Reading Notes: The Voyages of Sindbad: Part A

(Humpback Whale by Sylke Rohrlach)

 

First Voyage by Andrew Lang:

Characters: Sinbad (first person perspective), Captain, Whale, King

Sinbad: Bad with money, but now knows that he is bad with it. is evidently pretty resourceful.

Captain: Honest dude, wants to return Sinbad's stuff to his family. A swell dude

Whale: acted like an island, does not like fires on its back. How big was this whale. Sea monster?

King: is welcoming to someone who definitely could've just robbed him,

Plot: Sinbad inherits a lot of money and being the young naive person he is, spends it all frivolously and is just hemorrhaging money. He decides to sell all of his things so he can join a merchant crew and make a living for himself. They set off and eventually decide to stop at a small island for the night. They light a fire to keep them warm, but as soon as they do they see it was actually a giant sleeping whale, not an island. The men try to return to the ship, and some make it back, but Sinbad and several others get left behind in the terror. He was the only survivor and eventually washed ashore on an island controlled by a King of a nearby port. The people who found him took him to the King, who heard is story and took pity on him. He made sure that he was taken care of. Sinbad then goes off to try to get home because it's a port city and probably has someone heading that way. While at the port he runs into his old Captain talking about the whale and how he was going to give the deceased's wares back to the families. Sinbad hears this and goes to tell him that he's alive! Unfortunately, the Captain doesn't recognize him and calls him a liar and accuses him of trying to take advantage of a Deadman's estate. He explains his case of how he survived, and a few of the other sailors show up and recognize him. Seeing this, the Captain realizes his mistake and gives him all of his wares back. When they head back home, Sinbad is able to make lots of money on the way back and plans to live his life in ease. 

Setting: On the sea where he's battered by the ocean, and on the port nation.

Things I Could Change: I like the first person viewpoint and think I would keep that. There's not too much conflict in this story though. I could add more about his time scavenging for food or the people who find him being hostile.