Storytelling: Cinder-Elliot

Hi everyone, my name is Cinder-Elliot. Today I am going to tell you the story of my life. Many of you have probably have heard the Brothers Grimm story “Cinderella”, that story was a lie. They decided that my story would be more appealing if they changed me to a girl, and that’s not the only thing that they changed. So today, I am going to set the record straight and tell you the truth.

First of all, it was my father who died, not my mother. He died when I was nine, and my mother remarried soon after. My step-father was a jerk to me. He made me do all of the chores around the house, and never let me go outside to play. Meanwhile his two sons got to live a life of ease, lounging all day and ordering me around. I never got any breaks, and only stopped working when it was time for bed. Since I wasn’t given my own room, or bed for that matter, I slept by the fireplace to keep warm. On breezy nights, I would always end up being covered in cinders, hence the name Cinder-Elliot.

One day it was announced across the village that the King was going to hold a ball so that his only daughter may find a suitable husband. I of course wanted to go, a ball sounded fun and it never hurts to put yourself out there, but my step-father wouldn’t allow it. He said that I had been slacking on my chores the past week and this was my punishment. I couldn’t believe it, I had been working my hardest this past week and deserved a break.

The day of the ball my mother tried to convince my step-father to allow me to go, but he stood firm on his decision and told her not to bother him about it again. So, after they left, I ran to my father’s grave. I was too upset to do any work and needed to get out of the house. When I got to his grave all I could do was cry out to him and ask for help. I just wanted to live a normal life, not one where I was forced to work all day.

What happened next still blows my mind to this day. A white cloud descended from the sky and from it a woman dressed in a glowing white ball gown emerged. (At least some retellings get my fairy godmother right.) She walked up towards me and I couldn’t decide if I should be amazed or scared. Quickly I realized that she meant no harm and I asked her what she was doing here. She told me that she heard my pleas and that I was going to go to the ball. After that she did some magic and the next thing I knew I was at the ball in the nicest outfit I had ever seen. My suit was spectacular and my gloves were top notch. She did make sure to impress upon me the instructions that I needed to be home by midnight because the magic would wear off by then.

As the night rolled on the princess, whose name I discovered was Amber, and I really hit it off. She and I danced the whole night away and we learned so much about each other. I quickly lost track of time and before I knew it the clock was striking five till midnight. I knew I needed to be out of there before my clothes changed back and my step-father and brothers discovered I was there. I wrapped things up with Amber rather abruptly and ran out the castle gates. She was quick to follow and tried to grab me to get me to stop. She got a hold of my gloves which I was able to slip of easily and get away.

The next day I found out that Amber had created a search party to find the lost prince from the night before. She was going to every house in the village and trying the glove on each male’s hand. When she arrived at my house my step-brothers where ready to have their shot at trying the glove on. They greased their hands before they put it on, thinking that it would slip on much easier. When they failed to get the glove on, Amber was ready to leave, but my mother at the last second told her that I was up in my room and hadn’t tried on the glove. Even though my step-father protested the need for me to try on the glove, Amber insisted. I came downstairs quickly and was eager to try the glove on for myself. It slipped on easily and when Amber looked me in the eyes she knew I was the one.

That lovely story happened well over 25 years ago. Amber and I got married a month after that day, and are still happily married now. As for my step-father and step-brothers? Well, they tried to get me to give them some of my newly acquired riches, when I refused to do so they swore never to speak to me again, and I was totally fine with that.


Prince Elliot and Princess Amber

Bibliography:

Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by John Batten (1916).

Author's Note:

When I saw that the story I read for this week included a rendition of Cinderella, I knew that I wanted to take it and give it my own twist. I wanted Cinderella to actually be a man, and I thought it would be funny to have the Brothers Grimm purposefully change him into a woman when they wrote their story. Since I was giving the "real" version of the Brothers Grimm story I wanted to change some of the elements of the story, not just the characters gender. So I changed the glass slipper into a glove and I changed it from an evil step-mother and step-sisters, to an evil step-father and step-brothers. I kept the fairy godmother which I know isn't in the Brothers Grimm story, but its in other renditions.

