Extra Reading: Robin Hood

I decided to do an extra reading this week instead of writing an essay. I chose the Robin Hood unit because I can remember hearing stories or watching Robin Hood when I was young. Reading this unit was a little bit of a challenge as I thought reading the stories in ballad form was actually tougher than I thought. I did manage to find a few favorites during my reading and I convey them below.

Robin Hood on the cover of a comic (Wikipedia).

Little John

This was an amusing little ballad. I thought it was entertaining to hear they called him Little John even though he stood near seven feet tall and could obviously fight very well. I also liked that even though their small battle did seem to be very vicious it ended up being all in good fun. At the end of the fight, Robin Hood's band of merry men are called upon and act to avenge their leader's loss. Instead of this, Robin Hood offer's to take in Little John and teach him the way of his band of men within the forest.

The Ranger

This story is a lot like the story of Little John. The ranger confronts Robin Hood and tells him that he is in charge of the forest and Robin Hood disagrees saying that he reigns supreme in the forest. Once again, Robin Hood battles his foe for a long period of time. When the battle is over, it seems like the two have battled to a draw. Once again, Robin Hood invites the ranger to join his band of merry men and they feast and drink all night to celebrate their new member.

Storytelling Week 11-The Putter Excalibur

One day, a professional golfer was walking down the fairway with his caddie. The young professional had just given up a huge lead on the last day of the tournament due to his terrible putting on the greens. After their round, the golfer and the caddie sat at the bar in the clubhouse.

"I just can't seem to make putts!" exclaimed the golfer. "I'm getting close but none fall in the hole."

"What you need is a new putter. I bet you could find a great one in the pro shop on the other side of the clubhouse," reasoned the caddie.

With that, the golfer and the caddie found the pro shop and searched for some time for a new putter. There were putters of all shapes and sizes. Long ones, short ones, silver ones, gold ones. Even with all the variety, there wasn't a putter that seemed to fit. Just when they were going to give up a hope, a dull glow came from behind a pile of old, discarded golf clubs. The golfer reached behind the pile and pulled out an old, gold putter that seemed to come from the 1950s. Along the head of the putter were engraved the name "EXCALIBUR".

Although it was old, it was the only putter that seemed to feel comfortable in the hands of the young golfer. Even though it felt comfortable, the caddie and golfer were unsure of how it would perform in an actual tournament round. The golfer would try it out at the next week which just so happened to be the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. It was the first major tournament of the year and the first year professional wanted to prove to the rest of the tour that he belonged.

The putter lived up to its mysterious appearance as he putted exceptional all week long. He was tied for the lead with one hole to play and had a 30 foot putt that would give him the victory if he could sink it. As he lined up the putt and stood over the ball his eyes rested on the engraved words in the dull golden head of the putter: "EXCALIBUR". With that, he pulled the club back and putted the ball with a smooth stroke. The putt curled and seemed to stop right on the edge of the hole before it fell! He had won the tournament and found a weapon he could rely on the rest of his career.

"Excalibur" the putter (Wikipedia).

Author's Note: The inspiration from this story came from The Sword Excalibur found in King Arthur: Tales of  the Round Table written by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford (1902). In the original story, King Arthur is without a sword as he rides along with Merlin the wizard. They come upon a lake with an arm rising out of the middle of the water holding a magnificent sword. The Lady of the Lake appears and agrees to let King Arthur have the sword if he will give her a gift when she asks. He agrees and rows out to the sword and retrieves it. I decided to change the story to a professional golfer needing a new putter to fix his struggles. I thought it would be amusing to keep the name of the "weapon" as Excalibur and have it be somewhat magical. I did this because the Masters golf tournament starts next week and a commercial came on as I was thinking of plots for the story. I am a big golf fan so I hopefully did not use to many words that are not known if you are not familiar with golf. I tried to keep the use of sports specific terminology to a minimum.

Reading Diary B: King Arthur

I finished reading the second half of the King Arthur unit for this reading diary. The story shifted from being all about King Arthur and his adventures to various Knights of his. Most of the stories revolved around the Knights' quest for the Holy Grail. I kept some notes on my favorites below.

The Adventure of Sir Percivale

I think Sir Percivale may be my favorite character so far within the King Arthur unit. He seems to have good morals and fights for others throughout this story. He first rides to confront a Knight that has stolen a great steed of a yeoman. He rode hard and fast on a horse not suitable for battle but was ultimately beaten by the Knight and could not catch him. Then, at the end of the story, he joins a battle with a great serpent and a lion. He decided to help the lion because he thought him to be the more "natural beast". It was amusing that the lion took fancy of him and acted like a regular housecat thereafter and even slept with Percivale.

The End of Arthur

I liked this because it wrapped up the entire story in a way that wasn't to crazy or hard to understand. Merlin's vision of King Arthur dying a noble death on the battlefield came true and it was neat to see a little passage from the beginning of the unit come back and come true. Also, the fact that when King Arthur had the Knight throw Excalibur back into the water that the hand (I presume the same one from which he took it from in the first place) shot out of the water to take it back beneath the surface was a very cool visual.

King Arthur retrieving Excalibur from the hand in the water (Wikipedia Commons).

Reading Diary A: King Arthur

I decided to read the unit of King Arthur for my reading for Week 11. I like to read stories of heroes and things like that (and am currently watching Game of Thrones) so it was an easy choice for me to read this unit. I kept track of what were my favorite stories and they are found below.

The Drawing of the Sword

This was fun to read because I can remember me loving this story when I was a young boy. To hear the more detailed background behind it made the story very interesting. The part where Sir Ector describes never knowing who Arthur's father was but that Merlin told him one day he would discover from who Arthur came was the best part for me. It showed background of the story without having to delve off into its own individual story to tell it.

The Sword Excalibur

I really am enjoying this unit so far because I am learning so much background behind movies and stories I read as a child. I liked the thought of a hero having to complete a task (such as pulling the sword from stone) or giving up something in return for a mighty treasure as in this story.

Excalibur (Wikipedia)

The King's Pilgrimage

This story was almost like some weird science fiction movie. It was creative to have the squire dream the dream and have all these spooky things happen to him only to awake and see that they had indeed occurred. I've thought of writing a spooky storytelling post so maybe this could be the inspiration for it.