Sheep and such

From: Mr. Tines <tines_at_windsong.demon.co.uk>
Date: 17 Nov 1997 19:21 +0000


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This is intended to be a final statement about the whole sorry Sartar mess. Remember, you can ignore me. Lots of people do.

**

It may be something cultural (he says, recalling those bizarre Westerns that involved sheep farmers vs cattle herders), but I suspect that the SFC are underestimating the importance of sheep and the shepherd. Or it may be as simple as thinking too much "the boy who cried 'Wolf!'" and not enough 23rd Psalm.

One of the bonuses of playing RPGs is that they give an excuse for omnivorous assimilation of information on a whole raft of subjects. However, at the moment I have neither the time nor the particular inclination to research and write a definitive paper (rather than relying on general and anecdotal background knowledge) on crofting, hillfarming and the importance of the wool trade in Britain AD500-1500, so I will recommend this exercise to those who do.

I will note that while a young boy might well be qualified to holler "Wolf!", he is unlikely (short of liberal application of the sheep shagger's favourite spell, "Hold Sheep"[*]) to be able to shear the damn things. And that is where the wealth is for a farmer in hilly country that won't take to the plough. There is a very good reason why the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons is called the Woolsack.

With a kitchen garden yielding a good supply of taters for a family being small enough that it can be dug, and the promise of wool to clothe them and trade on, what need for cattle? Come lambing season, there will be more than enough for all the family to be doing : not just the youngest boy.

[*] Although the average Sartarite may be wearing a kilt, he is unlikely to be wearing wellies...

**

In personal mail, David Dunham wished to quibble jargon vis a vis Babsi.

I will note for the record that the type of involvement I was describing will certainly not rate the individuals involved as epopts or mystes; but at least as neophytes.

**

The following may well show the malign influence of that notorious God Learner, Robert Graves, and you are all at liberty to ignore it. And while I'm confessing influences, I might as well ask that several dozen books out of the Women's Press SF range, and the Blve Oyster Cvlt track _Vengeance : the Pact_ should be taken into consideration...

Clearly the Six Earths are an expression of the Triune Goddess (Maid, Mother and Crone), in both benign and malign expressions. Thus I personally find it not to be satisfying to contemplate the drastic sundering of the two aspects of the Maid into the preschool playgroup spirit and the battered wives' revenge club. OK that may slightly exaggerate the distinction that seems to have been made by other posters, but in degree only, rather than in kind.

Although it is entirely possible that more recent sources that have escaped my ken modify this, the bulk of the published description of the two appears in the material in Wyms Footprints on pp52-3, in which it is made clear that there is a strong connection between the two; and this is not modified by any side-bars containing more recent information on this subject. This seemed an aspect too good to miss out on exploring, because it was something that made the culture different and distinctive.

Perhaps I'm just being blase because I can see more survivals (or revivals) of folk ways as a matter of course in this country.

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