In 1982, the Yarinacocha High School English class read the classic poem Beowulf. Doug Swauger wrote Darrylwulf in honor of Darryl Powlison and Bryan Shannon.

Darrylwulf

Doug Swauger

Over the misty moors he crept,
Leaving the land stricken and desolate.
Through the forest he stalked by night, ambling under eves.
The hideous fiend, the terror of man, with gorilla arms and claw-like hands,
Ready to rip a soul from limb to limb.

Listen, brave souls, listen to a tale of sorrow and woe.

After the sunset in the cool of the night,
As the brave warriors of Yarinarot - that bright celestial city alone on the eastern frontier
Where men are brave and women are fair...
While the warriors of the great city rode around on their cosmic machines,
They fly celebrating battles won, land conquered, and evil killed.
The dreaded sloth-monster stalked.

Drip, drip, drip from the sky fountain came;
The fog rolled in shrouding the fiend in sinister gray.
Ambling along, ripping at trees, lustful for blood,
Bloated and grotesque, waiting for his victim to appear.

Now there lived in Yarinarot a warrior strong and brave who was Darrylwulf called.
He was the mightiest yet the most childish of men.
Darrylwulf rode victorious on his great cosmic machine,
Battle scarred but celebrating.
The root beer flowed freely in the great Hall of the Mead.
The goblets clashed, the partying rumbled, but Darrylwulf was gone.
He and his faithful companion Bryanferth were out for a spin.

With an animal scream, putting terror in the hearts of men,
The sloth monster lunged out from his lair by the road and grabbed onto Bryanferth's head.
"Oh Darrylwulf - the mightiest yet most childish of men,
There is a fiendish sloth monster sitting on my head.
With gorilla arms and claw-like hands he is working ruin to my cranium.
What is to be done, oh Darrylwulf? You are our only hope."
Darrylwulf stopped the cosmic machine, with logic and cool wisdom he said
"Fear nothing, oh Bryanferth. I am brave Darrylwulf,
The mightiest yet most childish of men.
I will slay the dreaded sloth monster.
I will pry out his claws and cut off his arms.
I will poke out his eyes and make pot roast of his bod.
Was it not I - Darrylwulf - who killed the hideous bat elf
Armed only with a sling shot and tennis racket?
Was it not I - Darrylwulf - who destroyed the horrible rat fink
That stalked and killed, eating the flesh and crackling the bones of our brave warriors?
I also will slay you, sloth monster.

"Forget it," Bryanferth replied.
"The wicked fiend, despised of men, was put to sleep by your words."

"Then let us make merry and feed him to the sea serpents that live in the dungeon under my castle.
By the way Bryanferth, what are those scars all over your head?"
Only brave Darrylwulf dared to keep sea serpents for pets.
With scaly coils and slippery fins they lurked in the darkness,
Awaiting their chance to catch an extra midnight snack.

But Darrylwulf had forgotten to lock the cage in his dungeon.
From the murky depths a sea monster wrapped its gruesome scaliness around Bryanferth's leg.
"Help - oh Darrylwulf!" he shouted.
"One of your sea serpents has me by the foot. Quickly kill it ...
And pray don't make another speech lest I be eaten
Before you get to the part about killing the rat fink."
Darrylwulf took heed. trying to wrench Bryanferth's leg from its scaly hold.
But to no avail.
Suddenly, a magical machete appeared from nowhere,
With razor-sharp blade and gilded handle.
Mysterious words appeared on the side "Industria Peruana",
Probably a wizards incantation in the language of the Gods.
Darrylwulf chopped once with all his strength.
An agonized shriek and terrible thrashing about.
"Did I slay him? Did I slay him?"
Darrylwulf asked and lit a lantern to see.
There stood Bryanferth minus one foot surrounded by yards and yards of rope.
"Oops, I missed"
Bryanferth hobbled out of the dungeon leaving the serpents to eat his dismembered foot.
Darrylwulf followed closely behind.

Back on his cosmic machine,
Darrylwulf and Bryanferth rode thru the forest
Hoping for a taste of root beer before the dawn came around.
But alas and alack.
A ferocious wiener-dragon blocked their path.
With throaty growls and menacing scarlet eyes the weiner dragon approached,
Teeth barred and tail between his legs.
"Fear nothing Oh Bryanferth.
I shall run over the dreaded weiner-dragon
with my cosmic machine.
The land will once again be safe
for decent people to roam in.
The machine roared,
The weiner-dragon moved in for the kill
And the two adversaries met.
Suddenly from the background came high, intense yapping.
"Did I get him? Did I slay him?" Darrylwulf asked.
"I have teeth marks in my leg that say you didn't." Bryanferth replied.
The dreaded weiner-dragon had bitten the unfortunate Bryanferth.
Adding to the many other battle scars he had received that evening.
Later in the great Hall of Yarinarot a toast was made to the greatness of Darrylwulf.
Men exclaimed, "he killed a sloth monster, a sea serpent and a weiner-dragon
All without any wounds to see.
Long live Darrylwulf! Long live Yarinarot!"
The jeweled goblets clashed
And Darrylwulf immediately dropped over dead after taking a sip of the brew.

"Who killed him?" they all asked.
"Was it the sloth monster, or the sea serpent. or the weiner-dragon?"
While Bryanferth mourned his master's corpse from afar...
Quickly hiding a bag of arsenic under his shirt.
He smiled wryly and muttered,
"Truly he was the mightiest yet most childish of men."

E-Mail Paul Gibson pgibson @ yarina.org
Paul Gibson's Web Pages http://www.yarina.org/~pgibson/
Updated January 14, 2002 A.D.