Story: Behind the Veil of Beauty

For the past four years Jessica Anderson has won homecoming queen despite the entire school population absolutely hating her. I, Natalee Germaine, head reporter of the high school newspaper had to get to the bottom of this. First things first, time to talk to the nerds. Everyone knows that Jessica loves to terrorize them every day, so why in their right mind would they vote for her.

“So tell me, what made you decide to vote for Jessica for homecoming queen this year?”

“Oh, um, well I just think that Jessica was the most qualified, you know? She is just such a great role model and a great student.” Tanner managed to stumble out.

Jessica and her King

I knew that Tanner was lying to me, I have seen the things that Jessica had done to him and his friends. I tried to push a little harder on the topic, but Tanner wasn’t budging. I didn’t want to waste my time any farther, so I headed over to my next source. I headed up a little higher on the school food chain and decided to interview Heather Wilson, the captain of the girls’ soccer team. Jessica and Heather have had a long standing feud going on ever since Jessica stole her boyfriend and convince everyone at school that she had herpes.

“So, Heather, I would love to know what made you decide to vote for Jessica for homecoming queen this year? I am sure that the history you have with her would have persuaded you to vote for someone else.”

“Are you taking about what happened between us last year? That was just a big misunderstanding! Jessica and I are on good term now!” I could see the anger in Heather’s eyes as she gave me her answer, but no matter what I asked her, her answer never changed.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I knew that something must be going on between Jessica and her so called “friends”. I couldn’t leave this story now, I still had so many questions. I went around the school and I asked a dozen more people, who I knew had bad blood with Jessica, why they voted for her, and every person said the same thing. Why are these people who I know hate this girl, saying all these sweet and nice things about her? It wasn’t until I asked Jessica’s little sister some question, that things started to unravel.

According to Lilly Anderson, Jessica’s younger sister, Jessica has a folder of black mail on at least of the students at our high school. She collects secrets and stores them away to use for her own personal gain. Lilly informed me that this has been going on since the start of middle school, and her stash of knowledge has grown quite big since then. Every year Jessica makes her rounds to all the people on her black list and reminds them of the dirt she has on them. In exchange for her silence, the person has to vote for her for homecoming queen. Lilly told me that everything Jessica said about Heather was true. Jessica found out that Heather didn’t vote for her last year and so she got her revenge.

I can’t wait to write up my article and post it in the school newspaper. When everyone finds out what Jessica has been doing, they won’t be singing her praises any longer.

“The Veneration that is paid to Great and Powerful Men, is but from the Teeth outward, not from the Heart; and more out of Fear then Love.”

Bibliography:

Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Roger L'Estrange (1692).

Author's Note:

I took inspiration from a fable that has to do with fake praises. It talks about this eagle who claims that she is the most beautiful bird there is, and a peacock replies and tells her that she is. However, it goes on to say that the eagle had talons and a beak that would have hurt anyone who tried to disagree. So when I read that I thought of a high school homecoming queen. Usually the most beautiful girl or the most popular girl in school wins. So I wanted her to black mail her classmates into voting for her out of fear of her telling their secrets to the whole school. I wanted to write it from the perspective of a journalist because they always get to the bottom of a juicy story.

Week 9 Story: Dance the Night Away

Once upon a time there was lived two separate and distinct schools. One school was made up of all girls, and the other school was made up of all boys. The students from both schools had never ventured outside of their school’s property and had no knowledge that either existed.

One day two girls, Agatha and Jenny, decided that they need some adventures in their lives and so they ventured off of the school grounds to see what they could find. It didn’t take them very long to come across a boy roaming the streets in front of them. They had never see a boy in real life before and they didn’t know what to make of him. They went over to talk to him. He seemed shocked to see them both out in town. He introduced himself as Tommy and asked them where they were from. The girls told him all about their school. They said that they went to an all-girls private school and never left the school grounds. He told them that he was in the same situation, but he went to an all-boys school. He asked the girls if their friends would like to meet up with the boys one night for a party. The girls told him that they would go back to school and ask, then they would meet him back at the exact same spot at the exact same time.

