Reading Notes: Shedlock. Eastern Stories and Legends, Part D

For my first reading notes this week I decided to go ahead and finish the last section of the Jataka Tales from the Eastern Stories and Legends book by Marie Shedlock. Some of the stories in part D were somewhat hard to grasp because it was written in old english and the theme of the story wasn't always clear. However one story did stand out to me which was "The Poisonous Tree."I thought this story had a dark gothic vibe to it but at the same time had a lesson within the story which I thought was pretty neat. In my own story I plan on keeping the same setting as the original story, such as there will be a village inside the woods and on the path to the next town instead of there being a poisonous tree, there will be a poisonous stream. And instead of the villagers coming to take the travelers goods and belongs like in the original story, my villagers seek youthfulness. What I mean by this is the poisonous stream has been put under a spell where everyone who drinks it will parish except for the villagers, because when they drink the stream they stay young, beautiful, and will live longer and longer. However, my main character the leader will discover the villages evil secret and it will be up to him to warn the travelers of this stream and hopefully find a way to break the spell.


Bibliography: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. Link to Reading.

Stream in the Woods.