Topic Brainstorm

    One possible storybook topic that I like is the story of Oedipus, but there are so many different retellings I'm having a hard time finding an original source to read it from. I read this story once in a humanities class, and it was my favorite story that we read the entire semester. The whole plot line of this story is interesting to me, as the main character goes out of his way to avoid a prophesy he has been told. This prophesy comes true anyways as if it is fated to happen no matter what. I might retell this story a different time period such as today, and I would want to learn more about the history of this story.

    Another possible storybook topic is the telling of the Trojan Horse, from the Aeneid by Virgil, that the Greeks used to take the city of troy. It is still debated to this day whether this horse actually existed or not. I like this story because it has so much you could do with it, it could be remixed a million time not tire of its story. You could retell this story in different facets of life such as business, crime, and many others.

Trojan Horse depicted in Vergilius Vaticanus
Wikipedia

    Something out of the ordinary from my usual taste is the legend of Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons. The story is told in Medieval European Literature, and Historians have agreed to the fact that the story of Ragnar is very far fetched and hobbled together, making it more of just a myth or legend than reality. This story has lots of opportunities for new story telling by changing the places and people that Ragnar met/Raided. As well as, the ability to change things he did in his life that would significantly change the arc of his life. I am currently interested in this story because I am watching the show Vikings, and I would like to research the legend of Ragnar as told by first hand accounts.

    The final brainstorming topic I have chosen is the story of the Minotaur in Greek mythology. I also read about this in my humanities class and it was pretty interesting. I would focus on the whole story from the conception of the minotaur to the killing of it, rather than just on the maze and minotaur alone, that way there is more to write about. I could retell this with gender changes or change the demeaner of the minotaur to be more of something along the lines of the Disney tale of the princess and the frog. This story might be one of the harder stories I have picked to retell in new and exciting ways.