Myths and Legends

Whether it’s constellations named after Greek gods, stories of how the earth was created or tales of Camelot and the Holy Grail, myths and legends form part of our cultural heritage. Though legends tend to be fanciful stories told about real, historical people while myths tend to feature gods or people with special powers, both legends and myths are told to explain the unexplainable or to teach a lesson. Travel around the world and experience myths and legends from various cultures through these direct links at the Launch Point site: https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint

Level 1

Paul Bunyan: The Giant Lumberjack: Who was Paul Bunyan and how did he meet Babe the Ox? Learn all about this fabled American lumberjack who could “empty a whole pond of frogs with one holler.”

https://www.paulbunyantrail.com/talltale.html

Tales from Camelot: Travel back to a time of knights and wizards through these illustrated stories by students of Edelston Primary School. Learn about the Knights of the Round Table as you follow King Arthur on his journeys through Camelot.

https://edleston.primaryresources.co.uk/projects/KingArthur/Tales.htm

Hawaiian Myths: Who are the Menehune? And what should you do when you see a woman wearing red clothes and walking a white dog? Discover some of the history of the Hawaiian Islands in these short illustrated myths.

https://www.ahuimanu.k12.hi.us/tqjr99/hawaii/index.htm

Level 2

Stories around the Campfire: Native American Myths, Legends, and Stories: Find out one explanation of why the North Star stands still as well as many other interesting tales through this collection of more than 60 Native American stories.

https://www.geocities.com/RainForest/5292/stories.htm

Africa Quest: Myths and Legends: Experience Tanzania and Kenya through photos, videos and sound clips as you meet local storytellers and hear magical tales.

https://quest.classroom.com/archive/africaquest1998/start/pg00545.htm

Mythology of the Constellations: Let the stories behind the constellations help you remember their names as you read about Perseus, Pegasus and Ursa Major, known as the Big Dipper or the Great Bear.

https://einstein.stcloudstate.edu/Dome/constellns/constlist.html

Level 3

Mythology: Compare myths from a wide range of cultures: from Japanese, Polynesian and Norse to Egyptian, Aztec, Native American and Greek. View family trees of gods and test your knowledge with a game of mythology hangman.

https://msgc.engin.umich.edu/cgi-bin/tour.cgi?link=/mythology/mythology

.html&sw;=false&sn;=0&cdp;=/windows3.html&cd;=false&tour;=&fr;=f&frp;=/ windows3

.html&edu;=high

MythWeb Who were Odysseus, Hercules and Theseus? Find out through this illustrated, and often animated, collection of stories about Greek gods and heroes, including an encyclopedia of mythological terms and figures.

https://www.mythweb.com/

Star Wars: The Magic of Myth: Explore an ancient form of mythology--”the hero’s journey”--through this online exhibit that investigates “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi” in terms of their mythical context.

https://www.nasm.edu/StarWars/

EXPLORER’S QUEST

The answer to this Internet quiz can be found in the sites at right.

What supposedly causes smog on the West Coast of the United States?

CLUE: See Paul Bunyan: The Giant Lumberjack

Find What You Need to Know: Have a project on California history? Need help doing a math problem? Launch Point now covers more than 100 topics for getting your schoolwork done. Go to https://www.latimes.com/launchpoint/ for the full list of subjects and direct links to the best Internet sites.

Answer to last week’s Quest: The most widely and longest used currency in history is the cowrie shell which was used as money as early as 1200 B.C. and was used as recently as the middle of this century.

Launch Point is produced by the UC Irvine department of education, which reviews each site for appropriateness and quality. Even so, parents should supervise their children’s use of the Internet. This column was designed by Jim Doone, Erik Emery, Christine Smedberg and Anna Manring.