Mythology and Folklore Blog

Story source: Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , translated by Margaret Hunt (1884). Plot: The children Hansel and Grethel arrived back at their father's house by the way of the stones.  The step-mother answered the door and pretended to be excited to see them. The father actually was glad to see them.  After some time, the mother suggested the same plan because the family was once again out of food.  Hansel again heard the conversation and went to pick up stones as he did the first time. However, the step-mother had locked the door. Instead, the next day, Hansel dropped balled up bits of bread to follow back to the house.  When the night fell they were unable to find the crumbs left behind. Animals and other creatures had eaten the bread set behind them.  The two were lost and without any food.  They eventually passed out under a tree and that is where the story ends.  Thoughts: This section was again pretty similar to the first. I had no idea that the first sectio

Story source: Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , translated by Margaret Hunt (1884). Story: There once was a boy was called Hansel, and a girl named Grethel. Their parents had fallen on hard times and could no longer procure daily bread. Their father tossed and turned all night, stressed, wondering where he might find some food to feed his children in the morning. He groaned and said to his wife, "What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?" "I'll tell you what, husband," answered the woman. "Early tomorrow morning, we will take the children out into the forest to where it is the thickest; there we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one piece of bread more, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them." The father stared at his wife blankly. "Well husband, what say you?&qu

Story source: Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , translated by Margaret Hunt (1884). Plot: Hansel and Grethel were the children of a poor woodcutter and his wife.  The parents decided to take the kids out into the forest, give them one loaf of bread and leave them there essentially to die.  The dad didn't want to do it but was eventually convinced by his wife. The kids were awake and they heard the whole plan. Hansel went outside (by night) and found some shiny rocks and put them in his pockets.  The parents took the kids into the forest to abandon them. Hansel periodically stopped, drawing the attention of his father. He had been stopping so that he could drop some of the shiny pebbles.  When night fell Hansel used the shiny pebbles to guide them back along the right path. The End. Thoughts:  This portion of the story seems to have a happy ending! I had no idea that the parents were so involved in the story. The version I had heard growing up was just that they got

Story source: Dante's Divine Comedy , translated by Tony Kline (2002). Plot: In the middle of his life doanta was faced with a dark thick wood. he wants to tell of what he saw in there. he made it to an opening and at the foot of an incline his path was blocked by a lepard.  dantae was afraid. he turned back to the depths he came from and was met with VIrgil. Virgil was a man who lived in rome under agustus.  Virgil aked why Dantae is going back to the wood. Dantae had heard of the great poet VIrgil and was a huge fan. Dantae started crying. Virgil knew of the lepard. Virgil sayd it is vishious and does not tolerate men.  Virgil says it might be smarter if Dantae just follows him as a guide. So, the two move on together. Thoughts, I did not appreciate the verbiage used in this text. I appreciate the time period but the way things were describe in such ambiguous terms made it difficult for me to tell what was going on. I think if i were to write it i would use lamesn terms and possi

Story source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865). Down the Rabbit Hole part 3 Plot: After drinking the potion Alice was only ten inches high. the perfect size to make it through the door.  She realized that she had forgotten the key on the table. She tried to climb up but she could not.  Alice then saw a small table with a small cake on it and instructions to eat it.  Alice ate it and eventually she was tall again. She wasn't just tall though, she was super tall.  She grabbed the key and opened the tiny door, but she was far too big to make it though. She eventually noticed a mushroom "about her size" growing next to her. She looked all around the mushroom and eventually, she looked on top. When she looked on top she saw a large caterpillar smoking a hookah.  End. Thoughts: This story is incredibly obscure and filled with creativity. I mean who comes up with the idea to meet a giant caterpillar as he is just casually smoking a hookah? It plays o

Story source:  Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm Plot: Now the wife wants to be Emporer.  The fisherman doubted that the fish could ever do something so grand.  The wife snapped at him and demand, as his king, that he go talk to the fish.  The fish (seemingly beginning to get annoyed) granted the wish to be Emporer. Now she wants to be a pope.  So the man begrudgingly went and asked the fish and the fish made his wife pope.  Thoughts: At this point, the suspense is building. Every new request has been handing at the edge of my seat waiting for someone to finally snap. Whose will will win? Will the wife finally get satisfied or will the fish's patience run out first? What started out as a fairly mundane and uneventful story is turning into something that genuinely grabbed my attention. I cant wait to see what will happen all because of the suspense. When I read the first story I didn't care at all about what happened but by this point, I'm drawn in and engaged.  Image

