Topic Research: Selkies

"Cliffs Beyond Pettico Wick," photo by Steven Ruffles.

Source: Geograph.

I've decided to base my storybook around selkies, creatures of Celtic folklore who exist as seals in the sea but can shed their sealskin to come ashore. Many of these stories are tragic, as the selkie is often separated from her sea-home against her will and must leave her earthly children if she wishes to return to her original family. Selkies may be either men or women, and I've tried to look for some stories about female selkies and some about male selkies. I noticed a lot of sexism, unfortunately, in that the female selkie usually has her sealskin stolen by a fisherman who has noticed her beauty and who marries her when she can't find her sealskin and has no choice but to live with him. Then, when she does discover her sealskin, she often has no hard feelings toward the man who stole it from her and kept her away from her family for so long! I'd like to write a story in which the selkie has more of a voice and maybe even tricks the man who stole her skin. I've never been to Ireland or Scotland, but I love to look at pictures of the coastal cliffs there, and I love Celtic music. I am excited to include details of the sights, sounds, and smells of the coasts in the stories.

Many selkie stories follow a very similar plot, so I would probably use a few of those stories to write just one of my stories. As I mentioned above, several of these stories involve a man who falls in love with the selkie based on her beauty and steals her sealskin so that she cannot return to the water. She does not know that he stole her skin, so she marries him and has children, only to discover her skin one day and return to the ocean, never to come back. In some of the stories, she spends time with her children; in one story she does this by swimming along with them as they walk on the shore. Sometimes, she visits her husband while he fishes out on the water, and she is sorrowful and tender toward him. I might write a story in which she is not pleased with her husband for stealing her skin. I don't think he's worthy of her love for tricking her and keeping her away from her family. On the other hand, the original stories are so tragically beautiful that I don't know if I would want to mar that with a tale of revenge. Some of the stories that follow this general plot are "The Mermaid Wife," "The Silkie Wife," "The Seal Skin," "Tom Moore and the Seal Woman," and "The Lady of Gollerus." All these stories are from Dan Alishman's Folktexts. These stories are all fairly short and have different interesting details that I could draw from.

The second story I'd like to use, "Herman Perk and the Seal," is also from Dan Alishman's Folktexts.  This story, surprisingly, involves no malice between humans and selkies. A man stranded in a storm is called to by a selkie, who promises to return him safely home if he will retrieve his wife's sealskin so that the two selkies can be together again.

Finally, there is a ballad called "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry," a traditional folksong from Orkney that was collected by Francis James Child (Source: Sacred Texts). This ballad is tragically beautiful to read and even more beautiful when it is sung. It is from a woman's point of view, but the selkie in the story is male. The woman, nursing her baby, cries out that she doesn't know the father or where he is. The father appears to her and tells her that he is a selkie, a seal by day and a man by night. Then, he takes the baby with him and says that she will marry a hunter who will kill him and their son. This ballad is interesting to me because, as with the common female selkie stories, it was probably used to explain away the disappearance of a parent. In this case, it would have been used to explain the birth and disappearance of a child without a father. The actual folktale is very melancholy, as is the true story of what happened. Mainly Norfolk has more information about the ballad and its different performances.

In this video, two women sing a lovely a cappella version of the song and explain its meaning.

This is another nice version with slightly different lyrics and melody by Joan Baez.

Feedback Strategies: Giving Praise Wisely

Good job! Clip art from Pixabay.

I am definitely the type of person who likes to give a lot of praise. I like people and want them to feel good about themselves, which usually leads to lots of exclamation points and proclamations about how great everyone is. The articles I read about feedback and praise were good for helping me to step back and examine why and how I give praise. Giving praise is something that comes naturally for me, but it is important for me to realize that it's not always the best course of action in every situation and that other actions can help people even more than giving praise would. These articles will hopefully help me to approach giving feedback in this class intentionally and with care.

