[Glorantha] Ernalda

[Peter Metcalfe]

Donald Oddy:

>DO>> 1. Ernalda's marriage to Orlanth was a myth shaking event. It was
> >>    the first time a marriage was not arranged for the couple.

>JW>Really? What do you base that on?

>I'm basing it on the myth of Umath and Asrelia where they were
>not allowed to marry (ST pg.198/9). This implies arranged
>marriages to me and that is consistant with Yemic attitudes.

That two people are not allowed to marry does not necessarily
mean that marriages are arranged.  That it fits Yelmic attitudes
is irrelevant as Yelm was not originally the Emperor of Orlanthi
myths.  Moreover the concept of arranged marriages does not
fit very well with this myth:

         It was love that set the little ones free, and which they
         taught to the grat ones.  When the great ones met this
         form of freedom and often partook, and this way more
         strange beings were born.  Like Issaries, who was the
         child of two old ones.

         And when the whole world was free, the great sky lay
         on the fertile earth, and begat a love child which was
         something new.  It was the everchanging, the Umath.

                 The Birth of Umath
                 KoS p56

So if free love was the background of the birth of Orlanth's father,
then the claim for Orlanth and Ernalda for having the first free
marriage doesn't look very strong to me.

>Orlanth and Ernalda broke that pattern as Ernalda was supposed
>to marry one of Yelm's sons.

You are monomything here.  The original myths of Orlanth and
Ernalda did not involve Yelm.

>Bear in mind that the
>Sartarites still arrange marriages, the crucial difference is
>that the couple have the final say.

So the Sartarites are going against the divine pattern
established by the King and Queen of their gods?

>Yes, Babeester Gor is born of the sleeping Ernalda and rises to
>avenge and rescue her.

While Babeester Gor does avenge, I don't see rescue in her
myths.  The closest is standing over Ernalda's dead body until
the Dawn (ST p202).

>JW>What
> >about the other times Orlanth died? (ISTR him dying before.)

>When was that? I'd don't recall any other death of Orlanth.

Orlanth dies when he was replaced by Lokaymadon and during the
EWF.  This last event might refer to his dancing with Arangorf
the Inner Dragon but it might also refer to the Two Year Winter.

--Peter Metcalfe