Bill Says: This next book synopsis is for, "Legend of Silene", which is my first attempt at writing a Christian fable of sorts. The story is based upon the Legend of St. George and the Dragon and surprisingly, this tale did take place in Libya, North Africa. The story was carried into Europe by knights and fighting men returning home from King Richard's 3rd Crusade, which takes place in the latter part of the12th Century.
My fable has a touch of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a dash of HG Wells and smidgen of Jules Verne, and begins in current day Tripoli, Libya. Here a Sunni storyteller entertains children and tourists with a very unusual fairy tale. This is an ancient story, where the oddities of the universe transform reality into the imaginary, myth into a courageous man's destiny to fulfill an ancient prophecy. In doing so, he becomes the slayer of evil and a legend in the service of Jesus Christ.
The Sunni story teller takes his listeners back to 1968 Viet Nam, where newly promoted Corporal GW Sanders, a proud member of the 101st Airborne, is about to participate in a helicopter assault deep into the ominous A Shau Valley. While the helicopters warm up, Sanders in approached by a South Vietnamese Captain, who has brought with him an elderly Montegnard holy man. The tribesman has come a great distance on foot to meet GW, a foreigner he has seen only in his visions. The holy man brings with him three strange gifts for GW; a handmade wooden cross hanging from an elephant hair necklace, a satchel of dried water buffalo meat and a large and extremely sharp flint blade. The old man tells GW of his visions and how these things were necessary for GW's survival over the next few days. The captain interprets the Jade dialect and tells of how the spirits had named the blade-Ascalon.
Not wanting to offend the holy man, GW places the items in his field pack and boards the helicopter. He immediately notices the holy man has disappeared in to the crowd of soldiers and soon forgets about the gifts as he mentally prepares himself for battle.
The Army hopes to catch the enemy by surprise, but within hours a major battle is underway. Outnumbered, US forces are ordered to withdraw by helicopter and GW's shot-up platoon is given the job of rear-guard action. A massive attack overruns their position and survivors flee deep into the jungle. GW is accompanied by Corporal Paul Grant and PFC Richard Hughes, and they eventually find refuge in a small cave.
With GW on guard, the other two sleep and after midnight the earth rumbles under a massive earthquake. All three are rendered unconscious, while a mysterious and bizarre event occurs around them. The cave is transformed into a gyrating blender, emptying the three men into a multi-colored vortex. They leave one reality and are dropped into another, thousands of miles away and hundreds of years earlier.
The tale now moves to Silene, Libya, the year is 1178 A.D and Brother Samuel, a 75-year old man with a secret past is introduced. Sam poses as a defrocked Catholic priest in a Muslim world. He washed up on the northern shores of Silene 42-years ago and was promptly thrown into a castle dungeon. Through his knowledge of medicine and engineering, he was able to earn his release. Through time, he became Chief Court Advisor to King Ramie, Lord and High Protector for the Kingdom of Silene. He now educates the king's daughters; Princess Lonnia- a witch, Princess Lannia- a female warrior in exile and Princess Lennia- the king's favorite.
There is also a curse hanging over Silene in the form of a 20-ton, 50-foot tall aquatic dinosaur landlocked in a salt water lake by a quake/tsunami event in the long past. Set down by ancient decree, twice a month this dragon is fed fair maidens in hopes to keep the beast from destroying Silene. Girls are taken in raids, from local families or bought in slave markets to fulfill the quota. Brother Samuel spends a lot of his time trying to figure out a way to destroy the monster and pleads with God for a miracle. The answer to his prayers has arrived.
Sanders, Grant and Hughes discover their modern weapons, other than their knives, shovels and a single grenade, were destroyed by strange the quake. They struggle for a week to find their way out of a long tunnel-like cavern. Following days of travel, the come up against a rock wall and once their last torch burns out, they discover a baseball sized hole in the wall that allows sunlight into the cave. They use their one grenade and E-tool shovels to escape. But they are startled by what they find before them; a white sandy beach and a blue-green ocean. Not the jungle they expected. The three men soon lay eyes on a fairy tale castle off in the distance and to make matters even more surreal, they are taken prisoner by a troop of mounted Saracen knights and thrown into a rat-infested dungeon.
The meat had kept them fed and the wood cross kept them from being slain on the spot, for the officer in charge of the knights recognized it and how it matched with Sam's cross.
Brother Samuel visits them and once he had learned who they are and what century they had come from, he admits to them in how he was a US Navy Lt. Commander, who had been thrown from a British Destroyer in the early days of World War II. It is Sam's plan to identify GW and Paul as fellow Irishmen; both being anti-British mercenaries, who survived their ship's sinking. Richard would be a Black Moor and Sudanese court officer, who was accompanying GW and Paul to his country to train their soldiers.
