Arkat the Arkat

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Fri, 07 Jun 1996 10:02:21 +1200


Andrew Behan:

[I had pointed out that Arkat manifested the Pethora of Forms at his initiation into Kyger Litor]

>The plethora of forms is an obvious clue that Arkat is a (Godlearner?)
>mythic construct not a real historical figure.

Um, I find this thesis difficult to grok as it comes from an eyewitness testimony. I doubt that an troll would place mythic construction with what he had seen or heard. Yes, the Uz do have contradictory myths about Arkat but note that several other people were initatied with him and were called Arkat's tools and sometimes a myth about Arkat refers to them.

If Arkat was a conflation of several Heroes, then we are left with the question of why those Heroes are so successful. How did Arkat Kingtroll sneak into Zzabur's castle and steal the Secret of Sorcery for Uz if he didn't have prior knowledge of what the mythic landscape of Brithos was like? Where did the Hero that Harmast rescued come from if he wasn't the Hero who purged Ralios of the Deciever?

End of Glorantha Digest V2 #627


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