Ossor Erlendsson Crovan
Duke of Western Isles of Leinster of Ulster of Meath and of Iceland
Ruminations on the middle part of the Regency, 1119 – 1123 (ages 8 – 12)
Uncle Halkjell took me on a picnic today.
It was a lot of fun.
He brought us each a fresh apricot and some bread and some other good stuff to eat.
We rode our ponies out to a pretty field and laid out our picnic.
The whole ride, Uncle Halkjell talked a lot about daddy and daddy’s daddy and about stuff they used to do together. I didn’t understand most of it, but I think Uncle Halkjell was mad about something.
He laid out our lunches and we ate and talked. He kept trying to get me to eat one of the apricots. I figured he was saving the good one for himself, so I switched them when he went to tinkle. His was really tasty.
I guess mine wasn’t so good because he had a real funny look on his face when he finished eating it.
On the way home he got real dizzy and fell off his horse and started getting foamy in the mouth and jerking all over the place.
Finally he just lay there on the ground, groaning a lot. I tried to hug him, but he just pushed me away.
He looked real mad and he just kept whispering “you switched them…you switched the fruit.”
As sick as he was, I don’t know why he was so worried about who got the best Apricot!
I think Uncle Halkjell is with Jesus now.
Mommy says a Crusade will make the people and God like me more.
I get to go with the Army. So does mommy and her friend the Marshal.
We beat up the evil pagans and seiged their fort. We didn’t know how to get inside, since the bad guys had closed the door and all.
We had a big council of war and all the biggest guys were there in armor and everything, which was cool, and suddenly the Marshal pipes up “hey, ladders would get us over that wall!”
It totally worked too.
As a reward for his good idea, he gets to keep Angermanland. I told him if he’s really good at being an Earl, we might have to change the name to Happymanland.
He didn’t laugh.
Grammy died today, which was really sad. Especially because I inherited all her Precious Moments figurines.
I don’t really have anywhere to put them.
Mommy’s been real sad since we got back from Sweden. I think she is pining for the fjords.
I liked the fjords too, but not as much as mommy.
Smallpox appeared in Dublin. Smallpox is real nasty. If you do not die, your face still gets really messed up and ugly.
Luckily, only peasants have died so far. I think God is punishing them for being mean to me.
Hopefully no one important gets sick!
Mommy explained this one to me.
If I let them stop being serfs, then I won’t own serfs anymore.
I told mommy to keep them serfs. She said I was going to be a really good Duke.
We send our army to join the king, because we are good vassals.
Because we hate the Ynglings, we don’t pay for them.
I am getting the hang of this!
Cousin Torstein is a jerk. He knows that it’s cheating to do this when my army is away.
Awww, little Ossor is growing up. But sentimentality is not good for cliff-hanging so: Torstein’s rebellion! Will it succeed or will he join his father as a total failure in life? What about Aslak? Will he join in or is he biding his time for later? Precious Moments figurines? Is that kind of historical anachronism kosher in this sort of AAR? Has the author just destroyed the moment or does it matter, since he “peaked” with Gudrod anyway? Join us next time as Crovan battles Crovan for mastery of the Western Isles in