Week 11: Storytelling -- Arthur and Guyon

As Princess Britomart disguised herself as a handsome knight, trying to find the man in Merlin's Mirror, she met Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon along her travels. And though they kept each other company for awhile, running headlong into adventure wherever they could find it, that changed as they approached an eerie forest one day. For suddenly, an ivory colored horse burst out of the fog surrounding the place, its rider a woman with long blond hair and a frightened expression on her face. She kept glancing behind her, the reason made known approximately ten seconds later in the form of a man with a cruel expression and a spear aimed to kill.

As soon as they saw this, Arthur and Guyon turned their horses away from the forest and chased after the man and woman. Although both wondered why Britomart had made no move to help the girl being pursued, the thought was pushed in the back of their minds in favor of the more immediate matter at hand. The path they followed was twisted and turned, though the two riders ahead of Arthur and Guyon rode with ease along it. As they barely kept up with the sight of their guides, the girl suddenly veered to the left with her horse into a grove, still unable to lose her pursuer. Behind them, Arthur and Guyon tried to spur their horses to go faster, hoping that they could stop her pursuer before she was caught. But by the time they reached the grove, there was no sight or sound of either the woman or the man. Luckily, the ground was damp from nightfall's rain, and hoof prints were seen leading into the grove, trailing down, they soon discovered, to the opening of a large cave.

It was probably the largest cave mouth they'd ever come across, in fact, and it easily allowed them to ride on their horses side-by-side into the entrance. And if they were surprised at the measure of the cave mouth, it was nothing to their surprise at the magnitude of its insides. Stretched out so far that two small castles could easily fit, Arthur and Guyon stared around them for a moment in awe. The brown-gray rock of the cave was hidden underneath bright green moss, breathing life in an otherwise seemingly empty space. A halo of light stood in the corner of the cave, deep enough into the cave where they could make out its back.

As they neared the end of the cave, the back wall of the cave became clearer. Cut into the wall was a strangely triangular manmade opening, only wide enough for one person to go through at a time. And though Prince Arthur dismounted the chestnut mare and went deeper into the cave without hesitation, Sir Guyon paused for a moment before following the prince, wondering, quite perceptively, why no sound of the horses belonging to the two riders they pursued echoed within the massive cave.

For about an hour they silently walked, all the while hearing a dull roar become steadily stronger. As cave's narrow hallway reached its end, they found themselves at the edge of a pool of water, a layer of gray rock surrounding the half of the cave they were on. The other half consisted of a layer of ragged rock, part of which was smoothed over thanks to the waterfall at the end. But aside from the hole in the ceiling that allowed the water to flow into the cave's lake, there was no entrance into this part of the cave. Including the one they had just come from.

Suddenly, the woman and the man sprung out of the lake, and Arthur and Guyon were quite relieved that she was unhurt. But instead of fear, the woman wore an expression of complete calm. And instead of trying to run away, she held hands with the man, as though she trusted him completely. Guyon's eyes widened, and pushed Arthur away from the lake before he could enter it.

"Water demons," he whispered loud enough for Arthur to hear. Arthur's eyes widened, and his hand went to the hilt of his sword, prepared to fight. And then he narrowed his eyes, pulling out his sword. "I believe it is much worse than that, my friend."

Suddenly the cave began to shake, and the man and the woman were gone. In their place stood a gigantic two-headed water serpent. And at lightning speed they lunged at Arthur and Guyon.

Both Guyon and Arthur dove out of the way in the nick of time, and the creature smashed into the wall of the cave. But it hadn't given up yet. It seized the two men with each of its heads, trying to crush Arthur and Guyon to death. And though Guyon's sword had fallen out of his hands, Arthur's hadn't. Since his arms weren't caught by the coil of the serpent's neck, he was able to hack the serpent's head off, cutting the head from the base of the serpent's neck. Bleeding and hurt, the serpent loosened its grip on Guyon, who cut its other head off.

And when the serpent died, a tremble shook throughout the cave, and the cave entrance magically reappeared. That day, Arthur and Guyon walked out of the cave alive, killing the deadly serpent god who had resided there for a thousand years unchallenged.

