Famous Last Words: The End is Near

Hello,

I am not quite sure why I am completing this extra credit assignment. I have completed the required 410 points for an A in the class. However, I am incredibly paranoid. I am paranoid that there may be some mistake in the grading system, and so, this assignment is my attempt to acquire some form of bonus points to cushion my grade and ensure I get an A. I will admit, however, that I am somewhat lazy, which is why I am doing what I consider the easiest assignment instead of some other assignment that is worth more.

Hopefully, this will be my last assignment for this class. I am not going to lie, I struggled more than I would like to admit in this class. I like to think that I have creative ideas that, more often than not, involve dragons. However, I had an incredibly difficult time trying to write stories. I struggled with length and had a hard time deciding how I wanted to my stories to go. I had enough on my plate as it was, so I decided to drop the portfolio half-way through the semester. I will admit that reading the positive comments that everyone left, mainly the professor, left me feeling much better about my stories. I think I will hang on to the link to my portfolio so I can go back and look and it every now and then. Even if I did struggle more than the average Joe, I tried my best. I am just glad that I did complete some of the portfolio and story assignments so that I could actually afford not to do them later on in the semester.

Things are really hectic for me right now, so I am so relieved to be able to throw in the towel for this class. That puts me one step closer to graduation. I am looking forward to being done with undergrad! 

Meme.

Reading Notes - Russia: The Dead Mother, Reading A

·      A picturesque husband and wife lived happily together

o   Everyone envied them

·      The wife had a son, but she died soon after his birth

·      The husband wept and worried about how he was going to care for the baby without his mother

·      He did his best and hired an old woman to take care of him  

·      During the day, however, the baby would only cry and not eat anything

·      At night, the baby would sleep

·      The old woman wondered what was going on, and she decided to stay up in the night to find out what was occurring

·      At midnight, the old woman heard someone open the door and go to the baby’s bed

o   The baby became really quiet

·      The same thing kept repeating, and she told the husband about it

·      The husband called his kinsfolk, and they had a counsel

·      They decided to stay up to catch the person that was feeding the baby

·      At night they all laid down on the floor

·      At midnight, the door opened, and then they all stood up and brought out a light

·      They saw that it was the dead mother feeding the baby from her dead breast

·      As soon as the light hit her, she stood up and looked sadly at her baby, and then she left the room without a sound

·      Everyone that had seen her was terror-struck and they didn’t move for a time

·      When they did move, they found that the baby was dead.

Baby.

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887).

Reading Notes - Russia: The Witch Girl, Part B

 

·      A Cossack rode into a village and requested the owners of the last cottage in the village that they let him spend the night

o   They replied that he could, as long as he didn’t fear death

·      The Cossack thought that their reply was strange, but he still entered after putting up his horse for the night

·      When he entered, he saw the inhabitants. Men, woman, and children were all crying and praying, and when they finished, they put on clean clothing

·      The Cossack asked them why they were crying

·      The owner replied that Death wanders at night, and when she looks into a cottage, the people who lived in it have to be put into coffins and carried to the graveyard

·      The owner said it was their turn that night

·      The Cossack told him not to fear, and he kept a look out

·      At midnight, the window opened and a witch clad in white took a sprinkler and was just about to start sprinkling in the cottage

·      Right before she does, the Cossack cut her arm off with his saber

·      The witch howled and ran away, and the Cossack kept her arm and washed the blood

·      When everyone awoke the next morning, they were delighted to see that everyone was still awake

·      The Cossack proclaims that he will show them Death. He tells them to call the Sotniks and Desyatniks so they could go look for the witch in the village

·      They finally went to Ponomar’s cottage, and the owner revealed that one of his daughters was sick

·      The daughter looked like she had her arm cut off, and so Cossack told everyone what had happened

·      The village rewarded Cossack with money, and they drowned the witch

 Witch.

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887).

Reading Notes - Brothers Grimm: Rumpelstiltskin, Reading Part A

·      A poor miller had a beautiful daughter

·      The miller somehow manages to talk to the king, and he tells him that his daughter can spin straw into gold

·      The king comments that he is interested in her skill, and if he speaks true, then to bring her to his castle tomorrow

·      The miller takes his daughter, and the king locks her in a room filled with straw

o   He says if by morning she has not spun all the straw into gold, then she will have to die

·      The poor miller’s daughter did not know how to spin straw into gold, and she began to cry out of fear

·      The door opened and a little man stepped inside and asked her why she was crying

·      The girl tells him of her situation

·      The little man asked the girl what she would give him if he spun it for her, and she told him that she would give him her necklace

·      the little man spins the straw into gold, but the king was greedy and took the daughter to a larger room and ordered her to do the same if she valued her life

·      The girl cried again, and the man appeared again

o   she offered him her ring this time, and he spun for her

·      The king was overjoyed to see the room filled with gold, and in his greed, he took the daughter to an even larger room and demanded the same

o   This time, he told her that if she was successful, he would marry her

·      The man appeared again when the girl was alone, and asked her what she would give him

·      The girl tells him she has nothing more, but he requests her first child after she is queen

o   She did not know what would happen and so she agreed

o   The man spun the straw into gold again

·      The king came and found the gold, and he married the girl

·      A year later, she gave birth and forgot about the man

·      But the man appeared and requested that which he was promised

·      The queen offered him anything other than the child, but the man treasured the living thing more than all the other treasures

·      The queen began crying again, and the man took pity on her and gave her three days to figure out his name so she can keep her child

·      The queen did everything she could to find all the names in the country, but none were his name

·       On the third day, the messenger returned with no new names, but he did tell the queen about a little house he saw where a little man was jumping around a fire hopping on one leg and calling out

o   “Today I'll bake; tomorrow I'll brew,
Then I'll fetch the queen's new child;
It is good that no one knows,
Rumpelstiltskin is my name.”

