Extra Credit Reading Notes: Werewolf Legends from Germany

This reading is to help me find more stories for my project. I'm currently searching for a story for the Shrieking Shack, which will involve Remus Lupin telling a frame tale about one of his werewolf transformations.

The Morbach Monster story is a good candidate for a frame tale. It mentions that in a particular town, a werewolf often visits if a specific candle in a shrine goes out. It also says that security policemen joked about a werewolf coming because the candle had gone out. I'm not sure exactly how I would use these aspects of the story, but they feel like good details that could enhance whatever I write. One other thing I found potentially useful in the story was that alarms went off and a policeman "saw a huge 'dog-like' animal stand up on its back legs, look at him, and jump over the 7 1/2 foot chain-link fence."

My idea with this one is to have Remus have gone out of control on his transformation for the month, and his friends are having trouble containing him. He ends up in the town but the Marauders pull him back and help to tame him before he can get to anyone.

The Werewolf of Vietlübbe would be a great story to use for having Remus' friends snap him out of his transformation stupor. In this story, a farmer comes across a werewolf. The werewolf is actually the farmer's neighbor, and the farmer realizes this. He tries to snap his neighbor out of an attack on a horse by calling out his name and humanizing him:

"'Irnst Jacobs, is that you? Let me say something to you. Irnst Jacobs, listen to me, Irnst Jacobs!' And as he spoke the name the third time, his neighbor stood there before him, begging him to high heaven not to reveal him."

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Bibliography: Werewolf Legends from Germany, translated and edited by D. L. Ashliman

Image Information: Werewolf drawing for the story "The Werewolf Howls" from Weird Tales magazine. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Week 5 Story: The Inscription

As the two friends parted ways, Ganem did not allow his second thoughts or worries to stop him. He desperately wanted the happiness the inscription promised to give whomever solved the task. Even more importantly, though, he had to know if the inscription was real. Even if his friend Salem's intuition was right that it was fake, he could not live with the not knowing. He decided that whatever happened to him, it would be worth the risk. Besides, he could not bare the idea of running to catch up with Salem and admit that he was probably right. And how hard could it be to cross the stream and carry the lion statue up the mountain?

With his mind made up, Ganem plunged into the stream to accomplish the first part of the inscription's task.

As soon as he dove, he knew he had made the wrong decision. It was much deeper than he had expected, and the whirlpool drew him in forcibly. Ganem was no match for the strong rotations, no matter how hard he fought them. He tried to yell out on instinct, but the water choked him. He splashed and gasped for air but was ultimately taken over by the current.

Everything went black.

~

Ganem, drenched, woke up wheezing and coughing up water. A voice that sounded far away in Ganem's hazy mind cried, "You idiot! What did I tell you?"

Ganem's sight finally came into focus and he saw Salem, also drenched, hovering over him. He realized they were on the bank of the stream, probably half a mile away from where he jumped in. He sat up and grunted at his friend.

"You did not need to come back," Ganem said. "I was fine."

Salem sputtered unintelligibly and rolled his eyes. "Fine?" he said. "You call this," he motioned to Ganem's current state, "fine? You would have died!"

Ganem rolled his eyes at the dramatics, but his flushed face showed a hint of gratitude for the rescue his friend had provided. He really could have died, he thought. Maybe it was time to reconsider his stubborn attitude. But just because he couldn't make it across the stream doesn't mean that nobody else could . . .

Ganem stood, dusted himself off, and started walking back to the stone that held the inscription.

"What--where are you going?" Salem asked, dumbfounded. "You--you're not thinking about going back and trying that again?"

Ganem grunted and continued walking.

Salem groaned. "Don't think that I'm going to save you again!"

Ganem kept walking. Salem made an exasperated noise. A few seconds later, Ganem could hear Salem running up behind him. "Okay, fine! We'll do it together." Then with frustration but affection he said, "You obstinate idiot." The corner of Ganem's mouth pulled into a smile as they continued to trek onwards.

They worked together to finish the task. They crossed the stream together, working strategically to get past the whirlpool. They carried the lion statue to the top of the mountain in one, long run. They sweat in copious amounts and their muscles ached. When one felt like giving up, the other offered a shoulder to lean on.

At the mountaintop, Salem was not shocked to see that there was nothing waiting for them. The inscription was fake, and he had known it all along. Ganem had not seemed shocked either, as his confidence had been wavering the further into the adventure they had gotten.

Still, there was a hint of hope in both of them during the journey they had put themselves through. The hope and having each other had gotten them through it. Ganem's disappointment was immense and it showed on his face. He sat on the dirt-covered ground, picking at grass and fixing his concentration on the lion statue they had carried all that way. He refused to look at Salem.

