Myths and Folklore Blog

Bibliography: "The Three Spinsters" from Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm  translated by Lucy Crane. Story Source . Notes I like this story, it has Rumpelstiltskin vibes but the girl actually keeps her word which is nice and sure, she was lazy, but that can easily be rewritten as her just not knowing how to use a spinning wheel the spinsters are mvps and also probably fairies  because come on that's some fairy nonsense  hehehehe wingmen  (Image Information: The Three Spinsters illustration by Robert Bell (1912); Wikimedia Commons ) -A.

Bibliography: "Aschenputtel" from Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm translated by Lucy Crane. Story Source . Notes the hazel tree is a strange detail that honestly makes Aschenputtel seem like a witch and I love it every single prince in these stories is faceblind and we love to see it why do the birds do her bidding? are they agents of the tree? Is the tree her mother? This story has so many questions that I will probably ignore when I retell it. (Image Information: Aschenputtel fountain; Wikimedia Commons ) -A.

“Arthur, can you play me a song? I’m bored,” asks Viviana, the youngest (and only) daughter of the baron of Linthia. “Unfortunately, I cannot, my lady,” Arthur replies. “Your father forbade it after the last...incident.” “Could you tell me a story instead, then?” Viviana asks. “Yes, my lady,” Arthur agrees. It’s not as if he can do anything else at the moment. He thinks for a moment on the stories he’s read before and begins his tale. Once upon a time, in a distant land, there was a town with a horrible rat problem. The rats had overtaken the city, bringing plagues and famine with them. Hm? Well, my lady, of course they had tried cats! But the rodents were so numerous and large that they ran the cats out of town. Traps fared no better, for the rats were so large they could bend the metal and chew through the ropes of any snare or cage. The Baron of the town issued a royal decree that anyone who could rid the town of all of the rats would be paid handsomely. Well, as it happens, a t...

Bibliography: "Catskin" from More English Fairy Tales  by Joseph Jacobs. Source .  Notes: A classic story type really wish the "ugly" coat wasn't catskin.  the three dresses are fun as are the clues she uses with the prince this could combine with a whole bunch of Cinderella-type stories (Image Information: Catskin by Arthur Rackham from Pixabay ) -A.

Bibliography: "The Pied Piper" from More English Fairy Tales  by Joseph Jacobs. Source . Notes: I love this story so much The pied piper is such a good sympathetic villain I kind of loved this ending where the piper does not return the children This story could fit Arthur quite well, although the ending where he returns the children fits him better I'll have to think on it more, but it definitely fits Arthur well. It would play nicely with the Tattercoats story (Image Information: Pied Piper Mannequin; Wikimedia Commons ) -A. 

For this week, I decided to watch the TED Talk playlist on creative writing and style. Like last story lab, I will be writing what I learned from each video. Video 1: The power of creative constraints by Brandon Rodriguez This is something I have noticed in my own writing. The more conditions you have to fulfill, the more you tend to think outside of the box when writing. For example, in D&D there is a fantasy race called tieflings, who have pupil-less eyes. I had to write a scene involving an explanation of their anatomy, so I had to come up with an explanation for their eyes. I decided to use the simple eye structure seen in spiders as an inspiration, which leads to a whole new line of intrigue to explore. Video 2: What makes a hero? by Matthew Winkler The Hero's Journey is a strange one for me. Is it really proof of a "monomyth" or just an example of our brains searching for a pattern? The thing about it is it's so vague that anything can fit into it. Not to ...

Bibliography: "The End of Arthur" from King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang. Story Source . Notes:  is this where it ties into the myth that King Arthur will return in Britain's greatest time of need? What happens to him after the water ladies appear? did the Lady of the Lake ever get that favor from him? maybe he has an adventure there some versions of the Wild Hunt say that King Arthur leads it perhaps as a favor to the Lady of the Lake? (Image Information: King Arthur; Wikimedia Commons )

Bibliography: "The Sword Excalibur" from King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table  by Andrew Lang. Story Source . Notes: I get a lot of fair folk vibes from the Lady of the Lake Especially with the whole "unknown favor in exchange for a magic item" thing It is very pagan  I wonder what favor she asks of him? It could be a story idea Or I could retell it in an even more pagan way really lean into it (Image Information: Lancelot Speed (1860-1931), "The Lady of the Lake"; Flickr .)

The last of the armed men falls to Arthur’s blade and he takes a moment to catch his breath. His partner, Borealis, and himself had been ambushed, but not by a guild organized group. Still, it was a messy fight just from the sheer numbers they had on Borealis and Arthur. They had surrounded the duo and Arthur had to use a healing spell at one point during the altercation. He turns around and sees Borealis is on the ground. He must have been knocked down during the fight. He walks over to him. Borealis isn’t moving. Arthur isn’t worried. He isn’t. “Borealis, if this is your idea of a joke, you should quit while you’re ahead.” No answer. “I’m serious. You’re going to make me upset and then you’ll really feel bad about it.” Nothing. Arthur crouches down and places his index finger and middle finger on one side of Borealis’ neck, just below his chin. There’s no pulse and Arthur’s breath momentarily catches in his throat. It’s fine; he can fix this. There’s a temple to Bahamut 2 miles...

Bibliography: "The Ghost Land" from Myths and Legends of Alaska  edited by Katharine Berry Judson. Source . Notes: underworld myths are always interesting this one gives me Eurydice vibes, but with a happy ending that could be an interesting mashup  I could even make it about my own characters featuring a raven god of death  (Image Information: Orpheus and Eurydice; Wikimedia Commons ) -A.

Bibliography: "Raven's Feast" from Myths and Legends of Alaska edited by Katharine Berry Judson. Source . Notes: I like the idea of this one, as an explanation for hospitality rituals. It reminds me of myths about the gods appearing in disguise, to test mortals' hospitality. Hospitality is a constant seen in all faiths in some form. Raven seems to be a deity of sorts in these myths. I might write about my campaign. It has a raven deity, a god of death, whom I base on my own experiences with a similar deity. I tend to use the idea of a raven mask so this could work well I think. (Image Information: Hamatsa Raven Mask; Wikimedia Commons ) -A.

Now that we are over halfway through the semester, I thought I should make another introduction. I have gotten quite a lot of comments on my original introduction , so a lot of you will need something new to comment on if you read another one of my stories. That, and I noticed that most of my introduction was not an introduction to myself, but to my pets. Blame it on my small town upbringing; you learn to keep a lot of things to yourself in places like that, if you know what's good for you.  First, something familiar to those of you who read my first introduction - my prosopagnosia (or face-blindness). A lot of comments expressed interest in that, so I'll talk about it more. It is something I was born with, which I learned in cognitive psychology, is uncommon for prosopagnosia. I did not realize I was abnormal until my first psychology class, where I could not see an optical illusion that relied on facial recognition. See, contrary to most artistic interpretations (and the name...

I chose this lab for this week because I feel like my writing skills have been somewhat lacking as far as grammar is concerned. So I am going to make notes on all 8 videos and put what I learned from each one so I can have a reference later. Video 1:  How languages evolve  by Alex Gendler I know this one! This is why there are different dialects, and why languages are categorized as "Latin" and "Germanic." I've heard that my dialect of Cherokee takes influence from Spanish, which probably explains why the pronunciation for Spanish is intuitive to me.  Video 2:  How did English evolve? by Kate Gardoqui I know a bit about this too! I use a lot of Old Norse in my campaigns (usually to name towns). English is a delightful Frankenstein language. In D&D there is a language called "Common" that I use as an analogue to English, explaining that it is a trade language, cobbled together using the languages of the elves, dwarves, humans, etc.. It makes sense,...