The first article I read, "The Difference Between Praise and Feedback," discussed different viewpoints about giving praise. Carol Zweck, who developed the idea of the growth mindset, has written and spoken about "process praise," which is praising the process and effort that a person puts into something rather than praising traits or characteristics of the actual person. So, process praise would be telling your partner in a class project, "You've put so much time into this presentation, and the PowerPoint looks really good" rather than "You're a genius!" The idea behind process praise is that when we are praised as if our success is part of our natural characteristics, we are more likely to develop a fixed mindset and become averse to challenges that will show us being less naturally talented. On the other hand, if we are praised for our effort or process, we learn what we did correctly and associate our effort with the good product. Another writer, Alfie Kohn, says that we shouldn't praise actions at all because that would show conditional regard. I think that Kohn's ideas are really interesting and good for parents, but I don't think they apply to class feedback very well because I'm not raising my classmates and they don't need to know I have unconditional regard for them. I'd like to focus on using process praise when I give feedback to my classmates, because process praise is specific and leads to improvement rather than just good feelings. Also, I think that developing a growth mindset is good for people of all ages, not just for children, so Zweck's ideas apply even when giving feedback to adults.

I also looked at an infographic, "How to Craft Constructive Feedback," which gave specific ideas for giving feedback. I focused my attention on the last part of the infographic, which discusses feedback for people who are working on a project that they want to approve, since that is most applicable to what we are doing in this class. The three steps for giving feedback in this situation are observing, describing, and suggesting. First, observe a feature of the work without praising or bashing it. Then, describe what effect it had on you and suggest how to either improve a wanted effect or get rid of an unwanted effect. I think this is a great process for giving feedback on people's storybooks and portfolios, because we all want our stories to create certain effects for the reader. Focusing feedback on the effects of specific features of the story is a good way to help people tangibly improve, and I know I would be happy to receive feedback like this.

I have not had to give much formal feedback to my peers in the past. Any feedback I did give was mostly just generic praise. I look forward to practice giving specific, process-focused feedback that might actually help people!

Week 3 Story: Jephthah's Trial

The murmuring of the jury grew quiet as the lumbering man was brought into the Court of Israel, his eyes downcast and his long hair disheveled. A wave of nervous silence washed over the audience as he moved past them.

"Jephthah," the judge barked, "you are on trial for the murder of your only daughter."

Jephthah continued to look down; he couldn't bear to meet the eyes of the judge or anyone else. He had once been a great judge himself, respected among nations, a man of God.

"An abusive man," Jephthah heard the prosecutor saying, puncturing his own thoughts about himself "In Israel we acknowledge man's responsibility toward our God, but Jephthah has made a rash and foolish vow. The decision to carry out such a vow was an act of abuse toward his daughter."

No, no, it was only an act of obedience. Obedience to God. What could I have done? 

Jephthah pulled his attention back to the courtroom. His defense lawyer was busy retelling the whole story. Jephthah had played it over and over against his will, at the mercy of his mind, but he still could hardly stand hearing it again.

"My client needed to win his most recent battle of war," said his lawyer. "So he did what many of our most respected leaders have done: he made a vow with God. He promised that he would sacrifice whatever first came out to meet him upon his return home, if only he could win the battle. Then, when he won the battle and his daughter came out to meet him, he had no choice but to sacrifice her on the altar. He was deeply grieved, crying out and tearing his clothes for his daughter's sake. But it was his vow, and even his daughter agreed that fulfilling this vow to God was important. Yes, Jephthah did participate in taking the life of his daughter, but it was for God. One cannot break a vow with his God, as both Jephthah and his daughter knew."

"But why did he make that vow in the first place?" objected the prosecutor. "What did he think would come out from his house to greet him, a bird? Didn't he know it would be a human? Why did he think any life in his household was his to give to God? It is a matter of power."

The defense lawyer stood up. "You think that Jephthah wanted anything in his household to perish? No, he didn't sacrifice anyone to show power, but to win his battle."

"Why was a battle so important to him? Why was it worth gambling a life? Was his own glory worth more than the life of his daughter, or even of one of his servants? He valued himself above them all."

Jephthah looked up at the prosecutor, fear swirling in his eyes. Did I? he thought. He had said that his household and everyone in it belonged to God, but now he wondered if, deep down, he thought it belonged to himself.

The jury went out to decide his fate. He held his head in his hands.

