Reading Notes: Myth-Folklore Anthology

     I enjoyed almost all of the stories in the anthology for this week's reading, but there were two that I found to be extra enjoyable and interesting.

Bibliography
Katherine Neville Fleeson, 'The Man in the Moon' from Laos Folk-Lore, read here
Josef Baudis, 'The Three Roses' from The Key of Gold, read here

    The Man in the Moon | Notes

     The very first story in the anthology caught my attention and stood out because it made me chuckle. Something about the line "I am not well, and my work is too warm. I want to be a stone on the mountain." was funny to me, probably because I can relate. Sometimes work and life is just too overwhelming, and it seems like it would be nice to be something like a rock or a tree. However, this story shows that wishing to be a 'stone on the mountain' is just another case of thinking the grass is greener on the other side. The blacksmith who wishes to be a stone gets his wish granted by a wise man, but isn't satisfied with the results. Instead, he decides that being a stone-cutter is really where it's at, but it turns out that being a stone-cutter isn't as pleasant as the blacksmith thought it would be. The blacksmith keeps wishing to be something else, and the wise man continues to grants his wishes, until the blacksmith wishes to be the moon. Not surprisingly, the blacksmith still isn't content being the moon, but by this time the wise man is over all of the blacksmith's whining and discontentment and just leaves him as the moon.
     Although it seems like a little strange of a comparison, reading this story really reminded me of the process of changing majors. I've changed my major twice, and I definitely am not doing it again, since I want to graduate on time. To me, the wise man in this story could be represented by money for tuition or time in the modern world. As a student, I can look at other majors and envy what appears to be a better lifestyle or more interesting course schedule, but each time I change I find out that the new major isn't as glamorous or easy as I thought it would be. Luckily, I found a major I liked, but if I had decided to keep changing, then I probably would have gotten stuck with a major and career I didn't really like, because I ran out of time and/or money and was prohibited from changing majors again!

The Three Roses | Notes

I don't have as many thoughts about this story as I did about the first one, but I wanted to talk about it in this reading notes post because I thought it was interesting how the two stories were pretty much polar opposites. In the first story, the main character might be stuck in a loop of jealousy and discontentment, but ultimately his punishment seems a little harsh and unfair considering the wise man didn't give him a warning of any kind before leaving him stuck as the moon. On the other hand, in 'The Three Roses', the main character Mary acts fairly questionably and violently when she cuts the head off of the basilisk twice, but is inexplicably rewarded with a beautiful man proposing to her. Not to mention she also gets to live in his castle with "everything she wanted there" and has a great wedding with a bunch of people.

     Both stories were enjoyable, but I thought the contrasting morals were kind of interesting to analyze. I'm sure the morals of each story tie in to the culture of the story's origin, but I don't know enough about Laos culture to really comment on that. I do think it's interesting that the European fairy tale involves a young woman being magically rewarded for blindly obeying commands without question, though. Definitely some more to analyze there at another time!

This is the mountain I'd want to be on if I was a stone!

(Image source: David Stanley on Flickr)