly shook their heads.

"No," Mr. Ox said, "our yoke certainly wasn't made of gold."

Mercury's eyebrows crinkled in confusion. He had never met such an honest creature before.

Next he showed them a silver yoke.

"I see that I was mistaken before," Mercury said. "But surely, this is the yoke you have been missing."

Again, the married oxen shook their heads in disappointment.

"No," Mrs. Ox said, "our yoke also wasn't made of silver."

Mercury bit the inside of his cheek in contemplation. Why were these oxen so trustworthy?

Finally, he held out the actual yoke that belonged to the couple. Mercury had repaired it.

"That's our yoke!" Mrs. Ox cried.

She hopped forward happily.

Mercury helped the pair of oxen put their yoke back on.

"Thank you so much for repairing our dear old yoke," Mr. Ox said.

"It was my pleasure, Mrs. and Mr. Ox. And I must say that I've never met such an honest couple in my life! I expect most creatures would have claimed the golden or silver yoke."

"Oh no," Mr. Ox said, "we have no use of a fancy yoke. We just need one that helps us do our work."

With that, the oxen couple happily continued on their way to the marketplace with their cart of corn.

For many months after that when people heard the story, they purposefully lost an item in hopes of tricking Mercury into giving them something better. But Mercury was never fooled, and instead, he taught those dishonest folks a lesson.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by Mercury and The Woodman from The Aesop for Children with illustrations by Milo Winter (1919). In the original, a woodman loses his ax, and when Mercury tries to give him a golden one, the woodman explains that's not his. This goes on until the woodman has his original ax back, and Mercury gives him the gold and silver ones as gifts for being honest. I chose to make the main characters animals because I read so many fables about animals this week. I liked how honest the woodman was, and I wanted to retain that quality of the story.

Week 3 Reading Diary: Aesop (Winter) Unit

For this week, I chose to read the Aesop (Winter) unit.

I've always loved the saying that the tortoise carries his house on his back. But it has never occurred to me that not being able to see the world would make him feel sad and disconnected. I think this is a very easy thing to relate to as a human. We typically carry all of our worries and responsibilities around on our shoulders, and they often keep us from seeing the more important things in life.

I've heard the story of The Boy and the Filberts told before but it was a monkey who was trying to get seeds out of a coconut shell and got his hand stuck. Funny that little boys and monkeys would have so much in common.

It seems like complaining is often rewarded in our society: the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So its nice to see that in the story of the Oxen and the Wheels, the Oxen told the Wheels off for being so whiny. It's very draining to listen to someone complain all the time.

The Lion and the Ass seems to have a very biblical message. Don't respond to scorn with scorn, but rise above and turn the other cheek.

It's a shame that The Two Goats couldn't have just taken turns to cross the river. I've never understood people being so stubborn and prideful because it's usually much easier to work together.

It's interesting to me how many of these stories feature lions, wolves, donkeys, and foxes. I wonder where the great liking of these animals came from...

(Image information: "The Monkey and The Camel" by Milo Winter in 1919.)

The story of The Weasels and The Mice reminds of the children's book series Redwall by Brian Jacques. Those books had mice battles in them too.

I can identify with the Money in the Monkey and the Dolphin story. Often times, a group of people will be discussing a musical group I've never heard of, and I'll say, "Oh, yeah, I love them too." Of course, that's when the group says he's a signer not a group. It's natural to want to blend in to the conversation.

At the end of The Farmer and The Cranes story, one of the morals is that bluff is no proof that hard fist are lacking. I don't quite understand that because usually, when people give empty threats, it's because they don't really want to do anything to you. I haven't really experienced an empty threat that eventually led to the outcome threatened.

The moral of The Goatherd and The Goats is a really important one. If you always give the best to your new friends and the worst to your old friends, you won't have any friends at all.

The story of Mercury and The Woodman would be a fun one to reinvent for my storytelling assignment.

I don't understand why the Frog wanted to drown the Mouse in the story of The Frog and The Mouse. They're not predators and the Mouse hadn't done anything to the frog. Maybe the Frog had a rough childhood.

The story of The Cat and The Old Rat reminds me of Tom and Jerry in the way that the cat came up with clever tricks to catch the mouse.