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Week 1 Introduction: Being in Two Places at Once

Hi, everybody! As you already know, I teach online courses at the University of Oklahoma... but what you might not know is that I am living in North Carolina, as I have been for the past several years. Here's how that happened: my husband retired early from the Meteorology School at OU in order to take care of his very elderly father (who was living here on his own in North Carolina), and, luckily for me, I was able to move here too and keep on teaching at OU. Which was great... because I love my job! So, like students who sometimes need the flexibility of online courses to manage complicated life situations, the same is true for me too.

Since I work full-time "in" Oklahoma while living here in North Carolina, I often have this strange sense of being in two places at once. When I say "here," sometimes I mean here in North Carolina... but sometimes I mean Oklahoma! I'm very lucky that online space works that way: even at a distance, I can feel very connected to things that are going on in Oklahoma and excited about the things happening at OU.

I've been at OU since 1999, and I've been teaching online courses since back in 2002... which is a long time ago in the world of online teaching. I really like teaching online because every semester there are new things to try, based on all the ideas and suggestions from students during the semester before! Last summer, I created an UnTextbook for the Myth-Folklore class, and next summer I hope to create an UnTextbook for the Indian Epics class. In fact, I'll be asking for your advice and suggestions about that this semester!

And yes, since my idea of fun during the summer is to read lots and lots of books, you have probably guessed that I am a book nerd. I love science fiction novels, and I also really like historical fiction. The best book I read last semester was this amazing novel about Watergate: Watergate, A Novel by Thomas Mallon. I was just a little kid when Watergate happened, so I the names of all the characters are familiar to me, but this novel really brought them to life (Pat Nixon especially). I had never thought about historical fiction set in the 1970s... but history is any time in the past, including the 1970s.

I'm also a huge fan of Doctor Who, and I'm actually reading through all the Doctor Who television scripts as part of this new "Doctor Who Quotes" project. Hey, it's an excuse to binge-watch Doctor Who whenever I want, ha ha. Here's a TARDIS quote from an episode with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant):

So, books, television... and cats. We have two cats. One is a girl cat named Possum. She likes to go on walks, and she especially likes to play hide-and-seek! She came to us as a stray summer before last, all skin-and-bones after living out in the woods for who knows how long. She was glad to find us, and we were glad she found us too.

(Possum photo taken by my husband)

We have a boy cat too; here you can see him surveying his outdoor domain from our back porch. His name is Einstein... because he is seriously smart. Einstein was also a stray; he came to us a little over a year ago. We had been thinking we wanted to have a couple of cats, and we are very glad with the two strays who came our way.

(Einstein photo taken by my husband)

Anyway, 2014 was a great year for me, and I'm looking forward to great things in 2015 also. I hope you will have a fantastic year ahead too!!!

Week 1 Storybook Favorites

One project I looked at was The Ancient City of Ayodhya. I picked this one because I am very aware of the contemporary history of Ayodhya (not a happy history), and the way this Storybook works is that there are stories from ancient Ayodhya plus a final story that is exactly about the modern city of Ayodhya in India and the riots that took place there. I think it is cool that the author of this Storybook found a way to connect the ancient stories to something that is modern and real and in the news today.

The next Storybook I looked at was RateMyRishi.com. Who can resist the title of this project, eh? This student took some stories about gurus and wrote them up like professor ratings at RateMyProfessors.com. She even made it look just like RateMyProfessors.com with avatars and all kinds of layout details so that it looks just right, in addition to being written in just the right style. It was really funny and I liked reading the stories in this way. This would get top marks for creativity from me - wow!

The last one I looked at was Animal Tales from India to Oklahoma. I will confess that the Storybooks which connect to Oklahoma are often my favorites! This Storybook is about a squirrel in India, in ancient India that is (this particular squirrel is over 2000 years old) who had a series of supernatural adventures that brought him to Oklahoma, to the OU campus in fact (gotta love those squirrels), and he spends his time telling Indian stories to random OU students who stop to listen. How cool! There was also a really beautiful image on the cover of this one, so I have provided a screenshot of that below. The story of Rama and the squirrel is one of my favorite legends in the epics, too.

I liked all three of these projects so much — plus, they are so different from each other! Three cheers for creativity and originality!

