Theya Inannasdotir
Theya was born to Inanna Ernaldness, daughter of Kaelis Earthbuilder, who was Earthmother for the whole Karandoli clan during the time Mother Hareva and Chief Colymar founded Clearwine. This is the same Kaelis who tamed the SteepShoulder Mountain, and convinced her to stop sending the Killing Snows (1) down on the Karandoli. Innana took for yearhusband Jarang Orlgandison, son of Tiri Unnsdotir, who nutured six-sulungs near Backford. Jarang was bold and quiet, proud and wise, and at the yearend Innana made with him the wholemarraige pact.
Jarang was so proud that he insisted on founding his own stead, and he wanted his own bloodline to go with it. Inanna s first child was hale and loud, always hungry and slept well (2). On her seventh day, Jarang and Inanna called all their kin together for a great feast. The parents sacrificed their finest bull to complete Orlanth s Bloodline Rites. Jarang founded his bloodline with his tiny daughter. He named her Theya, Queen of Beginnings.
Inanna and Jarang had two more children, sons they called Utag and Illig.
Utag came forth kicking and bawling, but soon settled down to become
a most agreeable child. But at Illig's birth the Snows took their revenge
on Inanna Kaelisdotir (3). While Orlanth sent fierce winds to celebrate
Illig's arrival, Drift Snow quietly gathered deep on the land. Before
Jarang
knew it, Snow was too deep for a healer to come to the little stead beyond
Backford.
The baby heard Snow howl and was afraid to come out. He twisted sideways. He braced firmly inside his warm mother. By morning, Innana's blood filled the lonely stead. Innana weakly told Jarang what he must do. Although Jarang was afraid of women s magic, he gently cut into Inanna. Theya had listened well to her grandmothers, so she made up a little prayer to Enina, goddess of births. After a few moments Jarang pulled out the child, who screamed in protest. Theya made a nother prayer to the GreatMother, one to forgive her new brother his stubbornness. Then she closed her mother's eyes.
Theya Leikasdottir
Jarang could not care for an infant and two small children by himself, even though little Theya was helpful far beyond her years. He soon made a year-marraige with Leika Spiritspeaker, known to most as Leika the Herbalist. She was an earth-spirit woman from Kitori lands. She had travelled to Backford to talk to Mountains. Once Leika moved in with Jarang, she soon had her fill of Mountains, who really don't have much to say (4). Within the year her son Svarr was born. He was small and dark, like his mother, but had a wildness about him. As he grew to manhood, Svarr spent so much time hunting and herding on the mountain slopes that folk said Leika must have done more than talk with the mountain spirits! It might have been so, for after she stopped talking to Mountains,
Leika had no more children.
Thereafter, Leika and Jarang renewed their marraige at every new year Dawn Festival. While Jarang taught his sons the obvious things that men know, Leika taught Theya the secret things - the powerful things - that only women know. Theya learned to taste the soil, listen to the animals, and read the hidden feelings of her own folk. Leika taught her daughter (5) how to treat sickness and injuries, how to make medecines from plants, and how to feel the spirits in all things. Theya and her brothers grew healthy and clever at Leikashearth (6).
Theya met the Challenge of the Ancient Mothers with all the other girls born between the Shattered Tree Storm and the Year of the Red Calves. Leika had taught her daughter well, and the Earthspirits sent signs of great strength for Theya. Inanna's death still haunted Theya, so listened well to Graunin LifeBringer, Earthmother of the Jungardi. At her breast, Theya learned magics to befriend healing and earth spirits. Morwenna Blood-Axe even taught Theya to wield an axe in defense of the hearth. Theya loved to learn, and was content to divide her time between the Mother-Shrine, her mother's hearth, and her father's fields.
