Creativity Challenge
Spend as much or as little time on it as you’ve got to spare. It could keep all of the family busy over the next month.
Gawain & The Green Knight go topsy-turvy
This challenge is to make your own topsy-turvy doll and tell the story or one of the scenes from the story of Gawain & The Green Knight.
So what is a Topsy-turvy doll?
It is 3 dolls in 1 – Here we have Little Red Riding Hood, Granny and a evil looking Big Bad Wolf.
Dating back to the 1960’s these “topsy-turvy” dolls were regularly used in storytimes in schools and libraries.
And below is a Cinderella doll with only two changes:
One in her rags, and one in her ballgown.
Just turn the dress inside-out to reveal her other self.
What is the story?
It is a 14th-century romance, one of the best known Arthurian stories.
The story survives in one manuscript, which includes three religious narrative poems. All four are written in a North West Midland dialect of Middle English.
You can find a synopsis on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight
And you might like to watch this video. It was filmed at a Mythstories StoryCraft session back in 2009.
You can make a topsy-turvy doll, or dolls, of whatever character or characters you need to stage your chosen scene or scenes.
Here’s a few suggestions:
• The Green Knight – He changes from the regular size Knight in the hours of dark to a Green giant during the day and the giant needs a detatchable head.
• Morgan Le Fey and Lady Bertilak
• King Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Sir Gawain on his horse and off his horse
You can make your doll however you like, with fabric, wool, card, paper, recycled plastic – whatever materials you have to hand.
Below are some ideas the participants in “Mythstories – Let’s Create at Home” Facebook Group Page came up with…
