Re: Tulas: Confusing Terminologies & A Modest Proposal

From: David Dunham <david_at_...>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 20:49:51 -0800


John

> TULA: the area enclosed within a stead's boundary stones, and set each year
> in the boundary walking ritual. Includes the harstings and some wilds.

> CLANDS: a term first used by Mikael Raaterova, to denote the totality of a
> clan's land enclosed by boundary stones: the clan tula if you will.

Why do we need two words for the same thing? We already have one confusing word, let's not add another.

(I seem to recall that we discussed whether to even use the word "tula" in King of Dragon Pass; we kept it because the definition seemed pretty clear in context, and because it was a term of real meaning that didn't have any English language synonyms.)

Mikael

> A clarification: I use "Cland" to denote all the land encompassed by all
> the tulas of the clan, and the wilds/ non-stead-claimed lands between the
> tulas of the clan. E.g. the unclaimed lands/wilds between Thunderoak Stead
> (a "perimeter" stead) and Bloodbirch Stead (a "central" stead ) are part
> of the Cland. Unclaimed lands beyond Thunderoak are not part of the Cland,
> even though the hunters of Thunderoak hunt there.

I'm confused. I believe a clan has only one tula: the entirety of its land (which is enclosed in boundary stones).

My general rule is: the fewer exotic terms, the better. Undoubtedly the Heortlings use lots of specialized terms, but they grow up hearing them. We're not Heortlings, and more than one or two bits of exotic color just gets confusing.

-- 

David Dunham   <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html>
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein

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