Week 1: UnTextbook Course Plan

OH, a woman after my own heart to let me plan my own semester out ahead of time. I am the ultimate in organization, but also the ultimate in procrastination, so this will help me tremendously to keep me on track! Oh, but there are so many options!!!!!

Week 2: Greek Myths: Ovid I - I am very much into gods and goddesses so this will be right up my alley. I have not read much about the old Greek gods and goddesses, so I'm taking this opportunity to learn. 

Week 3: Greek Myths: Ovid III - Pretty much the same as above. I chose III over II because I recognized more names from the table of contents.

Week 4: Ancient Egypt - I've always been interested in Egypt in the archaeology, architecture and myths. I have heard some myths from watching shows on Discovery, but I am excited to read these first hand.

Week 5: Khasi Folktales - I chose the Khasi Folktales because it included creation stories, gods, and goddesses

Week 6: Brer Rabbit - I went off subject here on my theme because I was so excited to see Brer Rabbit and More Brer Rabbit. I grew up in Macon GA about an hour away from Eatonton GA, which is where the author is from. I used to go visit the museum when we would be on our way to South Carolina to visit family. Although the stories have been see as racist, which is why my mother never let me read them as a kid, I am interested in reading them now because it is said that Joel Chandler Harris retold these stories straight from southern African-American oral stories. Although he is said to have been trying to appropriate their culture, without him, we may not have had any of those stories go to print and be preserved. I think he had good intentions anyway. Mr. Harris was very supportive of African-American people, which was not the norm, especially for his time and being from the south.

Week 7: More Brer Rabbit - See above.

Week 8: Review Week

Week 9: Eskimo Stories - I chose this one because it has supernatural, shaman, and ghost elements to it. 

Week 10: Cherokee or Apache Stories - Both of these appeal to me over the rest, but I can't make a decision at this moment :)

Week 11: Celtic Tales - These call out to my heart. I learned over the last 4 years or so that I am 1/4 Irish, so I have taken learning everything Irish to heart. I am also English, German, and African, but for some reason the Irish is what speaks to me.

Week 12: More Celtic Fairy Tales - See above.

Week 13: Grimm (Libravox) - I chose this Grimm because there are not many stories I know from this section so I want to take this opportunity to read outside of my comfort zone. 

Week 14: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman) - I chose this Grimm over the other 2 because one of the stories listed is "The Gifts of the Little People" I know this is not the same Little People from Creek stories, but I thought it would be interesting to compare.

Week 15: Review Week

And, that's my semester!

(illustration by Anne Anderson)

Week 1: Storybook Favorites

When Brothers Cross Paths

by Tracey Ferguson. The design for this storybook was nice. Nothing in particular really caught my eye, but the title of the storybook did and when I saw it was about Supernatural AND the Brothers Grimm, I couldn't resist. He/she did a great job on the crossover of the Grimm brothers and the Winchester brothers from Supernatural, I was actually reading it in their voices in my head. The writing was great and I wanted to keep reading. The stories were good, but the navigation was a little cumbersome since you had to scroll all the way back to the top to get to the next story.

The Werewolf story was great and the Siren/Mermaid mash up was good too. I really liked the Hansel and Gretel re-make where they die as it gives the Grimm brothers some "regret" in their story. And in the last story, if only Azazel was that easy to kill! LOL


Samhain Sagas

by Chelsea Lott. The design was not as fluid as it could have been, but the name of the storybook and the pictures used on the home page caught my attention. I have been studying Celtic witchcraft for two and a half years now, so I was very interested in reading these stories. And OH, that girl has a sick twisted sense of humor! Just out of curiosity I clicked "No" on the question of if I wanted to survive, and unfortunately my volume was up loud ... Needless to say I almost had a heart attack and an epileptic seizure at the same time LOL. The font she used is perfect and the link to the next story makes the navigation easy for you to keep going.

The first half of the introduction is awesome! The writing, the tone, the lilt to the sentences, the build up...beautiful! Even though I took nine years of bible class in school this retelling of the creation story and the story of Lucifer is GREAT! If this woman is not writing books professionally, she needs to be asap! I just now realized that I read through all of the stories without writing anything else down because I was that engrossed in the stories. The whole storybook of Samhain was awesome!

