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Yes, but do we know what the heart represents in Lunar (or more generally, in Gloranthan) understanding? For modern English speakers, the heart is said to be the seat of emotions, specifically of love and compassion--but this has not always been the case. In other times and places, the heart has been seen as the seat of reason, or as the location of a person's identity. If that's what the heart means to Lunars, taking Jar-Eel's heart could turn her into an automaton or an animal. But if the heart means something completely different to them, well, all bets are off, aren't they?
I expect the most common understanding of "heart" (in this world, anyway) is the source and home of a person's life. Destroying the heart, then, kills someone. But *removing* the heart doesn't necessarily have that effect! As I understand it, Koschei made himself "deathless" precisely by removing (and hiding) his heart, so that it couldn't be harmed--and as long as his heart was safe, so was he. (c.f. the Old Man of the Mountain in "Bridge of Birds".) So by removing and keeping Jar-Eel's heart, Harrek may have been deliberately keeping her alive and under his power. There's precedent, after all--he didn't kill the White Bear by skinning it. Rather, he *enslaved* the Bear.
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End of Glorantha Digest
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