Garundyer

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 22:27:45 +1200


Nikk Effingham:
Me> > Orlanthi are not Icelanders.  Iceland is a desolate little

> > island in the North Atlantic where feuding clans are forced
> > to live with one another. Most Orlanthi live in lands where
> > the stronger can persuade the weaker to flee for their lives
> > at short notice to some distant land.

>What! The Orlanthi culture you have just described is exactly what
>Iceland is, or the end product at least - a group of people driven
>from their homelands to a distant land by Fairhair.

Wrong. Joerg was speaking of the people _of_ iceland settling their disputes. I am speaking of a people who have the ability to move their families around, something which the Icelanders did not have much of.

>Orlanthi are NOT
>Icelanders, correct, but certainly they have elements of their
>culture (i.e. weregeld, blood feuding etc...) to which Icelandic and
>related literature (i.e. Beowulf) make a great source

Since I have never denied that the Orlanthi have blood-feuding and weregilds, I fail to see the relevance of this passage.

> > Contrast this to Owain
> > who forgives Garundyer for some reason we can only guess at.

>The reason we can only guess at the interchange between Owain and
>Garundyer is merely because it hasn't been described yet.

Well, describe it then. It's something that needs to be fleshed out if your view of Garundyer is have any impact. Mere jottings about weapons lost & found tell us nothing about Garundyer.

> > name a Orlanthi feud settled in the manner of Owain
> > versus Garundyer.

>How can we? There isn't exactly an extensive and exhaustive list of
>sources for us to draw examples from. Usually we will instead find
>information on the feuds that led to death, destruction and mayhem
>because these are the ones more... notable in Gloranthan history.

And the particpants of these feuds are more likely to achieve heroic fame than those who settle their feuds peaceably and without any malice?

> > [Garundyer] could have killed or driven off the Telmori and the little
> > ones would have been safe.

>I think you're really pishing the boat out on that one - imagine a
>nine year old child - Hero or no Hero - facing insurmountable odds.

Given that Garundyer is the nearest thing we have to Cuchulainn the Orlanthi, I do find this sort of thing plausible for him. In Glorantha, child prodigies can do heroic deeds. Look at Harsaltar of Sartar (gravely wounds the Red Emperor at age 9) or Jar-Eel (climbing Boldhome at age 14). Cutting the Greatest Orlanthi Heroquester down to size merely because his feats cannot be duplicated for a nine year old using the RQ3 previous experience tables is counterproductive IMHO.

End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #587


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