Mythology and Folklore - Christian Hansen

In the beginning of the universe there was nothing. Only darkness. For a long time the darkness grew and grew until it became a single mass which would be called the earth. The Earth Doctor made himself an abiding place out of a creosote bush. After struggling with it for awhile he got it just right. The next thing the Earth Doctor made were insects. Little black ones which made black gum and termites. These bugs worked and worked until the Earth grew into the size it is today. A sky was created to fit over the earth. A spider was created to attach the sky to the earth so it would not shake a wobble. Mountains, water, trees, grass, and weeds were added next. However, the sky was still dark as before so the doctor made ice. This ice was thrown into the sky in all directions until it finally stuck. The moon was made the same way. However, when the sun and moon did not shine, the sky was dark. The doctor added stars and the milky way into the sky so there will always be light.  Milky ...

Raven was traveling around and came across a man and his house near the water. The raven told the man he will be his friend to which the man agreed. In front of the man's house there were many seals. The raven ate all of them in only two nights. Once the seals ran out, the raven ate the man because he was still hungry. The raven used the man's canoe and harpoon to hunt 4 seals in the water. Once done, he began making a fire to cook them. Nearby there was a stump. The raven noticed him and asked if he was envious and went into the woods. The stump got up and sat in the hole the seals were cooking in. The raven returned and cried because he was hungry. Alaskan Seals - Source Raven and the Seals

“Get back here you rat!” Cat’s voice echoed somewhere in the maze of hallways behind me.  I am in fact a rat, but the anger and disgust in her voice hurt. She wasn’t calling me by my name, but by the negative connotation behind me as a species. I had never seen this side of Cat before. We had been raised together by the King and were best of friends ever since. I turned a corner and ran, only to find a dead end. I quickly turned around to see Cat’s silhouette against the dim candlelight, her glowing eyes piercing my soul. She had found me.  “Cat!” I managed to say between heavy breaths, “We’ve been friends since we were little! Please don’t do this!”  “How dare you beg for mercy,” Cat growled, “You stole from the King! That’s treason!”  Cat began to stalk forward towards me. I tried to back up, but my tail hit the wall. Panic started to set in.  “Please Cat!” I cried out, “You know I wouldn’t do something like that if I had any choice!” I looked around franticly...

 There was once a hippo by the name of Isantim. He was one of the biggest kings found on land. Only the elephant was larger. The hippo had many wives and would occasionally give a large feast to the people. No one but his wives knew his name. One day during a feast, the hippo proclaimed "You have come to feed at my table, but none of you know my name, if you cannot tell my name, you shall all of you go away without your dinner." Everyone ended up leaving except the tortoise. He asked the hippo if he could come back to the next feast and tell him his name. The hippo said he and his family would leave the land if the tortoise did so. The turtle hid himself in a small ditch and waited for the hippos to cross the path. While doing so, one of the wives hit his shell with her foot and called out Isantim's name. At the next feast, the tortoise told the hippo his name. That is why hippos live in the water. The hippopotamus in all of its glory - source   Story source here

 There was once a King of Calabar by the name of Ansa. He had two companions: a housekeeper cat and a house-boy rat. The king was fond of his cat and pampered it. The rat on the other hand was very poor. He fell in love with one of the servant girls but had no money to buy her gifts. Being the small size he was, the rat had an idea. He would steal food from the king as his gifts. One day the cat was taking inventory and noticed some of the King's food was missing. The King was very angry and wanted to know who the thief was. When he found out it was the rat, the King let the cat deal with him. In her anger, the cat ate the rat, and did so to any other rats she came across. A cat - Source Story Source

I am happy with the progress I have made in this class in the past 2 weeks. I am most proud of my storybook and how it is coming together. There was a period of two weeks that I fell behind, but I am finally catching up! In the future weeks of this class, I plan on doing a lot of the extra credit assignments so I can be fully caught up.

Looking at the comments on my various stories, I really appreciate the comments people have left for me! My favorite comments are ones that praise a writing style or something else a long those lines. I like to try new things with my writing style and prompts so it is always nice to see the positive feedback. Regarding my comments on other students' posts, I like to give back positive feedback. I always tell them about something I liked about their writing and try to relate more to it on a personal level. As I continue writing in my storybook, I would like to see comments that are telling me if what I am doing in my writing is effective or not. I am just writing one story at a time and I don't really have anything planned out ahead of time, so those comments let me know if I should continue in the direction I'm going, or change something. That is why I selected the picture below. Source 

 I enjoy reading new stories every week and practice my writing. I don't write creatively that often so this is a great way to practice that! Right now, I need to focus mostly on dialogue.  So far I am happy with my website but not so much with my blog. I would like to make it look nicer (especially the image layout) but I am not sure how much creative freedom I have with that on this website.  So far I am very satisfied with how my project is going! I am excited to add more stories to it in the future! I would say my biggest accomplishments in this class is just writing more. Being in STEM, the only writings I have are either lab reports or research notes. Those aren't any fun and I cannot just write whatever I want. In this class I can write about whatever I want and that creative freedom is great! So far I think my favorite story I've read was "Man in the Moon", specifically when I re-wrote the story in my own way.  

