Story: Sinbad's Journey

Sinbad began life as a poor merchant along the coast. Every day he watched as the great wooden vessels came in and out of port. He dreamt that one day he would be fortunate enough to buy his own vessel so that he could sail the seas and trade goods to foreign countries. One day, as he was watching from his cart of fruit along the coast, he saw a giant bird’s egg on the shore. Sinbad, being the curious fellow he was, went to investigate. As he looked upon it, it glimmered in the sunshine like a great pearl. Then Sinbad thought of an idea. He knew that this was no ordinary egg and began to fantasize of the great fortune it might bring him. So Sinbad dumped out his cart of fruit and secured the egg in it. As he was dragging it off the shore, he saw a great shadow in the sand with wings spread very wide. He immediately knew that this had to be the mother bird and began running faster with his cart to his home. Before the bird could cause any harm to Sinbad he made it inside safely with the egg. He waited a few hours before leaving his home and decided to attempt to sell the egg while the bird was away. Upon seeing one of the wealthy vessel owners in the market, Sinbad struck a deal to trade the magnificent egg for his ship and crew.

The next morning Sinbad set sail with his crew on the open seas. Sinbad stood upon the bow of the ship soaking in the fresh air and great view of the open ocean. As he stood there he thought to himself of the great change in circumstances he had gone through in just 24 hours.

Sinbad and his crew sailed for six days and six nights without seeing another ship or land. They were seemingly lost, for they intended to set sail for the west Indies. Then a member of his crew in the crow’s nest lookout saw an island in the distance. As they approached the island it looked barren and uninviting. Sinbad and his crew landed on shore the island and began to cautiously explore. One member of the crew spotted a giant bird’s egg on the beach. Sinbad, in disbelief, saw the egg and immediately began to think of the riches it could bring him again. He ordered his crew to load the egg on ship. Once his crew had gotten the egg aboard the vessel, Sinbad began to set sails back to the port.

Suddenly, there was a piercing screeching noise coming from the island. A shadow soon came over the boat that was three times the shadow of the previous bird that Sinbad had narrowly escaped. The angry bird was carrying a giant boulder with its talons. It let it loose above the vessel and exploded Sinbad’s ship into thousands of splinters. Sinbad luckily grasped onto a piece of the wreckage and floated at sea for two days. On the third day a ship heading to Sinbad’s home port picked him up and took him home.

The next morning Sinbad was back to selling fruit out of his cart and thinking about what could have been.

The Voyage: (Roc, by E. J. Detmold)

Author’s Note: The story was inspired from the Voyages of Sinbad. There are a few elements I wanted to change from the source story and there are some elements that I wanted to keep. For one I wanted to give a reason for Sinbad’s misfortune at the end of the story. It seemed as if in the source story he was lucky or unlucky sometimes, but for no reasonable explanation. In the source story, the bird is originally angry with Sinbad and his crew for eating the roc egg, before crushing his vessel. I wanted to add the spin of theft of the second roc egg instead of his crew eating it to explain why the roc was angry with Sinbad and his crew. In addition, I wanted to add the theme of rags to riches and back to rags. I feel that the story really stresses the impact of greed versus the original story is more of ambition and luck themed. Taking the second egg off the island proved to be too greedy. Sinbad is still his lucky self and ends up surviving this voyage and returning home though. In addition, I included the giant bird which wrecks Sinbad’s vessel, but I felt that my source for the bird’s anger and dash of karma gave the story some new perspective. Lastly, at the end of the story I think Sinbad asks himself if he would do it any different if given another chance. In my opinion, he probably regrets taking the second egg. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments!

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).