Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

The Little Mermaid, by Anne Andersen (1920)

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The most lengthy tale in Hans Christian Andersen's collection is that of the Little Mermaid. It starts out with a description of the Sea King and his kingdom. It also paints a picturesque image of his little daughters, with one being more beautiful than all the others. The grandmother of the princesses promised the prettiest princess, who was all curious about the world above the sea, that once she reached her 15th birthday, she could see that world.
Once that day came, the first thing she saw was a ship. On this boat, she spots a handsome prince, whose birthday the crew were celebrating. But after the celebration, the princes ship encounters bad weather, wrecking the vessel. The prince had fallen into the sea, from which the little mermaid rescued him. She brought him to shore, but once he recovered he didn't know she had been his savior.
This caused the little mermaid to become quite silent, but soon the secret was out that she was in love with a human. The little mermaid often went to see the prince after that, and also hearing news of him by the sailors that passed by. One day, her grandmother let the little mermaid onto how she could be with the prince: the prince must love her and only her. To get help she seeks out the counsel and guidance of a sea witch...

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Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

Th• Princess and the Pea, by Dulac

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   The first tale told is the Princess and the Pee, which is about a prince that searches for a real princess. After searching for many months, far and wide, he isn't able to find one. But one stormy night, he takes in a girl who claims to be a real princess. The mother of the prince tests this by placing a pea under the girl's mattress as she sleeps. In the morning, the princess complains that she didn't sleep well at all. The prince reasons: if she was sensitive enough to sense the pea through the mattress, she must be a real princess.
   The next tale of the Emperor's New Suit, which is about a young emperor who thought so much of new clothes that he just spent all of his resources to get the best ones he could. One day, he encounters a duo of swindling merchants who claim their clothes are fabulous, but are invisible to all who are unworthy of the emperor's position, or otherwise stupid. The cloth makes its way to the emperor, who wears it foolishly, and is seen naked by all of his people.
   The story after that is the Wicked Prince, which is about a prince who wanted to greedily rule all things. Once he had ruled over all things in his continent, he claimed that he even wanted to rule over God. But as he set out to challenge God, the deity sent out a swarm of gnats. This tortured the prince, who ordered his men to cover him in wrappings. They did, but one gnat got in and continued to torment the prince. All of his men laughed at him and how he was conquered by a single gnat.

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Reading Diary A: Looking Glass

The Walrus and the Carpenter, by Eve Skylar

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Through the Looking Glass appears to feature Alice as much more in control of her imagination. That or it appears to be a little tamer than what was depicted in Alice in Wonderland. Nonetheless, Alice finds herself imagining with Dinah her cat about what it would be like to live in a Looking Glass house. She imagines that simply applying a looking glass to everything that she saw would enhance its appearance and meaning in the world, as well as its liveliness (being the case for even inanimate objects).

She then encounters a series of chess pieces that inform her how it is on the world within the looking glass and explain both the wonders and horrors that are present there. Alice manages to read the White King’s memorandum of the Jabborwocky.

After becoming even more giddy with excitement about her new invention (the looking glass), she set out to explore other places and things. The next characters she meets along her way are Tweedledee and Tweedledum. They both engage Alice in logical/verbal confoundry, and despite Alice’s best efforts, do not point her a way out of the woods that she’s stumbled into. However, they then move on to tell her a bit of poetry, specifically: “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”

The Walrus and the Carpenter starts out with the depiction of a split day: one side day, the other side the middle of the night. The walrus and the carpenter walk along the sandy beach looking for prospective resources. They stumble upon a cluster of young oysters, whom they lure to their place of rest. They wind up eating all the oysters, and hardly showing sympathy for the act they had committed.

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Reading Diary B: Alice in Wonderland

The Mad Tea Party, by Charles Robinson

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   After her ordeal with the hooka-loving Caterpillar, Alice resumes her chase of the rabbit. Along her way, she confronts a Frog footman who is carrying a note to a fellow resident frog in a woodland house. The letter calls the residing frog to a croquet match with the Red Queen. Upon the delivery, the frog footman leaves and the resident frog sits on the porch of the house solemnly, as ruckus presides inside the place. Knowing she needs to get through the house to follow the white rabbit, Alice engages the frog in conversation. However, he's totally irate and inaccessible, so Alice bypasses his permission to enter the house and meets the Duchess and the Cheshire cat. Alice begins to notice how badly the order in the duchess' home is kept, especially when the pig baby she's caring for has its nose cut off. However, after the Duchess concludes that she must attend her appointment with the Queen for croquet, she flings the "baby" to Alice's arms as she heads out. Alice then engages the Cheshire cat in conversation about where she should go to catch the white rabbit, and Cheshire points her in the direction of the Mad Tea Party. 

