Week 10 Story: The Devil and the Seven Dwarves

One day, seven dwarven princes were walking in the forest when they heard a woman singing so beautifully that they immediately began to follow the sound. As they entered a clearing, they saw her: A fair maiden with hair as dark as night and skin as white as snow, singing to a little bird that flitted about her. The princes had fallen in love the moment they heard her voice, and when they saw her, they immediately began to argue about which one of them would marry her. Upon seeing them, the girl ceased her song and hurried over. The dwarves were caught up in their argument, however, and missed the red gleam in her eyes (for, enchanting as she was, the maiden was truly a devil, and the bird her husband). Reaching them, she exclaimed, “Oh, please stop arguing! I am Snow White, and I can marry all of you!”

At this, the princes stopped talking, stared up at her, and began to smile. “That sounds great!” They chorused, and, taking her arms, led her and the bird on her shoulder to their palace, where they lived happily ever after.

Until the oldest brother died.

After a period of mourning, however, they lived happily ever after.

Until the new oldest brother died.

They tried again to live happily ever after, but the brothers continued to die, year after year, until only the youngest remained, and even he was very ill. The princes’ subjects, worried, sought out the huntsman, who moonlit as a fortune teller.  He didn’t actually know anything more than a few garbled phrases of real witchcraft and the better-known divination methods, but it worked to fool the locals, who would accept bad outcomes so long as they were predicted through the proper channels. Still, as far as the subjects knew, he was the genuine article, so off he went to try and cure the last remaining prince.

Upon his arrival at the prince’s bedside, the huntsman performed a traditional prayer ceremony as he had seen other fortune tellers do, but he only felt sick, and nothing else happened. In an attempt to continue the charade, he shooed the others out of the room. When Snow White left the room, his illness left with her, and that frightened him deeply. He decided to sneak out the window, but as he leapt out to the ground, he collided with the little bird that had come with the woman, knocking it to the ground. The huntsman ran, but as he did, he heard Snow White go to cradle the bird in her hands, lamenting, “Oh no! He has discovered us! Tomorrow he shall tell them to burn us at the stake, and that will be the end!”

Though he was no fortune teller, the huntsman was no fool, and so the next day he fetched the men who had brought him and told them the beautiful woman and her bird were the cause of the final dwarf’s illness. The devils were immediately burned, and the dwarven prince, Sneezy, was healed almost immediately, though he still retained some allergies. Sniffling his was to the huntsman, Sneezy asked how he could repay him for ending his torment, to which the huntsman replied, “Oh, just give me some new traps and I’ll be on my way.” And so it was done, and the huntsman and the remaining dwarf remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Author’s note: The original story is that of The Two Devils, which has none of the Snow White/Dwarven details. Instead, seven princes meet this woman and her yak, who are actually a devil and her husband. All seven brothers marry her, but afterwards one brother dies each year until only the youngest is left, because the devil woman is eating their souls. His men fetch a fake fortune teller, who agrees to try and heal the prince on the advice of his greedy wife. When he gets there, he gets sick and scared and when he tries to hide on the roof, he falls through and lands on the yak, prompting the woman to freak out, thinking they’ve been discovered. In doing so she gives away that the way to defeat them is to burn them alive, which the fake fortune teller proceeds to do. The prince recovers, and the fortune teller asks for yak nose rings as payment, which he gets, until his greedy wife demands more, and the prince ends up giving him half of the kingdom.

In my story, I made the devil woman Snow White, the yak a bird, and the princes dwarves. The huntsman became the fortune teller as well. I was initially going to add the evil queen as the wife, but it didn’t seem to fit with the story, so I left her out, which had the added benefit of letting the huntsman accept a humble reward.

Bibliography: The Two Devils from Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.

Image: Snow White and her devil bird. Source.

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part B

I would really like to write a story from the perspective of the Uktena and the other animals that the medicine man encounters on his way to find the Ulûñsû'tî. The medicine man was arrogant and dismissed them, but I thought they seemed fearsome and would like to give them the attention they deserve. Also, I don't understand how the people were following the medicine man everywhere? Why would they follow him in his search for the giant scary snake that kills your family if you look at it? The logic is not sound, and it's something I would fix in a rewrite. I also didn't quite understand how the Uktena's blood was poisonous, but fine for dyeing clothes in after it formed a lake? However, that's an easily fixable detail. I also wasn't really a fan of the medicine man as a character, and if I were writing a story based off these readings, I would also consider changing him to be more humble and respectful of all of the animals that he encounters.

