Hump Day Hook.

Hi everyone…it’s Hump Day again and time to read some amazing excerpts from loads of talented writers. So to indulge in some brilliant reading visit this site and enjoy.

Following on from last week and my WIP Ellis Stephen and Ellis are planning how Stephen can sneak into the house without his Mum seeing the tear in his trousers…..now read on;

‘ Mebbe you could sneak into back yard and into the lavvy and…and…’ Ellis stood there, still staring at the offending rent while rubbing a grubby finger up and down his snub nose; always a sign that he was thinking. I knew what he meant, and still smarting and annoyed I snapped, ‘And what, eh? Run passed me mam without me bloody trousers on?’

‘Ahm sorry, Stevie, I was only trying to help’. Ellis’s eyes pooled with tears,his bottom lip trembled and I was immediately contrite. I couldn’t stay angry with Ellis for long…and moving to his side, I laid a hand on his thin,narrow shoulder. ‘Sorry Ell..ah didn’t mean to snap’.

Ellis sniffed and wiped his sleeve along his snotty nose.’Well it might work yer know if yer mam’s busy in’t kitchen’, he said, his sun kissed freckled face brightening, ‘she’ll have ‘er back turned and she mebbe won’t see if you run fast’.

Oh, Ellis, Ellis, how simple things were for you, and us then.

A-Z Challenge

is for…Vlad The Impaler

It is said that…many years ago a foreign visitor was being entertained at the court of a high ranking nobleman. They ate outside and were surrounded, not by beautiful trees and shrubbery but by long wooden poles. Impaled on these poles were the bodies of men, women and even children; some half dead and moaning in agony, most of them dead and many decaying.

It was these decaying bodies that prompted the visitor to complain about the terrible stench. The nobleman had a cure for that. He ordered the unfortunate man to be impaled as well…..but on a much longer pole so he would be above the stench. Very considerate of him.

Whether this story is true or not is anyone’s guess; but it could very easily be so, because the nobleman of the story was Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476) known as Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepe]

Vlad was famous as a tyrant even during his lifetime, taking great pleasure in torturing and killing. As a child his favourite pastime was torturing small animals and listening to their agonised screams. It wouldn’t be long then until he took his pleasures listening to the screams and moans of agony of tortured humans.

Of course, his favourite method of torture was impaling his victims on poles, hence his name ‘Impaler’ and he struck terror into the invading Ottomans when they saw hundreds of his victims stuck on poles along the banks of the river Danube. Needless to say…they fled.

Some sources say that the number of Vlad’s victims numbered 80,000, and in addition to this number, there were the villages and fortresses he had destroyed and burned to the ground. Doubtless Vlad the bad didn’t lose any sleep over this.

However, his bloody reputation was reported in very popular and widely distributed pamphlets in Germany after Vlad’s death, and read with macabre relish by many. These pamphlets were reprinted from the 1480s until the 1560s. Medieval Penny Dreadful anyone?

It is often said that novelist Bram Stoker based his character Dracula on Vlad The Impaler, but there are others who dispute this. Personally, I think he probably did at least in part. For example;

*Dracula’s cape may have been based on the red and black cape worn by members of the Order of the Dragon.
*Killing a vampire by driving a stake through his heart is reminiscent of Impalements.
*Vlad the Impaler was Transylvanian, as is Stoker’s character.
*Vlad the Impaler lived in a castle, which is also known as castle Dracula, and currently a tourists attraction (although the real castle Dracula lies buried beneath is structure)
*While imprisoned, Vlad the Impaler tortured and impaled rodents and insects. Count Dracula’s lackey, Renfield, devours insects in his cell while imprisoned in an insane asylum.
*Vlad the Impaler is said to have consumed human flesh, and to have drunk human blood. Some also speculate that he suffered from a rare allergy that made him lose control when exposed to blood, as well as crave it.

From Vlad The Impaler Site

So….that was Vlad, a bloodthirsty tyrant, and a real character from history and (possibly) fiction.

What? You want another nasty story? Oh, go on then.

We all know that it is good manners for men to remove their headgear when in the presence of royalty. However, two Turks refused to remove their turbans on religious grounds. Sooooo…..our Vlad being the reasonable guy he was, told them that…if they wouldn’t take them off then he would make sure that they never took them off again………..he had the turbans nailed to the poor mens heads.

Don’t have nightmares.

A-Z Challenge

is for Utopia….a land which exists only in a writers mind….a cerebral idyll…a perfect world.

In 1516, Sir Thomas More wrote a book about an imaginary land in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. He called the land….Utopia from the Greek meaning Good Place.

