Re: Seasonal adjectives from Donald R. Oddy on 2004-12-05 (Glorantha Digest Vol 10)

From: Donald R. Oddy <donald_at_grove.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 2004 02:27:52 GMT

In message <200412050653.05768.geard_at_verso.org> Jennifer Geard writes:
>Hi All,
>
>How might a Heortling describe something that was characteristic of a
>particular season? The equivalent of "spring growth", "summer sports",
>"autumn leaves" or "winter's blast"?
>
>Some of this can be described in terms of gods ("Valind's blast"), or
>functions (although terms like "planting" and "harvest" are ambiguous unless
>you mention whether you're talking about the barley or the winter wheat).

Someone's done quite a bit of work on Heortling poetry with lots of stuff like this. Yes, it is ambigious and often downright obscure.

>I've got a story going where the first draft refers to the plant
>"wintersweet". Like the real-world plant of that name, its characteristics
>are that it flowers on bare wood in "winter" and that it smells sweet.
>Darkness-season-sweet doesn't quite cut it as an equivalent.

I'd use "darksweet" or "darknessweet", English doesn't usually add the word season. However AIUI what we call winter covers much of what in Glorantha is Dark and Storm seasons. So it could also be "stormsweet".

>If there can be a Fimblewinter, does that make "winter" an accepted term? Or
>is that converting terminology from other worlds and applying to Heortlings?

In some parts of Glorantha it's probably an accepted term. Remember Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter are only really applicable to the temperate zones on earth. Other climates have different terms. To be consistent in translation Fimblewinter probably should really be Fimblestorm but I'm certainly not inclined to quibble over it.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/



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End of Glorantha Digest