Fitz-Urse

   The boy, Ulf, didn't see anything of Fitz-Urse, but after a few days of watching by the gate where Fitz-Urse would be likely to leave by, he saw him and followed him to the rivers edge.
   There, Fitz-Urse met with some men who talked with him in the Norman language from their boat.  Ulf didn't understand Norman and so he was not able to gather any more information beyond the fact that Fitz-Urse was up to something.
   To prevent this from happening again without him being able to know what they said, Ulf decided to ask Ulred (Osgod's father) to help him find someone who knew Norman.  (Ulf couldn't ask Wulf or Osgod to help him because they were away with the king.)  Ulred thought about the problem and decided that the best man to help who was loyal to the king and to Wulf and who knew Norman would be Beorn.
   Beorn was glad to help and together with Ulf they were able to find out where the people were hiding that had talked to Fitz-Urse.  They were in a boat in the bay, but were stuck and unable to get out because of the weather.
   Finally when the weather got better the boat set sail with Fitz-Urse in it.  Ulf, Ulred and Beorn decided to go and warn Wulf and Osgod so they could keep the king safe, as the men were probably heading for the king to kill him.  Ulred and Ulf rode on a boat to get to Wulf, and Beorn took his horse and raced to get there as fast as he could.
   Ulred and Ulf got there first and told Wulf what had happened.  Wulf said that he would think of a plan to save the king and they all went to bed.  
 

The Accident

       

  As they neared Polynesia it began to get warmer and warmer since they were very close to the equator.  This caused the water temperature to stay somewhere in the 80s.
   Also as they got nearer to Polynesia there began to be more storms and in one storm something awful happened.
   Herman (one of the men) had lost is sleeping bag in a big gust of wind and he went to the side of the raft to pick it out of the ocean, but he fell in!          Thor(the man who wrote the book) and another
of the men who saw it happen, shouted "man over board" and rushed to help.  A few of them hopped in the life boat and grabbed the life saving equipment and rushed out to save Herman.  Knut (another of the men) dived into the water and went after Herman.
   Before this had happened they found that if they lost something in the water and the thing got to a certain side of the boat, they would never be able to get it back.  Herman was on the wrong side.
   Knut swam as hard as he could toward Herman, but every time he got to where he thought Herman was, he saw him further off.  Finally after a great struggle, they both managed to swim toward each other and then together they were pulled on board the life raft.
   Rowing hard they were able to get the life raft back to Kon-Tiki and so Herman was saved.
   

Possible Assassain

 After Harold became king, Duke William requested that Harold come to his castle.  Since Harold had sworn allegiance to William, William now wanted to see what Harold's intentions were toward him.  Harold had tried to get someone else to be king instead of him, but the people wanted him to be king.  Now that he was king, there was no way that he could keep his vow to William without incurring the extreme displeasure of the people and everyone who had made him king.

   If Harold were to say that he didn't want to keep his vow to William, there would be trouble because William would tell the pope who could then excommunicate Harold for not keeping a vow that was made on the Holy Relics.

   While they were in Duke William's land, Wulf went to visit Guy and and his family.  Guy's father hinted that there may eventually be and assassin who would want to kill Harold to get him out of the way so that William could become king.  He didn't know for certain that there would be such and attempt, but it was a good possibility, since assassinations had happened before in Britain and there would probably be people willing to kill Harold to get a good standing in William's eyes.

   Wulf listened to Guy's father and so decided to stay in court with Osgod when they got back to Harold's castle.  When they were there for a few days they found that a man named Walter Fitz-Urse had come back to Britain after being away for a little while.  Fitz-Urse had been punished by Harold for something and so he had reason to dislike him.  Fitz-Urse also had a quick-temper and he was hotheaded.  Because of this Wulf decided to have someone watch the man to make sure he didn't attempt to kill Harold.  Osgod knew that at his father's forge there was a boy who was always up to tricks and didn't like forge work very well.  Because of this Osgod got him and Wulf told him what he wanted him to do.  The boy said he would do anything for his king and he seemed very trustworthy and so they had him do the job.  

   The boy would follow Fitz-Urse very carefully and he would be able to watch his every move so that Fitz-Urse would not be able to do anything bad.  

Terrifying Tug-of-War

   They got used to the sea and didn't fear it as much as they did when they started.  It was starting to seem less powerful and because they saw it every day for days on end they got used to it and weren't scared of it because they knew what it could do.
   They also got used to the sharks being around.  They still kept their distance from them when they were in the water, because of their razor sharp teeth.  Sharks could have from anywhere between 5 and 50 rows of teeth, although most of the time the men would see sharks with only 5 or 6 rows.   However, the men did think differently about the sharks than they did when they first set off on the voyage and sometimes the men would play tug of war with the them.
   They would take some dolphin meat or any leftovers and put it in a bag above the water, hanging on a pole.  The shark would come to the surface of the ocean and grab the meat and then slowly turn and swim away.  When it did this the men would grab the shark's sandpapery tail and pull the shark as far as they could up onto the raft.  When the shark realized what had happened, it would start to thrash around as hard as it could, which wasn't very hard for a shark which doesn't have the use of its tail can't really move.  After a few minutes the stomach of the shark would slide forward (a sharks stomach isn't fixed in one place, but can move around) to its head and it would then be paralyzed.
   If, however, they let go of the sharks tail, the shark would thrash around on deck and everyone would have to dive for cover so their legs wouldn't be snapped off.  Eventually the shark would thrash its way into the ocean and all would be peaceful again.
 
