On Friday 23 December 2005 8:35 pm, donald_at_... wrote:
> Isn't this the trouble, pretty much all the published stuff is
> highly sexist. It's all Orlanth did this, this happened to Orlanth,
> etc. We don't know what Ernalda is doing except for when it
> impacts on Orlanth and even then he takes the credit.
All very true. Not only that, we know very little about the myths and relationships outside of Sartar, even. (Other Orlanthi areas seem to have slightly differing views.)
> I'm trying to get my head round Ernalda's view of all this and
> so far I've got the following fragments:
>
> 1. Ernalda's marriage to Orlanth was a myth shaking event. It was
> the first time a marriage was not arranged for the couple.
Really? What do you base that on? I haven't seen a thing about the other husband protectors. Were those all arranged? And when was Orlanth in another arranged marriage?
> 2. "Before" that marriage Ernalda had many husband/protectors of
> which Orlanth was one. It may well be that they should be
> called lover/protectors instead.
I suspect that in the case of Sartarite mythology, it is possible they are lover/protectors and are considered part of her young woman phase, before her marriage. (IIRC, both women and men in Heortling society are fairly free to take lovers before marriage.)
> 3. "Before" that marriage Ernalda also placed greater reliance
> on the various Gori as "Guardians of the Earth".
Hmmm.. I'm not so sure. Why are the husbands/lovers referred to as protectors? Either all of them help take over the Guardian of the Earth thing, or they don't. Also, doesn't Babeester Gor show up after Ernalda sleeps/dies? I am not sure when the other Gori show up, mind you.
> 4. In Esrolia this marriage is downplayed as being equal to the
> others. It has been mythically proved that it is more at some
> stage but there are many in Esrolia who don't accept that and
> would HQ to change it.
Mythically proved by who? The only mythical proof we have of that would seem to be that Ernalda is forced to sleep when Orlanth dies. Now, since she doesn't have to sleep in Tarsh (although that might just be due to distance from the effect) it seems disputable. What about the other times Orlanth died? (ISTR him dying before.)
> 5. It is the special nature of this marriage that has made
> Ernalda vunerable to Orlanth's fate.
If it is a special marriage, then yes, that makes sense.
> 6. Tarsh is a big problem, to what extent can the Lunar priestess's
> compensate for Ernalda sleeping? Probably where Hon-Eel has
> persuaded them to grow Maize they are OK. Those who still
> follow Ernalda are going to suffer.
Except I think Tarsh is spared.
> 7. Many of the other events that cause Orlanth's death and Ernalda's
> sleep are primarily related to the earth - I'm sure one of them
> involves the Maran Gori at Wintertop.
That's interesting. Some massive hit on the Shaker Temple?
> So basically we've got half the story - the Storm half and we're
> missing the Earth half.
This is agreed.
LC
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