The Ancient Mariner

Author: Jack Heiter

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

ISBN: 1726498816

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Page: 46

View: 722

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The Ancient Mariner In Medieval times a young man, Anthony, meets an old mariner who tells his bizarre story of an eventful sea voyage where he is the lone survivor. After attending his older brother Renaldo's stag party on the eve of marrying Anthony's childhood sweetheart, Rosalind, he visits her and they reveal their true love for each other although she accepts the marriage to Renaldo, as her family wishes. The next day on his way to the wedding Anthony encounters an old mariner (Simon) who tells of his journey on a sailing ship after his true love jilts him and marries a wealthy merchant. On the ship Simon meets and befriends two of the seamen who notice the woefulness of their new friend and try to cheer him up as they experience the adventures at sea. Unbeknownst to the crew, strange demons beneath the ship control their journey from extreme frigid to extreme hot weathers. In the course of the journey, as the ship sails into frigid waters, an albatross alights on the deck, which the men believe to be a bad omen. In a drunken and hallucinogenic stage Simon kills the great sea bird believing it to be his lost love flirting and dancing with the seamen. His shipmates believe Simon has broken the spell of the sea bird as the ship sails into warmer seas, but as it sails near the equator they run out of drinking water and curse him, hanging the dead bird around his neck. Little by little the men drop to the deck dying of thirst until Simon is all-alone. As nighttime falls he looks out on the sea and sees some giant sea snakes. Seeing them as beautiful creatures he blesses them and the albatross falls from his neck into the sea. As the albatross lands into the water it becomes an Angel and fights off the demons. When the demons begin to win the battle more angels appear and defeat the demons, freeing the ship from their control. Simon sees what appears to be another ship approaching and calls out to his dying shipmates, but it is a flying skiff with two spirits, "Death and Life and Death" who gamble for the men's lives. Death wins all but Simon and as the men's spirits leave the ship it sinks into a whirlpool and emerges with Simon a much older man. As the "Ghost Ship" sails into the harbor from where it began it is greeted by a holy man, the harbor pilot and his son. When they find the lone mariner they think he is a ghost and the pilot and his son jump overboard out of fear. The mariner convinces the holy man he is not a ghost and rows him back to shore. There, the mariner sees his former love, now an old drunken hag, and goes on his way to tell his tale to anyone who will listen. After hearing the ancient mariner's story Anthony realizes his love for Rosalind cannot be denied and rushes to the church and stops the wedding.