 

The Cup

The cup He held above His head

Was spilled out for our lives

He gave us all He could

Which meant He died...

for us.

He paid

the price

so we...

with Him...
could live!

For God so loved the world

He gave His Son to save us all.

The slug's Life

The slug
        is slimy as can be
                       he leaves a shiny trail.
                                      The people looking down on him,
                                                             try hiding with the snails.
The slug's life.
                                                                 
                                                                   

Two of my couplets

The Lord watches my step,

He does not let me stumble.

   My version of a Synonymous couplet

Give unto the Lord his due praise,

Give unto the Lord glory and honor.

   My version of a climatic parallelism

Different Parallelism Examples

Synonymous
But I will declare it forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
                          Psalm 75:9
Antithetic Parallelism
A false balance is an abomination to the LORD,
but a just weight is his delight.
                     Proverbs 11:1
Synthetic Parallelism
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
                         Psalm 119:15
Climatic Parallelism
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
                     Psalm 19:1              

Harold.......The King!

   There was a kind of marriage in England called a left-hand marriage.  It was when a man married a woman who was of lower rank than he was.  This marriage could be broken off if the man ever didn't want to be married to the woman any more.
   Harold had a wife who's name was Edith.  She was very pretty and they loved each other very much.  She, however, was of lower rank than he was.
   King Edward was sick and was not getting any better and it started looking like he would die.  The next choice of king by the people lay with Harold.  If Harold were to gain the throne there would be trouble with the two men who deposed Tostig, so Harold would have to marry into their family to keep peace.
   The only way that he could marry into their family would be to get rid of Edith, but he loved her too much to do that.  Edith, however, thought that it was better for Harold to sacrifice everything for his country and not stay married to her.  He tried to dissuade her, but in the end he had to do as she said and marry into the other two men's family.
   The king then died and made Harold king.
   

The Rebellion

   Harold's brother, Gurth who was in charge of the part of the army that Wulf was in, finally came to the castle.  He congratulated Wulf on having captured it and praised him highly.  Then the rest of the Welsh gave up publicly and so the Saxons were able to go home.

   At home, they found that there was more trouble.  Harold's other brother, Tostig, had land that he ruled over but he would constantly be leaving to go other places and his people had finally had enough.  At that  time he was with King Edward, hunting.

   Two of the Normans took advantage of the rebellion and stirred it up even more.  When Harold arrived on the scene he sent a message to the king to ask him to come and help him quell the rebellion or do something to help.  The king didn't want to stop hunting so he gave Harold to speak in his name so that people would listen to him.  Because Harold wanted peace he thought he should allow the people to dethrone Tostig, but he loved his brother and therefore didn't want to do that to him.  He tried to convince the people to keep Tostig and stop the rebellion, but they refused.

   The only option left, then, was to give the people what they wanted.  They made one of the Normans who had been stirring them up their Earl and they not only deposed Tostig, but made him and outlaw and confiscated his money.

 

The Secret Something (I won't say what)

   Wulf thought that the Welsh might have a secret passageway for entering and exiting their castle.  Because he didn't know where it was, he posted guards in different rooms in the fortress that night to keep watch.  He told them if they saw any men coming out from the secret tunnel to wait until there were about two or three out and then to yell and warn the others to come and kill the invaders.

   That night as Wulf and Beorn were making their rounds, checking up on the men on watch, they heard a yell and ran to check it out.  It was the Welsh.  They fought hard and eventually were able to kill them all.  Some of the men who were still in the tunnel died because men were killed in front of them and fell back on top of them.  All the Welsh who came up died, except one, Llewellyn the chief of the castle.  He was wounded severely, though, so Wulf said that the Welsh could send a doctor to him to take care of him.

   The Welsh attacked another time, but Wulf said that if they did again he would kill Llewellyn.  Because of this Llewellyn knew it was useless to keep fighting so he had a meeting with the other chiefs and they had a formal surrender to the Saxons.

