Week 6 Reading: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part B

Of the stories that the goblin told in this section, two of them ended up being interesting to me.

The first was "The Girl and the Thief", which was about the beautiful daughter of a merchant who refused all men, turning down the greatest merchants and even kings who asked for her hand in marriage. A brilliant thief had been steadily robbing a great many of the citizens, and the king himself descended to find him and bring him down. The king pretended to be a thief himself, and was invited into the thief's abode. However, the serving-maid warned the king of the danger he was in, and he fled and returned with his army to surround the thief's house. The thief, when surrounded, came out and fought, slaying all of the king's men before finally being bested by the king himself. When the man was to be executed, the merchant's beautiful daughter fell madly in love with him, and intended to kill herself after he was executed, until a god returned the thief to life for her dedication to the man she wanted to be her husband.

The second was "The Four Brothers", where four brothers ended up repeatedly down on their luck, until they finally decided to all head in different directions and learn a science. The first learned how to put flesh on bones. The second learned how to put skin and hair on flesh. The third learned to create all of the organs. And the fourth learned to bring things to life. Once the fourth brother brought it to life, it killed them all and fled into the woods. The fault of the deaths was placed upon the head of the fourth brother, who had to know full-well that what he would bring to life was a lion.

Bibliography:

Image Source: Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Story Source: "The Girl and the Thief" by Arthur W. Ryder

Story Source: "The Four Brothers" by Arthur W. Ryder

Week 6 Reading: Twenty-Two Goblins, Part A

Of the riddle-tales of the goblin that I read, three of them struck my interest the most.

The first was "The Three Lovers", since I found the answer to the riddle rather interesting, in the way that it characterized the actions of each of the men. The great journey to bring about the method of the girl's resurrection was characterized as being the actions a father would take to bring back their daughter. The man who traveled to wash her bones in the holy river so that they might be purified was characterized as having taken the actions of a son who wished to honor their mother. And the final man, who had built a hut near her grave and slept with her ashes each night, subsisted on food obtained by begging, was the one characterized as having taken the actions of a husband who had lost their wife.

The second was "Brave, Wise, Clever", and I found it fitting in the way it was determined who deserved the woman's hand in marriage. The wise man told them what had taken the daughter and where to find the giant's home. The clever man built a flying chariot and weapons in order to allow them to travel to the giant's home, and to give the brave man an arsenal with which to fight the giant. The brave man fought and eventually slayed the giant. And the riddle's answer was that the brave man should have the woman's hand in marriage, for it was him that actually rescued her, while the other two men only helped him along his journey.

The third that interested me was "The Three Delicate Wives", in the quite ridiculous way that the story worked. The first wife was wounded by a lotus petal falling from her hair into her lap. The second wife was burned by beams of moonlight. And the third wife was bruised by the sound of a mortar and pestle being used. The third wife was determined to be the most delicate, for she was injured by something she didn't even come into contact with. 

Bibliography:

Story Source: "The Three Lovers" by Arthur W. Ryder

Story Source: "Brave, Wise, Clever" by Arthur W. Ryder

Story Source: "The Three Delicate Wives" by Arthur W. Ryder

Image Source: Vetal & Vikram by Harshad Dhavale

Week 5 Story: Tales of a Thief Turned King

Tales of a Thief Turned King

I. Tragedy

A wealthy king constructed a grand vault to hold his wealth.

Unbeknownst to him, the builder left a specific stone loose to enter the vault from outside.

When the builder passed, he told his two sons of the stone.

In the night, they snuck into the vault and stole all they could carry.

They did this many times, and so the king laid traps for the thieves.

When the brothers entered the vault, one fell into a trap.

"Cut off my head, so that they may not tie me to you," he said.

He did as he asked and then escaped.

II. Resurgence

When the headless body was found, the king had it mounted on the palace wall.

"Bring home his body," their mother demanded.

But the body was guarded by the king's men.

And so the man had to come up with a plan.

He brought mules laden with wineskins and uncapped some near the palace wall.

He bantered with the guards when they came to investigate, and gave them some of the wine.

He continued to talk with and give drink to the guards until they fell into a drunken stupor.

Then he retrieved his brother's body and stole away.

III. Victory

The king was shocked that he had been outsmarted yet again.

And so he sent out his clever daughter to investigate and find the man.

She came disguised to deceive him, but the man saw through it.

He approached her anyway, and revealed to her that he was the man she sought.

She reached out to grab him, but the man thrust his brother's arm at her from under his cloak.

She grabbed the severed arm, and the man escaped.

The king was impressed and offered a pardon to him.

The man's wits earned him the king's respect and daughter's hand.

Author's Note

I kept well in line with the original story for this one, but that's because I saw a natural three-act structure within the story, and I took that up in a challenge to try to write three one-hundred-word microfictions for the story, with one for each major act of the story. 

The first act explains how the two brothers get into the vault, and culminates in the death of one brother, who has the un-trapped brother cut off his head so that he might at least survive.

The second act is about retrieving his brother's body, which requires planning and good execution in order to succeed, and also shocked the king with the man's wit.

The third and final act has the king sending out his daughter in order to attempt to apprehend the man, but when he manages to outsmart even her, the king instead offers him a pardon if he meets with the king, and when he does, the king is thoroughly impressed and offers the daughter's hand in marriage.