Released into Sam's custody, they are forced to accept their situation and Mushid, a Silene knight, begins training them with lance and horse. GW lays his eyes on a proud steed, a grey speckled Arabian, thought to be a cursed animal because three of its owners were either killed in battle or severely injured. He names his horse, Valiant and a strange bond forms between horse and man. Richard, who is utterly afraid of horses, is forced into a fight to the death with an unruly ogre of a man and demonstrates his skills in both Judo and Karate. Both of which he had learned through years of training at the local YMCA. Paul, unable to grasp the skills of fighting with a sword or lance, becomes and apprentice to Sam.
Princess Lennia becomes fascinated with GW and being of royal blood, Sam can only see trouble developing. Princess Lonnia, who worships her dark gods, is jealous of Sam's relationship with her father, his religion and she wants Sam and the other three men dead. Repeatedly, she does her best to have them killed.
The Great Imam, Muslim Holy Leader for all Libya, visits Silene and he too would like Sam's head on a pike. But he also desires the death of the king's two oldest daughters for their blasphemy against Muslim Law. Fortunately, the Caliph of Libya uses his royal relationship with King Ramie to keep the religious leader in line and prevents him from executing Sam and the two daughters of the king. But the Great Imam finally uses religious law to force King Ramie to either slay the dragon within one year or feed Sam to it.
A relationship between Princess Lennia and GW blossoms and Princess Lonnia uses it to set a trap for both of them. Found innocently in the stables after dark, GW and Princess Lennia are taken into custody. As a favor to Sam, King Ramie banishes the three men from Libya and they journey into Egypt. But Princess Lonnia isn't done yet and she has her youngest sister sentenced to be sacrificed to the dragon. The king attempts to stop it, offering the townspeople a ransom, but they have seen too many of their own daughters fed to the foul beast and will not accept it.
Sam and Mushid travel to Egypt to locate the three men. They know of an ancient prophecy of a stranger riding in mounted upon a war horse to do battle with the dragon for the life of a princess. Sam and Mushid believe GW is that man. GW is of course named George Whitney, but he never liked the name and went by his initials.
In the prophecy, the knight carries a lance named Ascalon, which now has George believing in the story. The blade is fitted to a lance, which is reinforced with metal plating. No other lance or arrow had been able to pierce the dinosaur's hide and Sam believes this finely edged flint blade may just do the job.
George returns to Silene, does battle with the dragon and slays it. Following with prophecy, the dragon 's blood seeps into the desert sand and a gusher of fresh healing waters erupts. Hundreds of people come from a far to be healed. Through this miracle and the slaying of the beast, the Kingdom of Silene returns to Christianity, having once been so before the Sword of Islam conquered Africa.
George marries the princess, becomes a prince of the land, while his two friends carry the tale into the crusades.
There is a bit more, but this is getting long winded for a blog. Thanks and God Bless!
My fable has a touch of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a dash of HG Wells and smidgen of Jules Verne, and begins in current day Tripoli, Libya. Here a Sunni storyteller entertains children and tourists with a very unusual fairy tale. This is an ancient story, where the oddities of the universe transform reality into the imaginary, myth into a courageous man's destiny to fulfill an ancient prophecy. In doing so, he becomes the slayer of evil and a legend in the service of Jesus Christ.
The Sunni story teller takes his listeners back to 1968 Viet Nam, where newly promoted Corporal GW Sanders, a proud member of the 101st Airborne, is about to participate in a helicopter assault deep into the ominous A Shau Valley. While the helicopters warm up, Sanders in approached by a South Vietnamese Captain, who has brought with him an elderly Montegnard holy man. The tribesman has come a great distance on foot to meet GW, a foreigner he has seen only in his visions. The holy man brings with him three strange gifts for GW; a handmade wooden cross hanging from an elephant hair necklace, a satchel of dried water buffalo meat and a large and extremely sharp flint blade. The old man tells GW of his visions and how these things were necessary for GW's survival over the next few days. The captain interprets the Jade dialect and tells of how the spirits had named the blade-Ascalon.
Not wanting to offend the holy man, GW places the items in his field pack and boards the helicopter. He immediately notices the holy man has disappeared in to the crowd of soldiers and soon forgets about the gifts as he mentally prepares himself for battle.
The Army hopes to catch the enemy by surprise, but within hours a major battle is underway. Outnumbered, US forces are ordered to withdraw by helicopter and GW's shot-up platoon is given the job of rear-guard action. A massive attack overruns their position and survivors flee deep into the jungle. GW is accompanied by Corporal Paul Grant and PFC Richard Hughes, and they eventually find refuge in a small cave.
With GW on guard, the other two sleep and after midnight the earth rumbles under a massive earthquake. All three are rendered unconscious, while a mysterious and bizarre event occurs around them. The cave is transformed into a gyrating blender, emptying the three men into a multi-colored vortex. They leave one reality and are dropped into another, thousands of miles away and hundreds of years earlier.
