Re: Hour insights

From: trentfs_at_ix.netcom.com
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 16:31:09 -0500

Keith N. wrote:
>I am opposed to the systematic labelling of anything by Heortlings. It is too
>Dara Happan, too systematic, too orderly. No one can make me get up at
>Barntar's hour!
>Also, being more poetic I think there may be lots of allusions to the time of
>day but no specifics.

It seems to me that giving each part of the day a name is much closer to the latter (allusion) than the former (system). Sure, in more 'civilized' regions they'd probably have a strict 1:1 relationship of names to hours, but for most Heortlings these hour-designations would be very fluid and fuzzy (which Mike Dawson's original post specifically mentioned).

Greg Stafford wrote:
>>6 PM Hour of Rausa (duh)
>The length of the day changes according to the season.

Any system of naming hours like this is presumably going to include Dusk and Dawn. To reconcile this with the changing seasons I suggest something like this: 'temporary' hours added to night during the 'winter' seasons and to day during the 'summer.' These movable hours would be named for tribal heroes -- nighttime heroes those who were active pre-Dawn, daytime heroes those active since the Dawning. Different areas (and eras) would have different names for these hours, depending on which heroes are more venerated.

Anyway,

Trent Smith

P.S. Nice to see Greg contributing to the Digest. I don't suppose there's any chance of luring Sandy Petersen back?

---