A young man from near to Jonstown took a great interest in Theya. His name was Fasor Urmanson. His clan rode horses and followed the path of faithful Elmal. Fasor was a wild and boastful youth, but he had a kind heart and a quick wit. He would often pretend to visit the Mother-Shrine near Backford on some errand or other. There he would wait for Theya to finish her lessons, and then take her riding on his horse. Fasor asked Theya to be his year wife, but Theya refused to trade her learning for the hard work of tending her own hearth. Instead, she and Fasor had a love-child. Her name was Kaelis, after her grandmother (7). Although Leika sometimes complained of the extra-work, she was very happy to have another child at her hearth. Sometimes she claimed she had two, for Fasor was often there.
The Metal - Clad Stranger
There came to Jaragstead came a greedy and cruel stranger from the south. He knew only war, and so he could not found his own stead. The warrior coveted the lush fields of the Jungardi. This man, whom we will not honor by remembering his name, preyed on the pride of Jungardi clan. He manipulated the lawspeakers into giving him lands which he had not nutured. When he could no longer win legal arguments, he and his robbers took to raiding the hearths of the Jungardi. This warrior hoped to intimidate the carls into abandoning the moots completely. The Stranger and his men all fought from big horses and covered themselves in metal. The earthly folk of the Jungardi could not hope to defeat him with force.
The metal-clad Stranger came to Leikashearth one morning while all but Leika were away. His thugs tried to set fire to the barn, wreck the stead, and break the hearth stone. In a rage, Leika took her axe to the Stranger. He cut her down dead with his sword, and him twice her size! As the Stranger stepped back from her body, Jarang and his children returned from checking on the ewes afield with their lambs. They set upon the strangers and drove them off. Jarang was grieviously injured. His wound never did heal completely, because he secretly never forgave himself for not arriving in time to save Leika. Leika s children buried her next to Inanna, under the large yew tree that grew next to the stead.
Jarang appealed to the moot for justice, but the Stranger s lawspeaker twisted the laws of Heort against the honest carl. Jarang tried to rally support for his claim, but Leika had no local kin, and all the Jungardi carls were too afraid of the strangers. Denied justice through the clan, Jarang swore his family to bloodfeud with the Stranger. Theya began to plan vengence in her own way.
The following year the Stranger killed Clan-chief Rostakos, several thanes,
and Kjarten-Stone, Jarang s older brother. Outraged, Graunin EarthMother
and the remaining thanes of the Jungardi appealed to Venharl, King of the
metal-clad Hendreiki. Venharl s idea of justice was to replace one
stranger-
tyrant with another. He said that the tyrants wouldn t be so terrible if
the folk
paid them chief-tribute. The moot, now made up of many mothers, voted to
accept the new chief. They knew that even a metal-chief was better than a
constant and unwinnable war.
Jarang s family anounced at the moot that they refused to pay tribute to
murderers.
They would leave their mothers lands near Backford. They would go to tame
new lands in the north. A few other families agreed to travel with Jarang,
prefering wild forest to tyrants. Fasor s family stayed, and he with them.
While her brothers prepared the livestock to travel, Theya packed up the hearth (8) and loaded it into a wagon. She made a nest for little Kaelis in
the wagon, between Inanna s hearthstone and Leika s goose feather quilts. But before that wagon rolled out of Jarangstead, Theya Two-Mothers took her revenge on the metal-clad Stranger.
1- avalanches
2 - Ernaldans take great stock in the behavior of babies as portends for
future character.
3 - Kaelis is actually Inanna s grandmother, but she is called Kaelisdotir
here to remind the listener of connection to her famous ancestor.
4 - mountain spirits view things in long-time, and are notoriously slow to
answer.
5 - Unless a legal matter, the Heortlings do not distinguish between full
and step-kin.
6 - Sometimes a woman s hearth is referred to seperately from a man s stead.
While "Jarangstead" refers to the house, outbuildings, worked land,
livestock,
and all tenants, "Leikashearth" refers only to the main house and any folk
who
regularly eat there.
7 - "grandmother" refers to any female ancestor - no matter how far back.
8 - Here "hearth" refers to all the household belongings - everything
necessary to make a new one.
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