Topic Research: Silesian Folk Tales

I would like create my project from the folk tales of Silesia. I had never realized the Silesian region had its own, unique folk tales, and I doubt many other people outside of Silesia have known about them either, let alone heard them. It is this thought that gave me the idea for the style I would like to use for my project. Rather than telling these stories with a third-person perspective and using Rubezahl as a common character as my source does, I would like to write from the first-person viewpoint of someone traveling through Silesia, experiencing the stories found in Silesian Folk Tales firsthand. My introduction would be the background of the storyteller. Perhaps he could be a coal miner, as Silesia is known for its coal mining industry, from Silesia travelling to a bigger city such as Krakow or Prague. Or perhaps the storyteller could be a merchant from a distant realm just passing through Silesia. Either way, I think it would be best to set my project in the past, sometime in the 17th century: when Silesia, or at least the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which were the powers governing Silesia, were the most influential. The three stories could be really be any of the selected folk tales found in my online source. However, I would really like to retell the stories of The Three Students, The Horse Dealer, and The Master of Horse. Each tale, which would be told by our traveler, would be a tale about someone he meets along his journey. Obviously, there is a possibility that I might write in a certain way that would make one of the other tales a better fit. Fortunately, I think if I do have to be flexible, I could very easily use any one of the folk tales in the book. On top of writing from the perspective of a character I, myself, formulated, I also believe this project will mirror my own time in Silesia where I met many different people and listened to their stories. For this reason, I already feel that this project is especially personal for me and I will enjoy researching and writing it.

Ksiaz Castle in Lower Silesia. Source: #Poland

Like the beautiful hidden villages and castles that can be found in Silesia that are not widely known among outsiders, my goal for this project is to share the beautiful and distinct, yet scarcely known, folk tales that come from the region. Perhaps my project will spark an appreciation for these stories that would have otherwise never come to fruition.

Week 6 Lab: TEDEd Videos: Language

How did English evolve? - Kate Gardoqui
-"They gave us a hearty welcome"
   -connotes a simple, rustic, and blue-collar scene because of the words' Saxon origins
-"They gave us a cordial reception"
   -connotes a elegant, sophisticated, and high-brow scene because of the words French origins
-When the Roman Empire crumbled, the Germanic tribes took over the Britain from the Celts
   -the spoke their Anglo-Saxon language we call Old English
-When the Viking Danes invaded, Old Norse words were integrated into the language
-The Normans then invaded making French the language of English royalty for nearly 300 years
-This caused for the aristocracy to speak French and the simple peasants to speak Old English
-The Normans also brought over Roman Catholic clergymen who introduced some Latin into the language
-This division based on language is still embedded in English today, i.e, the first example

Model showing the history of the English language. Source

Does grammar matter? - Andreea S. Calude
-Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism
-Prescriptivism
   -a language should follow specific rules
   -as languages came to be written, it was standardized to make it easier to understand over a vast population
   -this standard form was then seen as the only proper form
   -language purists established rules that were applied to spoken language as well
   -how language SHOULD be used
   -formal
-Descriptivism
   -Variation and adaptation is a natural and necessary part of language
   -speech is a separate phenomenon from writing
   -speech is more flexible
   -how language IS ACTUALLY used
   -informal
-Grammar is a set of linguistic habits that are constantly being renegotiated; a combination of descriptivism and prescriptivism

Reading Notes: Third Voyage, Part 1

-Sinbad sets sail on his third voyage
-The winds drive his ship to the harbor of a strange island
-the island was populated by short, hairy, and barbarous savages
   -they stood 2 feet tall and were covered in reddish fur. they spoke a strange language unknown to Sinbad
-the savages commandeered the ship and dropped the sailors off on another island close by
   -the sailors cant stop the savages because they don't speak they're language and they know that if they harm any of the savages, they will swarm the sailors and kill them all
-after wandering a ways and eating fruits along the way, they reach a large, well-built castle
-they go inside to find a pile of human bones and spits for roasting
-being terribly scared, a giant cyclops makes his way to them
-he picks out the fattest of the sailors, roasts him, then eats him
-the cyclops then takes a nap, wakes, and leaves

An Ewok from Star Wars. Source: Wikimedia Commons

"Third Voyage" from The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).