Re: The Glorantha Digest V7 #219

From: aelarsen_at_facstaff.wisc.edu
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 15:18:24 -0600


>From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_bigfoot.com>
>Subject: Uleria's consorts

>>So I'm wondering, does Uleria have a consort?
>
>In Peloria, Uleria has a phallic lover, Vogmaradan, who is sundered
>from creation and rejoins it through Uleria. Not specifically
>vegetation related but close enough in Gregspace.
>
>>But what about
>>Flamal? He's a vegetation spirit, just like the consorts, and he dies and
>>comes back, just like the consorts.
>
>He's connected with Ernalda or Aldrya rather than Flamal.

        I assume you mean Uleria.

>>What's the myth behind Flamal's resurrection?
>
>It's the secret quest of the Lightbringers according to the
>Aldrya cult writeup.

        Hmmm. I suppose it seems reasonable that it would be a side-effect of the LBQ, but nothing in the quest (or at least anything I've seen written about the quest) suggests that they were trying to bring back Yelm as well as Flamal. None of these deities have any more connection to Flamal than Uleria does, with the remote exception of Chalana Arroy via Arroin, which is pretty tenuous. An Uleria does have a connection to Aldraya via her son Shanassee, whose function is pretty vaguely defined as Aldraya's mate. He seems to be a vegetation spirit, since he teaches Food Song, suggesting that he's the god of Plant Fertility. It seems reasonable to me that he might be the son of Uleria and Flamal. Granted, I'm elaborating wildly, but given the RW parallels between Uleria and Ishtar (included cultic prostitution, which I forgot to mention before), it really seems like she ought to have a vegetative consort who dies and returns.

>Don't our French cousins refer to orgasm as "the little death"? I'm sure
>Ulerian poetry is filled with references to
"dying" in the Shakespearian sense.

Gary R Switzer

        Since I'm speculating wildly, it sounds to me like Ulerians might have cult secrets about death and return, with the orgasm as a metaphor.

Andrew E. Larsen


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