I was also incredibly surprised that it was only barely mentioned that the rattlesnake is sent to kill THE SUN!?!? If that doesn't have it's own story, it needs to. I'm almost regretting doing a planning post last week because I would love to come up with an incredibly dramatic tale for that. I can't believe that part of one of the Uktena stories only got one line, and I want to know or create more.

Out of curiosity, I google the Uktena, and found out that similar horned serpents appear in a lot of Native American and even European mythology. I feel like there has to be some sort of real creature that existed at some point. Granted, we have mythological creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster today, so maybe it wasn't real. Or maybe the aforementioned do exist...hmm.


Image: Uktena. Source.
Bibliography: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900). Source.

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part A

I decided to read Cherokee Myths this week. I'll be honest, I had to look up what a terrapin was (spoiler: it's just a turtle). I was surprised to see the story of the tortoise and the hare here, though in a different form. I heard the story growing up as part of Aesop's fables, and I think it's really fascinating that a completely different culture has the same setup of a race between a turtle and a hare where the turtle wins. The values illustrated by the stories are different, however, since Aesop's version teaches perseverance, that, "slow and steady wins the race," while the Cherokee version seems to praise the cleverness of the terrapin in tricking the wiley rabbit and the other animals.

Were I writing a story on one of these myths this week, the terrapin and the hare would definitely be in the running. I think it would be fun to try and find a place between Aesop and the Cherokee for the story, perhaps in which both the rabbit and the terrapin cheat.

There were a lot of stories about the rabbit and I don't understand why, in many myths, the rabbit is a boastful and mean character. They seem pretty cute and nice to me in reality, but hey, maybe I'm completely misunderstanding them. Anyway, the Cherokee myths often seem to be explaining the ways of the world more than focused on character development, but I'd be interested in exploring the rabbit's character by having him learn his lesson from one of the stories, and then he could pass the lesson on. For example, after the deer wins the antlers, instead of being jealous and grinding down the deer's teeth in the next story, he could realize he shouldn't have cheated and perhaps go have a conversation with the terrapin on playing fair - even though in the terrapin's original case, cheating worked just fine since he was a "good" animal.

Image: Terrapin. Source.

Bibliography: Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900). Source.

Week 9 Story Planning: The Devils and the Seven Dwarves

Rather than following the plot of the origin story in excruciating detail, I plan to write more from a general summary, with Snow White characters inserted. The basic plotline I intend to follow goes as such:

Seven brother princes find a beautiful girl in the woods with her yak and decide to all marry her, which is a terrible idea because she's actually a demon and the yak is her demon husband. After the marriage, the brothers begin to die one-by-one every year (because she's eating their souls). When there is only one brother left, concerned yet clueless people call a fortune teller to help. The man they call is actually a fraud, but he tries because he doesn't want to give himself up, and he ends up, through a combination of accident and luck, uncovering and defeating the devils. After his success, he is rewarded by the remaining prince, but his greedy wife asks for more for him, and receives it .

Since it's been an incredibly long time since I've actually watched Snow White (and yes, I'm going to use the Disney version here), I refreshed myself on what happened using the synopsis here.

So for character transposition, this is what I'm thinking:

1. Seven Brothers = Seven Dwarves

2. Beautiful Girl/Devil = Snow White

3. Yak/Devil = A forest creature, either a bird or a squirrel

4. Fortune Teller = Huntsman

5. Fortune Teller's Wife = Evil Queen/Hag

I may switch four and five, but as of right now I am relatively certain this is how I'm going to do it.

I've also spent some time looking up details on the tsamba and prayer beads used in the original story, as well as the Tibetan Devil Dance, which is used to expel demons and bring good luck. This research will hopefully give me the necessary info to depict the exorcism of the two devils accurately.



Bibliography: The Two Devils from Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.

Image: Snow White and her devil bird. Source.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part B

I'm going to write my notes as I go this time - I normally will make small notes as I go, but write the post after I finish. This time, I'm going to add my thoughts on stories as I read them right in the post.