Part of the Cave

(Source: Geograph)

Author's Note:

I based this story off of the second chapter of The Faerie Queene, How Britomart Fought Six Knights. In the original story, the chapter follows Britomart, the cross-dressing princess who pretends to be a knight to try and find the destined husband she saw in Merlin's mirror. But instead of following the main character and retelling the story of her adventure in this chapter, I decided I'd expound on what happened to Arthur and Guyon as they chased after Florimell, the girl. When they chased after Florimell without Britomart, I was curious as to what happened to them. So I decided to create an adventure for them. Since the entirety of the Faerie Queene is several volumes long, I'm sure you do find out what happens to Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon. But in the reading unit, you'll never know.

Stories From the Faerie Queene by Mary Macleod (1916). Story Source: Internet Archive

Week 11: Reading Diary -- The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene

How Britomart fought with Six Knights
So in the chapter before (which I have not included in this reading diary, but the name of which is Sir Guyon), Lady Britomart, who is pretending to be a guy, joined Prince Arthur and Sir Guyon in their misadventures. But they get separated at the very beginning of this chapter. I found Britomart's reaction to be really weird -- when all three of them see a lady running away from the forest they encounter with a creeper hot on her trail, Arthur and Guyon both act like normal people and run to save the lady. Britomart, on the other hand, does nothing of the sort, and stands where she is for awhile, wondering if Guyon and Arthur will come back. After a few minutes of wainting, she just up and leaves (okay, Britomart), setting off in the direction her, Arthur, and Guyon, were originally traveling.

I guess here's where it starts to get interesting. After a while of traveling, she happens upon a castle, in front of which six knights are fighting one. The reason for their fighting is this: the one knight is fighting for his lady, and the six knights are fighting for the lady of the castle's honor. However, it's a pretty lose-lose situation: if the lone knight loses, he has to give up his lady and join the six knights. If he wins, he 'gets' to marry the lady of the castle. After hearing this, Britomart intervenes with her (I didn't mention this before) magical lance that unseats anyone who comes across it. And she ends up defeating four of the knights, with the other two conceding to her.

Then they all go inside the castle as friends. Or something like that.


Britomart in the Castle Joyous
So the name of this castle is 'Joyous', and it's pretty awesome in terms of its splendor. There's gold and fine silk everywhere, and it's gorgeous. Anyways, the six knights figure that she's going to marry the lady of the house, since she defeated them. But the reason Britomart, who is actually a princess, decided to cross-dress as a knight is that Merlin's magical mirror™showed her that a renown knight named Artegall would become her husband. And she's determined to find the guy because she's curious about him. Aside from that, she couldn't really marry the lady. For all the pro-gay marriage I am, it's simply impossible to disguise the fact that Britomart was a woman, and when the lady of the castle realized that her husband was actually a wife, I'm pretty sure Britomart would be kicked out. Anyways, Britomart meets the lady of the house, whose name is Maelcasta. And since all romances created during this time are like this, Maelcasta falls in love at first sight (which I believe is impossible). Apparently, as beautiful as she is as a woman, she makes a super hot guy as well. Well, because of her looks, Maelcasta is determined to have her. Her solution? Jump the guy's bones in the middle of the night (crudely put, but true). Britomart ends up waking up before this happens and fighting the six knights who have been called upon by Maelcasta. Pissed that she gets attacked, she decides to leave with the other knight.



How Britomart Walked Through Fire; What Britomart Saw in the Enchanted Chamber; How Britomart Rescued a Fair Lady from an Enchanter
This chapter is pretty interesting. Britomart meets a knight named Scudamor, whose lady is stuck in the castle of the forest they're in. Even though the knight has tried, he cannot rescue the lady, since the castle is magical and doesn't allow people to go through even the front door. However, it lets Britomart through for some reason, and she enters the first room of the castle. The door that leads deeper into the castle says 'be bold', so she goes through it. Through this door, she goes into another room, and goes to the door on the other side. It's locked, and it says 'be not too bold'. So she hides herself, and the door opens eventually. But instead of being empty, the entrance brings forth a weird assortment of characters (some gods but mostly personified emotions), that march three times around the room and then go. After that strange march, she tries to open the door, but to no avail. When the door opens again later the next day, she sneaks in basically using camouflage, and enters the room, where the wicked enchanter (and owner of the castle) is holding Scudamor's lady. In conclusion, she rescues the girl, traps the knight in his own castle, and escapes. Unfortunately, Scudamor, believing Britomart had died, already left.


