Topic Brainstorm

I am interested in Native American stories because I am Cherokee and Creek.  Although I am not an active member of my tribal community, my ancestry is still important to me.  I like reading different Native American stories and learning about the traditions of different tribes.  I recently took a Native American Introduction course and it really broadened my view.  A source I can use is Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson available at Google books and an audio at LibriVox.

Nursery Rhymes are simply fun.  Some of the rhymes are extremely creative, spurring on my own creative thinking, which will be helpful if I choose this topic for my project.  I also find picking this topic slightly ironic, because as kids my friends used to call me Mother Goose since I was always checking on everyone when we played.  The source that really interested me is The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright.  It is at Project Gutenberg.  I like that Wright’s book has pictures that can be just a little burst of inspiration.

I have read about how Irish werewolves differ from most tales of Europe and other countries.  These werewolves are displayed as warriors and protectors as opposed to monsters.  I like that their werewolf stories are different, and so are the other different Celtic creatures.  Most other collections and traditions don’t involve creatures like leprechauns, banshees, kelpies, pookas, and merrows.  It is so different from the fairy tales that I read as I was growing up and from the Greek myths I have heard in school.  I choose Celtic Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs to be my source.  There is an online text at Project Gutenberg, as well as an audiobook at LibriVox.

Often, villains do not receive the same attention as the heroes but I love these characters.  I like deciphering what makes the character a villain within that story, the things that they do or don’t do, and how would the story change if they were not a villain.  Villains play important roles, and I am curious about the adaptability of their character if plot points to the story were altered.  Fairy Tales of the Allied Nations by Edmund Dulac offers a wide variety of different stories from different places.  It can be found at Project Gutenberg.

From Hi Diddle Diddle; illustrated by Nola Langer