Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

Contrary to popular belief, Robin Hood isn’t merely a story of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.  Rather, it is a story about fighting the Sheriff’s (read:  government) oppression and coercion.

In Robin Hood, the Sheriff wanted to heavily tax the people by taking the majority of their crops.  What was left for the people wasn’t enough to live on or to sell to make a living.  This is what is happening right now.  The government is quarantining people, making it impossible for the majority to earn a living.  That means no income while they still have to pay their expenses such as rent, mortgage, food, etc.  On top of that, the government still wants its taxes.  In some cases, the government is increasing taxes such as property tax.  Where are the people going to get their money from?

Why were Robin Hood and his gang stealing from the rich?  It was not only to give to the poor, but to fight the government.  There might be no Robin Hood to help the people now, but there will be riots as the people become angry and frustrated.

What will the government do then?  How will they get their taxes?  Force can only do so much.  If the government does not end the lockdown, a civil war between the people and the government is inevitable.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is the story of how a young man, Axel, and his professor uncle, Otto Liedenbrock, journeyed to the center of the Earth.

The Main Characters

In the book there are five characters that are focused on:

Otto Liedenbrock (aka Uncle Liedenbrock, the Professor, Professor Liedenbrock): the uncle of Axel and the man who decided to take a trip to the center of the Earth

Axel: the nephew of Otto Liedenbrock

Grauben: Axel’s fiancée

Martha: Otto Liedenbrock and Axel’s maid

Hans: Otto Liedenbrock and Axel’s guide through their adventure

The Beginning

The whole story starts in Hamburg, Germany, with a book that Professor Liedenbrock had found. While admiring the book a piece of paper falls out, this paper contains a cipher.  Professor Liedenbrock became obsessed with this paper and refuses to eat and drink until the cipher is solved. After working on the cipher for hours the Professor becomes frustrated and takes a very long walk outside.  While he was gone Axel was able to decipher the code. However, what the code said didn’t make him happy. He knew that his uncle would want to do what the paper said, and he hurried to burn it. But he wasn’t fast enough, just as Axel was about to drop the paper into the fire the Professor came home. Panicking, Axel hides the decoded cipher in his pocket and goes to his uncle.  For an entire night Professor Liedenbrock slaves over the cipher, mumbling like a lunatic, still wearing his coat with the key to the house, locking Axel and Martha in the house without food.

When morning comes Martha and Axel are starving, while the sleep deprived Professor is still working on the cipher.  From morning to late afternoon Axel had been contemplating whether he should give his uncle the solved cipher so this long fast could finally end. Not wanting to do what the cipher says, Axel decides to not to give the cipher to his uncle thinking that by tomorrow morning his uncle would give up.   By the time night comes both Axel and Martha are starving, and Axel realizes that he must give the cipher to his uncle or he and Martha would starve to death.

When Axel gave his uncle the solved cipher the Professor practically jumped out of his skin.  A light of hope shined in the Professor’s eyes.   The cipher was written by Arne Saknussemm and said that he had gone to the extinct volcano Snæfellsjökull (in Iceland) and had reached the center of the Earth.  The Professor, who was now acting like a sane person, simply told Axel to pack their bags and be ready to go to Iceland in the morning, then he retired to his bedroom

When morning came the Professor hired a man with a large ship to take him and Axel to Iceland.  While he was doing that Axel was packing the last of his belongings and saying goodbye to his fiancée, Grauben.  When the time came for Axel to board the boat to Iceland he was very reluctant, but eventually boarded and said goodbye to his safe home.

Journey to Iceland

The journey to Iceland wasn’t very unpleasant for Axel, as for the Professor, he didn’t fare well.  When they reached Iceland the Professor was as pale as a ghost from sea sickness, but that didn’t stop him. The first second that the Professor’s feet had touched the soil of Iceland he started making arrangements for their journey.