What I'm really noticing with these stories is that, when there's a moral, it doesn't really match what you'd expect to be. Lying, for example, is a apparently a highly rewarding activity if you ask the Tibetans. The fortune teller from Part A lies, he gets half a kingdom. The rabbit in the first story of Part B is lazy and lies, and he never has to kowtow to the lion again.

Okay, story two: killing is bad (when it's for no reason), but polygamy is good. This makes a bit more sense at least. I'm trying to figure out if these stories functioned as entertainment more than teaching tools. That would explain it, maybe.

Third story makes sense, because you shouldn't be too hasty to make decisions or assume you know what's going on if someone tells you otherwise.

Oh, so The Golden Squash takes any confusing morality and tosses it out the window, making it very clear that envy is sinful. I think it's interesting that these stories are occasionally framed with vaguely Christian ideas. I wonder if that's something added by the translator or if Tibet has a history with Christianity at all. I may also just be taking things that have their own holy meaning in Tibetan religion and assuming they hold Christian associations. Either way, looking up some of the religious elements mentioned might make for an interesting Wikitrails post.

As I'm getting through these I am more and more certain that I want to stick with my Snow White idea, so I'm going to push pause on the notes and just read now.

Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.

Image: Tibetan Snow Lion. Source.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part A

This week I decided to read Tibetan Folk Tales, and the tale that has most interested me thus far is The Story of the Two Devils.

I thought this story was so weird, just because the fortune teller was a quack and still ended up with so much. It seems like a weird moral for the liar to come out on top. Not to mention, his wife's greed also paid off. I really can't figure out the message this story is trying to send, besides, "demons are bad and eat people's souls." This definitely could be something to address in a rewrite.

I also found it strange that one woman marrying seven men wasn't more socially unacceptable. Speaking of...Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, anyone? That could be a really interesting crossover, actually, if Snow White were a demon, the witch the fortune teller, and the prince the yak. It would take some twisting of both stories to make it work, but I think the parallel may be too good to pass up. I'd maybe have to change the plot also, though, because I can't see the dwarves not getting suspicious if they let this woman into their home and suddenly started dying one by one. Granted, she is very charming and could have them ensnared. This would also be a fun opportunity to invert the traditional good princess and evil witch narrative. I'm not sure if I should give the witch a significant other or just merge the wife's greed into the witch. I could ditch that part altogether, though. Maybe she'll ask for a lot right off the bat. Oh, I need a king/prince to split the kingdom...hm. It could somehow be the huntsman? Or, again, I could just leave that part out. Either way, it's something to think about.

Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925). Source.
Image: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Source.

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I've been using the Canvas app on my Samsung Galaxy S7 since we made the switch from D2L. I personally welcomed the change, since D2L was a bit of an eyesore and Canvas is so much more streamlined. Anyway, the app, while occasionally buggy, has generally been very convenient. It's so nice to be able to open an app to check my grades rather than have to navigate and log into the website every time. What I really love about the Android app (I can't speak for iPhone/Apple) is that it has widget options, which let me view my grades and recent notifications on my home screen rather than even having to open the app! Here is a screenshot of what that looks like! And yes, I know I need to charge my phone.

Week 8 Progress

I'm not currently super satisfied with my progress, and it's mostly because I keep forgetting to do the Canvas declarations, think that I've done them, and then miss the points for that, even though I put in the time and effort on the assignment. Other than that, I have a general weekly routine, but it involves getting stuff done the day it's due, which has worked fine except for Sunday night, oddly. Ideally, I need to be doing my project work and feedback on Saturday, because Sunday has been functioning more as a meal prep/clean around the house kind of day. I haven't done nearly as much extra credit as I want/need to, but I'm hoping to knock some out this weekend to get in the habit of doing it.

The main changes I want to make are getting the end-of-week assignments done on Saturday instead of Sunday, add in some sort of reminder for myself to do the Canvas declarations, and start doing as much extra credit as I can every week.

Image: Motivation. Source.