Author's Note: Jephthah is a character from the Old Testament who makes a vow with God that if he can win an important battle, he will sacrifice as a burnt offering whatever comes out to meet him when he reaches his home. He is overjoyed when he wins the battle, but unfortunately, his daughter is the first person to greet him when he gets home. She is his only child. She accepts her fate quite readily and asks to be given two months to mourn her death as a virgin, and then she comes home and is sacrificed. The story is presented as an unfortunate situation, but I saw it as preventable if only Jephthah had not played around with the lives of others. He was willing to sacrifice the life of someone in his household as if he owned everyone under his roof, and I wanted to write a story in which he is called out for his vow instead of praised as an obedient follower of God. I decided to write the story as a murder trial to show that Jephthah may not be as innocent as he seems.

Bibliography: Judges, King James Bible. Link to the reading online.

Image information
      Top picture: Supreme Court of Israel. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
      Bottom picture: The Sacrifice of Jephthah's Daughter, sculpted by Massimiliano Soldani.
            Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Reading Notes: Bible Women, Part B

Bathsheba
King James Bible, link to the reading online.

Bathsheba Bathing, by Rembrandt.

Source: Pixabay.

Bathsheba is undeveloped as a character. She has no reaction to anything that happens, even when it directly concerns her, except for mourning Uriah's death.

A couple of ironic events occur surrounding Uriah. First, he refuses to go into his house and lie with Bathsheba because he feels that he shouldn't be experiencing such pleasure while his fellow army men endure harsh conditions; meanwhile, David has been sleeping not only with his own women (presumably) but with Uriah's wife Bathsheba. Second, Uriah carries his own death sentence unknowingly. His righteousness leads to his own death: in the first case, because David kills him to cover up the pregnancy since Uriah won't sleep with Bathsheba, and in the second base, because he dutifully brings his own death orders to Joab.

David shows no remorse throughout the story. He tries to convince Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba not because he feels bad and wants him to have his wife back, but because he wants to cover up any possible pregnancy. Then, he has Uriah killed to cover up his own mistakes. He kills Uriah like a coward, by ordering Joab to abandon him in battle.

Two of the most important messages from one character to another occur in letters. Bathsheba sends a letter to David letting him know that she is pregnant, and David sends a letter to Joab ordering him to set Uriah up for death in battle. Both of these letters contribute to Uriah's death.

It's sad that in the end Bathsheba doesn't know she is married to the man who killed her husband. There is a lot of irony in the story: both Uriah and Bathsheba unknowingly hurt themselves.

Reading Notes: Bible Women, Part A

Jephthah's Daughter
Part of the Bible Women unit from the King James Bible, link to the reading online.

Sculpture, Jephthah and His Daughter, by Emil Wolff.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The story of Jephthah's daughter is about self-sacrifice and the sacrifice of a loved one. It is about a father's submission to his god and his daughter's submission both to her father and her god.

Jephthah makes what seems like a rash and foolish vow. Why did he promise to offer whatever/whoever came out to meet him? Didn't he know a human would come out to meet him? Why was he willing to sacrifice another's life instead of his own? Why isn't he rebuked for this in the story? Why was a life worth winning the battle? He seems to think of everyone in his house as his property, including his daughter.

When Jephthah sees his daughter, he blames her for the misfortunes that are about to occur. He tells her that she is the cause of his trouble, even though he is the one who made the vow in the first place.

Jephthah's daughter submits so readily. In fact, she insists that her father fulfill his vow when he has only told her of the vow and not actually ordered her to be sacrificed.

The phrase "bewailed her virginity upon the mountains" is very tragic to me.

I see Jephthah's daughter as a strong woman, yet she submitted so easily to her father. Is this a sign of her strength (as with Buddha in the Jataka stories) or is the narrator treating her as property and celebrating her meekness as a woman? I want to explore these questions in my retelling.

The text is unclear about whether Jephthah's daughter is actually killed. She either must spend the rest of her life as a virgin, belonging to God, or she is literally sacrificed as a burnt offering.

Jephthah has no other children; this is emphasized. So is his sadness and ripping of his clothes due to love for his daughter or the fact that his genetic line will not be carried on?

The women in Jephthah's daughter's life are important to her. They are with her when she bewails her virginity, and they come to lament her yearly.