Shelter in Place - week 10 / Three Versions of the Iris Legend - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Just about everything that should be green has become green.  Kermit the Frog was known for saying "It's not easy being green" and until recently things were cold enough it was certainly true.  Then Michigan barely had time to flirt with spring when it leaped into summer with hot weather that popped everything out at once.  Purple seems to be everywhere!  One day it was the lilacs popping out, then my irises went from barely a bud to full-blown flowers.  Of course wildflowers started it with spring violets when the season was barely a hope.

Here's a bit of my house with Korean Lilacs, Irises and a wildflower I first heard called "Mock Geraniums", but the useful search tool at MyWildflowers.com  has me believing it's probably called "Dame's Rocket" although there are several very similar wildflowers.  Whenever I see Irises I remember their strange other name of "Flags" and it sent me looking to find more about them.  It turns out there are enough mythological stories that I wound up with at least three versions of the story about the flower.

I decided to give all three versions and when I tell my own composite story would pick and choose from all three, leaving out some of the story.  You'll see what I mean and I hope from now on when you see an Iris you'll think of this early legend.

The simplest version comes from The Turquoise Story Book; Stories and Legends of Summer and Nature compiled by Ada M. and Eleanor L. Skinner, with this version credited to Ada Skinner.

Another popular anthologist was Frances Jenkins Olcott and her book, The Wonder Garden; Nature Myths and Tales from All the World Over does a good job of crediting many sources, but doesn't mention a source for her story, merely calling it an "Old Tale," BUT her first page tells us new information about Iris and her origin.

the second page gets more into the story as Skinner told it.

It's interesting that Olcott has one story in her book from Skinner's The Turquoise Story Book, but obviously felt it was necessary to give us Iris's background.  At the same time she simplified the story of the colors omitting the three flower sisters.

Finally I want to give Mary Catherine Judd's version which she retold "for Primary Pupils" in her Classic Myths; Greek, German, and Scandinavian.  The book opens with teacher suggestions, by the way, using examples of Phaeton for the sun, Diana for the moon, Jupiter for the stars, and a few tales for studying the winds and water.  She closes her 1898 edition of the book by inserting the Finnish myth of "Where Language Came From", adding a pair of Russian myths, and an Egyptian myth.  After the basics about Iris, she presents an interesting additional aspect of Iris.  I do have one caution to her book, but I'll give after her version of the Iris story.  Maybe you will guess it.

From here on it can get picky or sticky, so I'll understand if you don't feel like going beyond these three stories of Iris.  In fact it reminds me of this John D. Batten illustration in Joseph Jacob's Celtic Fairy Tales right before the section called "Notes and References" because it can get dry and complicated.

Classical mythology purists would probably say this is Roman and not Greek mythology, but the Romans managed to thoroughly intermingle their myths with the Greeks, causing sometimes the names to be changed and sometimes not.  Jupiter is definitely the Roman version of the Greek's Jove or Zeus.  I went to Wikipedia and found Juno's story oh so complicated.  Then I decided to see what Wikipedia could tell us about Iris herself.  Olcott's story of her family is completely discounted by a whole different family tree in Wikipedia's look at Iris.  It does mention the Harpies in relation to Iris turning back the Argonauts who pursued them, but not that they were her sisters.

By now I began to wonder if this tangled mess of a myth could be unraveled and went to some of the more standard works on mythology.  If you're interested or trying to make a complete story about Iris, it's really necessary to look further.  Fortunately I have reference works on hand even if libraries are closed.  First off I would challenge Wikipedia, because I did indeed find her sisters listed as the Harpies.  Olcott appears to be correct!  The simplest yet most thorough information is in Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox Wilson's Myths and Legends of All Nations states:

Thaumas (whose name means Wonder) was the husband of Electra (meaning Brightness), one of the Oceanids (not the Electra of the Agamemnon story), and was by her the father of Iris, the beautiful goddess of the rainbow, and also father of the three Harpies, terrifying winged creatures representing the speed and horror of the storm.  The Harpies are mentioned as two or three -- Aello (Storm) and Ocypete (Swift-flyer); with Podarge (Swift-foot) sometimes added.

