Robbie Johnson's Mythology and Folklore Blog

 One day, a man was walking down the street and saw a great big neon sign for a coffee shop. He decided to give it a look and walked in. Once he entered the coffee shop, he browsed around for a seat so he could sit down and enjoy the good smell of coffee. Little did he know, this was no ordinary coffee shop and once you enter, you cannot leave until you resolve your issues with someone that has a differing opinion. This man was a very easy going person and did not have very many conflicts with others so instantly, he thought he was going to be stuck there forever.  He finally found a spot and sat by himself, but there were two people nearby that were going at each other's throats. Based on the conversation he overheard, he was able to determine that one man was a die hard conservative republican and the other was a raging liberal. Unfortunately for the man, he was a registered independent and was unable to pick a side. However, the man had an idea; he was going to use his impartial

 The Squirrel and the Spider was a very interesting read. I'll be honest, it was not the best story I have read this semester. I could not get past the fact that a spider was able to steal corn. Is the spider something that is not an insect like I am imagining, or are they massive spiders? I will never know. Other than that aspect of the story, I liked the moral at the end of the story. Basically, this story teaches people not to steal and if you do, you will be left empty handed. Overall, this story was alright but I have read better. There were still some things I can take away from it and apply into my own writing.  ( squirre l )   West African Folktales  by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

The Wicked Husband was a very interesting story to read. It was a little disturbing, but there were some things I could take away from this story and incorporate into my own writing style. I thought it was unfortunate that the husband had his wife mutilated in the woods. Because his wife disrespected him, she was murdered. Unfortunately, this does happen in some parts of the world and it is very sad. If I were to write this myself, I would have the wife escape and murder the husband. I think that would be an interesting and fun twist to the story.  ( Congo )  The Wicked Husband   Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort  by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

 So far, I have completed each assignment for each week but have not done any extra credit yet. Looking forward, I might consider doing some extra credit in an attempt to finish this class earlier. I took a glance at the progress sheet and I am doing just fine for where we are in this class and am on track to receive an A. As long as I keep up what I am doing, I will be fine. There is not much that I need to change, I am just considering doing extra credit and working ahead so I can finish faster.  ( You Can Do It )

 Looking back on the feedback I have received, I have found it to be very useful and helpful for making my writing better. Furthermore, looking at the feedback I give, I feel like I do a good job at pointing out what people do well. Personally, I do not like telling people that they have done things wrong because their writing is done in the way they want it to be done. When I give feedback, I usually correct a few grammatical mistakes or ask for a little more detail to explain a character. In the future, I can work on constructive criticism more to try and further help other students but as of now I am satisfied with how I have been delivering my feedback.  ( Feedback Cats )

 Looking back on my work, I am very satisfied with my stories. When I write my stories, I put a lot of effort into each of them and I try to make them educational and fun to read. Some of my stories are better than others. I think my favorite story that I have written is Sindbad. I had a lot of fun writing this story and look forward to writing more stories like it. I like writing stories in the first person and will try to do that more in the future. I also like reading stories that are in the first person mainly because I find narrators to be very boring. I was never a huge fan of reading but this class has taught me how to enjoy reading and writing.  ( Animal Kingdom ) I chose this image because I think it sums up my stories pretty well. As I went back through my stories, I noticed a lot of them feature animals. I did not intend on this happening, but I think it is pretty cool that I subconsciously chose so many stories that have animals as main characters or big parts of the story.

 In the beginning, there was war amongst the animals. The elephants were at the top of the food chain and would eat the majority of the food available. The rest of the animals had to fight amongst themselves for the elephant's leftovers. As you can probably guess, this caused a lot of tension amongst the other animals. One day, the tortoise got his food stolen by a cheetah and because he was too slow, he could not get it back. This angered the tortoise so much that he decided he was going to stop this madness. He gathered a large group and held a meeting with all of the animals except for the elephants. In the meeting, the tortoise came up with the idea to combine the force of all the animals and wage an attack on the elephants. Even though there were many more animals than elephants, the elephants were massive, strong, and healthy because they had been eating full meals their entire lives.  During the meeting, the tortoise explained that the animals must all share the food evenly

 Why People Are Buried When reading these Nigerian stories, I have noticed that a lot of them start out with a creation story. A lot of the stories I have read start out saying something about people and animals living together and in peace.  This is a really interesting point because it would be a great thing for someone to use in their own creation story or even allow them to change it up and make things interesting. I could possibly write this story but start it out with a huge war between people and animals and animals with other animals. I feel like that would be a cool thing to add into a story. I also like how the creator in this story lives among the people and animals and is present in their every day lives. I also liked the fact that the dog was in charge of telling the people how to treat the dead in order for them to come back to life. In the end, the dog messes it up and tells them to bury people. I loved that this was such a creative way to explain why people are buried. 

 The Elephant and the Tortoise provided me with so many good writing ideas that I can incorporate into my own writing. The beginning of this story also made me think of Adam and Eve when all the people and animals were able to coexist in peace. This was a really cool thing to add into the story because it showed that even the animals were able to get along. I also liked that they talked about how much the elephant eats and how the elephant would eat so much more than all of the other animals. I found it very clever that the elephant and his greediness with food ended up getting him hurt in the end. There is a lot I can do with this story and make my own creative twist to it.  ( Tortoise ) Bibliography: The Elephant and the Tortoise. by Elphinstone Dayrell.  Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria

 As many of us already know, having more than one spouse tends to cause issues. In some cultures they are able to make it work; however, the majority of people experience this powerful feeling called jealousy.  Once upon a time, there was a very rich king that had great looks, lots of money, and a huge palace that he lived in. He found himself wanting more than one woman so he married a second. His first wife had trouble having children and was unable to become pregnant. Because of this, the king spent more time in the bedroom with his second wife. As the basic rules of biology continue to govern, the second wife ended up getting pregnant. This caused the first wife to be very upset and jealous.  The first wife becomes so enraged that she decides to confront her husband and express her anger. She says things like "why don't you love me?" and "Why do you treat her so much better than me? I was here first!" The king responds and says "It is nothing personal,