Here is a screenshot of the Indian squirrel Storybook; the image is Rama and the Squirrel:

Week 1: Exploring the UnTextbook

As you can guess, it is especially hard for me to pick just one unit each week since ALL of the units mean something important to me. But as an experiment, here I think is the thread I would like to follow in a hypothetical semester:

Week 2: I gained a new appreciation for the world of fairy tales this summer, so I think I would choose Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche for my reading this week. It can claim to be the oldest fairy tale in writing, and even without its claims to antiquity, it is such a brilliant take on the "Beauty and the Beast" theme.

Week 3: As a follow-up, I would do the Jewish Fairy Tales unit. The idea of fairy-tale type stories about Bible characters is fascinating to me, and I also like the way this book uses materials from both the ancient world and the Middle Ages.

Week 4: This is easy: I would choose Persian Fairy Tales. During the summer, I had the impression while reading that this was the most delightful collection of fairy tales I have read anywhere, so I would enjoy reading it again!

Week 5: I would stick with the Middle East for this week also (even though I love all the India units too), and read Folklore of the Holy Land. This book is very much about the peoples who hold Jerusalem as a sacred city, and with the tragedies unfolding in the Middle East right now, that is a topic I would like to ponder.

Week 6: Here the choice is easy: Tibetan Folktales. This was the very first unit I created in making the Un-Textbook. I would love to go back now to that very first unit and see the ways in which it has turned out to be connected to all the other units.

Week 7: Here I would choose More Brer Rabbit. Until this summer, I had not know about the Brer Rabbit stories in verse, and I included some of the verse stories in this unit. I would really like a chance to read them again, and maybe even write my own Brer Rabbit story in verse.

Week 9: Oh man, the choices here are almost impossible since, of all the modules, the Native American material is what I am most interested in right now in terms of my own learning and exploration. I think I would choose the Sioux Stories unit because the stories come from books written by women.

Week 10: And for this unit, I would do the Tejas Stories. This was another unit that I found completely delightful during the summer, and I would like the chance to read the stories again. I had so much fun putting that unit together! Also, I really liked the original artwork for this book!

(illustration by Berniece Burrough)

Week 11: For this unit, I would like to read the Welsh Tales by Thomas again. This is another one of the units that I added very early on, and I would like to go back and read it again!

Week 12: I would follow up with the other collection of Welsh Tales by Emerson. I had the impression that the literary versus folkloric difference between these units was really striking, but since I read them months apart this summer, I am not sure about that. Reading both of the Welsh units together and comparing them would be a lot of fun!

Week 13: My choice here would definitely be the Kalevala. I was so excited to find not just the text but also the audio of this epic to use for the class! Plus I would love to try writing a story in this poetic meter. I've never done that before!

Week 14: And for my last choice, I think I would do the Russian Folktales. That is another unit I prepared very early in the summer, and I would love to read through the stories again, looking for connections to the tales of other countries!

Week 1 Story: The Cat Who Would Be King

PUSSY-CAT, pussy-cat, where have you been?

I've been to London to look at the queen.

Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there?

I frighten'd a little mouse under the chair.

(traditional nursery rhyme)

~ ~ ~

There was once a cat who was sure that he was destined for great things.

"Without a doubt," he said, "I am destined to rule over all these other cats. In fact, I feel that it is my destiny to rule over all the creatures, those that walk on four legs as well as those that walk on two legs. I will be the king of everyone!"

Of course, a king needs a kingdom, and this cat — we'll call him Rex — was sure that the tiny house where he lived, with its tiny front porch and even tinier garden, was not a kingdom worthy of his majesty.

In short, Rex decided to go to London. He had heard that the queen lived in London. Ergo: to London he must go.

~ ~ ~

PUSSY-CAT, pussy-cat, where have you been?

I've been to London to look at the queen.

Before going to London, Rex decided to dress the part. Searching diligently through the rubbish bins up and down the street, he found a long piece of red cloth to wear as a cape (he looked very regal, or so he supposed!), along with a crown.

He meowed with special delight when he found the crown; it fit his head perfectly — and just as Arthur had found his sword in the stone, Rex realized that this crown in the rubbish was a divine sign confirming his right to rule. Purring with anticipation, he licked his lips as he thought of all the fine food that would be served at his coronation banquet.

