Week 5 Storytelling: The Voyages of Sinclair

With my time on the seas I have learned many lessons. I have been fortunate enough to stay in one piece but have numerous loyal friends die by my side. We do not have much time but I will tell you about some of my biggest Adventures.

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After being home for many months I started to miss the open seas and all their wonder. I embarked on this journey not 6 months before my last one had ended, which had almost killed me. I set forth with some loyal companions for the south to go explore new lands. The first few days were uneventful but on the fifth day a terrible storm had broken our sail to where we could not fix it on the open sea. After drifting for three more days we came across an Island that looked uninhabited but plentiful. Once we got to the island we did run into people and thought they were here to help us. They were friendly at first and gave us lots of food but I had noticed they were not eating any of it.  I pretended to eat but all my other companions were too famished to notice. Once they had fed us they took the fattest and ate him! They had put drugs in the food to make us unaware of what was happening. Each day they fed us rice and coconut oil to fatten us up. I made sure to only eat the bare minimum so I would not gain any weight. They continued eating us until only I and one other was left. One day all the locals had left except for one of the elders which they had left to watch over us. I saw that this was my chance to go. I overpowered the local and brought my last comrade with me. We quickly lost sight of the elder and could not have picked a better time to escape because once we got to the beach where our ship was there was another one that had just stopped to see if there was anyone alive since the ship looked badly damaged. We got on board and grabbed as many bales of goods as we could from our ship and then left the island before the locals could do anything to us.

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The next voyage I had was only three months after where we ended up having our ship destroyed in a storm and I survived by holding on tight enough to some drift wood and being washed up to a mystical land. I was lucky enough to come in on a small beach between two large cliffs. After walking between these cliffs, I noticed that there were diamonds everywhere! I had not seen so many fine cut stones in my life. I was worried when night fall came what would come with it. I had found some food and water and just as I was finishing up my shelter a giant Roc (their legs look like tree trunks) comes down and grabs a snake (big enough to eat an elephant) coming from right around the ridge of the cliff.  I knew at that point if I was going to survive I needed to use the Roc. That whole night I could hardly sleep because I could hear the snakes outside slithering by, I just prayed that my shelter could hold till morning.

A Roc carrying an Elephant, by E. J. Detmold

By morning I had devised a plan on how to leave that land. I collected as many diamonds as I could and set a trap for a snake. Once I had caught it, it was only a matter of time to a Roc came down and grabbed it, which I tied myself to. The Roc had landed on it nest and I was surprised to see that there were merchants at the nest hoping that the Roc had picked up some diamonds during its trip. After they saw me I told them my story and they welcomed me to their city and helped on my way after I gave a few of my diamonds to them. The rest of the trip was uneventful and now I sit here waiting for the ship to dock before I start my next voyage.

Authors Note: I started with " The Voyages of Sinbad " drawn from Lang's Arabian Nights' Entertainments and changed it to have a female heroine.  Written in first person, she talks about her run ins with mysterious creatures and  near death experiences.

Reading Notes: Voyages of Sinbad, part B

The stories follow the same pattern as the first part. The very last story breaks the pattern making me think he is going to die but returns home. I definitely want to incorporate the last story into my rewritten story.

(illustration by H. J. Ford)

Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sinbad, Part A

The Voyages of Sinbad, drawn from Lang's Arabian Nights' Entertainments

I loved the stories even more the I thought I would! I love how he says a few times things like " I won't bore you with the details". I like how he says the reason he goes on each voyage, usually along the lines of  being bored of the quiet life. It's nice that he says what he does when he gets home to ( and always donating some of his goods) I would love to change up the story so that it is a woman instead of Sinbad. 

Hungarian Stamp

Feed Back Focus

How would you rank the three strategies in terms of their usefulness to you?

I would have to say that the Copy and delete works the best for me then the timer one. I feel as though reading out load makes me focus on saying it more than understanding it. 

Have you used any of these strategies, or others like them, in the past?

I have used the reading out load on and the timer on. the copy and delete one is interesting and definitely helpful if I want to be very detailed in my feedback.  

 Are there some other reading techniques that you would recommend?

My dad taught me one where you read through something really quickly to get the gist of it and then go through the story again to read parts that you liked or wanted to understand more. 

Feed Back

Done by Randell Monroe with the title text saying "Semi-protect the Constitution".  

Week 4 story - The Three Riddles of Genie

Off of the Godavari River a Queen ruled the Abiding Kingdom. This Queen was called Brave for all she did was done in bravery. Everyday for years a monk named Patience came and gave her a piece of fruit. Little did she know there were gems hidden in each fruit.  She found out because one day she had given the fruit to a monkey to eat instead of giving it to one of her servants.  Once she found out by seeing the monkey with the gem she asked the monk why he had given her such expensive gift and what he wanted in return. He said that he needed help with some business and that he needed her to meet him on the first night of the waning moon, by the great lake at dusk by the moon temple.