   The initial impression of the tea party was one of jovial laughter and antics, however, her entrance warrants a general quarrel of riddles and logical confoundery. They then discussing the Hatter's watch and time, as if time were a real person. Then the Hatter's famous riddle comes to play:"how is a raven like a writing desk?" The Hatter admits that there is no answer to this riddle, and turns Alice's attention to the dormouse and his stories, starting with the three sisters that lived down a well. After being constantly verbally barrated by the three characters, Alice opts to leave the tea party and travel onward. 

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Reading Diary A: Alice in Wonderland

Alice and the Characters of Wonderland, by Jesse Wilcox Smith (1923)

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I know that I am making a frame tale based around the character of Alice, but I figured it might be nice to explore her world in depth as written in the literature.
   Alice starts out her adventure following the white rabbit down the rabbit hole, commenting on how peculiar the whole experience is especially when she starts her long fall. She starts wondering what she'd do if she fell to the other side of the world. Then her mind moves onto more nonsensical topics, like "Do cats eat bats?" Alice finishes her fall and finds herself once again on the tail of the white rabbit, but finds herself stuck when she comes to a door that's far too small for her to get through. She manages to find a bottle labeled "drink me", which Alice does, and becomes just small enough to fit through the door. But realizing she could no longer reach the key for the small door, she begins to cry, and can't seem to stop herself from flooding the entire chamber. After eating a cake labelled "eat me", Alice then grows tall enough to reach the key.
   Next Alice follows the rabbit into a thick forest, where she loses sight of him but encounters the company of a hooka-smoking caterpillar. As she begins to converse with the rhetorically confounding caterpillar, Alice realizes that she has become more nonsensical and dreamy since entering this strange new world. The caterpillar, however tests Alice's patience with more learning lessons, similar but more nonsensical compared to the ones her sister read to her. As Alice becomes infuriated with the Caterpillar's attitude, she stomps off, but not before the Caterpillar calls her back over again. He tells her not to "lose her temper," and then to recite more literature from her lessons. Just as Alice was about to lose her temper from this endless quarrel with the Caterpillar, he suggests to Alice to eat either side of the mushroom to grow taller or shorter for the particular height that she would like to be.

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Reading Diary B: Native American Hero Tales

Eagle by, pixabay

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Another story in this unit is The Attack on the Giant Elk and the Great Eagle: this story starts out telling of giant animals that ate everything, even men, until the Gods decided to intervene. They made a man, Jonayaíyin, who, upon reaching manhood sought out the giant Elk. He finds the Elk in a desert, but cannot stealthily approach easily. A lizard offers Jonayaíyin his coat to blend in with the surroundings, which he does. Then a gopher appears, and advises Jonayaíyin to also dig his way to the Elk. Using the gopher's hole, Jonayaíyin is able to hit the Elk with his arrows. Even though the arrows pierced the heart of the Elk, it didn't die and instead threw itself into a tantrum at Jonayaíyin (creating mountains).But it was no use: thanks to the additional help of the other animals (including a spider), Jonayaíyin was able to beat the Elk.


A follow-up story in the unit is The Son-in-Law Tests, which is about an animal trickster named Wemicus, whose daughter is married to a man that Wemicus constantly tested in feats of skill, strength, and dexterity to prove his fitness to be his daughter's husband. When Wemicus and the man went out to hunt beaver, the daughter told the man that Wemicus would try and burn his moccasins. Anticipating this, the man switched his moccasins with Wemicus', and consequently Wemicus throws his own moccasins in the fire by mistake.
    The next challenge Wemicus puts to the man is one of sliding down a snowy hill. The daughter tells the man that the hill has many poisonous snakes on it, and gives him magical chewing tobacco to spit in front of him so the snakes won't attack.
    After this Wemicus tries to trick the man into being bitten by poisonous lizards in berry bushes, but the wife warns him of this which allows him to survive.
    Another test that Wemicus has the man do is jump over a ravine, but his wife tells him that the ravine will "widen" or "close" depending on what someone says. So when the man easily makes it over, he tells the ravine to "widen", which it does, causing Wemicus to fall (But he doesn't die).
    The final test that Wemicus makes the man undergo is that of a canoeing race. Wemicus however, has his canoe overturned, and is forever transformed into a pike.

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Reading Diary A: Native American Hero Tales

Three Crow Horsemen, by E. Curtis.

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One of the first stories to be told in this unit is Bluejay and His Companions, which is a story about the whimsical adventures of the hero Bluejay and how he manages to get back home after a run-in with a neighboring village tribe. The story starts out with Bluejay, his master and companions seal hunting, after which they tease a fellow native, Grouse, about not being good enough to eat the fat (the most succulent part of the seals) as opposed to the poorest, leanest parts. However, Grouse gets back at the crew by getting them lost at sea for a night.

