Story: The Story of Princess Hase

"Today is the day," Princess Terute said to herself. "My husband has finally taken absence and I can now get rid of the precious princess after all these dreadful years." Princess Terute had waited a long time to get rid of Princess Hase-Hime. She was incredibly jealous of the Princess's beauty, intelligence, and mostly of the affection she received from her father. Princess Terute had gone through many troubles trying to get rid of her step daughter. She even murdered her own son by accident because she had tried to poison Princess Hase-Hime and instead poisoned her son. She had a deep hatred for the girl and it fueled her rage. 

Princess Terute summoned her servant Katoda and told him to take the Princess to the wildest parts of the mountains. "She is a disgrace to this family and the only way to save the family name is to kill her," she told Katoda. So, he did as she asked and took Princess Hase-Hime to the mountains. However, he was kind of heart and instead of killing her, Katoda and his wife built a small cottage and raised the girl. 

When her husband returned, Princess Terute told her husband that the princess had run away. He was heart broken. He spent most of his days in solitude and silence, grieving for his lost daughter. One day he went on a hunt with his companions. They traveled to the wildest parts of the mountains and he got separated from the group. He came across a small cottage and saw a young girl reading in the garden. He listened for awhile, mesmerized by her beautiful voice and intelligence. "This girl reminds me so much of my precious daughter. If only I could see her again," he thought to himself. Then, the young girl turned around and he gasped. It was his beautiful daughter! "Father!" She exclaimed. They ran to each other. Katoda, having heard the commotion ran outside. At the sight of the Prince, Katoda relayed the story of what happened. 

Katoda, Hase-Hime, and her father
Source: Book of Japanese Fairy Tales

They returned to the palace immediately. When Princess Terute heard that they had found the girl, she ran to her father's house out of fear. "That dreadful girl has managed to thwart my plans yet again. She has ruined my life. She has taken my child and has now cost me my husband." Princess Terute was so full of hate that it caused her to age rather quickly. She had once been a beautiful woman. However, as the years passed she became wrinkled and small. Her hair lost its glossy look and her eyes became dim. Her anger and hate eventually made her ill. She spent the remainder of her days sitting in her father's house day dreaming of ways to end Princess Hase-Hime. Since her health was very poor however, she was not able to put any of these plans into action. Princess Hase-Hime died at a young age and full of hate. Her soul never found peace and she wandered the Earth miserably for eternity. 

Author's Note: I didn't change very much of the original story. The only big thing I did was add some dialogue. However, I did add on to the original story. In the original, the ending goes off and basically ends in happily ever after for Princess Hase-Hime and father. The only thing you hear about Princess Terute is that she goes to live at her father's house. I thought it would be interesting to get a little view of what happened to her after everything that had happened. I didn't think she deserved a happy ending and I could just imagine her carrying her hate to the grave. I thought that this could cause problems for her in the afterlife since she was never at peace, so I added that into the story. 

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook 

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) Part B

The tale of The Goblin of Adachigahara was very interesting. Goblins are always cool to read about. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't looked in the forbidden room. Maybe I could do a spin off that went in that direction and answered that question.

The Ogre of Rashomon was a fun read. I liked how it was a secondary night that the story ended up being about, instead of the first hero that is mentioned. I'm not sure how I could work with this story, but I did enjoy it. It reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood in the aspect that the ogre disguised itself as an old woman just like the wolf disguised himself as Red's grandmother.

The Story of Princess Hase reminds me of both Hansel and Gretel as well as Snow White/ Cinderella. I really enjoyed it and thought it was interesting. I wonder what happened to the stepmother after everything happened. I think it would be fun to write a story telling what happened to her after and maybe having it be told by her.
                                                                             

Image from The Japanese Fairy Book

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki) part A

I really liked the story of My Lord Bag of Rice. The imagery was great and intriguing. I found the choice of monster interesting as well. I'd never think of a centipede being monster like, but then again when it is hundreds of feet long and can wrap around a mountain, I think it can qualify as a monster.
                                                                             

Photograph by Eric Guinther
Source:Wikipedia commons

I think the characters were also well portrayed by their actions. I also really liked the presents that were presented to Hidesato. They weren't just of riches, they were practical and magical of course. I liked that he gained his fortune by not having to buy rice and silk because of the gifts from the Dragon King. It was a different way of earning riches than I am used to in fairy tales, but I really enjoyed. I'm not sure how I could use the story or how to change it, but it was very interesting.

The Adventures of Kintaro reminded me of Hercules in the fact that he was such a strong young boy. I liked that he was able to learn how to understand the animals. It made it less sad that he didn't have any human friends growing up. Reading about the animals wrestling each other was very comical. I could expand on this story and maybe make it an article describing a WWE event or something, but the animals would be the subject of it.

The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die was a good story to read. I liked that Jofuku used a dream to show Sentaro what his life would be like if his life was granted. I could use this story and maybe change Sentaro into a woman and perhaps have her wish for love with a wealthy man instead of the average man she is set to marry. I could keep the concept of being happy with what you have and making the most of it, but change the specific details.

Bibliography: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki;Mythology and Folklore Untextbook

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales Part B

The story of the Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife was very interesting. It was very frustrating that the Arab woman seemingly conned the Bey and the young maiden out of their destined marriage. However, everything worked out in the end. I could definitely see potential in revising this story. I could almost see a Cinderella spin being put on it to where one of the evil step sisters is able to trick Prince Charming into believing she is his true love. I think that would be very interesting! This was definitely my favorite of this unit.

                                                                               

Cinderella receiving her slipper.
Source:Disney Wikia

Bibliography: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos: Mythology and Folklore Untextbook, Patience- Stone and Patience-Knife

Week 5 Review

I love the images that are used in the announcements. It makes it more fun to look at and gives more of an incentive to pay attention to what announcements are being presented. My favorite image from this week was that of the minions. I love minions and I love to annoy my husband by singing the banana song, so this image definitely caught my eye.

