Week 12 Storytelling - The Young Beowulf

The young Beowulf arrived at the camp to train his battle skills and survival skills. There was a lot of skills he could learn. Masters of the camp trained him to be more strong. Beowulf learned a lot from them.

One day, he realized that he was not learning anything from masters. He tried his best to learn, but he just could not see anything new from the lessons. Beowulf started to get bored. It was no longer fun when he could not learn a new thing.

Beowulf started to skip his lessons. He thought there were nothing more he could learn from others. Instead he decided to test our his strength. Beowulf bought some foods and went in the forest nearby.


"I will fight against the beast of the forest"


The forest was known for the beast. Nobody knew what kind of creature this beast was because nobody survived after seeing this beast. Beowulf entered the forest. He walked slowly and carefully as he approached the center of the forest.


"Is that it?"


After few days of walking, Beowulf finally reached his destination. He saw a huge cave. Inside this huge cave, there was a bear. A bear with white fur and red eyes. It was three time bigger than a normal bear.

Beowulf grabbed a stone from the ground. As he prepared his weapon, he slowly approached the cave and threw a stone inside.


"I got him!"


Soon Beowulf could hear the angry roar of the white bear. The bear was swift. With less than a second, the white bear was already in front of the young boy.


Beowulf swung his sword. However, his sword was easily destroyed by the claws of the bear. Beowulf decided to run away since his weapon was broken. However, he was not a fast runner. He was clumsy and the bear was much faster.

Soon the white bear caught Beowulf. Without an option, Beowulf charged. He decided to fight against the giant bear with his bear hands.


"He is not that strong!"


Beowulf grabbed the white bear's hands. They were surprisingly weak. Beowulf was surprised. The white bear was trying to get its hands out of Beowulf's hands but it was not working. The bear got frustrated and tried to bite Beowulf's head.


"He is really weak."


Beowulf slowly added his strength to his hands. The white bear started to cry because Beowulf's hands were slowly crushing the white bear's hands.

Before even giving the full strength, the white bear's hands were crushed completely. It could not use its hands no longer. The white bear realized it could not harm Beowulf, so he started to run away from him.


Although Beowulf was strong, he was slow. He could not chase the white bear. In fact, he did not think about chasing the bear. He was just surprised and speechless how strong himself was. Even the might beast of the forest which killed many strong men, could not fight against Beowulf.


"This is boring."


He was expecting more excitement. He was expecting to use his full strength against this beast. However, Beowulf was not able to use his full strength at all. The young Beowulf was bored of his own strength.

(The white bear by Tambako The Jaguar)

Author's note: The story is based on The young Beowulf part from the tale of Beowulf. In the original story Beowulf grew up within few sentences. The original story was based on how the young Beowulf competed with other people. However, I thought it was interesting how Beowulf later was able to fight against the creature like Gremlin. So I was thinking about the story. A story that would be similar to the battle between Gremlin and Beowulf, but instead I wanted to write about the fight that happened in the childhood of Beowulf since it was not mentioned in the original story. In the original story, Beowulf was sullen in his strength. He was never able to use his full strength. I wanted to write a story about how the young Beowulf finds out he is a strong and became very disappointed about how he could not use his full strength.


Bibliography: The Young Beowulf from The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933)

Week 11 Storytelling - Arthur's death

Arthur's body collapsed on top of the pile of many deaths. He was wounded. He knew he would not recover from his injuries. Arthur saw his dear friend Sir Bedivere. Arthur gave his precious sword Excalibur to Sir Bedivere. The sword thought to itself while it was handed to Sir Bedivere.  

'You would not recover.'

Excalibur Arthur's wounds would eventually lead to his death. In fact, Excalibur was the thing that was holding the last breath of Arthur. He would have died long time ago if Excalibur was not there. But that was it. The power of healing belonged to scabbard. 

'If you had my scabbard, you would have recovered.'

Excalibur thought, but its scabbard was stolen by Morgan. Excalibur had to admit Arthur would no longer be with him in the battle. It knew that this was the end. 

'Fair well, my friend.'

Although Arthur could not hear, Excalibur said good-bye to Arthur. Excalibur did not want to leave the side of its friend. But that would be too cruel to Arthur. Even without the scabbard, Excalibur has its own power to continue the life of Arthur without curing him. Arthur would live with his wounds and pain if Excalibur stayed. 

Sir Bedivere left with Excalibur in his hand. However, he did not return Excalibur to the lake right away. He hid Excalibur and went back to Arthur to lie. Excalibur waited. Arthur would knew if it was returned to the lady of the lake, so Bedivere's lie would not work. Eventually, Bedivere picked Excalibur and threw it to the lake. The hand came out of the lake and caught Excalibur. It was the hand of the lady of the lake.

"Welcome back, my child."

