Reading Notes: Twenty Two Goblins, Part B

(robin hood  --  Olga Berrios)
Source: Flickr

After reading the riddle, "The Girl and the Thief",  I am tempted to use this story as my base for the story I write in week 6. I thought the story was somewhat similar to that of Romeo and Juliet with a happier ending. I was a little confused as to the answer of the riddle because it seemed to be a subjective answer that the King gave. Maybe I could also change the riddle answer in my story as well. So far, I am thinking of writing about how the thief came to be so disliked by the king in the riddle. I know it says that he stole everything from the citizens, but reading that leaves me wondering why and how he did that? Did he grow up poor and it makes him happy to feel rich by taking from others? Was he thinking that he was similar to Robin Hood except he kind of contradicts what Robin Hood does. It is almost the opposite (the king tries to get the money back from the thief to give to the citizens). I think it would be fun to write a back story to the thief's adventures of stealing from the citizens. I don't know if I'd be able to make him the protagonist of the story. Maybe I could write from the antagonist's point of view. As the King answering riddles had great qualities of courage and perseverance, I could mirror those in either the thief or king in my story. Maybe I could use King Triple-victory and the goblin in the riddle that the goblin told about the thief and the girl. Somehow the thief turns into the goblin in the end and is bound to stay in the sissoo tree telling riddles? So many different options. I will have to do more research and write my story planning for the week about that.

Overall, I liked the layout of the riddles in the story, but felt as though they didn't tie into the plot very well. In the end, the goblin basically tells the king that the riddles were the way he tested him to make sure he was courageous and hard willed. That makes sense, but I would've liked to have seen a little more come of the riddles rather than just answer and move on. The riddles themselves were very enjoyable though. Cleverly written.

Bibliography: Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder