Week 4: Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

Week 4: Twenty-Two Goblins

Reading A Notes

Introduction: 
The king goes on a journey to take a body hanging from a tree to a monk. The body has a goblin in it and the goblin starts to tell a story to pass time on the journey back home.

The Three Lovers:
I liked this story, but did not like the way it ended. It ends with the goblin never confirming if the king was right on who should have gotten Coral as his wife in the end. It appears he does this in a lot of the stories though.

Brave, Wise, Clever:
I actually found this story pretty interesting. I am starting to see a pattern that the king always guesses the riddle, and the goblin escapes. I always like to guess which one the king will answer, and this time I was right! This story could be a lot of fun to change up for the storytelling assignment.

The Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother:
I found this story kind of strange. Lovely's husband could not eat or live without her, but then he randomly cuts his own head off? So confusing. It was a very different story than any I have read for this class yet. The girl puts the wrong heads on the wrong body! Then she cannot decide which should be her husband.

Food, Women, Cotton:
I liked this story because I really did not know what to expect throughout the whole story. I could not really figure out what the conclusion would be. I thought the ending was clever which is kinda cool because the whole story is about who is the most clever of the brothers.

The Four Suitors:
This story was very short, but was very similar to a few of the earlier stories in this unit. I agreed with the king that Grace should have been with the warrior because a lot of the other men had sciences that did not really matter much. For example, the man who could talk to animals.

The Three Delicate Wives:
This story was very different from the others because mostly the others are about three men and who the woman gets to be with. This one was a bout one man and three women who are his wives. I think this one would be fun to retell because I could change the way the women are delicate, and the way they get hurt.

Reading B Notes

The Snake's Poison:
I found this story interesting because it made you think. There were about five different things that the death could have been blamed on, but the one that was not mention was the one I would say. It was Love-speeds fault because he is the one who took the man's wife. If he had not done so, the whole rest of the story and all the other actions would not have happened.

The Girl and the Thief:
This story was really confusing in a way. The girl who hates men and does not want to get married, sees the thief all bloody and falls madly in love. He is killed for his actions, but she has him become undead and marries him and forever everyone is happy with him. I do not think I would want to retell this one.

The General's Wife:
The king's men go and see the most beautiful woman of the land, but tell him she is not beautiful enough for him. They do not want him to be distracted of his job to rule the kingdom. He ends up seeing her eventually, and his slave (who is married to her) offers him to her. He cannot lose his virtues so he kills himself. The slave thinks he failed the king so he also kills himself.

The Four Brothers:
Four brothers who have nothing set out to learn a science all come back with the ability to bring something back to life. One ads flesh to bones, one adds fur to flesh, one gives organs, and the last one gives the breath of life. When a lion is reborn by them, they are all killed by the lion. The goblin then asks the king whose fault is it. The king says it is the one who gave the breath of life to the lion.

The Old Hermit:
This story was kind of strange. A young boy died and then during the funeral he came to life. A old, brittle hermit did magic to put himself in the young body of the boy. He then told his family to go on and he would perform a deed to stay alive, but the hermit throws his body off a cliff and lives forever in the young boys body.

Father and Son, Daughter and Mother:
When a husband and father dies, the daughter and mother find themselves in different relationships hours later. A father and son who were hunting and stumbled upon them. The father marries the daughter and the son marries the mother. The goblin asks the king what their children's relation is. When he cannot answer, the goblin realizes he really is a selfless man.

Conclusion: 
The goblin tells the king to kill the monk by cutting his head off so that he would not recieve magic and become ruler of the fairies. The king does as he is told and so he recieves the magic and becomes ruler of the fairies and the goblin is pleased. He promises to tell the whole world of the 22 goblin stories that he had told the king.