the necessity of Big Shoes

From: David Cake <davidc_at_cyllene.uwa.edu.au>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 11:39:10 +0800


Peter pertinently quotes one of Orlanths techniques
>KoS p70 'Orlanth strode into its mouth and seized the upper jaw

> with his hands and place his foot against its lower jaw,
> and with a shout of victory tore the dragon asunder'.
Hmmmm.... Greg probably cribbed this from the Norse Ragnarok, where
silent Vidarr eventually kills Fenris by this very method (after Fenris has eaten Odin, IIRC). In the Norse myth, the two essential heroic elements that the god Vidarr has are
a) being very very strong, obviously
and
b) the Big Shoe. Vidarr has a magic shoe made out of all the little leather offcuts that cobblers throw away, which prevents Fenris from hurting his feet or lifting his jaw while this manouver is in progress. Wonder how Orlanth manages it, wearing only sandals? Or perhaps he has special footware for dragon fighting, the Big Docs or similar.

        Just thought you'd all like to know.

        Cheers

                David


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