The Sea

Algernon Swift takes his holiday beside the sea and is moved to write some verse:

The Sea

The ocean heaves and raves and roars.
The waves crash down with spumy white.
The sea is mighty deep, one feels,
but all one sees is surface surf

is surf is surf is surface surf
-- and glittering light
which nothing of its deeps reveals
for all the waves’ just might.

Horde Oeuvre

In the early thirteenth century a new threat arises in the East --
Genghis Khan and his horde of fearful worriers.

(click on image to enlarge)


After a string of conquests, the lightning progress of the Mongols comes to a standstill as the hordes hoard:



Dissension arises among the previously-unified tribes of barbarians:



Some decide they are fed-up with a lifestyle of compulsive pillaging and no longer wish to be barbarians.

(The twelve-steppe programme is introduced.)