The Golden Girdle
This chapter is pretty entertaining, let me tell you. It's the last day of the tournament where all the knights around the country gather to prove themselves. The tournament lasts three days, and on each a winner is declared. So for the first part of the tournament, the knights of the tournament are, I quote 'beaten and chased about all day til evening' by a strange and mysterious knight, who they call the Savage Knight. (In reality, he's Artegall, but no one knows that.) The visual that came to my mind was cartoon-like, in that I could imagine all the knights in a pen trying to get away from this weird-looking, scary knight who was kicking all their butts. Well he was, until Britomart shows up and kicks his butt (since she has an unbeatable spear), and proceeds to win the last day of the tournament. Because Britomart defeats Artegall so easily, he's pissed and wants revenge. He gets his revenge in the second to last chapter of the unit...or at least tries to.

Week 10: Reading Diary -- Tejas Legends

Tejas Legends

When the Storm God Rides

In this story, it shows how the edge of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico has islands. In the old legends, apparently the Storm God, with his great bird Hurakan, would come out at times and ride over the Gulf of Mexico. This act would create the islands seen today. The Storm God didn't always create islands, though. Usually he would reside at the bottom of the ocean, away from the tribes, who lived peacefully. However, these peaceful tribes were chased off by the fierce northern tribes, who liked to kill birds. So they did for awhile, without any consequence, until there was so much killing that the birds along the Gulf of Mexico complained to the Storm God. The Storm God, angry and vengeful, descended upon the fierce tribes with Hurakan and blew them away in a huge, tornado-like wind. Those winds were so powerful that they created the biggest islands along the Gulf of Mexico, which still stand today.


How the North Wind Lost his Hair

He gets stranded on an island again – this time for good reason and with the company of his crew. Unfortunately, they get stuck on an island with giants. And some of his crewmembers get eaten by a giant, which sucks. But they get revenge on the giant by poking his eye out, who gets revenge back on them by pitting his family against the crew (while they’re trying to escape the island on boats). And, by a miracle, the only boat that doesn’t get sunk by rocks aimed at them is Sindbad’s. He and two other members escape to another island, only to run into a gigantic, man-eating snake, that unfortunately eats the other two members of Sindbad’s boat. It would have eaten Sindbad too, but he basically makes a fort for himself and the snake can’t get in. I’ll give him props for his plan. And luckily, the next day a ship finds him and the people (like usual) are extremely generous to him. And, like in the first voyage, he gets his cargo back.


The Cloud that Was Lost

Now. I can understand why the rabbit gets tricked. After all, it was his first time dealing with the jackal with regards to the spring. Having said that, it's pretty ridiculous that the hare gets tricked as well. Knowing how the rabbit got tricked, he should have understood that the jackal was only trying to get him out of the way to drink water. Then again, sometimes characters in classic stories are morons. The tortoise is the only one who successfully protects the spring, as he ignores the jackal's promises and holds his leg tightly to prevent him from moving (for so long that the rest of the animals come back.


Grandmother's River Trick

He first asks the birch tree for its bark, and the list goes on after that. He asks the Cedar for its boughs, the Larch for its roots, and the Fir for its balsam and resin. He also ends up asking a hedgehog for its quills. They all give it to him without outward resistance, though some of them internally are afraid. This boat that the makes with all of his supplies is pretty cool as well, since he can steer it with his mind. But then an another problem occurs: the lake is filled with sticks and other deterrents that will not allow him to swim. So he asks one of his friends that he sees to clear out the river for him, which the friend does without question. And that's the end of that story.


How Sickness Entered the World

He ends up intimidating death's envoys into erasing his name from the book of death. I think it's worth noting that he doesn't just do this for himself -- he ends up exempting all his followers (back on the island where he was king) from death as well. It's kind of admirable -- most people would only think of themselves in the situation, even if they were good people, because their immediate thoughts turn towards how they should deal with the situation.


When the Rainbow was Torn

The cactus, at one point in time, wished for color within its flower petals. Its petals were white, and though it longed for color, the rainbow did not give it any, presumably because it was scared of the cactus. One day, however, the rainbow tore. It tore because one day, the rain was heavy and the water bent the rainbow. The rainbow was scared of touching the cactus, so it bent away from the water. However, more rain ran on top of the rainbow, and the rainbow ended up touching the cactus. And before it could extricated itself from the cactus, the cactus happily soaked up some of the colors of the rainbow.

