5 Minutes Freewriting - Drapes

It is a common custom in our lands that when a person dies, his or her coffin will be covered in drapes, black and white, that will represent the person's doings in his or her lifetime. Each black drape will represent a bad doing, each white one will represent a good doing.

Our king, Arvid, died not long ago. His burial is today, and everyone gathered to see our king go.

He wasn't loved. Actually, he was hated.

He did what he wanted, when he wanted, without listening to anyone and without caring whether someone gets hurt or not. He killed, raped, conquered and left nothing for the common people. He was an awful king.

His coffin was draped, as expected, in black clothing. Anything people had, that was black, was thrown on the box he was gonna spend his eternity inn. They were there not to show respect, or regret, but to show their hatred towards him, and everything he did.

After everyone was done however, one young lady came in front of the crowd, with a white piece of clothing in her hands. As expected, everyone was unpleasantly surprised. What did king Arvid do for us all? What did he give us? Pain? Suffering?

The young lady reminded us all, that before Arvid became our leader, we were all salves, beaten and conquered by everyone who wanted to have our lands. We were travelers, because we were not warriors, and we couldn't defend ourselves.

We were a disgrace to our Viking customs, a bunch of farmers and traders, who couldn't fight.

King Arvid changed that. Through his ruthless behavior, he made us all stronger. He made us all hate intruders, and he taught us how to fight.

He wronged us all, each and every one of us.

But he freed us.

As bad as he might have been as a leader, he was a powerful and ruthless king, who liberated us and showed everyone that we can keep any enemy away from our loved ones.

And so, our king's coffin was draped with black clothing, and over them, covering them all, a white one, as a sign of thanks, and forgiveness, for all he has done, for he may have treated us wrong, but he made us strong, and showed us how to protect ourselves.