The night before their journey began the men stay overnight in the house of a librarian. But I won’t bore you on the details; all you need to know is that this librarian had found a guide for the men. This guide’s name was Hans. He will be with the duo for the rest of the journey.

The March to the Volcano

The next morning Axel, Hans, and the Professor headed to the extinct volcano. They travelled on horseback through meadows and fields, misty fogs and snow topped mountains. After many days of travelling they finally reached the volcano.

Experience inside volcano

Axel was very hesitant about going in, but his uncle didn’t care. When the Professor puts his mind to something nothing stops him.   Once entering the volcano the trio saw igneous rocks (rocks made from lava) and natural drops of glass, and other such minerals.

After about a week or so in the volcano the men’s water supply starts to run low.  Axel starts to worry that they will die of dehydration, while Professor Liedenbrock was convinced that there would be a water source in the volcano. What a funny pair they make!  After many days without water Axel starts to become weaker and weaker, at one point Axel starts to lose consciousness as they are walking.

One night their guide, Hans, heard water flowing and goes to inspect it.  Hans then starts mining away at the rock, waking up Axel and the Professor. Finally after mining at the rock for a while, a strong current of water gushes out with such force that it knocks Hans right off his feet.   Overjoyed that they finally found a source of water, Axel plunges his hands into the gushing water. But he immediately withdraws his hands, having learned that the water was scalding hot.  When the water had cooled down they  filled their flasks with the liquid.

Axel suggested plugging the hole where the water was coming from, the Professor thought there was no reason to stop the hole, and he insisted that if they let the water flow they could follow it to the “center of Earth”.   Everyone agreed with the Professor’s idea, and left the water alone.

Now that the problem of water was solved,  Axel, Hans, and the Professor continue to go deeper into the volcano.  On the way Axel realizes that they aren’t underneath Iceland anymore, but under the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! He also realized that it should be unbearably hot right now, but instead it was a little over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

After a day of walking Axel somehow got separated from his uncle and Hans. Realizing what had happened he starts panicking, Hans had all the food and water! The only thing he had was a lantern. Axel tried calling for his uncle, but all his efforts was in vain.   No one but the walls heard his calls. Axel decided to continue forward, there had to a joining of tunnels up ahead. After a little while Axel started to become hungry and thirsty. But he couldn’t stop, he had to find the joining of tunnels. He kept walking until his body finally couldn’t take hunger anymore and passed out.  Axel finally woke up to sound of his uncle’s voice. Thinking he was going mad, he didn’t think much of it. Until he realized it was actually his uncle! They were in different tunnels, but he could hear through the walls.  He called on his uncle, announcing that he was still alive and in need of food and water.  Uncle Liedenbrock told Axel to keep going down his tunnel until he met a crossroad.

Obeying, Axel ran forward, until there was no more ground to run on. There was just air to fall through. While falling down the ditch Axel hit his head on the corner of a sharp rock, making him lose consciousness.

When Axel had finally woken up his uncle was above him, taking care of him, making sure he wasn’t dead.  Uncle Liedenbrock told Axel to rest until he had more strength, and told him that he wouldn’t be able to bear the wind.  Curious, Axel asked what wind.  Uncle Liedenbrock revealed that they had found an island.

The Island

Axel was overjoyed, he was finally above ground. There was blue sky and a vast blue sea! Trees and sand! There were noises of birds and a forest of mushrooms though to be extinct.  While exploring the forest of mushrooms Axel came to see the inhabitant of the island.  Many creatures close to dinosaurs, creatures that the world thought were dead.  Axel was amazed and excited about this discovery, but at the same time cautious, and slightly alarmed.

While Axel was exploring the island and marveling at the animals, the Professor and Hans were preparing a raft to travel the sea.  When the Professor told Axel that they were to travel the sea he wasn’t thrilled.  Axel didn’t think it was a good idea to go out to ocean, but the Professor didn’t listen.