From Friday-Monday announcements for week 5: course announcements

Story: The Fish- Peri

Once upon a time there was a young maiden who lived beneath the sea. She had long, beautiful, golden hair and big, bright green eyes. She had a kind heart and was very intelligent, but she was also very lonely. She had friends who lived nearby, but they all had families and loved ones of their own and so she couldn't help but feel alone. One day a young fisherman came to fish near where she resided. She studied him while he was fishing and was intrigued by him. He had sad eyes and looked weary, but his eyes also sparkled with the potential of great happiness and this made the maiden decide that she wanted to get to know him better. She felt a connection with him because of her sadness at being alone and wondered if they could be the missing pieces in each other's lives. The next day the man returned to fish again. The young maiden, who was really a magical fairy, transformed herself into a fish and allowed the fisherman to catch her.

Once the fisherman had caught her in his net, she asked him to either eat her or sell her. The young fisherman, who also had a kind nature, decided to dig a pond near his small cottage and placed the fish in the pond so that it may live.

The young maiden was very pleased with his actions and decided to reward him. So, the next day when the fisherman went out again she jumped out of the pond and transformed back into her human form. She did chores around the house of the young fisherman so that he would not have to worry about them when he returned home.

When the fisherman returned home from work he was shocked. He assumed that his neighbors had paid him a kindness and put it out of his mind. The next day he went out to sea again and when he returned home the house had been cleaned once more. He was perplexed and shared the story with a friend. The friend asked him who was left at home while he was away and the fisherman told him that there was no one there except for the fish. After hearing this, the friend told the fisherman that he should act as if he was going to work and then hide to see who was doing the cleaning.

The following day the fisherman followed his friend’s instructions and acted as if he was going to work and then hid in the cupboard. The maiden then leaped out of the water and shed her shiny orange fish disguise once again. The fisherman was surprised and transfixed by the maiden’s beauty. Her damp hair and skin glimmered in the sunlight and even though he was taken aback by her beauty, he was able to act quickly and grabbed the fish skin and threw it into the fire. The maiden was upset at being caught and felt vulnerable in her human form. However, after watching the young fisherman for many days, she had begun to fall in love with him and the vulnerable feeling quickly vanished. She relayed her feelings to him and he declared that he might be falling in love with her as well. So, the two decided that they should be wed.

 News of the maiden’s beauty quickly spread and reached the ear of the king. The king sent for the girl and upon seeing her decided that he should marry her. He knew that she was to marry the fisherman so he made him a deal. The king said that if he completed a series of tasks that he would allow the fisherman to marry her. Each task seemed impossible. The king asked for a beautiful palace made of gold and diamonds, he asked for a crystal bridge, a feast that would feed the kingdom and still have food leftover, and for an infant who was less than a day old that could walk and talk. The fisherman felt utterly defeated, but his love assured him that everything would work out. She helped him complete all the tasks by using her magic and her magical connections. The king was annoyed and frustrated that the fisherman had bested him, but he was a man of his word so he allowed the fisherman and the maiden to wed. The fisherman's entire village attended the wedding ceremony and it was beautiful. The wedding celebration consisted of exquisite foods and fine wines and it lasted a whole week. The young couple then went on with their new life together and lived happily ever after. 

Author's Note: I based my story off of the Fish-Peri from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos. The original story starts by explaining how the boy's father was a fisherman, but didn't want his son to know where their money came from. The father died and the mother followed her husband's wishes. She later died as well and the boy tried his hand at many different trades and could not succeed. He eventually found his father's fishing net and decided to give that a try. He did pretty well and eventually caught the fish-peri (fairy). At this point I left the story pretty much the same. I left out specific details about  how the different tasks were completed, added the part about the girl loving the boy first and wanting to be caught, and shortened the wedding celebration. The rest of the plot is generally the same because I didn't want to take to much away from the original story.

The main part that I changed was having the fish-peri purposely get caught by the fisherman in the hopes of finding love. I wanted to add this aspect to the story because my portfolio is following the direction of fairy tales and love stories. In the original the fisherman and the fish-peri do get married, but I wanted to add more of a back story. I wanted to put more motivation behind their love and the wedding. I thought by starting the story with a lonely maiden and then showing the journey she goes on to find love helped give this story more of a romantic fairy tale feeling, which follows the theme of my portfolio.

Image Info: The Fisherman by Charles Napier Hemy; Wikipedia Commons

Bibliography: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos; Mythology and Folklore untextbook

Reading Notes: Turkish Fairy Tales Part A

The Fish-Peri was very fun to read. I liked that the father didn’t want the boy to know what his occupation had been out of shame. Yet, when the boy grew up he found his father’s fishing net and decided to follow in his footsteps. This showed the good heart of the boy. This was backed up by the fact that he spared the fish and was then rewarded. It was as little disappointing that when he is set to marry the king swoops in. The king gives the young man impossible tasks to keep the maiden but each time the maiden helps get them accomplished. I thought this showed that the maiden wanted to be with the boy. In the end they stayed together.. I’m not sure what I could do with this story, but I really did like it.

                                                                              

The Maiden of The Fish-Peri from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales

I liked The Crow-Peri as well. It was similar to the Fish-Peri in regards to an animal being a beautiful maiden and helping the young man complete the tasks asked of the king.

I think I could take either of these stories and make it more modern. I also think it would be interesting to have the maiden fall in love with the youth first and then willing get caught and then proceed to help the youth, making him fall in love with her. The story would be close to the original with a small twist of why the events occurred. 

bibliography: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook