Week 14: Storytelling: The Headless Horseman

Week 14: The Headless Horseman

Dear Diary,                                                                                                          December 12, 1892

Today I came to the town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate the mysterious murders happening in this dark little town. The townspeople say that every night, one family dies. No one knows which one it will be, but it is sure to happen. Apparently every family is found with their heads cut clean off.  Tonight is going to be interesting to say the least. I am staying with a family that is letting me sleep on their bed and eat from their table. They are very kind, but they are so very terrified.

Wish me luck,

Ichabod W. Crane

Sleepy Hollow

Dear Diary,                                                                                                           December 13, 1892

Last. Night. Was. Brutal.
Who knew that the family I was staying with would be the ones with damned souls that night. I woke up to screams of horror and terror. I was not expecting such excitement my first night in Sleepy Hollow. When I came out of my room, I saw three heads laying on the floor. Next to them were the bodies of the mother, father, and their son. Blood was everywhere. I almost got sick, but luckily I kept my composure. I cannot imagine what horrid creature is evil enough to commit these gruesome crimes. Hopefully I figure this mystery out soon.

Traumatize and terrified,

Ichabod W. Crane


Dear Diary,                                                                                                           December 14, 1892

Well tonight I had to move into another family's house. The mother and father of the family have three young, precious daughters. I must find the murderer soon so that the innocent children of this community do not die. I know tonight will bring more murders if I do not do something. I have decided to stay awake all night and look out the window. That is the only way to get a clue as to who this monster is. Well, I guess I shall get to it then. I am going to grab a big cup of coffee, my sword, and look out the window 'til sunrise.

Tired but determined,

Ichabod W. Crane

The Headless Horseman

Dear Diary,                                                                                                           December 17, 1892

Last night was seriously insane. I was looking out the window when all of a sudden I heard a horse galloping in the distance. It got closer and closer until I knew it was right outside the house where I am staying. Before I could blink, I saw the monster. I was immediately excited and terrified all at the same time. You will never believe who the murderer is. It is in fact a headless horseman. I know it sounds crazy, but it is the truth. He was searching for my host family, but I had my weapons ready. The moment he busted open the door, I was in the corner hiding. He did not see me so when he turned to go towards the bedrooms, I stabbed him straight through the heart. He died right then and there and was never again seen in the town of Sleepy Hollow. I am so happy to have solved this horrible case, and to have even became a hero to the townspeople. Now I will travel to a town called Horrorland where there seems be another case of headless bodies appearing all over the place. Talk to you again tomorrow, diary. Wish me luck.

Ready for the next adventure,

Ichabod W. Crane

Author's Note:
So for this story I kind of combined ideas from two stories. I used a character (sort of) from The Headless Princess and the storyline from The Witch Girl. The Headless Princess had a woman who would take her head off her body to clean it, and a boy was peeping and saw her so she tried to take revenge on him. In The Witch Girl, a man asks to stay with a family for the night. They let him in, but tell him that every night a family dies in the town. He stayed up all night to make sure no one died, and saw that a witch all dressed in white was trying to sprinkle something in through the window. He cuts her arm off when he sees this. Later it is revealed that it is a girl from the town who was the witch and killing families. I kind of combined these two ideas and made my own little story.

Portfolio Introduction

Portfolio Introduction

For my portfolio, I added all of the stories that not only were my favorite, but the ones I felt really proud of after I wrote them. There is no theme or specific style for these styles. They are all a little bit different, which is also why I put them into my portfolio. I hope everyone enjoys these stories as much as I did!

The Legend of Geller

Alice in Horrorland

The Broken Pot

The Cave of the Beasts

The Three Delicate Wives

Week 14: Reading Diary

Week 14: Russian Folktales

The Dead Mother:
This was a very creepy story! The dead mother comes and visits her son every night. At the end, everyone sees her because they camped out in the room to find who was sneaking in the baby's room every night. When everyone saw her, she left and they found the baby dead.

The Treasure:
So at first I was unsure about this story because I felt bad for the old man. He finally got some money for his wife's funeral, and he was a good man. Then the Pope comes along and steals it. What kind of pope does that? The pope gets punished for what he had done by turning into a goat. I loved the way it ended with some karma.

The Bad Wife:
This story was kind of weird I am not sure if I liked it or not. The wife was terrible! If I was going to rewrite this one, I would probably focus on the wife and husband. I would forget about the demon, and have the husband get revenge on his wife the whole time in many ways.

 The Three Copecks:
This story was all over the place for me. It was weird because it was about some copecks, then a cat, then riches and a wife. It didn't feel very connected to me.

The Witch Girl:
I liked this story because it was short and simple. Everything happened pretty quickly. For some reason, the first sentence of this story made me think of the movie "Sleepy Hollow." I think it would be fun to do a play on this if I were to rewrite the story.

The Headless Princess:
This story was strange. I wish they would have told us why the girl was headless. I think it would be fun to change this story up a LOT. I wish they would have described the horrors that took place at night in the church. This would be fun to play with for sure.

The Warlock:
I thought this story was interesting. The father kills two of his daughter-in-laws, but the third one outsmarts him. She gets to take all of the money from his coffin for outsmarting him.

The Fox Physician:
This story was so sad! The old man tries to carry his wife up to the skies, but drops her because she asked him a question. She falls to the ground and is smashed into pieces so the man takes her to a fox. The fox says he can bring her back to life, but is joking and eats her up.

Two Friends:
I think this one would be really fun to change up. The title reminded me of the show "Friends" so I think it would be fun to put the characters from the show into this story. I could do something like: Ross is the one who disappears and leaves Rachel alone to eventually marry another man.

Week 13: Essay

Week 13: Essay

Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose

I read the Grimm (Librivox) unit this week. I noticed a few things about the stories this week. Usually the prince is the one to save the girl in a lot of fairytales and stories about princesses as princes. In this unit there were some of those stories of course such as Briar Rose, but there were also a lot of stories in this unit where the princess saves the prince. Stories where the princess saves the prince were The Frog Prince and Rapunzel. In The Frog Prince, the princess must let the frog sleep in her house three nights in a row in order for him to break the spell of being a frog and become a prince. In Rapunzel, the prince falls into some thorns and blinds himself. Years later the princess finds him and her tears fall into his eyes and give him back his sight. In Briar Rose, the princess falls into a sleep for 100 years because of an evil fairy's spell. A prince comes along and kisses her, and she wakes up from her sleep and is alive and well.

I guess I found this interesting because I never noticed it before. In most stories like this, the prince in shining armor comes in on his horse and saves the damsel in distress. I think it is kind of cool that some of these stories were the other way around especially because today there is more equality in America. I think it is interesting and awesome that there is a few stories like this in this unit.

Week 13: Storytelling: The Frog Prince

Week 13: Storytelling

The Frog Prince

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Alexandria Rose. One day Alexandria was walking along the pond day dreaming about finding the prince of her dreams when all of a sudden her  diamond tiara fell into the water.

Alexandria started sobbing because her father had just given her that tiara for her 22nd birthday and it was very, very expensive. When she finally contained herself, she opened her eyes and right in front of here was a green little frog sitting on a lily pad watching her cry.

Blushing from embarrassment, Alexandria asked the frog, "Who are you? Stop watching me cry. It is very rude you disgusting creature."

The Frog Prince

The frog replied, "Hello princess, I am Robert the frog. Why are you so sad? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Alexandria replied, "I am crying because I  dropped my tiara into the pond. It was very expensive and now it is gone forever. My father is going to kill me!"

"Oh princess," replied Robert the frog, "I can surely help you with that. But first, you must make me a promise."

"Oh could you?" asked Alexandria, "I will make you any promise! You name it, and it is yours."

Robert the frog asked the princess, "Could you take me into your home? I would like to sleep in a warm but for one night. That is all I ask of you, princess."

Alexandria scoffed, "You really expect me to let some slimy, green, wet, gross creature into my home, let alone my bed? You are seriously mistaken, frog. Maybe in your next lifetime, or better yet, when pigs fly."

The Frog Prince

With hurt feelings Robert replied, "Well I guess it was worth a try. I see you didn't want your tiara back that bad after all. Goodbye, Princess."

"Wait a minute!" Thinking that the frog could never ever leave the pond, Alexandria agreed to the promise. She told the frog, "Fine I will promise to let you sleep in a warm bed tonight, but please just give me back my tiara."

Robert went to the bottom of the pond and fetched her tiara, and Alexandria went home a happy girl. That evening as Alexandria was getting ready for bed, she heard a tap at her front door. She thought to herself,  "It couldn't be the frog, could it? No, no, no that's crazy. He could never make it all the way here from that disgusting pond."

When she opened the door, there was Robert the frog. He said, "Princess, you promised to let me sleep in a warm bed for tonight, so here I am! Let me tell you, I am so unbelievably excited!"

Alexandria rudely said, "Couldn't you tell I was lying? I am not about to let you into my home. Now go away! Don't you have some mosquitos to eat or something?"

Truly hurt, the frog started to tear up. He was hopping away when he saw an open window in Alexandria's house. The window being on the first floor, Robert easily made the large hop inside and found Stephanie Jewel, Alexandria's younger, more beautiful sister.

Stephanie exclaimed, "Oh my! Who are you, you cute little thing?"

Robert replied, "I am Robert the frog, and I am sorry to bother you, but may I please sleep in your bed tonight? I have been longing to sleep in a warm, cozy bed for sometime now."

Stephanie replied, "Well of course! How could I say no to such an adorable little frog! You can even cuddle up to me if you get too cold."

It finally came time to go to sleep and Stephanie said, "Goodnight little froggy. Sweet Dreams!" She even gave him a little kiss on the cheek.

A Kiss Goodnight 

When Stephanie woke up the next morning, she saw laying next to her the most handsome man she had ever seen. His hair was dark and wavy, he was tall,  his eyes were the most beautiful shade of chocolate brown, and wow those perfect lips. Even just laying there he had some sort of glow to him.

Stephanie was startled, but quietly questioned Robert. "Excuse me Robert," she said, "I am confused. Were you not a frog just yesterday? What is happening?"

Grabbing his face Robert shouted, "It worked? I am human again? This is wonderful! You see princess, five years ago an evil witch put a spell on me. She turned me into a frog and the only way to reverse the spell was to sleep in a bed inside a home for one night. Your sister promised to let me sleep in her room because I saved her beloved tiara, but she took back her word. What a mistake that was. Luckily for me I found you."

"A mistake?" asked Stephanie, "Why was it a mistake? I know she can be very hateful sometimes, but you found me! So in the end it is all okay right?"

Robert chuckled, "Actually, princess, the one funny part about the spell is that if someone makes me a promise, but then takes it back or lies, they get turned into a frog the second I turn back into a human."

"Oh my goodness," screamed Stephanie, "my sister is a frog. Well that's just great. My dad is going to kill her. He always tells us to never take back a promise. I guess she got what she deserved then. She should not have been so hateful."

The Frog Princess

When they went downstairs the found Alexandria sitting on the living room chair. She was green, slimy, and wet. Just like Robert only a few hours before. Robert and Stephanie told her everything. Alexandria was so upset and jealous of her sister, but she learned her lesson and never made a promise she could not keep again.

Stephanie Jewel and Robert went to live in Roberts palace as prince and princess and husband and wife. They lived happily ever after in a love greater than all other loves.

Author's Note: For this story, I kept most of the beginning the same and changed up the end. However, there was a difference or two in the beginning as well. I decided at the end of the original story that I hated the way it ended so I changed it. In the original, the frog turns into a prince and then him and the princess live happily ever after even though she was horrible to him and tricked him. I decided that I would not let someone who was so mean and hateful, win in the end. So I decided to add in a sweet little sister and let her have the happily ever after. Then I had the main character (who I named Alexandria) turn into a frog because she was so hateful to the frog throughout the story. I thought she deserved it. I also decided to have her tiara fall into the bond, not a ball. I thought a tiara would be more precious and meaningful to someone than a ball. That also made the trade for sleeping at her house more equal.

Bibliography:
Book: Brothers Grimm (Librivox)
Author: The Brothers Grimm
Year: N/A
Websource: Un-Textbook

Week 13: Reading Diary

Week 12: Reading Diary: Grimm (Librivox)

The Frog Prince:
I liked reading this story because I have never read this version. I like how the moral of the story is that you should always keep your word. The princess tried to trick the frog, but her father says she can never go against her word. It worked out good for her anyways. He turns into a handsome prince! The only thing I do not like about the story is that she was rude to him and lied to him, yet he still wanted to marry her in the end.

Rapunzel:
This is a sweet story because it is all about love. I hate how the enchantress steals away Rapunzel as a baby, but that is something that is crucial to the story to make it all work and make sense. I think it would be fun to have them defeat the enchantress rather than find each other later.

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean:
This was a really strange story. I probably wont rewrite this one because there wasn't much story there in my opinion. It was, however, nice to read a story from Grimm that I was not familiar with.

The Mouse, The Bird, and The Sausage:
This story reminds me of the saying "If its not broke, don't fix it." This was kind of a sad story because they were all happy, but someone criticized the way they did things. When they tried to rearrange their duties, they all died doing someone else job.

Briar Rose:
I liked reading this because it was a lot different than the Sleeping Beauty story I remember watching as a child. I think this is a really pretty and detailed story. Of course it ends with a prince saving a princess because that is how many of these stories end.


The Queen Bee:
This is another good story with a moral about karma. I really liked it because the dwarf brother was always trying to be nice to everyone and wouldn't let his brothers hurt innocent animals and creatures. In the end, those creatures came to help him and he ended up with the best princess, and later became king.

The Fox and the Horse:
This story was really enjoyable. It was nice to read another "trickster" story because sometimes what happens is so obvious, but other times you have no idea what is going to happen. I am not sure if I have a story like this in my storytellings or portfolios, but this would be a good one.

Week 12: Famous Last Words

Week 12: Famous Last Words


This week was another stressful one! I had two tests at the end of the week. I don't understand how every single month, all of my tests end up being on the same day! How stressful! But luckily, the only big things I have left to do are finals and a paper and then it is Christmas!!! One more month and school is out for winter break. I am so excited! I dont know about anyone else, but this semester has flown by so fast. I just took my third tests in all of my classes, but it feels like just yesterday we were going over the syllabus. I guess I was just so busy that I blinked and it was almost over. I am really terrified for next semester because I have enrolled in capstone. (!!!!)  That is just the scariest thing in the world to me. I am almost a college graduate. What is even scarier is that now I have to figure out what I want to do with my life. I still do not know what I want to be "when I grow up." Hopefully I am not the only one who feels this way. I have always been so sick of school and just wanted to graduate, but now I am scared of what is ahead of me when I am actually out.

Bedlam

Well, it was another rough week for OU football. Hopefully we get it together soon and start winning every game again like we always did while I was growing up!!! I actually get to go to the bedlam game which I am super excited about, but I am kind of nervous now!! I just found out my dad had some tickets and he is giving them to me. I really just want to go to have fun regardless of if we win or not. Either way I know it is going to be a lot of fun!