Agatha, Jenny, and Friends

So they both went back to their schools for the night. Agatha and Jenny told their friends all about the boy they met and how he wanted to have a party. Tommy told his friends all about the girls he met and how they should have a party with them. Both parties thought it was a great idea. So the next night Agatha, Jenny, and Tommy met back up and planned the party together.

The night came for the party to happen, and the students from both schools snuck out and met each other in a secret location for the party. The music was playing and the boys and girls were dancing with each other. One of Agatha’s friends, Sarah, had just gotten done with rugby practice right before they dance started and didn’t have time to clean up. She wanted to dance with Tommy and went over to ask him. Seeing how dirty and smelly she was, Tommy declined her request to dance. Saddened, Sarah ran back to school to shower off and do herself up. Once she was done getting ready she headed back to the dance. Seeing how beautiful Sarah was now that she was cleaned up, Tommy really wanted to dance with her. He went over to say hi, but Sarah walked right past him. He turned around to see Sarah walk up to Eric and ask to dance. Eric of course said yes, and so Tommy waited for his turn to dance with Sarah. However, every time Sarah was done dancing with one boy, she would ignore Tommy’s requests to dance and find a new partner. This happened throughout the entire night, and finally after the last song was done playing Sarah walked up to Tommy and told him that she wasn’t interested in him. 

Author's Note:

I took inspiration from a story from the Blackfoot Native Americans. The story was about a tribe of men and a tribe of women who had never seen each other before. One day a man and two women cross paths and they decide their tribes should meet up to pick husbands and wives. When the man gets to the woman's tribe he passes himself off as chief so that the chief woman would pick him. She is all dirty though from working so he refuses to marry her. However once she cleans up he thinks she is beautiful and wants her now, but she refuses and picks someone else. This story made me think of two schools will all boys and all girls who meet and have a dance party.

Bibliography:

Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Storytelling: Money for Death

There was a guy named Tanner who the secretary to a rich doctor named Thomas. He didn’t have much of a salary and couldn’t afford to support a wife. Tanner was sad because he and his girlfriend Laney wanted to get married soon. One day he came into work very upset, after he had a very long conversation with Laney’s parents.

“What’s wrong Tanner? Is everything ok?” asked Thomas.

“No, everything is not ok! My girlfriend and I are trying to get married, but her parents want me to have more money.” Tanner replied sadly.

“Well is there anything I can do, I hate to see money keep you from the one you love!”

“Unless you were willing to give me enough money to support us both, I don’t think there is much you can do.” Tanner said, not really thinking much of Thomas’ request.

Thomas left the room and after a few minutes returned with an envelope in his hands.

“What is that?” Tanner asked. His curiosity was peaked.

“Let’s just call it an early bonus… and an early wedding present.” A sly smile crept upon Thomas’ face as he handed Tanner the envelope. 

                What was inside the envelope

Tanner wait until he was alone to open the envelope. He had a feeling he knew what Thomas had done, but he was floored by the generosity that Thomas had showed him.

Soon after Tanner and Laney got married, moved away and got themselves a house. Tanner got a new job, but unfortunately it didn’t pay much more than his last job. They didn’t have to worry though, because the money that Thomas gave them was enough to get by for many years. Five year later they realized that they had run out of the money from Thomas.

“What do we do now? All of our money is gone!” Laney said with a sense of worry in her voice. “We won’t be able to last more than a month!”

“Don’t worry! Thomas help us once, I am sure he will help us once again.”

The next day Tanner headed across town to Thomas’ office.

“Hello Thomas.” Tanner nervously said.

“Tanner hello! How has married life been treating you?” Thomas got up and gave Tanner a big firm hug.

