From: PHILN@edsug.com
Date: Wed 13 Nov 1996 - 18:03:06 EET
I have been following the discussion on the nature of 'pre-time'
with interest. I tend to agree with Loren Miller's view that
'before the dawn' etc refer to something outside time rather than
before time. IMHO 'pre-time' is purely a description of that mythic
realm in which the tales of the gods occur. In this realm, there
are stories which cause many of the basics of daily life. In other
stories, these occur in the background. Their rationale is part of
a different story. For example, in all of recorded history and
'all' stories of 'pre-time' days dawn and people die, yet there are
stories in which acts occur which are the primary cause of the dawn
and death. The difference between 'pre-time' and 'history' is that
if there are stories of 'young' orlanth in which he rises at dawn,
which could be considered as occuring 'before' he kills Yelm, this
is not a problem 'pre-time'.
One of the joys and problems of Glorantha is that this mythic realm
is 'True' in a way that it isn't for most of us in reality. Also,
the boundary between time and pre-time is blurred and some things
that occurred 'pre-time' also occurred in time (indeed in the
nature of things events drift from time to 'pre_time'). The Dara
Happans have a longer recorded history, so more things that
occurred 'pre-time' for others can be equated to events that
occurred within time to them.
Genealogies that go back into 'pre-time' are extremely common in RW
sources (look at the number of medieaval scandinavian genealogies
starting with the gods or various welsh princes' descent from
Brutus). The habit of inserting convenient people/beings into your
family tree or merely stretching it to be more interesting is
extremely ancient. It is a poor chieftain whose
great-great-great-...... grandfather wasn't closely related to
Orlanth. It is fortunate that the Godi are so good at tracing these
links.
- - Phil
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