Pam Carlson passes the buck:
> Paul, if you'd read carefully, you'd realize that Dan and James are the
> largest proponents of the dominating female troll schtick.
Wha? Is this me? It's great fun, but the image of trollish harridans
running around and bashing the menfolk with brooms is more MGF on my
part than a serious proposal.* Take it about as seriously as my suggestion
that Dara Happan cops are all crooked and talk with (US) Southern accents.
MGF, but not a suggestion for Gloranthan Canon.
Now, female Uz _do_ dominate Uz society, but not IMO through physical violence. If they need physical violence, that's what their husbands/sons are for, after all. But they certainly seem to control a great deal of religious, political and familial power (with Argan Argar being somewhat of an exception, and Zorak Zoran being the Big Glaring Exception). Paul, I hope you explain/expand your argument when you have time -- sounds interesting.
I suspect the "TSR masturbation-fest" epics Paul refers to (nice turn of phrase, BTW) are the kinds of stories that non-Troll *Gloranthans* actually tell. I'd hate to see the Penny Dreadfuls of the Lunar Empire... And note that Trollpak, penned by human Lhankor Mhy scribes, harps on the "grim Death Lord henpecked by his skinny wife" business. No doubt the Sartarites tell stories of the female Uz warrior queens, clad in three matching chain-mail bikinis, and all that rubbish.
> But IF one wants to have dimorphic words describing trollkind,
> (the topic was brought up by a male, if you recall), I think the default
> would be the female.
Actually, Jamuz was just sick and tired of typing "male troll" and "female
troll" a dozen times that day, and it occured to me I'd never seen
gender-specific terms, hoping there'd be something smaller to type (me
thinks "Mr. and Ms. Uz" is the winner). I only was sucked into the Troll
LinquisticQuest inadvertently. ;)
I'd agree that the troll's own word for "troll" is probably default female -- as are most of their words for critters, considering that Sokazub, Aranea, Gorakiki, Swems, Kropa and Molakka are all female deities.
Paul Chapman again:
> I really don't think that Troll society is like a reversed Victorian
> England, I really don't.
A lovely thought, though. The Lead Palace... the Lead Jubilee... an
Empire on which the Night Never Fades...
Jamuz "No more beating the Menfolk" Frusetta
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #541
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