    They wake up the next day to find themselves on the coast, which leads to a small village. Here, the locals challenge the group to many shows of strength, skill and willpower with members of their own tribe. The first trial is a climbing contest, which Bluejay wins for his team. The next is a seal catching contest, which Bluejay also wins. The next is an endurance test: Bluejay's entire crew must stay awake for five days, while pitted against four other men from the tribe. On the fifth day, however, Bluejay and his crew realize that the tribe's men have fallen asleep and make their escape back home.

The next story in the unit is Dug From Ground, which is a tale about parental acceptance of a boy named Dug From Ground by his non-natal mother. First off, an old woman's daughter, who is a virgin, wonders why her mother always tells her not to pick the two-stalked roots. She finds out the day that she does pick one: a baby rolls out of the ground where the root was, and the daughter takes the baby back to the village. However, the baby's now foster mother ignores him, and the baby is instead taken care of by the girl's mother. 

    The boy grows up, watching his original foster mother from afar. He notices that she goes off somewhere to watch the sun set, and always brings back a pile of acorns with her. WHen the boy gets to the age when he can hunt, the foster mother says "When he can figure out where I get the acorns from, and when he is able to kill a white dear, then I will call him my son." He does this, and hence fulfills a prophesy by the immortals of his village.

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Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

"O-jeeg as the Fisher", by John Rae (1921)

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The next story told by Iagoo was that of the Boy Who Snared the Sun. Iagoo starts out by telling the story of the Dormouse, a creature that was bigger than all others, and he also tells about a younger world when there were a lot more animals around. At this time, there were only two people left on Earth: a boy and his sister. The boy was disabled because of dwarfism, and one day his sister made him a bow and some arrows to help him take care of himself. He takes to it well, killing enough birds for his sister to make him a coat from. The boy soon developed the spirit to travel the world, which he did but not before the Sun itself played a trick on him. The Sun burnt his bird coat as it was setting beyond the horizon, so the boy thought of a way to get back at the sun: make an aparatus to stop the sun where it was. After realizing the sun wasn't rising the rest of the animals of nature became worried and called upon the Dormouse to free the sun from its bindings. The Dormouse agrees, but is burnt down to little more than a common mouse after being under the sun's rays while freeing it.

Following this tale, Iagoo moves on to tell of How the Summer Came for Morning Glory, who has gotten tire of winter. The story is specifically about a magic man (who could transform into a Fisher (fox)) named O-jeeg who found a way to bring summer. O-jeeg was a hunter, who heard from his elders about a place called Summer, where there wasn't constantly snow and ice like where he lived. O-jeeg's son gets information from a talking squirrel on how to bring Summer through the sky to their lands, and tells O-jeeg about it. O-jeeg and his animal friends set out to find a mountain that reaches beyond the clouds to bring Summer through, and they partake the help of a Manito who shows them to the mountain after allowing the group to stay at his lodge. All of O-jeeg's friends fail in making a dent in the sky until the wolverine tries, and O-jeeg follows: they see a land with warmth, greenery, and light. They had found Summer, and as they both tried to release all of the splendor of Spring, Autumn and Summer while getting back to their world, O-jeeg did not make it back. The skydwellers shot O-jeeg through the tail while he was in the form of a fisher, and he dies soon after: his constellation lines makes up the very one Morning Glory asked about in the first place.

Reading Diary A: American Indian Fairy Tales

"The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds", by John Rae (1921)

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The first story in this unit is Iagoo the Story Teller, which introduces the muse of the stories that play out for the rest of the unit. Iagoo was a wonderfully worldly old man with a fantastic imagination, with knowledge that he was willing to share with anyone who was willing to listen. These qualities allow him to come up with tales to enthrall the children of his tribe with. During the tribe's winter hiatus, the first tale he decides to tell the children is that of the North wind and how it was fooled by a magical diver named Shin-ge-bis.

In the proceeding tale of how Shin-ge-bis Fools in the North Wind, Shin-ge-bis is called upon by his tribe to stop Ka-bib-on-okka, the North Wind, after Sha-won-dasee, the South Wind, failed to stop the North Wind from making winter come. Despite his fellow fishermen in his tribe becoming worried about how they would fish when all the lakes were frozen, Shin-ge-bis simply laughs, fishes through a hole in the ice, and pays no regard to the North Wind.
   Even though he successfully builds a large, moon-long bonfire that allows him to fish for a long time, Shin-ge-bis is forced into a confrontation with Ka-bib-on-okka. However, when the North Wind tries to send a blizzard in Shin-ge-bis' way, his wigwam collects the powder snow and actually makes a warm shelter for him. Shin-ge-bis then goads the North Wind inside where the fire is roaring away. Ka-bib-on-okka falls for the trick and Shin-ge-bis' fire melts him.

