Re: Shared Violence == Uz Humor from David Weihe on 1997-01-14 (Glorantha Digest Vol 04)

From: David Weihe <weihe_at_gsidanet.danet.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 97 19:36:26 EST

I have to agree with the recent idea that with Uz, violence builds social bonds the way that humor does in Human societies. I think it quite reasonable given the usual description of trolls as cruel. Specifically, shared violence is the Uz version of a joke. Thus, to defuse a situation, the lesser Uz finds something that she/he and the greater Uz can beat up together. It might be a shared foe, it might be a big animal for a shared feast, or it might be a scapegoat such as the relative that convinced the weaker Uz that it shouldn't have just surrendered to the stronger, or just some of the weaker side's food quality trollkin.

The Uz Trickster might be the best at finding these alternate targets, or she/he might have the power of Punching Bag, where she/he can get smashed about like a WarnerBros cartoon character, without suffering permanent harm. This way peace is kept between two groups, who might otherwise turn on each other.

This certainly fits in with the behavior of the trolls that I knew in second grade. Day One of the school year, they would look around. Day Two, they would try to beat each other up. Day Three, they would find me. Day Four, they would be fast friends, taking turns at seeing how fast they could get me into a fetal position.

Thus what humans think is Uz humor is just them thinking of new ways to eat the humans involved. More "civilized" trolls will keep these thoughts at the level of pure imagination, rather than actions. In the drinking scenario from SkyFall Lake, the trolls are really chuckling about how they could get the humans to kill and marinate themselves in one step if they wanted. The betting on bizarre effects is just the part of the joke that is vocalized in the Human hearing range.