Were Not in Kansas Anymore

The stories this week are definitely not like the familiar fairy tales of last week. These stories were dark and seemed to lack a lesson for kids. I’ve never heard of any these stories or any derivative of them. I struggled to see how they fit in with the tales that have stayed popular to this day. The others seem to have purpose, but these just seem to tales or legends with no real point. After reading them all, I saw that they are a lot of similar elements and stock characters. We have evil step-mothers, beautiful ladies and princesses, infertile couples, magic and lots of strangeness. I found some humor in the strangeness, like the sausage that can cook and apparently walk or something. I also thought the it was humorous how the King in “The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces” didn’t know where his daughters were going at night and instead of watching over them himself he had to bribe young men with the chance of marrying one of the girls to do it.

Although there weren’t any obvious lessons in some of the stories, there was definitely common theme of good beating out evil. What I got from the tales was that as long as you’re a kind person and you put your faith in God, everything will work out for you in the end. And justice will be served to the evil people. It’s unclear to me if these stories are supposed to be religious because they have a lot of magical and impossible things happening in them, but I guess it is the magic of God perhaps.

The two extra stories I read were “The Girl with No Hands” and “The Three Little Men in the Woods.” These story were similar to all the rest and I found none of it really surprising. There was an evil jealous step-mother and a beautiful, kind girls and one who magically grows her cut off hands back. Oh and of course in both stories the beautiful girls face hardships, but end up living happily ever after married to a king. 

Hooray! Done with Kors and Peters!!

This was my first time reading Shakespeare on my own and I have to say it was a bit difficult to understand. The first scene was confusing, but it made some more sense once I read the second scene. There are a lot of characters in this play that all come up in the beginning, which made it difficult for me to remember who each one was. There were a few specific things that I didn’t understand in this act. I wondered how Miranda and Prospero were able to survive on this island only with their two servants. It wasn’t clear to me if Prospero’s magic was what was keeping them alive or not. I also didn’t understand why Prospero put Miranda to sleep when he started telling his story. And the last thing I was unsure about was why Prospero made a storm around the ship, but I’ve gathered that this probably going to explained later in the play and it’s an important part of the plot. If anybody can provide some clarification for me about the play, that would be awesome.

   This week we were also supposed to read the last chapter by Kors and Peters and I think it ended in the best way possible. I think it was great how we moved through all the different texts and ideas about witchcraft to the explanation of how the craze came to an end. I thought it was interesting that one of the main ideas that discounted those who believed in witchcraft was that they didn’t really understand God and the world he made. I would have thought this chapter would have been made up of educated men telling everybody that witchcraft was impossible. Instead it they attributed the belief in witchcraft to confusion and fear. Even though I thought disbelief and skepticism of witchcraft would have stemmed from logic, I found this chapter to very satisfying.  

Woe is me!

             At this point I think we have read just about everything there is to know about witchcraft, what stood out to me in this week’s reading was the writings of Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg. I thought it was extremely interesting how he reasoned that witchcraft was not actually being done by the witch him or herself, but by the devil. The witches are simply just gesturing or signaling the devil to do something. To me this is the most logical explanation of witchcraft we’ve read yet, of course logical for the time period and for believing in the existence of the devil. He also explains that witches aren’t really traveling at night, but simply dreaming. He says that the devil can get into the minds of people create impressions. I think Kaysersberg was a pretty smart guy for recognizing that people don’t actually have magical powers. If more people at this time had these same beliefs we maybe would have seen a different treatment of witches. Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola’s Strix was fun read to me. It seemed like a very simplistic play and the short, basic dialogue was entertaining. I especially liked how Apistius changes his mind almost instantly and then declares that he has been convinced.

                I really loved the illustrations in this chapter. It’s fascinating to me to see all the interpretations what witches were. The pictures are so detailed and some really tell a story on their own. While the illustrations depict witches doing different things they also showed how they were similar ideas of witches coming from different artists. 

Running With the Devil

In chapters four and five we learn all about what witches do and how they should be punished and dealt with. We see that there similar accounts across Europe and by different people that tell of the acts of witches and how they become involved with the devil. What we don’t learn about from these chapters is how these people get their knowledge about witches. When I read I wonder if they see things with their own eyes or simply make it all up. Perhaps even these people have dabbled in sorcery themselves. I believe that general concepts of witchcraft became accepted and spread throughout Europe which is how we would have similar writings from different places. I think that at this time people really needed something to believe in since they couldn’t really explain anything that happened. I think it easier to live when you think you’re in control. For these people being in control meant being a good Christian and pleasing God and killing anyone who didn’t follow along. 

When I was reading chapter five I found it interesting how witches at that time in history were a bit different then how we think of them as now. When I think about witches I start picturing a women in a cottage mixing potions in a cauldron and riding on broomstick. The riding on the broom part is one idea that has survived from the Middle Ages, but the “diabolical” witches of this time were not only conjurers of magic, but also deviants in society in almost all aspects. In this chapter it talks about the witches taking place in orgies, partying with the devil, killing babies, creating storms, and making ointments and powders. It never really occurred to me that witches were considered evil at this time because they were interacting with devil not just because they were using magic. I wondered whether magic would have been acceptable at this time if they were no ties to the devil and if the magic was only being used for good. This chapter really changed my perspective on witches and I found it really fascinating. 

Challenge Accepted

            Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a very interesting tale with an unclear purpose. While I was reading, I couldn’t help but to wonder why the Green Knight was proposing this challenge and why did he specifically visit King Arthur. I suspected that maybe it was a competition to show who was the bravest or the most loyal knight of King Arthur, but that wasn’t really emphasized. The concept of an all-green knight who seems to be indestructible was fascinating. While reading the description of the Green Knight the image of the superhero the Hulk came to my mind, especially when he was described as “a hulk of a human” in line 138.  I immediately wondered why the color green. Is there a significance to that color? When I think of the color green, I think about spring and new life, so I thought that the knight might be green because he can grow new limbs? I also thought that he might be immortal from some kind of magic and perhaps he might have been a wizard. Or maybe someone else with magical powers gave him something like an amulet to protect him or put a spell on him that would keep him from dying.

             A person who is already familiar with the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table may have already had an idea of why the Green Knight was challenging Arthur’s court. Since I am not one of those people and I was extremely curious to learn more about this poem, I read through the Sparknotes. From there I learned that the Green Knight was working with Morgan le Fay who is sorceress and also King Arthur’s half-sister. Morgan apparently hates King Arthur and often tests his knights. Sending the Green Knight to King Arthur I assume was another way for Morgan to test his knights, but it is still unclear what was the purpose of the challenge was. I thought that maybe Morgan was planning on King Arthur accepting the challenge in hopes of killing him.

                Reading this excerpt of the poem makes me want to read the rest of it, as well as more stories about King Arthur. I think they are probably great for learning about that time in history. I would like to learn more about Morgan le Fay and how she is depicted in stories. I’m curious to know if she is thought of like witches of the Middle Ages that were hunted and burned or if she was respected for her power. I would also like to know why she hates King Arthur and what is she trying to achieve by challenging him.