Addition blog :) - I added this for extra credit :) If its ok!

Chapter summaries 1-14

                      The beginning of the book takes place in a little village in Hamburg Germany, in 1864. The main characters are Axel and professor Liedenbrock. Axle is the professors nephew. He is the main character in the book. Axle, so far in the book, seems very demanding (just like his uncle the professor). His uncle, professor liedenbrock is very demanding. He likes to get things done right, correctly, quickly. There is no messing around with him. If you do mess up, you dug a hole that you can’t get out of. In the first few chapters Axle is forced by his uncle to help him get to the center of the earth. His uncle (the professor) was so determined to find out the code, (that Axle will accidently figure out later).

Professor Lidenbrock found a message written by a sixteenth century alchemist named Arne Saknussemm. The message was a coded message written in ‘Icelandic’ language (an old ‘dead’ language spoken in old Iceland). Professor Lidenbrock could read the runes, but he could not figure out the code.

By an accident, Axel figured out the key to the code, but he was scared to explain it to the professor. Axle cracked it by just reading it backwards. In the message, Arne Saknussemm claimed that he had traveled to the center of the earth (which he thought was highly impossible). He also explained how to get there. Axel hoped that the professor would never learn what was in the message, for he knew that Professor Lidenbrock would surely want to make the journey himself, however, the professor refused to eat or sleep before he cracked the code, nor did he allow anyone else in the household to eat until he cracked it. As a result, hunger forced Axel to explain the key of the code to Professor Lidenbrock.

As Axel suspected, Professor Lidenbrock was determined to make the journey himself, and he commanded, he didn’t tell him, he commanded Axel to pack his stuff and come along. Axel tried badly to reason with the professor but he ended up going. He also discussed the matter with Grauben, who Axel loved a lot. Unfortunately, Grauben encouraged him to undertake the journey. She promised to marry him when he returned.