  https://sites.google.com/view/ chroniclesofcreation

I didn’t stand a chance in the race to be King. Hare and Cheetah were way too fast for me, but that didn’t stop me.  “I’ll figure something out,” I thought to myself as I slowly made my way to the starting line. To my right was Hare. I didn’t know him too well; I was always in the trees while he was always running around on the ground. There was one thing I knew for sure; Hare was fast. All the animals had finally found their spots and the race to the stool was about to begin. The King will soon be decided.  “Good luck,” Hare smirked at me. I rolled my eyes at him. He knew I didn’t stand a chance. I closed my eyes and thought, “What am I going to do? How can I win this?”  Howler Monkey was the referee. He didn’t care much for power and had the loudest voice of all of us, so when he heard about the race, he volunteered faster than Hare could run from one tree to another.  “On your mark… get set…” his voice carried throughout the forest.  I looked around nervously...

 Handsome King of the Apes In the middle of the Great Sea there was an island called the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits. On the island was a rock which had absorbed hidden powers of heaven and earth. One day the rock broke and out came an ape which was hatched by magic powers. The ape learned to walk and showed great power. The Lord of the Heavens saw this as a threat and sent two gods down to earth. The ape continued to grow and learn. One day the ape was hanging out with the other apes at a waterfall. They challenged each other to jump through the waterfall, and whoever could do it will become king. The ape from the stone had a go at it and was able to reach the other side. On the other side of the waterfall were many treasures. The stone ape had become the king of the apes.  The Waterfall

Long ago all of the animals lived in peace. There was no ruler, so there was also no punishment to wrongful deeds. Eventually the animals all agreed it was time to find a king; someone who can punish those who do wrong. Many animals suggested they themselves become king, but no one could come into agreement. Eventually they decided a race is the best way to chose the new king. The hare was the fastest of the animals and reached the finish line first. However, once he go there the hare heard a voice! It was the chameleon! He had grabbed onto the hare's tail and changed colors to blend in. The hare was upset along with the other animals, but the rules stated the chameleon was king. The animals decided to leave the chameleon as they would not listen to him.  King Chameleon Story Source  

Here is my plan for my storybook! When I was a kid, I read this book that was composed of many smaller stories. They were all related to each other in that each story was a creation story. The stories were simple enough with some being "how the rabbit became so fast," or "why the porcupine got its quills." While they were so simple, they intrigued me. The only limit to these types of stories is the author's imagination and that is what I want to do something similar to that book for my project.  Throughout my entire pre-college education, I was told not to use wikipedia. It is an unreliable source that can be changed by anyone, right? Wikipedia pages are full of sources which are listed at the bottom of each page. Clicking on these links will lead to reliable articles. There are a ton of creation stories listed on this Wikipedia page and I will be getting my sources from that. From what I could find, there seems to be a lot of different sections of creation sto...

 I’ve been the Moon longer than I can remember. I can’t speak, I can’t blink. All I can do is orbit the Earth and stare. I wish I could talk to that wise old man one more time. At this point I wouldn’t even wish to turn back; I would just curse him out and punch him in his old, wrinkled face. But he’s been dead for so long. I saw it. When the time came, I was so happy, but I realized I’d be stuck like this for eternity. The Sun used to be so bright, and so very hot. But I’m used to it now. The constant glare no longer impairs my vision, and the scorching heat is something I have grown used to. Watching life go on without being apart of it is a strange sensation, but it has kept me preoccupied for the time being.  But after awhile even watching humanity gets boring. Nothing ever changes. They develop a new technology and then go to war over it. Every. Single. Time. I see the people suffer, but I do not feel any empathy for them anymore. They always fix themselves eventually and...

Goats used to live in the jungle a long time ago. They would forage on grasses and leaves that they came across. One day, a goat was foraging for leaves when a tiger came towards it. In the dece brush, the tiger did not have a clear sight of the goat and could only see her beard. The tiger mistook the goat for a fearsome warrior and ran for his life. Later, the goat recalls this encounter and claims she is the weakest animal in the jungle. The tiger hears this monologue and is furious that he got scared of a goat. He swiftly kills her and tells the other tigers what he did. They follow suit and slaughter as many goats as they can. In desperate need of protection, the goats decide to live with mankind. Goats and tigers used to live in the same habitat - link   Source  

A mother and her son sitting together. The mother explained she was fearful but they boy was unaware of what that emotion was. In order to figure it out, he went to a camp of robbers with 40+ individuals. There he asked them to show him what fear was. They instructed him to make helwa in a cemetery. As the boy was making it, a hand sprung out of the ground, but the boy was un-phased. The boy tells the robbers of his story and they were amazed, so they told him to venture to an old building. There he attempted to help a woman but almost got strangled instead. She suddenly disappeared, leaving a bracelet. After getting into a legal battle about the bracelet, the boy found himself on the shore, overlooking a sinking ship. He swam to help them to find Deniz Kyzy tyring to sink the ship. The boy comes across a garden which three pigeons which turned into maiden. They each drank for the experiences the boy went through to find fear. The boy lets them know it was he who was fearless and told ...