It’s interesting that he has enough foresight at the
beginning, when he has almost squandered his fortune, to make money before he’s
completely broke. And he decides to become a merchant (seemingly on a whim),
which he happens to be good at. Anyways, it’s kind of hilarious and ridiculous
that on his first voyage out to sea, he and a couple of crewmembers rest on
island that’s actually a whale’s back. What are the odds? (*rolls eyes*) I
think most people in his situation, clinging onto a piece of driftwood, probably
would have died; he survives when he lands ashore an island. The time he finds
the island and climbs its cliffs is when a group of people happens to be there.
Where he landed was an uninhabited part of the island, and the group is only there
to feed the king’s horses.
So him and the groomsmen go back to the king, where he tells
the king the story. And like all kings do (not), he’s pretty much like, “do
whatever you want; I’ll pay for it!”. Sindbad’s not greedy, though; so he just
spends his time exploring the island (called Mihrage) and looks out for news
from his homeland (Baghdad). And guess who eventually arrives on the island?
His original crew, of course. And the best part is that all of his merchandise
was saved. So he’s able to trade it all, become rich, and go back. And then he
says he’s never doing that again.
Yeah right.
Sindbad goes out to sea again. Why? He’s bored of his
unexciting, palatial lifestyle. So he sails away, trading things. Unfortunately
for him, they stop and rest on an island. Like last time. But, pathetically
enough, the reason he gets separated from his crew this time is because they
forget him, not because something crazy happens.
Sucks to suck, Sindbad.
Anyways, the island happens to contain a giant bird called
the roc, and Sindbad decides to get off the island by tying himself to the
bird. When I read his plan, [this] was my reaction.
But it ends up working out for him. The roc drops him off at
a valley of diamonds, where he once again finds his way back to civilization
(he finds a group of merchants who take him back) and makes a fortune off of
the diamonds he found.
For the same reason he gives in the second voyage, Sindbad
goes out…and shenanigans happen to him. Again. Is it me, or is this starting to
become a pattern?
He gets stranded on an island again – this time for good
reason and with the company of his crew. Unfortunately, they get stuck on an
island with giants. And some of his crewmembers get eaten by a giant, which
sucks. But they get revenge on the giant by poking his eye out, who gets
revenge back on them by pitting his family against the crew (while they’re
trying to escape the island on boats). And, by a miracle, the only boat that
doesn’t get sunk by rocks aimed at them is Sindbad’s. He and two other members
escape to another island, only to run into a gigantic, man-eating snake, that
unfortunately eats the other two members of Sindbad’s boat. It would have eaten
Sindbad too, but he basically makes a fort for himself and the snake can’t get
in. I’ll give him props for his plan. And luckily, the next day a ship finds
him and the people (like usual) are extremely generous to him. And, like in the
first voyage, he gets his cargo back.
I feel like Sindbad’s true talent is having luck. An incredible
amount of luck. He may get himself into ridiculously crappy situations, but he
comes out of them relatively unscathed and super rich.
Okay, thankfully he stops saying that he’s going to settle
down – he kept lying to himself and it annoyed me. But, in normal Sindbad
style, he ends up on another island he can’t get off of, this time because his
ship was destroyed by a storm. Anyways, he and the five other crewmembers that
survived are discovered by the residents, who, unfortunately, happen to be
cannibals. The only reason he survives that bit of trouble is that he doesn’t
eat the hallucinogenic herbs given to them or much of the food meant to fatten
the crew up. So after a while, he ends up escaping, finding merchants on the other
side of the island. They bring him back home…and life is good for him until
he’s basically forced to marry someone (the king asks him to, as a way to keep
Sindbad there). After a while, his wife dies, which means he has to be buried
alive with her as her spouse, based on this country’s custom. The spouse does
get some food and water when they are put in the pit, which is how Sindbad
survives. An (ordinary, non-magical) animal leads him out of the cave, where he
finds a ship and goes back home.
He still isn’t tired of voyaging at this point (as to why, I
have no idea). But he gets tired of the riches and the ease and decides to
embark on a trip once more. Since he’s so rich, he decides to commission the
building of a ship and gets some other merchants to travel with him. But he
ended up picking merchants that were kind of…well, cruel. When the crew stops
on an island with a roc egg that has barely hatched, everyone besides Sindbad
suddenly decides it’s time for lunch and eats the baby roc. Gross. Anyways, it
was a bad move for them, because the parents of the roc end up getting revenge
by destroying the ship. Sindbad once again survives his trip on a piece of
driftwood, landing on a place inhabited by the Old Man of the Sea. Man, if
there was ever a bad time for charity, it would be when Sindbad tries to help
old mute man and basically becomes his slave. But the goblin gets drunk, and
Sindbad escapes. Luckily (isn’t this always the case?) there are merchants on
the island, and they let him travel with them to their country, where he ends
up making money (lots of it) and returning to Baghdad.
Only a year after all the crap in the fifth voyage happened,
Sindbad sets sail in his sixth voyage. This time, he goes to a different part of
the world than he usually goes, but it doesn’t matter – trouble finds him once
again. After a storm catches the ship he’s on, Sindbad and the rest of the crew
happen to be pushed towards the most dangerous spot in the entire world.
After burying everyone else, he finally has the idea to go
down the one orifice in the cliff wall, a dark cavern with a river leading away
from the ocean. He has nothing to lose. So he builds a raft and goes, and it
ends up taking him to the inhabited part of Sri Lanka, where he (like in his
other voyages) meets the king and tells him his tale. A while after recording
Sindbad’s tale, the king sends Sindbad off to Baghdad with riches for himself
and the caliph (for good public relations). And, once again, Sindbad comes out
alive and rich.
In this last voyage, Sindbad truly doesn’t want to go out to
sea. He’s had enough adventure to last him a lifetime and he’s ‘old enough’ to
fully appreciate the luxury of the uneventful life. But, as fate has it, he’s
practically forced to go because the caliph wants Sindbad to return the gifts
given by the Sri Lankan king in the sixth voyage. So he goes and surprisingly
nothing bad happens on his way there. However, on his way back, Sindbad and his
crew run into some pirates, where he’s sold as a slave to a pretty nice master.
The guy feeds and clothes him well; the one thing Sindbad is ordered to do is
to kill elephants for their ivory tusks (since Sindbad’s a fair shot). So
Sindbad does by hiding in trees while the elephants come through the forest
each day, and finally the elephants get so angry at the death of their kind
that they uproot the tree Sindbad is hiding in one day. They don’t hurt Sindbad
(again, because his talent seriously is luck) and show him the elephant
graveyard. All the tusks an ivory merchant like Sindbad’s master could want
without the needless killing. Sindbad shows his master, his master frees him,
and Sindbad goes back to Baghdad with the many provisions his former master
provides him. In Baghdad his stories are recorded, and he doesn’t go out to sea
again.
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