"Whoever inscribed that has got a lot of nerve," Salem said, trying to cheer his friend up. "Who does something like that?"

Ganem, frowning, continued to stare at the lion statue.

Offering a hand to his friend, Salem said, "I heard there's a village a mile away from here with the best lamb dish on Earth."

Ganem heaved a great sigh. He then looked at Salem, smiled, and said, "We better get going, then." He took his friend's hand to hoist himself up and off they went to the next adventure.


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Author's Note: I altered the story of "The Two Travelers" to include more of Ganem and Salem's relationship. I also changed the ending.

The original story is about two men, Ganem and Salem, who are traveling together. They come across an inscription on a stone that said that "great happiness" will be given to whomever could do the brutal task listed. Ganem believes it, but Salem is worried that it is just the writing of a beggar who is trying to trick people. Salem leaves but Ganem goes on to follow through with the task and ends up as the king of the city that inscribed the message.

As for my own version, I saw that there was a lot lacking in the writing of Ganem and Salem's friendship that I wanted to read about. I wanted to see Salem go back for his friend because that just seemed like what his character would do. Ganem seemed pretty stubborn (at one point in the original story he said, "My mind is fully made up to try it") so I ended up making that a big part of the story. I've been wanting to practice character-driven stories where the character interactions are more important than the plot. Ganem and Salem's friendship seemed like the perfect opportunity for that. I then also changed the ending to create a story that centers more around the journey than the ending. Even if it's unfortunate that they did all of that for nothing, they at least bonded over the experience.

Image information: Whirlpool from Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: The Two Travelers from the Bidpai unit. Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Week 5 Reading Notes: Bidpai, Reading B

The Crane and the Crab was a really interesting story with multiple motifs in it. It deals with different species fighting for food, deception, and revenge. The crane was clever to trick the fish with so little work, but in the end the crab outsmarted the crane. The writing leads the reader to question a lot of what is happening, never quite sure of what the ending will be because there are so many aspects to the story. 

I really loved the story of The Partridge and the Crow because of its meaning. It tells the reader the importance of not comparing yourself to someone else because we all have our own paths and talents. We should never try to be like someone else because one person's way of life might not work for another person. The writing does a wonderful job of keeping the story to tell this message simple. 

The story of The Hen and the Falcon does a wonderful job of exemplifying the message that "the grass is always greener on the other side" by waiting to reveal until the end that the hen's life is really not as great as it seems. This is an important concept in a lot of these stories--wait until the end to change the reader's entire perspective. What they thought was true is completely transformed at the very end. 

It's interesting how most of the stories in this unit end up in murder. Most of the animals end up killing someone. This feels really important because it puts emphasis on how poor decisions can cause the worst-case scenario. 

The story about The Three Fish is really interesting. It lacks any kind of need for critical thinking. The reader just knows that the fish with wit will survive, and the fish without it will die. No surprises or anything. Just a very straightforward story about how one's personality can affect them. 

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Bibliography: From the Bidpai unit. Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Image Information: Crane from Mythfolklore blog

Week 5 Reading Notes: Bidpai, Reading A

The story of The King, the Falcon, and the Drinking-Cup caught my interest in this unit. The story gets you attached to the King's falcon by showing you the soft side he has for the bird. Then it goes on to make you feel like something is off. This is followed by the king killing the bird for knocking the water out of the kings hands when he is desperately thirsty. This would not have worked if the writer would not have emphasized how dehydrated (and potentially near hallucinating) the king was because we know how attached to the falcon he was. I love how stubborn the king is--that he is extremely dehydrated but refuses to drink any other water than the water from the stream:

"'I have set my heart,' he said, 'on drinking from this stream which runs down the mountain-side'"

 That feels like a very important aspect of his personality. This attitude of his shows even more when he chooses to have his attendant travel to get the best water possible from the top of the stream instead of settling for the feeble drops where he was.

The end is such a tragedy, and the reader really feels it. To know that the king killed his bird, who was actually trying to save the king's life--that is painful. The story sets this up so well by emphasizing details that evoke emotional responses (about the falcon, the king's personality, and his own emotions about the situation).

The story of The Two Travelers also caught my attention. The writing makes sense of both of the traveler's opinions. The reader finds themselves seeing sense in Salem's thoughts that the writing is just made up. Still, Ganem's thoughts that the inscription tells truth is more intriguing and the writing makes it so that tension is built up and you really want to know who is right. I wonder what would have happened if they had both gone? Or what if Salem had been right?

Bibliography: From the Bidpai unit. Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Image Information: Falcon from Wikimedia Commons