SCP-6738: so smoothly d o th he cr est. a wi nd g o d !
Author: Dr Phil McClaw does not match any existing user name, an actual crustacean
⚠️ Content warning: This article contains a content warning: Afterlife, Animal Cruelty, Suicide.
Item #: SCP-6738
SCP-6738-11, taken 2012
Object Class: Euclid Argus
Special Containment Procedures: The current instance of SCP-6738 is to be stored in one of three avian terrariums at Site-451, according to size. Per Reintegration Protocol #6738, MTF Beta-4 ("Castaways") monitors the current instance of SCP-6738 via subdermal GPS implant, which must be replaced after each change in form. Task force is to apprehend SCP-6738 no more than 24 hours prior to the new moon lunar phase; if feasible, task force is to bring SCP-6738 to Site-804 until cessation of anomalous activity. SCP-6738 is to be tagged and released after reverting to its avian body plan.
Following the termination or natural death of current SCP-6738 instance, MTF Lambda-4 ("Birdwatchers") is to be mobilized along coastlines in an expanding radius to locate the new instance. Procedures to expediently identify SCP-6738 outside of the new moon lunar phase are currently infeasible.
Per Boring Agreement, avian corpora discarded by SCP-6738 may be donated to GoI-466 ('Wilson's Wildlife Solutions') at discretion of research team, or otherwise stored at Zoological Facility-AV-γ. All remaining corpora are to be destroyed.
Description: SCP-6738 is a Consolamentum-Type therianthropic entity, specifically manifesting with the body plan of a seabird. During a period up to sixteen hours coinciding with the onset of the new moon, SCP-6738 anatomically transmutes from an avian into a human being. This transmutation is not voluntary or controlled.
Although SCP-6738 has manifested as at least nine separate species of seabird, SCP-6738 always manifests as the same human corpus; identifying as 'Ketill Ketilsson', mid-30s male of Icelandic descent.
Only one instance of SCP-6738 is believed to exist at any point in time. Instances manifest after death of previous corpus and before the next new moon; the species manifested tends to match species with native range near or within the region of previous instance's death.
Addendum- List of Corpora
SCP-6738-1, preserved by Dr. Ennis Menzies
SCP-6738-1
Acquired: 25/06/1968
Species: Alca torda ('Razor-billed auk')
Description: SCP-6738-1 was identified on 27/04/1968 in the village of North Tolsta, on the Scottish island of Lewis and Harris. An inconsolable human speaking a Nordic language was found by residents of the town, naked and crying on a coastal bluff. Believing him to be the survivor of a shipwreck, a resident welcomed subject into her home awaiting authorities. As police were transporting subject to an interpreter, SCP-6738-1 (who was reported as being distressed during the car ride) reverted to an avian form and escaped out of the car window.
This event would attract minimal Foundation attention after being reported in tabloid newspapers jocularly as a 'were-gull', until a near identical event occurred 25/06/1968; in which SCP-6738 reentered avian form while inside an Aberdeen City Police station and assaulted a constable. Amnestic protocol was administered to officers and object was transferred to containment at Zoological Facility-AV.
SCP-6738 Log #003, 26/07/1968
Foreword: SCP-6738 has just entered humanoid corpus after a month in Zoo Facility-AV. Interpreted by Agent Einar Brøste; also present are Dr. Ennis Menzies and Embedded Agent Lippmann.
Lippmann: … See, you owe me. My boys don't talk out their asses.
Brøste: Yeah yeah, you're still the clown that tried to make me talk to a damn bird. [Norwegian] Hey, you remember what I've been trying to ask you this past month?
SCP-6738: [Icelandic] You're speaking Norwegian? You can get me back to Iceland?
Brøste: [NOR] Iceland?
SCP-6738: [ICE] We are in England, yes?
Brøste: [NOR] Scotland.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Please, get me on a ship to Iceland. The English guards didn't listen to me!
Brøste: [NOR] You could just fly to Iceland. Before we got you, anyways.
SCP-6738: [ICE] When I take the body of a bird, my instincts take over. I can't reckon like a man. Please, listen to me.
[SCP-6738 tenses in his seat.]
SCP-6738: [ICE] I've tried to find my way around. A sea bird can go headfirst into the brine without a shiver. Men weren't made for that. Confused, falling into a churning sea that burns your body with cold. I've tried to make it home, but I'll die if I go that way again.