The lady of the lake spoke. She knew Excalibur would be returned. She was waiting for Excalibur. 

"How was your journey?"

Excalibur answered with its thought. The lady of the lake could understand what it was thinking. She smiled. 

"I am glad you enjoyed your journey, my dear."

She gently touched the blade of Excalibur. The work of Excalibur was done. It was born to be wielded by a king Arthur. Since Arthur's journey was done, Excalibur's journey was done as well. The end of Arthur was near so the end of Excalibur was near.

"Farewell. Rest yourself in Avalon."

Excalibur slowly disappeared from the hands of the lady of the lake. Excalibur joined Avalon where his friend, master, and king Arthur joined after his death. 

(The lake by Mouser Williams)

Author's note: The story is based on the tale 'King Arthur'. It was really interesting story to read and I really enjoyed it. There were many parts that I really enjoyed but I think the most impressive and memorable part was the end of Arthur. I was thinking since Excalibur is not just an ordinary sword, it might have it own 'I' or ego. So I decided to write the story about how Excalibur would have felt during the end of Arthur. The original story is same. Arthur was wounded and he wanted to return Excalibur to the lady of the lake. Sir Bedivere lied twice before returning Excalibur to the lady of the lake. 

Bibliography: The End of Arthur from King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang 

Week 10 Storytelling - The Dog Husband

There was a girl who loved his dog. She had him around her all the time. One day, she got pregnant and her parents suspected that it was the dog that got her pregnant. They decided to burn the house and killed the dog and the daughter. They burnt their house to let their daughter and the dog to die in fire. But dog woke up before they both die. He turned into a human form and carried the girl away from the house.


"Where am I?"


When the girl woke up, nothing was left in the village. Everyone left. She was confused, but she had to move on for the sake of her babies. With the dog next to her, she moved to the place where she could start a new life.


"We need to start a new life here. You need to help me!"


She told her dog. The dog agreed that he would do anything for her. It was rough to start a whole new life but she had her dog to help her. The dog was always there for her and that all she needed.

Eventually, she gave birth to four male puppies and one female puppy. The dog and the girl were happy to see their child. However, more hunting and works had to be done by both. They both worked hard to feed their puppies until they grew up. When they were finally old enough to go hunt for whales, the dog taught their puppies.


"I think you are ready."


It was one night, the dog decided to teach puppies how to turn into the human form. He gathered all his puppies and transformed.


"You are my children. All of you can do this. All of you can have the form of human."


Five puppies were amazed by their father's transformation. However, they were not the only ones that saw his transformation, the girl, the mother of five puppies, realized that the dog could transformed that night.


"You can become a human? You are just like me? Why didn't you tell me about this? This..This..I wish you would have told me earlier!"


She scolded him and told him that if he stayed as a human from the beginning that everything would had been fine for them. The dog agreed. He told his puppies to stay as human forms as well. With their human bodies, the dog and puppies could hunt for whales more faster and better. They could catch more than enough, they shared the meat of whales to other animals and creatures around them.


One day, A crow told and brought people who left the village. They found out the dog and their puppies were great hunters that could catch enough whales for all of them. The village started to form around the house of the girl and the dog. Later the village got bigger and bigger and formed a great city. The dog, with his human form, became the master chief of the town while his children became chiefs of the town.


Author's note: This is a rewriting about the dog husband. The original story is about the girl who had the dog husband and her children. In the original story, the dog husband was killed by her parents. Therefore, the story was not really about the dog husband but it was about the wife and her puppies. The story is really similar. Her children learned how to hunt whales and eventually become the chiefs of the village which was formed by people who left the village earlier because a crow told them. I wanted to write the story about the dog husband that actually has the dog husband as a main character so title will be more relevant. I think this story was interesting but I think since the dog husband was the title of the tale, more of him should have been told in the story instead of killing him in the beginning of the story.

(The dog and the girl by Hartwig HKD)

Bibliography : The Dog-Husband from Marriage Tales from Stith Thompson's anthology, Tales of the North American Indians.

Week 9 Storytelling - Tests for son-in-Law

Wemicus had a beautiful daughter. Everyone wanted to marry her because of her beauty. Indeed, she could marry many great husbands. As a father, Wemicus did not like many husbands of his daughter. He thought his daughter deserved the best man out of the best. That was why he created several different tests for his son-in-law.


One day, he called half of his sons-in-law. They gathered in the forest of Wemicus, waiting for Wemicus. Instead of showing off to the meeting, Wemicus decided to bring a test to them. He attracted a huge bear that was living in the forest, and took a bear to sons-in-law.


"Any man who wants to be my son-in-law should have a strength of a bear."


He knew that was impossible. Without a single weapon on their hands, he laughed as a bear approached those men. A bear started to attack sons-in-law while they were in panic. Only half of them lived.

