Folktale

Folktale

Okay...
On around world have a "folktale"
Folktale is something mistic,popular believe and costum that are the tradition of that culture,subculture or group.
In my blog i will tell you about :

• Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young "star-cross'd lovers" whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.
Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love. Romeo and Juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love. Since it is such an obvious subject of the play, several scholars have explored the language and historical context behind the romance of the play.
On their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet use a form of communication recommended by many etiquette authors in Shakespeare's day: metaphor. By using metaphors of saints and sins, Romeo was able to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. This method was recommended by Baldassare Castiglione (whose works had been translated into English by this time). He pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation, the woman could pretend she did not understand him, and he could retreat without losing honour. Juliet, however, participates in the metaphor and expands on it. The religious metaphors of "shrine", "pilgrim" and "saint" were fashionable in the poetry of the time and more likely to be understood as romantic rather than blasphemous, as the concept of sainthood was associated with the Catholicism of an earlier age. Later in the play, Shakespeare removes the more daring allusions to Christ's resurrection in the tomb he found in his source work: Brooke's Romeus and Juliet.
In the later balcony scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhear Juliet's soliloquy, but in Brooke's version of the story her declaration is done alone. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop, Shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship. Usually a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere, but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot. The lovers are able to skip a lengthy part of wooing, and move on to plain talk about their relationship—developing into an agreement to be married after knowing each other for only one night^.In the final suicide scene, there is a contradiction in the message—in the Catholic religion, suicides were often thought to be condemned to hell, whereas people who die to be with their loves under the "Religion of Love" are joined with their loves in paradise. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to be expressing the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Another point is that although their love is passionate, it is only consummated in marriage, which prevents them from losing the audience's sympathy.
The play arguably equates love and sex with death. Throughout the story, both Romeo and Juliet, along with the other characters, fantasise about it as a dark being, often equating it with a lover. Capulet, for example, when he first discovers Juliet's (faked) death, describes it as having deflowered his daughter^. Juliet later erotically compares Romeo and death. Right before her suicide she grabs Romeo's dagger, saying "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die."
The sacrifice love..

• Anthoy and Cleopatra

Cleopatra's Egypt is still technically an independent kingdom. But every region of the Mediterranean is by now involved in Roman politics and there is a rumour in Rome that Cleopatra has given help to Cassius, one of the assassins of Caesar.

In the spring of 41 Mark Antony, commanding the Roman army in the east, summons Cleopatra to explain herself at his headquarters in Anatolia. She crosses the Mediterranean to see him, but not in any mood of apology.
  Antony's camp is at Tarsus, several miles up the river Cydnus. The queen arrives in a Golden barge, dressed as Aphrodite. She is irresistible, and the goddess of love is soon in the great general's bed.
He accepts an invitation to visit her in Egypt and arrives in Alexandria in time to spend a winter of pleasure. After his departure Cleopatra gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl.
  It is not until 37 BC that Cleopatra and the children are reunited with Antony. He summons Cleopatra to Antioch, in Syria, where he marries her.
They are now openly together; and openly a team against Octavian, Antony's rival for power in Rome.
  As a Roman general, with a powerful army in the eastern provinces, Antony is able to give his new wife a spectacular wedding present - much of the Middle East.
In the tradition of many eastern monarchies, Cleopatra and Antony now begin presenting themselves as divine. To Greeks they appear as Dionysus and Aphrodite; to Egyptians as Osiris and Isis.
  A great crowd gathers in a stadium in Alexandria. All eyes are on two tiers of thrones. On the upper level sit Antony and his wife Cleopatra, robed as the Egyptian goddess Isis. On four lower thrones are their own three children together with Cleopatra's eldest son, Caesarion, the child of Julius Caesar.
In the ensuing ceremony, later known as the Donations of Alexandria, Antony distributes the kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean to his new family.
  Antony declares Cleopatra to be the Queen of Kings and Caesarion the King of Kings, jointly ruling over Egypt and Cyprus and joint overlords of the kingdoms of the other children. To Alexander, his own elder son, aged six, he gives the territories east of the Euphrates; to Alexander's twin sister, Cleopatra, he gives Libya and Tunisia; and to his younger son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, aged two and appearing in Macedonian costume, he gives Syria and much of Anatolia.
It is a gorgeous occasion, but one which will need to be explained on the battlefield.
  The battle between the forces of Octavian and of Antony and Cleopatra takes place at Actium, in Greece, on 2 September 31. Both sides have large numbers of infantry and cavalry, but the decisive engagement is between their fleets of Roman warships. Antony and Cleopatra have the advantage, with about 500 ships to Octavian's 400. These are heavy wooden craft, propelled by oars and with crews of up to 250 men.
  Antony draws his ships up in line, with Cleopatra and her squadron in the rear. Much of the treasure of Egypt, essential to pay for fleet and army, is on board with her. The exact course of the battle is not known, but it goes against the eastern couple. At a certain point Antony signals to Cleopatra, on her own ship, to break away and escape with him.

Antony and Cleopatra succeed in getting back to Alexandria, on Cleopatra's flagship. But both commit suicide in the following year, when Octavian arrives in Egypt with his army.
  Cleopatra chooses to kill herself in a manner of great significance to her subjects. She has always taken her Egyptian role seriously, and is the only ruler of her dynasty in three centuries to have learnt the Egyptian language.
She is already a prisoner of Octavian, restricted by his guards to part of her own palace. She arranges for a small poisonous snake, an asp, to be smuggled into her quarters in a basket of figs.
  Cleopatra puts on her royal robes, lies on a couch of gold, and applies the asp to her breast. Sacred to Amen-Re, the Egyptian sun god, the snake both protects the royal house and deifies anyone it strikes.

The queen's final moment is as dramatic, and as much remembered, as anything in her life. But it brings to an end the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
  Octavian kills Caearion (briefly Egypt's last nominal pharaoh as Ptolemy XV), takes Mark Antony's three children back to Rome to be displayed in his triumph, annexes Egypt as a Roman province, and carries away the the vast treasures of its royal dynasty.

• Why Do Hawks Hunt Chicks

One upon time, a hawk fell in love with a hen. The hawk flew down from the sky and asked the hen, “Will you marry me?”

The hen loved the brave, strong hawk and wished to marry him. But she said, “I can not fly as hight as you can. If you give me time, I may learn to fly as hight as you. Then we can fly together.”

The hawk agreed. Before he went away, he gave the hen a ring. “This is to show that you have promised to marry me,” said the hawk.

It so happened that the hen had already promised to marry a rooster. So, when the rooster saw the ring, he became very angry. “Throw that ring away at once!” shouted the rooster. The hen was so fightened at the rppster’s anger that she threw away the ring immediately.

When the hawk came a few months later, the hen told him the truth. The hawk was so furious that he cursed the hen, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Now, you’ll always be scratching the earth, and I’ll always be flying above to catch your children,” said the hawk.

The story tell abaout promise , we can learn the lesson in this folktale :

1. Dont promise if you cant...
2. Think carefully before you say..
3. Love need sacrifice..like the hawk to the hen...

Thank you for read my blog....