Reading Notes: The Long-Lived Ancestors

The story begins with a widowing eagle who seeks to remarry. It is interesting to hear that the eagle is so curious to find out how young the owl is. You never actually find out how young or old the owl is, but you find out that the creatures mentioned along with the owl are the oldest in the entire world. You never find out if he marries the owl and when retelling the story you could add in a wedding between the two.

Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd Pixabay

Bibliography: The Long-Lived Ancestors from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Week 13 Storytelling: The Young Lady and the Fairies

In a land not to far from earth, fairies and humans co-existed. The fairies frolicked in the fields out outside of Mewbourne. These fairies used to come out in the middle of the night and sprinkle pixy dust all over humans if they happened to catch one by themselves.

A young lady by the name of Annie happened to be walking by herself to the fair. She was passing the field outside of Mewbourne when some fairies appeared in front of her and approached her. They sprinkled pixy dust all over her causing her to instantly fall asleep. 

The fairies sprinkled some more pixy dust on her causing her to shrink to their size and rise into the air and follow the fairies into the ground. They wake her with the snap of their fingers. She awoke to diamonds rings and jewelry all around her. The fairies told her to take as much as could fit into her pockets and to not tell anyone where you got it. After showing her everything, they sprinkled some more pixy dust on here causing her to go back to normal size and fall back asleep.

She woke up to her mother shaking her shoulders asking her, "Where have you been for the past five hours?"

"I must have fallen asleep because I had the weirdest dream," she replied as she got up from the ground. She felt something jingle in her pocket and realized that she had not been dreaming at all.

"What was that?" her mother asked, hearing the jingle as well.

"Oh nothing, just something I found as I was wondering these fields today," she replied, remembering that the fairies told her not to tell anyone where she got the jewelry. 

They go home and she hides the jewelry in her basket and goes to bed.

Her mother waits for her to fall asleep before she snoops around her stuff and finds the jewelry and wakes her daughter up asking, "Where did you get all of this jewelry?"

Panicking and not thinking that it would be that big of a deal to tell her mother the truth, she says "the fairies sprinkled their pixy dust all over me and took me to their home full of jewelry and they told me not to tell anyone so keep it a secret from everyone else."

Her mother puts the jewelry back and goes to bed.

She wakes up the next morning ready to go to school wearing her new jewelry to find out it was gone and a note from the fairies saying "You had one rule to follow and you broke it."

Fairy Sprinkling Pixy Dust Geograph

Author's Note: The original story portrays an old man walking along and getting tired before falling asleep. He is then taken to the fairy underground where he is given gold in his bag. He comes back to his wife who is all mad that he did not go to the fair to only be more worried when he shows her all the gold.

In my story, I changed the old man to a young lady who falls asleep to some pixy dust to find herself in the fairies ground. The story changes where her mother finds her in the field and questions what she has in her pockets. The mother then snoops around in her bedroom to find the jewelry and wonders where it all came from.

Bibliography: The Old Man and the Fairies Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Reading Notes: The Old Man and the Fairies

This story happens in a time were fairies are present and abundant. They come out at night and dance all night long. They can be seen by green rings along the grass line. They were said to have a lot of gold, making them very rich. The Old Man figures this out when he is taken underground to were they live. I think in retelling the story, I could change the old man to a little child and having her parents not believe that she got the gold from the fairies because she is a foolish child.

Fairy Geograph

Bibliography: The Old Man and the Fairies from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Reading Notes: The Pellings

A man goes and hides in the thicket so he can catch a fairy that is said to come out at night. After capturing one and finally figuring out her name, he proposes to her and she agrees under one condition. The condition is that he ever strikes her with iron she will be gone forever. This end up happening surprise surprise. However, it was by accident. I think in retelling this story I could have a woman hide in the thicket and proceed to marry the man she captured.

Fairies Flickr

Bibliography: The Pellings from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Week 12 Storytelling: Cats

One black cat, bad luck for me.
Two black cats, good luck for me.
Three black cats, a son shall be born in the family.
Four black cats, a daughter shall be born in the family.
Five black cats shall be a funeral in the family.
Six black cats, if they scattered away, a sudden death.
Seven black cats with their tails towards you, death within seven years.

A man and woman were on a one way trip to Mars with no going back. They had no children and thought it was going to be a great adventure for them. The man, however, was having second thoughts, regretting the life and friends he was leaving behind on earth.

While aboard the ship and his wife asleep he gazed into the abyss that was outer space and began to see things. Scared that they might be aliens, he quickly backed away from the window and fell asleep.

A day had gone by and he decided to peak out the window again. He could depict what it was a little better, but it was just a bunch of black blurs to him.

Not being scared that it was aliens anymore, he peaked out again and could see that it was five black cats. Was this all in his head he wondered, no way black cats could be in outer space.

The next day he told his wife to look out the window with him. This time he saw six black cats.

He asked his wife, “Can you see those six black cats?”

“No,” she replied as the man noticed the six black cats scatter away.

It suddenly hit him remembering the black cat saying his mother used to sing to him. He first saw five black cats and then he saw six black cats that scattered away. Having only one family member still alive, he knew that his wife was going to die suddenly. Not wanting to scare her in her last moments, he decided not to tell her.

He prepared her favorite meal and they drank some wine while the steak was cooking. Once the food was ready she cut into her steak and took a big bite. She began to choke and the man ran over and tried to give her the Heimlich, but it was too late. She passed away and the man realized it was all his fault.

Black Cat Bringing Bad Luck Wikipedia

Author's Note: In the original story, the cats are actually crows. They are flying all around him and watching him while he is steering his vessel. The crows keep reappearing and are all perched on a coffin foreshadowing his death. He gets back and tells his wife that he keeps sees all these crows and she could not see the seven black crows that he saw. He did not feel well and fell dead in front of his wife. I changed the story to him seeing five and six black cats causing someone in his family to pass away. With his wife being his only family member he knows that its going to be her last day and he tries to brighten up the day, but ends up killing her.

Bibliography: Crows from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Reading Notes: Crows

The story opens up with a rhyme talking about seeing black crows and the luck associated with them based on the number you see. The young man then dreams and sees seven black crows. His death is foreshadowed in the dream with the seven crows as well as a coffin. He does not realize that it is he who is going to be buried. He gets back to his wife to try and tell her his dream and then passes away.

Single Black Crow Representing Bad Luck Pixabay

Bibliography: Crows from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).

Tech Tip: Google Timer

I had no idea there was a Google timer. My oven/stove timer does not work so this could come in handy when I am cooking something and messing around on my computer. Especially if my phone is on the charger. I have yet to use it for something, but to test it. I know that it will come in handy in the future.