Story source: Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm The Fisherman and His Wife Ending The fisherman, begrudgingly, made his way back to the river. This time he arrived he noticed a dark red pool near the edge of the water. He thought little of it and called out to the fish. "O man, O man! — if the man you be, Or flounder, flounder, in the sea — Such a tiresome wife I've got, For she wants what I do not." Only this time he was met with no response. He thought for a moment. He wondered where the fish might be, then remembered the pool of red he had noticed upon his approaching the waters.  "O man, O man! — if the man you be, Or flounder, flounder, in the sea — My wife wishes to be king though I fear you have fallen due to my fisherman sting" No answer was found to his calling. The fisherman was slightly relieved he would not have to make another request, though he also felt guilt for inflicting the wound that took the fish's life. He walked home slowly ponde

Story source: Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm Plot: The fisherman now calls for the fish again, exclaiming that his wife "wants what I do not" The fish grants the wish for a castle.  It was a grand castle. The next morning the wife woke up the fisherman and told him to go to the fish and ask the fish to make him king of the land.  The husband doesn't want to be king, so she asked him to ask the fish to make her the king.    So he went and begrudgingly asked the fish.  The fish granted the wish and the story ends.  Thoughts: At this point, I am anxious to see the fish say no. The wife has so much prideful ambition and greed in her heart, there must be some sort of cosmic ending. I think I will write my own moving forward in my story for this week. The plot is incredibly simple, yet relatable. I feel that many husbands find themselves in this position today. This must be at least part of the reasons why this story became so famous and has later through time as well

Story source: Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm The Fisherman and His Wife, Part 1 Plot There is a fisherman and his wife living together.  The fisherman caught a flounder that spoke to him. The flounder said he was a prince and that he wouldn't taste good, so the fisherman should throw him back.  So the fisherman let the fish go and went home.  He told the wife what had happened, she told him that he should have made a wish for a nice cottage.  So the fisherman went back and called out to the fish and the fish appeared.  The fish granted the wish for a cottage. After a fortnight the wife got discontent and told the fisherman to find the fish again and wish instead for a castle.  The fisherman was reluctant to go to the fish but he eventually did go back to seek out the fish.  That is where the story ends.  Thoughts:  This story really paints women in a terrible light. It seems to me that this guy is just going about his business, just trying to keep his head down and earn a

 Down the Rabbit hole pt.1 Source Story:  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  by Lewis Carroll (1865). There once was a boy named Brock. Was no one in particular, the boy who sat in the back, attended the events but never spoke, the fly on the wall. No one loved him, but no one disliked him. Brock understood this and honestly felt the same. Why would he want to be friends with people who were so ordinary? Brock always felt he saw the world with so much more wonderful than the rest. As if he saw in color and they had to be seeing in black and white. It is for this reason that Brock noticed the snake that seemed to be looking at him. Brock stared at the make with raised head and made eye contact. he turned his head to the left and imagined that snake doing the same. To his surprise the snake did!  "What are you looking at punk?" Brock heard the Snake say in a surprisingly deep voice.  Brock looked around to see if anyone realized what had just happened. "the snake was pl

 Down the Rabbit hole pt.1 Source Story: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865). Plot: Alice was bored. She felt sleepy and stupid. She saw a rabbit. The rabbit spoke to itself. The rabbit had a watch.  She followed it down a hedge and she fell it down straight down for a long time. She sees lots of things setup around her way down as if people were living there.  She was falling for like forever.  She had time to sit around and think about stuff as she continued falling. she has some really obscure thoughts. She got excited about meeting people on the other end of the world.  She literally got bored falling. She finally hit some sticks, but she was fine.  She continued after the white rabbit.  She went into a hallway lined with locked doors.  Alice started on her way down the hallway, she found a key on a table. but it didn't go to any of the doors. She found a tiny door and the key worked. She looked out the tiny door then looked back at the table and saw a

 This week has been a bit overwhelming. Having 5 jobs and being a full-time student isn't particularly easy. I work at Headington hall as a desk clerk, I work at a church where I serve as a youth pastor, I teach a class for the university as a peer teaching assistant, I run a small business personally training kids from 6th-12th grade, and I work as a bouncer at The Porch on campus corner. Trying to balance all of these has been pretty rough lately. This last week I finally went from Wednesday through Saturday with just about no sleep. It didn't help that there was a time change this week so I lost an extra hour of sleep. Nevertheless, I know that in each of these capacities I am serving my brothers and sisters in Christ. I teach those at the church, I encourage kids in my business to love themselves, and I look out for my peers at the bar looking for any opportunity to keep them safe and behaving responsibly.  I would love some time to myself, however. I am starting to fall be