Reading Notes: Eskimo Folk Tales, Part A

Some of the stories were told in very simple terms, which I admire sometimes, but I think I prefer the stories with a bit more detail. It helps immerse me in the setting better.  This would make them more believable to me if that is the goal. I like the stories that ended with hopeful endings the best. It is always better to leave on a positive note than a negative, in my opinion anyway. Some of the stories were just too weird for me. I must not have been ready for the supernatural stories. Animals communicating with humans is sometimes as fantastic as I want to get. I guess it is more about how those stories thrust the reader into the fantast world. I suppose this phenomenon would not be the same for someone a part of that culture, but it made the stories more confusing for me. I would have appreciated more background information to establish the setting. The names were too confusing to me, but of course, that is just a culture issue. I didn't like the stories where there were too many characters of which to keep track, and I also had a problem when there were too many things to follow within the story. I like one main story with a couple characters to get to know.

                                                                    Polar Bear, online source

I absolutely loved the story about the bear and the woman! It was such a fun idea that the bear ended up having a human like mind because the woman spoke to him in "human speech." It honestly gave me a Paddington vibe but in a much more "realistic" way. I did think it was cute that the bear played with the children, but it made me sad that soon everyone was too scared to play with him. It was a great story, but the ending was just so sad! I want to write a reunion story for the old woman and the bear. Or maybe just have the bear find a bear family in which to belong! Many of the stories ended with “And here ends this story,’ which I would like to include in my own. A few stories began with “There once was a wifeless man,” and one story even mentions that’s how “all” stories start. I think it would be fun to start my story with “There once was a childless woman,” because she fosters the bear. I liked that the stories promoted good values like honesty and loyalty, and I would like to give my bear story a theme of love, inclusion, and compassion.

Bibliography: Eskimo Folk Tales by Knud Rasmussen, link to online source