> .... Elmal defended his people throughout the ordeal and
> was present at the Compromise. Afterwards, as the terms of the
Compromise
> required, he divided his time between the world of the living and
the world
> of the dead. Thus he now beats the boundaries of Orlanth's realm,
riding
> patrol by circling the Middle World through the Upper and Lower
worlds.
True, but he did stay behind and defend the stead while Orlanth was away. I interpret that to mean that he was a light in the darkness, and so even though he is the sun and descends into the underworld at night, he must still light the darkness somehow.
> One other point: the Orlanthi myths initially consider Yelm to be
the
> Emperor, not the Sun. The confounding of Heortling and Dara Happan
myths
> during their short period of unification (under Nysalor) required
some
> compromise and an understanding of the unifying nature of apparently
> conflicting mythologies. The unified nature has continued to
confound
> subsequent practitioners who are unable to understand how the sun
can be
> two separate beings at the same time.
Which is what I'm trying to get to grips with. Which is why I worded my previous post on this so carefully. The Evil Emperor was king of the Fire Tribe, and with his death persumably the fire of the sun was diminished - is that the torch that Orlanth finds in the underworld? (Among other things, his moment of illumination for example. Also he finds light/fire in the same way that Humakt found death, and light is the death of the trolls, so for them Orlanth is a bringer of death just like Zorak Zoran as mentioned in a seperate thread, etc, etc.)
Lots of mythic cross-references and meaty symbolism to get our heroquesting teeth into.
Simon Hibbs
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