>For example, the Heortling
>Goddess Ernalda has a bunch of myths of the form "Then Ernalda pulled
>some complicated ritual out of nowhere to [call back Esrola | make
>Orlanth King | whatever]." Do Ernalda worshippers just skip
>heroquesting altogether, do they have other myths more amenable to
>heroquesting, or is there some way to make a heroquest out of these
>"and then a miracle happens" kinds of myths?
For one thing, I suspect that these "Ernalda pulled a ritual out of her hat" myths are told from the masculine point of view. Take the Making of the Storm Tribe, for instance. From the standard Orlanthi perspective, it's all about Orlanth travelling around making deals with people. Then they all returns home, Ernalda gives him some royal regalia and then trolls attack, forcing everyone to cooperate. What the basic myth doesn't cover is what Ernalda had to go through to get that regalia... and how she fooled or persuaded the trolls to attack at just the right moment, without revealing to Orlanth or his thanes what she was doing...
I'll suggest a few themes for Ernaldan-style heroquests (playing on the Heortling stereotype of femininity):
They will often revolve around social skills rather than physical action. The questor must inspire, comfort, advise or chide allies, and threaten, mollify, persuade, seduce or intimidate opponents.
They may often require forethought and careful planning, perhaps with actions at one station of the quest having a major impact much later on. Also, the questor's success may depend on her persuading another to act, rather than acting herself.
The questor may often be required to remain passive while enduring some outside danger, rather than actively seeking out the danger. (As an example, the Uralda quest in KoDP. Uralda must survive several attacks by predators before reaching safety - but is unable to do anything to fight them. She can only try to withstand the pain).
In some cases, the questor may be required to change herself - her physical body, her thoughts, her emotions, her understandings etc - in response to outside stimuli, rather than attempting to impose her own changes on the outside world. The change to herself is the reward she brings back from the quest. (The fertility/birth metaphor should hopefully be obvious here).
It also seems to be a standard theme of Heortling women's myths that they don't tell the men what's going on... so to go back to the Making of the Storm Tribe, Ernalda doesn't tell her husband all the trials and tribulations she went through to get that regalia - she just stands back and lets him boast about his own exploits.
Stephen
Powered by hypermail