Mythology and Folklore

Bibliography: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales The Fox and the Cat A fox meets a cat. The cat is nice, the fox is arrogant and the fox dies because he sought out hunting dogs to teach the cat something. The cat climbed a tree but the fox could not. The Little Lamb and the Little Fish There was a brother and a sister who had an evil stepmother. She cursed them, and turned the brother into a fish and the sister into a lamb. The brother and sister were eventually turned back by a wise woman and they lived happily ever after. Simeli Mountain There was a poor brother and a rich brother. The rich brother did not give the poor brother anything. One day, the poor brother saw twelve mountain men open up a mountain, and he did the same. Inside the mountain were many riches. The poor brother took the gold home and made a life for his family. The rich brother found out, opened the mountain, and got stuck. The mountain men k...

 Bibliography: Dan Ashliman's Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales Cat And Mouse In Partnership                There was a male cat and a female mouse who lived together and put away a pot of fat to store in the church. They wanted to save it for winter. The cat ate the fat without the mouse, and when the mouse called him on it, he at her too, as it is ‘the way of the world’.   The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids                A wolf swallowed six young goats whole, and the seventh told the mother what had happened. The mother and the youngest came upon the sleeping wolf and cut open his stomach, freeing her children. She then put rocks in his stomach and sewed it back up, and when the wolf went to get a drink, he drowned.   The Seven Ravens            ...

                                                         King O'Toole Celtic Fairy Tales  by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).   King O’Toole and His Goose             King O’Toole had a goose that was keeping him busy in his old age, but soon the goose got old as well. Saint Kevin blessed the goose, and the King gave him the land the goose flew over.   The Shee An Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire             The Shee An Gannon asked a King for his daughter’s hand in marriage. The King gave him the task of finding out why the goblin stopped laughing. There were twelve iron spikes, eleven of them filled with the heads of princes who had failed in this task, and the twelfth would be open fo...

  Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales  by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892). Connla and the Fairy Maiden             Connla of the Fiery Hair is taken to the land of the fairy by a fairy maiden. His father, the King, Conn of the Hundred Fights, tried to get a Druid to stop it but couldn’t.   The Field of Boliauns             Tom Fitzpatrick took a leprechaun captive and made said leprechaun show him where gold was buried. Tom tied a red garter to the spot the leprechaun had indicated and went home to get a spade after making the leprechaun swear not to touch the garter. When he came back, the leprechaun was gone but had tied red garters over all the trees in the fields.   The Horned Women             Twelve witches, the first with one horn and the last with twelve, cam...

                                                        King Arthur King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang Sir Galahad and the White Knight                Sir Galahad came upon a white abbey, and found a white shield that would kill whoever picked it up unless he was the worthiest knight in the world. Sir Galahad proceeded to do many great deeds.   Sir Lancelot’s Vision                Sir Lancelot was not a pure knight, unlike his son, and he had to give up the quest for the Holy Graal   The Adventure of Sir Percivale                Sir Percivale loses a fight, pitches a fit, and makes friends with a lion...

King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang The Drawing of the Sword After King Uther died, England was thrown into chaos. Merlin declared that whoever could draw the sword from the stone would be King. Needing a sword for his brother, Kay, Arthur drew the sword from the stone and became the rightful King of England.                                          The Sword in the Stone Sculpture The Questing Beast                Knight Pellinore, who had been chasing a beast for nearly a year, stole a horse from the King and challenged him to catch the Knight. Merlin came along and prophesied Arthur’s death by his nephew.   The Sword Excalibur                How Arthur got Excalibur from the Lady in the Lake   The...

  Bibliography:   Myths and Legends of the Great Plains  by Katharine Berry Judson (1913) The Ghost and the Traveler Teton There was a man who was at the edge of a forest during a storm. He waited and noticed a light in the forest after it got dark. He followed it and found a sweat lodge with two ghosts in it. The man fled but the ghosts followed. He heard a woman cry out, and thought of her, and a woman appeared. She had no legs, but she kept up with the man all the same. The man feared her, and the woman vanished.   The Man Who Shot a Ghost Teton A man who was traveling alone killed several rabbits. He made a fire and cooked one of the rabbits. He heard a great many people talking and figured they must be ghosts. A ghost kicked the man, so the man shot him. The ghost went off to find the rest of them, and the man found bones at the base of a tree.   The India Who Wrestled With a Ghost There was a young man who had to spend the night in the ...

