Week 12, Reading Diary: Welsh (Thomas)

Story source: The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas

March's Ears - In this story there is a Lord who is unhappy because he has a secret. The secret is known only to his barber. The barber was sworn to secrecy, to tell the secret would mean his death. Holding on to the secret was eating away at the barber to the point that he was becoming ill. He told the secret to the ground and afterwards started feeling better. Later in the spot where the secret is told reeds are growing. A musician cuts the reed for a pipe to play and instead of music, the secret is heard.

The Stray Cow - This is a story about a farmer who captured an elfin cow. From that day forth the farmer was wealthy. After a time he was worried that the cow was becoming old and would no longer bring in money so he decided to fatten her for market. Before the cow could be killed, the elves came and took the cow away. The farmer lost all his money and was poor for the rest of his life.

Dick the Fiddler's Money - this was a short, but cute story. I loved how the fiddler got the money to pay his rent and after he paid for it and got a receipt, the money turned to cockleshells. The man never told where he got the money.

fiddler

Week 11 Storytelling: How the Leprechaun Saved his Gold

How the Leprechaun Saved his Gold

leprechaun

Hi! My name is Patrick and I am a leprechaun. Humans seem to think that we owe them money or something. Every time one of those humans finds one of my kin, they expect us to lead them to gold or treasure or even to grant wishes. Well, yes we have gold, but it is ours and ours alone. We leprechauns earn our gold by making shoes for all the fairy folk. I don’t know why humans treat us the way that they do. Once we were able to live out in the open, amongst the humans, but something changed. Now leprechauns, along with all fairy folk, have to live our lives in hiding. We live in fear of being captured. I have been captured before. I will tell you a tale of how I tricked that human into letting me go without giving up my gold.

One day I was sitting in the forest, minding my own business. I was working, as I usually do, on a new pair of shoes. I had with me a pitcher of my homemade beer. I was going about my work when suddenly I heard a voice. "God bless your work, neighbor," the human said to me.

Since I had been spotted, I knew it was too late to run. "Thank you kindly," I responded.

"Might you be willing to tell me what you've have in that pitcher?" asked the man.

"Aye ‘tis good beer."

"Beer!" said the man. "Where did you get it?"

"Why, I made it.”

“You made it,” the man laughed. "Might you share a taste of your beer?" said the man.

"It would be better for you to be looking after your father's property than to be bothering decent quiet people with your foolish questions. While you're idling away your time here, the cows have gotten into the oats and are knocking the corn all about."

I thought I might have had my chance to get away then, because the young man started to turn away from me, but unfortunately he caught himself and suddenly grabbed me. The big clumsy oaf knocked over my last pitcher of beer in his haste to capture me. I couldn’t share it with him now if I wanted to, which I didn’t. I thought all was lost. He threatened my life if I didn’t give up the location of my gold. What was at first just an intimidating encounter was now absolutely terrifying.

I agreed to show him where the gold was hidden, but in my head I was hatching a plan. I told him that it was a couple of fields over. He carried me in his huge hands all the way to the field I indicated. It was a gigantic field of lovely wildflowers. There were flowers of red and pink and white and blue, but there was most of all a ton of bright yellow boliaun. I directed the man to one of the flowers towards the middle of the field. 

Field of wildflowers

“There buried deep under that flower is my chest full of gold,” I told him. I knew that the man had nothing to dig up the ground with. He realized this as well and tied a red ribbon that he pulled from his pocket to the flower.

“Swear to me that you will not remove that ribbon from that flower,” he said. I agreed not to touch it. The man released me and was then off to get his shovel.

Now, you might think that my gold was lost to this man, or that I broke my promise to him not to touch it. ‘Twas not the case. I did not touch his ribbon. Instead, with the help of my fairy friends, I took more red ribbons and tied them to every yellow flower in the entire field. I watched from the far edge of the field as the man returned with his shovel and found the field covered in red ribbons. I have never laughed so hard in my life. The man stood there, stunned. Then he just turned around and left. I suppose he decided it wasn’t worth digging up the entire field just for a small chest of gold.

So there it is. That’s my story, my narrow escape from the hands of a human who only wanted my gold. Humans need to know not to mess with the fairy folk. We will work together to protect ourselves and each other.


Arthur's note: I based my story off of The Field of Boliauns. I thought I would tell the story from the point of view of the leprechaun. I didn't change the basic story, although I did eliminate some of the conversation. I didn't feel it was needed for my story. The story is about a man who discovers a leprechaun and starts by having a conversation with him, but when the leprechaun tries to distract the man so he can get away, the man captures the leprechaun and demands to know where the gold is hidden. The leprechaun leads the man to a large field of boliaun. To the best I can tell, boliaun is a flower, ragweed or ragwort. The man ties a red handkerchief to the flower that the leprechaun tell him the gold is under and releases him to retrieve his shovel. The man returns to every flower in the field having a red handkerchief tied to it.
 
Bibliography: Story source:  Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1892).