“Actually, that’s why I came here to see you. Laney and I have used up all the money that you gave us for the wedding. I was hoping that you could help us again.” Tanner wasn’t too sure how Thomas was going to respond.

“Oh, of course I will help you Tanner. This is the least I can do for someone who worked so hard for me!” Thomas said, much to Tanner’s surprise.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me and Laney!” Tanner said. He could barely contain his excitement.

Thomas handed Tanner an envelope, much like the one from five years earlier. Tanner was soon back at home with his wife, returning to life as normal. However, even this new money didn’t last forever and a year and a half later they were back in the same spot again.

“Oh Tanner what are we supposed to do this time? We can’t ask Thomas for more money, he will just think we are using him!” Laney cried.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan. I will tell Thomas that you have died and that I need some money to cover the funeral costs. He won’t be able to say no.”

Tanner rushed over to Thomas’ office and cried about his wife’s passing and the costs of the funeral. Sure enough Thomas handed Tanner another check to help him cover all of the funeral costs, and a little extra for his troubles. Tanner couldn’t believe it, he and Laney were able to live off of that check for about a year. Just like last time though, they were out of extra money and Tanner’s job couldn’t sustain them for long.

“Tanner now what? We can’t go back to Thomas again, he already thinks I am dead, there is nothing more you can say.”

“Wait Laney, didn’t you work for Thomas’ sister? Why don’t you go to her and tell her I have died and I am sure she will give you some money.”

So, that is exactly what Laney did, and sure enough Thomas’ sister gave Laney money. What Laney and Tanner didn’t know is that Thomas got lunch with his sister the next day, and she decided to tell him the news that Tanner had died.

“What, that makes no sense. Tanner came to my office and said that Laney had died over a year ago.” Thomas said after his sister told him the news.

“I am not lying, Laney came to me at work and said that Tanner had passes away and that she needed money for the funeral.”

So, they both decided to get down to the bottom of this. After lunch they headed over to Laney and Tanner’s house to see what they could find. As they were walking up to the front door Laney saw that they were coming. Without knowing what else to do they both got on the floor and pretended to be dead. When Thomas knocked on the front door, he noticed that it was open and let himself in. He saw Laney and Tanner dead on the floor and couch and rushed to check on them. However, he quickly realized that they weren’t dead.

“Tanner, Laney I know you’re not dead. Get up.”

They both got up with shame on their faces.

“Look guys, I see what you were trying to do. I don’t want you to be without money, so please come back to work for me and you will be able to live off your salary.” Thomas said.

So Laney and Tanner went back to work for Thomas and they lived a good and happy life.

Author's Note:

In the original story a doctor's servant wants to get married but has no money. So the doctor gives his a lot of money and lets him leave to get a wife. Everything is fine for a few years, but they eventually run out of money. So they servant goes back to the doctor and asks for more, which he is given. But again after a while the money runs out and he doesn't know what to do. So he pretends his wife died and asks the doctor to pay for the funeral costs, which he does. When this money runs out his wife goes to the doctor's sister and does the exact same thing. The sister gives them money too. Soon they both realize that something is going on and go to investigate. They go to the servants house and find him and his wife lying on the floor dead. They realize that they aren't actually dead, they are just pretending. The doctor isn't mad though. He thinks its all a joke and asks the servant to come back and work for him. I wanted to keep the story the same but set it in modern times, and give the story more dialogue. I wanted to flesh out the characters a bit more. 

Bibliography:
The Clever Husband and Wife in Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921).

Storytelling: The Search for Eternal Life

This is the story of a very powerful king; a stone monkey king. He was born from a supernatural rock that burst forth at the dawn of creation. He was not given his kingly title from birth, but the stone monkey was a powerful and mysterious creature to behold. Even the gods in the heavens above were weary of his power. One day while with a group of normal monkeys the stone monkey proved to them all his power and authority by jumping through a waterfall and finding himself a castle built into the side of a mountain. He claimed this cave castle as his own, and was crowned king by the monkeys that beheld this feat.

