>> Ok, the Goose Dance. "How Ernalda created the Goose Dance" that is.
>
>Much good stuff snipped - but it seems to me that you left out one
>important aspect. The geese. The one thing we know about this ritual
>is that there are geese involved. So we go and look up Geese - what
>real abilities do they have, what are they renowned for in fact or
>in myth, what Gloranthan associations do they have? (No, I haven't
>done this).
The RW myth/historical record I know of is that cages of geese were kept on the walls of Rome to warn of attack. At least once this worked and saved the city. This is based on the fact that if disturbed geese make a terrible racket as well as going for the intruders. The second fact is that they can be bloody dangerous even to humans - taking a nasty bite out of you with their beaks and breaking limbs with their wings.
So a suitable Gloranthan myth would be that during the darkness when the clan was pestered by the bad dogs Ernalda danced the Goose Dance to bring a reliable guard who could help fight off the dogs. So it's probably a myth well known by clans near the Grey Dogs.
Then there's the myth of the goose that laid the golden egg which has probably been hidden away by some Ty Kora Tek priestess.
>Now see how any of this relates to the problem the dance is
>supposed to solve. It may be along the lines of "look, I'm nothing
>like a goose", or "this is how we control geese", rather than "I'm
>a goose, I have goose-like skills".
Yes, Ernalda wouldn't be claiming goose skills. Though she might show up her husband for acting like a silly goose. A make menfolk look silly HQ.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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