>"Priestesses of Ernalda also preside over the ritual with which any new
>child is welcomed into the clan. Unmentioned, because it is taken for
>granted, this ritual also cures the child of any congenital deformities...
<SNIP>
>Was that the sort of thing you were after?
Not really. I was more after things like:
IMO, the answers to these questions is found in myth and ritual. So what myths do we have that deal with these things?
>I'd add to that, that the HQ required of a candidate for Ernalda
>priestess-hood is an attempt to re-enact Ernalda's early fecundity. The
>standard account (written by a bloke!), that says giving birth to a
>healthy child is a prerequisite, is missing the point as usual: if the
>HQ is successful, a child will be born, with no need for a father. Of
>course, men try to play down this idea, since it tends to diminish their
>importance :)
This is very interesting, and also very true to myth: How many gods/godesses are not born without either parent, or wihtout any parents at all! However, I think that it is not such a common phenomenon in the world: IMO it would require quite unusual circumstances! But, as Glorantha does not follow RW laws of biology, who knows? What is really needed for a child to come into existance?
>I gather from scraps in KoS that "the Three" tend to make pronoucements
>at the child's birth: fate, geases, that kind of stuff. I've never yet
>managed to fit "the Three" into Orlanthi myth to my satisfaction: could
>they be three of the Earth goddesses? The three dark ones, who otherwise
>have no place in the child-birth cycle?
I envision that the mother and the newborn child are taken to the temple of the Dark Earth (or something similar: a cave perhaps?) and that the child is given a geas* by Ty Kora Tek, a prophecy or a ban about future prosperity by Asrelia and... something else by Barbeester Gor. But Asrelia is one of the Good Earth godesses... Hmm. Mixed 'em up, I did. But It fits so well with Ty Kora Tek and Asrelia as the fates!
*A celtic concept: a ban or a foreknowledge of sorts. Sometimes it is simply a ban ('Never refuse a fight.' 'Never tell your name to a stranger.'), the breaking of which means serious bad luck or even death. At other times it means that one will know how one shall die ('By a door.' 'Standing with one foot in water and the other on the back of a goat while under a roof without walls, holding a golden spear.')
Jon Thorvaldson
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