The next story, Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds, is prompted to be told by Iagoo by a young indian girl named Morning Glory who asks him if the mountains were always there (?) Iagoo tells of a Big Rock and how it lifted a girl and and boy into the clouds. Initially these two children wandered the plains of the land with the animals and the plants, at one with nature. One day, when out froliking with their animal friends, they see a big mossy rock that they both agree would be fun to climb. However, as they climbed the rock grew for some unknown reason. Tired from their efforts, they fell asleep as the rock grew, and the animals and the childrens' parents wondered where they were. Even though all animals tried to get the children down, all failed until the measuring worm tried his effort. It took a month, but the measuring worm made it to the top of the rock, found the children, and brought them back home.

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Watanabe Tatsuna Fighting the Demon at the Rashomon, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

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In the second half of the Japanese Fairy Tales by Ozaki, there is the Goblin of Adachigahara. This story is about a cannibalistic goblin of the Adachigahara province, who disguised itself as an old woman. A Buddhist priest visits the region by virtue of being lost.

   As the night was beginning to show on the plain, the priest finds a worn down cottage tended to by the old woman. He asks if he can stay the night, and the old woman reluctantly agrees. 

   She offers the priest dinner, which he gratefully accepted. The two talk for a long time, until the fire runs out. The old woman offers to get firewood, but the priest insists that he do the job. The woman does the job anyway, but bids the priest not to look in the inner room. For a while, he resists his curiosity from looking in the room. But he eventually gives in and looks to his horror: the entire room has the bones of men and blood splattered on the wall. 

   Realizing the woman is the cannibal goblin, the priest collects his stuff and leaves. As he does, he hears the woman's voice behind him, telling him to come back. As she began to give chase, the priest began to chant a prayer which makes the goblin disappear. 

Another story is that of the Ogre of Rashomon, which begins as a tale of a cannibal ogre that guards the Gate of Rashomon. A warrior general named Riako, who is told about the ogre by his band of five knights that accompanies him at all times. One of his knights, Watanabe takes a piece of paper signed by the other four knights to the Gate, which he plans to post there if he finds no ogre. He winds up finding no ogre and heads home. 

   But then Watanabe is grabbed by the helmet by a large, heavy arm. It turns out it was the ogre, and both it and Watanabe face off and fight for a long period of time. Once the ogre realized he could not scare or defeat Watanabe, he starts to flee. Watanabe then gives chase, but stops once he notices something on the ground: its the ogre's arm. He takes it as a prize and shows his comrades, but after a while starts to fear that the ogre might try to retrieve it: so he locks it in a strong box. 

   Soon afterward, an old woman asks for admittance into the Knights' headquarters. Watanabe allows this, and she praises him about driving away the ogre from the Gate. She then requests to see the arm of the ogre, which Watanabe initially refuses. But after much pleading from the woman, Watanabe shows her the arm. She grabs the arm and transforms back into the ogre. But fearing Watanabe's skill and courage, the ogre leaves the country which allows the citizens to rest peacefully from then on.

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Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

Yoshitoshi Fujiwara no Hidesato, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1890)

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In the story of My Lord Bag of Rice, a warrior with the title Tarwada Toda, or "My Lord Bag of Rice", whose real name is Fujiwara Hidesato, agrees to destroy the enemy of the dragon spirit of lake Biwa: a centipede.
   Happy that Fujiwara accepted the task, the dragon spirit hosts a feast for the warrior. However, their feast is interrupted by the approach of the giant centipede itself from it's home (Mount Makimi). Using his bow and three arrows, the Hidesato attempts to kill the centipede, his first two arrows hitting it in the middle of the head between the eyes. Both glance off harmlessly, but then Hidesato remembers that human spit is lethal to centipedes. So he licks his last arrow and lets it fly, and it kills the centipede: piercing its brain.
   Afterwards, Hidesato was gifted five items by the Dragon King, each one having a magical power: a bell, a bag of rice, cooking pot, a roll of silk, and a big bronze bell. It turned out that the bag of rice would never empty, and so the warrior and his family never ran out of food.

