Storytelling Week 12: Tribe 321

Lauren is putting up the tree,

Hoping that underneath soon there will be,

Presents for her and all of us to see.

She has asked day and night,

Waiting for all of us to say without a fight,

Yes we will put up the Christmas tree tonight!

She claims to be Cindy lou hoo,

But the Christmas lights she chose were the color blue.

However, you won’t see a frown from Lauren

Not unless you catch her snoring

After all, a moment with her is never boring.

Then there is Hannah,

Who really likes to eat bananas,

Never does she swear,

Because after all she really does care.

She really likes to dance,

In her Mario Pajama pants,

She also likes to do hand stands,

Even though she can barely land.

She often causes a clatter

Which makes our downstairs neighbor wonder what’s the matter.

Occasionally she ends up on the bar

Because she thinks she is a star

Last but not least there is Shelbi

You never know where she will be,

Often she is hiding behind a dark corner

Ready to scare the living daylights out of a foreigner,

She too likes to dance,

Usually late at night,

Is the best time to see such a sight.

Watch out for her on the floor,

there she sleeps but she will never snore,

However when she is awake,

Everyone knows she is not fake.

Upstairs there is one that doesn’t belong,

He bangs and clangs all day long,

His steps are heavy,

His name is probably something like eddy,

We often bang on the ceiling,

Trying to make him understand our feeling,

We put up with the noise,

At least until august,

We’ve made our self that promise,

In our moments of despair,

We just have to scream it is not fair!

Now that you have met the tribe of 321,

You know how these rhymes once begun.

It all started from scratch,

That is when this sisterhood began to hatch,

For each other we would fight,

Against each other sometimes we just might,

Through burnt dinners and undone laundry,

We have learned to just laugh and have a party,

Different paths we may take,

Because after all life is no cupcake,

However I know that I can always count on my tribe,

Even without a bribe.

Author's Note:

I had a hard time trying to retell a nursery rhyme so I decided to make my own rhymes. The rhymes are about my roommates. Don't worry I read them all out loud to them so they know exactly what they say. While trying to write the rhymes I realized how difficult it can be. I also included what we go through with our upstairs neighbor. I hope that my rhymes at least give someone a good laugh!

Personal Photo of Tribe 321

Since one story did not inspire me more than the other here is the link to the Nursery Rhymes

Bibliography 

The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang (1897).

Reading Diary A: Nursery Rhymes

I chose to read Nursery Rhymes this week.

A few things I noticed while reading these Nursery Rhymes: The alliteration used and the rhyming scheme. I always liked nursery rhymes as a child and I enjoyed the first reading of this unit.

A few of my favorites of the nursery rhyme tales

The Lion and the Unicorn

There was a Crooked Man – in this one the word “crooked” is repeated several times. It was used to describe his behaviors and objects he came in contact with.

I found the one about Simple Simon to be very strange. This rhyme did not have a significant ending to me.

In the proverbs I liked the rhyme If Wishes Were Horses.

I also liked the line about how laziness and wickedness take more hours of sleep. I think this is true because it is easier to be nice to someone then to work at being mean or making their life difficult.

My favorite from the Proverbs would be Monday’s Child. I think the rhyme sums how society feels about days of the week. I think it is strange that even from an old nursery rhyme we can see that Monday is not the best day of the week. We can also see how the rest of the world is perceived. 

Nursery Rhymes

Picture Source

Storytelling: Week 12 The Mistress and the Witches

There was a knock at the door.

When she opened it she was surprised to see a dark shadow with a tall pointed hat and a broom near the side of the figure.

When the lightning struck she saw a horrifying face to the figure, which led her to scream at the top of her lungs and run backwards. While running she felt her leg hit the back of the sofa forcing her to fall and hit her head. It was then that the mistress lost her vision.

Meanwhile, at the door the witch took it upon herself to come into the mistress’s home. She found a few pastries the mistress had baked. She carried them to the couch by where the unconscious mistress lay. The witch had a seat on the couch and began to eat. She sat there slowly rocking back and forth slowly counting to eleven.

She was counting to for her sisters. After about five minutes one by one they showed up at the door.

“Hello sisters! It is time that we came here to finish our business. Someone get the kettle boiling!” said witch number one.

Witch number three and four each grabbed a leg that belonged to the mistress and started dragging her towards the fire place. They laid her there while the others gathered supplies for the pot of boiling water. They put different spices, leaves, and hair all in the water. One of them ran around the pot chanting a curse.

Slowly the mistress started to regain consciousness. She realized what was happening. The man she had been seeing had warned her that they would come for her. He was married to a woman that would not let him go. He rebelled by sleeping with women, but every time his wife found out he had another lover she would cast a spell. The spell involved one witch at first, but since the first day the man cheated the numbers have grown.

The witches gathered the body of the mistress and put her in a chair.

“It is time!” said witch number one.

Then the twelfth witch brought over a bowl that the witches had been cooking.

The first witch looked down at the mistress and said “This won’t hurt a bit. It is time you became one of us.” She then splashed the concoction onto the mistress’s face. Her smooth clear skin then turned to wrinkles and she began to grow a horn on her head.

The curse was now complete. The witches’ numbers had grown to thirteen and the wife was completely happy that the woman had become one the thirteen ugliest people in the world.

The Horned Women

picture source

Bibliography 

The Horned Women by Joseph Jacobs from Celtic Fairy Tales (1892).

Author's Note: 

The original story made me think of how the witches would have appeared. I thought of how strange it would have been to be the mistress. It made me wonder why the mistress deserved this treatment. that inspired me to write of a cheating mistress and how the wife was able to seek revenge on every woman the helped her husband cheat. I thought the Celtic tales were very entertaining and could be interpreted in many different ways.

Extra Reading Diary: Celtic Fairy Tales

The Field of Boliauns

Characters:

·         Tom Fitzpatrick

·         Leprechaun

Setting: The hedge

When reading this story I could picture the leprechaun being a tiny guy that was trying to get away from the human. I think the leprechaun was probably scare of that was going to happen to him. That is probably what sparked the lie of telling Tom about the gold. I could picture Tom looking over the hedge to see something so small and how the leprechaun must have felt.

The Horned Women

Characters:

·         The witches

·         The mistress

Setting: The mistress’s house

I thought this story was very peculiar. It was weird to think that every time the woman answered the door there was a witch there. I thought it was fitting that the witches had horns because it reminded me of how witches are usually perceived. Most of the time they have warts or strange skin color when an image is provided. I sympathized with the mistress thinking how scared she must have been. 

When I think of a witch, the witch from the wizard of Oz comes to mind.

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