Brøste: [ENG] He says takes the body of a bird and has died. As if reincarnating. [NOR] I'm sorry to here that. My friend, can we step back to introduce ourselves?
SCP-6738: [ICE] I am Ketill, name of my father. I want to get to Iceland.
Brøste: [NOR] And Ketill, you do remember what I asked of you this whole time?
SCP-6738: [ICE] No, not really. I remember being scared; yearning to get away.
Brøste: [NOR] What I asked is what you know about what's happening to you.
SCP-6738: [ICE] My soul is… rejected. Repenting. The souls of the men in the sea birds. I've done them harm, and they are returning it.
END
Object was granted access to a Danish-language Resen-Svaningske Lutheran Bible while in human corpus. On-site agents are encouraged to extract information from object during such events.
SCP-6738-1 expired in containment of natural causes 04/03/1973.
SCP-6738-2 in containment
SCP-6738-2
Acquired: 25/10/1973
Species: Larus argentatus ('European herring gull')
Description: Three reports of similar entities occurred in Ulster, Cornwall, and Brittany, France in the months following termination of SCP-6738-1. Media reports were quietly suppressed. Object was discovered 25/10/1973 when belligerent and nude SCP-6738 accosted a police officer in Bordeaux.
SCP-6738 Log #062, 25/10/1973
Foreword: Local agents contacted Agent Brøste by telephone to confirm identity of anomaly prior to transport.
Gorze: Hello, agent? He's speaking Norwegian or something. He's really fighting us.
Brøste: Alright, give him the phone.
[A muffled struggle is heard on the other end.]
Gorze: [French] Just… talk into it. Here!
SCP-6738: [ICE] Stop! I don't want—
Brøste: [ICE] Hey, Ketill, is that really you?
SCP-6738: [ICE] Brøste? How is— what is doing this?
Brøste: [ICE] It's alright, I told you before. It's just a machine.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Oh, please, can you get me to Iceland now? I hate this bird's brain!
Brøste: [ICE] We're still working on that, friend.
SCP-6738: [ICE] That's a damn lie! I don't lose track of time.
Brøste: [ICE] Just work with the officers, please. You don't need to fight us.
[SCP-6738 drops the handset. A struggle continues.]
Gorze: Merde! [ENG] Agent, what's happening to him!?
[SCP-6738-2 squawks in distress.]
Gorze: [FRE] Goddammit, did you leave the cage in the truck!?
END
Object was tentatively stored at Secure Facility-29 in Selfoss, Iceland. SCP-6738-2 expired in containment of natural causes 04/03/1978.
Location of discovery on Bass Rock
SCP-6738-3
Acquired: 05/06/1978
Species: Morus bassanus ('Northern gannet')
Description: Following rigorous containment procedures and three months of scouring undertaken by MTF Lambda-4, SCP-6738 was discovered in humanoid corpus on Bass Rock, Scotland. The island is the site of the largest colony of northern gannets on Earth. Subject was wearing clothes and praying in an abandoned church.
SCP-6738 Log #094, 05/06/1978
Foreword: Agents have arrived on Bass Rock at sunrise after identification of a human among the colony of gannets.
Menzies: … This isn't going to pan out. I'm telling you, it's just some vagrant living out here.
Brøste: You can say that, but we gotta check it out. It sounds like it might be him.
Menzies: The bird shit isn't that pleasant, either.
[Agents come upon the dilapidated St. Baldred's Chapel, where SCP-6738 has taken residence.]
Brøste: [ICE] Ketill! You're alright? I like the coat, my friend.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Thank you, I found it. I'd like water.
Brøste: [ENG] Ming, give him some of that.
[SCP-6738 drinks deeply from the agent's canteen.]
SCP-6738: [ICE] How'd you find me? After all this.
Brøste: [ICE] We're always looking for you.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Okay, then. Brøste, find it in your heart to let me go. I can stay here, not bother anyone.
Brøste: [ICE] Well, you don't bother anyone in Iceland.
SCP-6738: [ICE] When I asked that, I didn't mean I wanted a cage in Iceland! I wanted to be home! By the sea!
Menzies: [ENG] What's it yelling about?
Brøste: [ENG] Quiet. [ICE] Ketill, we need to meet in the middle. We'll take you back, and I'll try to visit more often. I can take you out on the sea.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Brøste, I need to feel the wind on my wings. I've watched you grow a decade, and in that decade every moment of freedom was fleeting. Please, friend.
