>In particular I feel that most of you believe that myths have some sort
>of resistance to change, though you accept that they _can_ be changed
>and therefore cannot ever be considered to provide _proof_ of past
>events (Uz Lore in A-H Trollpak makes a statement to the contrary at
the
>bottom of p.8 - which I'm ignoring at present 'cos I think it's a
>mistake).
That depends on your definition of proof. Most gloranthan would say that if you can carry out a heroquest, and you succeed, and then demonstrate powers which were gained as a result then obviously the quest must be true. What other test of proof is meaningful?
Note I do not mean true in a historic sense. As I have said earlier, I do not believe that heroquests are history per se, they are myth. Few gloranthans would understand the difference though and even fewer would care about it.
>[ I draw your attention to the fact that they are re-enacting an old
>myth rather than trying to create a new one. How important is their
>accuracy in determining their success? ]
The more accurate their recreation of it is, the greater their chances of success, unless they can discover or invent new ways to complete the quest, in which case they have discovered a new version of the quest. Even if they did create a new version of the quest, if they then discovered ancient texts that described the orriginal quest and then carried it out it would still work. Both quests would now work, and both would be true.
You seem to be applying the term 'truth' as a test of historical accuracy, which is not necesserily relevent.
In the above case, we now have two lion killing quests. Both quests were established by heroes who successfuly killed a lion. Both are in fact historicaly true in some sense.
To make a quest untrue would require breaking the quest to the point that it could nolonger be performed. This is possible, but difficult. A basmoli heroquester might discover a new way of fighting and use it to stop (for example) praxian heroquesters from completing their lion killing quest. If he was successful enough and tought his followers the technique too then he may be able to break the praxian's belief in their myth. It would be tough, he would have to unite all the basmoli behind him and would have to defeat the praxian's most powerfull lion-killing heroquesters, but I suppose it could be done. The tricky part is discovering a technique or magic power that would give the basmoli the edge. Just completing the quest once and avoiding being killed by a praxian hero is not enough.
Simon Hibbs
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #648
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