On that night, Wemicus gathered rest of the survivors. They were injured. Wemicus provided the medicine and foods for them. However, he did not provide any shelters for them. They were far away from home, so there was no other choice but to stay there and camp for the night.


"Any man who wants to be my son-in-law should have a skill to survive a night."


He left them as he spoke. Survivors gathered together. They tried to make fire, make a campsite. However, half of them were wounded so bad, they could not survive the cold night without proper care and warm house to sleep.


Wemicus came back to the spot where he left them. He told rest of the survivors to come with him. Wemicus took them to the river nearby. The river was flowing fast. He got on his canoe that was prepared. As he got on a canoe and crossed a river, he looked back at his sons-in-law.


"Any man who wants to be my son-in-law should across this river without his boat."


He spoke. Rest of the survivors started to cross the river. However, without a canoe, those who could not swim, and those who were too weak to stand against the flow of river did not make it. With few survivors left, Wemicus decided to throw a final challenge for his sons-in-law.


Wemicus took them to the camp site where they could finally rest. Wemicus provided what they need. Survivors were well-fed and the camp site were comfortable. Wemicus told them, now they can rest. All tests were over for them. They were approved as his sons-in-law. Survivors believed in his words. Without any cautions, they decided to have the rest that they need.

At that night, Wemicus approached their tents. With torch on his hand, he decided to burn their tents.


"Any man who wants to be my son-in-law should survive from the wild fire."


However, there was no single survivor. Everybody was too tired to wake up from the rest that they could not have for several days. Those survivors eventually died. Wemicus shook his head as if he was disappointed.


"So no man is strong enough to be my son-in-law."


He was disappointed. Wemicus noticed the deaths of sons-in-law to people around him. Many men were interested because they knew how beautiful his daughter was. Wemicus informed them that anyone can marry his daughter.


"Any man who wants to be my son-in-law shall pass my tests."


It was under only one condition.

(Canoe by nyamaru kamome)

Author's note: This story was from the Hero Tales of Native American mythology reading. The title of the story was The son-in-law tests. It was a story about Wemicus who had a daughter that had many great husbands. Wemicus gave them tests which eventually killed them, and one of them eventually survived from the Wemicus tests and be a son-in-law for Wemicus. The original story was based on the conflict between Wemicus and his son-in-law but I thought it was a great idea to write about what happened to those who died, and how those tests of Wemicus killed those sons-in-law. I saw other people from mythology group was writing about story that happened before the original story, and I thought it was a great idea and I thought this was a great opportunity to try this technique.


Bibliography : The Son-in-Law Tests from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson

Week 7 Storytelling : The spider tales

There was a party. The part was held in the house of Nyankupon. Nyankupon prepared many stuffs for his guests. The most delicious foods were served to his guests, and the most pleasant views were shown in the eyes of his guests. All guests were having a great time. They were dancing and singing along with music. While enjoying the party of Nyankupon, three of guests gathered. First one was the bee. The bee with the golden crown on top of his head. Many other bees were following him as if they were worshiping him. The second one was the snake. His body was longer than any other snake. He had a long stick behind his back. The third one was the tiger. The tiger with weird looking eyes. 

"So how did you guys end up here?"

The bee, who was in charge of all bees in the world spoke. Others, the snake and the tiger, stayed silent. They did not want to talk. The bee figured they would not speak unless he started. 

"Bring the jar!"

The bee ordered the jar. Other bees brought the jar and placed it in front of three. 

"I came here, to Nyankupon's world, in this jar."

"A bee in a jar?"

The snake asked as if he could not believe what he heard. 

"Yes. I was tricked by the spider. This spider told me he had a dispute with Nyankupon. Of course, there was no such dispute. He lied so he could put me, and my friend into this jar. Then he sent us to Nyankupon. Nyankupon was nice enough to let us free and gave us a new hive."

"Interesting."

The snake moved his tongue. He licked the jar as if he could tasted it. 

"I was tricked by the spider as well. He told me he had a dispute with Nyankupon. I wanted to prove that I was long than the stick. When I straighten myself to prove that I was longer, he tied me to the stick and gave me to Nyankupon. He told me there was no dispute between him and the spider."

The snake showed his stick to the bee and the tiger. 

"That spider!"

Suddenly, the tiger growled. His voice was full of anger.

"That spider is the evil one! He tricked me as well!"

The tiger smashed the table with his paws. The bee quickly grabbed his jar. 

"He told me that I would be able to see some surprising sights if I sewed my eyes!"

The tiger pointed his eyes. Although most of the strings that were used to sew his eyes were gone, some of them remained. The snake and the bee shook their heads. They were all tricked by the spider.

"So what is this spider doing now?"

The bee asked. 

"I am not sure, but by giving us to Nyankupon, he got his name in all tales. People will know his name, and his name will be told."