Week 11, Reading Dairy, Celtic Tales

Story source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1892)

The Field of Boliauns - I really enjoyed this leprechaun tale.  It is a story of how a man found a leprechaun and caught him. The man forced the leprechaun to tell him where the treasure is, but the leprechaun fooled him. I had to look up what a boliaun was and to the best I could find it appears to be the Gaelic name for Ragweed.

Boliaun

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree - This is a story very similar to Snow White. The mother keeps trying to kill the daughter who is more beautiful. What I think is interesting is that in this story the daughter gets married. She is killed by poison from her mother and the husband locks her dead body away instead of burying it. He remarries and the new wife finds the dead one and revives her. The husband keeps both as his wives and the new wife helps kill the first wife's mother. Then they all three live happily ever after. It was really a different twist to the story.

Week 10, Storytelling: How the Thunderbird Saved the Mistletoe

How the Thunderbird Saved the Mistletoe

Mistletoe

 

Hi! I am a mistletoe. I grow in tree tops. But at one time, ages ago, I grew on the ground. I will tell you how this came about.

I was liked by many woodland creatures. I am green year round and I produce delicious white berries in summer, but also in the winter when all other berries were not to be found. It sounds like a wonderful life, right? Well, unfortunately it wasn’t. I love that my berries are enjoyed by so many, that is what they are there for, and I love to share them However, I was constantly having my branches stepped on, rubbed against, chewed on, and often crushed. This hurt me, a lot. I began fear for my life every day.

Eventually my leaves became droopy and some of my branches were broken. I was really quite a mess. I was becoming very sad. Then one day the magnificent Thunderbird happened by. He stopped to eat some of my berries and was very careful not to hurt me. He was even kind enough to thank me for sharing. He noticed my droopy leaves and asked me why I was so sad. I told him how I was afraid that I might die soon because of all the woodland creatures stepping and chewing on my limbs and breaking my stems.

The Thunderbird must have really enjoyed my berries for he found it in his heart to help me. “I will save you,” he said to me. “I will take you from the ground to the treetops where the ground creatures cannot find you.” He carefully carried me to the treetops. He placed me gently into the fork of a limb. Then he brought some soil from the ground and placed it all around my roots.

“Now you will be safe from the creatures that were harming you,” he said. “Only the birds can reach you and they will not hurt you.” But I was afraid that my seeds would fall to the ground and would suffer the same fate as I did. Then the Thunderbird had an idea. He wiped his bill, which had some of my berry seeds stuck on it, on the limbs of the trees. The seeds stuck. Now my seeds would also grow in the trees as I now was.

We mistletoe are safe thanks to the wonderful Thunderbird. I am so grateful. His generosity and kindness saved all mistletoe from a terrible fate at the hands of the woodland creatures on the ground.

Author's note: I took this from The Plant that Grows in Trees. I didn't change the story any. I just wrote it as if the mistletoe is telling the story. I thought it would be nice to have the mistletoe tell how miserable it was on the ground where the danger was and how grateful it was to have the Thunderbird move it into the treetops.

Bibliography:  Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

 

Week 10, Reading Diary: Tejas Legends cont.

Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

 There was only one story today that really caught my attention.
 
Old Quanah's Gift - I absolutely loved this story. I loved how although Quanah was injured and was no longer a warrior, he found a craft that he enjoyed and was wonderful at. He made this craft of weaving beautiful blankets into his career became well known all around. At his death everyone realized just what he gave to the society, how he had influenced everyone around him. He was wrapped in a special blanket he designed and buried in it. Afterwards a new flower grew that had the beautiful colors from his blanket. 

Indian Blanket

Week 10, Reading Diary: Tejas Legends

Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

When the Storm God Rises-Of course I would like a story that involves a storm god. This story is about how the islands off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico came about. I enjoyed that it was the god deciding to save some birds from being hunted by the bad Indians. He caused a flood to drive away the Indians. As the storm waters receded, it deposited sand and mud into the gulf and created islands that became the birds new home and the Indians could no longer reach them.

The Plant that Grows in Trees- This is a cute story of how mistletoe came to grow in trees. The Thunderbird really enjoyed the berries of the mistletoe. So to protect the plant from being crushed by forest creatures, he planted the mistletoe in the trees.

Mistletoe

Week 9, Reading Diary: British North America continued

Story source: Myths and Legends of British North America by Katharine Berry Judson (1917).


Turtle and Thunder - The story about how a turtle was struck by lightning but didn't know what it was. He called for help and asked several animals to show their strength. He decided that some little turtles were the ones to be able to help him. Then his little turtle friends were struck by a rock that had fell on them. After finding out that the Thunderbird caused it, out of fear the turtle decided to stay in the water whenever a thunderstorm is near.

Turtle

Nanebojo and the Geese - Nanebojo wanted to catch some ducks and had his grandmother make him a sack. He took the sack to a hill near the lake and climbed inside it. He rolled down the hill, laughing the whole time. He held the ducks interest and soon they wanted a turn. He also got the attention of some geese, who also wanted to try. This was a cute story how he eventually tricked the geese to getting into the bag and he carried them home.

the Geese