Map of Utopia

In More’s Utopia…everything is shared and there is no private wealth, and all men and women capable of work must contribute to the community by doing their fair share. Those who do not but who are deemed capable are punished.
More’s idea for his land was one of sharing and exchanging items to make sure everyone has enough to live simply…..there is no money in Utopia.

More also allows his residents of Utopia to practice any religion they wish, which seems at odds with his views that Catholicism was the only religion. Indeed, More did condemn ‘heretics’ (Lutherans) to be burnt at the stake. More himself was executed for his beliefs in 1535

More, though was known for his belief that educating his daughters was as important as educating his sons, and in Utopia this is evident as men and women have every opportunity to educate themselves.

Utopia is an equal society where everyone has an equal opportunity to grow and flourish both mentally and as a community by working together….and in many ways the book opened people’s minds to new ideas of working together for the common good.

Sir Thomas More

A-Z Challenge

is for The Tower of London….or merely The Tower. Words which no doubt filled the hearts of recalcitrant courtiers and unfortunate wives with fear in past times.

Standing proud and forbidding on the north bank of the River Thames, the Tower of London was founded by William the Conqueror towards the end of 1066 as an enduring and resented symbol of the might of the Normans.

The White Tower, which was built by William in 1078, came to represent the oppression of the capital by the new rulers of England. This is the building which gives the entire castle it’s name.

However, the Tower is so much more than its well-known central structure; it is a made up of several buildings or towers set within massive defensive walls and a moat. The Tower saw much expansion in the 12th and 13th centuries under Richard 1st, Henry 111 and Edward 1st and the general layout we see today was established by the late 13th century despite later activity.

The Tower has played an extremely prominent role in English history and has been besieged several times; whoever had control of the Tower effectively had control of the country, little wonder it was so jealously guarded.

The castle was used as a prison since at least 1100 but it has also served as an armoury, a mint, a treasury and even a menagerie; and of course, the monarch would stay here the night before his (or her) coronation.

It is said that when Anne Boleyn was taken to the Tower as a prisoner, she was lodged in the same apartment which she used the night before her coronation. This house, known as the Queens House is a short walk from Tower Green where poor Anne was beheaded by the French swordsman on May 19th 1536.

Anne’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth ( later Elizabeth 1st) was also imprisoned in the Tower in 1554 by her half-sister Mary 1st after the Wyatt rebellion. She was lodged in the Bell Tower. It is at this time…in the 16th century that The Tower earned its reputation as a place of execution and torture, but only seven people met their deaths within its walls.
They were;
William, Lord Hastings (1483).
Anne Boleyn (1536)
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541)
Catherine Howard (1542)
Jane, Lady Rochford (1542)
Lady Jane Grey (1554)
Robert Devereux Earl of Essex (1601)

All these unfortunates were executed by beheading and all are buried beneath the alter in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower.

Most executions took place on Tower Hill and they were a great draw for the crowds. Men, women and even children would all gather round and watch as the poor unfortunate prisoner was dispatched….and it wasn’t always a quick death. If the executioner was unskilled or nervous he sometimes botched it and only after several strokes of the axe would the head part from the body. Yes, it was a grand day out for all the family.

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The Tower now stands surrounded by ugly modern buildings of glass and concrete…but these 21st century symbols of wealth and power will never, in my opinion be as mighty, as beautiful or as enduring as The Tower.

A-Z Challenge

is for Reivers, who lived north and south of the border between England and Scotland.

The freebooter ventures both life and limb
Good wife, and bairn, and every other thing;
He must do so, or else must starve and die,
For all his livelihood comes of the enemie

The almost constant warring between England and Scotland changed the lives of the families living immediately north and south of the Border. Owing to their geographical position they were frequently harassed by passing armies who, at the very least, would require provisioning, often without payment, but were usually hell bent on destroying everything before them and causing as much damage and misery as they could.

Crops were destroyed, homesteads burnt and the people murdered or dispersed.

Those living in places known as Liddesdale, Redesdale and Tynedale were the most affected as, for reasons of geography, the invaders regularly used these routes. It is no coincidence that these people, having their crops regularly destroyed and their livestock stolen, looked for other means of sustaining themselves and their families.

They took to reiving.

Reiving, raiding for cattle and sheep, and whatever else which could be transported, was the only way to survive and it became an established way of life, a profession, which was regarded with no discredit amongst the Borderers.

The reivers gave the words blackmail and bereaved to the English language.

Reivers on a raid.

My mother’s maiden name was Armstrong and that clan had the reputation of being one of the most war-like clans in the Scottish low lands. They were also Reivers and if your name or one of your family names is on This List..you may be descended from a Reiver family.

With thanks to this marvellous site for most of this information.