The Once and Future Blog

Satan. The devil. Lucifer. The Grand Evil. All speak differently, but each tells the same name - the chief demon of Christian belief. He is believed to be (in some sense) the origin of all temptation, sin, and evil, and seeks to corrupt man and bring him low, away from God. The idea of Hell, the land of dead sinners, was wrought around him, creating a prisoner for the most great of all sinners. Dante walks us through the fiery plane, guided by the poet Virgil, king of journeymen, and shows us the torments that lie within. At the very core, we find its most important prisoner. As we descend to the lowest planes of the Inferno, even our narrator comes to a loss of words at the fear shown within himself and throughout the plane. His description of the centerpiece, "the emperor of the sorrowful kingdom" Satan, almost lauds and laments his grandeur, and exposes the sheer monstrosity that lies at the darkest core of the universe. His three heads chew on the three greatest traitors...

Welcome to the first reading notes of the last week of the class! Today we're going to be discussing one of the most central works in Christian literature, Dante's Inferno. The Inferno has been the source of much Christian (or even beyond) mysticism and artwork since its creation in the Middle Ages, its longevity proving the strength of its writing and relevance to the religious mindset. One of the thoughts I had for my own storybook was to create a sampling of stories about psychopomps and liminality - those who guide you after death, and the realms between life and death. These stories have interested me heavily since I was younger, hearing stories about Charon, or the angels that guide lost souls, and the idea of Limbo and Purgatory. Dante's imagery is what he is most well known for. His descriptions of realms beyond our own goes right in with his narrative perspective - being the person dragged through the exterior realms personally by the legendary storyteller of jour...

Today we return to the European Fairy Tale unit, as told by Lang. These enchanting tales are somewhere between strange, horrific, and quaint, and like most takes, provide a unique look into the minds and ideals of the people who first thought them up as tales and told them, in the purposes they serve and morals they espouse. The first story that caught my eye was the Cottager and the Cat, as a big cat person myself (and occasional midnight hermit). The story begins with an odd character, a terrible miser who manages to starve himself to death by not wanting to spend money on food. Personally, I'm the opposite - all of my money goes to food it seems. The man dies, and his son, the heir, receives an apparition in a dream telling him to abandon his father's ill gotten capitalistic gains, giving half back to the poor he stole it from and half to the sea, for whatever reason. He rescues six shillings from the sea, wanders to an old house, learns that cats exist, and buys a cat. Per...

Bluebeard For our final unit, we come to the stories and fairy tales that make up the canon that we in the western world know best: The stories of Europe. A majority of the people in the United States are European descended, thus most of the cultural tales hail from there. To that extent, I looked for a set of stories that could tell me new tales, instead of maybe alternative versions of what I knew already. The primary story that caught my eye this week was the tale of Bluebeard. The story grips you tightly right off the bat, with the peculiar man with the Blue Beard and his inane wealth. His story to marriage builds him up as a pretty decent dude, one who parties extremely hard, but nonetheless someone who just wants companionship (in the still weird old French male dominated way). Turns out he has some major skeletons in his closet (literally), and his wife (told not to go into the closet and does anyway because this is how horror movies happen) is scared nearly to death. When...

Britomart Once again we return to the enchanting and strange tales of Britomart from the Faerie Queene, an epic poem of gallantry and knightly honor. Britomart is a lady raised as a knight of honor herself, choosing to disguise herself as man in some occasions (due to the culture of the time). She sees the face of her destined lover in the mirror of the magus Merlin, and goes to seek him out. As a (precarious) lover of Arthurian/Troubadour tales, I was happy to find these stories to be a refreshing, almost not misogynistic corner of the canon, featuring a valiant, strong female lead (who is unfortunately still on a goal that revolves around heterosexual love, but you can only get so much). Despite my complaints to this, Britomart maintains her royal air and strong demeanor throughout the story, and displays knightly qualities beyond even that of the legends Lancelot and Gawain. She even tries to maintain this in spite of her falling in love with Artegall, more and more as each day ...

