>Jeff
>Remember, the nations are _rediscovering_ sailing & oceanic travel.
>The knowlege is there but the conditions are changed.
>
>I personally think that the Open Seas ritual convinces the Closing
>that the ship isn't REALLY a ship. Its just a big teakettle or a log.
>And that the sailors really are actually birds.
>
>But that's me. I think a humorous solution to the Closing is just
>something that Zzabur would never have thought of -- he seems pretty
>grim.
I love this idea. I've been looking for a way to put all my favorite Edward Lear poems into Glorantha (yes - I am planning a Kingdom of Ignorance/Koromandel campaign). This particular aspect fits in perfectly with Lear's the Jumblies.
The first verse goes like this:
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, "You'll all be drowned!"
They called aloud, "Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
In a Sieve we'll go to sea!"
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
Now, I personally think that Dormal's ship had
"only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail"
And that:
"They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jackdaws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese."
I still think there is a perfectly marvelous (if slightly twisted) heroquest in there.
Remember the heroic words:
"How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!"
Erm, sorry, I'll stop now. But I do suggest that people go and read the poem (available at http://netpoets.com/classic/039002.htm)and all the rest of his stuff.
Cheers,
Yak
Get 250 color business cards for FREE!
http://businesscards.lycos.com/vp/fastpath/
Powered by hypermail