discussion on pre- time

From: PHILN_at_edsug.com
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 09:03:06 -0700 (PDT)

I have been following the discussion on the nature of 'pre-time' with interest. I tend to agree with Loren Miller's view that
'before the dawn' etc refer to something outside time rather than
before time. IMHO 'pre-time' is purely a description of that mythic realm in which the tales of the gods occur. In this realm, there are stories which cause many of the basics of daily life. In other stories, these occur in the background. Their rationale is part of a different story. For example, in all of recorded history and
'all' stories of 'pre-time' days dawn and people die, yet there are
stories in which acts occur which are the primary cause of the dawn and death. The difference between 'pre-time' and 'history' is that if there are stories of 'young' orlanth in which he rises at dawn, which could be considered as occuring 'before' he kills Yelm, this is not a problem 'pre-time'.

One of the joys and problems of Glorantha is that this mythic realm is 'True' in a way that it isn't for most of us in reality. Also, the boundary between time and pre-time is blurred and some things that occurred 'pre-time' also occurred in time (indeed in the nature of things events drift from time to 'pre_time'). The Dara Happans have a longer recorded history, so more things that occurred 'pre-time' for others can be equated to events that occurred within time to them.

Genealogies that go back into 'pre-time' are extremely common in RW sources (look at the number of medieaval scandinavian genealogies starting with the gods or various welsh princes' descent from Brutus). The habit of inserting convenient people/beings into your family tree or merely stretching it to be more interesting is extremely ancient. It is a poor chieftain whose great-great-great-...... grandfather wasn't closely related to Orlanth. It is fortunate that the Godi are so good at tracing these links.

• - Phil

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