(the cat as king)

~ ~ ~

It was a long way to London but, by wise use of public transportation, Rex arrived at Buckingham Palace, slipped past the guards, and made his way inside.

(guards at Buckingham Palace)

Rex was on a mission: find the queen, propose marriage (how could she refuse?), and then begin his reign as King of All Cats and, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Head of the Commonwealth, and Defender of the Faith.

He was not quite sure about the Defender of the Faith part, but he hoped it would involve mice.

And that hope, as it turned out, was his undoing.

On this way to the queen, Rex proudly pranced through a long corridor, and that corridor was lined with chairs, polished and gilded and resplendent in their loveliness.

And beneath one of the chairs was... a mouse.

And a very fine mouse it was. Rex could not resist. Tossing off both his cape and his crown, he ran full tilt after that mouse...

(cat chases mouse)

... and was caught by a housemaid ...

... and thrown out of the palace.

End of adventure.

~ ~ ~

PUSSY-CAT, pussy-cat, where have you been?

I've been to London to look at the queen.

Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there?

I frighten'd a little mouse under the chair.

It was a long way back home for the erstwhile Rex. He decided he had had enough of London, yawned, and curled up beside the little fire in his little house, dreaming of .... mice.

~ ~ ~

Author's Note. As you can see by reading the original rhyme, it just says the cat went to London to see the queen and ended up frightening a mouse. That reminded me of the story about how Aphrodite, the goddess of love, changed a cat into a woman so that the cat-as-woman could get married to a man, but she ended up chasing a mouse during the wedding festivities, and this made Aphrodite angry, so she turned the cat back into a woman. For my story, I decided that this cat in the nursery rhyme wanted to be king, so he went to London... but he got distracted by a mouse and didn't get to be a king after all. The word "rex" means king in Latin. Meanwhile, the title is inspired by one of my favorite movies, The Man Who Would Be King (based on a story by Rudyard Kipling).

Bibliography. This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Pussy-Cat, Pussy-Cat" in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang.

Something extra...

As often with nursery rhymes, there are all kinds of YouTube videos about the rhyme. Watch this Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat video at your own risk: the weird tune and bizarre animation will get in your head and your won't be able to get rid of it!

URL Shortener Tech Tip

I used to use Bit.ly or TinyURL as my shortener, but I've switched to just using Goo.gl all the time since I am always logged in at Google, and it is kind of fun to see the stats on how many clicks there are for the links I create. The most common use for me is to shorten some insanely long Google Search result into something manageable. Here's an example: when I search the Sacred Texts Archive Native American area for the word eagle:

Short: http://goo.gl/BE7Qoc

Here's the original URL:

https://www.google.com/search?q=eagle+site%3Asacred-texts.com%2Fnam&oq=eagle+site%3Asacred-texts.com%2Fnam&aqs=chrome.0.69i57.8526j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Google Search-by-Image Tech Tip

I used Google search-by-image to research this image, which shows Deucalion and Pyrrha.

Deucalion and Pyrrha by Giovanni Maria Bottalla.

Image source: Wikipedia.

More info: Wikipedia: Deucalion and Pyrrha.

Google Doc Forms Tech Tip

Here is a link to my Google Form: Who is your favorite Doctor Who?

I've also embedded the form here:

Google Doc as Webpage Tech Tip

I created the Myth-Folklore Un-Textbook Table of Contents as a Google Docs webpage. Here is the link:

Myth-Folklore Un-Textbook Table of Contents

The actual URL is pretty scary! Here it is raw:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j7fmIQDny-IDayvzK4C2rXsHRJ1924bOLo8Rb8kQBDI/edit?usp=sharing

Google Doc Dictionary Tech Tip

Here's one of the word pairs I have trouble remembering: hoard (like a hoard of gold or when you hoard stuff) or horde (like a group of people). Here's the Google Docs dictionary definition of HORDE:

The way I try to remember this is that a HORDE looks kind of like the word HERD.