The snake answered. Then he was trying to think of name of this spider. It took awhile but he remember what this spider was referred as. Anansi, that was the name of the spider.

(Anansi by Mariano Colantoni)

Author's note: This is the story that I wrote based on the reading of How We Got the Name "Spider Tales" from West Africa folktales. The original story focuses on how Anansi, the spider tricked others to have a permission over having his name for old tales. Nyankupon is the cheif of gods in the West Africa myth. Just like Zeus, or Odin from the other mythology, he was the most important character. However, Anansi, the spider wanted his name to be told. Because all stories that were told by men were stories of Nyankupon, Anansi had to convince him. To convince him, he tricked the bee to fly into the jar by saying he had a dispute with Nyankupon. He obtained bees in the jar which was the first thing Nyankupon asked. Then Anansi tricked the snake by saying he had a dispute with Nyankupon that the snake was not long as the stick. When the snake straighten him to prove that he was longer, Anansi tied him to this stack and gave it to Nyankupon. This was Anansi's second task, and finally Anansi tricked the tiger to sew his eyes by saying Anansi could see the most wonderful things because his eyes were sewed. Anansi completed his finally task by leading the tiger who could not see because of sewed eyes. I thought this was the most important story of West Africa Tales because Anansi Tales are the main tales in West African tales. 

Bibliography : West African Folktales : How We Got the Name "Spider Tales"

Week 6 Storytelling : The Kakis Tree (Revised)

Once upon a time, there was a crab. This crab was such a beautiful lady and a wonderful house wife.

One day, she met the monkey. The one with grumpy face and behavior of amateur. She exchanged her rice with the seed of kakis tree because she was a nice woman. She did not complain although it was certainly this monkey who took advantage of her kindness. Instead of getting angry, she decided to plan her seed. With her skills and love, a kakis tree was raised fast and healthy. By the time, the grumpy monkey came back to the town, a tree was fully grown with huge and delicious looking kakis fruits on its branch.

The kakis tree was thankful. He knew without the Mrs. crab's helps, he would never had grown this big.

"One day, I will be able to provide delicious fruits for the crab."

Although some of his fruits were ready to be served, he decided to wait for all of his fruits to be ripped. He knew if he started to drop fruits for the crab, some of the bad ones might be placed in her hands as well. However, the monkey came by and noticed the beautiful kakis from the tree. The tree knew who he was. After all, monkey was the one who gave him up.

"At least, he gave me to Mrs. crab. For that reason, I shall not hate him."

In fact, the tree did not mind him at all. He knew if he would have been nothing but a trash to the monkey. He was thankful that the monkey gave the seed of kakis to Mrs. crab regardless of his intention. So without the hate, he decide to just ignore the monkey. However, that was until the monkey decided to climb up his body and started to eat some of the kakis fruit. 

He thought about taking him down with his branch but he saw Mrs. crab, who was waiting for the monkey to drop ripe fruits. 

"As long as this monkey delivers my fruits to Mrs. crab."

He though to himself. However, it did not take a long time until he realized the monkey was taking advantage of the crab. Once again! It was that moment, Mrs. crab decided to act smart and fool the monkey. She tricked monkey to lift his hands up while he was holding all the fruits. When he did, he dropped all of them! Mrs. crab swiftly took fruits and threw all of them to her house. The tree saw what she did and laughed about it. 

"Oh, no!"

But suddenly, the angry monkey started to beat up Mrs. crab. 

"How dare you!"

That was the action that the tree could not stand. His mind started to filled with anger and hatred towards the monkey. 

"You shall be selfish! You shall trick others and take advantage of others! But you shall not hurt Mrs. Crab!"

The tree yelled. His branches grabbed the monkey. The monkey started to scream with panic. 

"Are you okay?"

The tree asked the crab. She could not answer. Fortunately, her friends came to help her. 

"You are going to pay for what you did."

The tree spoke while he was squeezing the body of monkey with his branches. The monkey cried and tried to escaped. A kakis tree made sure he would not escaped. With all his attitudes and behaviors, the monkey died in pain.

(Kakis Tree by PTorrodellas)

Author's note : This story is originally from the crab and the monkey from Japanese Fairy Tales. The main story is basically the same. The monkey exchanged his seed with rice, the crab planted the seed, and she got the big kakis tree by the time the monkey came back to visit her. The monkey asked the crab if he could have some of the fruits and the crab agreed as long as she would get good fruits from the tree as well. However, the selfish monkey started to take good fruits for himself and throwing down bad or unripened fruits to the crab. The crab was angry and decided to fool the monkey. The monkey was fooled by the crab and he actually beat the crab almost to where she would have died with her friend help. Even in original story, the monkey was killed by the friends of the crab. The main thing I focused was the personification. I was thinking if they would personify the animals why not plants? So I decided to write the story with personification of the kakis tree. Because the kakis tree was the one who actually punished in my story, the importance of the friendship and kindness is less emphasized in the story. 