While a few sources say it should be Hera (not Juno) and Zeus (not Jupiter), putting it squarely back in Greek mythology, it is agreed with in Funk & Wagnall Standard Dictionary of Folklore and in Classical Mythology by Mark P.O. Morford and Robert J. Lenardon.  Interestingly Isaac Asimov in Words from the Myths doesn't deal with any of that as his focus is how the Greek word "iris" means "rainbow."   He goes on to talk about the multi-colored rainbow and how the word "iris" is applied to other objects having many colors including the colored part of the eye.  He goes on to mention the plant, calling it the flag, and that it, too, comes in many colors.  (His comments also go on to talk about how it led to the word "iridescence.")  I found it interesting that another standard look at mythology, The New Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer and revised by Theodor H. Gaster doesn't even talk about Iris.

****
WAKE UP!  Now surely some of this lodged itself in your brain and I hope you think of it when you see irises and maybe even the rainbow.

Photo by Yulia Gadalina on Unsplash

I was all set to end this story with that rainbow and then I saw this wonderful iris on a friend's Facebook page and knew this should be updated as her iris has that multicolored idea in one flower.

by Rosie M. Chapman

That certainly gives the "flag" idea and rainbow, doesn't it!  Thanks, Miz Rosie!

******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Shelter in Place - Week 9 / Fox - Tin Whistle on the Bass - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

This Memorial Day weekend is considered (at least by the Michigan tourism industry and many others) the unofficial start of summer.  We've just been given permission for up to TEN! people to gather, and, after the holiday, letting businesses start to reopen in a limited way.  The Upper Peninsula and the northernmost counties started the reopening of the state in time for the holiday.  The governor said people heading north should take groceries with them and she did not permit campgrounds and rental properties to open yet.  Since people in the southern part of the state were starting to head to adjoining reopened Ohio and Indiana, it's not surprising this finally will happen statewide.  So are we able to quit "Shelter in Place"?  Dunberidiculous!  The Governor said she'd be looking at this and she did...we're supposed to continue until June 12, or at least that's the latest Executive Order for those of us in Michigan.

And so it continues. . .

Whether at your own cottage or throughout the rest of our mitten-shaped state, we have water all around our "pleasant peninsula" and enough inland lakes to challenge Minnesota's "Land of 10,000 Lakes."  Unfortunately for Gladwin and Midland County, recent heavy rains earlier this past week broke two dams with water eleven feet over flood stage.  The dams breaking completely drained lakes and flooded towns in Central Michigan along the Tittabawassee River.  Surely Edenville, Sanford, and Midland will have no holiday as they clean up.  Having gone through that with a house flood several years ago, I know that is an understatement.  For the rest of us, whether in a group of ten or alone, it's time to post new signs, not about the Pandemic, but holiday signs.  Whether you fish or not, everybody can relate to the desire for a bit of time to unwind found in the saying "Gone Fishing."

Decal/sticker from www.stickerfxgraphics.co.uk

Where would the world of storytelling be without tall tales?  My fellow members of Paint Creek Folklore Society have an annual concert called the Tin Whistle, but this bass is not a musical stringed instrument, but a fish in this well-established type of tall tale.

Have a good holiday if you're reading this in the U.S.  Wherever you are stay well and keep on telling those tall tales even if you must "Shelter in Place. "

this photo came from a blog where the author said "Maybe some rest and relaxation will recharge my batteries and get me to writing again."

************************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Shelter in Place - Week 8 / Judson - Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

There's a saying going around that seems to fit right now.  "My ducks are absolutely not in a row.  At this point I have no idea where my ducks even are."

Our area has so many inland lakes in addition to the Great Lakes that it's easy to see ducklings, goslings, cygnets with feathered parents standing guard.  I wanted a short funny story to fit the saying about not knowing where my ducks even are.  In the early Twentieth Century Katherine Berry Judson created half a dozen anthologies of Native American folktales, each title beginning with Myths and Legends of and this Cherokee tale is in Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes.  

Let's open with a photo of the leading characters even though they act very differently in the story.