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

In general I think the feedback I've gotten has been pretty helpful, though there have been more than a few comments on Samael where the main feedback was, "Please write more of this character in the future and give us more information about him," with suggestions on what they'd like to know, which isn't really helpful unless I write more Samael. I'm committed to experimenting, however, so I don't think that will happen in an official class capacity. The especially useful comments regard ways I could tighten up the story in terms of word count or areas where the reader found it confusing or difficult to read, as those are more concrete. I understand how other feedback, particularly when the reader wants more backstory, can sometimes be useful, but at the same time it sometimes feels like that's the easiest kind of feedback to come up with when you're just trying to get the assignment done, and it's hard to incorporate it without compromising plot. I already know I'm going to get at least one comment on my story about Princess Otohime that asks how she ended up in the palace and why she can't leave. It's a purposely left out detail meant to accentuate the her tragedy because she does not know, but also is obvious to ask as a, "what if you told us this?" to check that box on the feedback assignment.

I'll be real, the feedback and blog comment posts are the first thing to not get done if I'm having a busy week (I'm preparing to go hard on the extra credit assignments in the coming weeks), so I haven't left as much as most of the class probably has. My preferred feedback strategy is to express what I like (that comes to mind first), then point out any issues that really stuck out to me, normally if a plot point doesn't make sense, or if I notice a contradiction or a place where the author seems wordier than necessary. Honestly, I don't comment on grammar and spelling as much as I'd like to, and it's something that really bothers me, especially given that spelling and grammar checks are a literal part of the assignment that people seem to ignore? It's one thing to miss or add a comma here and there, but blatant misspellings and run-on sentences make me so sad, and it's hard to say anything without feeling like you're coming across as "that person."

I have really enjoyed reading people's introductions and getting a sense of who my classmates are. Personally, I think my own introduction gives a general sense of me, though the way I organized it is weird. I tend to be a fairly private person, so that's part of it, and I've also just always found it difficult to describe myself. It's not that I don't have interests or a life or a personality, it's that I forget all of these things any time I try to define them and can't think of anything. The aesthetic of my blog definitely fits my personality though. I was very excited to find that template because I like it so much.

Well, I need to do the feedback assignments earlier, that's for sure. I have a tendency to prioritize my more immediately due assignments over things that aren't due yet, which is of the type that's hard to get ahead on, because if I do a reading more than a day or two ahead, I won't have as much to say in class about it, and my Latin homework is always assigned the night before it's due, so there's no chance there. Other than tinkering with my homework schedule, I might mess with my blog some for some sorely needed extra credit, but I'm generally happy with how it presents me.





I particularly like this feedback cat because it's a good reminder that even when you think your work is at it's best, there's usually room to make it better in some way I strive to constantly improve not only the specific story I'm working on, but also my storytelling from week to week.

Image: Feedback Cat. Source.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

So far, I think the reading and writing assignments for this are going pretty well. The readings have all been interesting to date, and have provided excellent source material for my own writing. My favorite reading has probably been Twenty-Two Goblins, since I love a good riddle. Overall I think my reading notes have been pretty helpful. Though I've experimented with more segmented reading notes, I prefer to write stream-of-consciousness, which helps me generate and refine my ideas. It's always a little tricky to do notes for Reading A, because I don't want to commit to a story idea when I don't know what I'll find in Reading B, but I think I've done alright thus far. I'm working on just spitting out a bunch of ideas rather than just picking one thing I think I want to do for a story.

I'm very pleased with how my class project is going. When I first started the site I wasn't sure were I was going to go with it, but at this point it has a definite aesthetic and I'm really enjoying adding to it. As for what I'm most proud of, it has to be Samael. This story was a lot of fun to write and I've gotten such a positive response to it, which has really boosted my confidence in my writing. I've had several people ask for more Samael, and while I would love to oblige, I'm more interested in experimenting and trying different styles. Maybe when I have some free time, though.

This is my favorite picture from my blog thus far. I think it perfectly captures the anguish of Pygmalion and it really inspired me as I was writing my own version.

Going forward, I definitely need to stay more on top of my time. I end up prioritizing things that are due more immediately rather than getting ahead in this class, and then I end up doing the assignments for this class a bit more last-minute than I'd like to. Getting a bit more ahead would also allow me the chance to take a little time away from a story before going back to edit and post, a process that inevitably makes my writing better.


Image: Pygmalion and Galatea (statue). Source.