It was honestly a pretty fun challenge to try and turn this story (which was originally ~1100 words) into three little microfictions.

Bibliography

Image Source: Ruins of an Egyptian Temple, taken by DEZALB

Story Source: "The Tale of King Rhampsinitus" by Donald Mackenzie

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths & Stories, Part B

 

The main story in Part B that interested me was "The Tale of King Rhampsinitus". "The Two Brothers" was somewhat interesting, but it was also quite lengthy, and I fear I would struggle to do that story justice in a very short format. 

"The Tale of King Rhampsinitus" is a very solid story overall, I don't really have many gripes about it. The only thing in particular that comes to mind that might be worth changing would be to help out the slain brother a bit, either giving him a great burial or a resurrection in some form, since the living brother gained so much out of the entire ordeal, and because of how noble the dead brother's sacrifice was.

Image Source: Ruins of an Egyptian Temple, taken by DEZALB

Story Source: "The Tale of King Rhampsinitus" by Donald Mackenzie

Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths & Stories, Part A

Glass sculpture of a crocodile

Out of the stories in Part A, the ones that most interested me were "The Wax Crocodile" and "The Green Jewel", as I was already largely familiar with the aspects of Egyptian mythology/folklore that were told in the rest of the section.

"The Wax Crocodile" was probably the more interesting of the two. I think that story offers a lot to potentially work with. It might also be a fitting story for my portfolio, since it again has a bond between human and monster. 

It might be interesting to explore about the young man a bit more, since he somehow survived for seven days just fine, and then simply stood there before the pharaoh and scribe after having been released by the crocodile. That might be one of the things I would change if I end up retelling the story, since it didn't make a lot of sense.

"The Green Jewel" reminded me a bit of the story of Moses parting the Red Sea, only for something completely frivolous. The entire story just really highlighted how different the life of a pharaoh was, where asking something like this was not plausible, but perceived as normal. 

But if I rewrote that story, I'd likely make it a bit more interesting and climactic rather than just having it be a nonchalant feat of magic like in the original story. With the way it was written, it almost made the act seem somewhat mundane.

Story Sources:

"The Wax Crocodile" by Donald Mackenzie

"The Green Jewel" by Donald Mackenzie

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Week 4 Story: The Wolf of Saint Francis

 

The Wolf of Saint Francis

Saint Francis was a devout follower of the Lord, and was greatly kind to all of those he came across, be they a mere insect or a powerful king. And in turn, all of those he came across were kind to him as well, regardless of their typical temperament.

One day, Saint Francis arrived in the town of Gubbio, and upon talking to some of the townsfolk, he came to learn of a massive and terrifying wolf that had escalated from not only dragging off livestock, but even men were dragged off in the dead of night and feasted upon by the horrible creature. Thus, the townsfolk all barricaded themselves inside at night, for fear of being caught by the beast in the darkness.

Saint Francis was not one to allow people to suffer, and so he told the townsfolk that he would deal with the wolf that had been plaguing their town. They pleaded and begged him not to go, for they cared much for him, and knew that if he were to seek out the beast, he would never return to them. Yet, Saint Francis set out anyway in search of the great wolf.

Saint Francis drew close to the woods beyond the town, yet before he could even enter the forest, the massive wolf came charging out from between the trees, his mouth wide open so as to swallow Saint Francis whole. 

Yet, Saint Francis was not afraid. He did not flee, instead standing where he was, and he he made the sign of the cross and called out to the wolf "Stop". 

And stop it did. The wolf halted its charge and stared down at him. 

"Brother Wolf," Saint Francis said. "I bid you to cease hostilities against myself or any other people of this town, and so too their livestock."

The wolf laid down upon the ground and cast its eyes to the ground.

"Ordinarily, you would be put to death for your vile acts of murder and thievery," Saint Francis said. "But, that is not to be your fate. Instead, you will come with me to the town, and you will work to repent for your sins for the rest of your life."

The wolf raised its head and began to wag its tail.

Saint Francis turned his back on the wolf and walked back toward the town, and the wolf dutifully followed behind him.

The townsfolk were struck with awe and fear when Saint Francis brought the wolf into the town.

However, Saint Francis quickly worked to assuage their fears. "Fear not this wolf," he said. "He will harm you no longer, and will instead spend the rest of his life among you in peace, in order to show his repentance for his sins."

The people took Saint Francis at his word, and allowed the great wolf to live among them. The wolf played with the children and assisted the townspeople with moving things when it could. And whenever unsavory bandits and brigands attempted to accost the people of the town the great wolf was there to scare them off.

When the wolf eventually passed on from the world, the people were sorrowful, since aside from their personal sorrow over the passing of the great wolf who had once plagued them, they knew that Saint Francis would be afflicted with greater sorrow over the loss of one he had made his friend.

Author's Note

So the story I adapted was the story of Saint Francis of Assisi. The original story chronicled many things that Saint Francis did, but I particularly enjoyed the story of him taming the fearsome wolf, and so I decided to adapt that particular story instead of adapting the entire thing.

I kept largely true to the original in terms of overall plot points, but I obviously made my own minor changes as well as telling the story in my own words.

Bibliography

Story Source: Saint Francis of Assisi by Abbie Farwell Brown (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

Image Source: Image of a wolf by skeeze, sourced from Pixabay