Week 9 Reading Diary, Continued: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Evening, Sky - Free illustrations on Pixabay

Origin of the Chilkat Blanket

• This story tells the reader that "In those days also, animals could take off their furry skins; then they looked just like people." This was a detail that I already figured out.  I think it should have been mentioned in the very first story in this unit instead of here.

The First Woman

•  I enjoyed the proof that the tale is true, as listed at the end of this story. 

Origin of the Winds

•  I like the idea of the sky being a wall that people can walk along. 
• The repetition in this story gives it an almost sing song feel.  It would be a good children's story.

The Land of the Dead

•  I like the variety of these stories. They all take place in the same world, but the different stories are very different.  For example, this one is a little bit darker.

The Ghost Land

•  The concept that eating food in the land of the dead will not let somebody return is a common one.  It makes me think what about this concept appeals to people?

The Lost Light

• Searching for light is a common theme among many of this units stories.  I assume this is because Alaska is far enough north that the length of nights and days is more extreme and changes.  I like stories that make me think about the culture around them. 

The Boy in the Moon

•  This is a very pretty story.  I think I might write a version where they both chase each other around the earth, and never reach each other.  I like this better than having only the boy chase the girl.

Cradle Song

•  Unlike the other stories, this one has the feel of a poem.  I think it really fits this type of story.

The Wolves and the Deer

•  The deer are afraid of wolves because of laughter.  The wolves have sharp teeth and the deer have flat teeth.

The Last of the Thunderbirds

•  I like the image that was chosen for this story.  Now when I see that totem I will be reminded of this story and the Thunderbird.

Origin of the Killer Whale Crest

•  To me this story seems a little odd.  Natsiane instructs the killer wales to kill his clan members, then afterwards never to kill again.

The Discontented Grass Plant

• This story reminds me of The Stonecutter from the African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books.

Tricks of the Fox

•  This story has an interesting ending.  Fox is always clever, across most stories.

Week 9 Reading Diary: Myths and Legends of Alaska

Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Raven from Wikimedia Commons

The Raven Myth: Raven's Creation

• I like how in Native American creation myths everything comes from natures. 
• It is interesting that it is Raven who made the vine and Raven is the first person the man met. 
• Raven must be somebody significant in Alaska, I like the reason why the reindeer have white bellies. 

The Raven Myth: Raven Creates the People

• I like that raven does not just shape everything and then leave man alone, he stays with man and shows him how to live in the world. 

The Raven Myth: The Skyland and the Sea

• This story has a nice root in real life. Everything that the raven describes really exists in the real world. 

The Raven Myth: Raven-Boy and the Sun

• This story is a little sad. I did not expect the story to turn so dark. 
• The image of reindeer with sharp teach is an amusing on.

The Flood

• It is interesting to see that the native american stories have something in common with christian myth. Both of them have a giant flood. 

The Origin of the Tides

• I like these myth, they all have nice imagery with them. I like to imagine the man opening a closing a hole as the tide washes in and washes out. 

Raven's Feast

• This is an interesting story because it deals with the traditions of the Alaskan people. 

Raven's Marriage

• This story makes good use of a repeated phrase. In this case it is "Who will marry me? I am a very nice man." 

Raven and the Seals

• Raven ate them all during two nights. He ate all the seals in front of the house." Wow, that is a lot of seals 

Raven and Marmot

• It was amusing that Raven wants to prove that he is not a carrion-eater by eating something that is not carrion. That only proves that he does not only eat carrion, not that he doesn't eat carrion. 

The Bringing of the Light by Raven

• This story does a good job of making the reader curious. The reader does not have any more clue where the light is than the Raven does. I prefer this approach to stories rather than stories where things are obvious to the readers but not to the characters. 

The Naming of the Birds

• It was interesting to hear about the different birds. I like that the author included a large variety of birds. 

How Raven Stole the Lake

• It is interesting to hear how things have changed.  For example in this story, it is the fact that crows used to be white. 

