Monday, September 18, 2017

Reading Notes: Folklore of the Holy Land Part B

Lot and the Tree of the Cross

This piece reminded me a little bit of a tie between the Old Testament and the New Testament. For a rewrite, I'm not entirely sure which direction I would take this but I did have a thought that I could do something with Lot looking for the Tree that he wanted. It would be completely different from what was originally told, but I was thinking of changing his character development slightly to where he didn't fail 3 times to find what he was looking for but was instead successful.

The Deaths of Moses and Aaron

To rewrite this piece, I am not 100% sure on what I would focus on. One idea that I did have was to change the time that it was written in, even if just by a few weeks. What this would mean for the piece is that it would be told by someone other than Moses and Aaron, maybe even one of their family members as a way of explaining the grief that they are enduring in the process of losing their loved ones. 

David

I love this different version of King David and his affair with Bathsheba. I was thinking for the rewrite of this piece I could have a series of letters that could even be intercepted by Uriah, serving as a method for him to find out about his wife's affair and a reason for King David to want to end his life. This would be helpful to my end of the semester project as well, making it even more appealing to use in my work this week. 

Solomon

For retelling this story, I want to focus somehow on the two doves that Solomon turned into the doves. This might look something like telling the thoughts they are having throughout the piece, even when they are rocks. It would be interesting to try and give thoughts to non-living objects, but I think shifting the perspective on the piece would be an interesting thing to add another dimension to the story as it is already told. 

El Khudr the Evergreen

Because of it's short length, I had a hard time coming up with how to retell this story. However, I did find one small aspect of the story that I think it would be interesting to focus on. At the very beginning, it talks about El Khudr being the one that discovered the Fountain of Youth. For a rewrite, I could further explore this idea and write an adventure filled piece telling all about how he went about finding the fountain.

Legends of El Khudr

Knowing that Kl Khudr ofter is used to represent Elijah makes this piece a little bit easier to read and to work with. For a rewrite of this piece, I would want to make it into a letter or a series of letters that explains the things that he was able to do, such as the way that he immediately healed the man with the disease. It would also be particularly interesting to think of this in a modern way, just to add another layer of difference in detailing to it. 
The character of El Khudr in the piece above is often used to represent 
Elijah, pictured directly above. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Elijah and Saint George

For this story, I think I would want to change the perspective yet again. Only this time, I was thinking it would be interesting to make the tale from the point of view of the dragon that is destroying the wall and the rest of the town. This would be a cool way to put a 'mystical' touch on it and change it just enough to make it a unique story.

El Khudr and Moses

I didn't completely understand this story, but I think something that would have made it a little easier to interpret would be if it had been in a more modern situation. For that reason, were I to retell this story in some way, I would change to setting of the time in which it took place, which would ultimately change the society and the way that the men and women would view each other as the plot unfolded.

Bibliography

J. E. Hanauer's Folklore of the Holy Land

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