Ignore this Post! One Vinga, Many Vinga

From: Hughes, John (NAT) <"Hughes,>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 09:55:44 +1100


Heys Folks

The mysterious bjm10_at_cornell.edu didst carve the runes thusly:

  > > Since Greg said at a lore auction (in Australia as I recall) that   > > Vinga is the daughter of Orlanth and Ernalda, my myth says so too.

> Everything Greg says is wrong. He has said so, himself.

Agreed, including that actual statement. In a past life Greg was a Cretan Liar.

It doesn't seem far-fetched to that there are several different versions of the Vinga myth, and several different manifestations of the 'cult'. At the bright centre of the universe (Sartar and the Far Place, natch) some tribes recognise Vinga as a mortal hero from the time of Vinglot, some as divine, a daughter of Orlanth AllFather and Ernalda, or Orlanth and 'another goddess'. In far off, backward places like Saird or Ralios they might have different ideas, but we've all heard stories about the things they do down *there*, and so pay no attention. Some don't accord Vinga much account at all, and remember her only in storytelling round the hearth fire. Some worship her in the womens' circle, some in a shrine, some at one of her (several) grave sites. Some tribes accord her a place on the Ring, others name her as an earth protector.

For my two clacks and a greased enlo, this indicates that the 'cult' of Vinga is only rarely a formal cult at all, but mainly a series of half-remembered and half-forgotten tribal traditions, traditions gaining greater structure and universality by the invasion of Sartar, the impending Hero Wars, and (significantly) by Starbrow's tremendous fiddling of the Vinga paths on the Heroplane.
The only universal seems to be that widows call on Vinga when they seek vengence.

Structural theories of myth state that myths undergo surface transformation, with gods and deads and events seeming changing endlessly, but that the underlying structural oppositions, relationships and mediations remain constant. Vinga seems a good example of this.

Vinga is important to me because she is a popular goddess that grew out of nowhere, a goddess shaped and moulded by the gaming and mythic needs of Gloranthan *players* rather than by Greg's vision, a popular goddess who serves [perhaps subconsciously] as a corrective to perceived imbalances in the Orlanthi gaming universe. She is [ahem] a people's goddess, a player's goddess, and because of this 'official' explanations and histories will always take second place. [Grins, ducks, prepares for incoming].

My own campaign uses the idea of vingans as Scatach-like teachers of young men as well as protectors of women. Everyone has their own insight and version. Ain't it great?

John

"Out of the south she came, twice warned and thrice blessed, this vingan called Cradledaughter, a woman proud and terrible, strange in dress and harsh in voice, rich in laughter and poor in giving praise. Henna-hallowed her hair, spun with knotted copper coins, proclamation to all of the Goddess she served. Shieldless she ranged, with a spear light as Elmal's touch, though it was bound even to the shaft in rune-wrought bronze. At her waist there hung a draw-wand of searing blue iron, pledge gift of the violence she carried like an unborn child." - A Rope of Cedarbark.


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