Storytelling Week 14: Old Sadie

(Horse and Snake: Horses and Horse Information)

There was an old horse, Sadie, who was raised and kept by her master and his family.  She had lived with this family for eighteen years, providing them comfort and protection.  She had many jobs around the farm and was happy and content with her life.  One day she over heard her master talking to this wife.  “Honey, Sadie is getting old.  I think it is time we put her down.  Her mane has turned gray, her gait has become stiff, and her teeth have fallen out.  She is useless now and we must get rid of her.”  The wife replied, “She is part of the family.  She has protected our family and she has done a lot of work around this place.  The kids love her and would be devastated if we let her go.” The debate went on but Sadie was too sad to listen to their conversation anymore.  She galloped away to the pond to talk to her snake friend, Jake. Jake was full of wisdom and always had a plan for everything.  He would know what to do!  As she approached the pond, Jake was stretched out across a fallen tree limb soaking in the sun.  “Jake! This is urgent.  My master is planning to kill me because I am of no use to this family anymore. What should I do?”  Jake pondered for a few short moments until he perked up atop the log he was laying on.  “I have a plan,” said Jake.  “When the little children come to the pond tomorrow, I will slither up the log and wrap around their ankles.  When the children scream for their father you will run to the pond and scare me off, saving the children.”  Sadie sighed with relief.  She was so thankful for Jake and his creativeness in all situations.  With a plan in place, Sadie was able to sleep well that night.  Mid day came around and the children headed out to the pond to cool off in the water as they did every hot summer day.  When they sat on the log to take a rest, the snake slithered behind them and wrapped around their legs.  The children began to scream and cry out and their father looked up from working on the tractor.  He began to run towards the pond in fear.  On cue, Sadie galloped to the pond and rearing back on her hind legs, scared the snake off from the children.  Crying from fright, the children latched on to Sadie thanking her for saving their lives.  The father finally arrived at the pond seeing what Sadie had done, and began to thank her and give her hugs.  That night Sadie was listening to the man talk to his wife.  He was telling her the story about Sadie saving the children from the snake.  “Honey, we have to keep Sadie around.  She would do anything for our family and she will never be too old to love us and that is what is really important.”

Author's Note:  In the original story, Old Sultan, the story was about a dog and his owner saw no more use of him.  He told his wolf friend about his situation and the wolf created a plan to steal the baby of the Sultan’s master.  Sultan would save the baby in order to change the master’s mind that he was useful to his family.  The plan worked and Sultan was treated like royalty from that day on.  I made a few small changes to the story, but not very many.  I changed the characters to a horse and a snake but wanted to keep the meaning behind the story the same.  In both of the stories the animals are viewed as old and useless.  This devastates the animals and they want to do anything they can to prove to their masters they are worth keeping.  In both stories, the masters realized that the animals did not have to be useful in any other way as long as they were faithful to their family.  Also, in the original story, the wolf got mad at the dog because the wolf expected a favor in return.  This favor was to give the wolf one of the sheep from the dog’s master.  The dog, remaining true to his master, would not give the sheep to the wolf.  They had a small dispute but ended up remaining friends.

Bibliography:The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).

Essay Week 14: Writing Center

I have visited the writing center only once since I’ve been a student at the University of Oklahoma.  I took an Origins of Christianity class and I often did not feel educated enough to do well in that class.  My professor was highly educated and very intelligent.  He spoke well, taught well, and had even written the textbook for our class!  As our first assignment came, I was very nervous.  I wanted to do well on the paper but knew he would be a tough grader because he expected a lot from his students.  I decided it would not hurt to get someone to guide me while writing this paper.  I used walk in hours at the writing center, which is nice because my schedule is often crazy and spontaneous.  There were several tutors in the writing center and many places to sit.  It was crowded but some one was able to meet with me shortly after I had arrived and signed in.  With a rough draft of my paper, a tutor guided me through the process of forming a more in depth paper.  It was a long one so it was very helpful to get someone else to look over it to make sure I stayed on topic and that my writing flowed well.  Overall I was very satisfied with my time at the writing center and was thankful that the University offered this to students.  However, because there were so many students in there, the tutors had to walk around helping others at the same time.  I would like an option to schedule a one on one meeting with a writing tutor instead of sitting there and waiting for the tutor that was helping me to come back.  The tutors did a good job though and with all the distractions, my tutor was still able to help me and answer my questions.  The tutor also gave me different ideas to write about and different views on the way I worded certain things.

