Mythology and Folklore Blog

Nightingale: Source It had been raining for a week straight, and the nightingale's babies were in constant distress due to the pouring rain. Their nest was made of wooden sticks, and those sticks kept getting wet and uncomfortable to the baby birds. The nightingale wanted to do something to help her children, so she started to look for more materials to make a cozier nest. This is when the nightingale came across the Rustic's garden and the beautiful rose pedals. The nightingale carefully fled over the Rustic's rose garden and started to take pedals of the roses, one by one. She would do this every single night when she knew the Rustic was asleep and would not find her. On one night where she went again, it started to rain very hard. She could not fly and carry the pedals at the same time, and they fell! She decided that she would go back to get the rose pedals in the morning.  The Rustic saw the rose pedals scattered around the floor and was enraged. His plan was to captu...

The hare, fox, and wolf. Source  In this story, the hare is about to be eaten by the wolf! The hare thinks fast and tries to come up with a plan to prevent being eaten. She tries to get the wolf to be interested in eating the fox that constantly chases her. Her plan seems to be going along smoothly, but the fox is not fooled by her words. The fox has a trap in his home and traps both the wolf and the hare. The wolf ends up eating the hare and the fox runs away.  In this story, I feel bad for the hare because all she wanted to do was get rid of her enemy and prevent being eaten. At the same time, she should have came up with a better plan so the fox didn't suspect anything.  Bibliography: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

A Rose Bush: Source  The Rustic takes pride in his garden and takes very good care of it. The nightingale comes to his garden daily and picks at the rose pedals off, ripping them to pieces. This really upsets the rustic because he loves his garden and he is eager to capture this bird. When he captures the nightingale, he plans to keep it captured for a long time. The bird asks him if the picking of the flower pedals are enough of a reason to punish it until it dies. The rustic rethinks his decision, and decides to let the bird go. The bird rewards him with a pot of gold for his good deed. I liked how the nightingale said that the Rustic would suffer more if he knew that he would be the reason behind its capture and death if he decided to go through with it. This story teaches how important forgiveness can be and how we shouldn't be angry for things that slightly inconvenience us because it will leave us more hurt in the long run.  Bibliography: The Tortoise and the Geese and O...