~~ONLINE TASK 1 ~~~

1. list some of well known folktales from Malaysia.
Below are three well-known folktales from Malaysia, of different themes.

a) outwitting a crocodile ( theme : cleverness )

b) Young Man Shows true Love ( theme : love )

c ) The Story of Coconut Tree ( theme : disobedience )

2. List some of the possible issues found in the Son Of The Turtle Spirit.

Some of the issues I have discovered in ‘The Son of the Turtle Spirit’ are:-

a) true love - which I meant to say that true love always survive, not only survive but they won at the end of their course.Both of the lovers are from different origin, therefore they may as well face dilemma if they declare their love, for the chinese esp the aristocracte were very fussy about status etc, if they manage to tell the father, what chances that they wont be separated? Now that, moral aspects aside(for they commit adultery), their deed is based on pure love that the young lady refuse to forget her lover long after the turtle died, and kept the fruit of their love - the child of the turtle spirit.
b) Disrespectfulness to wards the other kinds.

c ) Underestimating other's capability.

d) Problem in a relationship between partners with different cultural backgrounds.

e)  In the Chinese belief, some spirits are said to commit adultery with human men / women. This normally takes place during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar where it is believed that the gates of hell are opened during this period. There are some claims which I have read in the newspaper stating that a male spirit impregnated a Chinese woman during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar. So this story reinforces my background knowledge of the spirit in accordance with the Chinese belief system.

f.) It is also known in the Chinese culture that some turtles has spirits which manifests at night and disappear at dawn before the sunrise.

3. Are those issues universal in nature or are they only relevant in the Chinese culture ?

Issues e and f are only relevant in the Chinese culture. Meanwhile the a, b, c and d  issues are universal in nature regardless of race and religion.

4. what are the other morals that can be gotten from then other fables by Aesop ? List at least two.

a) The Bundle Of Sticks ( moral : union gives strength )

 (An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a faggot of sticks, and said to his eldest son: 

"Break it." 

The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the Bundle. The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. 

"Untie the faggots," said the father, "and each of you take a stick." 

When they had done so, he called out to them: 

"Now, break," and each stick was easily broken. "You see my meaning," said their father.)

b)The Dove And The Crow ( moral : to enjoy our blessing we must have freedom )

Some Dogs, famished with hunger, saw some cow-hides steeping in a river. Not being able to reach them, they agreed to drink up the river; but it fell out that they burst themselves with drinking long before A Dove shut up in a cage was boasting of the large number of the young ones which she had hatched. A Crow, hearing her, said: "My good friend, cease from this unreasonable boasting. The larger the number of your family, the greater your cause of sorrow, in seeing them shut up in this prison-house."

c) The Shepherd's Boy ( moral :  a liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.)

5. One well known literary figure from the Elizabethan aged used Ovid's pyramus and Thisbe as a model to one of his famous plays. Who is she and what is the play ?

She is Juliet Capulet in the play - Romeo and Juliet ( William Shakespeare )

The "Pyramus and Thisbe" plot appears twice in Shakespeare's works. Most famously, the plot of Romeo and Juliet, in which the titular characters, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, fall in love at a party the Capulet family hosts, but they cannot be together because the two families hold "an ancient grudge" (which the young lovers' deaths eventually squash), and because Juliet has been engaged by her parents to a man named Paris. Romeo and Juliet may draw either from Ovid's Latin retelling in the Metamorphoses, or from Arthur Golding's  1567 translation of that work. Most modern tales of "forbidden love" are seen as having been based on Shakespeare's play, rather than "Pyramus and Thisbe."

6. List some of the popular legends we have  in Malaysia.

Prominent natural features--and there are many in Malaysia--were wreathed in legend. Tioman Island is said to have been a dragon princess who decided to make her home where Tioman now rises out of the sea. Tranquil Lake Chini  in the wilds of Pahang is thought to be the site of a magnificent Khmer city now sunk beneath the lotus blossoms. Mount Ophir , in Johor, is said to be the home of 'Puteri Gunung Ledang', a legendary princess once wooed by the Sultan of Malacca. The princess' beauty is still associated with the natural charms of the mountain itself.  Langkawi Island has no such creation story, but the curse laid on the island by a princess falsely accused of adultery is one of the best-known of Malaysia's magical myths.

7. Who is Thomas Malory?

 Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1405 - 14 March 1471) was an English author. His prose epic  Le Morte d'Arthur, written during a long imprisonment in Newgate Prison  as a captured partisan of the  Richard Neville, Earl Of Warwick during the War Of The Roses, covers the careers of King Arthur and his knights. It is largely a free translation of various French romances.Malory's most commonly accepted historical identity as a Warwickshire knight is based on the research and advocacy of George Lyman Kittredge (1860-1941), an American scholar and noted authority on the English language and literature, who published a monograph "Who Was Sir Thomas Malory?" in 1897.

8. When was Le Morte D'Arthur written ?

year 1470

9. How many books/ parts are there in LMDA ?

21 books

10. What is book 8 about ?

 It is about Sir Tristram's life

11. Who were the two people who had an affair ?

With the relationships between Launcelot and Gwenyvere, and Trystram and Isode, Le Morte D'Arthur provides in-depth examples of devoted, to-the-death love between men and women. But these love affairs are both star-crossed because the woman happens to be the wife of the king and, more importantly, her lover's king, to whom each knight owes absolute loyalty and respect. Men's love for women in LeMorte, then, is a powerful, dangerous emotion. 

12. Book 6 has a strong  connection to apopular modern fiction which is noe a movie. What is the title of the popular modern fiction ?

King Arthur ( 2004 )

13. state three well known facts about King Arthur/ his time as a king .

 1.  Arthur's sword was called Excalibur
2.  Arthur married Guinevere and got the Round table as a wedding present from her father Leodegrance
3.  Arthur was betrayed by his greatest knight, Sir Lancelot

14. Think of 2 ways in which you can use folktales/ fables/ myths or legend in the classroom. Explain briefly.

     1.  Big Book

 Students create a Big Book of a story that they choose.  (Themes, Moral Values, Characteristics, Settings etc)  Teacher provides sample of a Big Book for the students to guide them.

      2.  Graphic / Pictorial 

Teacher provides pictures of the important events in the story and asks students to write suitable dialogues /scripts.