Re: Lodril and Monster Man (was Lodrili Settlers and Sacred Time Ceremonies)

From: Stewart Stansfield <stu_stansfield_at_gtIVXxT1CD4xdYwcK7i1m6BJizyCR73DURqJOj4m35UUMmN6lSzC7MzoHq-Bb>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:31:14 -0000


Allison:
> I'd say it's a Jekyll and Hyde...

For my own part, Allison, I like one of the earliest published Lodril myths--I think it's quite evocative and offers some interesting room for interpretation. A myth that I also think, at a visceral level, is common to many 'Lodril'-accepting cultures.

"Lodril was aloft in the sky when he saw a foul thing from beyond the world squirming upon the body of his beloved earth. He... thrust himself to impale the monster... [he] did not kill it, but instead drove it deeper into the bowels of the world. Lodril pursued until at last, deep in the dark innards of the earth and far from the source of his strength, the chaos thing turned and engaged in heart-to-heart comabt. Lodril recognised, almost too late, that he could not destroy this foe. He determined that he was willing to destroy himself if he could also destroy the monster... his effort was only partially successful, for where there had been two things before there was afterwards only one. Lodril remained the most prominent, but he was tainted ever afterwards with a violence unlike most fire entities."

--Wyrms Footnotes, p. 57.

IMO, Pelorian mythology tends to externalise this conflict at the heart of Lodril, appreciating and resolving such extreme disorder and violence in the form of Monster Man.

Kethaelan mythology--particularly Caladran, with its physical, immanent character--tends to internalise it. Their volcanic gods, Veskarthan included, can display a violent, disordered, destructive, truculent, small-t tricksterish streak of behaviour in of themselves.

Stew.            

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