Week 9: Essay -- Writing in High School

Writing in High School

I can’t say that my high school was the best in the country, because it wasn’t. The ugly pink building may have housed private school kids with good teachers, but it was out in the Midwest, Kansas to be specific. And while location doesn’t matter, being out in a relatively small city tends not to have the quality of a high-end school in a big city.

However, it’s not to say that my high school was bad either. It was actually better than most (around the area, at least), and one of the truly great things about it was its writing program. There are some high schools that only start forcing kids to write essays during junior or even senior year. Mine started the summer before freshman year (and even before that, since the entire school was made up of a lower and middle school as well). And we continually wrote essays – not just at the beginning and end of the year, but within it as well. It was normal. And by the end of freshman year, three page papers were no big deal.

And we didn’t just write these papers for English class. Throughout my high school career, I had papers for Spanish, History, and Chemistry as well. For Spanish (I took it all four years, with the last being a seminar), the essays were light in terms of length, naturally. Still, it was hard to write in a foreign language. For history…well, those essays were longer. Sophomore year I had the occasional two to three page paper due, as well as the eight page paper at the end of the semester, but nothing too bad. APUSH my junior year is where the essay workload got really heavy. First of all, I hated that class – even though I loved World History sophomore year, I just didn’t find American interesting. So I had to write six to seven page papers every couple of weeks on a topic I hated. That was fun. As of for Chemistry, for the two years I took it (Chemistry II and AP Chemistry), we had to write lab papers. And not just the papers where you fill out the blanks for the answers for the lab – formal papers with an intro, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. It wasn’t that bad though – our chemistry teacher taught us how to write a lab paper well.

Of course, the biggest source of writing papers was English. We always had random writing assignments and periodic essays due my freshman through senior year. Though freshman year was a blast (our English teacher was hilarious), my favorite year had to be my junior year. Incidentally, it was the most writing-heavy class, but I loved the class because my teacher was so good. She had assigned a twenty-page paper at the beginning of the year, which was due at the end of the year. But it wasn’t bad, since she broke it up into two to three page essays throughout the year, which we synthesized into a complete essay at the end. My favorite assignment, however, happens to be the creative writing paper we did for the Beowulf unit. I wrote mine over two characters, battling each other at the ends of an apocalypse. I had a ton of fun writing the fight scene with the weapons I created.

   

Writing

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Week 9: Reading Diary -- The Song of Hiawatha

The Song of Hiawatha

The Four Winds [p1, p2]

This part of the tale is interesting. It shows how things began -- how Mudjekeewis kills the Great Bear, destroying the largest and most fearsome of all beasts. And because of that victory, he not only gains more support from his followers, but also is able to hold dominion over the winds of heaven. Since he does, he decides to keep his hold over the west wind and give dominion over the other three winds to his progeny. He gives Wabun the east wind, Shawondasee the south wind, and Kabibonnoka the north wind. The first kid falls in love with a girl, the second kid gets into a fight with someone, and the third kid falls in love with a dandelion (on accident).


Hiawatha's Sailing

In this part of the epic poem, Hiawatha decides to build a boat. And unlike the typical person building a boat, he proceeds to ask the things in the forest to give him part of themselves to build this boat. He first asks the birch tree for its bark, and the list goes on after that. He asks the Cedar for its boughs, the Larch for its roots, and the Fir for its balsam and resin. He also ends up asking a hedgehog for its quills. They all give it to him without outward resistance, though some of them internally are afraid. This boat that the makes with all of his supplies is pretty cool as well, since he can steer it with his mind. But then an another problem occurs: the lake is filled with sticks and other deterrents that will not allow him to swim. So he asks one of his friends that he sees to clear out the river for him, which the friend does without question. And that's the end of that story.


Hiawatha's Fishing

Now, when Hiawatha goes fishing, he does it in his usual style: grandiose. His purpose on this fishing trip is not to catch a few fish and call it a day; instead, he decides to go, with his squirrel on his boat, to catch the King of Fishes, Nahma. And boy, does his fishing trip last awhile. Hiawatha's problem is that the King of Fishes doesn't want to bother with the kid, and sends a couple of fishes in his stead, all of which are defeated by Hiawatha (they can't break his bow). Finally, Nahma fights Hiawatha for real, and things get ugly -- but only for Nahma. His corpse ends up being washed ashore, and he dies within a handful of minutes, unable to breathe. And then his corpse is eaten at the very end, where Hiawatha gives his big speech.

