Bows: while the point has been made that Elmal and Orlanth don't get on all that well, I'm not convinced that Elmal and Vinga get on any better. Definitely not enough to give Vingans more access to bows than male Orlanthi, anyway.
I did like the idea, though, that Orlanth's defeat of Yelm led Orlanthi to see a bow as a quick way of losing a fight. Mythically sound but practically stupid: yep, that's the Orlanthi! The Vingans wouldn't be any brighter, but Vinga never had such a resounding victory over a bowwielding opponent, either. (Unless someone writes one. Please don't.)
Thomas notes in passing that the RoC Orlanth write-up gives him nothing from Elmal. Unless I'm misremembering my RQ history, Elmal hadn't been invented when RoC was written, had he? Any old-timers want to correct me? Both events were before I was into Glorantha, so I'm not too sure of the order.
And my apologies to Joerg. How could I possibly have forgotten Jorganos the Archer? Quite how we have Jorganos (a human hero) teaching archery to Vinga (a goddess) without admitting that Vinga was also a human hero, and contemporary with/younger than Jorganos, is another matter, but one I can have a lot of fun playing with. Where did Jorganos get his weapon? Take that story, ascribe his feats to Vinga, and there you go. Very unfair on Jorganos' legend, but that's myths for you.
Similarly ascribing Vinga's skill with horses to the Red Women learning from their father Berenneth will mean back-dating the tuition a bit. Vinga must have learnt it from whoever Berenneth worshipped: Elmal? Not Hyalor, as he again is a hero, not a deity and can't possibly have taught things to a goddess. Never mind reality, feel the drama!
Jane Williams jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/
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