Chronicler of the Corsair
The life and works of Hrrul Arkinsdaughter, Wolfen Lady Authoress of the sixth millennium after the Dark Years, Palladium Epoch
by Liana M Winsauer
I have recently had published my translation and annotation of Hrrul Arkinsdaughter's work “The Strange History of the Dreadful Wolfen Corsair, AnnaMaria Dellasandros, Commonly known simply as 'Dallas', From her Birth in a small Fishing Village Through to her Present-Day Circumstances, by one who was Privileged to know The Principal in Her Childhood, and was later to encounter her again as her Fame grew and was Honored with this History”.1 Both my fellow professional historians and more casual readers of “The Strange History” have asked for more information on the lives of AnnaMaria Dellasandros, the Corsair, and Lady Hrrul Arkinsdaughter, her chronicler. I am happy to say that I am presently working on translation of further works relating to the history of the Corsair commonly known as Dallas, and hope to have the work available for peer review in the next few months. In the interim I hope that you will accept this brief biographical sketch of Hrrul Arkinsdaughter.
Hrrul was born in the sixth millennium after the Dark Years, at about the time when the Human King Faramond was taking the throne of inland Faraday, which was shortly after the Wolfen King Sarawak began his rule of Albermarle, and approximately a decade before Darius, an Elf, would take the throne of Frufonia. Hrrul was a native of Albermarle, although from another seaside village about a day's ride from that which was the home of AnnaMaria Dellasandros.
The Arkinsdaughter family was very minor nobility, comfortable by the standards of the time, with most of their income coming from commerce, being shipowners. Hrrul was early to show a scholarly bent, being much a reader, and dabbled at juvenile poetry. At about the time of AnnaMaria Dellasandros' birth, when Hrrul was about 10, the family suffered a calamitous serious of shipping losses, and Hrrul eventually found it necessary to “go out to work” to do her share in supporting herself and the family. Being rather genteel, in a Victorian sort of way, she did so by becoming a what we today would recognize as a “School-Ma'am” of a one-room schoolhouse. Her first, educational adventure was in the village of Wartshire, where the Dellasandros family had been established for approximately four generations, and young AnnaMaria seems to have entered the school the same year Hrrul took over teaching there.
At that time Wartshire could be compared to many small New England seaside hamlets of the Modern 19th Century. One inhabited almost solely by 8-foot-tall humanoid wolves. The life of Wartshire depended on the sea, primarily codfishing 2, with the catch being sent to the larger cities nearby. A significant portion of the village would be out on the boats for the spring, summer, and fall. Youngsters traditionally began school at about age seven, having been taught what we would consider to Kindergarten or first grade level at home. At age 12 adolescents began work in the fishing fleet or at the beginning of other life's works. Particularly bright or outstanding pupils might continue schooling during the winter months.
AnnaMaria Dellasandros, as stated, entered the Wartshire school, and came to Hrrul Arkinsdaughter's attention at the customary age, in Hrrul's first year of teaching. Even Hrrul, who seems to have been guilty of rose-colored glasses where her favorite literary subject was concerned, had to admit that AnnaMaria, or Dallas as she shortly came to be called almost universally, was not a star pupil. She did have a notable personality, as detailed elsewhere. Particularly, I expect, when compared to other youths who looked to a future in the fishing fleet and no more. Hrrul first mentions Dallas in a letter to a sister, describing the yearly midsummer pageant put on by the schoolchildren. After this time, very few of Hrrul's letters fail to mention Dallas. Hrrul was, during this time, writing short fiction works, and poetry.
At about the same time that Dallas entered the fishing fleet, Hrrul left the Wartshire school. A collection of her short fiction, which was mainly educational in bent, had been published, had enjoyed some success, and Hrrul was able to leave off teaching, at least for a time. Mixed success resulted in her eventually accepting a position in the palace of the Human king of Faraday, Faramond. There, Hrrul taught the children of the Wolfen employed in the palace and nearby, and tutoring the royal children in Wolfen.3 This position she held for several years, leaving it to take the position of Royal Historian for the Wolfen King Sarawak of the Kingdom of Albermarle.
Hrrul would serve as Albermarle Royal Historian, until old age forced her to retire, although there were long, irregularly-spaced periods, where underlings actually maintained the records while Hrrul worked on her other pursuits, mostly literary. Most of her published work was in one of three fields: Fiction, in the form of moral and/or educational tales for children, History, and Poetry. The less said about the poetry the better, was the opinion of her contemporaries, and her works in that line only worsen in translation.
Hrrul lived to a very ripe old age for a Wolfen, maintaining that aura of respectable Victorian spinsterdom throughout. She never married, although she enjoyed children of others. Dallas seems to have served as a surrogate younger-sister or daughter figure, definitely of the prodigal mold. But Hrrul maintained her affection for Dallas, and they maintained a correspondence, as regular as one could be at that time and place, and with one of Dallas' occupation, throughout Dallas' life.
1 Miskatonic University Press, December, 2002
2 Biologically the fish in question were not the true Modern Cod and other flatfish, but the habits of the fish and the methods of fishing were quite comparable.
3 Faraday's population was fairly evenly divided between Wolfen and Human citizens, with the usual assortment of the other races. Thus the employment of a Wolfen tutor in a Human household.