Brøste: [ICE] It's just not going to work. Gather yourself, Ketill.
[SCP-6738 turns to the decayed altar of the chapel and silently finishes prayer. As he does so, in the span of seconds feathers are seen penetrating through object's skin. Subject visibly loses mass, its head disappearing under the overcoat. Agent Brøste grabs the now avian SCP-6738-2 by the neck and wrestles to keep object from flight.]
Brøste: [ENG] Goddammit, Menzies, help me here!
[Dr. Menzies drops handheld camera in order to assist in apprehending SCP-6738-3.]
END
SCP-6738-3 expired in containment of natural causes 29/04/1979.
SCP-6738-5, preserved as requested by Dr. Menzies
SCP-6738-5
Acquired: 02/06/1985
Species: Oceanites oceanicus ('Wilson's storm petrel')
Description: SCP-6738 was observed in human corpus by MTF Lambda-4 on 02/06/1985 after washing ashore near Sagres, Portugal. Object was revived and entered containment.
During an incident in which SCP-6738 was allowed a supervised excursion aboard an MTF Lambda-4 vessel in the North Sea, SCP-6738-4 breached containment, flying through the prison bars of the ship's brig. Object avoided recapture for 5 months until identification on Caicos Island.
Object was transferred to Site-451 in Northern Mali to avoid proximity to ocean. SCP-6738-4 was unintentionally terminated in containment 14/02/1987.
SCP-6738-8 in containment
SCP-6738-8
Acquired: 11/04/1993
Species: Pelecanus refuscens ('Pink-backed pelican')
Description: In South Africa, object was again arrested by civilian authorities in human form, but escaped in the reported corpus of a pelican. MTF Lambda-4 was mobilized and captured over 40 suspicious aves up to the next new moon, one of which was SCP-6738-8.
SCP-6738 Log #244, 11/04/1993
Foreword: Agent Brøste was brought to Site-451 for familiarity to SCP-6738, who is bedridden at time of log. SCP-6738-8 sustained injuries to its wing, which translated to similar injuries to the arm in human corpus, requiring a splint.
Menzies: … Okay, be quick. We're going to need to do some adjustments to the sling in a bit.
Brøste: [ICE] I'm sorry for what has been done to you, Ketill.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Sorry. Please. Fix my mess, then. They've done nothing but give me something for pain. Which did help, I think. I'm tired.
Brøste: [ICE] We're going to get you in health when you're back in your avian body. You know, this isn't something doctors really get. We're going to have to take it step by step.
SCP-6738: [ICE] What, get my wing flapping again so I can spend all day in a fake pond? That's not what I want.
Brøste: [ICE] Ketill, I'm not your enemy. I want them to roll back all the restrictions, but you're unreliable out there.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Unreliable? You know I can survive out there, I just can't hide from you all. Don't pretend to be my friend.
Brøste: [ICE] Unreliable because you make the news.
SCP-6738: [ICE] What, you need me to apologize for biting those officers? Please, can't you just let me out. Let me cast myself to a desert island. Or just let me die here. Old man, this is my new curse.
Brøste: [ICE] A curse!? You're forever young, you have your wits, you have endless second chances on life. The rest of us are stuck getting old and deaf and feeble!
SCP-6738: [ICE] But you get to leave.
Menzies: [ENG] Can we wrap this up? I need to get to the bandages.
Brøste: [ENG] There's not often an opportunity to talk to him.
Menzies: [ENG] What's it saying, then?
Brøste: [ENG] He says you're an asshole. [ICE] Ketill, if you promise you won't escape again, I can send a request through for more time at sea.
SCP-6738: [ICE] I promise that I will use any opportunity to take my freedom, Einar.
END
SCP-6738-8 expired in containment 31/01/1994.
SCP-6738-9-A, -B, -C, -D
Acquired: 23/11/1997
Species: Homo sapiens ('Common human'; four, identical)
Description: On this date, four nude bodies were found in various states of decomposition and natural mummification on Lillie Glacier in Antarctica. Bodies were determined to be the former corpora of SCP-6738, who had come here to expire on these occasions rather than risk being identified in human form.
SCP-6738-10 evading containment
SCP-6738-10
Acquired: 19/11/2000
Species: Oceanites oceanicus ('Wilson's storm petrel')
Description: After evading containment for over six years, MTF Lambda-4 ceased intensive monthly scouring for SCP-6738. Object was pending reclassification to neutralized until GoI-466-12 ('WWS Pelagic Conservation Squad') reported an Oceanites oceanicus ('Wilson's storm petrel') amongst a native feeding group of Hydrobates monorhis ('Swinhoe's storm petrel') in international waters off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.