Next in the unit are the Adventures of Kintaro, which features Kinataro, a boy with incredible strength. Kintaro was born to a widowed mother, who raised him alone in the forests, fearing the people who killed her husband. While growing up in the woods, Kintaro became friends with all the animals there: a monkey, a deer, a rabbit, and a bear. One day, they all decided to have a wrestling tournament.
   The hare beat the monkey, but the monkey felt cheated because his foot slipped. Kintaro allowed the monkey to re-challenge the hare. The monkey actually wins with the second round. And then the deer challenges the hare to the wrestling game, and the hare consents. After the day's game, it became late and the group started back on their way home. However, the have to cross a river, which has become a raging torrent. However, Kintaro, with his phenominal strength, topples a tree to make a bridge and saves the day.

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Reading Diary B: Japanese Folk Tales (Lang)

Defeat of the Mountain Spirit by the youth and Schippietaro, by J. H. Ford (1901)

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   The next story to come in Lang's collection of retellings is Schippietaro, which is about a boy who leaves his village upon reaching manhood and vows not to return until he has made himself famous. The tale says that this was once the tradition for young men in Japanese villages: to go out and seek glory for himself and his family. I don't find that hard to believe, but it is presented in the story as such a sweeping fact that I think it might be making a generalization. Anyway, he spots a mountain and aims to start his journey there, not knowing what would transpire after he goes down to rest from his trek. He finds that he has to stop to sleep for the night in the forest on the mountain, and rather than sleep in the danger of the trees, he spots a chapel in a clearing and makes his camp there. In the middle of the night he is awoken by the forms and shrieks of cats, who say, "Don't tell Schippietaro! Keep it hidden and secret! Don't tell Schippietaro!" When morning comes, the young man discovers a village when he resumes his trek. In this village, he discovers that each year, the people must sacrifice a young woman to the mountain spirit to be eaten and the girl for this year has already been chosen for the beast tonight. He is told that this maiden was strapped inside of a coffin in front of the chapel, so he makes it his duty to investigate. But before he leaves, he asks the people: "Who is Schippietaro?" They tell him he is the dog owned by the overseer of the village, who the young man convinces to let him borrow the dog to rescue the woman. The two investigate the chapel and face the Mountain Spirit, which is a huge black cat. Together they killed the mountain spirit and were forever considered heroes to the village.

   The next story is the Wicked Tanuki, which is a small badger-like animal that lives in Japan. There was a forest that had been purged of all but three animals: a tanuki, a fox his wife, and their son. But they hadn't escaped the purge on accident: they were all very clever and skilled in magic. As they begin to worry about starvation, the tanuki proposes that his wife, disguised as a human, takes him into the village to sell for some money so that they can buy food. The husband and wife agree on this. After the fox had gotten the most money she could from the bidders, her husband was locked away, but quickly escaped his holding back into the forest. Eventually they needed more food, and this time the fox would be the one being sold. But this time, the tanuki thought that if he had the buyer kill her, there would be more food for him and his son. So she is betrayed and killed. However, the tanuki does not give his son any food, and the son by this time had found out everything and planned a way to get vengance. He proposed to his father a wager: that no matter what shape his father could take, he could match it with magic as well. The father agreed and waited at sunrise on the bridge into the town. However, the young tanuki allowed the town's king and escorts to pass on the bridge first, so that his father would be tricked. Indeed he had: the guards, thinking their king was being attacked through the old tanuki into the river, where he drowned.

Reading Diary A: Japanese Folk Tales (Lang)

The Old Woman Opens the Box, by J. H. Ford

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   I have always heard the tales from Japanese culture were very topsy-turvy and expressive with their manner  and morals, and this seems to be true from the tales retold by Lang. This comes out with the tale of the two frogs: one wants to see Kioto and the other wants to see Osaka, the city opposite from the other. They meet and try to help each other see each others' city from a good vantage point. However, they wind up being tricked because when they think they see the other frog's city from their vantage, they mistakenly see their own and conclude that they wasted their time travelling there.
   Then there is the tale of the Sparrow with the Split Tongue, which tells of a sparrow that an old man becomes the recurrent savior of whenever it encounters anything threatening in the wilderness. Eventually, the old man's wife becomes jealous of the bird and how much affection the old man gives it. On a typical day, after the old man has saved the bird from its dangerous circumstance, the wife waits for the old man to leave his house so that she can take care of the bird for good. So, she captured it and slit its tongue, and released it back into the wilderness. Not being shamed in the least about what she had done, she tells her husband exactly what she did when he asks where the sparrow has gone. He leaves into the woods to find the sparrow, and happens upon a little cottage after many hours of searching. In this cottage is a young woman, who claims to be the true form of the sparrow that the old man saved time and time again. She and her sisters show their gratitude by singing and dancing for him, and gave him a choice of a gift: either a large chest or a small one. The old man takes the smaller chest, which he discovers is filled with the most valuable jewels. His wife finds out, and seeks out the sparrow-princess' cottage and demands that she be given the large chest. The sparrow-princess concedes and the old man's wife trudges home with the heavy, enormous chest. However, when she opens it, to her horror, two snakes pop out and kill her. Obviously, the woman was betrayed by her own greed and jealousy.

