Hey everyone.
So, I've been lucky enough that my summer officially started about two weeks ago. Which might explain why I've been so lazy with the blog... Oh well! Hopefully you're all looking forward to summer as well --though you've got a bit more left than us in the college crowd!
If you haven't even started THINKING about reading Sea of Trolls yet, don't worry about it. For once, I haven't really gotten all that far into it myself. I opened it, hoping it would get me psyched up for Rick Riordan's newest series (which we still have quite a while to wait for) --based on Norse Mythology, but...it hasn't really had that effect yet.
It HAS gotten me thinking about one of my other favorite, kind of goofy, series though -How To Train Your Dragon. Its one of those few instances where, I like both the book and the movie --because they're different! I don't think I would have enjoyed the movie nearly as much if it had been exactly like the book.
So far, I think one of the most interesting characters is the Bard himself. If you haven't gotten into it yet, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Bard's story may be vaguely familiar; if it isn't --trust me, it will be! The Bard, once upon a time, went to a kingdom that was ravaged by a beast called Grendel. The short-of-the-short (the epic poem is less than 100 pages) of it is, Grendel was slain by the great Warrior Beowulf. Sound familiar? There's only been about a dozen cartoons, songs, poems, re-tellings, and movies made about the guy. Well, after slaying Grendel, he found out that Grendel had a mother...who wasn't too thrilled that Beowulf had off'd her son. So, Beowulf had to do something about her too. ...Now, where Nancy Farmer get's creative is: Grendel's Mother had a SISTER, who is now seeking revenge on those responsible for killing her sister --namely: the Bard.
A "bard" is another word for what we might call a storyteller. He sings, he tells tales, epic poems, and so forth. They traveled the word with very few belongings, gathering stories to share and spread across the world. Many of the fairy tale stories we still today, like those you might recognize from the Brother's Grimm were actually passed along this way, until the authors collected them all for print.
So, back in the day, Bards actually had a really important job. Without them, we wouldn't know the awesome stories of Snow White and Rose Red, Cinderella, Beowulf, or any of the Canturbury Tales.
While looking for some good storytelling/bard examples for you guys to check out, I stumbled across this TOTALLY ADORABLE little storyteller from Hong Kong, China. She partook in a story telling competition, telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood --and don't worry, it's in english, which makes her even more adorable and impressive. And, goes to prove that you can be an ace story teller --no matter what age you are!
Also, to get you into the Norse swing of things, I found a link to the Norse Origin story of Odin and Ymir. This is a creation story, or the myth of how the world began. Creation stories are different from culture to culture. There are many different ideas of how the earth began, that have been passed along throughout time. Did you know storytelling is a world-wide past time? Almost every culture has used story telling as a way of passing along native history. What are some of the creation or other cultural stories you may know?
Be sure to share your thoughts on Sea of Trolls as well as any links and videos you may come across.
Happy reading!
Samma
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