(Jumping Through the Waterfall)

He lived with his subjects for many years, but soon became discontent. Even though he had the power he wanted and all the riches he could have ever imagined, he knew that one day Death would call for him and take him away from his earthly pleasure. Becoming distraught at the thought, he began to weep in front of his subjects. However, there was one wise old monkey among the group that was attending the king. This wise monkey told the king of a way that he could find the secret of eternal life. The Buddhas, the spirits, and the gods all had eternal life, so all he needed to do was find where they dwelled and beg them for the secret to being immortal. At the mention of this plan the king became resolved. He soon packed up some of his things and headed off to find the people who could share the secret to evading Death. 

After sailing for many weeks, he finally set ashore in Asia. While there he decided to learn how to become more like the humans he saw around him. He lived among the humans for 10 years in search of someone who could teach him what to do to get eternal life. He searched high and low, looking for any signs of spirits dwelling among him. He looked all around to see if he could find the living place of the Buddhas. He scoured the entire continent for evidence that a god was residing in the midst of the humans. After many years, the stone monkey king gave up hope of finding who he needed in Asia. So, he set off for the West.

The stone monkey king travelled for many weeks by land and see until he found a new land to explore. When he arrived, he looked up to see an enormous mountain jutting up right in front of him. From the mountain, he heard the most beautiful singing that he had ever come across. He knew that he had found the place in which the spirits dwelled. When he climbed up and found the source of the singing he was sad to see that if was just a lowly farmer. Must to his surprise the stone monkey king found out that the farmer learned his song from a wise old spirit that lived at the top of the mountain. So, the monkey went and climbed to the very top where he did indeed find the spirit. 

The spirit saw the drive that the stone monkey king had and decided to take him under his wing. The first thing he did was brand him with a new name: Sun Wu Kung. After doing that the spirit taught Sun many different skills, like tending a garden, cleaning a house, having manners. He didn’t teach him how to become immortal though, and Sun Wu Kung was becoming impatient. After any years of living with the spirit and learning from him, Sun Wu Kung demanded to be taught how to become immortal. The spirit sadly informed him that he didn’t know how to make oneself immortal, for he had been born immortal. This infuriated Sun Wu Kung, but he didn’t let him stop him from finding what he truly wanted. So he set off again in hopes of finding out this secret.

Bibliography:

"The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Author's Note:

In the original story this monkey king made out of stone doesn't want to die. So he sets out on a journey to find someone who could teach him how to get eternal life. He is told that the spirits, the Buddhas, and the gods have eternal life and must know how someone could get it for themselves. I wanted to tell the story in my own words and not change too much from the original. I did change the ending a bit. The place where I ended was actually the middle of the story. I could see my word count get a bit too high so I thought this would be a good place to stop. So I changed it to were the spirit didn't know how to become immortal so Sun Wu Kung had to set off to find someone knew. I wanted it to end so you didn't know whether he became immortal or not.

Storytelling: The Ghost Man's Life

I have no name, I have no true identity. I am just a ghost of a man set to wander this earth forever. What shall I do? What shall I do?

I see a man packing to leave his wife and mother, maybe this is my opportunity to have a normal life again. He won’t be back for many years. If I can just convince them that I am really him then maybe it will work.

His wife doesn’t seem to suspect a thing. She is curious why I have come back so soon, the man was set to be gone for years. I just had to tell her that I wasn’t ready to leave, she seemed happy with that answer.

Many months have passed by now. Some days I forget that I am truly not this woman’s husband. She is so lovely to me, and so kind. I am starting to fall in love with her. I am starting to feel like a real man again.

It’s been a year now since I have taken on this form. I have no regrets with my decision to do this. I am truly happy, and so is my family. They need me to provide for them, and to love them. Nothing can take me away from my family.

Three years has passed, and the real man has returned. He is messing up my happy life. He has no business claiming my wife as his. I have loved her and taken care of her for three years while he was off traveling the world. This is my family and he can’t take them away from me.

