Thoughts About Comments

I love getting comments on my blog! However, like everyone else, I do prefer some comments over others.  I really like comments that offer constructive criticism.  I think that it allows me to better myself and my blogs when people point out ways to tweak my stories.

I had a comments on the color of my text making it hard to read, so I changed it (which honestly didn't help).  I decided to do a solid background for the text area so that people could read easier and haven't had a comment on it since!

For my introduction comments, I really like when people mention similar experiences.  I think that it is a great way to create connections between the readers when they have similar backgrounds.

Please keep leaving comments, and if something is really bugging you, let me know! If I agree, I'll definitely work to fix it!

I think my comments so far have been both constructive and beneficial.  I like how everyone has a different style and try to mention that in my comments.  If I see grammatical errors or anything that might hinder the reading, I try to mention that as well.

Extra Reading Diary: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman) Unit

I continued reading the Brothers Grimm Ashliman unit for my extra reading this week.  Unfortunately, it was just as useless to my storybook as the first half of the unit.  There were no true villains in these stories, just people or things that were greedy or simply mean towards other characters.  The stories were meant more as warnings to be nice to your friends and family, instead of teaching morals like many of the Grimm fairy tales do. 

I did like the tale of the Simeli Mountain more than the others.  When I first read it, I thought that the Mountain was called Sesimi, not Semsi.  I got excited because I thought that they were basically saying open sesame, not open Semsi.  Proves that I really need to look at what I am reading and not get in such a hurry! I got all excited for nothing!

I always like the stories about a personified death, so I like the story of Death’s Messengers.  I think that it is a great representation of the human ideal in that it is never their time to die.  Death warned the man that messengers would come, and he ignored them.  He assumed that it was too early for him to die so he didn’t prepare for his end!

I am really enjoying reading the Grimm units and will definitely continue to read them!

Death Personified. Source: Wikipedia

Week 5 Storytelling: One Goblin, One King, Twenty-Two Riddles

Sissoo Tree. Source: Wikipedia

ONCE UPON A TIME, I was a goblin named Riddle.  I lived in a sissoo tree within a vast cemetery, which was perfect since I relish my peace and quiet.  Unfortunately, people would occasionally interfere with my business, so I would disguise myself as a dead body hanging from the tree (It was a cemetery after all!).  I lived this way for many years, doing deals with the occasional passerby who could solve one of my riddles.  No one ever solved more than one of my tricky riddles! That is, until HE came along…

I’d been living in my tree for maybe 50 years when a man came by in the dead of night.  Instead of simply walking by, however, he cut me down from the tree! And then he slung me over his back like a sack of potatoes! The humiliation! I kicked and screamed for a few moments before I remembered that if he answered on of my riddles, I would return to my tree.  I could go back and finish my dinner and forget about this embarrassing situation.

Cemetery at Night. Source: Wikimedia Commons

And so I told him a riddle, and being the smart king that he was, he answered it and I returned to my tree.  But the bastard followed me back! Again and again I told him one of my riddles, and again and again he answered them true.  I thought that eventually he would give up and leave me in peace. But nooooooooooo.  The man was incessant, constantly cutting me down and ferrying me back down the cemetery road in the middle of the night.  I suppose I should be glad it wasn’t day time or someone might have seen me being lugged around on the back of this brute!

After 20 riddles, 20 trips back to the tree, and 20 trips back down the cemetery road carried upon his shoulders, I decided to give him my masterpiece of a riddle.  No one had ever answered it correctly.  Not the wizards or witches, not the princes or knights, not even the farseeing oracles of old.  No one had ever figured this riddle out. 

As I told the story, I saw his brow get more and more furrowed.  I could practically see the wheels turning in his head!  I had him! I finally had him! He would answer wrong, his head would burst and I could return to my tree! Unfortunately, that isn’t how this case turned out.  All the wizards, witches, princes, knights and oracles had tried to answer this riddle and their end had come.  But this king was smarter than the others. 

Since he didn’t know the answer, he actually kept his mouth shut! Have you ever heard of a man doing that?!  They at least try on the off chance that they might be right! But not this man.  He kept silent, which impressed me beyond measure.

