Brynlee's Thoughts on Mythology and Folklore

The Woman Stolen by Killer Wales  by Stith Thompson Living in the country is fun. It is quiet and serene. The most difficult part is finding food. One day, a fisherman was out on the water, attempting to find food for him and his wife. Recently this has been proving to be a challenge. He was alone on his boat. He had just dropped a line when he felt a tug. It was stronger than he had ever felt before. He tied the cast line to his canoe and rowed as fast as he could so he wouldn't lose it. He had never used more muscle to paddle than in that moment. He made it to the beach and called out for his wife. She ran out to help pull the line in. Between the two of them they managed to rope the fish onto land and kill it before it had the chance to escape. They cleaned and readied it to be cooked.  After that, she went to clean her hands off in the water. There was nothing grosser to her than fish guts. But, as soon as she put her hands in the water she was pulled in. She was frantical...

 The Piqued Buffalo Wife by Blackfoot Stories This story tells a tale of a family torn apart. It begins with the birth of a child. He was born from a buffalo and therefore every night he would turn back into a calf. But, since his father was a human, every day he was a child. During the days he would run and play with the tribe's children and learn their games. Every night he would depart and spend the night in the field with his mother. One day his curiosity got the best of him. He had to know who his father was. He went to the chief and asked him to help him find his dad. The chief called for the eldest men of the tribe and asked him to identify his dad. He could not find his father among the group. The chief then sent out for the age group underneath. He could not identify his father from this group either. Finally, he called for the unmarried men. The child quickly was able to identify his father! His father wanted to meet his mother. He took him to the field. There his mother...

  the Turtle and the Man  by Richard Edward Dennett (1898). One day a turtle and a man moved into an uninhabited town. They built it there from scratch. But, when they were done they realized they had no food. The turtle decided to build a large trap with the man. Then, they decided that it was too big. So, they split it in half. But, the turtle's half was better because the next day there was an antelope waiting in his, while the man's was empty. The turtle celebrated his win. In all the commotion, an ox came out of the woods. He asked what the commotion was. The turtle explained and asked if he could help him carrying it to his house. Once at his house, he told the ox to go get some water and he would cut up his share. While the ox was gone, the turtle hid all of it in his house and refused to leave regardless of the ox demanding his share. The ox, then, set out on a revenge course. He was going to destroy his trap. But, he was quickly ensnared and died. Then, the turtle did...

 Twin Brothers by  Richard Edward Dennett (1898). This is the story of two paths interconnected.  There once was a woman. She was pregnant. After an intensive labor, she gave birth to twins, full grown twins. They were ready to set off into the world. They had a special charm that followed them and got them out of trouble when necessary.  At the same time, a very beautiful woman was ready for marriage. She was of legal age and prepared to marry. But, her father wanted to make sure that the suitors had her blessing before he would agree to the marriage, because she was the one who would have to put up with them forever.  Upon her coming of age, many suitors arrived. A tiger approached her father and he sent him to her and she rejected him. A gazelle, same outcome. A pig, same outcome. She was distraught that all of these suitors are not what she wanted. Until one day, she was walking through town and she saw the most handsome man she had ever seen. She ran direc...

Gazelle Marries  by  Richard Edward Dennett (1898). There once was a man who had two wives. Each was pregnant and gave birth at the same time. They were beautiful beyond anything the town had ever seen. But, since their father had an abundance of money, he decided that it would not be present that won their hand in marriage but the first man to learn their true names. One day, an antelope came and tried to bargain for their hands in marriage. The father told them his proposition and the antelope fled in search of their names. Shortly after, a prince showed up for the same purpose and received the same proposition. He returned to town and was frantic in search of their names. However, his dog stayed behind. He heard the father yell to his daughters and ran to find his master. But, on the long trail, he was hungry. After winning a battle with a cat, he completely forgot the names. So, he ran back. This time their father instructed them to feed the dog but without water he became...

I am happy with my progress so far! I think I am most proud of my project because I think the idea is really fun and if I can do it correctly it will be really great! I enjoy reading other people's writings. There are so many different ideas and writing styles that are inspiring but also just fun to read. They make me a better writer also! I am using the extra credit to keep a high grade so that if my project tanks I will still have an A! I think that my blog and my website are very different but they reflect their purpose well.  I would like to create a better routine. I think that I have slowly gotten into a groove and I like how it fits into my week but sometimes that time frame leaves me flustered and I do not want that! I think as far as pitfalls go, I just need throw everything into writing and then go back and edit opposed to overthinking details!  My motivation is getting through the semester and getting to be home with family again for the Christmas season! Source:...

I t hink the comments are very helpful. They were equally uplifting and constructing. I liked that a lot of people started with positives. I think sometimes with feedback it can be easy to only focus on the negative comments that you have because you overall want the person to make their work better, but sometimes that can be discouraging. I appreciated that people were honest and seemed genuinely excited to read my work. The comments I find most useful are the ones that I can clearly fix. If I can read it and fix it, I appreciate it. A couple were vague where I wasn't sure what to do to make them content with my work.  Similarly to those leaving comments, I have found it best to give a compliment and things that I really liked about their style or their work and then circle back with a suggestion about parts I had questions or ideas about. It is important to get the perspective of other people in these comments so I try to make them truly helpful. I am getting ideas because each o...