Caitlyn's Blog for Myth-Folklore Fall 2018

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Crash Course - Mythical Places (Flying Spaghetti Monster: Image by dopplerduck ) I really enjoyed these videos. One of my favorites parts of them was in the Mythical Caves and Gardens video. I thought the story about people originally living underground but having different features and such was really cool. I also liked the cameo of the Flying Spaghetti Monster that was made during that part. I also liked seeing the story involving the greedy king and the mountain that held valuable things in the Mythical Mountains video. I can definitely recognize the tropes usually related to mountains that were discussed in the video, as I have witnessed them in other stories as well. I really enjoyed the Tree Myths video as well, since many of the trees it mentioned are trees I recognize from other stories or video games, especially Norse trees like Yggdrasil. Norse mythology in general is pretty common in video games. It was also interesting to see the imp

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Crane) Part B (Swan: Image by pixel2013/2133 images ) This section of the Brothers Grimm (Crane) unit was interesting and fun to read, just as the first was. The Six Swans was different than I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it. I liked that the king's daughter was brave enough to go and look for her brothers after they were turned into swans. Not only that, she went through hardships staying quiet for such a long time trying to break the spell that had been put upon her brothers. The Three Spinsters was also a refreshing story in a way. Normally when people making promises to other characters such as the spinsters in this story, they end up breaking those promises and suffering consequences for it. That was not so in this story, as the main character kept her promise to the spinsters and had a happy ending because of that. It was wonderful to see the the story of Snow-White here as well. As a big fan of the other iterations of this s

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Crane) Part A (The Robber Bridegroom: Illustration by Walter Crane ) The first part of this unit was an interesting read. I was only familiar with the Cinderella story that was included, but I still enjoyed the others as well. It was a little upsetting that the fisherman in The Fisherman and His Wife never stood up to his wife bossing him around and requesting outlandish things. I wish we had been given more information about the fish, as he was an interesting character. As for the story of Cinderella, or Ashenputtel , I have heard this story before in several other forms. My favorite version of this story is probably the movie Ella Enchanted. The story in that film is not as close to the original as many others are, but it includes several of the same setting elements such as Ella having wicked step-sisters and a step-mother. The Robber Bridegroom was also quite an interesting story. It definitely surprised me that cannibalism was involved. I

Extra Credit Reading: Crash Course - Tricksters (Coyote: Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture )  I have always liked trickster characters, so it was fun to watch these crash course videos that focused on them. I was saddened when it was mentioned in the first video, Tricksters: An Introduction , that trickster characters are always male, since I generally prefer female characters. I think making a trickster character female would be great. I was not familiar with the Anansi character before watching this video, but it was interesting to see how the story about that trickster is used to explain why ants are often carrying very heavy things. I liked the video about Hermes and Loki for the information it provided on the invention of the lyre and its importance in telling stories. Also simply because it involved Loki, as it is always fun to hear about him. I thought the Coyote and Raven, American Tricksters video was interesting as it highlight the differences between Native