Week 6, Extra Reading Diary: Brothers Grimm (Crane) (First Half)

In the first half of the Brothers Grim (Crane), there were only three stories. They were all very interesting, especially Aschenputtel, which was the story of Cinderella, but a lot more "grimm". 

The Fisherman and His Wife
This story is about a fisherman and his wife, who lived in a hovel. One day he caught a flounder and as he pulled him up, the flounder told the fisherman that he was an enchanted prince and to let him go. The fisherman then let him go and when he got home he told his wife about it. She, being the greedy English woman in almost every mythology story I've read so far, wants him to go back to the flounder and ask to give them a cottage. The fisherman did, and they got their cottage. She wasn't happy with the cottage, so they got a castle. She wasn't happy with the castle, so she wanted to be king. She wasn't happy with being king, she wanted to be emperor. She wasn't happy with being emperor she wanted to be pope. She wasn't happy with being the pope, she wanted to be in control of the sun and moon. The fish apparently had had enough and put them back in their hovel.

Lady Jane's Cottage. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Robber Bridegroom
This story is about a girl whose father gives her hand in marriage to basically the first person who asks. The man wants her to come see him at his house and says that he will leave a trail of ashes for her to find him. Her being a smart girl, brought her own peas and lentils to leave a trail. When she got to the cottage, it was empty except for one old lady. The old lady told the girl that she was in trouble, that the men that lived there were cannibals and would chop her up and eat her. The old lady hid her and as she was hiding, they brought another girl in and ate her. They had chopped off her finger, which landed in the girls lap. When they had the chance, the old lady and girl escaped. Luckily the peas and lentils had started growing so they could find their way out of the woods. The girl told her dad the story. On the day that they were to be married, they were telling stories and the girl decided to tell her story, the one where the men chopped up a girl and cut her finger off. As she finished her story, she threw the finger on the table and the men were arrested. The end.

Week 6, Storytelling: The Grave-Yard

One night a gentleman named Leander was walking home from a bar. Between the bar and his house stood a very old cemetery, with big above-ground tombs much like the ones in New Orleans, and it was over a block wide. He usually didn’t mind the extra walking he had to do to go around it, but tonight, he had had a little too much to drink. “I really need to find a bar that’s more convenient,” he thought as he came upon the cemetery. Even though the gates were closed after sundown, they were never locked. Leander wasn’t a suspicious guy but there was a saying that his grandmother used to always tell him -- “Ghosts don’t bother honest people, but it’s still safer to go around the graveyard.”

Cemetery Photo by: Alexandria. Source: Pixabay.

Leander was an honest man he thought. He was raised by a good family, he was smart, had graduated from college, and was an honest, hard worker. Again, he wasn’t a suspicious person, but he still avoided going through the cemetery...period. Against his better judgement, this night he decided to go through the cemetery anyway. About half-way through, he started feeling like someone was watching him. He quickened his steps as he looked over his shoulders. He couldn’t see anyone, but it didn’t stop the feeling that someone was watching him.

About three-quarters of the way through the cemetery, he started hearing footsteps. They were faint, but he could hear them in the echo against the tombs. Every now and then he would hear a shuffle, a stone being kicked, the crunch of a leaf. The faster he walked, the faster the footsteps became. He was making his last turn before coming to the gate that would lead to his house. As he rounded the corner he saw a shadow retreat between the mausoleums. He was now positive that someone was following him. He was scared, but he stopped anyway.

"Who's there?" he said out loud as he turned around looking in every direction.

When he received no answer, he asked again, but louder. He was getting ready to start walking again when the shadow that he saw retreat now emerged into the pathway. The figure was still in the shadows of the tombs, but he could make out the height. It was a short figure, he thought, maybe a woman.

What would a woman be doing in a cemetery by herself, at night? He had no idea, but he was anxious to find out.

"What is your name?" he called out as she began walking out of the shadows.

"Nancy," she said softly.

As he walked forward to meet her, he noticed that she had a glow about her that would appear if he looked at her for too long, but that would disappear when he blinked. Even though she was now in front of him, he still felt like someone was watching him. As they finally met, she told him that she was there to protect him and that he was an honest person, but that some things in his past could be manipulated by the ghosts so that they could achieve their goals. He decided he knew enough to know what their goals were and wanted to get the hell out of there fast. He and Nancy walked to the gate and she told him he would be safe as soon as he was out. Leander thanked her and turned around to walk out. He looked back to ask if she was coming, but when he turned around, she was no longer there.