Reading Diary B: The Voyages of Sindbad

Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor, by Gustave Doré

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In the Fifth Voyage, Sindbad actually shows enough savvy to buy his own ship and hire his own crew, which would give them much more incentive to look for him if he went amiss again. This happens, of course, after he and his crew escape a pair of angry rocs. Sindbad is thrown from his ship when one of the large stones that the angry birds volley destroy the vessel. He washes up on a paradise island, apparently, and encounters an old man. He attempts to help this elder wade across a stream, but he is suddenly choked by the decrepit man. Sindbad attempts to escape, but every time he gets up to walk away, the old man resumes tightening his grip. Sindbad receives some respite when he is able to drink the wine juice from a wild gourd. Realizing how it benefits Sindbad, the old cretin snatches the gourd to the last drop. This makes the old man drunk and woozy enough for Sindbad to escape.


Sindbad sets his expedition far away from the Persian Gulf for the Sixth Voyage, after resting back in Baghdad from his previous incursion of course. Due to a storm that drives him and his crew off course, they land in the "most dangerous spot upon the whole wide sea", according to the captain. Upon the island that they were stranded, Sindbad watches as his crew mates both make their graves and die in them from starvation. Not willing to let himself face the same fate, Sindbad makes a raft so that he can escape. He rides the raft down the river of the strange land, only to meet a group local natives. Sindbad is rescued by them and is kept well, telling his story to them which leaves them in astonishment. He returns to his own country after seeing the mountain that Adam was banished out of Paradise through.


On the Seventh and final Voyage, Sindbad once again feels the pangs of adventure tugging at him, and this time to deliver a letter to King of Serendib to establish friendship. He sets out with not just a letter, but many gifts in order to appease the foreign King. He delivers all of these things to the King of Serendib without issue, and received many presents himself from the nation's leader. After this, however, Sindbad and his crew are assaulted by pirates and have all their precious belongings confiscated. After this ordeal, his crew is rescued by a merchant, who recruits them to hunt elephants on a nearby island with the rest of his crew. Eventually, Sindbad fells one of them, and buried it so that the merchant would be able to recover the tusks when he returned. One day, after months of hunting elephants from the same tree (as per the merchant's request), Sindbad is attacked by a herd of the same type of elephants he killed. They bring him to a burial ground of elephants, so that he won't kill any more of their number by weaponized means. Indeed this works, and Sindbad appeases the merchant by the wealth of tusks that he collects. After this Sindbad returns to Baghdad and retires for the rest of his days, spreading his tales to family and friends.

Reading Diary A: The Voyages of Sindbad

The Voyages of Sindbad, from e_chaya

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In the First Voyage, we are introduced to Sindbad as a character as well as get a taste of his story's general mode of progression. His story isn't as rousing for an adventure story as Odysseus's by comparison, but rather it focuses much more on the culture of the time. This gives it a sort of "grassroots" feel to the whole narrative, because we're constantly reminded throughout the story of Sindbad's origins.

For the Second Voyage, we get to see Sindbad as a character that's incomplete without a journey to quest on. This becomes the driving force for all of his expeditions: no matter what kind of material wealth he hopes to attain while traveling abroad, on a subconscious level he is driven by the need for adventure. For Sindbad it's not the goal, but it's the journey that makes it all worth while. After all, he surely didn't plan on encountering the roc or the Valley of Diamonds that he had been dropped into.

During the Third Voyage, we get a sense of Sindbad's courage and cunning against the horrors of the world. Again, many parallels could be drawn to the tale of Odysseus and the Cyclops, but Sindbad's story in facing the giant emphasizes slightly different narrative aspects to the Odyssey. Now it is becoming apparent that not only is Sindbad a man of scheming, but one of sound survival instinct.

Now on the Fourth Voyage, we see the more sensitive side of Sindbad emerge, but not before his crew of shipmates are ambushed and stuffed by cannibal savages. Upon escaping from them, he helps a foreign kingdom and its ruler advance their technology (most notably with horse saddles and spurs), and in gratitude of Sindbad, the king of this place gives him many gifts and a beautiful wife. Sindbad grows to be very fond of this kingdom, and even attends a grieving neighbor when his wife dies. It's this kingdom's custom to bury the living spouse with the dead one, and ultimately Sindbad must escape from this when his own wife falls to illness. He does however, and manages to make it back to Baghdad.