Three months later off the coast of Argentina, MTF Lambda-4 agents identified such a petrel which appeared to "avoid us with unusual prescience." Agents tracked SCP-6738-10 at high speed for approximately four hours; a secondary interceptor continued the chase after the agents exhausted fuel, until the object was too exhausted to evade a ensnarement device launched from interceptor. Up to this point, object was not confirmed anomalous.
SCP-6378-10 expired while entering humanoid corpus 25/11/2000.
SCP-6738-11 in containment
SCP-6738-11
Acquired: 24/01/2001
Species: Diomedea exulans ('Wandering albatross')
Description: On the evening of 25/12/2000, SCP-6738 appeared in human corpus at Notre Dame Des Vents church, henceforth designated Site-804, on Kerguelen Island.
Despite language barrier, keeper Autric Fourny invited SCP-6738 into the church and gave subject clothes. Resident sailor Aron Solberg bridged language gap. Individuals built a rapport with subject, which ended abruptly when SCP-6738 fled in the corpus of an albatross.
SCP-6738 Log #250, 27/12/2000
Foreword: Due to incident's remote location, an ad hoc task force of agents from the nearby Site-██ was organized to investigate allegations presented by residents.
Site-804.
Redkin: … What else did, uh, 'Ketill' say to you?
Fourny: He was just normal. Well, he was naked, but he talked earnestly. He said it'd been so long since he celebrated Christmas.
Solberg: This island doesn't have space for vagrant loons like him. I didn't understand how he got here. He sounded like a lunatic; said he flew here, but there isn't an airport. Now I sound like an idiot.
Redkin: So, he did this all before becoming a bird? He wasn't, possibly, a parrot?
Fourny: I know you don't believe us, but this is really how it happened. I don't know what happened to that man, but our eyes haven't deceived us. He took the form of a bird against his will.
Redkin: Well, alright. I'm not sure I can spend time on this bird man. If he's not on the island, what do you want me to do?
Solberg: You don't believe us? How exactly is he supposed to have gotten on and off this island by himself?
Redkin: Look, that's up to me to figure out, alright?
Fourny: You're not even listening to us. Don't bother investigating if you find us unbelievable. But we wouldn't make such a lie, and for what reason? Already people laugh at us, but I stand by what I've told you.
Redkin: That's your conviction. Have a good day, both of you.
[Redkin leaves the church and radios his command.]
Redkin: It's the skip they described. It is a bird. Don't know what they expect us to do about it.
Lasalle: Yeah, we'll call it in. Let the bird brains deal with it.
END
Agent Brøste, now a year into retirement, was offered to participate in investigating whereabouts of SCP-6738-11.
SCP-6738 Log #251, 24/01/2001
Foreword: Agent Brøste anticipated SCP-6738's return to Site-804 and was present along with Fourny and Solberg.
Solberg: [NOR] … How do you even know he's gonna be here?
Brøste: [NOR] Because I know him from before. This is the phase of the moon when he'll come back.
Solberg: [NOR] Phase of the moon?
Fourny: [ENG] Hey, come on, don't keep your secrets from me.
Solberg: [ENG] He really does know the guy, he says. Saying the bird man's really like… How do you say it… A werewolf. And it's the right moon.
Fourny: [ENG] Glad to see we all really are lunatics.
[A knock hits the door to the church. Fourny opens it and invites inside SCP-6738, draped in a blanket left outside for him.]
Fourny: By God, Ketill, you have had me doubting my own sanity for this time.
SCP-6738: Yeah?
Brøste: [ICE] You look strong, my friend.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Oh, Brøste. I guess that means they're here to take me away.
Brøste: [ICE] Something like that.
Fourny: [ENG] Can you ask him if he needs anything? Food, drink?
Brøste: [ENG] Yeah, go get him some water. [ICE] Have you been enjoying yourself, my friend?
SCP-6738: [ICE] Yes. I get along quite well with people who don't try to ensnare me.
Brøste: [ICE] Ketill, I'm here because I don't want them to do that again. They're tired of the chase. They might just start shooting you on sight.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Well, isn't that poetic. That's what me and my crew did in life. Sport killing the sea birds.
Brøste: [ICE] Ketill, this isn't necessary. No one else is advocating for you. Wouldn't you prefer to live without the stress of the hunt?