He is being very persistent. He has come to my house many times and tried to convince my wife that he is really her husband. She knows that he isn’t meant to be with her. She is meant to be with me. I am unsure how to fix this problem. I don’t know what to do to make him go away for good. Maybe he will just give up soon.

He hasn’t given up yet. It has been months since he has returned home, and every day he makes a plea to the king to return his wife, mother, and home to him. Every day the king denies his request. Why won’t he just take a hint and move on with his life. He is just causing my family distress.

He has done it. He has convinced the king to take his case to court. He will never win of course, but I don’t like taking chances. I don’t know how he managed to pull this one off.

Oh, I am such a fool. How could I have fallen for such a trick. My wife and home have been taken from me. I was sure that if I used my ghostly powers to shrink myself into the vial, like the king asked, it would have proved me the rightful husband of my wife, and rightful owner of my house. Now I am stuck in here forevermore. 

The ghost and his wife

Author's Note:

The story I took inspiration from deals with a man leaving his wife and mother for many years so that he can go find work to provide from them. While he is gone a ghost transforms himself to look like the man and takes over his identity. When the real man comes back he can't convince anyone that he is the rightful husband to his wife. He finally convinces the king to take his case to trial. The king says that if either of the men can fit into a tiny vial he is rightfully the husband to the woman. Since the ghost man wants to keep his life he shrinks himself down and fits into the vial. The king then puts a lid on the vial and tells the real man to throw it into the sea. What I wanted to do was tell the story from the ghost man perspective and give his side of the story. Why did he take this man's life and why didn't he want to give it back.

Bibliography:

Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with illustrations by Warwick Goble (1912).

Week 4 Story: The Three Delicate Wives

My name is Crescent, I am the first of three wives to the king of the greatest kingdom in all the land, Ujjain. One day I was sitting with my husband in our beautiful palace garden. It was a beautiful spring day and the weather was divine. The flowers were in bloom and the bees were buzzing all around us. My king and I were having a great time together, talking and laughing. He reached to push my hair behind my ear, like he always does when he doesn’t know what to say. Just as he did that I saw the most beautiful lotus blossom fall into my lap. When it finally hit my lap a wave of excruciating pain radiated through-out my entire body. All I could do was scream before the pain overtook my body and caused me to faint. I was in and out of consciousness for several hours. The pain would go away long enough for me to open my eyes and see my king sitting across from me, making sure I was being taken care of. It wasn’t until after nightfall that the pain was subdued. I finally was able to let out a sigh of relief and get some rest. My king kissed my forehead before I fell asleep and promised me that everything would be alright.

My name is Star, I am the second of three wives to the king of the greatest kingdom in all the land, Ujjain. After Crescent had been healed and put to sleep, my king came to my chambers to seek comfort and relaxation from the stressful day that occurred before. We were sitting on the balcony enjoying each other’s company while the moonlight shone upon us. I was rested upon my king’s chest and could hear his rhythmic heartbeat. That soothing sound, and the soft breezed that flowed across the balcony soon put me into a gentle sleep. It wasn’t long before I was awoken to a painful sensation that spread across my face and hands. It felt as if my flesh had been burned by a great fire. I wept as I looked upon the great blisters that covered my body. The moon that shone down upon me was the source of my great pain. As I wept in agony, my king made sure the physicians bandaged me up and laid me upon a soft bed of moist lotus-leaves. My king kissed my forehead before I fell asleep and promised me that everything would be alright.

My name is Moon, I am the third of three wives to the king of the greatest kingdom in all the land, Ujjain. I had heard of the events that had transpired earlier and decided to seek out my king to comfort him. As I was walking alone in the dark quiet halls, I heard to sound of pestles grinding grain in the distance. As the noise raged on I noticed giant bruises forming on my arms and hands. Just as I thought my time was coming to an end, I see my servants running towards me from the end of the hall. When they see that I am in distress they lead me back to my room and inquired what is wrong. I show them the bruises that I now have and the quickly informed my king of my condition. As soon as he arrived to my chambers he had physicians working on soothing my pains. After they were done bandaging me up, I was laid in bed to rest. My king kissed my forehead before I fell asleep and promised me that everything would be alright.

