Brothers Grimm (Crane) - Reading Diary A

For my final reading diary posts, I chose to read the Crane version of the Brothers Grimm Household Stories. The first story, The Fisherman and His Wife, tells of a fisherman who catches an enchanted flounder that can grant wishes. He lets the fish go and does not make any wishes at first, but when he tells his wife about it she tells him to go back to the pond to ask the flounder for a bigger house. The flounder grants that wish and the fisherman and his wife are happy for a week or two, but then the wife decides she wants a bigger house and she orders her husband to go ask the flounder for a castle. The man does not want to ask for a bigger house, but the wife insists and he eventually gives in and goes to ask the flounder. But when they are given a castle, the wife decides she wants to be the king. She tells her husband to go back to the fish to make her king, which he does not at all want to do. She keeps complaining and asking him to do so until he finally does. Once she is king, though, she uses her power to order her husband to ask the fish to make her emperor. Then she wants even more than that and tells him to ask the fish to make her the pope. Once she is pope, the man tells her that there is nothing more that she can become, but she is still not satisfied. Then she decides she wants to have the power to control when the sun rises and sets. She screams at her husband, ordering him to go back to the flounder to ask that. When the man does ask the flounder, he tells the man to go back home and he will find his wife in their original home. I enjoyed this story because it was very entertaining and it also has a good message- don’t be greedy. When you keep asking for more, you may end up with less.

(Image of the fisherman talking to the enchanted flounder. Source: Wikipedia)

Dante's Inferno - Reading Diary B

The first story in the second half of Dante’s Inferno was an interesting read to me mainly because of Nessus. Nessus is a major character in one of my storybook stories, so I thought it was really cool that he was also involved in this reading. In this story, Virgil tells Dante about how Nessus was killed by Heracles out of vengeance, which is exactly what my storybook is about. The role of Nessus in Dante’s Inferno is to act as a guide for Virgil and Dante in the seventh circle of hell. To me, however, the most interesting story of this unit was the last one, when Dante and Virgil reach Satan. Dante gives such a great description of what he was seeing as he approached Satan that it gives the reader an eerie feeling. And then, when Virgil leaves Dante, he says that he cannot even describe how chilled and hoarse he became because any words would fail to really tell it. It is hard to imagine being in a state where you are not dead, but you are not alive either, but that is how Dante described the situation. And his description of Satan is unlike anything I have ever read- the three heads, all with eyes crying tears of blood, the bat-like wings, and the massive size. I had never read anything quite like this before, but I really enjoyed reading this story.

(Painting of Satan as described by Dante. Source: Deviant Art)

Dante's Inferno - Reading Diary A

For the week 13 reading diary, I chose to read Tony Kline's translation of Dante's Inferno. I had heard of Dante’s Inferno and the Divine Comedy several times before, but I had never read them and I did not really know anything about them. The story was very interesting from the very beginning, when Dante came across a she-wolf that was blocking his path through the forest. Then he saw the poet, Virgil, who explained that the she-wolf had escaped from hell and would only be defeated by a greyhound that would one day come and send the beast back to hell. Dante then proceeded to follow Virgil on a journey that would lead him through eternal space where he would see spirits in the worst of all pain, but he would then have a choice to climb to the Lord’s city. When Dante is passing through the gates of hell, he comes across the spiritually neutral- the people who were not let into heaven or hell. They were sadly moaning because they had no hope of death and they were envious of every other fate. Eventually, Dante and Virgil reached Charon, the ferryman of the dead. Dante then enters the first circle of hell- Limbo. Limbo is where those who are free of sin, but were not baptized go. For this, they are in Limbo between heaven and hell. The two then come across some of the most famous poets, Oedipus, Ovid, Horace, and Lucan, and together they all enter a castle where many famous heroes and heroines reside, as well as Aristotle and other philosophers. Including so many famous people in this story makes it really interesting. I think one of the most engaging things about this tale is the imagery, though. Dante does such a great job describing the setting as well as his feelings as he is passing through the circles of hell.

