The Legends of Lainjin series concludes in the pre-contact city of Nahn Madol. The aging hero Lainjin sails there from his home on Lae Atoll, pursuing his daughter and Ijokelekel, a young man with bold plans to lead a revolt in Pohnpei. When Lainjin arrives, he discovers that the city, now ruled by a tyrannical leader, has changed. Although multiple oral versions of Ijokelekel’s story exist, all conclude that he ended the reign of the Saudeleurs, the hereditary rulers of Pohnpei. Pohnpeians settled this area around 2,000 years ago, and Nahn Madol —“the ancient Venice of the Pacific”— was built between AD 800 and 1500. For centuries, Saudeleurs ruled over the city, once a thriving crossroads with 129 structures built with gigantic basaltic crystals cleaved from the cliffs of Pohnpei island. The islanders transported these multi-ton crystals by raft to a reef flat off the island’s east coast, where the canals between these mammoth structures could flood with the tides. This ancient city, now a National Historic Landmark, still exists and can be visited.

Gerald was only 19 when he entered the Peace Corps after two years as a literature student at Albion College. After graduation there he returned to the Marshall Islands with a love for literature and an interest in transcribing the stories he had heard in previous years. He taught for a year and worked as a commercial fisherman for two, honing his knowledge of the language and culture. Then he went for an uninterrupted four year stay on remote Rongelap Atoll to study with the renown traditional navigators and storytellers there. In 1979 he attended a one-year apprentice program at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu to prepare as Director of the Alele Museum and National Archive of the Marshall Islands. He held that position for ten years culminating in a two-year collaboration with the Field Museum of Natural History on their permeant “Traveling the Pacific” exhibit that features a donated traditional outrigger canoe.In 1999 Gerald graduated from the University of Illinois with master’s degrees in business administration and accounting. He currently heads a thriving CPA tax practice in Palos Hill, IL. He has completed the Chicago - Mackinac Island race five times and been a member of the Columbia Yacht Club since 2005.

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