Bibliography: Andrew Lang's Japanese Fairy Tales : The Crab and The Monkey

Week 5 Storytelling : Tea party

In the center of the forest, few animals gathered. There was a huge round table. On the left side of the table, a wise monkey and a goose with golden feathers sat. On the right side, a rabbit and a goose with white feather sat. They were facing each others.


"Welcome to my tea party."


A monkey started the conversation.


"Today, we will talk about the stupidity, anyone have a story to share?"


A wise monkey asked. A golden goose raised his left wing as if he was eager to share his story.


"Yes, a goose with beautiful golden feather. What is your story?"


"I want to talk about this stupid mother, whom I pitied from the bottom of my heart, before "this" happened."


The goose started a story. He explained how he wanted to help a poor family as a favor.


"Greed is the most terrifying stupidity. It makes your mind to go blind, so you will no longer see what is there for you."

The golden goose said angrily. The goose with white feathers agreed.


"I cannot agree more. This 'greed' thing is absolute non-sense. Somehow it turns our 'favors' to their 'rights'. They think what we are giving them is something they deserve."


The white goose pointed at his stomach. His stomach was stitched up as if someone had cut his belly. He was a goose who laid the golden eggs for humans, until they wanted more and decided to cut through his stomach to get more golden eggs.


"My poor duck friends!"


Rabbit shouted.


"We are not ducks"


Both Geese yelled back.


"Duck, goose, whichever you are. I pity you guys, but I do not agree with your greed thing is the most stupid thing in the world."


Rabbit spoke. The geese then asked, what was the stupidest thing in the world. Rabbit replied with the word "gullibility"


"This turtle, who came out to surface and tricked me, wanted my liver. I said I left my liver in my house, and he believed it. Of course, a slow turtle like him would have never seen my shadow after that day."


Rabbit said proudly. Monkey clapped and laughed.


"This crocodile thought I left my heart in my house. I agree, gullibility is the stupidest thing in the world!"


The geese shook their heads. They could not agree. All of them started to argue to decide what was the stupidest thing.

Their argument lasted quite awhile. They decided to ask someone else to decide. They found a wolf who had a body of fish in his mouth. They stopped him and asked which was the stupidest thing in the world; gullibility or greed.


The wolf stared at them for a second. He shrug his shoulders.


"I do not know which one is more stupid, but I can tell you the stupidest thing you can do is to ask a wolf to divide a fish."


His eyes pointed at his fish. As he left with laughter.

(A wolf by Jordan Crowe)

Author's note: Three of these characters or animals are from the stories of the Jakata's Tale. Two of the animals such as a rabbit and the goose were from the other folktale from other culture. However, although characters are different type of animals, the stories from both culture is very similar. The monkey tricked the crocodile with his heart and the rabbit tricked the turtle with his liver. Both geese produced something golden for their humans but humans wanted more, which eventually made them lose what the geese were offering to humans. The wolf is the story that I have never heard of similar story with. For his story, he went out to haunt a fish, but when he got there two otters asked the wolf to split the fish for them because they could not decide who should get the better part of the fish: the head. In the original story, the wolf took entire body of the fish and gave them the head and the tail. Only head and tail without any meat of the body! I thought that was hilarious and I thought those otters were quite stupid. I wanted to write the story over the similar characters gather to have a chat. 

Bibliography: Jataka's Tale written by Ellen Babbit

Week 4 Storytelling : Oxen

Once upon time, there was a guy named Bata. Bata was a brother of Anpu. He was also a hard worker and laborer for his brother, Anpu. Although Bata was working for his older brother, who is enjoying his life with easy works, a beautiful wife, while Bata was sleeping outside of the house, Bata loved his brother and never felt that was unfair.

In fact, he was happy with what he got. Although he did not have a fancy house or a beautiful wife, he got his cattles.

One day, Bata had to visit Anpu's house. He needed to pick up some foods to feed his cattles. They helped him a lot during his labor. Bata asked Anpu, and Anpu agreed. However, that day, Anpu was working in the field along with Bata. Therefore, when Bata went to Anpu's house, the only person who was in the house was Anpu's wife.

"Greeting, sister-in-law"

Bata gave casual hi to Anpu's wife. Anpu's wife stared at Bata as if she was asking why Bata was in her house. Bata explained his reason. He went to the storage and picked up some barley and wheat.

"You are a strong man."

A wife noticed that he was way stronger than her husband, Anpu. That attracted her attention. She decided to seduce Bata. However, Bata refused.


"How dare you refuse me, you are going to do exactly what I tell you to do, just like usual."

"I will listen to any words from you, but I will not play with a trust of my brother."


They started to argue.
And there were oxen. Because Bata was taking a long time, they were concerned. They decided to go to Anpu's house to help Bata.


