Could someone please point me to the sources of information on=20 initiation in Heortling society? (Also, is there an overall index for=20 the Gloranthan literature? Are there supplementary indexes available=20 for the books or boxed sets that don't have their own indices? Is this=20 a niche waiting for someone to claim it?)
I'm particularly interested in when initiation happens and how the=20 initiands' lives change from before to after.=20
=46rom his timeline of life events, Minaryth Purple seems to have been=20 initiated at about 14. Was this early, or just part of a "16 +- 2yrs"=20 curve?
I've seen some comments about second initiation -- as in Bryan's=20 response to one of our questions on the Heroquest-RPG list about the=20 education of women -- but I haven't managed to track down any more=20 information about first and second initiations. If there are two,=20 what's the difference between them and what's the status of people=20 between first and second initiation?
I also remember a comment somewhere -- maybe in John Hughes' writings --=20 about the wrongness of boys who hadn't been iniitated bearing weapons.=20 If I extrapolate this to women I find myself with either a conundrum or=20 a cultural difference. I find it difficult to imagine that a normal=20 Heortling 8-year-old girl can't use a drop-spindle or help her aunts=20 weave the starting bands for warping the loom. Is weaving instead a=20
"woman's mystery", not taught until after initiation? Do children under=20 the protection of Voria and Voriof have distinct gender roles? Children=20 in this society are likely to be economically useful from an early age,=20 and they won't all be shepherding or picking flowers: what restrictions=20do you think there should be on what they can do?
Cheers,
Jennifer Geard
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