Six husband-protectors of Ernalda

[jeffjerwin]

3 hours ago, Mark Mohrfield said:

 This may have been true for the Dawn Age, but i think that it is more likely that modern Orlanthi identify the sun as whatever deity plays that role in the particular myth rather than always identifying it with one particular god. Mythology is often contradictory.

Yes, that's true... extrapolating from King of Dragon Pass, a bit, where in the 14th century we find a correlation of the Bad Emperor with the Sun, though Elmal remains the Sun God. 

Harono I think has been noted above. He's the Sun God in Esrolia, who was displaced by Kodig/Orlanth; it is Ernalda that returned him to the sky at the end of the Great Darkness. I believe that this name is related to Halamalao, Yelmalio among the Elves. R is interchangeable many languages with L, hence the Esrolian Yelmalio might have been *Haranaleo.

My reconstruction of the proto-Esrolian (pre-Vingkotling) myth of the return of the Sun: *Haranaleo probably was birthed by Ernalda from her dead husband's seed to bring light back (Hell, as the trolls know, is also a womb). He became the lover of Esrolia, her daughter (nothing like incest between the gods, after all). Despite his parentage, Vingkot-Orlanth (*Wingak) or his mortal representative accepted him as his son and thane, because this was part of the marriage bargain (if the wife is pregnant at the marriage). This may well be what Aldryami still believe. After all, sun, earth, water, and wind are all necessary for plants to be birthed and prosper. [Heler no doubt also was present in Ernalda's bed at some proper point]

I know this doesn't work at all chronologically - but it kinda does if one acknowledges the Vingkotlings and Kodigvari as ultimately a symbolic construct for "common ancestral rulers"; I strongly suspect that Theyalan and Earth Tribe myths have been reconciled and were once further apart.

Edit: I should add, Argan Argar is 'cool shade'. Properly "husband-protector" therefore means "the powers that permit the seed to germinate, grow, and produce more seed" - the fertility of the Earth. Every region makes into a husband god the most important local factors to that end. In rice regions, the pooling water god and the sun god are chiefly important. Forest regions may promote the wind-god, as he spreads seeds and pollen. In volcanic regions, the fiery mountain makes rich soil directly. 

Edited April 18, 2018 by jeffjerwin