sundials, rain and ralzakark

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Sun, 09 Feb 1997 00:06:25 +1300


V S Greene:

[Posited that the Solars don't use Sun dials as it reminds them of Yelm's binding into time and the loss of the Golden Age.]

Me>> What do you mean? Only the ignorants believe that Yelm is bound into
>> time. Civilized people know that Yelm rules over the Underworld (which
>> he conquered fair and square BTW) as well as the Inner World and the
>> Heavens and moves around so that he can balance his commitments.
  

> Hmm, my God Learner leanings creep out again. What can I say, I
>like the Jrusteli Monomyth and assume it to be as close to objective
>"truth" as is possible in Glorantha.

The trouble is that when you use the Monomyth to posit that some people don't have a perfectly feasible invention or that they believe in a myth which makes their god second best compared to some foreign God, then you are taking the monomyth too far IMO. Remember it is what the God Learners created after researching whatever myths they could find and is not believed in every detail by most people. Look at the Orlanthi tales about Umath in KoS compared to what is written about him in the God Learner PoV in Wyrms Footprints. The God Learners make him out to be an absolute villian who destroyed the Golden Age whereas the Orlanthi know that he destroyed an age of unchanging tyranny. So why should the Solars believe that Yelm is bound in time?

> I gather that Yelmite legends have a rather different
>viewpoint as to what happened at the beginning of Time?

Assuredly they do. They believe that the Last Rebel (Orlanth) sacrificed himself so that Yelm may live again. Then Yelm set Orlanth out into the world again to prepare the Southern Barbarians for his Glorious ReAscent. Naturally Orlanth forgot what he had done and so his people knew not their proper place in life and still cause trouble to this day. The southpaws claim that they should be allowed to live in peace by means of a document which they call the Cosmic Compromise. Divinations to Yelm have revealed that Orlanth is merely deluding himself on the nature of his surrender to Yelm's Will.

Pam Carlson:


>Joerg mentions again that the Heartlands are dry in the summer, implying
>that there's no rain, presumeably because Yelm shines all the time.

Methought the rain came in spring and autumn?

Philip Hibbs:


>So : three heroes (Arkat, Balarzak and Hardral) enter
>Dorastor, meet an untimely demise ( Arkat is the possible exception
>here) and up pops Ral-zak-ark...

The only problem is that Ralzakark is said to have known Nysalor personally. Although he could be lying. Or the Arkat part could be Arkat the Deciever aka Krjalkiarkat who did know Gbaji personally.

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