This is a story that may or may not be true.
Those islands over there are called the Pakleni islands, meaning hell’s islands, supposedly. In truth the name comes from the old Slavic word for tar- ‘paklina’.
Why tar? Well to answer that this story must be told. It is not a story for the faint of heart.
Back in the day, Pharos and the Pakleni islands were ruled by the King. He lived with his family in the Spanish fortress up on that hill, the Fortica as the locals call it. Some say he wasn’t really a king, that he gave himself the title. Whether or not he was one, he wielded power over the area and was regarded by the islanders as their leader.
In those days trade was done by way of ships. The main object of trade was pine tar produced from the numerous pine forests that thrived on the Pakleni islands. It was used to seal the wooden hulls of the ships common to those times.
Trade was very delicate back then, with Venice dominating the Adriatic, including the Dalmatian coast. The only thing that threatened Venice’s power, that blunted the lion’s claws, were the Pirates of Almissa.
Pirates- the fear of every sailor and every sailor’s maiden. In those days pirates sailed these seas, plundering. However, they mostly stuck to the northern coast and rarely ventured this far south. The pirates had an arrangement with the southern realms and their rulers, to leave their bounty alone, and only sack the Venetian ships up north. Included in this arrangement was the island of Pharos with its ruler the King. As a result of this pact, the pirates, or ‘gusari’, and the southerners lived in peace.
Fate had it that one day ten Sagittas of the pirates’ fleet were forced to cast anchor this far south. A storm was brewing of such strength that many sa...
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...er screaming in agony as she watched the horror unfold at sea. As her tears fell down her cheeks she recalled the gitano’s prophecy. ‘My love is gone, my father has been taken, I am forsaken’ she exclaimed and wept.
Of the pirates’ presence on the islands, no evidence remained apart from a yet unborn child and the figurehead of the Captain’s ship, a dragon. It was placed at the entrance to the Fortica with the inscription iustitiae divinae as a warning for all mankind that the Fates were always watching.
It is said that the descendants of this tar blood line with their green-blue devil eyes still live among the locals. When they look out to the Pakleni islands at sunset they can see the sea burning where all their ancestors died.
There’s an old man sitting over there on the bench, leaning his head on his cane. He’s sitting there because he’s waiting for the sunset.
we rowed into the strait- Scylla to our port. and on our starboard beam Charybdis, dire. gorge of the salt sea tide.
Everyone needs to listen to what people have to say because it can really make a difference. The captain in “Wreck of the Hesperus” does not listen to the sailors concern about the ...
The description of the Axumite port of Adulis in the document “Periplus of The Erythraen Sea”, provides an idea of the influence and importance that Axum had on the rest of the World. This port allowed the Roman Empire to tap into many exotic product from India and the African interior that were not accessible in earlier times. The author describes the many exotic imports and exports that arrive, and
Our life is being torn apart. There have been rumors that pirates are ransacking the coast, and are coming our way. They have been looting towns, sparing no lives, and taking children as captives. We live our lives in a constant fear of the future. Every sound, we glance in panic. Every visitor, we regard with suspicion. It is as if we are marionettes, our master tugging on our strings at every chance he can get.
Births Marriages and Deaths. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014. . Interpretation on the tempest
Neither legends nor danger were a match for the overwhelming curiosity of a forbidden place. In the early eighth century a bishop from the near by town of Avranges named Aubert made the crossing. After finding it safe enough he started frequenting the island which seemed to be an escape from civilization for him, and a place where he could meditate un-intruded. During meditation one day on the island the archangel Michel visited Aubert and convinced him to build a church on the island. In 708 the modest chapel began construction on the island, many buildings have come to rise and fall on the island since then.
During the Norman Conquest and as seen throughout history, Sicily was of vital strategic importance as a control point for sea routes in the Mediterranean Sea. Great generals from Belisarius to Patton and Montgomery have used Sicily as the start poin...
Aeneas shares the same emotional ties with his ships; failure of one causes depression in the other. Throughout the epic, the devastation of Aeneas’ fleet shakes the spirit of its captain. In the initial portions of his journey, mighty storms and rough waters batter his fleet, causing many of the vessels to plunge into the dep...
Davidson, Frank. “The Tempest: An Interpretation.” In The Tempest: A Casebook. Ed. D.J. Palmer. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1968. 225.
Once upon a time, in an era where gods walked among men and men walked among gods, a girl was guardian of the stars. Her skin was coppery and her eyes were wide emeralds. Her long strands of spun obsidian hung down to her knees and the threads seemed to float on the curling breezes. Her dress, like her hair, brushed her knees. As dark as onyx, it shimmered like the night sky. She glowed like the moon, a silvery halo encompassing her whole being.
Fear has taken a hold of every man aboard this ship, as it should; our luck is as far gone as the winds that led us off course. For nights and days gusts beyond measure have forced us south, yet our vessel beauty, Le Serpent, stays afloat. The souls aboard her, lay at the mercy of this ruthless sea. Chaotic weather has turned the crew from noble seamen searching for glory and riches, to whimpering children. To stay sane I keep the holy trinity close to my heart and the lady on my mind. Desperation comes and goes from the men’s eyes, while the black, blistering clouds fasten above us, as endless as the ocean itself. The sea rocks our wood hull back and forth but has yet to flip her. The rocking forces our bodies to cling to any sturdy or available hinge, nook or rope, anything a man can grasp with a sea soaked hand. The impacts make every step a danger. We all have taken on a ghoulish complexion; the absence of sunlight led the weak souls aboard to fight sleep until sick. Some of us pray for the sun to rise but thunder constantly deafens our cries as it crackles above the mast. We have been out to sea for fifty-five days and we have been in this forsaken storm for the last seventeen.
the economy of the islands was tied to that parent country. As a result, the
An odd sensation, full of guilt and anxiety, overcomes the mariner when he crosses a potential target. The only relief that the man can find comes after the interpretation of his story. This struggle of the sailor is due to the curse condemned on him for slaying the albatross. He is forced to tell a horrifying tale, and be used as an example to pass on a crucial message. “He prayeth best, who loveth best/ All things both great and small;/ For the dear God who loveth us,/ He made and loveth all.” The seaman travels the world, picking out the people who need to experience the message passed through his oral legend. Each person is chosen because of their lack of knowledge towards living things, and the importance of them all. The history of the sailor leaves an impression on the distinct listeners, and they always depart as wiser
“But in a sieve I'll thither sail,” and later “I myself have all the other, And the very ports they blow.” This response to