Emma Keith

With this next obituary in my series, I want to strike a bit more of a bittersweet note with the story of Eurydice.  Orpheus and Eurydice  by Frederic Leighton. Source: Wikipedia Commons . Some background I've gathered on Eurydice: she was one of Apollo's (god of the sun) daughters, and an oak nymph ( nymphs are divine spirits but not gods, and therefore, not immortal). Eurydice was married to the poet, musician and prophet Orpheus , a child of one of the muses, and the two were deeply in love (though their marriage was predicted to be extremely short by Hymen , the god of marriage ceremonies).  Eurydice's story is an interesting one for this storybook since it mostly begins after her death. One day, as she's being chased by the shepherd  Aristaeus (who was swept away by her beauty) , she's bitten by a viper and quickly dies of its poison. Orpheus is so wrecked by her death that he journeys to the underworld to retrieve her.  Orpheus' g...

This week, I read from the Japanese Fairy Tale anthology (since I read some African folk  tales during week 7 and wanted to switch things up). Here are my thoughts on some of these lovely stories: The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet The stonecutter and the mountain spirit. Courtesy of Laura Gibbs. Source: UnTextbook . This story is very sad and sweet. I think it could be more detailed if told from the point of view of the maiden, as she undergoes great tragedy and sorrow only to find great beauty and happiness. There's great emotional potential when the story is told from her perspective, since the story has other main characters, but mostly revolves around her trials. The Stonecutter I like the idea of and the detail in this story. My thoughts for retelling are: what if this story was told from an animal's point of view? For example, a small mouse is content with his life in the fields, but then meets a mouse who lives in a barn and wishes that ...