But I still get confused about this one! :-)

Myth-Folklore Reading Tips and Strategies

Here are some tips to help you manage your reading for this class:

Give yourself time. If you do the reading in haste, it will be difficult to retain anything. You need to give yourself time; you should budget two to three hours for the reading each week. If you want, you can consider the reading each week as being something like "going to class," but instead of listening to a professor lecture, you are reading and taking notes instead.

Read; don't skim. If you try to skim the reading, it will not work. Stories are not like the kind of writing you might find in a textbook or article. You cannot skim for the "main idea," reading the topic sentence of each paragraph.  Instead, you need to read each sentence carefully, keeping track of the characters and the plot sentence by sentence.

Focus on the reading. You need to shut down other applications on your computer while you do the reading. If you focus on the reading without distractions, you will be able to read more efficiently. If you constantly interrupt the reading, it will take you much longer to finish the work and you will retain much less.

Read out loud. The best way to slow yourself down and make sure you retain the content is to read out loud. The reading each week consists of appx. 15,000 words which would take you approximately 90 minutes to read out loud. For some of the readings, there are free audiobook versions available so that instead of reading out loud, you can listen to someone else read to you.

Take notes as you read. As you finish each story, be sure to record a few sentences in your Reading Diary post right away, especially if you suspect the story might be one of your favorites. You need to take notes while you are reading if at all possible.

Read the introductory notes. Read the introduction to the unit as a whole before you get started, and also make sure you read the introductory notes at the top of each story. These notes can be especially useful if there are unusual words that come up in the story that you might not recognize on your own.

Use a dictionary. You need to make sure to look up words you do not understand. You might have a dictionary look-up system that you like to use on your computer, and you can also use a browser look-up. With Google, for example, you can type "define" and then add the word you want to look up in a dictionary. For example: define autochthonous.

(Details at Proverb Lab)

About This Blog

This is an old blog of mine (you will find a lot of blog posts in here from back around 2007 when I was thinking of developing a course on the Bible-as-literature), and I decided to revive it for another project, using it for the reading diary posts and other writing for my Myth-Folklore course.

Reading Diary: I've always urged students to take notes on the stories as they read them; some students follow that advice, but other students don't, which means they don't have a good way to review the stories they have read, keeping track of them for later purposes. So, during the process of rebuilding my course website with new content (debuting I hope in Fall 2015), I'll be keeping a reading diary for each of the content units that I add, both for my own uses and also to inspire my students to keep a reading diary of their own. :-)

Reading Diary A: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

Here were my favorite stories from Aesop's Fables (Jacobs and Crane).


Lions, Part 1. I really liked the The Lion and the Statue about the lion and the man debating, where the lion says that if lions could make statues as men do, then there would be plenty of statues of lions defeating men! SO TRUE (and not just about lions and men). History is written by the people who have the means to write!
"If a Lion, you know,
Had been sculptor, he'd show
Lion rampant, and Man on the ground."


Lions, Part 2:  The Lion in Love. What a weird story! Why would a lion fall in love with a woman? What would the woman think about that? Strangely enough, we do not get any idea of her feelings from the story here. Wild! I also really liked the illustration because it shows us that Cupid was somehow involved as far as the artist is concerned. It would be fun to write a version of this story where Cupid really is a character. And just look at the sad way the lion is staring back at the woman. So intense!

(illustration by Walter Crane)

Foxes, Part 2. My favorite story is the one about The Fox without a Tail trying to persuade the other foxes to follow this foolish fashion: the fox as trickster, one of my favorite storytelling themes. Of course, as often happens, the trickster fails here; thank goodness, a wise fox saw through the trickster's evil plan!


Wolves. My favorite fable here is the story of The Dog and the Wolf. That is an Aesop's fable that is very near and dear to my heart; I have chosen the path of the wolf over that of the dog many times in my life, and with no regrets.


Dogs and Cats. Oh wow, there is a shape-shifting story here: The Cat and Venus! I love stories about people magically turning into things or here, vice versa, where some divine magic turns an animal into a person. This reminds me of the Pygmalion story where Venus turned a statue into a woman based on a man's request. Of course, we are never told how that marriage turns out. This marriage between a cat and a man did not turn out so well, ha ha.