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

"The Arabian Nights, or Aladdin's wonderful lamp", by Courier Litho. Co.,

Link to image

   Continuing the fisherman's story about the King and the Physician Douban to the genius, I find it funny how the fisherman announces the redundancy and irony of the exchange that they're having. Completely breaking the narrative wall, the fisherman says,"You see what has passed between the Greek King and the physician has just past between us two." This is also an interesting choice made by Scheherazade, because it feels like she has made her point to the Sultan quite clearly through her metaphor upon metaphors in her stories. Now that her ruse has begun to become apparent, maybe instead of trying to outwit the Sultan she is trying to appeal to his feelings and nostalgia from listening to her stories. This story of the physician also seems to be the first story in which the storyteller dies, which seems to be further confirmation that Scheherazade is starting to prey on the Sultan's feelings rather than his logic. It's also kind of a geopolitical point: the Arabian leadership of the time of the Sultan might have looked down on the Greek leadership, so what would that say about the Sultan if he were to execute Scheherazade now as the Greek King had done to the physician? It would bring him down to their level.
   In the story of the King of the Black Isles told by the man who is half man, half stone,  Scheherazade makes another point in her story that breaks the narrative wall, but this time it seems like a full-on criticism of the Sultan's behavior, which is rather daring of her! The half man, half stone being tells of an enchantress who decimates the intertextual Sultan's people by turning them into animals. The intertextual Sultan orders the enchantress to change back the people to their original forms by saying,"Every day at midnight all the people whom you have changed into fish lift their heads out of the lake and cry for vengeance. Go quickly, and give them their proper shape." This acts as yet another metaphor for what Scheherazade is trying to get across to her Sultan: like the fathers of the girls that the Sultan weds and then kills, the fish all scream every day because of this barbarous act. Yet like the intertextual Sultan, Scheherazade fights every day to save her people.

Here is a link to the table of contents of the unit

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights, by pbario

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I have always wanted to explore the Arabian Nights tales, but I haven't had the chance up till now. I know the most famous of these stories, like most people, and I have also heard of the circumstances under which they are told: by the girl Scheherazade to her new husband, the Sultan. However, it's fairly enchanting to actually read the literature as it was originally structured, because the reader can readily understand the dire circumstances that cause Scheherazade to jump from story to story, each preceding one in the other.
   The story of the merchant and the genius is obviously one of the most potent tales, and it has to be (Scheherazade's life is at stake after all!). I find it interesting how the first day of Scheherazade telling the story ends with her talking about how the genius waits to execute the merchant, at least until he has finished talking about his wife and family. And then, when the story continues, the merchant is told that he has only a limited amount of time left. These twists in the story clearly show Scheherazade's state of mind desperately trying to find some kind of narrative foothold to make a story that never has to end.
   And then the next story, the First Old man of the Hind, continues because one of the three old men attending the merchant's execution by the genius wants to save the merchant's life a little longer. However, the intertextual irony does not stop here: the old man claims that his wife, the hind, was once a sorceress that turned is slave and his son into cows. However, whenever it comes time to slaughter either of them, they manage to arouse his utmost pity, even in their current forms. This could be thought of as a metaphor for how Scheherazade currently sees the Sultan: taking his cows (her) to slaughter, but not being able to do so. Granted, the Sultan is not executing Scheherazade for other reasons, but it's still a comparable situation.
   This narrative convention continues through all the stories the three old men tell to further delay the merchant's death.

Here's the link to the table of contents page for the unit

Reading Diary B: Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 8-10

Philemon and Baucis Prepare a Meal for Jupiter and Mercury

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In this unit Ovid's books 8 through 10 are reviewed, and they give an overall sense of lingering fate. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that this is an entirely sorrowful part of the poem; there are in fact a number of parts to this unit that offer a sense of hope for a good ending to life of the characters that are featured here.

Starting with the story of Daedalus and his son Icarus, it starts out as an escape story where Daedalus finally conceives of a way to escape the island of Crete and the authoritarian rule of the King Minos. Daedalus is quite successful in his endeavor make an a pair of mechanized wings (made of feathers and wax) to help them escape. However, his son, reveling too much in the newly realized freedom that the winds bring him, flies to high and too far, allowing the sun to melt the wax and relieve the affixed feathers. This is a message that freedom does not mean that life should be taken without restraint, because if that becomes the case, one can be assured that they will feel the full gravity of their faults. (link to the story)

