Happy Mother's Day

Motherhood is an amazing thing. It is a concentrated form of personal and spiritual growth. Recently I was speaking with a single aquaintance who was planning a yoga retreat to strengthen her spirituality. Man, I thought - try being spiritual with nerf balls flying past your head. When you've mastered that - woohoo - girlfriend you've got it!

If you are feeling a bit insecure about your less than perfect mothering skills - read on to find our about a very "infamous" mother.





Agrippina - An Infamous Woman
by Micah

Agrippina's husband, Emperor Claudius, had three different infamous wives before he married Agrippina. He didn't enjoy the experiences. In fact, after his third wife, Claudius asked his guards to kill him if he was such a fool as to marry again. Claudius did marry again, to Agrippina, his niece. His guards did not kill him when he married her. A pity for Claudius...
Agrippina had been married to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenbarbus and had a son with him, named Nero.
Agrippina wanted power and she wanted her son Nero to be Emperor instead of Claudius' son. So she persuaded Claudius to have his daughter, Octavia, marry her son Nero. She guarded her position as empress and prepared to make Nero heir to the throne. Then, when she decided it was time to get rid of Claudius, she secretly poisoned him and Nero became the Emperor.
Even though Nero appreciated what his mother had did, he began to resent Agrippina's control and had lots of arguments with her. Nero decided he would have to kill her in order to be free of her. He tried various ways to get rid of her, and all failed. He finally planed a ship wreck. He prepared a ship which would collapse in the sea.
When Agrippina was in the ship and the accident occurred, Agrippina's two companions were killed. Agrippina was wounded, but she swam to shore. She sent a messenger to inform her son of her escape, pretending to have no suspicions of his guilt so that she could counterstrike. Nero was terrified: he had reason to believe that her revenge was likely to be deadly. He sent some guy to kill his mother. Agrippina last words are supposed to have been, "Strike here", as she pointed to the womb from which Nero had come.

A Norse Scald Weaves His Tale

A Norse Scald's
Tale of
King Alfred the Great
By Micah

By the light of the moon an old man gathered his fellow Norsemen around him and told them the folowing true story:

"A long time ago some of our Norsemen went to England, the land of the Anglo ~ Saxons. They caused much havoc, for they were going I-Viking. When we were in battle and someone died, more Norsemen would come to help. The Anglo ~ Saxons were terrified of us 'pagan warriors', for we were not Christian. Then many of us went to a kingdom called Wessex.

The king of Wessex, Ethelred, was a fair fighter, but he was more interested in religion then fighting. It was Ethelred's brother who Anglo ~ Saxons expected to defeat us.

All of the Anglo ~ Saxons loved Alfred. Even the pope had said that Alfred would be a great king of England some day. Alfred spent much time in scrolls and books-yes-but he was also was a fierce warrior and had amazing strategies. When we attacked Wessex we were surprised at how strong was King Alfred's army. Even though we were bigger in numbers, we had no luck ‘till we mounted a surprise attack on Christmas day and won. After that battle Alfred went into hiding. England was ours - for a little while.

Many of our men became restless and wanted adventure, so they left England. Our army became smaller than it was before.

When King Alfred came out of hiding, we were both amazed and astonished at how many men and weapons Alfred had. Alfred's army conquered us for we were surprised and small in numbers.

The Anglo ~ Saxons sieged us. We didn't have much food, so at the end 14 days we sent a messenger offering our submission. We promised that if spared we would leave England forever.

King Alfred had mercy on us and after that we sent another messenger to tell King Alfred that our leader, Jarl Guthorn, wanted to become Christian. Seven weeks later Jarl Guthorn and thirty of his best men were baptized.

Not long after Guthorn's baptism did the Anglo ~ Saxons managed to get all Norsemen who were still pagan out of England. We left them alone for a good four years.

I hear that during those four years King Alfred passed many good laws. That the people of England saw King Alfred as King of England--not just King of Wessex. People call him King Alfred 'the great'! Even I must admit, that King Alfred was both a good king and a great warrior!"