I decided to help this impressive, tenacious man.  I knew that the monk would try to harness my power to become the king of the fairies.  I also knew that this man would be a beneficent ruler to both his human kingdom and that of the fairies.  He was honorable, strong, kind, and smart. 

I warned him of the monk’s plan and told him how to circumvent it.  When we arrived to the meeting place, the king followed my instructions to the letter.  The monk was dead and he was the soon to be king.  But he didn’t want the job or the power.  What he told me next was more impressive than all the riddles he had solved. 

“O magic creature, if you are pleased with me, I have nothing more to wish for. Yet I ask you to make me one promise, that these twenty-two different, charming puzzle-stories shall be known all over the world and be received with honor."

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While I was loath to leave my tree, I felt an obligation to fulfill this great man’s wishes.  And so I traveled, for one year telling my riddles to every man, woman, and child that I encountered.  For that year, I even left out the side effects!  After that, I continued to travel, telling my riddles.

I thought that I would miss my old life and the peace and quiet of my tree in the cemetery. And for a time I did.  However, the farther I traveled, the more I began to enjoy myself.  I enjoyed the new sights and foods, sharing my stories with new people who would never have heard them otherwise. 

To this day, I’m still not sure if the king planned this all along.  Did he know I would enjoy travelling and telling my stories? Or did he just want to share them with the world?

Author’s Note:

I chose not to do any individual story from the Twenty-Two Goblins unit, but to instead do a sort of overview story from the goblin’s (who I called Riddle) point of view.  I kind of meshed the Introduction and the Conclusion and added things in the middle. I kept the story the same, but left out a few details that I didn’t think were entirely necessary.  The original story more follows the king, setting up in his court and revolving around his determination to fulfill his promise to the monk. 

I thought it would be intriguing to write this as if Riddle was telling the story from the present.  She’s looking back on her life and how this moment changed it so drastically.  Few had ever solved her riddles with such confidence and ease, and no one had ever chosen to say nothing when they didn’t know the answer.  I thought it would be fun to show how humiliating it would be for a goblin to be carted around on the shoulders of a man, especially a man as tenacious as the king of these stories.  I also carried it a bit further by telling how she reacted to her travels, coming to enjoy them and the opportunities they afforded her!

"Introduction" and "Conclusion" from Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1917).  Web Source: Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook.

Reading Diary B: Twenty-Two Goblins

The remainder of the Twenty-Two Goblins unit was just as entertaining as the first half! I loved these riddling stories and they definitely got my mind turning.  I solved a few more in this section than I did in the previous one, so maybe I redeemed myself a little bit!

Father and Son, Daughter and Mother (a.k.a. The Father and Son who married Daughter and Mother.  What relation were their children?) was probably my favorite story from this half-unit.  It really got me thinking and I spent a few minutes at the end of the story trying to figure it out.  I was kind of miffed that I wasn’t given an answer to be honest!

I still didn’t really find anything in these stories that I thought I would be able to work into my Storybook.  None of the characters or settings really stuck with me and for my storybook, none of the tales themselves will work. 

However, I definitely enjoyed reading these stories.  It was quite possibly one of my favorite units so far.  I love stories that keep the brain working and don’t allow you to drift into Never Never Land while you’re reading them! It’s great to stay engaged with a story from start to finish, which is rare for me, even though I am an avid reader!

Goblin. Source: Wikipedia

Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

I chose to read the Twenty-Two Goblins unit this week.  It’s an incredibly interesting and entertaining unit and definitely has my brain working!  

The set up for these tales are really cool.  I like how each individual story is told by the Goblin to try to trick the King.  However, the King is, unfortunately, clever enough to unravel the riddles which sends the Goblin back and leads to yet another story.  This is a really unique style and I might try to work something similar into some of my own stories. 

The only riddle that I was able to solve easily was The Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother.  For me, this riddle was easy, but the rest really stretched my brain.  I solved one or two others, but barely!

There were no stories in particular that really grabbed my attention on its own.  Each story is unique and interesting, but none were so outstanding that I could take any ideas from it.  I think it might be fun to work some riddles into my own stories, but only if it works with my story line.

Overall, I liked the setup of the stories in this unit.  I like how they are all linked but in a more subtle way that doesn’t interfere with the stories themselves.  

Goblin Tree.  Source: Wikipedia.