The poem then transitions to a story with a more pleasant end to the protagonists: the tale of Philemon and Baucis. This couple of man and wife have lived long together in Phrygia from their young days to old age, happily and wholesomely despite their impoverishment. When the gods Jupiter and Mercury decide to visit upon the town in disguise as mortals, they are disappointed by the lack of generosity and welcoming spirit of most of the community. However, Philemon and Baucis welcome them in, tirelessly prepare them food and drink despite their old age and lack of resources. As a result, they are given the honor of serving at the temple of Zeus and Mercury for the rest of their days, and the two gods plant the most fertile trees over their graves. Again, this story carries a message: even if you have very little to offer, offer it anyway, because you may be surprised the bounty that your basic generosity might inspire. (link to the story)

And then comes the story of Hercules and his fall due to the shirt of Nessus. The half-Olympian's wife is the one who gifts the shirt to him, unknowing that it carries a poison that boils the blood and tears the flesh of any who contact it. It's by this token that Hercules dies agonizingly, but for his trouble, he is allowed to return to Olympus as a true god. There's not really a message in this tale unless you adopt the ideology that the culture of the poem features: though the fate of even the mightiest beings may come to pass at the hands of the gods or mortal man, there will be compensation for those who have lived their life honorably and in service to their celestial progenitors. (link to the story)

(Here's a link to the unit page)

Reading Diary A: Homer's Odyssey Books 9-12

Odysseus sailing back home

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I like this epic because of the theme that I keep returning to: unique, mortal beings summoning all their abilities and wits to combat the supernatural or mythical challenges that they face. These mortals do this only to fulfill their own mortal wishes and desires, but then again that's all they have.

However, starting with the story of the Cyclops is an example of how even superhuman efforts by mortal men often come at the cost of time and the lives of others (sometimes those they care about). Odysseus has to play coy, yet honest, with the Cyclops by making offerings of gifts and services to catch his enemy of guard. Meanwhile, the Cyclops eats his fellow man, Odysseus being able to smell raw human meat on the monster's breath. Despite this caveat, he knows that he is saving more of his crew's lives this way.

Odysseus also uses his power of will to resist the magically augmented allure of Circe. By "resist", I do not mean remain faithful to his wife necessarily, but he does it for the survival of his crew. Nonetheless, he does put his mind first before succumbing to Circe's baits, and that alone does show that he is actions are not the superficial/instinctual drive for gratification after a long campaign away from his wife and home. Odysseus even goes one step further and demands that Circe show his men in their original form before he even dares partake in food or drink.

And even after we see Odysseus and his men escape Circe's land, we are reminded of how human Odysseus actually is when he visits the domain of Hades. Here he is haunted by the ghosts of his men, Elpenor and Teiresias, and many other souls. This is also where we see another side to Odysseus' resilience to the powers of the supernatural; he does not allow the grief of this experience to drown him in the river Styx.

Here is a link to the table of contents page for the unit

Ovid's Metamorphoses - Reading Diary B - Week 2

Perseus holding Medusa's Head

The image above can be found here, it is by Simone Viteri

The story can be found here

I'm not really sure if I should approach the tale of the debate between Zeus and Hera about who enjoys sex more, man or woman. It just seems like a one-off episode that was inserted by Ovid to present some humor in contrast with the darker topics covered in the previous chapters. Although, this story does ring a point that I made in my previous post: the deities of legend seem far more human in their whims and fancies than one might assume.

For similar reasons, I'm not sure if I want to address the stories of Narcissus or the Mars and Venus affair. There's just too much attention paid to lovers by this point, at least for me as part of a modern audience. In Ovid's defense, these stories were probably not experienced in bingeing portions. They were probably told over numerous episodes, where the audience experienced points of rest. But to me at least, some of the nuances of the stories concerning the adventures of lovers are just lost, at least until I can read them at a pace that permits me to be more appreciable.

I do start to like the story arc more as Ovid moves on from the affairs of the Gods to the triumphs that mortals or divine heroes (born from Gods and mortals) take over the classical obstacles and threats that we know and love, starting with the exchange between Perseus and Atlas. I found it refreshing to read the tale of Perseus changing Altas into a mountain after the titan refused to give food or shelter. And worst of all, for Atlas anyway, the titan fell prey to his own superstitious mind. This is sort of unexpected, since I have always read passages about Atlas to describe him as a very discerning character. No matter. Like I said, it was very satisfying to see Perseus give at least one of the immortals a retaliation for their petty whims.
     Further on, Perseus goes onto slay a sea serpent to save Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, for her hand in marriage. Obviously, this is the sort of tale that would inspire the "Prince Charming" sort of stereotype, which isn't bad in this case. Like I said before, the first part of Ovid's story was almost solely centered round the affairs of the Gods and how they wreaked havoc on mortals who may have not necessarily deserved the torment they received from the heavens. So, the way this section ends in a tale about Perseus slaying Medusa is quite a nice change of pace.