Google Define and Etymology Tech Tip (7)

I decided to look up the word 'zither', since I thought it would be interesting as to where the word came from. It said the word came from the mid-nineteenth century word 'cittern', so I decided to look up where that word came from. And since I got a more extensive background (or at least older), I decided to screenshot 'cittern' rather than 'zither'.

It comes from the Greek word 'kithara', which is the word for a kind of harp. Awesome, right?

Week 7: Famous Last Words

Famous Last Words

So...how's it going everyone? Been having a good week?

For me, it's been a meh week. You know, one of those weeks where you have to do all that crap in only a couple of days because of bad planning?

No? That's just me?

Okay, maybe that's just me.

Well...I kind of procrastinated on some (a lot of) reading, so that's what I've been doing this entire week (my life is full of so much excitement!). And it's Organic Chemistry, so that just adds to the awesomeness.

*Sigh* Organic Chemistry

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Truthfully, it's not that bad to read. I'm honestly not trying to sound like 'oh I'm such a genius and I read textbooks in my free time.' I'm not that person, though sometimes I wish I were. Maybe then I wouldn't have half the problems I do now concerning my procrastination...

But anyways. What I mean to say is that, if you ever have to take Organic Chemistry (god knows why), know that your book is really well written. I've been actively reading it, and I haven't come across something so confusing that I needed outside help to solve it. As long as you seriously and thoroughly read the textbook, you'll probably do fine in Organic Chemistry. I bet you'll get at least a B.

What I'm really not looking forward to, after I've read what I need to read in Organic Chemistry, is Research Statistics. Believe it or not, this class is worse than Organic Chemistry.

At least Organic Chemistry is kind of interesting. I can't say the same for this class.

Seriously!!! Statistics is the more dry version of math. It's like society took what (little) was interesting in Math and decided to throw it out the window.

There's p-values and t-scores and whatnot, and though I understand it's necessary for research, it doesn't mean I like it.

Anyways. I know this just turned into a mini-rant for things I hate in my classes, but I really didn't mean for it to. Ah, well. Life is just full of twists and turns, isn't it?

Week 7: Storytelling -- How the Crocodile Killer Got His Name

How the Crocodile Killer Got His Name

In an African town, there was a boy who wasn't like other boys. Rather than being small and weak he was strong, even from birth, and he carried with him a great iron hammer and a sack. One day his mother asked him what he wanted to be called. But instead of answering her question, he asked her to gather the town elders to meet at the bank of the river.

So she did, and they came, confused. The boy led them down the river to a deep lake filled with crocodiles.

"Who will jump into this crocodile-infested lake?" he asked them, but not one dared to volunteer. After a few heavy minutes of silence, the boy turned around. And he jumped in the lake himself.

Gasps of surprise abounded from the crowd. Such a pity, they thought; the boy had just ended his life right then and there.

What they didn't know, however, was that the moment the boy had jumped into the river, time around him had stopped. The pool was enchanted, for here lived the King of the Crocodiles, ruler of the seas and user of magic. He could affect anything that touched the water for at least a day, and he had planned to use his time magic on the boy.

But the boy, by sheer strength and will, broke through the spell before any of the crocodiles of the lake could tear him apart. And with his hammer he swiftly killed all of them, finally reaching the King of Crocodiles himself.

The King of Crocodiles knew who he was, and without warning, sprang upon the boy when he saw him. But the boy, though surprised, countered easily. They fought for three days, neither letting up ground for the other. But the strength of the Crocodile King waned, for he was old and tired from using magic, and the boy won.

After the boy killed the King of Crocodiles, he rose from the lake, no one the wiser for what had happened. Everyone was amazed that the once-considered dead man had risen triumphantly from the lake waters.

And from that day on, he was known as Makoma, 'The Greater.'

Crocodile

(Source: Wikimedia)

Author's Note:

I based this story off of Makoma in the Africa (Lang) unit. At the beginning of the original story,  he does call the leaders of his town to the lake and challenges them to jump into the pit of crocodiles, for the same reason in my story. However, in the original story it just says that he comes out of the pit, killing the crocodiles, and it never goes into detail as to how. So I decided to make that moment of his challenge with the crocodiles a bit more detailed. 

Bibliography:

The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1903). Web Source: Project Gutenberg