The King of the Three Wives

Author's Note:

The original story that I based this weeks retelling on was actually one story out of twenty-two. This is one of the riddles presented to a wise king by a goblin. The king must successfully answer the riddle, or get his head cut in two. I wanted to expand the story a bit and give it more depth and story line. In this riddle the goblin wants to know which of the three wives is the most delicate. The one who was in pain from a lotus leaf, the one who was blistered by a moonbeam, or the one who was bruised by the sound of a pestle. What do you think?

Bibliography:

Twenty-Two Goblins, translated by Arthur W. Ryder, with illustrations by Perham W. Nahl (1917).

Storytelling: The Love of Cupid

My mother thinks she is the most beautiful woman both in Heaven and on Earth. Up until this point she was right, but once I set my gaze upon the face of Psyche I knew my mother would be in for a rude awakening. My mother wanted me to get revenge on Psyche by using one of my arrows to make her fall in love with the vilest man I could find. I had other plans. One day I found Psyche dressed in fine apparel on the edge of a cliff, I told my wind servants to bring her to my private home where I could meet her face to face. 

Oh gods, she was even more beautiful up close. How I longed to be by her side, but I couldn’t let her see who I really was. As she walked around the estate I told my servants to treat her like the queen she was. By the time night fell I couldn’t stay away any longer, I rushed to see my new bride. The night didn’t last long enough. I snuck out of our room before the dawn broke, I was sad to leave Psyche, but I knew if she found out who I was everything would be ruined.

After a while Psyche became homesick, I knew she wanted to be reunited with her sisters, but if I let that happen I knew her sister would try and convinced her to find out who I really was. Eventually I caved and let her bring her sister here, but I warned her about what they might try and do. It wasn’t until I woke up to a sharp pain on my shoulder, that I knew her sisters had convinced her to find out who I really was. Seeing her face looking over me in the candle-light, I couldn’t help but stare back. 

Soon my awe at her beauty turned into rage as I came to the realization that she broken my trust. She did the one thing I ask her not to do. I flew away, as my beautiful bride chased after me, I was too distraught to look back to her pleads. I hid myself away at my mother’s house. She was greatly upset that I not only disobeyed her orders, but that I fell in love with her enemy. She decided to take matters into her own hands, I was too sad and angry to intervene. 

Weeks later I decided to venture out of my mother’s house, and the first person I stumble upon is my beautiful Psyche fast asleep in the middle of the woods. I quickly realize that she had been tricked by my mother and was put to sleep with the waters of the River Styx. Seeing Psyche like this made all of my anger and hurt towards her fall away. I was able to wake her up from this deep sleep, and knew that I had to set things straight. 

I called upon the help of Jupiter to try and make amends with my mother. Jupiter happily agrees and calls upon all the gods and goddess to join him for a party. Once my mother arrives, we reveal to everyone that this party is in fact a wedding, the re-marriage of Psyche and I. Jupiter performed a beautiful ceremony, and Psyche and I were able to live together happily as man and wife for the rest of our days.

Cupid Pleading Venus to Forgive Psyche

Author's Note: 

My inspiration comes from the story Cupid and Psyche. It tells the story of the beautiful Psyche and her troubles with the goddess Venus. Venus is considered the most beautiful woman that has ever lived, but once Psyche was born everyone started to praise her for her immense beauty. This did not please Venus so she sent her son Cupid to get revenge on Psyche. However, instead of going through with his mothers wishes, he fell in love and married her. This caused problems for both of them. After a lot of turmoil and heartbreak, Cupid and Psyche reconcile and the story ends with them getting remarried with the help of Jupiter. For my retelling I decided to do it from the perspective of Cupid, since he gets to see both Venus' side of the story and Psyche's side of the story.