Collage of pictures from Samhain Sagas

Woman in White

by Chris McIntosh. I LOVE the artwork he used on the home page. Very fitting! What caught my attention is the subject. If you can't tell, there is a theme to the type of stories that I like :) And after reading through the first story, I've noticed that everyone of these storybooks have an element of the show Supernatural in them. I can't believe it's taken me until now to start watching them since they clearly have a great influence on us creepy-ghost-freaky type :) These stories were okay. Probably like something I would write, Okay, but kind of awkward. Of course, after reading the Samhain Sagas, anyone that's not a professional will seem awkward. I did love his ending though...very sweet :)

Week 1, Introduction: Can, open, worms, everywhere!!!!!!

Friends Logo. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

(used this because I couldn't use the "Can, open, worms, everywhere" meme

from that episode, and yes, it is one of my most favorite shows and yes, I quote from it often)

Well, this is a loaded question for me. I am 36 so I have done a lot of living and it is all pretty crazy, not Maury crazy, but maybe Springer crazy. I usually tend to way over share when asked this question because to me, my life story is the only thing that is remotely interesting about me. Nothing life inspiring, but it's definitely crazy. So, you asked for it...

I was born in Macon, Georgia. Raised by a single mom. No southern belle here, more like a cross between Shelby and Ouiser from Steel Magnolias. Fast forward to 1994, 16 year's old, mother remarried and drug me KICKING AND SCREAMING to Oklahoma. Thrown into a Creek traditional culture family. Learned how to stomp dance and still go to this day. Was pretty smart, valedictorian, but it was in Dustin, OK and I only graduated with 3 other people, so not so impressive after all, LOL. Went to college, met my first husband and we married at 18. Divorced by 19, married again by 21, pregnant at 22. I had my baby girl in July of 2000. She was 9lbs 14.8oz and I wear that number like a badge on my sleeve. Ask your mothers kiddies...and I had no pain medication or epidurals. Yes, I was stupid...girls, trust me, take the drugs! Fast forward to 2004, 26 years old, divorced again, single mother, dead end job at a newspaper. I started going back to school for my degree in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) part-time at night while I worked full-time during the day for 4 years. I graduated in 2008 with an associates in Drafting at the age of 30. I had also gotten remarried (that's the third one for those keeping count) in 2006, but this one was a keeper! Got pregnant, on purpose this time, and had my baby boy in March of 2009. I also learned in 2009 that who I had spent my whole life thinking was my real dad, was not my real dad. Who I thought was my real dad was never around, but after 31 years of thinking one way, it was a little life changing...had a mini-life crisis, but I'm over it...maybe. Still happily married though...8 years going strong :)

(Image Information: Personal photo of my family from October 2013)

So, in 2013 I decided that I was tired of working office jobs, which I had to because the economy had taken a turn for the shitter after I got my degree and no one was hiring drafters. I went to UCO onbe semester for interior design and decided that it was NOT what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. SO, after some soul searching, I realized I wanted to be an archaeologist, and had since about the age of 9 or so, but I had thought it was just for old, rich, white men. I couldn't have been more wrong. I am three semesters in and have a lot more to go, but I have definitely found what I was meant to do.

Now, for some fun stuff:
Favorite Author: Stephen King and JK Rowlings, oh and Deborah Harkness...
Favorite Book: Anything by Stephen King, but I really like Insomnia and The Dark Tower series and all of the Harry Potter books and the All Souls Trilogy by Harness
Favorite TV Shows: In my 4th season of binge-watching Supernatural, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead (got to meet Norman Reedus in November...I'm still speechless), American Horror Story, The Originals, Arrested Development, Family Guy...
Favorite Movies: The Lost Boys, Practical Magic, Steel Magnolias, The Crow, Clerks II, Dumb and Dumber, Labyrinth, LOTR, Harry Potter
Favorite Music: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Slip Knot, Korn, Seether, Breaking Benjamin, Snoop Dogg, Chevelle, The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Prince, Eminem, Queen, STP, Nirvana (I did grown up in the early 90's) and many more, but I won't bore you with the whole list :)

Anyway, so that's me in a nutshell...