This week, we continue with the British and Celtic mythological stories. While last week, I read a more traditional/canonical story with the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, I turn this week to something closer to a fairy tale - that is, the story of the Faerie Queen. These tales of enchantment, magical trickery, and a characteristic of whimsy make up what many know and love as the classic fairy tale in the British descended world. Holiness defeats Error Britomart is a mystical being in European tales, originating in Greek mythology and appearing as something akin to Fae in Celtic myth. She is a female knight in our stories - a rarity in older mythology. Her legendary enchanted spear defeats Sir Guyon with ease, and the two form a fast friendship. Later in, Britomart displays knightly honor in assisting one knight who is being attacked by six, then fully defeating the six knights at once. Doing so, she won the hand of the lady of a castle. And what would a...

For our reading this week, we enter the British and Celtic tales unit. Being the descendant of Celts myself, and having spent time all around Ireland, I have particularly been awaiting this unit, but one story catches my focus above all the rest - the tales of King Arthur. My storybook sits within the canon of the Once and Future King, and my blog takes its name from it. Not the Real Holy Grail One fun item within this unit was the distinction of Excalibur. While this version of the story does not name the Sword in the Stone, it does distinguish it from Excalibur, which is more than most "common" retellings of the story. The tale of the reception of Excalibur, and all of the stories, practically shouts the very motif I've been imbuing into my storybook, drawn strongly from that of common British canon - the tide of destiny. Whether it is our birthright to rule all of England (as in the sword in the stone), or the expectation of repayment for Excalibur in the futu...

Today, we continue with the legends of the native people of Alaska, the Inuit people. Once again, they provide a long series of extremely unique stories that differ strongly in content and even moral from many of the common stories in American peoples, but with a tone and motifs very similar to their continental counterparts. The first story that stuck out to me in the context of writing was "The Land of the Dead". I hope to be able to explore, at the end of my storybook and perhaps in my weekly writing, the idea of a place after death and the people who guide you there. Right off the bat, this story hits with an interesting concept - being a shade of yourself in the very world you lived. It quickly turns around to show the various punishments being inflicted on people, such as taking the place of a beaten dog or being stuck in the grass for chewing stems. Eventually, she finds herself at the village of the dead, surrounded by the gifts of her people and her ancestors. She l...

This week, I will be taking a look at the legends from the native people of Alaska, the Inuit. This one stood out to me due to its disconnected connection to the continental United States' native people, being close yet far. Just glancing at the titles of the stories gives an obvious impression - the importance of the raven. The Raven Right off the bat, we are given an incredibly interesting, unique creation story in which man is the spawn of what feels to be a side project of this Raven god, emerging from the pod of a vine planted in whimsy. The Raven, almost as confused as the first man, guides him along in a cooperative path of discovery of all the world has to offer for man, including water, fruit, earth, hunting, and the creation of a companion. The Raven's explanations of purpose likely directly reflect the views of the societies that told these stories, like how a shrew isn't good for food but makes the plain more interesting, and integrates many "explanati...

Today we continue the Song of Hiawatha, the story of a legendary hero in Native American mythology. Overall, I found the story to be incredibly interesting and unique in comparison to "Old World" stories, featuring a deeper connection to nature and divinity than is expressed in most of the Western canon. Hiawatha himself originates many things, including the development of corn, where a woodpecker gets it red color, and more, and also shows himself to be the mighty warrior of legend in these tales. Hiawatha slays the serpents This week's specific story of interest was an easy choice. Continuing my love of heroism once again, we see Hiawatha defeat the evil sorcerer Pearl Feather, who had slain in vain the father of one of his own. Hiawatha prepares intricately, and sails to the home of Pearl Feather through the rot waters, past the fire serpents (which he kills with ease), to his evil grounds. Therein, he fights a losing battle against a seemingly invincible enemy, ...

This week, we're covering Native American mythology. Here in Oklahoma, you do occasionally hear some of the old stories from displaced tribes such as the Cherokee or Chickasaw, but they still aren't nearly as common as Bible stories or classic English tales, built into our history. However, stories and folktales from further off peoples aren't common, so I selected the Song of Hiawatha as a story from a unique place that formed one cohesive narrative. And, I enjoy heroic tales after all. The first thing that stuck out to me was how bad I am at keeping up with verse poetry. While I realized I somewhat signed up for this, I find it difficult to both read/comprehend a story/keep up with its characters and try to manage the verse at the same time. While this one is in decently modern language, the heavy use of Native words made it a difficult read. Hiawatha Defeats Mondamin The story that caught my attention the most of the first half was the Fasting of Hiawatha. This sor...

