Essay: Celtic Stories

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I chose to read this unit on More Celtic Stories. I'm glad I chose to read this unit, because it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of different types of stories that all had certain characteristics and personalities. I thought the wiring was uniques because there were different types of words that gave the reader a Celtic feel. Of the unit, I wrote about a couple of stories that were my favorite in my Reading Diary.

One story was about a man who had never dreamed before. When he finally was able to have a dream, it was absolutely insane! Crazy things happened and he did;t want to have another dram again. My favorite story from the entire unit was about a farmer. He was having a bad year and lost his family and his workers. He needed help plowing his crops, but couldn't find any workers. When a man looking for work stumbled upon him, they agreed the man would plow the crops if her could take whatever he could hold in one trip. They agreed and the man plowed all of the farmers crops by himself. The farmer was thrilled until the plow man took all of his crops. He ended up losing the crops from his barrel and couldn't fool the farmer. The farmer was grateful for the work and was able to keep his farm going.

I wrote a story based of this in my Storybook. Instead of a plowman, I used a leprechaun. If you are looking for a mediocre read, go check it out!

I'm enjoying this theme of stories this week, and excited to choose another unit next week with the same theme. I'd encourage others to read this unit and to read it in an Irish accent. It makes it a lot more fun ;).

Celtic Stone.

Storytelling Week 11 - Herald's Bad Year

There lived a man long ago named Herald. He was a nice and gentle man who didn’t have much going his way. Herald’s wife and children died in a car crash earlier in the year and he lost his job at the coalmines due to budget cuts. T0 state it plain in simple, it was a bad year for Herald, a very bad year.

On the brink of depression, Herald had sat on his old couch in his lonely home for two whole days without moving. Late one night as Herald sat miserably on his couch he heard a loud knock on his door. Startled, Herald jumped from his couch. He never received visitors, especially late at night. He walked to the door and looked through a peak hole to see who was at his house. He didn’t see anyone. He opened the door and still no one was there. Baffled, he shut the door and walked back to his couch. Just as he was about to fall back to his couch, there was a banging on the door again. Now a little irritated, Herald ran back to the door to find what he thought would be a mischievous child playing a mean prank. When he opened the door, there was no sign of anyone.

“Hey! Down here!” yelled a voice.

Herald looked down on his porch to find a man standing on his porch no larger than four inches tall. He thought he was dreaming. “What? Who are you?” questioned Herald.

“I’m your guardian leprechaun,” promised the mini human on his porch, and I’m here to give you some luck after your not so lucky events this past year.”

“I don’t need your luck, this isn’t real. Please, leave me alone!” said Herald.

“Herald, I’m here to help! What can I do for you? Maybe treat you to some fine food and drink? Buy you a new house? Perhaps a new family??” said the leprechaun.

Herald was reluctant to his mischievous little guy, but decided to play along with his game. “How about you get me my job back at the mine,” said Herald.

“Deal! But there’s a catch, when you gather your coal, I get to grab as much as I can hold in one trip to cash it in for my own profit.”

“Sounds good to me!” laughed Herald.

Sure enough, the next day the coal miners found a whole new cave of coal and all the miners got their jobs back. Herald ran to the mine to gather as much coal as possible. After almost 12 hours in the mine, he came up with hundreds of pounds of coal in his barrel.

“Wow! Good job Herald, now as you promised me, let me take all the coal I can carry,” said the leprechaun. He put one piece after another in his pocket. Soon enough there was no more coal in his barrel.

“You fooled me!” shouted Herald.

“Sorry, it’s what I do,” said the leprechaun as he started to walk away. As we walked away his pants split and he lost all the coal. Herald pushed him out of the way and took it all back. He cashed it in for profit and lived freely and worked hard for the rest of his days.

The mischievous leprechaun.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the original story, the Farmer of Liddesdale, the farmer has a bad year until a man comes to help his plow his farm. The worker fools the farmer and takes his corn. The thief ends of loosing all of the corn when his barrel breaks and then he vanishes. I wanted to create a similar story, but with a couple of twists. As a Celtic story, I wanted to bring in a leprechaun and make it more interesting, too!

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Title: More Celtic Fairy Tales

Author: Joseph Jacobs

Illustrations: John D. Batten

Year: 1895

Reading Diary B- More Celtic Stories

I thought the second half of this unit was even better then the first! I had a great time reading this one story about the Farmer of Liddesdale. It was just a simple and cool story about a farmer who had a bad year and received help form a random ploughman. Strange things happen, but the farmer is able to get his farm ploughed. The language is really different and sometimes hard to understand, but it helps give a Celtic feel. I'd recommend this reading to anyone!

The ploughman.

Reading Diary A - Celtic Fairy Tales

I chose to read the first half of Celtic Fairy Tales. This is unit is pretty interesting and has a lot of un stories. Most of the stories go together. It is fun to read these stories in an Irish accent too! I read a really cool story called Dream of Owen O'Mulready. This was a cool story where Owen was envious that he had never had a dream. When he finally got one, he had some crazy stories and didn't care to have another one. It was a great read!

Owen O'Mulready