Hans, the Professor, and Axel boarded the raft to go to look for other nearby islands.  After getting quite far into the sea a storm started brewing, and they were to be caught in it.  The storm was so strong that it blew them all the way back to where they started.  This angered the Professor, but there was nothing he could do about it, besides wait for the storm to end.

The Professor decided to make everyone come and explore the island with him. While exploring they found a trail of skeleton bones, leading them to a cave that seemed to have lots of pressure inside. This gave the Professor an idea.   The Professor thought that if they released the pressure it would be enough to blow them far into sea. When the Professor told Axel his idea, Axel didn’t really like the sound if it, but knew that convincing his uncle to not do it would be a waste of time.

The Professor liked his idea, but didn’t know how to release the pressure. Axel knew how to release the pressure. If they blew up the entrance of the cave with gun powder the pressure will be released, blasting them into the ocean.   The Professor loved the idea and declared that first thing the next day they would carry through with the plan.

The next morning they lined the entrance of the cave with gun powder and set it on fire. The pressure was so strong that it shot the small raft off the island.  The raft was going so fast that Axel had to close his eyes so they wouldn’t dry out. They were moving so fast for so long that Axel eventually fell asleep.

Escape from Snæfellsjökull

When Axel woke up they were no longer at sea, but in a tunnel, moving rapidly up, and it was getting hotter and hotter by the second.  Axel also realized that they didn’t have much food left, when they left the island their food supply got lost, all they had now was a small piece of salted meat. To make matters worse the Professor revealed that they might be in a volcano…that was about to blow.

Like any person, Axel started to become worried and scared. But the Professor couldn’t be calmer, when Axel questioned his calmness the Professor explained that this would be their only way out. Realizing that the Professor had a point, Axel calmed down, slightly.

As they kept going up it became hotter and the men became hungrier. The Professor cut the small piece of meat for everyone. That was their “dinner.” It started to become unbearably hotter, forcing them to strip down to their underclothes, but even that wasn’t cool enough.

The raft unexpectedly stopped, this meant that the eruption was coming. Then they start moving up once again, faster than before.

The men didn’t have to time to realize what was happening when they were spit out of the volcano with such force that it knocked them all unconscious.

Happy Ending

Once everyone had gotten their bearings, and injuries were checked, they found a young local boy who told them that they were at the Stromboli volcano, in Southern Italy.

The men found their way to town and arranged their passage back to Hamburg, Germany, where this all started.

Once home Professor Liedenbrock and Axel were greeted by the whole town, congratulating them on surviving their adventure, but how did the whole town know that they went to the center of the Earth? Let’s just say that their servant, Martha, can’t keep a secret.

Axel appreciated the applause and the attention, but he just wanted to see his dearly beloved fiancée, Grauben.  A week after Axel’s return to Hamburg the two lovebirds got married and moved into Uncle Liedenbrock’ s home.

Now, in the household of Otto Liedenbrock there was a headstrong professor, a lovely young couple, and a loud mouthed servant.

Endnote

I highly suggest reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, I may have given away all the secrets though. But you should always read it for yourself. I personally found the book slow in the beginning, but it turned out to be an amazing story! If you are a fan of Science Fiction you will really enjoy this book.

 

After reading Treasure Island I believe that there is more than one theme (aka moral) of the story. “You can always be included in adventure” and “Greediness leads to misfortune”[1].

In the beginning of the book we get introduced to Jim Hawkins, a regular boy. Seven chapters in and he’s already getting on a boat to look for treasure! Every young boy dreams of going on an adventure and finding treasure, but it doesn’t always end in happiness.

Which leads me to my second moral: “greediness leads to misfortune”. Why was Jim even going anyways? He had nothing to do with the treasure, he would be lucky to even get a small portion of the treasure that was found (which he did).  But was it worth it? During the adventure the seamen that were brought along created a mutiny, all of them (except for one) ended up dead, one at the hand of Jim in self-defense.  For a young boy all that death and killing can be traumatic.