  

   

The Capture of Porthwyn

   After they left the Normans they went home and found that they had trouble on their hands.  The Welsh were raiding different towns on the edges of their land.  Harold decided that once and for all he would defeat the Welsh.
   He gathered his men and all his thane's men and set out to defeat the Welsh.  Instead of actually going himself though, he sent his brother to command the troops.
   Harold's brother sent Wulf and Beorn to go capture Porthwyn and so they went out with about 150 men.  Along the way 100 of the men were lost because their thanes were not very responsible, so Wulf and Beorn continued with the other 50 men to try and capture Porthwyn.  
   Even with the few men that they had, they were still able to capture Porthwyn.  There were about 50 men in the castle at most and about that many Saxons.
   Most of the men that normally lived in the castle were out looking for the Saxons when they captured the castle.  So they made ready after they captured the castle to defend it from attack.
 
 

My Green poem

The green grass leaves marks on my legs.

The sea boils like the sky before a tornado

and rotten eggs make sea sick faces look like paint.

The toads and frogs eat apples and avocados and MnMs.

Emeralds shine on moss like roses on paper

The watermelons drip with juices

and Lima beans and kiwis dance together with the leaves.

The moths suck limes with caterpilers.

My Green List

Grass

Leaves

Buds

Sea sick faces

the sea

rotten eggs

unripe bananas

avocados

kiwis

paint

the sky before a tornado

granny smith apples

Lima beans

watermelons

frogs

caterpilers

toads

some roses

cactus

mnms

limes

trees

emeralds

green jelly beans

moths

onion stems

chives

scallions

snap peas

snow peas

green beans

lettuce

kale

dandelion greens

artichokes

asparagus

clover

lizards

green tomatoes

spinach

moss

Praise be to God

Praise be to God for the butterflies

with sunset wings and hundred eyes.

It wings about the flowers bright

And sucks the nectar in its flight.

The butterfly is very fun 

For God has made them, every one.

~

Praise be to God for the silent bat

It lives in caves away from cats.

It glides so quietly through the night

That moths don't see them till too late.

Bats are scary, this is true

But they eat the skeeters in the dew.    

A Skirmish and an Outrage

One day in camp, Wulf went for a walk with Osgod and his friend Guy at night.  All of a sudden they heard yelling and ran to see what the problem was.  It was Bretons who were trying to surprise them and kill them unawares, so Wulf and his companions tried to keep them at bay.  They were able to work together to keep them off and in about two minutes Osgod killed a dozen, Guy killed two and Wulf killed seven.  Then the other men came to their rescue and beat off the rest of the Bretons.  Wulf and his companions were all hurt sorely, but Guy was the worst.  The doctor said that he would probably be a cripple for life.  Thankfully this was not the case, but Guy would not be able to go out to war as he had hoped. 

   After this short skirmish Harold was summoned by Duke William to  make a vow to be in allegiance to him for the rest of his life.  He told Harold to put his hand on a white cloth while he was making his vow and when he was done William took the cloth off of the table and underneath were the Holy Relics which made it pretty much impossible for Harold to break his vow.  William had forced Harold to do this against his will and so it was not fair.  The vow made it impossible for Harold ever to become king and it also allied the Normans with the Saxons more then they had been before.

My Version of No Longer Mourn for Me When I Am Dead

Don't cry for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the angry, grumpy bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest people to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that wrote it; for I love you so,
So I wish that in your sweet thoughts I would be forgotten,
If thinking on me then should make you sad.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps am covered with clay,
Do not so much as say my poor name,
But let your love even with my life die;
   Lest the wise world should look into your cry,
   And make fun of you with me after I am gone.
                                         Sonnet LXXI sort of      

Christmas Sonnet in Anapestic Tetrameter

All my clamorous cousins sit right on the floor
Where they drink up the egg-nog with gusto and greed.
Oh the turkey drips loveliness from every pore
So we quiet ones sit round the table to feed.
On the table there's food that is cooked with our love
We have spent all last night in the kitchen so lively
When we sit in our seats peace descends like a dove
For we love one another and all feel so kindly.
My uncle is first to have finished his plate,
Then my cousins and me race to finish ours next
But they beat me aft' having twice more than I ate.
I forgave them and said that I'd still beat them yet.
With our bellies all filled we had green beans to spare
But we knew that all of us really did care.

Visitors

On board the Kon-Tiki there were several different types of animal species besides the men.  ;)  They had plankton crabs and one of them which was bigger than the rest decided to stay with them.  They named it Johannes and would feed him little bits of food for which he would come up out of his little hole in the logs.  The other crabs they would eat by the hundreds because they were so small and they had a special silk net to catch them in.  Once the men got over the smell and the appearance, they rather enjoyed this meal.  Two of the men thought that the smell was enough for them.

They also had remora and pilot fish swimming next to them and also some that were attached to the raft.  These had been with sharks that the men had killed and not knowing what else to do the fish stayed with the raft.

Dolphins also stayed with the raft for a lot of the time and sometimes the men would catch and eat them.

Sharks were a daily occurrence so the men had to be on the look out for them when they took their daily swim.

They would also see whales.  Most of the time they would see them separately, but once in a while they would be in a whole pod.