"Can you tell what is going on? Oxy"


A ox with a bright hair asked while he was watching Bata's argument through the window.


"Looks like they are fighting, Oxay"


The other ox with black hair replied.


"Oh, no, Oxy! What are we going to do?"


"We can't do anything, we are oxen."


Therefore, oxen decided to do nothing. However, because two of oxen were gone for awhile, a older brother, Anpu realized something was wrong.

Anpu figured out his brother was taking too long as well. So he decided to go back to his house.


"What are you two doing here?"


Anpu found two oxen in front of his house. He asked.


"We are just being oxen...by doing nothing."


Oxy replied. Oxay shook her head.


"We were watching two of them arguing."


"Arguing?"


Oxay pointed Bata and a wife. Anpu looked through the window. And that moment, he could hear Bata's yelling.


"You are a mother to me, and my brother is a father to me. I will pretend I did not hear any of your words!"


It took awhile for Anpu to realize what was going on. After he figured out what was going on, he opened the door of his house.

It was at the moment his wife fell. She started to cry as Anpu walked in. Anpu saw Bata who was afraid to be asked about the situation.


"What is going on?"


Anpu asked as if he knew nothing. His wife started to explain how Bata was trying to harass her. Bata remained silent. Anpu nodded. He waited until she finished. He approached his wife, and smiled.


"Honey, I heard everything."

(Oxen by Mark Goebel)

Author's Note: The story is based on Egyptian myth. The background of the myth is about two brother Anpu and Bata who were separated because of the evil actions that were caused by Anpu's wife nad Anpu's distrust over Bata. Although there were more story over this brothers but I thought the most important part of the story was the beginning. The background story over my storytelling is only over the first two parts of The Two Brothers. From the original story, Anpu's wife seduced Bata, but Bata refused and decided to keep this as a secret because he respected Anpu's wife and did not want to turn back on his brother. However, Anpu's wife felt violated by getting rejected by Bata, so she decided to lie to Anpu, so her action could be a hidden secret for rest of her life. She wanted Bata dead. Anpu, the older brother actually believed in his wife's lie which eventually made the little brother, Bata, to leave his side. As a reader who seeks for a happy ending, I wanted to write a story where Bata and Anpu can stay together. From the original story, oxen help Bata when Anpu was chasing him with a dagger, in this episode oxen help Bata by doing nothing!

Bibliography:  Mackenzie's Egyptian Myth and Legend

Storytelling Week 3: A Gentle Cyclope, Polyphemus

In ancient Greece, there was a creature called Cyclopes. This creature was a giant, bold and had only one eye. And there was this Cyclopes called Polyphemus. He was a special Cyclopes. Regardless of his appearance as Cyclopes, he was smart and elegant. He wore a wig, shaved his beard, and wore a nice suit of clothes that would be used for kings or princes. He was a gentleman, or a gentle-Cyclopes.

One day, while he was enjoying his tea time in a cabin he built, little creatures approached his territory. They were called humans. Polyphemus put down his tea and opened the door to greet them.

"Hello, little fellas. My name is Polyphemus, with a gentle spirit, a kind heart, and a nice smile."

Polyphemus smiled. He was aware of his scary appearance that would frighten these little, fragile creatures.

His intention was great; however, his smile was more scary than a hydra.

Humans stared at Polyphemus for a second. Then they started to scream. Polyphemus panicked. He tried to calm them down but the situation was getting worse. He had no other choice but to grab them and keep them somewhere safe until they are calm. He was a gentle-Cyclopes, but the other Cyclopes were not. They would hurt them.

After grabbing all humans to his secret chamber, called Cave, he decided to sit down and talk to them.

"Do not be scared, creatures of size of my toe. I will not harm you....nor will I smile"

He spoke with a soft tone. People were scared but they decided not to scream. Polyphemus was proud of his work of calming them down.

"Now tell me. What brought you, such tiny bodies, to here?"

He took out a tea pot that he brought from the cabin. He sat down and offered his tea with a giant cup.

Out of all the small humans, one stood up. His name was Odysseus.

"I am here to take a rest and possibly gain resources to feed my fellow soldiers here."

Odysseus replied. He drank a sip of a tea with his bare hands because he could not hold a cup of giants.

"I see, little one. Your problem will no longer be. I have a bread that can feed entire fellas of yours, I have a cup of water, which little one like you can drink for the rest of your life."

Polyphemus reached his shelf in the cave and grabbed a piece of bread and a cup of water. Although it was nothing but a small bread to him, it was big enough for humans to feed themselves for awhile.

Odysseus smiled and apologized for his rudeness to scream in front of him. Polyphemus accepted his apology.

"Regardless of your apology, young one. You shall give me some precious of yours in return. This is for my curiosity. I shall keep whatever you give to remind myself of such a tiny creature when you leave."