Maybe Robert Louis Stevenson, the author, intended for a different theme to be conveyed to the reader. Too bad we can’t ask him, he died a long time ago, more specifically in 1894 at the age of 44. Perhaps he went to look for treasure like young Jim Hawkins, which may have resulted in his early death.

[1]https://avaldamarblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/the-theme-of-treasure-island/

From reading Wulf the Saxon I have learned quite a bit about Saxon culture. The Saxon’s culture mainly revolves around their feudal system and their armies, without it they would have merely been another tribe of people who failed to become a country.

The Saxons were originally a Germanic tribe that established their new home in England alongside the Angles, the Britons, and the Jutes.  When the Saxons first came they were at war with the neighboring tribes, especially the Anglians. The two tribes eventually came to a peace and became allies. The two tribes became so close that the Saxons were referred to as the Anglo-Saxons.

The Saxons were Norsemen and worshipped the Pagan gods, but Anglian influence converted them to Christianity and made them highly religious people.

Like all cultures, the Anglo-Saxons had a feudal system, which included kings, thanes, monks, priests, and peasants.  The monks, priests, kings, princes, and thanes were well educated.  Though, some thanes, like Beorn (one of Wulf’s friends) didn’t have much interest in reading and writing, but knew enough to read declarations and such.  At the very bottom of the system, are the peasants, who were uneducated and looked down upon.

The main character of the book, Wulf, accompanies the king as a thane, letting us know how the nobles got to live.  The highest rank is of course, is the king, who has the most money and power. The second highest ranks are the thanes, the right hand men of the king. The thanes were people who managed smaller parcels of land. They are treated with the utmost respect and are held in highest regard on the battlefield.  In battle, not only the king is targeted, but so are the thanes. If one of the thanes or the king is killed or injured in battle the army will lose spirit and feel hopeless, making it easier for the enemy to defeat them.

In the book, the peasants aren’t mentioned much, even though they are very important to the structure of society. They provided manual labor, like planting and picking food, forging weapons, making clothes, baking, etc.  If they didn’t do these things people wouldn’t have food, clothes, weapons, or everyday needs.

The peasants admired and respected their king, viewing him as their leader and protector with infinite power.  During war times they were expected to fight as footmen, which they saw as a great honor, even though they never got credit for the work that they did.

At the time that Wulf the Saxon was set in, England was in a constant state of war, making powerful armies important. The army mostly consisted of peasants as footmen. Then there were the soldiers, usually men that the thanes trained, then the thanes themselves beside the king.

As you can see, Saxon culture really depends on their ranking system and their armies. Without their feudal system there would be chaos and disorder, and without their armies they would be completely vulnerable to attacks, resulting in their downfall.

Thanks for reading!

I’ve never experienced a big, major, scary storm. The worst storm I’ve experienced was three years ago in 2017. One of the biggest snowstorms that Connecticut (where I lived in the US before I moved to Singapore) had seen in a long time.

It was in December a few weeks until Christmas and everyone was excited. It was only the first week of December and some of my friend’s schools had already started Christmas break!  But not mine. I was homeschooling at the time. It really felt like Christmas! Candy canes everywhere, Santas in the malls, having to put on nine layers of jackets just to walk across the street! Everyone was talking about their Christmas plans and winter break.

Everything was perfect and cheerful until the news started talking about a snowstorm that was approaching.  All everyone was talking about the snowstorm. Being kids, our parents told us not to worry and that it was nothing. It wasn’t confirmed yet. The storm was just an “if”.

But we started to get concerned when our parents started referring to it as a “when”. It became apparent to us that the storm was coming, and that it wasn’t going to be a small one.

I remember rushing to the store with my Mom to stock up on eggs, bread, and meat; everything people buy when a storm comes. I remember that the shelves were practically empty and that the lines were extremely long.

The storm came sooner than expected but most households had already stocked up and were prepared for it. Schools that were still in session closed, afterschool activities were canceled, and the streets were empty. Even if there were people on the streets, it would be impossible to see through the snow. It was so thick I couldn’t see anything past our window!