The tale now moves to Silene, Libya, the year is 1178 A.D and Brother Samuel, a 75-year old man with a secret past is introduced. Sam poses as a defrocked Catholic priest in a Muslim world. He washed up on the northern shores of Silene 42-years ago and was promptly thrown into a castle dungeon. Through his knowledge of medicine and engineering, he was able to earn his release. Through time, he became Chief Court Advisor to King Ramie, Lord and High Protector for the Kingdom of Silene. He now educates the king's daughters; Princess Lonnia- a witch, Princess Lannia- a female warrior in exile and Princess Lennia- the king's favorite.
There is also a curse hanging over Silene in the form of a 20-ton, 50-foot tall aquatic dinosaur landlocked in a salt water lake by a quake/tsunami event in the long past. Set down by ancient decree, twice a month this dragon is fed fair maidens in hopes to keep the beast from destroying Silene. Girls are taken in raids, from local families or bought in slave markets to fulfill the quota. Brother Samuel spends a lot of his time trying to figure out a way to destroy the monster and pleads with God for a miracle. The answer to his prayers has arrived.
Sanders, Grant and Hughes discover their modern weapons, other than their knives, shovels and a single grenade, were destroyed by strange the quake. They struggle for a week to find their way out of a long tunnel-like cavern. Following days of travel, the come up against a rock wall and once their last torch burns out, they discover a baseball sized hole in the wall that allows sunlight into the cave. They use their one grenade and E-tool shovels to escape. But they are startled by what they find before them; a white sandy beach and a blue-green ocean. Not the jungle they expected. The three men soon lay eyes on a fairy tale castle off in the distance and to make matters even more surreal, they are taken prisoner by a troop of mounted Saracen knights and thrown into a rat-infested dungeon.
The meat had kept them fed and the wood cross kept them from being slain on the spot, for the officer in charge of the knights recognized it and how it matched with Sam's cross.
Brother Samuel visits them and once he had learned who they are and what century they had come from, he admits to them in how he was a US Navy Lt. Commander, who had been thrown from a British Destroyer in the early days of World War II. It is Sam's plan to identify GW and Paul as fellow Irishmen; both being anti-British mercenaries, who survived their ship's sinking. Richard would be a Black Moor and Sudanese court officer, who was accompanying GW and Paul to his country to train their soldiers.
Released into Sam's custody, they are forced to accept their situation and Mushid, a Silene knight, begins training them with lance and horse. GW lays his eyes on a proud steed, a grey speckled Arabian, thought to be a cursed animal because three of its owners were either killed in battle or severely injured. He names his horse, Valiant and a strange bond forms between horse and man. Richard, who is utterly afraid of horses, is forced into a fight to the death with an unruly ogre of a man and demonstrates his skills in both Judo and Karate. Both of which he had learned through years of training at the local YMCA. Paul, unable to grasp the skills of fighting with a sword or lance, becomes and apprentice to Sam.
Princess Lennia becomes fascinated with GW and being of royal blood, Sam can only see trouble developing. Princess Lonnia, who worships her dark gods, is jealous of Sam's relationship with her father, his religion and she wants Sam and the other three men dead. Repeatedly, she does her best to have them killed.
The Great Imam, Muslim Holy Leader for all Libya, visits Silene and he too would like Sam's head on a pike. But he also desires the death of the king's two oldest daughters for their blasphemy against Muslim Law. Fortunately, the Caliph of Libya uses his royal relationship with King Ramie to keep the religious leader in line and prevents him from executing Sam and the two daughters of the king. But the Great Imam finally uses religious law to force King Ramie to either slay the dragon within one year or feed Sam to it.
A relationship between Princess Lennia and GW blossoms and Princess Lonnia uses it to set a trap for both of them. Found innocently in the stables after dark, GW and Princess Lennia are taken into custody. As a favor to Sam, King Ramie banishes the three men from Libya and they journey into Egypt. But Princess Lonnia isn't done yet and she has her youngest sister sentenced to be sacrificed to the dragon. The king attempts to stop it, offering the townspeople a ransom, but they have seen too many of their own daughters fed to the foul beast and will not accept it.
Sam and Mushid travel to Egypt to locate the three men. They know of an ancient prophecy of a stranger riding in mounted upon a war horse to do battle with the dragon for the life of a princess. Sam and Mushid believe GW is that man. GW is of course named George Whitney, but he never liked the name and went by his initials.
In the prophecy, the knight carries a lance named Ascalon, which now has George believing in the story. The blade is fitted to a lance, which is reinforced with metal plating. No other lance or arrow had been able to pierce the dinosaur's hide and Sam believes this finely edged flint blade may just do the job.
George returns to Silene, does battle with the dragon and slays it. Following with prophecy, the dragon 's blood seeps into the desert sand and a gusher of fresh healing waters erupts. Hundreds of people come from a far to be healed. Through this miracle and the slaying of the beast, the Kingdom of Silene returns to Christianity, having once been so before the Sword of Islam conquered Africa.
George marries the princess, becomes a prince of the land, while his two friends carry the tale into the crusades.
There is a bit more, but this is getting long winded for a blog. Thanks and God Bless!
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