Today's reading finishes off the Chinese Fairy Tale unit. I found the tales, as I said in the last part, to be pretty odd or off putting at some points, but all in all, they were entertaining and many of the morals were more or less obvious (some morals may not be ones particularly appreciated in Western circles as well). The first story that caught my eye this time was Retribution. The story frames an obvious place for vengeance to be enacted - an argument causes a death, no one takes claim for it - not the perpetrator, not the witness - and a spirit returns to have its revenge. However, the story does not move toward an obvious revenge, but instead the spirit becomes the soon-to-be born child of the neighbor. He grows to love birds, who invade the garden of the murderer, and the boy tries to stop the birds with rocks. So, the murderer dies just similarly to the victim, and no one says a word. This type of non-obvious revenge was particularly interesting to me. It will definitely...

This week's readings come from Chinese Fairy Tales. While I've always loved folk tales from the East, I've never encountered many tales from China, outside of historical ones. The very first story caught me off guard so much to the point where I had to begin writing immediately after it. The story of the Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck, in no uncertain terms, is a bad story. I'm sure it's seen as a classic to some or many, but to me, it almost reads like an anti-joke. I hate to rag on the classic tales of another culture, but this story is sad all the way through, offers only the moral of "Don't go out of your station.", and ends poorly for everyone. If I were to use this story in any way, it would be to create a sad tale to catch my readers off guard, like this one did to me. A solid example of what I'd like to avoid doing, in general, but it still teaches a valuable lesson. A cunning cat In a bit of contrast, I was rather ente...

For the conclusion of the Japanese mythology, one particular story that better fits the themes I discussed in the Part A readings is the story of Urashima (I read the prose version, since I find verse particularly hard to digest), that is, Uraschimataro and the Turtle. This story more closely hits my "fairy tale or fable" theme I was hunting for in the first half, since my Thursday writing will likely be in the same direction. The story of Uraschimataro is a tale of a how a diligent man's mercy of a small creature, the turtle, leads him to utmost luxury and love, while his desire to return home and see his loving parents leads to his downfall. The tale's moral isn't obvious, or concrete, at least how I read it. At first, it stresses the importance of benevolence and mercy, showing how anyone can become a prince through good deeds, while it later shows how not fully believing in your place leads to your downfall. It seems to be a rewarding tale for those show merc...

Today's bits of stories do not necessarily help toward my project particularly, but they do offer a not only interesting but unique set of qualities to them that are intriguing as a reader and a writer. I've had my mind on a short fable-like story, so many of the more folklore-y stories lately have been helping to develop it for a finally original story. Susanoo and the Serpent The one story that checked many of my favorite boxes this time around was the story of The Eight-Forked Serpent of Koshi. I'm always a sucker for monster-slaying, and especially for the use of trickery therein. When dealing with gods in stories, it can be difficult to split the whole "omnipotent god" idea away from the reading - after all, if they were omnipotent, we wouldn't have any sort of interesting story! This particular story offers no shortage of gods - the gods are the characters needing help, providing it, and the one causing the destruction. It's no sort of divine ...

This week, I will be reading the last few parts of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a compilation of Greek and Roman myths of transformations - at times, explaining the existence of some phenomena, or providing the explanation for the name of some land or feature. The first of these stories in this block falls into the latter category - the tale of Daedalus and Icarus. The story of Icarus is a caution against hubris, older than much of the Western world. It tells of an artificer named Daedalus, who desires to escape his exile on Crete with his son, Icarus. He fashions wings of feathers, reeds, and wax to sail high above the domain of the tyrant Minos, who keeps him there. He warns Icarus not to fly too low, lest the moisture of the sea pull him down, and not to soar too high, lest the sun melt the wax holding the wings together. They soar off of Crete, like gods in flight to spectators below, and Icarus is so enamored with the experience, he forgets his father's words and soars too high,...