My Mom tried to get me to do school but it was hard with the storm outside. You could hear the wind raging and the hail smacking the windows. It was colder in the house than usual so my Mom, Dad, and I all stayed in my parent’s room to keep warm.

The storm only lasted for a day but by the time in ended, the snow plowers had their work cut out for them. Everything in sight had been covered in snow! The roads were closed for a couple of days. I wanted to go out and play before the snow had melted but the snow was so deep that my Mom said we had to let it melt before I could go out.

That snowstorm was a bit scary  but nothing really bad happened. The power never went out, I got to skip most of my school that day, and when the snow melted a bit, I was allowed to play. It was awesome! Every bad thing has its good parts. Don’t you think?

“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” is about Hank Morgan, a 19^th Century, Connecticut man that gets hit on the head and somehow gets transported to 6^th Century England.

When Hank wakes up he thinks that he’s in an asylum, seeing how the people around him were dressed and how they talked.  A young boy, who Hank calls Clarence, tells Hank that he is Sir Kay’s prisoner and that he will be presented to the Round Table after dinner.

During dinner Hank evaluated his new milieu. He came to a conclusion that the people of this age are childish, energetic, and naive (and has the tendency to get drunk easily).

Dinner passed quickly and it was soon time for Hank to be presented to the Round Table. Sir Kay told a marvelous tale of how he captured and fought many soldiers. And how he caught Hank abandoning the fight and captured him for being a deserter. The Round Table decided to burn Hank at the stake in two days and threw him in jail.

In jail Clarence came and gave him food everyday. From talking to Clarence, Hank found out that the day he’ll get burned is when the eclipse will happen. Using his wits and observation of how the people act he came up with a plan to save himself from death.

On the day that Hank gets burned, he tells the people that he’s a wizard sent from God. He told them that he was the one causing the eclipse, and that if they kill him the world will plunge into eternal darkness. The people not having a vast knowledge of the world, let Hank go and begged his “forgiveness”.

In result Hank gained the title “The Boss”, put Merlin out of a job, and rose to such a high position that he had more authority than the king! Realizing that he was actually stuck in 6^th Century England, he decided to use his authority to reform and modernize the country.

One day a woman named Sandy came to the Round Table with a mission; she needed a knight to rescue her princesses from an “enchanted tower”, guarded by and ugly ogre. King Arthur thought this mission would be perfect for Hank, called upon him and charged him with retrieving the princesses.  Hank, having no other option, accepts the mission and heads off.

While on his mission he saves prisoners from King Arthur’s sister, Queen Morgan Le Fay, meets with common folk and send them to Camelot to be taught by Clarence, and tries to reform the country by changing laws and knighthood. Doing all this he almost forgets his mission.

When Hank and Sandy finally reach the “castle”, Hank finds out that the “princesses” are pigs, the “castle” a pigsty, and the “scary, ugly ogres” are non-existent. Sandy says that the “ogre” cursed the “princesses”. Hank knowing that talking Sandy out of this delusion will be fruitless goes with her story and returns the pigs back home.

After that Hank gets called upon by a monastery. The “Holy Fountain” at the monastery (that happens to be in the middle of the desert) has stopped flowing, and the monks have called on Merlin and The Boss (aka Hank), the “greatest magicians in all the land”, to get the fountain started again.

Hank accepts the invitation and heads to the monastery. When he gets there he meets Merlin, standing next to the “fountain” (turns out to be a regular well) chanting like a buffoon. Hank at first, decides to not interfere with Merlin’s “work”, but when he sees how desperate the monks are for water, he takes matters into his own hands. Hank found a crack in the well, causing the water to stop flowing. He calls on a few men from Camelot to help him fix the crack in the well and to help him create his “miracle”.

When everything is ready, Hank performs a big show with fireworks, convincing the people that he’s scaring away the “Russian Demon” that stole their water. Before Hank left the monastery, he also built a bath for the monks (since they’re so dirty).