Mice. I love the story of the mouse who foolishly wants to get married to the lion's daughter: The Married Mouse. The pairing up of those stories shows how you cannot take anything for granted in the world of Aesop: even a mouse who can be good-hearted and loyal (freeing the lion) can still be a complete idiot (expecting he could marry the lion's daughter).
"But it chanced that she put
On her husband her foot,
And the weight was too much so he died."


Deer. My favorite story is The Horse, The Hunter, and The Stag about the horse who makes a bargain with the man in order to defeat the stag, a bargain the horse later regrets. This is another fable on the theme of freedom and the high value of personal freedom; I guess that is one of my favorite themes in Aesop's fables, one that resonates with me personally.

Reading Diary B: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

Here were my favorite stories from Aesop's Fables (Jacobs and Crane).


Frogs and Fish. My favorite fable for sure here is The Frogs Desiring a King. That fits right in with the liberty theme that I prize so much in Aesop; why would any creature, even a creature as foolish as a frog, give up its liberty in exchange for tyranny? Plus the fact that we really do often end up with terrible politicians as our leaders resonates perfectly with this story. We are such frogs! Ouch!


Nature and Inanimate Objects. I love the story titled The Man and the Woods where the woods foolishly give the woodcutter the very tool that he needs to destroy them. We are often our very own worst enemies, and this fable provides such a dramatic illustration of that. The point is not how wicked the woodcutter is, but instead how foolish the trees are to help him.


Humans and Gods. The story of Hercules and the Wagoner is one of my very favorite Aesop's fables. I really do believe that "the gods help them that help themselves," so it is reassuring to know that Aesop also believed the same, 2000 years ago when Hercules was a god!

(illustration by Walter Crane)

People Wise and Foolish, Part 2. I like all the fables on this page so much. Of course, the one about The Milkmaid and Her Pail where she is imagining her future wealth is a mistake that I have been guilty of many times in my life - not so much about imagining how I will get rich, but other kinds of fantastical expectations that of course never came true, despite my high hopes and step by step plans! I'm pretty sure I knew this fable when I was little, too.

Reading Diary A: Aesop for Children

Here are my favorite stories (with links) from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter:

The Tortoise and the Ducks. I love this story, and I am so glad it is included here - it fits in very much with the spirit of Aesop (where someone makes a foolish mistake), and it's a lesson I need to learn: it is often better just to keep your mouth shut, ha ha.

The Gnat and the Bull. I liked this story because of the illustration: you really have to look closely to see the teeny-tiny gnat on the bull's horn. It's all relative!!!

(illustration by Milo Winter)

The Owl and the Grasshopper. I think this fable is hilarious. The owl really does try to get the grasshopper to be quiet! I also like the little clue about the Greek origin of the story with the owl saying that the wine comes from Apollo himself, the god of music.

The Lion and the Gnat. I love the surprise ending for this one: it's very impressed that the tiny gnat is able to get the best of the lion... but then the gnat flies into a spider's web. There is no perfect victory!

The Mice and the Weasels. Oh, I think this story about the mice generals not being able to get back into the safety of their mouse-holes is hilarious. Foolish pride can be fatal!

Reading Diary B: Aesop for Children

Here are my favorite stories (with links) from Aesop for Children, illustrated by Milo Winter:

The Bear and the Bees. This is a great lesson to take to heart: if you get angry at just one little bee you might end up provoking a whole swarm to attack you! OUCH!

The Cat the Cock, and the Young Mouse. I really like this story about how appearances can be deceiving: a rooster can LOOK frightening but of course a rooster is not going to do anything wicked to that little mouse... the cat, however, warm and fuzzy as it may be, is dangerous!!!

The Astrologer. I am definitely the astrologer-type, lost in my own thoughts while sometimes oblivious to what is right in front of my feet. And I really like the fun illustration for this one!

(illustration by Milo Winter)

Mercury and the Woodman. What a great demonstration of how honesty is the best policy, combining a positive example (where honesty is rewarded) and a negative example (where the man who lies to the god Mercury ends up worse off than he was to begin with).

The Eagle and the Beetle. Such a great story of a little creature who is able to get the better of a big creature. Indeed, the beetle even got the god Jupiter to act on its behalf, even though the eagle is Jupiter's favorite bird. Another great illustration for this one too!

