Myth-Folklore 2019

For this week, I chose to read stories about the Fairy Queen, as found in Stories from the Faerie Queene  by Mary Macleod. My favorite story in Part B is Two Knights , as I personally find it a bit humorous. Two Knights: The knights Artegall and Scudamour come across each other and Artegall prepares to attack Scudamour but stops upon realizing who he is. Artegall refuses to tell Scudamour his name but the two men find out that they are both looking for revenge against Britomart, thinking she is a man. Scudamour thinks Britomart stole his lover while Artegall is upset that he lost to Britomart shamefully. Both manage to hunt Britomart down and attack her, knocking off the visor of her helmet, revealing that she is a girl. Artegall falls in love with her and Scudamour laughs at the thing, teasing Artegall for losing to a girl while rejoicing that he need not be jealous of Britomart, that he can still have Amoret, the girl he loves whom he believed Britomart had stolen from him. Glauc

For this week's reading I chose the the stories about the Fairy Queen   as found in Stories From the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod. My favorite story for Part A is The Magic Mirror  and will probably be the story that I retell for this week. The Magic Mirror: While traveling with our heroine, Princess Britomart, a knight asks her what brings her into this country, to which she replies that she is looking for praise and fame for her skills as a warrior. She then tells him that she is looking to exact revenge on Artegall and denounces him in front of the knight, though secretly she loves Artegall and is pleased when the knight defends his honor. Britomart even feigns ignorance about what Artegall looks like (the knight describes him to her) in order to hide her true feelings. She knows that she is destined to marry him as she once asked the magic mirror that could tell the future, which Merlin had given to her father, King Ryence. The mirror showed Artegall and she fell in love w

One bright, April day during recess at a suburban elementary school, the 4th grade bully Jake demanded that a group of three 3rd graders give him their backpacks and everything inside, yelling "If you don't, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life!" Jake felt extremely confident that the kids would give in to his demands as he was much larger than them (and most of the 5th grade class) and had a posse of pals right behind him who could step in should Jake start to lose the battle. As Jake stood his ground, waiting for the three little kids to surrender their belongings, the 3rd graders decided that enough was enough. They had seen Jake go through this same ordeal with countless other kids and it was time to put a stop to his antics. One of the three, Sam, stood up to Jake and declared "There's no way I'm going to give you my stuff! Let's fight this out like men!" Sam readied his backpack, prepared to swing it at Jake's head should

For this week's reading, I chose the stories of Robin Hood, as seen in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child (1882-1898). Of these stories, my favorite was The Bishop of Hereford  as I love a story where a hypocrite gets their due. The Bishop of Hereford: In this tale, Robin Hood notices that the Bishop of Hereford is traveling his way, so he decides to play a trick on the greedy, immoral man. Robin and his men make it so that the bishop and his entourage must pass by them, at which point the bishop notices that Robin has killed a fat deer. The bishop accosts Robin and his men for killing one of the king's deer, especially when there are so few of them to eat it. He declares that he will take Robin before the king for punishment. Robin asks for mercy, to which the bishop replies that he will not grant Robin or his men any mercy, that they must go before the king for punishment for poaching a deer. Robin then summons the rest of his men so that the

For this week's reading, I chose Robin Hood from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child (1882-1898). First of all, all of these stories surprised me as Robin Hood is not at all as he is commonly portrayed in movies. He is kind of a brat and a punk who goes around picking fights he can't win, calling his pales to come get him out of trouble. That being said, Robin Hood's character annoyed me and so my favorite story was The Pedlars because in this story Robin gets what he deserves. In The Pedlars, Robin Hood decides that he wants to search the packs of three peddlers traveling to Nottingham. Presumably, Robin wants to steal their goods. He orders them to drop their packs and shots arrows at them, which results in them dropping their packs and preparing to fight off Robin and his friends using their giant staffs. Robin asks the peddlers to wait so he and his men can get staffs with which to fight, to make things more fair (because it is totally f

In my youth, I was the most beautiful fox in the forest, with luscious red fur and a wide, bushy tail. I held a secret, however--none of my fox brethren knew that I could become a human at will. I simply tugged at my fur and it came off, transforming me into a beautiful woman in the process. I never revealed this secret to the creatures I lived with in the forest as all, to some extent, were terrified of humans and for good reason--hunters frequented our little woods and made short work of any unfortunate animal who happened to cross their path. One day, I grew bored of my life in the forest and longed for human interaction. I never was satisfied with my life as a fox and, in my youthful folly, decided to join mankind. I knew of a young hunter who lived near the edge of the woods and decided that he would be my husband, though of course he had no idea of this. Every day, I watched his house, waiting for him to go hunting, at which point I swooped in, ripped off my fur, and labored al