Baldur

Here's a link to an awesome museum I visit a couple times a year.
They have a great temporary exhibit coming in June with some interesting art. Click on the Penguin to read about it.http://www.higgins.org/

Dragon

So glad Channel Baldur is back up and running, I was starting to have withdrawl pangs from lack of interesting and unusual gardening tips and recipes.

Qsilv

holy -- shades of Bannerman's Castle x White Tower!
(The Cody, it's not. But who wouldn't be charmed by the Fairy Vacuum...)

;>

Baldur

Some of the items have a very 'Steampunk' feel to them, something that has interested me quite a bit lately.
Baldur clearly lives like it is 1907, which is quite cool, I was stuck in the 1890s for several years.

Dragon

I particularly liked the Gargoyle Skeleton, it looked pensive.

Baldur

'All Baldur, All the Time'
Today's contest is a 'Hidden Contest'
Find and solve the spelling correction in last night's 'Battle Royale'.
You can win a pair of tickets to tonight's Steel Cage Rematch.
You need to give me the original sentence, the 'corrected' sentence and the name of the member who uttered the original unBaldurized phrase.

matthew

HINT: If spell'n iz the issue... The comment wuz probably mine...

Raych

you want ALL of them? my god, that could take years!!! theres SOOO many! And i only just finished wading through all the hatered, i aint going to read it all again to find who types badly when angry!

lynnspotter

Hear, Hear! That's kind of where I came down also Raych! I'm into warm fuzzy's!

Baldur

no no no, LOL
I posted one of my cryptic equation spelling corrections in that thread, but apparently no one caught what I changing the spelling of.
It's long past being worth the effort now

Dragon

Even for a pair of tickets to the Steel Cage Match? (Or perhaps for the All ThinkDraw episode of Jerry Springer!)

solosater

Baldur, I've completely stopped reading your "corrective remarks" as I never can figure them out; I just blow a raspberry and move on.

I figure for the most part we all get it anyway and if not who cares.

Also if I can decipher Ron's typing and understand his posts, a dropped or extra letter here and there really doesn't matter.

Baldur

All Baldur, All the Time!

Tonight for our episode of Bedtime Theatre I'm going to read a favorite Faerie tale
Everyone brush your teeth and get into your pyjamas, as Uncle Baldur reads:

'Norala the pretty Princess'

Once upon a time there was a very large kingdom, it's benevolent Queen ruled over all the continents.
Every sea was part of her dominion, every mountain rose from land that she held as hers.
Each subject was loyal in their own way and praised her judgement. They applauded her every decision and vowed to be loyal subjects forever.
It was a happy life.
One day Queen Erona, for that was her name, and her faithful husband Sharad shared a new joy with their people.
'Today we are blessed with a daughter' and the beautiful dark-eyed child was held aloft to be shown to the throngs.
She was beautiful to behold. The people were all happy for the queen and sang the praises of the princess.
That is all but one sang those praises.
From a darkened alley stepped a crone. She was hunched over from a long life of hard work. Her single eye was sharp with a keen intelligence but her visage was far from pleasing. Black flies circled her head.
A rank odor encircled her and kept her free of nonessential contact.
'The child's beauty is deceptive!' , she cried as she launched herself up onto the base of a nearby obelisk.
Her nimbleness astonished the crowd.
'She will grow into a tyrant and all will rue her birth. On her 20th birthday her iron fist will rip the heart from her very own father and then all shall be hers'.
Suddenly the crone clutched her breast and fell dead on the spot.
Her body crumpled into little more than a pile of dark dry leaves and was scattered by the light breeze.
The revelers though disturbed by her intrusion into the festivities avoided stepping on her remains.
Nonetheless a small band struck up a wild reel and soon all were dancing in the streets.
The dancing, drinking and feasting went on late into the night.

That evening in the palace, the Queen called in her most wizened sources: a greybearded wizard, a young woman with great scrying powers, several abbesses who had long been revered for their insight and a group of scholars from the palace university.
'What is to made of that horrid prediction' she asked?, 'Is there any truth in that woman's rantings?'
No answer was forthcoming but each promised to study the matter.

Years passed.

The Princess Norala grew more and more beautiful. Her one odd feature,the iron scales that encircled her hand seemed easy to overlook in the face of such physical beauty. She took to wearing Opera gloves.
She was her father's greatest treasure. For her eleventh birthday, a milestone he bought her a pair of the finest Alagarian steeds, dyed a pale pink to pull her carriage. For her twelfth birthday a new type of violet was bred and named for her, it's glowing rose petals fluttered like captive butterflies.
The people were all enchanted.

An elderly Abbess, one who was among the group sought out by the Queen years ago asked for an audience.
Sister Oredna was shown into the Queen Erona's sewing room the very next morning.

'Tell me good Sister, have you learned anything of that madwoman?'
'Yes, your highness, I have found ancient writings that predicted her appearance... she was not of this world'
'Not of this world Abbess? How could that be?' the Queen was puzzled.
'At several key times in our history such a crone has appeared, Here I have brought several ancient books detailing her predictions' and she gestured to a dusty pile of tomes that she had hauled into the chamber in a wheelbarrow'
Queen Erona said, 'I should like to read those'
'As you wish your highness'
'But tell me in short, have the predictions always come true?,' for she was frightened already.
'Yes your highness, she has been quite reliable'

The Queen called for her bursar and rewarded the Abbess with enough gold coin to build an elegant chapel. They then shared a pot of tea and a plate of Eccles cakes as they reminisced over the Abbey's orchards where the Queen spent many an afternoon in her youth.
The Abbess curtseyed and left the Queen.

The following week Queen Erona, King Sharad and their lovely daughter Norala decided to spend an afternoon by the sea. Indeed the Queen tried to visit the fishing villages every Spring.
It was a pleasant time to do so, and the villagers were the simple humble sort.

The royal coach arrived to a tumultous scene.
The town square was cloaked in a green fog that seemed to belch from beneath the 12th Dynasty fountain in it's center. The marble mermaids seemed to drift among absynthine clouds.
Princess Norala lunged from the coach and ran to the fountain on dainty satin-slippered feet.
Suddenly a large green ogre burst out from among the stone mermaids, shattering them.
He pounced upon Princess Norala and with large gnashing teeth tore her to little bloody bits.
The Queen shrieked, the King had to be restrained from attacking the ogre.
The townsfolk to the last man all battled the ogre, who simply wiped his bloodied maw with the back of his huge hand and strode out into the sea.

Poor Princess Norala never lived to see her 13th birthday.

The moral of this story is that stories need not have morals, life is unpredictable.

Baldur

The End

Baldur

All Baldur, All the Time

lilalee

I like that!

Login

I was entranced, balder. The 'pot of tea and an eccles cake' brought me down to earth.

Baldur

This was the type of story I often told my children when they were young

solosater

What? You spawned? How did I miss that?

solosater

Also, did you write the story or find it?

I'd certainly never heard it before.

I liked it.