Tech Tip: Add the Weather to Your Sidebar

This week I added a weather widget to the sidebar of my blog.  Knowing the weather is useful.  I tried to find one from weather.gov (a website by NOAA) but was unable to find one.  I chose to use the one recommended in the tech tip assignment.

Wikimedia Commons

Review - Week 8

This week I chose an image from Monday, March 7th blog post.

Punctuation Matters

I chose this image because I have seen this letter before.  I talked about this in late middle school or early high school.  I remember sitting in English class reading this. It is kinda neat to see, since all of the words are exactly the same .

Growth Mindset : Growth Mindset Memes - Make your own - Week 8

The author of this quote is unknown.  I chose to use automotivator in order to make this meme using this image from Pixabay.
Since Laura's growth mindset memes all have cats, I decided to stick with this theme.

Week 11 Reading Diary: King Arthur

Unit: Reading for Week 11 is King Arthur: Stories of Arthur along with tales of his knights and their quest for the Holy Grail.

Knights of the round table by Evrard d'Espinques

Source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1902).

The Drawing of the Sword

• I knew Arthur was the son of Uther, and I knew he pulled the sword out of the stone. I guess I never realized that the stone could only be pulled out by one with the right blood instead of by someone who would make a good king.

The Questing Beast

• This section talks about how Merlin would have failed if not his obedience to Merlin's orders. Obedience in an interesting choice of work to use here.
• This story has the first mention of Morgan Le Fay “your sister shall have a child who shall destroy you and all your knights.”
• Lots of foreshadowing at the end of this story. Merlin has many prophecies.

The Sword Excalibur

• Somebody asking for a favor at an unknown time is always an ominous things, many characters in stories blindly agree to a future favor.

The Round Table

• This is an interesting story. Not a whole lot happens but it ties many pieces of the large story together. It talks about how Arthur got the round table and how he came to marry Guenevere.
• Sections like these, which fill in the gaps, are important to a story.

The Passing of Merlin

• Merline falls in love with a women, nobody is safe from their own heart.
• Even when people know prophesies, know bad tings that will happen to them, they are unable to change the course of events. Sometimes by trying to change things, they actually trigger the events themselves. I've always found it interesting when a prophesy only comes to pass because people knew about the prophesy.
• Vivian in the name of the women who tricks Merlin.

King Arthur and Morgan le Fay

• Morgan hates Arthur because he killed a knight who she loved.
• Morgan Le Fay steels only the scabbard of Excalibur, which is what Merlin told Arthur was the valuable part.
• Morgan is a very powerful magician if she can turn herself and all her men into blocks of marble.
• Morgan tried to kill Arthur by giving him an enchanted mantle covered in jewels.

The Quest of the Holy Graal

• The knights of the round table neglected many of their other duties to pursue to holy grail.
• There are conflicting stories about what the grail is.

The King's Pilgrimage

• It is interesting that half of the time Arther is refereed to as the king. To me this is a little confusing, because there have been other kings, and there are other kings in other lands.
• This story is interesting, because it is unclear is part of this story is a dream.

The Coming of the Holy Graal

• An image of the holy grail presents itself to king Arthur and the knights of the round table.
• All 150 knights of the round table decide to quest for the holy grail.

Reading Plan

Native American Folklore - Little People

Here is my reading plan for the remaining readings in the class.

Week 9: Alaska - I have learned some about native American culture, but I know very little about Alaskan culture.  I am curious to see what these stories are like.  This tale was chosen based on the stories region.

Week 10: Myths of Cherokee - This story caught my eye because the description talks about origin stories of the moon, the stars and the sky. Part of what I liked about Greek mythology is that the physics of the word and how things works is all explained away by gods.  I am curious to see where the Cherokee think the world came from.

Week 11: King Arthur - I know we only had to plan for week 9 and 10, however since this story works well with my storybook I will go ahead and list it.  I may go and do the week 11 assignment over spring break for more inspiration for my storybook.

Other tales that look interesting to me include the following:

Celtic Tales
Faerie Queene
Hunt