SCP-6738: [ICE] No, i wouldn't prefer that.
Brøste: [ICE] Okay, I understand that. But it's not just your preference at hand. My friend, do you know how long we've done this back and forth?
SCP-6738: [ICE] Is it, 30 years?
Brøste: [ICE] Yes, my friend. 32 years. I'm far too old to keep up with you. And you're still your young self.
SCP-6738: [ICE] I'm sorry, you're not my friend. I'm tired of trying to fit into the cast you've made for me. This is purgatory. There's no mincing words. I'll forever be harassed in the same way I harassed the souls in the sea birds.
Brøste: [ICE] Alright. I don't like spending much time on a boat anymore. So I don't want to stop you from running. But I might never see you again if you flee.
SCP-6738: [ICE] So be it. It has no bearing on my respect for you.
Brøste: [ICE] Nor mine on you. [Pause.] I just wish I could turn you around on this.
SCP-6738: [ICE] Don't think you can. Right now, I just want to be in this moment.
Brøste: [ICE] Me too, Ketill.
[Fourny returns with tea. The four individuals spend the next moments in deep conversation.]
END
Object was intercepted before escaping as an avian.
SCP-6738-11 is currently contained at Site-451 in a large terrarium.
Addendum- Ethical Review: On 03/07/2007, Tim Wilson began the following correspondence with MTF Lambda-4.
Received: 04:26 AM 03/07/2007
To: Lambda-4 Omega
From: Tim Wilson
Subject: Oceanites oceanicus
Hi, Agent. Our ocean squad has been seeing more and more of my grandpa's petrels off the coast of BC. Is that little fella still tagged out there? The one that can talk. I think he has a family, I think you should be keenly interested in tagging them.
Sent: 06:12 AM 03/07/2007
To: Tim Wilson
From: Lambda-4 Omega
Subject: Re:Oceanites oceanicus
No, that oceanites oceanicus died in captivity some time ago. Your input is noted, but we understand that to be coincidental. The specimens you're seeing aren't any different than normal petrels.
Received: 06:25 AM 03/07/2007
To: Lambda-4 Omega
From: Tim Wilson
Subject: Re:Re:Oceanites oceanicus
Captivity? Was it sick/injured? You can't keep a bird like that in a cage.
Sent: 06:34 AM 03/07/2007
To: Tim Wilson
From: Lambda-4 Omega
Subject: Re:Re:Re:Oceanites oceanicus
All due respect, Mr. Wilson, you do not understand the scope of containment of this anomaly.
Received: 06:54 AM 03/07/2007
To: Lambda-4 Omega
From: Tim Wilson
Subject: Re:Re:Re:Re:Oceanites oceanicus
Yes, I'm afraid I don't understand what you are doing, agent.
Sent: 09:34 AM 04/07/2007
To: Tim Wilson
From: Lambda-4 Omega-R
Subject: SCP-6738-11
Mr. Wilson, pardon my colleague's earlier rebuke. We do have a specimen you may see.
Agent Brøste thus brought Mr. Wilson to Site-451 14/07/2007.
SCP-6738 Log #307, 14/07/2007
Foreword: Caretaker at the time, Dr. Darlan, permits Brøste and Wilson to see anomaly.
[SCP-6738-11 meagerly huddles in a pile of debris, its cumbersome wings limply at its sides.]
Wilson: That isn't a petrel, that's a whole damn albatross! What the hell are you actually doing to this beauty?
Darlan: This is the biggest enclosure we have.
Wilson: Yeah, because this isn't an animal you keep in an enclosure.
Darlan: You aren't at all informed on what this anomaly is.
Brøste: Wilson, we're here to talk to it. It has to be soon.
Wilson: And how does that work, exactly? I've seen a talking seal before.
Brøste: It's probably not like that. Just give it a few.
[Personnel wait until subject changes from avian corpus.]
Wilson: … And it ended up flying to Clackamas. Don't ask me how a seal flies, but that's what they said when I talked to them. So, after… Hey, what's going on with the bird?
Brøste: It's about time you two are introduced.
[SCP-6738 drapes his humanoid form in a blanket. Brøste and Wilson approach the glass divider to the terrarium.]
SCP-6738: [ENG] Agh, god dammit.
Brøste: [ICE] Ketill, are you well?
SCP-6738: [ICE] Is that… Einar? Hah, you old fart! You're still kicking?