Before leaving for Camelot Hank decides to go undercover as a peasant to find out how bad the people’s situation is. But his plan gets postponed when he hears that King Arthur is coming to the monastery to bathe in the holy water.

Eventually, Arthur and Hank went back to Camelot. Hank told Arthur that he wanted to go undercover as a peasant. Arthur wanted to go as well, so Hank told him to pack lots of food, and they head off in the cover of night.

During their time undercover lots of interesting things occured. Hank blew up three knights and their horses using a bomb. Found a house which contained a family that had contracted Small Pox. Made an entire village of people attack them. Got “saved” from the village from a seemingly nice man, who sells them into slavery. Then Hank came up with a plan to free himself and Arthur, which backfires, almost getting Arthur, himself, and the other slaves hanged. Then gets saved by Sir Lancelot and a few other knights (who were oddly enough, on bicycles) and headed back home to Camelot.

Once back in Camelot, Hank lost no time to come up with more ways to modernize the kingdom, starting with getting rid of the knighthood. A tournament was held, Hank versus all the knights. While the knights had swords and lances, Hank defeated the knights using his superior bombs and revolver, killing most of the knights and weakening knighthood.

Now we fast forward three years and lots has happened. Knighthood is slowly becoming obsolete in the kingdom, Hank’s schools are popping up everywhere, teaching 19^th century English, and modern day factories and stores are everywhere now! And we can’t forget the biggest change of all; Hank married Sandy and had a baby girl named Hello-Central.

Hello-Central gets sick, and doctors advise that sea air would be good for here health. So Hank and Sandy pack their bags and moved to the ocean until Hello-Central was better.

After a while supplies started to run low so, Hank sent a ship back to Camelot to get more supplies. One week later, the supplies are almost diminished, and the ship still hadn’t come back yet. Hank gets concerned and left Sandy and Hello-Central to go find the ship back in Camelot.

When he arrived Hank found the kingdom in a sense of panic. There were no ships in the harbor, the streets were empty, windows were boarded up, and the Church bells weren’t ringing.

Hank found Clarence, who explained the situation. While Hank was gone the Church got rid of all Hanks’ modern establishments. The knights were at war with the King, who caught Sir Lancelot and Queen Gwen together. The King sentenced Queen Gwen to death, which angered Sir Lancelot. Sir Lancelot saved the Queen and battled the King to the death, both died. Royalty is no more, and now the Church has full control of England.

Clarence also revealed that the Church embedded spies within Hank’s household. People like the doctors and servants were the spies of the Church. Hello-Central didn’t need the ocean air, the Church just wanted to get rid of Hank.

Hank was greatly angered by this and came up with a plan to defeat the Church and all the knights fighting for the Church.

Clarence rounded up 52 boys between the ages 14 and 17, boys that hadn’t been corrupted by the Church, boys that went to Hank’s modern schools. Then they all head to Merlin’s Cave which had been vacant for many years. They set up electric fences around the cave and planted land mines in the ground. Hank wrote an invitation to the Church to come and battle at Merlin’s Cave.

The Church accepted, and sent all their knights to fight. Resulting in the majority of them to die by electrocution or being blown up.

After about two days of this, most of the knights were dead, and the remainder was waiting for Hank, Clarence, and the rest of the boys to come out when their supplies ran out. The men of Merlin’s Cave were officially under siege.

An old lady showed up at the cave to help them through the siege, Hank thinking that she could help them get through to the end of the siege, invited her in. Little did he know, her entering was the end of the siege. The old lady turned out to be Merlin in disguise! He cursed Hank to sleep for 1300 years!

We’re now in the 19^th century, in a mental hospital where Hank now lives. This whole story has been documented in Hank’s diary, which was being read by a nurse that was taking care of Hank.

It’s been 1300 years, and now Hank is ready to leave this Earth at last and join Sandy and Hello-Central.