Re: Glorantha Digest V1 #146 from owner-glorantha_at_hops.wharton.upenn.edu on 1995-02-17 (Glorantha Digest Vol 01)

From: owner-glorantha_at_hops.wharton.upenn.edu
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 95 18:30 GMT

In-Reply-To: <199502150346.WAA25382_at_hops.wharton.upenn.edu> Mike Cule asks:

> Could I find the holy city of Malkonwal? Could I buggery? Anyone know
> which mapit's on? Which countries it lies near? Help!

Its in Heortland isn't it?

> AND the civilised peasant has no Intensity so he can't do anything worse
> than 1 point of damage with his Venom spell. The barbarian's Disrupt
> does 1d3 forthe same cost with much greater reliability.
>
> So how do sorcerous cultures survive?

While I'm not at all convinced that this is a reasonable explaination of how societies interact, there is one thing you should remember.... If the peasant and whack the bararian with just one point's worth of Smother, that most useful of spells (mainly used for putting the fire out) then the barbarian is probably dead. All the peasant has to do is run away for a little while until 10 minutes worth of shortness of breath does for the guy. Orlanth doesn't teach either Dispell Magic or Countermagic.

Alex Furgeson writes:

> Returning to the Orlanthi for a mo', I note that According To Greg
> <brief genuflexion>, the Vikings were particularly exercised about
> _passive_ homosexual acts (considering imputations of being a thusly-
> inclined individual it a less-than-mortal-but-only-just insult). I
> suspect this gives weight to my thought that among the Orlanthi, it's
> not so much an immoral practice as an "unmanly" one (being "used like a
> woman", as it were). Perhaps one could be booted out of the Orlanth
> _cult_ for same, but still live among the Orlanthi in a less MBS-infused
> social niche.
>
> Active homosexual acts may be thought of, along with availing oneself
> of passing livestock, as a sub-optimal, but less noteworthily shameful,
> form of recreation. Stranger things happening at sea, etc.

Last time this came up I thought, why not quote the reference in Njall's Saga, but never did. Here's my chance:

"He [skarp-Hedin] snatched the cloak away and tossesa pair of blue trousers at Flosi, saying that he would have greater need of them than a cloak.

'Why should I need them more?' asked Flosi.

Skarp-Hedin replied, 'You certainly will if you are, as I have heard, the mistress of the Svinafell Troll, who uses you as a woman every ninth night.'

Then Flossi kicked the pile of money and said he would not take a penny of it; he said that they would take no other compensation for Hoskuld than blood-vengence."

This is footnoted as followes:

"Most of Skarp-Hedin's insults contain some imputation of perversion - an unforgivable taunt. This particular insinuation, that a man behaved as a woman every ninth night, was specifically forbidden in the laws, and must have been not uncommon. It occurs in two other sagas."

>From Njall's Saga, trans Magnusson & Palsson - a bloody good book if
you've not read it.