Caleb's Myth-Folklore Assignments

A Binnorie Song  I was a princess from Binnorie     The bonnie milldams of Binnorie A beautiful lass with skin so fair     And beautiful, flowing  golden hair Sir William came and took his bride     My sister whose smile spread so wide But soon his heart, it fell for me     The more beautiful princess of Binnorie And so he came and took my hand     and so he came and took my hand He slighted my sister, his bride to be     She plotted her vengeance where none could see That vengeful princess of Binnorie     That vengeful princess of Binnorie And time did pass and all was well     The hate in her heart, oh none could tell That vengeful princess of Binnorie     That vengeful princess of Binnorie One day she said let's go to the docks     She should have said let's go to the stocks For the river is where my life would end     A hand or a glove she would not lend She pushed...

The Cookie Jar There it was. The great golden egg. The container of dreams. The genie's bottle. The cookie jar. Cookie Jar Clip Art from Pixy Mom had put it up on top of the fridge last week after she caught me with my "grubby little hands" inside, fishing around for the holy food. Well, it slowed me down. It wouldn''t stop me. It's simple really. I'm a child. That jar has cookies. Children eat cookies. I was going up there to get that jar. I went into the garage to grab the ladder. It wasn't there. I looked outside for it. There it was leaning up against the wall, wet with the day's earlier rain. No climbing that. So, I went to get a towel, to dry off the ladder, to climb to the cookie jar. For some reason the towel cabinet was locked. I went to dad for the key to unlock the cabinet, to get the towel, to dry the ladder, to climb to the cookie jar. Dad said he'd only give me the key if I brought him a cup of tea. So, I went to make a cup of tea...

A Flintstone Knife ( Wikimedia ) October 15th, 1973 It was a cold and dreary night. The wind bit at my nose. The flooded street seeped into my shoes as I walked down 5th Avenue towards El Agujero.  I had been tracking the Sola gang for 6 months. They're operations sprawled across the city. Drugs, prostitution, trafficking. If it was somebody's vice, the Sola gang provided it. They didn't care who or what tried to stop them. Nobody ever did. Nobody ever stayed alive long enough. I thought I was different. We all do, don't we? Most people tried to take out the Solas gun blazing. They figured if they could take out the head, the body would wither. Nobody ever took out the head. Cops figured they could make it under cover. A total of three tried. The first made it 3 months before his head showed up at his kid's birthday party. The next lasted 1 month. His arms were safely delivered to his aging mother. The final idiot lasted a whole 3 days. His corpse was found sitting ...

    Finders       It was late last Friday night. I had just finished doing my homework for school. Suddenly, a car passed by the window. Its headlights flashed into my room, and I saw something shine in the corner. I walked over to pick it up. It was a very pretty ring. Three small diamonds sat centered around the gold band. It's my sister's graduation ring. Our parents had spent a small fortune on it. How did she manage to leave it in the corner of my room? I kind of want to keep it. What's that old saying? Finders keepers; losers weepers!  Ring Ornament Metal by Pashminu on Pixabay Keepers      I had been looking for my graduation ring for weeks! Hiding my hand from mom and making excuses this whole time has become really exhausting. I was just about to give up and tell them what happened when my sister sat down for breakfast. On her finger, my ring! What was she doing with that? I asked her where she had found it. She told me it was j...

Runaway Tales (Photo by Gavin Clarke , 2009)       Story      Once upon a time, there was a real seedy New York dive bar. In this bar sat a scrawny little man. He couldn't have weighed more than 140 pounds. His arms were like toothpicks and his glasses were most definitely tortoise shell. Needless to say, he looked a bit out of place. Naturally, when a guy looks that out of place, he gathers some attention. A couple of real tough looking dudes gathered around the man as he drank his drink. These guys were big. They easily topped 200 to 250 pounds and it was all muscle. They crack their knuckles and ask the gentleman what he thinks he's doing here. So, the gentleman with the tortoise shell glasses addressed the big men in leather jackets and offered to tell them a story. They were curious as to what made this kid think he could hang here. Being the ever understanding men that they were, they sat down for a listen. "Alright yous guys. Here it goes," said the ...

A Sculpture of a man-like Golem ( Wikimedia Commons )     Once upon a time, there was a rabbi who lived all alone. He had nobody to help with the chores at home or tasks at the synagogue. He couldn't employ any of the townspeople because they all feared him.. They believed his experiments with chemistry was evil. They saw fire and strange shadows in his window at night and believed he was working with demons. They called him a wizard. Now, the Rabbi was no wizard. However, fed up with not having any help, he decided to take matters into his own hands. "If it's a wizard they want, it's a wizard they'll get," said the rabbi.  The rabbi built a large mechanical woman out of wood and metal. It had springs and hinges so that it could move. "Now I must power this creature." The rabbi wrote the Sacred Name of God on a slip of paper and placed it into the mechanical woman's mouth. His creation sprung to life and the rabbi put it to work to do chores.    ...

Beauty and the Basilisk Basilisk  by Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch (1747-1822).           Once upon a time, a mother and her three daughters lived in a small hamlet on the outskirts of a once glorious kingdom. Of course, this kingdom no longer exists because it's the 21st century. It's probably a nest of freeways and a couple McDonald's now. I don't know. That's not important. What is important is the fact that while this kingdom existed, a mother and her three daughters lived there in a small hamlet on the outskirts.          One day, a market rolled into a nearby village. You know the type. It's not quite big enough to be a full blown town but still big enough to justify a seasonal market. Anyways, before heading off to this market, the mother asked her three daughters if they would like her to bring them back anything. The first two daughters each rattled off a laundry list of items that they absolutely needed. These ...