Myths, Fairytales and Legends
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Myths, Fairytales and Legends’
After safely negotiating the alluring Sirens, Odysseus and his crew must now decide which of Scylla and Charybdis would do the least damage.
Before Odysseus and his crew set sail from her island, Circe warned them all of the dangers they would face in returning to Ithaca. Assuming they passed safely by the alluring Sirens, they would then have to navigate a course between a gangly, voracious six-headed monster on one side and a ghastly, throbbing whirlpool on the other — a choice between bad and worse.
Armed with a length of stout cord and a large ball of wax, Odysseus and his crew prepare to face the music of the Sirens.
Odysseus and his crew have parted, not without misgivings, from the paradise island of the goddess Circe. Before they set off for home and the island of Ithaca, Circe warned them about the Sirens. The sailor who once listens to their music will be drawn irresistibly into their meadow, there to sit spellbound forever by song among the other little heaps of withered flesh and bleaching bone.
The Wind and the Sun compete to see which of them can make an unsuspecting traveller shed his cloak.
The following Aesop’s Fable dramatises a lesson which would seem particularly relevant to the time in which we live. Blessings and persuasion will win hearts, whereas threats and force will win at most resentful compliance, and more likely angry rebellion.
After driving the man-eating ogre Grendel from Hrothgar’s hall, Beowulf must now deal with Grendel’s anguished and vengeful mother.
Beowulf has driven Grendel, the man-eating ogre, from Hrothgar’s hall and mortally wounded him. Thinking his mission complete, Beowulf took his leave of Hrothgar, only for the creature’s anguished mother to steal into the king’s hall and snatch his bosom friend in revenge. Now she has vanished beneath the waters of a mire, but Beowulf is not to be put off. Commending his soul to God, Beowulf leaps after her.
The terrible monster Grendel, secure in the knowledge that no blade can bite him, bursts into Hrothgar’s hall expecting another meal of man-flesh.
The lordly Hall of Hrothgar, King of the Danes, has been plagued night after night by a grotesque creature named Grendel. Offspring of Cain through many wretched fathers, he dwelt in swamps, feeding off the flesh of men, and feared neither sword nor spear. But tonight, Beowulf and his Swedish warrior-band have answered Hrothgar’s call for aid; and lying on soft pelts and rugs, they wait in uneasy slumber.