(Writing Center Advertisement: Flickr)

Reading Diary Week 14: Grimm (Ashliman)

Grimm (Ashliman)

The Singing Bone

A king sent two brothers to kill a wild boar.  Whoever brought the wild boar back would receive the king's daughter in marriage.  The youngest son who was innocent and kind hearted set out to kill the boar and with the help of a dwarf managed to do so.  The older brother ended up at a party and was jealous that his brother killed the boar.  He tricked his brother and murdered him claiming the prize for himself.  He wed the daughter of the king and years later a shepherd found the bones of the murdered brother and they sang the story of what happened.  The king found out and ordered the living brother to be drowned.

Old Sultan

An old dog was soon to be killed by his master because he was of no use anymore.  The dog's wolf friend made a plan to steal his masters baby and let Sultan save him and bring him back.  This plan worked and the master was full of joy and decided to keep Sultan around and treat him royally.  The wolf felt as if Sultan owed him a favor and went to take his master's sheep.  Sultan had told his master about the wolf and the master was able to catch the wolf in the act, saving his sheep.  The wolf was mad and wanted to fight with sultan but was frightened by Sultan's three legged cat friend and eventually they called a truce.

The Little Lamb and The Little Fish

A stepmother hated her stepdaughter and stepson.  She bewitched the children turning the boy into a fish and the girl into a lamb.  The fish swam sadly in the pond and the lamb walked lonely in the meadow.  Guest came to the castle one day and the stepmother sent the cook out to kill the lamb for dinner.  After hearing the lamb talk to the fish, the cook knew the stepmother must have put a curse on the kids.  He took them to a lady who had been the nurse of the little girl and knew it was her.  She undid the curse and sent the children away to live happily.

Death's Messengers

Death got beat up by a giant and a youth came by and helped him back up.  Death was grateful the boy helped him but could not negotiate with him.  Death made the youth a promise that he would give the youth a warning before he came to take him away.  The boy lived day by day, cheerfully.  He began to be sick and his health declined.  The youth knew Death would bring his messengers first so he was hoping to be healthy again before his time would come.  Then one day Death came and told him he had one hour left.  The youth did not realize that the sickness and bad health was Death's messengers.

Eve's Unequal Children

Adam and Eve had several children and some were beautiful and some were ugly.  Hearing that the Lord would be visiting their home, Eve hid the ugly children.  The Lord came and blessed all of her pretty children and this made Eve think that he would share his blessing with her ugly children also.  She brought the children out and the Lord blessed them also.  Eve thought that the Lord did not share his blessings equally.  The Lord explained to her that the world needs many different things to function and each child would play an equal part no matter what the position was.

Essay Week 13: Italian Fairy Tales

This week I chose to read the Italian Fairy Tales unit.  The description of the unit is what caught my interest.  I love fairy tales and have enjoyed reading different types of fairy tales in previous units.  This one said that it would include stories that were similar to Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty.  These stories were familiar to me and I thought it would be interesting to see how the Europeans changed these fairy tales.  The stories in this unit were a lot of fun to read and I would definitely recommend them to future readers.  There were only a few stories that had a second page but when I read those I wanted to read the second page to see what happened!  There was always a twisted plot in the stories that left me, as a reader, wanting more.  My favorite story was Zelinda and theMonster.  I thought this was a great fairy tale as a young handsome king is saved but a girl who he ends up marrying.  It was definitely a different take on a love story but I found it sweet and romantic.  I used this story to write my story from and I loved it so much I did not really want to change much of the fairy tale.  A lot of the stories seemed to have a happy ending and a hint of romance through out them.  There are also evil spirits in different forms such as fate, a monster, and a magician.  These aspects were unique to the Italian Fairy Tales and played a seemingly small but major role in the stories.  There were not any stories that I disliked.  There are many fairy tale units in the European section and I am looking forward to reading a different set of fairy tales next week!

(Fairy Tale Book: Flickr)