Reading Notes: Adam and Eve Reading B

• Worship and Blessing  (Book of Adam and Eve)
• The Forgotten Books of Eden, edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. Web Source.



(Adam and Eve at an Altar they built for God: Web source.)

• Characters: God, Adam, and Eve
• In this story, Adam and Eve build an altar through their own hard work and offer up a sacrifice to God for their sin and to make more requests to God. God told Adam that he was pleased with his sacrifice, but he could not enter the garden until the convent of 5500 years had passed. When making sacrifices Adam often thought of offering himself to pay for his sin, but God would not allow it. Again, I am very leery of changing the story too much, as it is the word of God, however I think that it would be awesome to change this story into God's perspective. In most of these stories, we see Adams side of things and how sad he is he has been kicked out of the garden, but his sadness does not even compete with God's. God created man in his image and gave him life and a perfect place to dwell, however, he still disobeyed God. I can not even imagine how hurt God is/was. Retelling this story from God's point of view would make this story even more sad, however, when his child find him again it will turn into a happy ending.

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve Part A

• (God with Adam and Eve: Web Source)

• The Fall of Man (Ginzberg)
• Legend of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg: Web Source.
• Characters: God, Adam, Eve, Serpent, bird malham
• This is about the fall of mankind into the temptation of sins. This is the story about how sin entered the word and the event leading up to it. This was not taken directly from the bible, it was translated by Ginzberg. I am leery to change the story to much since it is the word of God, but I thought that this would be the best story to retell and change. My idea is for Eve not to fall into them temptation the serpent gives her and instead confide in God and Adam to overcome this temptation. The serpent in this story is essentially the Devil himself, after being cast out of Heaven for not obeying God, he has grown great envy for mankind, so his plan is to separate men from God, like he is. I think by changing the story to let Eve run to God for help from the serpent will allow God to reveal the true identity of the serpent to her and save mankind from seeing a world of sin.

Reading Notes: EC Buddhist Jataka Anthology

For Extra Reading we read Buddhist Jataka Anthology:

My favorite story was, The Foolish, Timid Rabbit:

• In this story, the main character was a rabbit, then came to be several rabbits, a deer, a fox, an elephant, a monkey in a tree, and a king lion. The story was similar to Chicken Little. The story started with a rabbit asleep under a palm tree, who awoke from his nap with the question of what would become of him if the world fell apart. While in his anxious state of mind a coconut fell from a tree and caused him to think the world really was falling apart. This put him into panic mode and he began running telling everyone the earth was falling apart. After he had struck up fear and recruited more members to his panic, word spread and more animals ran with them. Eventually, they came across the king lion who made the rabbit take him back to where he thought the earth was falling apart. Once they did, they learned it was just a coconut and fear had been struck up for nothing. I feel like this story could have lead to stories such as the little boy who cried wolf.
  
• (Picture from Jatakas storybook: Photo by Ellesworth Young)
• I took this picture from the story because I thought it was really funny. I like how the rabbit is behind the other animals, as he was behind the rumor. 

Reading Notes: Origins and Beauty and the Basilisk

Origins:

• This story is about the origin of the moon. It tells two different stories: The "man and the moon" and the "rabbit and the moon."
• The Man and the Moon:
• Characters: Blacksmith, Wise man, Stone-cutter
• In this story the Blacksmith did not like who he was so he wished to be something else. This continued throughout the story. The blacksmith would wish he was something else, so the wise man kept saying then be it and so he was. Eventually the wise man grew weary of the blacksmith never being happy and when he requested he return to being a blacksmith, the wise man told him, "you wanted to be the moon; the moon you are, and it you will remain."
• The Hare that was not Afraid to Die:
• Characters: Hare (Buddha to-be)(offered his own flesh to beggars), Jackal (stole from a lizard a pot of milk curd), Otter (stole fish from the fisherman), Monkey (gathered his own mangoes), and Sakka (the king of the gods who came in disguise of a brahmin to test the hare)
• This story was about a selfless Hare that was willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others, when the Hare proved his true nature, unknowingly, to Sakka, Sakka was pleased and dabbed signs of the Hare on the moon.
  
• (Picture of the Hare on the Moon that the author used in the story: Pixabay; Rabbit in the Moon)

Fairy Tale: Beauty and the Basilisk:

• Characters: Mother, three daughters, basilisk
• This story is much like Beauty and the Beast with a few differences. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle was survived by her father and she was an only child, since her mother died of plague shortly after she was born. Also, the father found his way to the castle through a storm/wolf encounter and when the Beast caught him for trying to pick roses, captured him and it was Belle who offered herself to be a prisoner rather than her father. In this version the mother wondered upon the castle and when picking a flower, the Basilisk demanded her daughter and she readily gave her up. Also, in this version, beauty's name is Mary and the beast is a basilisk. Another difference is that there was no rose with falling petals serving as a time limit or mention of a curse, however to turn the prince back into a prince, Mary had to cut his head off not once, but twice. The ending was the same as Beauty and the Beast, Mary and the Prince marry in a big celebration.

Reading Options

Reading Options: As soon as I saw the list of units, there were two that stood out to me, the Biblical Units and the British Units. Within both units there are numerous stories that I am looking to read, for example in the British Unit, I am so excited to read Ballads of Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Canterbury Tales. The Biblical Unit drew my attention because I felt that would be the unit that I am most familiar with, because I have grown up in church and will be most familiar with these stories. The Biblical Unit will be a good starting place for me since I am familiar with the stories and it will be easier to develop my storytelling abilities with stories that I am already familiar with. The British Unit caught my attention because I knew there would be a lot of stories that are popular, like the classic, Robin Hood. I love all the classic stories, so I will definitely be doing the Alice and Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass. Alice in Wonderland is a story that I have grown up loving, which is why I am interested in this one. Another one that stood out to me was The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, under the European Unit.This particular one stood out to me because I am watching The CW's Reign about Mary Queen of Scots. From the show I know that Marguerite is the sister of King Francis II of France, and learning more about the era of Francis and Mary is something that I am really interested in.

(Hinchliff's engraving of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre; Picture from Wikipedia)