Odysseus agreed. He told his men to bring a wine bottle. Polyphemus tasted it and gladly accepted it.

"Now you shall have my bread and water."

Polyphemus gave his bread and water to Odysseus. But, before Odysseus left the cave, Polyphemus stopped him.

"Now I have called you with many titles. Since you gave me such a great wine of yours, I would like to call you with your name"

"My name is Odysseus. Odysseus, man of many resources, scion of Zeus, son of Laertes."

Polyphemus was surprised by his name. He heard his name from the greatest prophet he knew.

"Listen, Odysseus with many many titles. You have to leave now. I will not speak out your name but if other Cyclopes find you, you will not return home with your body but only with your ghost."

Odysseus left the cave immediately. Soon after he left, other Cyclopes came to Polyphemus's cave. They asked who humans were. Polyphemus took a sip of his tea and said.

"Nobody. It was nobody."

(Polyphemus, a gentle Cyclopes by Nacho)

Author's Note: The original story is about Odysseus and Polyphemus, this Polyphemus is a monster called Cyclopes which is a monster that is cruel and stupid. In original story, Polyphemus abducted Odysseus and his men, for a eating purpose and eventually brutally eating most of them. His cruelness appeared when Odysseus offered his wine. Polyphemus loved his wine, but instead of letting him go, Polyphemus said he would eat Odysseus at the end. Odysseus took Polyphemus eye, which made him blind since he only had one eye. Moreover, his stupidity appeared when Polyphemus was fooled by Odysseus by calling him nobody, because that was a name that Odysseus gave to Polyphemus. Eventually, he found out that "nobody" was actually "Odysseus". Polyphemus threw a giant rock which destroyed ship of Odysseus which made his journey back home much longer. I noticed that there are plenty of monsters that are not evil but good kind. My purpose was to change this monster to evil creature to good monster. I thought the first step could be change the personality of this Cyclopes. I thought what if Polyphemus was not cruel, but gentle, and not stupid, but smart. I wanted to write a story about a nice monster rather a monster that destroy Odysseus' ship.

Bibliography: Homer's Odysseus by Tony Kline

Storytelling - Week 2 : Fred's iliad

Once upon a time, there was a gorgeous woman named Helen. She was a wife of this charming man named Menelaus. One day, Helen, the beautiful wife of Menelaus, was kidnapped by the evil prince, Paris. Agamemnon found out that his brother was crying. So he asked,

"My beloved brother, why are you feeling sorrow?"

Agamemnon asked.

"Oh my brother, the king of all kings in the Greeks. My wife, My beloved wife was taken by that evil prince of Troy. I want to take her back, but I am nothing but an individual who has no power over the great country."

Menelaus cried. Agamemnon was furious. No man is allowed to take anything from his beloved brother. Agamemnon called heroes of Greeks. He reminded the promise that they made before Menelaus was chosen by Helen. All Greeks' brave warriors gathered.

Everything went well. Heroes united and they created friendship by sharing their brave stories. However, when they finally reached the shore of Troy, the problem happened. There was this beautiful lady who Agamemnon bought when he landed on the shore of Troy. She was the daughter of the priest who served Apollo. The old priest asked to get his daughter back and he would pay for any price. Agamemnon refused.

This action angered Apollo. Apollo decided to stand with his priest and started to kill Greek soldiers who were serving Agamemnon. Heroes of the Greeks knew that all soldiers would be dead before fighting against Trojans. The brave Hero, Achilles confronted Agamemnon with this problem. However, the ignorant king decided to take what was Achilles instead of admitting his fault. Agamemnon scolded Achilles, and Achilles angrily replied.

"Listen, the most arrogant king of all Greeks. Your eyes see nothing but yourself, your ears listen no words but your own. My hands are for those who respect the great Achilles, if you cannot see my skills and listen to my braveness, then my hands will no longer swing for you. I will not fight for you any longer."

Achilles gave the girl to the ignorant king and decided to leave the land. Agamemnon thought no Achilles would be needed to win the war. After all, there are many great warriors and they were all fighting for him, so he believed that one hero should not matter a lot.

He was wrong. Apparently, Troy had many brave warriors as well. Out of all Trojan warriors, Hector, a prince of Troy, the brother of Paris, shined among them all. He was the greatest fighter of Troy and no heroes of Greeks could stand against him. Many heroes died in the battle, and Hector, with his honor and the bless of gods, he was leading Troy to the Victory.

Agamemnon finally realized that, without Great Achilles, he could not win this war. He needed Achilles to defeat Hector. He knew this well, but he could not ask Achilles to rejoin the war again. So he called heroes who were close to Achilles.