A Slave Cabin in Barbour County Near Eufaula. Source: Library of Congress.

Author's Note: This story is based on the proverb "Ha'nts don't bodder longer hones' folks, but you better go 'roun' de grave-yard" from the Plantation Proverbs story that is in the Brer Rabbit I unit. To me that translates to: “Ghosts won’t bother honest people. You might think you are an honest person, but just in case, you might want to avoid the graveyard.” I am from Georgia and so writing this story was really fun. I thought since it was rooted in southern culture that I would make it really personal so I decided to name some of the characters after family members. The main character's name is the name of my 6th great-grandfather who was a slave that bought his freedom during the late 1700's in South Carolina. The name of the woman he meets in the cemetery was his wife's name. I thought this would be a great proverb to tell a story about since it had such a spooky flavor to it and included one of my most favorite parts of the south, the graveyard. Southern people are also very superstitious, so the whole proverbs section sounded very familiar to me. In the south, we have little sayings about every kind of situation.

Bibliography: Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881).

Week 6, Reading Diary B: Brer Rabbit I

The second half of Brer Rabbit I had a few good stories, but I liked the proverbs the best!

The Story of the Deluge
This story is Uncle Remus's version of a flood story. In this story all the animals in the world got together in an assembly to discuss complaints and straighten out other matters. There was so much ruckus going on that an elephant stepped on a crawdad and killed him. The crawdads got pretty mad and tried to get the attention of the assembly, but went unheard. Not long after, the elephant stepped on another crawdad and killed him too. The crawdads tried again to get the assemblies attention to no end. The finally decided to bore holes in the ground so deep that the waters welled up and flooded the earth. 

Plantation Proverbs
Some of my favorites were:

-Mole don't see w'at his naber doin'.

-Don't fling away de empty wallet.

-W'en coon take water he fixin' fer ter fight.

-Ha'nts don't bodder longer hones' folks, but you better go 'roun' de grave-yard.

And my favorite:

-Licker talks mighty loud w'en it git loose fum de jug.

Antique Liquor Jug. Source: Pixabay.

Week 6, Reading Diary A: Brer Rabbit I

The Brer Rabbit I readings for this week were great! I grew up in Macon Georgia, which is about an hour away from Eatonton Georgia, where the author Joel Chandler Harris is from. When I was younger, about once a year me and my grandma would stop by the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton on our way to see her family in South Carolina. I had never read the stories before, so it was nice to read them. I had no trouble reading them since I grew up around white and black people who talked like this. My grandmother still says "chilluns". Although there have been many people who say that the writings were racist, Harris was a big supporter of the African-American community, which was very rare in the south. He retold the stories straight from southern African-American oral stories traditions and wrote them the way they came straight from the source. I honestly think he did that to keep it true to form and although it could go either way on how it is taken, nevertheless, we do have a written copy of the stories that could have otherwise been lost.

On to the stories:

The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story and How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox
This story is probably the most famous of the Brer Rabbit stories. Even though I had not read the stories before, I knew the gist of the story. In this story Brer Fox is trying to catch Brer Rabbit because he wants to eat him. B Fox makes a person out of tar and sits it by the road. B Rabbit comes by and thinks that the Tar-Baby is being rude, so he starts touching him, and trying to hit him. Unfortunately he gets stuck. B Fox is sitting near by and is ready to grab B Rabbit and take him to his house to eat him. B Rabbit tricks the fox into throwing him into the briar patch, which B Rabbit was "bred an bawn" in. After B Rabbit was in the briar patch, he worked himself loose from the tar and got away. I thought having the tar-baby actually turn into a real person might be a good story :)

Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby. Drawing by E.W. Kimble. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure

In this story, Brer Fox has an accomplice named Brer Wolf. B Wolf tells B Fox that he has a plan to catch Brer Rabbit for him. B Wolf tells B Fox to lay down on his bed and pretend that he is dead. Then B Wolf will go tell B Rabbit that B Fox has died and then B Rabbit will want to go see for himself and, when B Rabbit comes to see him, B Fox can grab him.

The plan goes well until B Rabbit gets to B Fox's house. He figures out it is a trap and pretends to talk to himself out loud about how when dead men have visitors, they will lift their leg up and yell wahoo. When B Fox did just that B Rabbit took off fast!