Week 1, Storytelling: The Witch's Daughter

MULTIPLICATION is vexation,

Division is as bad;

The Rule of Three doth puzzle me,

And Practice drives me mad.

-The Nursery Rhyme Book, by Unknown

There once was a witch that lived with her young daughter in an old victorian house at the end of a lane in a small town. The house had good bones despite the fact that it was built over 100 years ago, but the witch couldn’t handle the upkeep by herself anymore so it looked worn down with overgrown shrubs and peeling paint. Her husband had died when their daughter was just a toddler and she had been just making it by doing small favors for the people in town. She would help the men and women with small ailments and sickness but would also help with nosy neighbors and other disagreements between people in town but she would never do anything negative, no matter how much money someone offered to pay her, because of the Witches Rede. The Witches Rede is “The Rule of Three” which means that you do not harm anyone and that whatever you do with witchcraft will come back to you three fold.

The witch’s daughter had finally reached the age where her mother was ready to begin teaching her the craft. Her mother tried to teach her about the plants and herbs that would help her in her spell work such as how to reproduce the plants she would need with seeds and how to separate the plants. But the girl was an impatient child and became easily annoyed by her mother’s slow and precise teachings. Her mother held teaching lessons every day, but the girl never wanted to practice on her own. Most of all though, the girl didn’t want to follow the Witches Rede. She thought it was silly and outdated.

(Cooking Witches: Wikimedia Commons)

The witch’s daughter had finally reached the point where she could do spell work on her own and decided to make her first a spell to stop the girls from teasing her at school. She set out to make a spell that just made them leave her alone, but after some thinking she really wanted to make them pay. After gathering everything she needed, she began working a spell to make them all sick. The next week at school the girls started getting sick one by one. The witch’s daughter was quite proud of herself and had two peaceful weeks of school without the girls there to bother her. But on the day that all the girls came back to school, she starting falling ill herself. The witch tried different spells and healing ointments but her daughter only kept getting worse. She took her to many doctors, but they said they could not find anything wrong with her. After two weeks, the witch’s daughter died.

Author's Note. This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Multiplication is Vexation" which is retold at the beginning of the story. You can find the rhyme in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897). As I was scrolling through the book, I noticed the phrase ‘rule of three’ and immediately thought about the Witches Rede. I then started to figure out a way to work in the rest of the nursery rhyme by playing with the non-mathematical definitions of the words ‘multiplication’ and ‘division’.

Two of My Most Favorite Places: Macon, GA and Chicago, IL

I have more than a couple of favorite places in the world. One of my most favorite places is where I live with my family in Mustang, Oklahoma, but Mustang is not exactly an exciting place to talk about. The following places are the following top 2 on my list.

Macon, Georgia:

Macon is the town where I was born and raised until the age of 16. It is a decent sized town with a population of about 400,000 people. It is located in the middle of the state and is known as "the Heart of Georgia". Macon began as a town in the early 1800's and is home to mound sites that were occupied by Creek Indians from 950 CE - 1150 CE. This town has my heart because of all the history and culture that is there. It is full of historical homes and southern charm. It is also home to Otis Redding, Little Richard, The Allman Brothers Band, and it is where James Brown got his start. It has it's bad moments, but it will always be home.

Macon, GA Skyline. Web Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Chicago, Illinois:

In 2006, I went to Chicago for a furniture show called NeoCon and it was the first time I had been in a big city by myself. Atlanta and Oklahoma City are big, but they have nothing on Chicago. The energy and vibe that you get while walking by the river is indescribable. I have been lucky enough to go every 2 years since then, except for this past year (2014). The food and history are amazing and the people are ... interesting. My most favorite visit was the one that I took in 2008. As I was walking to lunch I got to see a scene from Public Enemies (2009) with Johnny Depp being filmed. It was the coolest thing I had ever saw!

(Image Information: Personal photo of Millennium Park; photo from June 2010.) 

(Image Information: Personal photo of downtown Chicago; photo from June 2010.) 

Hello!

Hello! This is Nicole Palmeter's blog for Mythology-Folklore for Spring 2015 at the University of Oklahoma.