"I am a great king. I am a king of all kings in Greeks. No one, but gods in Olympus, is above me, and Achilles shall not be the exception. With my pride and dignity, I would not ask Achilles to join this war. However, if he is willing to fight for his honor and fight for his friends, and fight for all nations of Greek!, then I will let him rejoin the battle."

Agamemnon said. Heroes were speechless. They all knew this was caused by Agamemnon and he was playing a role of victim. He was using all soldiers, and heroes to make Achilles feel guilty. They had no other choice but to convey the words of Agamemnon.

"What a selfish, foolish, and ignorant king he is. He may be a king of all kings, but no one is above anyone in the war. He is hiding under his tent and watching brave Greek soldiers die, yet he is talking about honor and glory. I would not rejoin the battle, my fellow heroes, as long as the greatest king of Greek is leading this war. With Agamemnon in my sight, you shall not see no shadow of mine either."

Achilles rejected Agamemnon. In fact, he decided to leave the battle ground to go back to his own country.

"Tell this to Agamemnon, my glory heroes. I am not running away from the war, nor running away from that brawny Hector, but I am indeed running away from the ignorance and arrogance of King Agamemnon."

The next day, Achilles left with his friend Patroclus. Patroclus insisted that he would fight against Hector, but Achilles stopped him. Finally, Achilles left the war.

Few months later, heroes of Greek returned. They were defeated. They could not take over Troy because no one could fight against Hector. In the returning ship, no shadow of Agamemnon could be seen. He was dead.

(Achilles who defeated Hector by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra)

Author's note : This is the story about the war between Greeks and Troy. The main story of Homer's Iliad was focusing on conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, and battle between Achilles and Hector. There are few side stories such as Thetis is begging for helping Trojans to help regain his son's glory, but I thought main focus of the story was about Achilles. I have chosen this story because I hated Agamemnon and I want to write a story about what if, Patroclus did not die so no one could defeat Hector. Agamemnon surely was just hiding under the tent so he cannot. In the original story, Agamemnon and Achilles argued and Agamemnon kicked Achilles from his troop. However, when he realized that Hector could only be defeated by Achilles, he sent few people to convince him to rejoin the battle. Achilles rejected but Patroclus, Achilles' friend was killed by Hector and eventually Achilles rejoined the battle and killed Hector. I did not like the story at all. I liked how Achilles honored his fridenship with Patroclus than anything but eventually Agamemnon got what he wanted. So I wrote a story of Agamemnon who got paid for his arrogance and ignorance.

Bibliography: Homer's Iliad from the Iliad retold by Alfred J. Church. Web Source: Mythology and Folklore Un-textbook

Week 1 Storytelling "Every truth has two sides"

There was a fox. He lived in the forest where many predators lived. In this forest, he had to be careful to get his empty stomach filled. One day, he was very hungry. He failed to hunt for himself for three days, and he was starving. His mouth was craving for food and his eyes were blurry with starvation. He needed food as soon as possible or he could die from hunger. But because he was not fed, he was weak. Because he was weak, he could not catch any prey of his. But suddenly, he heard a song. A beautiful song that was sung by the cock. The fox knew this cock had to be fat in order to sing that loud. A fox ran towards the source of the song. He was starving and he had no other choice. At last, He found the cock. Just as he thought, the cock was huge; he would be a good meal for a starving fox. However, a fox did not have any strength to climb up the tree. Therefore, he had to try and persuade to come down.
He started to talk to convince this chicken.

(In the forest. Red fox pup by Eric Bégin)

"Hi, there. What a beautiful creature you are. May I have a honor to have a chat with you?"

A cock stared at a fox. He smiled.


"Of course, just come through the door. The door is at the bottom of the tree. We will share the story of our lives at the branch of this tree."


A fox ran. He did not suspect anything. There was only one thought in his mind. A fat juicy chicken in his mouth. He drooled.

(Hungry! Grey Wolf by Jordan Crowe)

"Well, Well, Well. Thank you, my chicken. I finally got to eat something. I was starving."


Apparently he was not the only one who was starving. A dog who accompanied this cock through the forest was starving as well.


"Now I don't have to eat you, chicken. This fox is going to be a better meal after all."


A dog drooled.

When it sounds too perfect, look before you leap

Author's note: The story of the actual fable is about the fox who was trying to deceive the cock. But eventually the fox had to face the dog who was a friend of the chicken. The moral of the story is the one who is trying to deceive other will pay for his/her actions, but I twisted the story a little bit to change the moral of the story. What if the cock crowed because he wanted to attract the fox? He probably got the fox's attention in order to feed the dog who possibly had not eaten during the travel. What if the cock was the one who was trying to deceive the fox and fox just had to try his best to get himself stay alive? The basic story is the same, but characters in my story have different reasons for their own actions. Therefore, the moral was different although the story was same.

Bibliography: this story is based on the fable of "The Dog, The cock, And The Fox" in  Aesop for Children by anonymous.