> I like the notion that the Spike is a God Learner construct. It seems very
> Monomythic to me. (Mind you, I'm still rather enamored of the Monomyth, but
> it makes more sense to me as a conflation of all the"local" World
> Mountains".)
hmmmm ... my own God Learner perspective tells me that the answer to any either/or question in Gloranthan Cosmology is "yes" ;)
It's certainly a fact that the GLs conflated a great number of cosmic mountain stories from various mythologies with "The" Cosmic Mountain of the Inner World, ie The Spike -- but it's just as true that such a singular mountain did in fact physically exist in an earlier period of the Inner World.
The GLs both wrongfully assumed and consciously promoted the idea that all cosmic mountain stories were stories of The Spike -- this is because they wished to impose their own monotheistic theological and sorcerous methods, where singular Runes and Powers are the clear Source of Everything, into the cultures and myths of Everyone.
So, "The" Cosmic Mountain was "The" Source of all cosmic mountain stories. This was wrong, but it was required of their magical methods, and the related magic *worked*.
It is however entirely unnecessary that every cosmic mountain myth should be a myth about the Spike.
> If that's true, however, them we don't know what catastrophic
> event created Magasta's Pool. Do myths of The Spike occur in the same
> mythologies, as Magasta's Pool? Or are they only associated in GL sources?
> Offhand, I can't remember if any of the Sea Pantheons have a Spike myth.
The origin of Magasta's Pool is a Spike myth, and is a part of merman mythology.
The existence of these God Learner conflations do not prevent the Spike from having been a physical reality of the Gloranthan Godtime.
---
Concerning "dating", using GRAoY for that purpose is a bit of a blunt instrument, first and foremost for reasons already provided by Peter ; but more deeply because GRAoY does not concern itself with the Spike, as this Mountain was not located in ancient Dara Happa... :-)
Various magical catastrophes described in that Work *could* potentially be linked with the destruction of "The" Cosmic Mountain ; which is of course _exactly_ what the GLs did themselves ; but there is no reason to suppose that any such links to external, non-Dara Happan histories and myths should be fully relevant to the traditional DH timelines, nor to simply assume that such and such individual catastrophe in DH mythology should have been even *caused* by the destruction of the Spike.
"Various cosmic destructions occurred in Godtime, providing various magical catastrophes," as a completely vague generalisation, is probably the closest that you can get to any kind of general truth in this affair ;)
Julian Lord
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