Bibliography:  Judson's  Myths and Legends of the Great Plains    The Creation Osage (Wazhá zhe group) The Sun is their father and the moon their mother. They were sent down to Earth, but it was covered in water. They called to the Elk, who is responsible for revealing the land on Earth and for the first crops.   Osage (Hoga group) Same beginning. The Elk made a little space for them on the rocks, but they knew they would need more room. Crawfish swam down and came back up with mud in his claws, which was used to make the land.   Sacred Legend The people were born in water. Eventually, they came up to land, only they were poor and cold. They made clothes for themselves out of grass, and chipped stones for hunting weapons. Eventually, they discovered fire. They got bored of roasted meat and evented clay pots, so they could boil their meat. They kept the hides from the animals they killed and started making clothes out of them. They used buffa...

Bibliography:  The Chinese Fairy Book , ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). The Little Hunting Dog There once was a man who did not like to be surrounded by others. He moved into a temple, only to be plagued by gnats and fleas. One night, two knights on horses rode in, only they were two inches tall and their horses were the size of grasshoppers. They had hunting falcons and hunting dogs with them. The falcons ate the gnats and the dogs ate the fleas. When the knights left, they left one hunting dog, which stayed with the man until one day it died and became as flat as paper. Fox-Fire There was a young farmer walking home when he saw a glowing ball being tossed up and down. Moving towards it, he saw a fox blowing it up in the air. The farmer stole the ball, as it was the elixir of life, and swallowed it. Because of this, he was able to interact with the spirit world, call people out of comas, and see the dead. One day, after thirty years of earning m...

 Bibliography: Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings  by Joel Chandler Harris (1881). Mr. Fox and the Deceitful Frogs Brer Fox finds his reflection and is captivated. Brer Fox dips his paw in, overbalances, and falls in. He manages to scramble out though. Reminds me of the story of Narcissus a little bit, and how Narcissus was cursed to fall in love with himself and stare at his reflection until he died.                Old Mr. Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear (say that ten times fast!), and Brer Coon are working hard. Brer Rabbit gets tired, gets a sticker in his paw, and decides to rest. He finds a well, and in that well is a bucket, which he decides to lay down in. Only after he gets in the bucket, it starts descending. Brer Fox sees this and determines that Brer Rabbit has found a gold mine or has buried treasure down there. Brer Rabbit tells Brer Fox there are fis...

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). Scheherazade volunteers to be married to a Sultan who is killing his wife every morning. Her sister, Dinarzade, is sleeping in the same room as her and her new husband. Before the sun rises, Dinarzade wakes Scheherazade and asks her to tell a story. Scheherazade tells the story of a merchant who sits to eat dates and throws rocks around as he is doing so. Afterwards, he washes his hands and face in the fountain. A genius (genie) rushes up to him, ready to kill the merchant as he says the merchant killed his son. The merchant falls upon the ground, begging for mercy. Here, Scheherazade stops her story. The Sultan allows her to live so he can hear the rest of the story, thinking that he can always kill her tomorrow. The next morning, Dinarzade wakes Scheherazade and asks her to finish her story. Scheherazade continues. The merchant asks for a change to go home and bid h...

Bibliography Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/06/myth-folklore-unit-ancient-egyptian.html  Ra—King of the gods Shu—wind god Tefnut—sends the rain Seb—Earth god Nut—Sky goddess Osiris—god of the dead (eventually) Set—brother of Osiris Isis—wife of Osiris (eventually)     Isis was a mortal woman who wanted to live among the gods. To do this, she made a snake out of the earth and the god’s spit. The serpent bit Ra, causing him to fall to the ground and cry out in pain. Isis came forward and offered to heal him, in return for his secret name (secret names hold a lot of power in Egyptian myths). The god gave her his name, Isis healed him, and Isis was made a goddess because she now shared the power of Ra.   As Ra got older, mortals thought that he was getting to old to rule. Hearing this, Ra called Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, and Nu to him. The other gods advised him to send Hathor to punish the mortals....

 Bibliography:  Story source:  Apuleius's  Golden Ass , as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013). http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-apuleiuss-cupid-and.html Venus goes off on Cupid and threatens to make on of her ‘slave boys’ her son instead. Venus rushes to get revenge on Psyche, only to run into Juno and Ceres, who basically tell her to chill out. Psyche goes to one of the shrines of Ceres and begs the goddess to help her. Ceres tells Psyche that Venus is her niece and they share friendship ties beside that. Ceres cannot afford to offend Venus. Ceres sends Psyche away, saying to be thankful that Ceres is not keeping her to give to Venus. Psyche leaves, crying, and stumbles across one of the shrines of Juno. She begs the goddess to help her. Juno says that she has always loved Venus as a daughter and will not go against her. Psyche decides to find Venus herself, thinking perhaps that will mollify her. However, Venus has already gon...