(Drawing of Dante and the famous poets in Limbo. Source: Wikimedia)

King Arthur - Reading Diary B

Today I finished reading the King Arthur unit from the UN-Textbook. The first story in the second half of this unit begins with Sir Galahad traveling to an Abbey where he encounters two other knights. They mention that they are there because there is a shield that no man can hang around his neck for three days without dying. They are there to attempt to wear the shield, and Sir Galahad agrees to attempt it if they fail. This seemed a little odd to me at first, because I would definitely not want to wear a shield that is known for leading people to die, but then it was explained that only the worthiest knight in the world could wear it successfully. The first knight wore the shield out of the abbey and was met by the white knight, which injured him. The shield was returned to Sir Galahad, who happened to be worthy of wearing the shield. He kept the shield, which led him into many adventures, including him even getting the best of his father, Sir Lancelot. The next two stories tell of Sir Lancelot’s vision and Sir Percivale’s journeys. Sir Lancelot had a vision of the Holy Graal as he was outside of a church, but he was too heavy with sin to enter the church. As Sir Lancelot was lying there, another knight took his helmet, his sword, and his horse and left with them. Meanwhile, Sir Percivale was busy trying to track down a man on a black horse, and he ended up in a completely different place where he saved a young lion from a serpent. Eventually, Sir Galahad and his father, Sir Lancelot, encounter each other on a ship and spend months together until they are told they must go their separate ways. Soon, Sir Galahad, Sir Percivale, and Sir Bors find the Holy Graal and take it to a town where they pray to it every day. This story was very long, but I really enjoyed reading it and learning about all of the knights of the round table and their quest for the Holy Graal.

(Painting of Sir Galahad praying to the Holy Graal. Source: Wikipedia)

King Arthur - Reading Diary A

For this week's reading diary, I chose to read the tale of King Arthur. I had heard parts of this story before, such as Arthur pulling the sword from the stone when nobody else could, and that is what the first story was about. After Arthur pulled the sword from the stone on several different occasions, the people finally recognized him as king. In the second story, Arthur is hunting some unknown beast when his horse falls dead under him. Arthur wants to continue hunting the beast, but another man who had been hunting the beast for a year took the available horse before Arthur could mount it. Merlin then came to speak to Arthur, but he was in the form of a boy. Arthur is confused at first, as this boy knows everything about him, but eventually Arthur learns that it is in fact Merlin. Merlin explains to him how he knows everything, adding that Arthur will die a noble death during battle. The next story was about King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur. I did not know much about the sword or how King Arthur came to be in possession of it, so this story was interesting to me. I thought it was a little odd that a “lake lady” gave him the sword, and how she made him promise to give her a gift when she asks it. I also thought it was interesting that he had to choose between the sword and a scabbard, and even though Merlin told him the scabbard was the wiser choice, Arthur chose the sword anyways.  

(Image of Arthur taking the sword from the lake lady. Source: Wikipedia)

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Native American Hero Tales - Reading Diary B

In the second half of the Native American Hero Tales unit, I read the stories of Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away, The Son-in-Law Tests, The Jealous Father, and Dirty-Boy. Of these stories, I found The Jealous Father to be the most interesting. This story was similar to “The Jealous Uncle” in the first half of the unit. In this story, though, a father becomes jealous of his own son and tries to desert him on an island. The boy finds a walrus to ride through the water to the mainland, which happened to be sent there by the boy’s mother. He rides the walrus through the water until it is shallow enough for him to stand. The boy’s father sent a storm, though, which ended up killing the walrus as soon as the boy got off of it. On the shore, the boy encounters an old woman that was sent by his mother. This woman tells him of the dangers he will encounter on his way back to his village, and how he can escape it. Some of the situations that he gets in and his ways of escaping the situations are very interesting. First, he comes across a tent with two old blind women that use their sharp elbows to stab visitors to death. They tell him to sit between them, but he places a bag there instead, causing them to stab each other to death. Next, he must dig a hole and hide in the ground to avoid hunters and their dogs. The dogs find the boy, though, so he sticks a stuffed ermine out of the hole. The hunters see this and kill their dogs for lying to them, which seems a little extreme. The boy gets away, though, and eventually makes his way back to his home, where he kills his father and then he and his mother turn into birds and fly away (which seemed kind of random to me).

(Picture of a boy stuck on an island. Source: Wikipedia)