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It is the first night of the waning moon so at dusk the Queen slips out of her castle at dusk. She brings her royal sword and dresses in all black. When she sees the monk, he is preparing for a spell of sorts. When she got to him he was overjoyed and said " If you are still willing to help me then go to the wisdom tree and bring back the Genie who sits on its branches. She did as asked and came upon the wisdom tree but only saw a doll. As she grabbed the doll, a Genie came out and said " If you which to take me answer me these riddles, if you fail then beware! " She nodded in agreement and so the Genie started the first riddle. 

The Wisdom Tree

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A man once had a daughter named Coral, when she came of marring age, three suitors came and asked for her hand in marriage. Coral's father said that he could not choose his daughters fate and that he will let her choose. She did not want to hurt anyone so she waited. The three men stayed with her for 3 day an 4 nights when she fell sick and died. The three men were heart broken but still adored her body. The first man made a bed with her ashes and made a hut by her grave. The second dipped her bones in the Ganges river to make them sacred. The third traveled all across the world and found a way to bring her back. All the men came together and was able to bring her back. Now, who is her true lover? 

The Queen thought about this and then answered. " It was the first man, for he stayed with her no matter how she was." 

The Genie was pleased with her answer and started the next riddle. 

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This story is about a girl how found her brother and husband who had sacrificed themselves by decapitation to Gauri. The girl wept for both and prayed to Gauri to bring them back. She replied and said she would if the Girl put their heads back on. She did so not knowing she had switched the heads of her brother and husband. The Question is, who is her husband and who is her brother now? 

The Queen thought about this and knew the answer, " The Body that has the husband's head on it is the husband, because it is the head that is the most important member."

The Genie was pleased and moved on to the last riddle

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A Queen and her daughter get banned from their kingdom and end up in the forest lost after the king was killed by thieves. A hunter and his son are out and find the foot steps of these girls. The hunter says to his son, One of the ladies can be your wife, whichever you choose. The son said he wanted the smaller footed one and that his father could have the other since he is now widowed. They followed the foot steps and ran into the Queen and her daughter. While they agreed to marry, The Queen was the one with the smaller feet so she ended up marrying the son and the daughter married the Hunter. The riddle is, when the couples have kids, what will the kids be to each other? 

The Queen thought about this over an over again, finally she told the Genie that she did not know. 

The Genie smiled and said that she is brave for telling the truth, and for that the Genie would tell her a piece of truth. When you bring me back to the monk he will try a sacrifice you to the gods. When he tells you to lay down and to have an attitude of reverence, tell him you do not know how and to have him show you. When he does, cut his head off and the gods will thank you. 

She did ask the Genie said and when she cut off the monks head the gods came down and thanked her and said he was trying to be king of the faeries and was not a good monk. So they wanted to bestow the honor on her for she was worthy of it. 

Authors Note: The original Story is called Twenty-Two Goblins, translation by Arthur Ryder, where a king is given a task to bring a goblin to a monk but the goblin escapes each time the king answers his riddle. If the king does not answer it but knows the answer he will die but if he is stumped on the answer the Goblin will go with him. The king is needing the Goblin to bring him to a monk that has been giving him lots of gifts to return the favor. When the king is finally stumped on one of his riddles the Goblin lets him know that the monk is scamming him and how to go about stopping it. Which ends up being that he has to kill him to sacrifice him which is what the monk was planning to do with the king.

Week 4 Reading Notes: 22 Goblins, Part B

Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder
The ending was a twist from what I was expecting. I would definitely like to keep the ending in my story rewrite. I would switch the main characters to a Queen and a Genie, where the Genie tells the Queen that the monk is cheating her. I do like the last story which really is a mind bender, it really hurts my brain thinking about what the kids would be to each other if the mom married the son and the daughter married the father and both couples had kids. Side note, there are a lot of names repeated, I wonder if they are connected.

The Wisdom Tree

Week 4: Twenty-two Goblins reading notes, Part A

The stories in Twenty-Two Goblins (Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.I love all the short stories in this story and my favorite is the very first one(the three lovers). I also would like rewrite the story as if instead of a goblin it is a ghost of a beautiful woman. I like the picture below because of how ghostly the goblin looks.

Goblin in the tree

The Three Lovers - I like this story because I would have thought of the riddle in that way. I see that a son would want to honor his mother a father would want to bring her back but a lover would never leave her. I definitely want to use this story in in my rewrite.