 I can just hear the duck quack-laughing and the same for the anonymous Cherokee teller.  While talking about anonymous sources, I like to give credit and get permission for graphics I use, but was unable to do that with these as the site is anonymous, but if you need a laugh, try https://coolfunnyanimals.blogspot.com and scroll the sidebar for your choices of animals.  It's like snacking, it's hard to just have one.

Now back to that idea of getting your ducks in a row, this duck farmer in Vietnam reminds me of the classic picture book by Marjorie Flack, The Story About Ping where a little duck hated to be the last in line because that duck received a smack on the back.

Joss Woodhead at Unsplash.com

Talk about getting your ducks in a row!
***********************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Shelter in Place - Week 7 / Poulsson - How the West Wind Helped Dandelion - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

In the midst of all the current chaos, isn't it wonderful to see plants waking up for the spring?

Try this riddle on somebody.

When she's young she's tall and slender,
Any faint young breeze could bend her.
She grows stout as she grows old,
And her hair is sunny gold.
As the days pass out of sight,
Lo! her hair turns snowy white.
Then the children in their play
Wish--and blow her quite away.
Guess her name.--You're "tired trying;"?
Why, her name is--Dandelion.

That's a poem by Julie M. Lippmann from an early book aimed at teachers called The Primary Plan Book, Volume 3 by Marian Minnie George.  Right now my lawn has dandelions popping up and it reminds me of something my mother would always say with delight: The old man spilled his bag of gold!

Photo by photokip.com from Pexels

I've hunted as thoroughly as possible and can't find what story or poem where that might originate.  Possibly an early 20th century reader?  If anybody can help me find it, please let me know!

A site called Dandelion Delight has many stories, folklore, recipes, health benefits, facts, videos, poetry, and so much more.  I'd love to find a way to contact the owner of the site, but it doesn't make contact available.  Possibly whomever it is could track down the source of Mom's saying.  The truly comprehensive site reminds us "Some see a weed, others see a wish."  Among the stories there, I found a story from another book perfect for teachers and parents, especially in the time when homeschooling is the only form of education going on everywhere!  In the Child's World; Morning Talks and Stories by Emilie Poulsson, a pioneer in early childhood work, who achieved phenomenal success as a writer and educator while blind from childhood.  She was especially noted for her poetry, including finger plays, since her focus was firmly fixed upon young children.

Beyond just today's story, it's part of the unit in In the Child's World about Wind and that, too, is something in the spring beyond when "the March winds doth blow."  This is why I am giving a bit more from that unit than just the story, but you might want to read more online at Internet Archive or download it or other Poulsson books at their Open Library.

Photo by Sharefaith from Pexels

 

That's only some of the material about the wind before today's story.  When scanning the story I also decided not to cut out bibliography, called "Teacher's Reading" in case you care to find some classic poetry, all are available on the internet.  The final item, "Earth and Man" by Arnold Henry Guyot is not poetry, but part of a series of lectures on physical geography.

I included her poem, "The Dandelion Cycle."  After that she gives a version of the story of "Odysseus and the Bag of Winds" from the Odyssey and a German tale of "The North Wind at Play."  If you're wondering why she doesn't include the famous Aesop fable of "The Wind and the Sun", she does, but it's in a section on Sunshine.  The book really does an admirable job of covering the topics suited to the curiosity of young children.  I'm pleased to own my own copy of it.

While I'm still thinking about stories and facts for young children, Dandelion Delight's poems include this which is obviously meant as a finger play.

Ten happy dandelions growing in a line
One turned to fluff and then there were nine
Nine happy dandelions growing by the gate
one turned to fluff and then there were eight
eight happy dandelions growing toward heaven one turned to fluff and then there were seven
seven happy dandelions growing to be picked one turned to fluff and then there were six
six happy dandelions growing close to a hive one turned to fluff and then there were five
Five happy dandelions growing more and more
One turned to fluff and then there were four
four happy dandelions growing wild and free
one turned to fluff and then there were three
three happy dandelions growing just for you
one turned to fluff and then there were two
tow happy dandelions growing in the sun
one turned to fluff and then there was one
one happy dandelion
having lots of fun it turned to fluff and then there were none

It was written by Kathy KJ Nanny.  I've no idea who she was, but Poulsson would have enjoyed it. 