·      The queen was delighted, and the man appeared

·      She asked him if his name was Rumpelstiltskin, and he shouted, “the devil told you that!”, and he stomped his right foot so hard into the ground that he fell up to his waist

·      He then took his left food and ripped himself up the middle in two

Illustration by Walter Crane

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).

Reading Notes - English Fairy Tales: Henny-Penny, Reading B

·      A hen, named Henny-penny, was picking up some corn when something hit her on the head

o   She then assumed that the sky was falling, and decided she needed to tell the king

·      She kept going until she met Cocky-locky, who asked her where she was going

o   Henny-penny responded that she was going to go tell the king that the sky was falling

o   Cocky-locky asked to accompany her, and she agreed

·      They went along until they ran into Ducky-daddles, who again asked them where they were going

o   They told him, and then he asked to join them, and they agreed

·      They all went along until they ran into Goosey-poosey, who again asked them where they were going

o   They told him, and then he asked to join them, and they agreed

·      They all went along until they ran into Turkey-lurkey, who again asked them where they were going

o   They told him, and then he asked to join them, and they agreed

·      They all went along until they ran into Foxy-woxy, who then asked them where they were going

·      Foxy-woxy excitedly informs them that they were not going the correct way to the king, and he offers to show them the proper way to go

o   They all agree and go together to tell the king that the sky was falling

·      They keep going until they come across a narrow and dark hole, which is Foxy-woxy’s cave

o   Foxy-woxy reassures them that the king is on the other side, and he leads the charge and expects them to follow

o   They all agree to go

·      Turkey-lurkey goes first and doesn’t go far when Foxy-woxy snaps off his head and throws his body over his left shoulder

·      Goosey-poosey, Ducky-daddles, and Cocky-locky follow in that order, and they all meet the same fate as Turkey-lurkey

·      However, Foxy-woxy had to kill Cocky-locky in two bites since the first bite only hurt him

·      Cocky-locky called out to Henny-penny after the first bite and called out to Henny-penny, but the scared Henny-penny instead ran home, so she didn’t tell the king that the sky was falling

 Hen.

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Reading Notes - English Fairy Tales: The Old Woman and Her Pig, Reading Part A

·      An old woman cleaning her house found some money

·      She wondered what to buy with the money, and she ultimately decided to go to the market and buy a little pig

·       She was returning from the market, and she wanted the pig to go to a stile, but it wouldn’t

o   She even told a dog to bite the pig because he wouldn’t go to the stile

o   The dog refused

·      She kept going and met a stick

o   She told the stick to beat the dog because it wouldn’t bite the pig because the pig wouldn’t go over to the stile

o   The stick refused

·      She kept going and met a fire

o   She told the fire to burn the stick because it wouldn’t beat the dog for not biting the pig because it wouldn’t go over to the stile

§  The fire refused

·      She kept going and met some water

o   She told the water to quench the fire because it wouldn’t burn the stick for not beating the dog, which would not bite the pig because it wouldn’t go into the stile

o   The water refused

·      She kept going and met an ox

o   She told the ox to drink the water because the water, fire, stick, dog, and pig would not listen to her

o   The ox refused

·      She kept going and met a butcher

o   She told the butcher to kill the ox for disobeying her and refusing to carry out her punishment for the water

o   The butcher wouldn’t

·      She kept going and met a rope

o   She told the rope to hang the butcher because he wouldn’t listen to her, etc.

o   The rope refused

·      She kept going and met a rat

o   She told the rat to gnaw on the rope for not obeying her, etc.

o   The rat refused

·      She kept going and met a cat

o   She told the cat to kill the rat for not obeying her, etc.

o   The cat actually told her to fetch it some milk from the cow, only then would it kill the rat

·      She went to the cow

o   The cow told the woman that it would give her milk only if she brought it hay from the haystack

o   She did and the cow gave her milk, which she then delivered to the cat

·      The cat drank the milk and then it began to kill the rat, which in turn began to gnaw on the rope, which in turn began to hang the butcher, which in turn began to kill the ox, which in turn began to drink the water, which in turn began to quench the fire, which in turn began to drink the water, which in turn began to beat the dog, which in turn began to bite the pig, which in turn jumped over the stile

·      The old woman made it home that night

 Pig.

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Reading Notes - Cherokee: The Rattlesnake's Vengeance, Part B Extra Credit

·      In this story, humans could (still) talk with other animals

·      Some children were playing outside while their mother was inside

·      The mother heard the children scream, and she ran out to find a rattlesnake

o   She promptly killed it with a stick

·      Meanwhile the father was out hunting in the mountains when he came across a company of rattlesnakes that seemed to be mourning

·      The rattlesnakes reveal to the man that his wife had killed their chief and that they were about to send the Black Rattlesnake to exact revenge

·      The hunter gave his condolences, but they stated that if he was really sorry, then he must be ready to sacrifice his wife for the life of their chief

·      The hunter consented simply because he did not know what would happen if he rejected them

·      The snakes told the hunter that the Black Rattlesnake would go home with him and strike his wife after he sends her out for water from the spring

·      The hunter does as he was told and sends his wife out. As soon as she steps out the door, she is bitten. Then the man runs out to find his dying wife and he stays by her

·      The Black Rattlesnake states that his tribe is satisfied, and he teaches the hunter a song to sing so that rattlesnakes will not bite his people. If the snake does bite, then they must sing the song and that person will recover

 rattlesnake

Bibliography: This story can be found here. Story source: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).