| Althea |
An only daughter with twelve brothers, Althea was raised to
be the flower of maidenly virtues in her small fjord settlement.
However, at young age she discovered the Scandinavian
game of whack-a-penguin along with her competitive nature.
She and her siblings became great whack-a-penguin players
as they grew up. You can only imagine their disappointment
when they traveled all the way down to Uppsala in the family
longship only to discover that the European championship
whack-a-penguin games had to be cancelled due to an
absolute lack of any remaining European penguins! (See
editorial note below!)
The youngsters did not feel that they could return home
honorably without a prize. There was also their concern over
food now that there would be no penguins left to whack for
dinner. So with heads full of tales about their grandfathers’
Viking exploits, they had the idea of converting their whacking
skills to other uses, bought a few second hand maces, and
sailed their dilapidated longship to the Scottish coast. After
being brutally reminded that penguins do not whack back like
Scotts, they nonetheless seized a small coastal town in a bold
daylight raid! They were so confident in their success that
they stayed in the little town to practice their Viking skills of
burning, pillaging, and whatever else that other thing was.
Then their party of youthful Vikings were set upon one
moonless night by savage Scotts! These Scotts were not
wearing the traditional kilts, but rather skin-tight shearling
wool, and they swung out of the trees gibbering like nothing
ever heard of in the old tales from home. Even their vicious
wolves were covered in sheep skins! Without hesitation, the
Vikings fled to their longship and pushed off. Fortunately they
had provisioned their longship with enough that the raid was
not a great loss.
Their plan was to sail home to their fjord, but unfortunately
they had been so busy playing whack-a-penguin growing up
that they had not studied their lessons in geography,
languages, and navigation very hard. Althea and her party
are still sailing around raiding and trading to this day.
be the flower of maidenly virtues in her small fjord settlement.
However, at young age she discovered the Scandinavian
game of whack-a-penguin along with her competitive nature.
She and her siblings became great whack-a-penguin players
as they grew up. You can only imagine their disappointment
when they traveled all the way down to Uppsala in the family
longship only to discover that the European championship
whack-a-penguin games had to be cancelled due to an
absolute lack of any remaining European penguins! (See
editorial note below!)
The youngsters did not feel that they could return home
honorably without a prize. There was also their concern over
food now that there would be no penguins left to whack for
dinner. So with heads full of tales about their grandfathers’
Viking exploits, they had the idea of converting their whacking
skills to other uses, bought a few second hand maces, and
sailed their dilapidated longship to the Scottish coast. After
being brutally reminded that penguins do not whack back like
Scotts, they nonetheless seized a small coastal town in a bold
daylight raid! They were so confident in their success that
they stayed in the little town to practice their Viking skills of
burning, pillaging, and whatever else that other thing was.
Then their party of youthful Vikings were set upon one
moonless night by savage Scotts! These Scotts were not
wearing the traditional kilts, but rather skin-tight shearling
wool, and they swung out of the trees gibbering like nothing
ever heard of in the old tales from home. Even their vicious
wolves were covered in sheep skins! Without hesitation, the
Vikings fled to their longship and pushed off. Fortunately they
had provisioned their longship with enough that the raid was
not a great loss.
Their plan was to sail home to their fjord, but unfortunately
they had been so busy playing whack-a-penguin growing up
that they had not studied their lessons in geography,
languages, and navigation very hard. Althea and her party
are still sailing around raiding and trading to this day.
 |  |
A Note from the Editor
If you thought Karl was only kidding about the penguins, it turns out that there
was a breed of penguins in the Northern hemisphere that were wiped out as
recently as the 19th century. Here are a few links to articles. So now Althea
has documentation for her penguin...
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large,
flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only
modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly
included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean
region. It bred on rocky, isolated islands with easy access to both the ocean
and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few
breeding sites for the auks. When not breeding, the auks spent their time
foraging in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as New
England and northern Spain through Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe
Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Great Britain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Auk for the much longer full article)
Other articles:
http://www.ivorybill.com/g/greatauk.htm
If you thought Karl was only kidding about the penguins, it turns out that there
was a breed of penguins in the Northern hemisphere that were wiped out as
recently as the 19th century. Here are a few links to articles. So now Althea
has documentation for her penguin...
Here's what Wikipedia has to say:
The Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, formerly of the genus Alca, was a large,
flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only
modern species in the genus Pinguinus, a group of birds that formerly
included one other species of flightless giant auk from the Atlantic Ocean
region. It bred on rocky, isolated islands with easy access to both the ocean
and a plentiful food supply, a rarity in nature that provided only a few
breeding sites for the auks. When not breeding, the auks spent their time
foraging in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as New
England and northern Spain through Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe
Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Great Britain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Auk for the much longer full article)
Other articles:
http://www.ivorybill.com/g/greatauk.htm
| This picture is from the quoted Wikipedia article. |
| Artwork by Althea's sister Adara. |