(illustration by Milo Winter)

Reading Diary A: Shelton's Tibetan Folk Tales

Here are my favorite stories from Tibetan Folktales unit:

The Tiger and the Frog. This is a fantastic story. The little frog tricks the tiger by clinging to his tail when they jump over the river so that he makes the tiger think that he was able to jump even farther than the tiger. Then the frog spits up some of the hair of the tiger's tail and claims that he ate a tiger the day before. And the tiger believes him! This frog is a TRICKSTER of the finest kind.

(illustration by Mildred Bryant)

The Ingratitude of Man. This is also a great story! I really liked the sense of surprise, where help came from where the man least expected it (crow, rat, snake), while he was betrayed by his fellow human. The transformation of the snake was also really cool: the snake turned himself into a ghost and went to choke the king, so the king had to call the lamas to try to figure out what was happening. 

The Wise Carpenter. This is a hilarious story about a painter who tries to trick the king into killing the carpenter, but the carpenter turns the painter's trick against him instead. It's a very elaborate trick involving an "ascent to heaven" - the carpenter only pretends to go to heaven, and instead is just hiding in his house for a few months. The painter, however, really believes the carpenter went to heaven and tries the same thing himself... and he really does go to heaven - that is, he dies! It sounds gruesome but it's actually really funny. A great example of trickster tricked.

The Story of Drashup and the Goddesses. Oh, this is such a great story about about how you cannot escape fate. Drashup accidentally learns of his fate from a goddess (he will marry a young bride and that bride will die young). Drashup tries in every way to escape his fate - he even tries to kill the baby who will be his bride! - but there is no escaping fate. I really like the way that the scar from his attack on the woman when she is a baby is what allows Drashup to recognize her later on! And I guess the lesson is that you really don't want to know what your fate is because the whole idea is you cannot do anything about it... no matter how hard you try.

Reading Diary B: Shelton's Tibetan Folk Tales

Here are my favorite stories from Tibetan Folktales unit:

How the Rabbit Killed the Lion. I love this story! The rabbit doesn't want to kowtow to the lion, which makes the lion angry. The rabbit blames his failure to attend the lion's court on a she-devil who lives in the water. He takes the lion to see the she-devil and the lion, seeing his own reflection, attacks the reflection and drowns himself. This is an old story that I recognize from the Indian Panchatantra, and this version was especially charming - I like the idea of a she-devil in the water.

(illustration by Mildred Bryant)

The Golden Squash. This is a very elegant little story that contrasts the actions of a good man and a bad man. A good man treats a little bird with kindness and is rewarded with a magical golden squash seed that makes him rich; being a good man, he gives away his riches to the poor. The evil man sees this and wants to get rich too, so he actually injures a bird on purpose, but the bird manages to trick the man and brings him a seed that grows into a squash containing a demon who kills the bad man. Very cool! I like stories that develop two parallel plots, one about a hero and the other about a villain so we can compare and contrast.

The Two Little Cats. This is such a cute story! The cats need salt for their butter tea, and on the way they meet a monster called a Handre so they need help to defeat it. There is a whole series of animals and even objects who get together to defeat the big bad monster. The way all the animals and objects cooperate to defeat the monster is really nice.

Week 9: Pacific Northwest

Here are my favorite stories from Judson's Pacific Northwest book. As often, it was hard for me to limit myself to just a few favorites... I really like these stories!

Three Coyote Stories. Poor coyote! These were all good stories, esp. the one about coyote grabbing on to the star and going up into the sky world... but it got too cold up there and he couldn't hang on. Of course, when he falls down from the sky like that it's a bit like Wily Coyote falling down from a cliff and getting smushed: he'll be back.


The First Totem Pole. This is another one of those stories about time dilation: Wakiash thinks he is gone only four days, but he is gone four years. I really like the idea of the animal world that he visits, where the animals have all the culture (the dances, songs, masks) that the human wants. And, of course, the animals are right there on the totem poles too!


Three Raven Stories. There are all kinds of different stories about how raven brings light to the world, and this one is just great: I really like the idea that he tricked the gull, needing a little light so he could see to get the thorn out of gull's foot... the thorn raven conjured up in the first place!


