Re: Varnatol the Duntarl (was Deep, not popular)

From: Michael Hitchens <michaelh_at_RKQlV2YYpBdZRoygYqpPIbJpAAbhiqEC6ydeZco-vS02lzQn_Ge_ZbBbQtmztGx6ZMh>
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:21:42 +1000 (EST)


On Wed, 11 Apr 2007, Joerg Baumgartner wrote:

> All that KoS business, and all I can do is try to catch up...
>
> Jane Williams
>
>> What gets left out of CHDP is odd. We have a battle
>> which was "a total disaster for Argrath" left in, for
>> instance. Wasn't he present at some battle commanded
>> by Broyan, too? So why the bias against being shown
>> working for Kallyr? Well, if he'd once sworn loyalty
>> to her: and then arranged for her murder? That's
>> really bad. That's oath-breaking. If it wasn't for
>> that, you could fill the description up with "and then
>> Kallyr had no idea what to do, so her advisors,
>> including Argrath, told her to..."
>
> All the time you assume that CHDP was written for Argrath. It wasn't, at
> least not directly. It was written for a Grazer turntail chieftain named
> Varnatol the Duntarl who happened to rise to power when a previous,
> Sartar-friendly Grazer King was captured by the Lunars.
>
> Why leave that disastrous battle in? My guess: Because Varnatol was in
> there, on the winning side. Later on he decided to quit company with his
> former allies (no idea away from my sources whether this included his king
> or whether his king led him to do so), and fought for Argrath (that charge
> against the aldryami archers...).
>
> CHDP was intended to make the presenter of the book look good to the king.

And this is what I mean about us trying to be historians (not in a bad way, miond). This is exactly one of things that historians do - attempt to evaluate the motives of the authors. If they could come up with definitive answers they would find them and be out of a job :-)

We can;t hpope to do better then them

Keeps it entertaining though.

Michael



Dr. Michael Hitchens
Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing Macquarie University
michaelh_at_KbrG2jzjgMZSfkjLpaDb0b0Qtu3atQbCs2nCOovLGtxOdFGaZ38BdyMDBJEnPV4eJeWjJmZuYZP7xMTUfQU.yahoo.invalid            

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