[Glorantha] IFWW

[Donald R. Oddy]

In message <Pine.GSO.4.58.0606270109590.8836 at paju.oulu.fi> Mikko Rintasaari writes:

>"Fundamentally unsuited for"? (That's annoying me on so many levels)

Well I'm annoyed by the tendency to take a combat oriented myth
and expect everyone in the culture to perform it irrespective
of inclination or social role.

>What is it that they are unsuited for? Hengal's secret of the Star Heart
>isn't about combat (and women aren't fundamentally unsuited for combat
>either), but about the courage to face Chaos.

Heortling women are fundamentally unsuited for combat, granted a
lot of that is cultural conditioning, but that doesn't make it
untrue. And the minority who end up as Vingans and Gori don't
alter the basic principle any more than the minority of Nandini
do.

>IFFW isn't fundamentally about combat either, but again, about courage and
>persistance when facing the end of all things. It's about not giving in
>when everything seems hopeless.
>
>Which part of this is "fundamentally unsuited for female heortlings"?
>
>Parhaps there should be a female equivalent of Heort for their story, but
>then again... Heort is the chief, or the king. Those can be women as well
>as men. Hengal is the hero with a star for a heart. I don't think there
>needs to be a female Hengal... that would just get confusing.
>
>But parhaps the females indeed meet a female equivalent of Heort before
>meeting Hengal,

They need both role models, the queen who leads and the heroine who
they are to emulate. And while sweeping chaos out of the stockade
may do for Orane and Mahome it is seriously askew for most Ernaldans 
who are makers of things or life itself. I know the fertility aspects
get only brief coverage in TR but they are going to be followed by
a high percentage of heortling women. Perhaps the heroine is Hengal's
mother who brings children into the world knowing that chaos is and
will continue killing them.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/