Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

 After reading the eight short stories there were two in particular that stood out to me. The first one was W. H. D. Rouse: Goblin City and the second was Ellen C. Babbitt: The Foolish, Timid Rabbit. 

I really enjoyed reading Goblin City because I enjoy fictional stories and I feel like I could put a fun spin on it. My notes for this story are:

• This takes place in the city of Ceylon which is present-day Sri Lanka
• The city was full of she goblins, who were looking for husbands
• They would find travelers, force them to marry, then once they were bored of them they would eat them
• One day a shipwrecked full of 500 sailors and the she goblins came down innocently to win the hearts of these sailors over by assisting them
• They used their magic to create a false community of people to give false hope to these sailors
• The she goblins finally convinced the sailors to marry them out of pity
• One night the captain awoke and watched his wife eat up her old husband in fear
• The she goblins also chanted a frightening chant: "Man’s meat, man’s meat, That’s what Goblins like to eat!"
• The next morning as the captain was spreading the awful news a good fairy's magical horse rescued those who believe the captain
• Those who did not believe the captain and stayed were eaten later that night.

(The She Goblins Snatching Innocent Travelers: H. W. Le Mair)

I also really enjoyed reading The Foolish, Timid Rabbit story because I think the moral of the story is really applicable to humans. If I chose to recreate that story I think rather than changing the plot I would change the characters to something a little more relatable. My notes for this story are:

• This story starts with a rabbit asleep under a tree
• the rabbit begins to have selfish thoughts of what his life would become if the world were to end
• Some monkeys overheard him and dropped some coconuts to mimic the sound of the world falling apart
• Without hesitation, the rabbit was frightened and begin to run for his life
• As he was running many animals were asking why and where he was going and he proceeded to tell all of them the world was ending
• The rabbit collected a large group of animals to run with him with no hesitation as well
• Finally, the animals ran into the king lion
• The lion proceeded to ask why all the animals thought the world was breaking apart and no one had an answer
• The initial rabbit said he had heard the world breaking and proceeded to show the lion where he heard the scary noise
• The lion had seen the fallen coconuts and told the rabbit he was mistaken
• If it was not for the wise lion all the foolish animals including the rabbit could still be running for a foolish mistake.

(All of the Animals that Ran with the Rabbit: Ellsworth Young)