Why There Are No Snakes on Takhoma. I liked this story so much! First of all, I learned the Indian name for Mount Rainier (and it really SHOULD have the Indian name; I saw in Wikipedia that the name was being debated in the U.S. Congress as late as the 1920s!). I also really liked the idea of how this flood story works, with the people and the good animals escaping up into the clouds!


Two Thunder Bird Stories
An Indian's Vow to the Thunder Gods. WOW, this really did make me curious. The story - a true story - is included here as an example of how these religious beliefs about the gods can become part of an actual person's life, like this woman who promised her first born child to the Thunder... and sure enough, the Thunder took her child.


Chinook Ghosts. What a completely eerie story! It is another one of those stories about a visit to the land of the dead; Blue Jay thinks he will be able to come home, and he plays tricks on the dead (switching their heads around)... but in the end, he did not do what he was told and had to remain in the ghost land. Intense! I also really liked the other story about the land of the dead: The Memaloose Islands.


Origin of the Tribes. Oh, Wishpoosh: the monster beaver. And he fights Coyote... and in the process they create the world. Of course it is a great story! Wow! My favorite part was how the parts of Wishpoosh's dead body produced the tribes: "From the head of Wishpoosh, Coyote made the Nez Perces, great in council," etc. Very cool.


Coyote and the Fire. There are a bunch of great coyote stories (including coyote who is named Tallapus in the Clatsop stories), but the one about fire was my favorite. I like the way the Skookums are the ones with fire to start with, and coyote cannot steal it alone, but the theft of the fire affects all the animals: why coyote's tail is white, why the squirrel's tail is curled, why frog has no tail, and finally wood "swallowed" the fire, so we can get fire out of wood now. Nice!


I also thought the reverence for the "Williamette Meteorite" was pretty amazing - the meteorite is amazing both in mythological terms and in scientific terms too.

Week 9: Great Plains

Here are my notes for the Great Plains unit. I really liked the trickster stories in here, and there were so many good ghost stories, too!


The Creation. In this creation story, the Elk is the great hero who makes earth appear upon the waters, and from the Elk's hair come plants and trees. Very cool! I also like how it is paired with another story where they need more land and various animals go into the water, trying to bring up the soil below, and finally it is crawfish who succeeds, although the crawfish dies and people take the mud from his claws. Intense!


The Eagle's Revenge. Oooh, what a cool and eerie story: the brother of an eagle appears as a mysterious warrior at a tribal dance and one by one with the power of his yell he makes the dance leaders fall down dead, all in order to avenge the death of his brother who was killed by one of the members of the tribe.


Unktomi and the Bad Songs. There is a story like this in the Sioux unit too, but without the mink at the end - that one had wolves instead!


The Ghost's Resentment. Oh, what a cool story! From the title, I thought it would be about a real ghost but instead it was even more surprising, about a man who dresses up as a ghost in order to prevent other people from defiling a burial place. Nicely done!


Two Teton Ghost Stories. Of the ghost stories, the one here called "The Man Who Shot a Ghost" was my favorite. I love the idea of shooting a ghost (the ghost yells, “He shot me through the head and I have come apart”) - and, even better, when the man finds the bones of a dead person in a grave that a wolf dug up, there is a wound in the skull... from where he had shot the ghost! Eeeek! The story about the man who wrestled with a ghost was pretty cool too.


The Wakanda, or Water God. This was a very weird story about a boy who died and they could not bring him back alive from the world of the water gods because he had eaten their food; he could only come back dead. A girl who died that way and did not eat the gods' food was able to come back alive.


Why the Possum Plays Dead. Oh, the poor possum! He is a victim of the trickster rabbit not once, but twice. The first time he doesn't get a wife but rabbit does, and the second time he gets attacked by all the other animals (so he plays dead), while the rabbit got away.


Legend of the Head of Gold. What a cool story! It has all kinds of elements that are similar to European fairy tales, but this "head of gold" is something really cool - the boy goes into the forbidden place and dips his head into a round yellow thing which turns his head golden and radiant. Nice!


I would like to learn more about how these traditional ghost legends connect up with the idea of "Ghost-Dance" which also appears in one of the stories in this unit: The Spirit Land.