How I wish libraries would re-open as the perfect picture book to go with all of this is the classic tale by Don Freeman, Dandelion.

Here in Michigan people can mow their own lawns or hire landscaping as long as "social distancing" is maintained.  Personally I share the opinion of the Dandelion Delight site and hate lawns treated to remove "weeds."  Still I have always said Spring is the time when a little hard work pays off in a lot of hard work later!

We've had the wind blow in a cold spell promising possible frost this weekend, but it won't hurt the dandelions.  Soon (I hope!) it will be warm enough to put the hammock back up.  If we're still worried about Sheltering in Place, I plan to follow the advice from an author I enjoy, Renee Pawlish, whose magnet gives this diagnosis I approve.

Until next week, may you "self-quarantine" by reading!
*******************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Shelter in Place - Week 6 / Montgomery - The Councillors of Lagos - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

The coming week originally was scheduled to start of with two celebrations: Star Wars Day (May the Fourth Be With You!...take your pick of the dry factual Wikipedia article or kids activities, including a puppet and story) and then Cinco de Mayo...a day normally filled with celebrating.  Go to History.com for colorful and very thorough coverage, including videos and excellent related content (you have to keep scrolling down to get to that extra material).   Still it's not as much fun as the celebrations normally part of this day often confused with Mexican Independence Day (yes, History.com explains this).  

I was surprised to find only two Public Domain gatherings of Mexican folklore from the days when ethnologists first went out to the far corners of the world to collect stories.  Lewis Spence in 1913 produced The Myths of Mexico & Peru, but I found the stories dry and barely anecdotal.  Then I discovered Charles M. Skinner's Myths & Legends Beyond Our Borders.  Two-thirds of the book is on Canada before offering slightly over a hundred pages devoted to Mexico.  Skinner wrote several books of folklore, focusing on the United States and also one about our "New Possessions and Protectorate" ("Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines", as well as Hawaii long before it became a state).  Fortunately you can read these books online at the Internet Archive.  I may not always have been tempted by his stories, mythology isn't really my favorite folklore, but in Beyond Our Borders there were some besides today's story I liked, especially two that may appear here in the future.  One was about foolish young alligators and another reminds me of an Asian tale about a wen, an abnormal skin growth, taken from a good man and eventually given to a greedy man.  

This is a tale of Mexican politicians, as are many Noodlehead tales about foolish leaders, but my intent is NOT political, whether it be about those responsible for roads or higher.  It's strictly for fun and we can always use more of that.  There's more Noodlehead resources after the story.

Today's story is a type called a "Noodlehead tale" and I heartily recommend going to a page of Noodlehead resources by fellow storyteller, Barry McWilliams, who is commonly called Eldrbarry.  He points out the difference beyond the "wise fool" like the Hodja or Tyl Eulenspiegel and the true Noodleheads like those leaders of Chelm and Gotham.  Beyond that comprehensive look at Noodleheads, a teacher, Susan Antonelli, who believes in "creative teaching designed to engage childhood wonder", has a fun page about the Epossumondus picture books by Coleen Salley along with other ideas for how to creatively use Noodlehead stories.  She mentions also the Amelia Bedelia easy readers in her suggestion of ways to think about and create Noodlehead stories.  

Thankfully Montgomery's books can be read even with libraries being closed.  I also always end the "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" segments with plenty of online folktales.  Oh, and by the way, right before this story is "The Mischievous Cocktail" for your celebrating.  I found it interesting as my Prohibition program includes the explanation that cocktails became popular then to disguise the taste of bootleg liquor, especially bathtub gin.  Montgomery in 1899 gives the Mexican claim to the Toltecs in the eleventh century inventing cocktails long before Columbus arrived.

Staying with today's story, clearly the politicians aren't the only Noodleheads, just more visible.
****************** 

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.

Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-

• There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm

• You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
  
  Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"

The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            

         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html

         - Karen Chace - http://karenchace.blogspot.com/search?q=public+domain

         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html

         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales

         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.

       - Tim Sheppard - http://www.timsheppard.co.uk/story/storylinks.html

       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.

     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!

Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.

You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!