Brøste: [ICE] I'm still kicking, yes.
SCP-6738: [ENG] And, that man is?
Wilson: You call me Wilson, pal.
Brøste: You're speaking English, now?
SCP-6738: Well… No one would speak to me if I didn't. I learn a little from listening.
Brøste: [ICE] No Nordic speakers are here? Not even someone with a potato in their mouth?
SCP-6738: [ICE] It might've been… Six years since I last used this tongue. [ENG] If I didn't pick up English, I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone. [ICE] Half the time, these days, no one's here to talk to me anyways.
Brøste: [ENG] I'm sorry, friend. Do you get to read, at least?
SCP-6738: Yes, I have my scripture.
Wilson: Why are they keeping you here? In the middle of nowhere.
SCP-6738: I'm a flight risk, they say.
Wilson: No, this seems excessive. [to Darlan] Seriously, my team has been tracking birds for y'all for years. No need to hide them all in cages. Why put all this effort?
Darlan: We can get this one in a cage.
Brøste: I'm with Wilson. I'd resent living like this too.
Darlan: Oh, wait, you're the old guy. The one that it goes on about. Listen, if you hadn't taught it to want out of this, it wouldn't warrant this effort.
Brøste: That's inane. I didn't 'train' a bird to want to fly.
Wilson: And you'll never train it to want to be caged.
END
After the finalization of the Boring Agreement, SCP-6738 was one of the anomalies successfully advocated by Mr. Wilson for transfer of custody.
From the Office of
EC Deputy Chair Rennard, Site-19
03/12/2008
By Order of the Ethics Committee
Regarding special containment procedures for SCP-6738
Per Boring Agreement, SCP-6738 qualifies for Reintegration under the jurisdiction of GoI-466 ('Wilson's Wildlife Solutions') for the following reasons:
- Object has had a transient presence in the Pacific Northwest;
- Anomaly's predictable behavior warrants minimal containment;
- Object is not hazardous to containment crew, ecosystem, or public
In addition, the cost of resources expended to contain anomaly, both in acquisition and maintenance, far exceed priority of object.
Effective immediately, SCP-6738 is to enter joint custody of MTF Beta-4 ("Castaways") and GoI-466-12 ("Wilson's Wildlife Solutions Pelagic Conservation Squad").
Office of the Ethics Committee, Ecological Concerns
Co-signed by E-40, E-3, E-22
Reintegration of SCP-6738-11, overseen by GoI-466-12
In accordance to Ethics Committee mandate, SCP-6738 was transferred to Wilson's Wildlife Center Aquatic Avian Rehabilitation. After physiological and behavioral cross-examination in both avian and human corpus, reintegration of SCP-6738 was approved. Subject was tagged for survey and future acquisition.
On 04/01/2009, Reintegration Protocol #6738 was completed and SCP-6738-11 was returned from custody to its native range off the island of South Georgia.
On 09/01/2009, GoI-466-12 distributed a pamphlet to commemorate SCP-6738.
Name: Ketill AKA Ketill Ketilsson, K.K.
Species: Wandering Albatross
Rehab Team: Pelagic Conservation Squad
Wilson's Wildlife Solutions is ecstatic to commemorate the rehabilitation of the majestic albatross, Ketill! Soaring day and night throughout the turbulent Southern seas, this wandering albatross dominates with his mighty wingspan. If you speak Icelandic and catch him at the right moment, he can bless you with well-traveled wisdom.
Keeping an albatross in captivity seems infeasible, but that's where Ketill spent many of his years. Thanks to the Boring Agreement, Ketill will be spending many more years flying free.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo!
In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'
'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.
————————————————
The Sun, right up above the mast,
Had fixed her to the ocean:
But in a minute she 'gan stir,
With a short uneasy motion—
Backwards and forwards half her length
With a short uneasy motion.
Then like a pawing horse let go,
She made a sudden bound:
It flung the blood into my head,
And I fell down in a swound.
How long in that same fit I lay,
I have not to declare;
But ere my living life returned,
I heard and in my soul discerned
Two voices in the air.
'Is it he?' quoth one, 'Is this the man?
By him who died on cross,
With his cruel bow he laid full low
The harmless Albatross.
The spirit who bideth by himself
In the land of mist and snow,
He loved the bird that loved the man
Who shot him with his bow.'
The other was a softer voice,
As soft as honey-dew:
Quoth he, 'The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.'
————————————————
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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