Re: Spiking the spikes

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_fKHxFkL_20mXb-1sfkFTqK1R8AyzmQTel_r0sTiZUWkZG2VAdHISSZ5q55pU1q9Cywm>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:23:58 +1300

On 11/11/2010 9:48 AM, David Cake wrote:
> I think the Orlanthi Spike is the Spike. I think the role of
> The Spike and the role of KeroFin are very different in Orlanthi myth.
So how is it that Orlanth being born to Kerofin ends up in Dini/the Spike and has to migrate across previously unknown lands to find his mother? And what do the Orlanthi around Top of the World believe about the whole affair?

Yes, they are different but that is because they have different roles. Citadel the fortress of the Old Gods is always going to be different from the gentle mountain mother of Orlanth but then again the Sun appears differently in different myths and nobody argues there is more than one sun in the sky.

An alternative explanation for the Great Migration Downland might be that rather migrating through successive lands northwards (Mavorela, Envorela), the Orlanthi are misinterpreting different living patterns in time (from wandering nomads to settled steadholders) and embedded this misunderstanding in a pre-existing myth.

The main reason I'm so skeptical about the God Learner (and possibly Zzaburite) maps about the Spike in the centre of the world is Mountain Stories up at http://ginnajar.com/new/myth/mountainStories.html . There according to the Holy Country different mountains are created in likeness of the one Spike. The second mountain is the Mountain of Lodril in Peloria. The third mountain (actually two) is the Mountains of Light and Darkness created by the Second Dragon and is in Kralorela. The fourth mountain:

    The third deity which stirred to make a mountain was Harana Ilor,     who we know now as a Goddess of Harmony. She sat upon a slope of the     Spike, and reached out her right hand and invoked the power of     Innocence. As a result of her desire, her mountain was inverted, and     made instead a deep hole whose volume, say philosophers, exactly     equalled the volume raised by the mountains that were made before.     Later on this huge pit was filled by water and became known as the     Pool of Serenity.

Rather like Magasta's Pool, isn't it? Only that this is during the Creation Period of glorantha whereas Magasta's Pool is created after the Spike exploded. My first reaction is that how could Belintar be so wrong? The second is what other evidence exists for this? In Revealed Mythologies, the Artmali are said to have settled the Camp of Innocence. Precisely the power that was used to create the Pool of Serenity and we all know which planetary body actually goes down through Magasta's Pool.

--Peter Metcalfe

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