Bibliography:

Cupid and Psyche, written by Apuleius and translated English by Tony Kline. A fairy tale included in the novel The Golden Ass.

Week 2 Story Planning: Cupid and Psyche

For my story, I’m thinking of setting it in modern day Hollywood. Venus would be a well-established celebrity. Psyche would be a new girl on the scene who quickly steals Venus’ spotlight. Through the tabloids, Venus will find out that she is going to be replaced with the newer, prettier Psyche. To get revenge and to keep her title Venus sends her son Cupid to try and ruin Psyche image. I’m not sure how he will do this yet. I still need to figure out what exactly he could do to ruin Psyche reputation. After Cupid starts to do this though, he falls in love with Psyche and wants to be with her. Psyche at this point knows it is Cupid who she has been hanging out with, but she doesn’t know his motivations. Soon Cupid proposes to Psyche and Venus finds out that he hasn’t been pretending to like her this whole time. Venus also finds out that Psyche is pregnant with Cupid’s baby. Even with that news she becomes angry and tries to hurt Psyche. At first Cupid doesn’t stand up to his mother and he breaks off the engagement with Psyche. However, after a while he does talk to his mom, and he gets back with Psyche and goes through with the marriage. Soon after they get married Psyche has the baby which is a girl.

 

(Cupid and Psyche)

Maybe is could write this as a series of tabloid articles. Each title would represent a new event that has happened in the story. Underneath that would be an article going into more detail about what happened. It would all be stylized after how magazines and tabloids write their articles. If that doesn’t work out then I would try to write it from Cupid’s perspective since he is kinda on both sides, and he is the one who changes his mind halfway through Venus’ plan.

Bibliography: Cupid and Psyche, written by Apuleius and translated English by Tony Kline. A fairy tale included in the novel The Golden Ass.

Week 1 Story: The Girl Who Got To Close To The Fire

Little Polly Flinders

Sat among the cinders,

Warming her pretty little toes.

Her mother came and caught her,

and whipped her little daughter

For spoiling her nice new clothes.

{Original Nursery Rhyme}

The date was December 21, 1817, the temperature outside felt like -10 degrees Celsius . It felt like the coldest day of the year here in my small English village, and my family and I had just walked home from our Sunday evening church service. With it being that last service before Christmas, my mother wanted me to look extra special. She and my father save up enough money to be able to buy the nicest gown the village seamstress made.

Little Polly Flinders

It was so cold outside and the church was so far away, that by the time I got home I could hardly feel my toes. My mother started a fire for us all to warm up next to, but told me I had to change before I could sit down. I knew it would take me too much time to take the dress off by myself, so when my mother left the room I sat down on the floor right next to the fire and warmed up my feet as fast as I could. I was almost ready to get up and go to my room when my mother walked in to check on the fire. When she saw me sitting on the floor in my nice dress she was furious. It didn’t help that when I stood up to leave there was a giant soot mark on the back of my dress where I had sat down on the floor. This sent my mother into a rage. She started yelling at me for being so irresponsible and careless with such an expensive piece of clothing. I knew what was about to come, my mother never likes to let me off easy. She went to get her ruler so that she could smack me one the back of my hands. For not only disobeying her, but for getting soot on my dress, she said I would get ten smacks per hand. I tried not to cry, it was over rather quickly. After she was done with my punishment, she led me to my room so that she could make sure my dress got cleaned as quickly as possible. I just hope that I will never have to wear that gown ever again. 

Author's Note: There isn't much to the original rhyme so I had a lot of free reign. The only things that were stated was that it was cold out, because Polly needed to warm her feet up, Polly was wearing a very nice dress, and that her mother got very upset when she saw what had happened. Since the weather was cold I set the story close to Christmas so that Polly would have a reason to have such a nice dress. I decided to add more detail about her being at the fire place and then her subsequent punishment.

Bibliography: This story is based off of the nursery rhyme "Little Polly Flinders" from The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Land